trouble times three ... plus one!

Rayburn Update

2011-10-28T10:38:00.002-05:00

"Ni Hao" written by Lillie on her iPad

It seems I am only capable of writing 2 or 3 blog posts in a year, so here is an update on our family:

Lillie is going to be 9 in less than three months. Where did the time go?! She is in the third grade, and she's doing wonderfully. She still reads everything she can get her hands on ... today she took to school an old college textbook of my mom's. It's an anthology of children's literature. It's hardcover, thick, yellowed pages, a little light reading you know. She also loves science. She questions and examines everything. On her first quarter report card, her science teacher wrote:

Lillie is making great progress in science. She is engaged in learning discussions and activities and she puts forth great effort to use the science vocabulary in her communications. Lillie makes super learning connections and she often has insightful questions for her teacher and her peers. Lillie moves us all to a deeper understanding about science! Lillie works well independently, in partnership, and in a group setting. She is able to focus on her science learning and to complete her notes with detail and accuracy.

Funny ... her homeroom teacher wrote that she had trouble focusing and completing assignments, and seemed bored working in a group. I think science may be her "thing." :)

Harlan is having fun in first grade! His weekly behavior reports have been pretty consistently great over the past couple of months, which is AMAZING!! I think he has become more mature lately ... overall, that is ... he can still throw a doozy of a tantrum when he feels inclined. He is getting really good at reading, and he reads ahead of his grade level. A little girl in his class has decided (and he is fine with this) that they are going to get married. She has even named their children. And last week he brought home a few drawings that had "I Love You" written on them. I thought he made them for me. NOPE, this little girl gave them to him. I think it's funny (because they are 7, not 14) but her mom is not happy with her daughter's single-mindedness on getting married and having babies. It is quite amusing. (Again, because they are not teenagers... in a few years, I'll have something quite different to say if this is still going on!)

He is trying out a new sport to see if he likes it. Recently on a walk on the University of Missouri campus, we saw some guys from the Mizzou Lacrosse team tossing a ball around, and Harlan was really intrigued. Long story short, one of the guys let him use his stick and Harlan got in on the game! The guy told me that they were all really amazed with how fast Harlan seemed to pick it up, especially for a first time playing and using a stick 2x his size! So tomorrow he is having a lacrosse lesson, and we're going to see the Mizzou team play a game! I picked up some cheap plastic lacrosse sticks ("Fiddlestix") and he has been practicing. ... with a foam golf ball, because within 10 minutes of opening the package he had thrown the rubber lacrosse ball on the roof. That's my Harlan! :)

Sophie LOVES junior kindergarten! She has all sorts of friends in there, including a boy named JT, who holds her hand on the playground and orders lunch for her in the cafeteria. (That's for real.) We are just glad that she's out of her boy-crazy phase from the beginning of school, when she only played with boys -- several boys, evidently -- and they played "bad guys" on the playground. Every night at dinner, she would tell us all about her "Bad Boyfriends." We were a little worried. She has started reading some sight words and she's figuring out how to sound out words she doesn't know.

It has come to our attention that Sophie is having some difficulty learning songs at church and school. I think she has trouble differentiating the sounds of the words from the sounds of the music, and in the words of her audiologist Michelle, "The sounds get mushed together." So I've been researching music therapy, and working closely with her piano teacher and primary presidency, to figure out the best way to teach her songs. I've also been communicating with her music teacher at school, who thinks Sophie is doing great and doesn't need any extra help. I'm hoping to go observe her music class soon to see for myself. It would be odd for her to be struggling with church songs and piano, but somehow understand music at school with no problems. Maybe he has a different teaching style that is working better. Hopefully I'll know soon enough.

The 3 bigger kiddos have all been involved in extracurricular activities lately. Lillie and Harlan have Chess Club and Running Club once a week after school. All 3 played soccer this season, and started taking piano lessons. At school they are all learning Mandarin. Lillie has the best handwriting and pronunciation in her class (according to her teacher) and the other day she and Harlan had a conversation at home! "What animal is that?" "That animal is a dog." Cool stuff!! I need to learn, too, so they don't start to have secret conversations right in front of me that I don't understand.

Suzie turned one! She is cruising all around the furniture, but she hasn't ventured out into the middle of the room yet without holding on to something. We bought her a little toy for her birthday that has a handle and wheels, so she can hold on to it and walk around. She has a lot of fun with it. She is happy almost all the time. She really enjoys the dogs and squeals, "Dah! Dah!" when she sees them. She also makes noises that sound a little like Dad, Lillie, and Hi. But she's got Mama mastered. She likes to call me Mom. :) She has the sweetest laugh and is just a little ray of cheery sunshine. Unless she isn't getting what she wants, in which case she screams and hollers at the top of her lungs. She knows how to get attention.

Suzie is always busy. Reaching for whatever is within her grasp, exploring all the places she shouldn't go, crawling treacherously close to the top of the stairs, then turning around with a mischievous grin to see if I'm watching. She is constantly on the MOVE, which makes me wonder what will happen when she's old enough to actually get around a little more, and too old to be strapped into a high chair or confined to a "Jenny Jump-Up" hanging in the doorway. I have a feeling this kiddo is gonna bring trouble. :)

Wes is working A LOT. Besides his residency, he is also working about 40 hours (or more) per week in the emergency room in Boonville. So we hardly ever see him. And when we do, he is sleeping, or changing out of scrubs into khakis, or vice versa, and rushing out the door. But we paid off a few credit cards this month! When we get a handle on our debt, and start to bring up our credit scores, he will be able to back off the moonlighting and we will be able to factor him into our daily routine again.

I'm still juggling -- kids, pottery, laundry, dishes, cleaning (that ball gets dropped a LOT), church, errands, bills, etc, etc, etc. I've been exercising consistently for a while now. I set a personal record this week of 5.33 miles in an hour on my elliptical machine! That is my main method of exercising, although I occasionally go for bike rides with friends on the MKT / Katy trail. I exercise to ward off migraines and as a "mood stabilizer." (That's my fancy way of saying I was depressed and this is helping.) Oh and there's also the bonus of being able to fit into my skinny jeans again, a nice side benefit!

Update!

2011-02-08T22:26:00.000-06:00

Hello, family and friends! Just a quick update ... It has been a very hectic year so far! We have had a total of over 2 feet of snow descend upon us in the past month. Last week the kiddos were out of school 4 days because of the snow! We are very happy to be back in school this week. Besides the snow, we also made a whirlwind trip down to Jackson, MS, for my grandfather's funeral. Daddo was 91 years old and had lived a very happy and full life. We will miss him. The bright side of it, though, was that it brought the family together. I got to see cousins I hadn't seen in years!

Lillie is having a blast in 2nd grade, reading voraciously and learning cursive! She loves science best of all, I think. She recently celebrated her 8th birthday and was baptized! (More about why kiddos are baptized at age 8 here.) She is excited to start going to "activity days" at church every other Wednesday.

Harlan is doing great in kindergarten! His amazing teacher, Mrs. Washer, is very patient and understanding of my little man. Just in the past month or so, I have noticed a remarkable improvement in his maturity and his ability to handle his frustrations. He is growing up! He looks forward to his piano lesson every Monday after school, and he has even started composing a song of his own. He's excited to start playing soccer next month.

Sophie is silly and fun as ever! Friendly and boisterous! Her speech and listening skills are improving all the time. Even her audiologist is very impressed. She had surgery in December to put tubes in her ears, hopefully to relieve some pressure she was having that was causing her right ear to hurt when we put her processor on that side. So far it seems to be doing the trick! She will start horseback riding again next month.

Suzie is the most delightful baby you could ever meet. She is happy and calm, she only fusses when she's tired or needs a diaper change, she has got herself on a schedule, and she sucks her thumb to put herself to sleep. She smiles a lot, giggles, blows bubbles, and babbles. She loves to watch her big siblings play, and I can tell she's just so excited to be able to go and participate!

Wes is working hard at the Rehab hospital as well as moonlighting in the ER. He doesn't get much sleep. He continues to impress the attending physicians and other residents. He is presenting a poster at the AAP (Association of Academic Physiatrists) meeting in Phoenix in April. So we are all going and having a vacation! Finally Lillie will get to see the Grand Canyon!

I'm trying to keep juggling everyone and everything. People need to get their homework done, have clean clothes to wear, get around to different places on time, eat, etc ..... I've done a little pottery lately but not much. I'm hoping to do more soon.

That's about it! I'm planning to write more regular updates, so check back soon!

Christmas Day 2010

2010-12-30T13:58:00.000-06:00

As promised, here are some pictures from Christmas Day. Enjoy! :)

There is a lot more stuff under him that you just can't see, I promise.

Lillie with her loot

Soph and her treasures

Wes with MY Christmas present, a new Dyson! :)

Harlan sporting his new robe from Papa

Wes made his famous cheese grits, eggs and turkey bacon for
Christmas breakfast, and I made biscuits from scratch! For the first time ever!

cookie cutter biscuits ... they were a smash hit,
and very yummy if I do say so myself!

Sophie with her nightgown from Papa ...
Lillie has one that matches.

Harlan with his new pj's from Grandma and
Grandpa Rayburn

Lillie models her new pj's from Grandma and
Grandpa Rayburn

Christmas Eve 2010 - in pictures

2010-12-27T23:42:00.002-06:00

Christmas this year found my emotions running amok ... missing my mother, my family in MS, yearning for things to be the same even though they will never be the same again, wanting to make the best of the holiday for my kiddos and alternately wanting to hide in my room and just cry.

We (I) was surprised by a visit from Wes's mother, who flew here from Seattle. I am so glad she got to meet the baby and hang out with us, and with June, who drove up from Oxford (MS) to celebrate with us (and to catch the flu, which was no good! But thanks to Wes's powers of prescription, she was all better within 24 hours!) Wes knew his mother was coming but did not share this information, and she appeared on our doorstep wrapped up like a package with a red plastic bag. The kiddos were thrilled and overjoyed. And so was June. Wes continued to lie and say he had no idea. Land spent great quality time with the kiddos and with Suzie, and she helped nurse June back to health. Too bad their time together was spent with illness. :(

As for me, I was just tormented by my aforementioned emotional meanderings. But I am okay.

Here are some pictures ... just from Christmas Eve. I'll put some from Christmas Day in another post. There was just a lot going on.

Christmas Eve Morning: Homemade snowman pancakes!
June got in on the decorating, too.

Suzie braved the cold ... for a minute.

Harlan is quite the strong man!

I came out periodically to check on things
... then went right back in.
I don't think cold/wet/slippery stuff is fun!

Sophie attacked Harlan with a snowball!

Harlan's counter attack was a little more effective.

Harlan rolled a huge snowball! It was too heavy for Wes to add
to the snowman he was working on, though.

We blew bubbles to see if they would freeze.
It wasn't quite cold enough for that.

I'm not sure what this game was, but they were having fun.

A snow face on the tree!

Lillie was working on a snow fort.

Final measurement of the snowman stack: 12 feet!
Wes named the bottom one Tiny.
Harlan named the other two Cocoa and Weirdo.

Soph, being fabulous, as usual.

June, Lillie, Maggie and Buddy. (Land and June's dogs.)

We made s'mores in the fireplace.
Definitely better with dark chocolate candy bars.

June and Suzie hung out while the kiddos
decorated cookies for "Santa."

Then Granyan showed up at the door!
Wrapped up like a gift!
And we were all so surprised.

Happy reunion! They hadn't seen each other since last January.
Long distance relationships are no fun.

Granyan meets Suzie for the first time!

Then she sat down and emptied her two bags
-- they were FULL of gifts!

Hugging goodnight, happy to
be together for Christmas

After big kiddos were in bed, we let Suzie
open her gifts from Granyan.

She was so excited!

Suzie tries on one of her presents
while Buddy gives Granyan some lovin'

Sweet pic.

Tis the season to be jolly?

2010-12-21T15:11:00.001-06:00

(People who have - or pretend to have - perfect families just annoy me. I do not want to be one of those people. So here is the real, true story of how I made Christmas cookies with my kiddos today.)

Although we are not traveling this season, I am determined that, in January, my kiddos will not look back and feel like their Christmas break was wasted. Yesterday we didn't do much, except Harlan, who played at his friend Sam's house then had his piano lesson. While he was busy with those things, the girls and I went to the grocery store. Hooray!

Today, (1) the kiddos were fighting and yelling at each other, (2) I'm currently being tormented by an awful cold which makes my throat sore, my ears throb, my nose run, and makes me extremely grumpy, (3) I couldn't sleep very well last night, so that makes me even grumpier. BUT I was determined to spend quality time having FUN today! We made Christmas cookies. Everyone was grumping at everyone else about whose turn it was to dump the next ingredient, whose turn it was to get on the chair to see in the mixer, whose toes (MINE) were getting smashed when people were sliding the chair around ... but we made those cookies!

Getting ready to start

Harlan adds the shortening

Suzie helped, too!

At least someone was happy!

Harlan threw a big fit! I don't remember why.

She was a big helper.

The kiddos went to play while the cookies baked. I made the frosting (yum!), then I cooked some tortellini and discovered too late - after a frantic text to Wes - that he had thrown away the one jar of Alfredo sauce we had. It was brand new! What the heck?! So I put pesto sauce on it, which is great for me but made kiddos whine even more. I forced them to eat it, using the cookies as a bribe. They ate it -- but they were not happy about it!

Then we mixed colors into the frosting! Decorating the cookies brought more contention. There was more arguing, about who would get to use the pink frosting first, who was sitting too close to someone else, and who was licking the spoons in the communal frosting cups. Oh, joy!

Harlan, caught in the act

Still helping! (Notice she's wearing different clothes ... I'm leaving that loveliness out of my post...)

Would you like some cookie with your sprinkles?

And now they are all in their beds, in the room that they share, NOT sleeping as I told them to do. I hear giggling and scurrying and someone - probably Lillie - saying, "SSHHH!" And maybe I should be mad that they're not napping ... but I'm just glad they're finally getting along.

Update

2010-05-08T19:45:00.004-05:00

Oh my, oh my. Lots going on around here ... if you are my facebook friend (which I think all 3 of the people who read this are), then you know most of it.

First, we're expecting another baby! Estimated arrival date: October 18. My two very best friends have October birthdays, so I'm super excited for this! :) (You know who you are!) (Actually I don't think they read this. Oh well.) I'm hoping we'll be able to find out what kind of baby this is on May 18. Then we can finalize our name and start calling him/her something other than "baby in the tummy."

In not-so-great news, my mother's illness is back. Her esophageal cancer has made a horrid return and spread also to her liver and spine. She got some not-great news from the dr on Monday, so we're all dealing with that. Hopefully Harlan and I will be able to make a trip down to visit her next weekend.

Also, Wes is getting ready to take the Step 3 board exam! He has to take it in St. Louis, so he will leave today after church and come home Tuesday night. It is a BIG DEAL, so we're pretty nervous about it. :-\

Speaking of Wes, we're about to celebrate our 10-year anniversary! Wes's mom is driving down later this month to watch the kiddos and pup for a week while we head to Breckenridge, CO. The trip is largely courtesy of my parents, who are providing the condo. We were planning to do some whitewater rafting, but with "baby in the tummy," I'm thinking we probably won't be allowed to do that. We'll hike instead! And sleep late every day! And eat ice cream without having to share! :)

Speaking of Wes's mom, we are very excited to see her, since the last time we saw her was in September! And maybe we will get to see June, too, but we're not sure of that, yet. Everyone is super excited for Granyan's visit!

When Land drives down to watch the kiddos, she will be driving our new car! My dream car, of course, a red 1971 VW bus! WooHoo! I'm so anxious to see the bus, especially after all of the hard work and elbow grease Land has put into renovations and cleaning! :)

Also, my pottery has been selling pretty well! I've been making a steady $70/month at the Marriott for the past 3 months, which is cool, and I've also stayed busy with special orders! :) For now, the pottery is my hobby that pays for itself, and I think that's great for now!

Kiddos are great. Sophie is talking circles around us ... except Lillie, my chatterbox who never stops talking! Harlan is doing well in the boys' gymnastics class and looking forward to starting kindergarten next year. And Lillie's great, too, reading like crazy and learning her math facts and playing outside. She just had her spring concert for school, and she did a great job!

I think that's about all for now. We're dealing with some scary stuff with my mom, but otherwise life is good!

Update: The bad, the good, and my dream car!!

2010-02-28T09:41:00.006-06:00

So, February kicked my tail. Mom was in and out of the hospital with various health problems, including blood clots, TWO of which entered her lungs and so she is SO LUCKY TO BE ALIVE! By some miracle, Wes actually had three full weekends off this month, so I was glad to be able to drive down and visit her and help out a bit. She seems to be getting better -- 3 good days in a row -- so that is a huge blessing!

The first time I drove down, I had to drive through an ice storm in Arkansas, which was terrifying and dangerous and slow. But when I saw the surprised look on Mom's face when I got to the hospital (she didn't know I was coming) it was all worth it! My dad was also really happy to see me, although he said if he had known I was thinking of driving through the ice storm, he would have "whipped your little $%^&*" ... so that is why he didn't know! The second time I drove down, I had some unpleasant stomach problems and spent an entire hour in the St. Louis area going from one gas station bathroom to another. Yippee. But I made it, and it was over just that fast. And no one else got it. Must've been something I ate.

So I made a 6.5-hour drive three times with no accidents or tickets. Then I backed out of my garage before the door was fully opened. Goodbye to my rear spoiler/brake light and antenna! So that was $500 down the drain for a happy deductible. On a good note, the man at University Chrysler was SO NICE to work hard to keep the cost under $1300 so that my rates didn't go up! (The estimate was $1294, so it wasn't easy!)

I also had a bad cold, which has now infected Wes.

THE GOOD NEWS!!!! -- We got more than we expected from Uncle Sam (the last time I'll ever love tax season, you know!) So ....... we bought me my DREAM CAR!!! Drum roll please ...

It is a 1971 VW bus. And it is in excellent condition. The same guy has owned it since 1971. And now it is mine! As soon as it gets a few things fixed and my fabulous mother-in-law brings it to me. Because right now it lives in Olympia, WA. I will have it in May! :) Thank you to Land!!!!!

In other good news ... Wes is over halfway through his one hard year of residency! He went to the Rusk Rehab Hospital the other day (where he will be working for 3 years beginning July 1) and talked for a long time to Judy Olson, the resident program coordinator. She said they are excited to have him come and work with them. He has quite the reputation around the university hospitals as the 'fix-it' guy now. He has fixed everything from printers to spreadsheets to the way the cancer clinic organized their patients (shortening the wait time significantly). So he is doing great! March he will be working a few shifts in the ER to practice for moonlighting next year, April and May he will be in the VA (HOME CALL YEAH!!), and June he will be on orthopedics (also home call!) Then we're DONE WITH YEAR 1!!!! And we can all celebrate having more time together, and Dad home for dinner every night, and moonlighting in the ER for extra cash! :) It's like the pot of gold at the end of the horrendous first year.

I think that's all I can share for now ... I think it's enough! So there you have it!

Get to Know the Rayburns 2010

2010-01-02T14:46:00.002-06:00

Wow, that is the first time I've typed the new year ... it looks so sci-fi!

Anyway, It's time again for the annual new year's email, with all the information you ever wanted to know about us ... and some you didn't!! So, without further adieu, here goes .....

Sophie...
Favorite food: She loves it all. She is our best eater! Of course, she goes crazy over chocolate.
Loves: Babies, Sport Dog, her family, Ella (her favorite friend at school), her teachers, pushing the kid-sized buggy at the grocery store, bathtime, doing things HERSELF!
Does not like: Taking naps. Otherwise she is a really happy kiddo.
Favorite movie: She loves Dora the Explorer now, especially the one where Dora turns into a "true princess." She also likes the princess Barbie movies.
Favorite book: Pinkalicious, Purplicious, Goldilicious (by Elizabeth and Victoria Kann)
Favorite animal: A little plastic toy unicorn. Today, anyway! OH, and Sport Dog, of course!
Wants to be: A doctor, I guess. She insists that she already is! ("Daddy is a doctor. And I am a doctor too!") She also likes to tell me, "Mommy, I am the teacher," and then boss me around. Also she wants to be "Girl Superman," and she insists that Superman is coming to take her to fly with him.
Annoying habit: Rolling around on the floor and making her processors come off. I hate that! Also grinding her teeth. Yuck!
Best trick: Putting her 'ears' to bed! Every night, she puts the batteries on the charger, the processors in their special drying box, and the 'ear gear' (the cloth cover that clips on to her shirt) in its box. Then she signs 'good night' and 'stay in bed' to them. :)

Favorite color: Why, pink, of course!

Challenge: Keeping her processors on her ears.

Sophie is our little ray of sunshine! She is happy, friendly, agreeable and fun. She makes us laugh all the time, but there's nothing big I can share ... it's just a million little things all through the day. She is fancy. She calls her eyelashes "eye-licious" and must always eat her food on pink plates and bowls. She makes the funniest faces and loves everybody. When she gets excited, she jumps up and down laughing. She is very gentle and nurturing. I would say she is the best of the kiddos with handling Sport Dog. She touches him softly and cradles his chin in one hand while stroking his head with the other, and whispering to him what a good boy he is. She wants to help take care of him. She loves to look at books and sing songs for us and dance. Music is still a big deal with this one!

Harlan...
Favorite food: Peanut butter and honey sandwiches, fruit and cereal. Really, that's all he wants to eat. He humors us by eating pizza and rice and other things, but if he had a choice he would live on those three things. We're cutting down on his gluten, and I've bought some pills that he can take when he eats wheat that will help him to digest it, and his tummy aches have ceased! Hooray! Now he can eat and grow a little -- maybe!
Loves: Watching movies, making art, writing 'notes' -- like one from yesterday that says, "I LOVV YOO MOM AND DAD" (and the O in love is shaped like a heart.) He loves pretending to be a hero, playing outside, driving his little jeep that Wes fixed up for him, working at the food pantry, HELPING. He doesn't just love helping; he feels a compulsive need to do it. Always. And if we don't let him, he cries. He also loves making pottery with me!
Does not like: Sitting at home doing nothing. Too bad he's not in school yet!
Favorite movie: The Superman movies with Christopher Reeve. He loves all four. He also watched Spiderman for the first time recently, which was thrilling!
Favorite book: This week, he loves this book called "Snowmen at Night." We have a couple of snowmen in our front yard, and the book is all about what they do at night and why eventually they start to look a little droopy. It's because of the Snowmen Games. He also LOVES the pigeon books by Mo Willems.

Favorite animal: (Besides Sport Dog) ... He still loves this bear that our neighbor Kim (Kiki) gave him for Valentine's Day last year. When you squeeze it, it sings part of "Put a Little Love in Your Heart." He likes to sleep with it. Funny, he didn't seem to care about it when she gave it to him, but now it's one of his favorite things. Go figure.
Wants to be: I have no idea. With this kid, anything is possible.

Annoying habit: (We spend 24/7 together ... so I can make a longer list for him than for the girls.) He still talks too loudly. Except when I'm in the car and there's a lot of road noise, and he actually NEEDS to speak up to be heard. Then he whispers. And he talks to Sophie when her ears are off. I am so sick of telling him that she can't hear him!!

Best trick: He is really strong and can do amazing things on the monkeybars and the bars at gymnastics! He is very creative and makes up the coolest stories and songs. He's a good dancer, too, and I love to see the art he comes up with!
Favorite color: It depends on the day. He seems to like them all.

Challenge: He is really impatient. He gives up easily and throws tantrums when something is too hard for him. Example: today we were playing Beatles Rock Band and he knocked over the drum set in frustration. I think his temper causes quite a lot of his troubles.

Harlan and I have been volunteering at the food pantry for two and a half months, since October 15. We go every Thursday with our friends Sarah and Kaitlyn Stancliffe and have not missed a day yet ... even Christmas Eve and New Years Eve! He loves it (you know, he NEEDS to help!) Sean, the guy in charge, gives Harlan and Kaitlyn (who is four) really great age-appropriate activities to do. They love to stock the shelves, bag the veggies, push the carts of food, open boxes, and even use the box-crusher machine (with supervision, of course!) According to Sean, we are his fastest volunteers! It's been great for Harlan's self esteem, attention span, and social skills. He has to follow directions and do the jobs he's given, not just the things he wants to do. Also, from stocking the donuts, cookies and cakes, he has learned that just because he sees something he wants doesn't mean that he gets to have it. (That was a struggle for us for a long time!) And now when we walk in, Harlan looks to see what needs to be done, then he goes straight to the shelves and gets to work, without even needing to be told! He is friendly and usually has a sweet smile for everyone. He is also very entertaining. He has this awesome fake-faint that he does when we tell him something exciting, like if we're going out to eat, or if friends are coming over, or we're going to the pool ... He smiles, rolls his eyes back in his head, sticks his tongue out of the side of his mouth, and fake-faints on the floor. It is hilarious to see!! He is curious, intelligent, helpful, caring and creative. And above all, ACTIVE! When we figure out how to harness all of that energy, he will do great things!!

Lillie...
Favorite food: Still cauliflower. And strawberries, nachos, and rice with butter and salt. She likes pasta with white sauce and mac-&-cheese. Her favorite pizza is the macaroni and cheese pizza at Cici's.

Loves: Reading! She has a little bookmark light, and she stays up in her bed at night reading. She loves to roller skate for fun, but she didn't want to continue with her lessons. She also loves making art, planning lessons and activities for family home evening (which we don't do every week like we should). She loves planning anything, really, now that I think about it. She is a big planner.

Does not like: TOMATOES. And sweetened coconut. Oh boy, you should see the face she makes when she tastes these things! It's almost as good as my mother-in-law's mayonnaise face. Which is hilarious. :)
Favorite movie: Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure. It's new. She also likes "G-Force," which I still have not watched entirely because it looks ridiculous to me. It's about guinea pigs that are spies or something. But the kiddos love it, Lillie especially.
Favorite book: We still haven't finished the Little House series. It is really hard to find the time each day to read with just her! I need to do better with that. Anyway, she has been reading every smallish chapter book she can get her hands on. She loves the Rainbow Magic series, Junie B. Jones and Katie Kazoo Switcheroo. She really enjoys Choose Your Own Adventure books as well, but it's hard to find them on her level.
Favorite animal: She still sleeps with the huge Care Bear that Auntie-Mel (our friend Melva) gave her for her first Christmas when she was only 11 months old. And "Little Brown Dog," which has been dear to her for a long, long time. She has a few others that are 'special' ... but not really ... at least, they aren't until Sophie or Harlan grabs one of them, then suddenly it's the end of the world because that's her special toy!
Wants to be: Everything! She still can't decide. And frankly, she is so smart that she will be great at anything she chooses to do.
Annoying habit: WORRYING!! She worries about everything! Germs, and weather, and Wes and me leaving to go see a movie, and the fireplace, and burglars, and monsters, and vampires, and the dark ... She is a huge worrier!
Best trick: Reading. She is an amazing reader. She read the Christmas story this year, and I put it on youtube for our family. (See it here.) She's also a talented speller. She sometimes spells entire sentences when she is talking to me, just for fun. She has learned to do really amazing things on roller skates during her lessons these past few months! She can also do the monkey bars, make beautiful art, and create neat stuff out of junk!
Favorite color: Purple.

Favorite word: Voracious is her very favorite word. She uses it a LOT. ("Mommy, I'm VORACIOUS!") I don't think she really is, because she still manages to be picky, and voracious people are not picky eaters! Pelvis is her favorite 'body part' word. I have no idea why, but she's been saying that for over a year now!

Lillie is a very scientific, intellectual kid. She needs specific answers and proof to back them up. She asks questions that sometimes stump me, and even Wes, and we can tell that she has put a great deal of thought into them. And they are never-ending! She always has something going through that little brain of hers that she is going over and trying to figure out. She never stops thinking and analyzing EVERYTHING! She is, as I mentioned, quite a little worrier, which is annoying. But it also means she is very careful. She always remembers to wash her hands or use hand sanitizer before she eats, she remembers to say her prayers, she doesn't do dangerous things, she makes sure to bundle up before going out (unlike Harlan, who wants to wear short sleeves and no coat in the 20-degree weather.) She is a great helper with Harlan and Sophie. She sometimes brushes Sophie's teeth for me (actually, sometimes Sophie asks for her to brush them!), she takes Sophie potty, and one night when the phone rang in the middle of book time, I came back to the bedroom to find Lillie reading Sophie's Dora book to her. She had picked up where I had left off when the phone rang! She is very, very good at doing chores! The other day, she collected all the toys from the house and put them in the playroom, then took all dirty clothes to the laundry chute, sorted the clean kids' clothes into a pile for each kiddo, cleaned and wiped off the dining room table, and vacuumed and swiffered the dining room floor! Without complaining! She can also straighten the playroom by herself! She is a thoughtful, loving and caring girl; a wonderful helper; and a sweetheart and a blessing to our family!

Wes:
Favorite food: Pizzas, sloppy joes, grits and fried eggs. He also likes trying the dinners that I make up as I go along. I love him for that! :)
Loves: US!! He has been so, so, so nice and wonderful since residency started this year. While other women are complaining about how their husbands are never at home and/or awake during residency, he is reorganizing my pottery space, building shelves and a toy fridge for the kiddos, doing the yard work, straightening the house, making snowmen, helping friends with various projects (fixing a piano bench, helping to move, making steps on a steep hill in someone's back yard), spending time with me after the kids are in bed, hanging out with friends who come over for dinner and games, and building fires for us in our fireplace. (So that is where Harlan gets his desire to help! I just realized that!) Anyway, so you see, he just loves us! Aren't we the lucky ones!!!
Does not like: Sweetened coconut. Just like Lillie. And clutter. And those times when I think I've told him something, but I haven't really, and I talk to him about it like he already knows. He hates that. Otherwise, he pretty much likes most other things.
Favorite movie: He loves almost all movies. But I think his favorite at the moment is "August Rush." He was recently impressed with "Avatar." He also loved "Slumdog Millionaire" and the Bourne trilogy. And all of the X-Men movies. OH, and Ironman. He gets really excited about that one.
Favorite book: Most recently, he listened to an audiobook called "Born to Run," which he thought was really interesting. He also enjoyed "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell and was excited to get another book for Christmas by the same author called "The Outliers." He also loves the Ender series by Orson Scott Card.
Favorite animal: Phoenix. Hey, who said it had to be a REAL animal?!
Wants to be: A physiatrist. And an inventor. His ideal career would be to work in academic medicine, doing research and coming up with better instruments to help other doctors in his field as well as tools to help the patients get around and build their strength. He has a load of great ideas, of course, and can't wait to get started!
Annoying habit: Falling asleep. I guess it comes with the first year of residency. He usually keeps pretty busy (obviously) but as soon as he sits still for even a few minutes, he is out like a light! It is annoying, but forgivable. And completely justified!
Best trick: Making something cool out of a bunch of junk. (Like Lillie!) And making our house the coolest, most awesomely fun house in town ... with a secret mouse-hole from the coat closet to the playroom closet, and monkeybars in the basement, and the best at-home pottery studio ever, and Lillie's own 'room' made out of the bottom half of her bunk bed!
Favorite color: Black, green, blue.

Life Philosophy: Normal is boring!

(Wes, you can skip this paragraph if you want ... this is where I brag shamelessly about how wonderful you are!) Wes is halfway through his first, hardest year of residency. Somehow he manages to make time for it all, as I already mentioned. He balances his church calling (elders quorum counselor), his 90-hour, frequently-overnight-with-no-sleep job, and his family as well. He is the smartest person I've ever met ... not just book smart, although obviously he is that, but really he is very talented at figuring out unorthodox ways of making things better and solving problems. He is excited about life ... take for example yesterday, when he came in after an overnight shift with only a 2-hour nap, and was so excited that the snow outside was perfect for making a snowman! He changed into his warm clothes and immediately set to work outside. He built a snowman almost as tall as himself before showering and hitting the sack. He makes life an adventure, full of fun, love, learning and creativity. I am so grateful for him!

Samantha: (My answers haven't changed that much since last year.)
Favorite food: Sushi, Indian food, chocolate, Wes's cheese grits with turkey bacon.
Loves: Pottery, reading, art, yoga, editing, cooking new things, helping others. I love working at the food pantry! I love to help in the community, and I love what it's doing for Harlan!
Does not like: Cleaning clutter, potty training, paying bills, having to be the mean disciplinarian. I'd rather just have fun with the kiddos! But I do what is necessary.
Favorite movie: Different ones for different days. But I LOVE LOVE LOVE the new Star Trek movie that just came out this year! Wow, that movie makes me happy! I can't wait for the next one.
Favorite book: Sadly, my list of to-reads is much, much longer than my list of already-read. I loved Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortensen. Seriously, though, it's been a long time since I had a chance to sit down and read. Laundry/kids/dishes/misc cleaning/quality time with Wes/pottery have all killed my reading time. All good, worthwhile things. There just aren't enough hours in my day.

Favorite animal: I like turtles. And now I like Sport Dog. He's the best doggy ever.
Wants to be: A great mom, a potter, a person who makes my community better and helps others, a good friend, an open-minded and nonjudgmental person. I'd also like to go to grad school someday. I also want to be the driver of a 1964 VW bus. Now taking donations. ;)
Annoying habit: Making clutter. Losing stuff. Wearing jeans too many times before washing them again. Washing a ton of laundry but not folding it. I'm sure Wes and the kids could come up with a few more ... but I won't let them. I do all the typing around here!!
Best trick: Making pottery. Also my awesome eye trick. And having really cool kiddos. I mean, there are no better kiddos than mine!! I can also make up dinner as I go along and end up with something tasty. (At least Wes says so!)
Favorite color: Easy answer: earth tones. Brown, green, 'brownish-greenish,' as Lillie would say. I wear a lot of black lately as well. But really I love all the colors for different things. For example, I love the red of my dining room walls and my iphone case. I thoroughly enjoy my bright orange bar stools. I like the bright green of my jacket and the flower pot my mom glazed in some pottery class in the 70s and the yellow in my Rosie the Riveter poster.

Life philosophy: Life is short, so try new things!

Sport Dog (just for fun!)

Favorite food: This dog eats everything! He loves peanut butter, apple cores, pancakes with syrup, asparagus casserole (found that one out after I went to put the kids to bed without clearing the table first. Oops!) And he enjoys his beef liver treats. Gross!
Loves: People! And tug-of-war and fetch. And barking at people who walk in front of our house.
Does not like: People who walk in front of our house. Especially the ones with dogs. And they are not allowed to walk on the sidewalk across the street, either. It is all Sport Dog's territory. And ohmygoodness you should have heard him when a family of deer wandered through our neighborhood one night!
Favorite movie: Well. He is a dog. But when a dog barks in a movie, he barks back. So I guess he likes movies with dogs. Or maybe he hates them. It's hard to tell.
Favorite book: We have a board book with a squeaking cricket on the front that he occasionally gets and chews. He freaks out when it squeaks. It is quite funny, especially since it's just a book we got at the salvation army. He has never ever chewed any other books.

Favorite animal: Ummmm .... people? :)
Wants to be: Well fed and pampered. Don't we all? :)

Annoying habit: He is always right at my heels, which is simultaneously annoying and endearing. When he wants to play, he brings a toy and presses it against my leg until I throw it for him or play tug-of-war with him. This is usually fine ... except when it's his loud squeaky toy! Then it gets annoying! Also he eats people food off the table without permission. And it gives him gas. And that is disgusting and annoying. Also, I am very grateful that he was so easy to potty train ... he hasn't had an accident in the house in a couple of months. But I am annoyed at the poop in the yard. I would like the yard to be clean for my kiddos and their friends to play. It would be nice if he would just not poop. I'd appreciate that. Other than the pooping, he's a great dog.

Best trick: He has lots! He can sit, lie down, roll over, crawl, turn in a circle, beg, and shake. My favorite, though, is that he can shut the door behind himself when he comes in from outside.

Favorite color: Aren't dogs color blind?

Challenge: Getting him to quit jumping on people when they come over! He is just so excited to see them! We're working on this one.

Life philosophy: Who are you? Let's be friends! Can I have a bite of whatever that is you're eating? Is that a toy? Looks like a toy! Here's a ball! Throw the ball!! Let's play! You're my best friend!

And, if that isn't enough of the Rayburns for you, check out our pictures!! Lots and lots!!

http://picasaweb.google.com/playwithdirt/NovDec200902

Samantha

The Thanksgiving Post

2009-11-26T01:02:00.002-06:00

Lillie decided that we needed a poster on the wall for everyone to write what they are thankful for. She even drew a box for each person: Lillie, Harlan, Sophie, Dad, Mom, Nana and Papa ... We each had our allotted space for thanksgiving. Here are the lists (so far):

Lillie:Sport Dog, tv, school, friends, Mom + Dad (she has started abbreviating), rain + sun, Harlan + Sophie, Nana, Papa, roller skates, Lisa + Mark (her roller skating teachers), art, holidays, everything. (She didn't have room to write it all down, so she just summed it up nicely.)

Harlan: Jesus, Sport Dog, Mom and Dad, Lillie, Sophie, 'myself,' toys, hugging Mommy, kissing Sport Dog, Nana and Papa's visit, dancing, roller blading.

Sophie (really just a list of things she likes ... she doesn't fully grasp the concept of gratitude yet): Dora the Explorer, Sport Dog, dinosaurs, Pinkalicious, Purplicious, Harlan, candy, cupcakes, pink fingernails, soap, dresses, dancing, playing, hearts, school, cochlear implants, swimming, Ella (her best school friend). She also added: "I broke my CI (cochlear implant) and I was sad. But I am happy because my CI is better!"

Wes: My family, Sport Dog, books, school, movies, hockey, bikes, church, my house, scriptures, audiobooks, trees, running, friends, computers, rain, snow, wheelchairs, love, iPhone, engineering, pottery, creativity, failure, problems, tools, mountains, the ocean, ice cream, Trash! (yes, he wrote it capitalized with an exclamation point. He loves to go dumpster diving), Cochlear implants, math, science, music, eyes, ears, ice cream, feet.

Samantha: My awesome family! (and dog), books, trees, kiwis, music, chocolate, Wes's job, toothbrushes, Cochlear implants, pottery, the food pantry, pictures, freedom, flowers, avocadoes, movies, our fun house, sunshine, church, wind, playing in the rain, friends, dancing, jeans, hoodies.

Nana (my mom): family, popcorn, chocolate, good health, golf, blue skies.

Papa (my dad): family, Macavity (his cat ... formerly my cat), golf, health, tennis, reading.

So ... on this most grateful of days, our family offers our collective thank-you ... for everything! :)

PS - I am also thankful for the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade!

PPS - AND for Wes having Christmas day OFF!!!! Yay, celebration! :D

Setting goals

2009-11-10T11:34:00.002-06:00

Goals (Or maybe just a wish list):

Yoga almost daily (I am afraid of commitment)

Read scriptures daily

Read a book a week

Eat healthier

Stop clutter BEFORE it comes into my house

Finish what I start!

To be continued ...........

One successful day!

2009-10-27T23:25:00.003-05:00

Every now and then I have a hugely successful day, a day full of motivation and drive. And usually when I have these days I write about them in my blog. (See, they ARE rare!) So now I will share my today.

Woke up. Showered. Dressed myself and three kiddos. Packed Sophie's lunch. Switched the laundry. Dropped off the girls at school. Took Harlan to gymnastics.

Dropped off Sophie's enrollment forms at the Columbia Public Schools office (so they can pay for her services at Moog). Dropped off Sophie's Medicaid application (a requirement of the Bureau of Special Health Care Needs ... so they can also maybe help pay for her services). Went to the Food Bank to buy t-shirts for our Thursday morning volunteer efforts at the Pantry. Bought groceries at Wal-Mart (no small feat with Harlan in tow!)

Came home. Ate lunch. Switched the laundry. Picked up the girls from school, back home for a much-needed 30-minute rest. Got Lillie dressed in the fancy outfit loaned to us by her wonderful roller skating teacher. Took my friend her 'we work for food' shirt (surprise!), drove all three kiddos to the skating rink for Lillie's special practice in preparation for her talent show (which is Monday).

Returned home. Fed the kiddos pasta and apples for dinner. (Skipped the bath tonight.) Teeth brushed, faces washed, pajamas on, books read, songs sung, Sophie's 'ears' put safely in their special box for the night.

Washed dishes, folded laundry (most of it, anyway), took out the trash and recycles, played with the puppy. Located two missing library books and set Sophie's Halloween costume aside for her to take to school tomorrow. Typed a blog entry. Went to bed BEFORE midnight ............ maybe.

And all on a day when I had only 5 hours of sleep the night before (up late folding ... we have lots of clothes, evidently), and a night when Wes is on call!

And so I give some credit to my friend Rosie, whose poster and action-figure, proudly displayed on my red kitchen walls, gives me the inspiration to make it through another day:

A few random things...

2009-10-22T10:16:00.003-05:00

1. My new favorite Pandora station is the B-52's station. If you are not familiar with pandora.com, you really should take a look ... no matter what kind of music you like.

2. Today my kiddos had their first tastes of Ramen noodles. I haven't bought Ramen in 8 years or more. I was pleased to read the wrapper and find that Maruchan refuses to compromise flavor for some silly passing fad ... like nutrition. It says, "You may reduce the sodium level by simply using less of the seasoning packet." You want healthy? Use less seasoning. Or eat something else. Nice to know that some things never change.

3. I hate plastic bags, so whenever I go to the store I buy the 99c cloth reusable shopping bags. The problem is that I always forget to take them with me when I go shopping, so now I have an abundance of reusable shopping bags in my closet at home. I've tried keeping them in my car. I still forget them when I walk into the store.

4. Sophie refuses to use the word "ponytail" and prefers to call them "kittytails" instead.

5. I love thunderstorms. I didn't when I was a kid, or even up until just a couple of years ago. But I love to hear the thunder boom and see the wind blow and the rain pound. It is so gratifying to see Mother Nature throw a huge tantrum. I think it's because I often feel like I'd like to throw a big hissy fit but I'm not allowed to ... I'm living vicariously through the weather.

6. The huge fundraiser for Sophie's school, "Name that Tune," is one week from tonight. I need to find a rock-and-roll costume to wear, and I only have a week! Too bad I gave away my black vinyl pants ... but they probably wouldn't fit anymore anyway. :(

7. Harlan's gymnastics place, Tiger Academy of Gymnastics, has a float in the homecoming parade this Saturday. We get to ride on it! (Shh, it's a surprise!)

8. Today Lillie stayed home from school (again) with a weird stomach bug (no fever, no fatigue, no loss of appetite, just a little runny-ness.) Anyway, she decided to 'homeschool' Harlan today. She came up with a schedule and everything: free play time, reading time, snack time, spelling test, science, etc. She even scheduled time to teach him to be nice to the dog. She is such a little teacher! Unfortunately, Harlan does what he wants to do ... not what other people tell him to do. Lillie got frustrated. Now they are just playing in the playroom.

Just felt like sharing. I'm trying to be better at this blogging thing!

PS - I just noticed Lillie did not eat her Ramen. I asked her why and she replied, "It was too salty." Hmph.

Stolen.

2009-10-17T23:48:00.000-05:00

I like this blog and I like this post on this blog.

http://blog.cjanerun.com/2009/10/heavy-meal.html

Since you asked ....

2009-09-30T22:06:00.003-05:00

Every time anybody asks me about why we switched from public to private, or what we think about Lillie's new school, I yap their ears off forever about how wondrous our experience has been. So now I will blog it instead, and maybe I will get it out of my system. Or just have somewhere to tell them to "read all about it!"

First. Why did we switch??

1. Lillie was attending Mill Creek Elementary, the school that is widely considered to be the best public elementary school in Columbia. Relatively new building, media center, huge playground, the works. She even had to go DOWNSTAIRS to get to her class, which was exciting! However, her teacher had 25+ students and only a couple of years' experience. She seemed like a really nice girl and a good teacher, but when we spoke to her at 'meet the teacher' night, her eyes got huge when she learned that Lillie reads a good 3 years above her grade level.

2. In a class that huge with one teacher, you've got to either need tons of help or act up in order to get attention. Lillie is a smart, well behaved kiddo, so she was blending in with the walls. She was so bored... She can do addition, subtraction and basic multiplication. In her class, they were given a sheet with numbers on it and instructed to draw the correct number of dots for each number. Wouldn't you be bored?!

3. On the fourth day of school (the FOURTH day!) she asked, "Do I HAVE to go there again? Do I EVER get a day OFF??" She hated it.

4. The girls in her class were a bit clique-ish ... their parents know each other so they just play with each other. Lillie felt out of place, socially awkward, and generally not accepted. The school was huge, the class was huge, Lillie was shuffled around and lost in the crowd and miserable.

5. Every day when I picked her up, I would ask how her day went. And every day she grumbled. She would say things like, "Well, I had lunch ..." OR, "Um ... we had recess ..." OR something like, "So-and-so said she would meet me by the swings at recess but she never came, and when I went to play with her, she ran away from me." (That really happened, by the way.) She was never excited to tell me anything. And no matter how much I asked, she didn't want to tell me the things she had done in class. She just said, "We didn't do anything in class."

So, Wes was working for the months of July and August in the Ellis-Fischel Cancer Hospital, and on his last day there (8/31), he was telling one of the nurses about Lillie and our school woes. She said that he should call her sister, who is the principal of the lower grades at Columbia Independent School, and get Lillie an interview. We took a tour of this school a few months ago and were supremely impressed with what we observed, but it was WAY out of our price range. However, this nice lady told Wes that if we just called and said we knew her, that her sister could get us a good deal on the tuition. So I did. That day.

Lillie had her interview there on Thursday, 9/3. She and I had a tour (they moved into a new building since my last tour!), and we were both blown away by the separate science room, Spanish room, art room, etc, etc... While I spoke with Mrs. Savage (the sister of the nurse), Lillie had her interview with Mrs. Nowlin, one of the two first-grade teachers. She asked Lillie questions about what she is interested in, and she had Lillie read her a few books to get a good idea of her reading abilities. She brought Lillie into the office and stated that she thought Lillie would be a great fit at the school.

Lillie said: "I want to come back tomorrow!"

And so it was done. She got an awesome scholarship so we pay less than half of the cost of tuition. She came for her trial day on 9/4, and she started school officially on the day after labor day, 9/8. She has not stepped foot in Mill Creek since.

How do I know I did the right thing?

1. Because that Tuesday, when I went to pick up Lillie's things at Mill Creek, I got her Friday folder from the previous week with her weekly progress report. The teacher had written: "Lack of focus - not able to repeat directions." She was BORED. And the teacher wasn't doing anything interesting or challenging for her, so she was tuning her out. And school wasn't interesting. And this was only the beginning.

2. Because Mrs. Nowlin gives her the freedom to work through her workbooks at her own pace and introduces new, harder ones when Lillie is ready for them. And she knows each student's abilities and encourages them to push themselves to the next challenge. The second day of school was 'curriculum night,' when the parents went and learned from the teachers what the kids will be doing this year. That night, I went in to her classroom and found that Lillie had already -- on day two -- completed 19 full pages in her workbook. Mrs. Nowlin saw me looking at the book, and she said, "I know this is way too easy for Lillie, but I started all of the kids at this level, and I'm not going to make her complete this whole book ... once she gets in the habit of doing her pages, I'm going to give her the next level up."

3. Because she has Spanish twice a week with a teacher who is a native Spanish-speaker. And art twice a week with a woman with an art degree. And science twice a week with a man who has a background in science, in a room full of different animals and insects and spiders in tanks for her to observe. Because she can now tell me Spanish words for feelings (sentimientos!) as well as the Spanish words for the different parts of a butterfly. And she can tell me the different kinds of legs the insects in our backyard have ('true' legs bend, and 'bristle' legs do not. I didn't even know that).

4. Because she was elected by her classmates to represent them on the student council ... after only attending the school for one week. This school has already done wonders for her confidence. She approaches the teachers and the principal to ask questions and make suggestions, she asks friends to play with her, she speaks up so people can hear her ... we have had trouble with all of these things in the past. But she knows now that her opinion matters and that adults want to hear what she has to say, and they care if she has a question. Today she even signed up for the school talent show!!

5. Because when I pick her up from school, she is excited to tell me about her day! All about new things she learned, funny things her friends said, and fun things coming up.

Basically, I am thrilled about this change for Lillie. She is excited and she is thriving!

Moving nightmare

2009-04-06T17:44:00.003-05:00

Wednesday, April 1 was our official "MOVING DAY." Lesson to all of you: never plan a big event, such as a move, on April Fool's Day. Not a great idea. We were definitely the victims of some ridiculous cosmic april fool's gag ... read on ...

Our trouble actually started a little bit last Friday, when Wes was loading up our (first) Penske to make the trip with all the stuff. He was moving a metal filing cabinet and almost sliced off the tip of his pinky on a jagged part. I never knew so much blood could come out of a pinky finger. Wes went into shock. He was feeling ill, curled up in the bathroom in the fetal position. He really did turn green. It was bad. I called our friend Spencer, who is an ER resident who happened to be off work at the time (thank goodness!) and he came over, numbed Wes's finger and stitched it up. Three stitches in the pinky. Poor guy. Anyway, after the stitches, that trip went okay.

On Wednesday (Moving day ... April Fool's!) we started packing up early in the morning, hoping to get on the road in the early afternoon. We got on the road a lot later than expected, of course, like always. Wes had the remaining junk from our house loaded up on his truck and on a trailer that he bought on craigslist for $300 (Dixieland Special ... GRRR...) We pulled out of the driveway around 7:00 pm; Wes had to run to the church to do one quick thing; we picked up dinner in the Chick-fil-A drive thru, and we were fed and on the road around 9. Smooth going at first: Wes, Lillie and Harlan were in his truck, pulling the crappy trailer, and Sophie and I were in the car, which was also packed full of stuff (bedding and such), following behind.

The next sign of trouble came around 10:15, when I watched in horror as one of the junky old tires on the junky old trailer blew apart and shredded to junky bits in front of me. Luckily, we had borrowed CB radios from our friends (same guy who stitched up Wes ... they are great!) and I started screaming into the radio for Wes to pull over. We also felt very lucky that the blowout didn't cause the trailer to swerve more than it did, which would have caused the crappy trailer ... and the truck ... to flip over.

Wes pulled over and told me not to worry, that the tires were the same size as the ones on his truck, and he would have it changed in a jiffy. He was actually surprisingly cheerful. But after an hour, he had the spare off his truck, but the wheel on the crappy trailer was rusted on and he couldn't get it off. He had to find his hammer in our Clampett-style mound of junk on the back of the trailer and use it to pry the wheel off. Then he realized that his spare wouldn't fit; the holes were in the wrong places. I emptied the back of my car so he could get to my spare, hoping it would work. It would not. We called AAA, which would only tow us (not possible) or change our tire for us, had we had one. At that point it was after midnight. Something had to be done. Wes's mom booked us a Penske for the next morning so we could just do the 'safer' thing and leave Wes's truck in Jackson (to pick up at graduation time) and put only a few things on the crappy trailer to pull behind the Penske. I voted to dump the crappy trailer, but Wes wouldn't do it. We took enough stuff out of the car so that Lillie and Harlan could get in there with me, and we piled said stuff on the side of Hwy. 55 next to the truck, with a tarp over it. Wes spent the night in his truck near mile 173 on I-55, and the kiddos and I drove the 72 miles back to our empty house to sleep on the floor. The kiddos and I got home at 2:30 am.

I woke up at 6:30 Thursday and called our friends Jason and Christy, who were nice enough to alter their plans (and Spencer and Sonia were nice enough to also alter Spencer's birthday plans) to make it possible for Jason to help us out. He went all over the place searching for a new rim for this crappy old trailer that I just wanted to ditch anyway, but Wes wouldn't agree. Finally, Wes remembered that the guy he got the crappy trailer from had an extra wheel, which he gave us for free. While Jason had been running all over Jackson, MS and calling every dump and salvage yard looking for a wheel (yes it was that old and crappy), my best friend's husband Tim was helping me get our remaining junk together at the house. Around 11, we went to pick up the Penske, and Tim drove it back to our house. There was no way I was getting behind the wheel of that thing. (Phobia of big trucks, you know.)

So on the way to my house, through no fault of his own, Tim accidentally swiped some woman's car. I have no nice words for this woman. She informed Tim that she had just bought the car for $1100, then proceeded to demand $1500 to fix it. (Not the smartest woman.) He offered to buy it from her for $1100, and she refused. Then, although she was driving with a suspended license, she decided to call the cops. And, lucky me, since I rented it, it goes on my insurance. AAARRRGHHH!! (Side note: the cop didn't even run the woman's suspended license. So she just left with no problems.) (I actually feel worse for Tim than for myself ... he felt awful about it.)

So, here's the scenario: We are sitting in my driveway, Jason and two missionaries from our church in the Penske, the kiddos and me in the car. We are loaded up and ready to go. There's a storm coming our way in less than an hour with predicted tornado watch and golf ball-sized hail. Wes is sitting on the side of I-55 with some of our stuff piled up on the grass next to his truck. Then it starts raining huge drops. I have to go save Wes! And we CAN'T LEAVE until the cop finishes his report!

We finally got to leave, and we drove to Wes. He had been sitting on the side of the highway for 15 hours by then. We loaded the junk from the truck (and most of the junk from the trailer) into the Penske, hitched the trailer to the Penske, said goodbye to Jason and the missionaries, and were on our way around 2 or so. We were exhausted, though, and falling asleep. Not safe. We decided to stop at our friends' house in Oxford (Sherry and Les Driggers), where we were sure they would let us take a nap and help with the kiddos. We walked in the door, and the kiddos immediately ran upstairs to play, and I immediately crashed on their couch. Wes went to buy another tire for the crappy trailer so we could hopefully avoid another blowout. (These tires were $100 each, by the way.) The Driggers convinced us during dinner that we should stay the night and sleep in their RV. It was my first night in a bed in more than a week. Very nice. We woke up at 4:30, and after Sherry stuffed us all full of toaster strudel and packed a huge bag of snacks for us, we hit the road. It was about 6. Friday, day three. We had two new tires (and a spare from Les) and we were good-to-go ... we thought ...

A little while after getting out of Oxford, the trailer started bouncing. It was small at first, and we figured Wes was just going too fast. He kept slowing down, and it kept bouncing. Then a trucker got on our CB and advised us to slow down more because the trailer was bouncing all over the place. By then we were going 45 MPH. Wes pulled off at the first exit ramp (Coldwater, MS), got out of the truck, and looked at the trailer. And I saw a look of disbelief come over his face. Why, you ask?? Because the trailer tongue had broken a little bit with each bounce, until it was hanging on by a thread. Literally. On one side it was only connected by about an inch of metal. On the other, maybe 4 inches. I estimate that after 5 more minutes of bouncing (or less), it would have come completely off the truck and smashed the kiddos and me ... and whoever else happened to be driving by ... into a tangled mess of metal. I am serious. THE CRAPPY TRAILER ALMOST KILLED ME.

We were only 175 miles out of Jackson at this point ... a day and a half after we first tried to leave. And it was all because of the crappy trailer. Sherry and Les came to our rescue, yet again, and helped Wes move everything from the trailer into the Penske. That was when Wes conceded to dump the crappy trailer. His mom found the number of a local salvage yard for us, and Wes talked to a guy there who said we could leave it in a nearby parking lot (since we couldn't take it very far without risking injury) and he would pick it up. Wes and Les took the tires off (thanks for the two $100 tires we can't use, we'll take them) and we left it there.

After the crappy trailer was history, it was blue skies and smooth driving. We arrived in Columbia at 7 pm on Friday, a full 48 hours after we had originally anticipated. For pictures of the crappy trailer, etc ... visit here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/playwithdirt/MovingDaySWithTheRayburns#

Suitcase of Memories

2009-03-30T22:04:00.002-05:00

I always liked that sentiment from Cyndi Lauper ... so, as I teeter on the edge of ending the Jackson, MS / Medical school chapter of my life and prepare to begin a new one, I will pause in this in-between time to reflect on the things that I want to always remember about our time here ... the good, the hard, and the heartbreaking ... What did I gain from my time in Jackson, MS?

... Strength. This is where we had our Sophie, where I cried when life got too hard to bear, where I thought to myself frequently, with a husband in medical school, living on welfare, three tiny kiddos, the hearing loss, and other challenges, "I can't do this anymore. I'm just not strong enough ..." I hyperventilated when Wes informed me at the end of his first year that he would no longer be able to drive Lillie to school for me. I panicked because I was 8 months pregnant, and I couldn't imagine ever being able to get 3 kids ready and out the door by 8:20 a.m. to drop off one of them at school. But I did it! And now I get 3 kids ready, dressed, backpacks and lunches and snacks packed, and out the door by 7:45 to drop them all off at school. This is where I found out that I am stronger than I ever realized I could be.

... Self-discovery. When I was 19 and joined the LDS church, I thought I had to fit into some cookie-cutter mold of what a typical 'molly mormon' was supposed to be like. And I gave up some things that were a vital part of me. When I moved here, I realized that I had a chance to rediscover who I used to be. That I could be outspoken about my political views and my taste in music, and not be ashamed of that. That although 'mom' is my main role at the moment, I could also be other things. After six years of trying to change myself to fit in, I had the chance to try to remember who I was before. And I realized that I could live my values and hold my beliefs ... and still be ME. The question was ... who was that? This is where I have begun trying to figure that out. I'm definitely not exactly the same person I was before, but I am better! And I'm still working on it!

... Confidence. This comes from the first two. I am now happy in my own skin (stretch marks and all). I don't care what others think of me anymore. I go to lunch alone sometimes, or to the cafe for a hot chocolate, or to the movies, and I don't feel awkward about that. I don't feel the need to explain myself as much. Now that I know more about who I am, and I know how strong I can be, you can take me or leave me, but I won't change.

... Our house. Not just the cabinet space, private fenced backyard, corner lot, and other qualities I'm trying to sell to others at the moment. We bought this house and transformed it. We have painted every room. The plumbers had to bust open the slab to replace a huge section of pipe. Wes had to create a backyard out of a neglected, snake-infested garden plot and randomly placed sections of fence. And the memories ... oh, the memories ...
------10-month-old Harlan using a plastic shovel as a spoon to eat mud in the backyard.
------Lillie's mud and sand pies.
------Bringing Sophie home, and how Harlan wouldn't take his hands off her as Wes carried her down the hall to her crib.
------Meetings with Charlotte, the parent/infant coordinator at Magnolia.
------Birthday parties -- and our annual September "Hearing Parties" in the backyard.
------Lillie's "Art Festival" birthday party in the art room.
------The windows with the diamond-shapes on them. (I don't know how to describe this.)
------Wes's quest to find the perfect TV, and bringing home progressively bigger ones until he settled on the 55" (despite my better judgment).
------The Tree Swings!!! The delight of my kiddos, neighborhood kiddos, and missionaries alike!
------The mailbox outside the front door, and getting to know Mr. Don (our regular mailman) and Mr. Mailman-Tim, the substitute mailman for Don's off days. It is rare to have walking mail people anymore.
------The water slide, may it rest in peace.
------Hanging the wet clothes out on the clothesline to dry after Hurricane Katrina.
------Watching huge oak trees bend and sway during Katrina.
------My grandparents coming to visit, and living close enough to go visit them.
------Neighbors. Kim, Sherry and Jules ... Patrick and Elizabeth ... Terry and Jeremy ... Mr. and Mrs. Smith and her thousands of porcelain dolls ... and the other amazing neighbors we didn't get to know as well but whose dogs we love to pet when they walk around the block ... Linda ... Mr. Steve ... Tony and Sam ... Susan and John ...
------When we bought this house, the 93-year-old man who had lived here since 1961 (it was one year old when he moved in) told us, "Be good to the house, because it's been good to me." I think I need to pass on the same advice to the person, whoever that may be, who buys it from me. It's a great house.

It's long, but I said it was a suitcase ... maybe more like a moving truck of memories!

Everything. In a nutshell.

2009-02-06T23:24:00.006-06:00

So ... I don't want to go to bed, so I guess I will write a post. It's been a while. Since I send out a weekly email with pictures and stories, there doesn't seem to be much to blog about. But for the one or two people who are interested, here are some thoughts.......

We are moving in less than two months. This is hard. Packing five people is hard. We have to sell our house, which is hard. We already have a contract on a house in Columbia, Missouri (contingent on Wes matching there, of course), and that is hard. Waiting is hard. Stressing about money is hard. And now I sound whiny.

OK, change of tone here ... Things to be excited about ... If we match in Columbia, MO (which we are 99% confident about, obviously) ... it's a very cool town. It's a pretty good-sized college town, which means that it has all of the character and diversity and intelligence we are looking for, but it also has conveniences of a larger town, like Indian restaurants, Best Buy, Chuck E Cheese's, Michael's, Macaroni Grill, etc... and there are a ton of families with little kids, so there's a lot for us to do. Also plenty of walking trails and a state park right there in the city. I have never lived outside MS (unless you count that 2 months Wes and I stayed with a friend in Seattle right after we got married) so this is a big deal for me.

The kiddos are awesome. Lillie is so big and inquisitive. She loves archaeology and geology. She asks questions about EVERYTHING. There's no 'because I said so' with this girl. She NEEDS to know why, why, why!! We're still reading the Little House on the Prairie series together. Now we're in the middle of book #3, Farmer Boy. We should be done with it by now, but I got lazy for a little while. We're better now, though. And we WILL read all nine books, no matter how long it takes! She is an awesome reader, very intellectual, and physically AWKWARD. She is clumsy and she takes forever to do things. And although that sounds like I might be griping, I actually think it is quite endearing. See, in this way, she is just like me. And so I understand and I love her more for it!

Harlan exudes cool. Cool radiates from him so that everyone around him can feel it and know someone awesome is near. Super-coordinated, he can go the full length of the monkey bars with no problem. He is not clumsy. He loves punk music, and of every single song on the Ramones Greatest Hits album he says, "This is my favorite." He has great hair, perfect for his silly personality. He has decided recently that he wants to take a break from gymnastics, and I say ... whatever, kid. You're 4. I'm not forcing you to do something you don't want to do. Let me know when you want to pick it up again, and we'll make it happen.

Sophie is a princess in every sense of the word. Somehow, ballet dancing seems to be a natural thing for her. She is a graceful dancer, and she points her toes and even runs around the room, arms out, on tippy-toe. I mean it, she is GOOD. And a disco song came on the radio the other night (on Harlan's alarm clock radio ... they were dancing before bed) and she didn't hesitate. She jumped up and started dancing, and I tell you, she could have been on a 1970s dance show or something. She also loves the Beatles ("Good Day Sunshine" is now required on the drive home from school, and if it's a pretty day, she wants her window rolled all the way down so she can yell the words at the blue sky. She did this today. We were both yelling the words. She was so happy.)

Wes is excited about residency, obviously. We are all dreading the first year, which will be hard. (There I go again. Everything is hard over here.) But years 2-4 he won't work as much, and I think he is really going to love what he'll be doing. His specialty is 'physical medicine and rehabilitation' so if I haven't told you all about it already, and if you're interested, you can look it up on aapmr.org .

Another thing to be excited about ... we are planning to move at the end of March, and I was really sad that Lillie would not be able to participate in kindergarten graduation with her friends. I mean, she has been attending that school for 4 years, and she's known some of these kids the whole time! So I asked the director of the preschool if we could come back for Lillie to "walk" and she said that would be fine. We will come back into town in time for her to practice the songs and dances a few times with her classmates, and her graduation is on the 19th. Wes's graduation is on the 22nd, so it works perfectly. Lillie's teacher even said that she would print out the words to the songs so we can practice them, and I'll go and film one of their dance practices before we leave so we can work on that together, too. Exciting!!

When we move, Harlan won't be old enough for kindergarten, and I'm not paying for a preschool for 2 months for him, so I'll be having him at home with me! I'm excited about it. And I think he will need the extra attention. He's already having some behavioral issues that I believe are related to the move, so I know this will be a good thing. And Sophie's school will be paid for by the Missouri Health Department, so she will go from 8-12 each day. That means she will get out almost 3 hours earlier than she does now, so I'll have some more time with her as well.

And now I've stopped complaining and I'm just rambling. So there is an update on pretty much everything. And here are some pictures. We took them on one of our recent trips to Columbia.

Lillie is a great big sister!!

She was actually pumping her legs to swing!

The kiddos with the statue outside the YouZeum (children's museum) in Columbia.

Coolness.

Swinging! I love this picture. See how Lillie is sitting crooked in the swing? She has a little trouble with coordination. And that is perfect!

I know there are a lot of pictures of the kiddos from behind, but (1)they are adorable and

(2)the kiddos are always going away from me at the park!

We all need a little Sophie love sometimes!

Sunrise, Sunset

2009-01-02T00:18:00.007-06:00

Lillie will be six years old in just two short weeks. I have decided that it is unfair how quickly they change from this:

To this:

Every night before she goes to sleep, I tuck her in and sing "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof. My mom very rarely sang that song to me when I was little because it made her cry. I'm beginning to understand why.

In case you're not familiar with the song, here are the lyrics so you can think of your own children (if you are so blessed) and cry with my mother and me:

Is this the little girl I carried? Is this the little boy at play?

I don't remember growing older; When did they?

When did she get to be a beauty? When did he grow to be so tall?

Wasn't it yesterday When they were small?

Sunrise, sunset

Swiftly fly the days

Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers

Blossoming even as we gaze

Sunrise, sunset

Swiftly fly the years

One season following another

Laden with happiness and tears

Busy-ness

2008-12-13T22:52:00.004-06:00

So, I've been busy lately and I haven't blogged. Bad me! Here's a quick update for anyone out there who is interested...

-- Wes is getting more and more excited about PM&R (physical medicine and rehabilitation). We took the kiddos to St. Louis and Columbia, Missouri last week for interviews and to check out the places. We went to the St. Louis zoo (which is FREE!) and they got to see penguins up-close and personal. But we were really, really impressed with Columbia. It is a mid-sized college town with a cool downtown and a small school for Sophie. Cost of living is low, there are lots of families there with kiddos our age, tons of parks, art festivals, music festivals, etc ... always a party it seems. The program there pays more than others (in addition to the lower cost of living, this is very nice) and Wes will have a lot lighter work schedule. So we are no longer crossing our fingers for San Antonio. We are still, however, going to San Antonio this week for that interview, but they will really have to knock our socks off in order to be #1 on the rank list.

I am no longer employed! WooHoo!!! I haven't really had much free time, though. There are always field trips scheduled or whatnot. Well ... and most of last week we were out of town ... But I am much happier and more patient with my family and it is all working out as I knew it would.

My dad went into the hospital this past Tuesday with some chest pain. He had atrial fibrillation, which is not a heart attack, but it was still scary. He's now on a blood thinner and has to limit caffeine intake, but otherwise the cardiologist said he looked great. He stayed through Thursday and my mother failed to tell me that he had gone home. I called him Friday morning to ask when he was leaving the hospital, and he said, "What? I'm at work!" THANKS, MOM. :P

Also this week, my best friend's dad has been in the hospital, but his situation is more complicated. He has MRSA. He is feeling better and is joking around and acting more like himself now, so we are relieved for that. However, his kidneys are no longer functional, which means dialysis 3 times a week from now on, and he also has suffered some hearing loss. Maybe from the fever? I'm not sure exactly why. But he is here in Jackson, and now my friend Melva has come home from MIT for an extended stay, which is the bright side of it all ... according to me!

Also this week, my one week sandwiched between two weeks of travel, when I was supposedly going to get all of my junk done for the month of December and that little upcoming holiday, I have been without internet until today. It seems small, but consider the things that have been put on hold in my life because of this:
--Christmas cards. I HAVE TO GET THEM DONE THIS WEEK. But my addresses are mostly in my email. Grr.
--Bill paying. Slightly more urgent!! (Don't worry; I just finished!)
--Email. First of all, my mother emailed me to tell me my dad was in the hospital, and I didn't get it! Then, I was surprised to find a message in my inbox today that asked for donations for my son's preschool teachers to have gift cards. Glad I got that one before leaving the state. Thanks, Comcast. Thanks for NUTHIN. Again, I say ... Grr.
--Not to mention all the times I needed to look up small things, like what the heck was happening to my sick family members in the hospital, Melva's flight status when I picked her up from the airport, weather forecast as we were having sleet and snow, directions to different places, what is this barbie mermaid thing Lillie is obsessing about, Columbia Missouri real estate (just for fun at this point), etc.
--I am also frustrated at the fact that I pay for phone service through Vonage, but I couldn't use my phone! So I am sure Wes and I ran up our cell phone minutes in the meantime ... mainly sitting on hold waiting for the comcast people!

So, there you have it: PM&R. Missouri. Atrial Fibrillation. MRSA. Comcast. (Grr.) And no more preschool teaching!!!!!!!!

I'm free again ... almost!

2008-11-02T23:23:00.004-06:00

I DID IT!! I turned in my letter of resignation on Monday! I was just fed up. I spent two months in depression, feeling guilty for working, missing important time with my kids, and losing my temper with them because it is hard to be in charge of other people's preschoolers all day and then come home and be nice to your own!

The last straw was when I lost my temper with Lillie over something silly (roaring at Harlan and making him cry) ... I just snapped. I screamed and yelled at her and sent her to her room (and the nice, happy screaming you're imagining is NOT what really happened ... I was really scary, much worse than that roar) and she emerged a few minutes later with a note. It read (with these spelling errors): "Im sad. Plies be nice. I love you but y are you so mad" and I said to myself:

It is not worth it.

It is not worth sacrificing my relationships with my children. Or losing patience with Wes. Or making him do all of the housework AND work in the ER because I am just too stressed (teaching preschool! What kind of wuss am I! He's the one in the ER!) Or being depressed for two months straight and having heartburn every night because I know in the morning I have to go and do it all again.

I prayed and prayed about this. I feel peace with this decision, mostly because my prayers were answered in a reassuring way every time, and the answer was clear: This is not the season for me to be working outside my home. My children come first.

And after praying one night about this issue, I picked up my Book of Mormon and scanned the index, settling for some strange reason on the topic of 'sacrifice.' One verse caught my eye, and although it seemed totally unrelated to my particular crisis, I flipped to it anyway. It was Doctrine & Covenants 132:50, and it reads:

"Behold, I have seen your sacrifices, and will forgive all your sins; I have seen your sacrifices in obedience to that which I have told you. Go, therefore, and I make a way for your escape."

I prayed about it. I received an answer: Put your children first. Then the Lord told me that if I sacrificed this job in order to obey him, he would help me escape!!! I turned in my letter the next working day, and I feel great!

I gave 4 weeks' notice, and I think that is a reasonable amount of time for the director to find a replacement. My last day will be November 21.

Peer pressure in kindergarten... oh my!

2008-10-25T19:42:00.012-05:00

I am sure I've blogged about similar issues before, but this one is more specific and distressing to me ... I hope I don't bore you before you get to my questions at the end ...

As a child, I had a few Barbies, which mostly sat around neglected unless I decided to take them for a spin in the purple Barbie Corvette.

I did have My Little Ponies, which were somewhat girly, but otherwise I just wanted to watch the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and She-Ra cartoons after school.

Rainbow Brite? Strawberry Shortcake?? Please. Whatever. I couldn't have cared less about that junk.

And now my daughter, of whom I have been so proud because she is just like me, is bending to the peer pressure of Hannah Montana.

Having only seen one episode, all Lillie really knows about it is that she is a cool rock star who wears a wig when she sings so people won't know it's her.

Having only seen one episode, all I really know about it is that she got a credit card from her dad for 'emergencies' and spent boatloads on 'emergency' clothing items and accessories at the mall.

I am not in favor.

But Shrinidhi, Karis and Molly (all in her class at school) have the backpacks. And the shirts. And they go around singing "The Best of Both Worlds" on the playground. And so Lillie looks at her purple backpack with flowers and decides she doesn't like it because it isn't a cool Hannah Montana backpack.

Now. I don't think that moms who allow Hannah Montana are bad; they are just different from me, and that is okay. But I have my own standards. And, being something of a hippie, I have my ideals that I want to pass on to my daughter. And I don't think they include Hannah Montana. So here are my questions, and I welcome your opinions on these:

1. Am I doing my poor child a disservice by keeping her away from the popular tv shows? I mean, almost every 4- or 5-year-old girl at the preschool has something Hannah Montana that I've seen. Am I alienating her from her peers?

2. Do you think I'm trying to force my own identity onto her? Just because I think it's silly, is it okay for me to tell her that without letting her form her own opinion?

3. Do you think she will rebel against me for this later? I know this is a small thing, but really ... think about it ... all of those 1980s yuppies -- who were their parents? You got it: the hippies. In my efforts to pass on my values to her, am I encouraging her to choose the opposite direction when she is older?

I am sure I am overreacting about this. But these things are really important to me. I want my kids to be able to relate to other kids their age without compromising their standards. I want my kids to share my vision. I want them to say, when they are grown, "I am who I am because of my mother," NOT, "I am who I am despite my mother."

Being a mom is hard! No thank you, Miley Cyrus!

Please comment!!

Parenting epiphany at the pumpkin patch

2008-10-12T23:03:00.005-05:00

It's funny how sometimes we can have a valuable learning experience in an unexpected situation. Last week, I went with Sophie's class on their Pumpkin Patch field trip. We had a hay ride and saw lots of cool animals, and the kids got to pick pumpkins to keep. There was also a place for them to play with swings, hay stacks for climbing, and a small hay maze. Sophie loved the hay maze and kept going in again and again. Here is my lesson learned:

The first time Sophie went into the maze, she didn't have any trouble at all finding her way through. She maneuvered it easily, making her way quickly toward the exit. I thought that surely she would have more fun if she spent some more time exploring it first, so I encouraged her away from the exit and back into the maze. She walked around a little bit more before going back to the exit.

Then she wanted her assistant teacher to go through it with her, so she led and Betty followed. Again, Sophie went straight through the maze, but before going out the right way, she turned and went the same way that I had encouraged her to go before ... and she got lost. The third time she went through the maze, she was headed the right way, then turned again at that spot and had to find her way out.

So, here is my lesson learned from this experience: My kids watch everything I do, and they want to follow in my footsteps. I need to be careful where I lead them!! Also, even though Sophie was on the right path, it only took one little wrong turn to get her all turned around and confused. How easily we are led astray!

Maybe now that I have written this, I can stop feeling guilty about it!

Just in time for flu season!

2008-10-01T21:49:00.003-05:00

Check out this article on CNN titled: "How Some Women Never Get Sick" ... there are some interesting ideas in here! And since I have already used ALL of my sick days at the preschool, I'm thinkin' I might have to implement a couple of these!

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/10/01/healthmag.women.sick/index.html

CELEBRATE, good times come on!!

2008-10-01T20:55:00.002-05:00

Three things to celebrate today:
-- I had a great day! One of the teachers I 'assist' was absent, and I taught the class all by myself from 8 - 2. I was nervous about it, but I felt like it went really well. It was easier than going back and forth all day between the two classes! THEN, after getting Sophie, I took the kiddos for a walk around the block. We saw some acquaintances of ours (a mom and her 3 kids) playing in their front yard, and we stayed for a little while and played with them. Then I came home and fixed dinner and did bedtime all by myself. Bedtime was great! The kiddos went willingly to bed (except Lillie, who I am allowing to stay up late and read), and I feel good about letting Wes sleep all afternoon to get rested for his 11pm - 7am shift in the ER. So, yay for me, doin' stuff today!
-- Lillie is about to hit her 100-book mark on goodreads.com! Woohoo!!! It is so exciting to have a little girl who gets so excited about reading!! She is reading book # 100 right now: "Trick or Treat, Danny!" by Edith Kunhardt. We will be putting it on goodreads when she is done. (If you want to be her goodreads friend, check her out! http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1311187
-- And last but NOT LEAST!!!!!!!!!!!! -- Wes got his first request for an interview today!!!! At San Antonio!!!!!!! We are thrilled! He is going to schedule it for mid-December, so hopefully he will have one or two other interviews to practice before it! ;) Oh, pray, pray, pray for this to happen!!! It's so nerve-racking and terrifying and exciting all at the same time!

Lillie is on the last page of her book ... gotta go post it!

"Slow down; you move too fast..."

2008-09-30T20:44:00.004-05:00

Would you like to know what happened to me today? Sure you would!

I came home from school and found something interesting in the mailbox: a letter telling me IN ALL CAPS that my license was SUSPENDED for "failure to comply" with a speeding ticket I got on October 15, 2007. I remember that awful week, just after Sophie got her cochlear implants and started going to school (emotional rollercoaster) and I was trying to figure out how to get all the people to their schools across town from each other at the same time. I got two speeding tickets in one week. Bad, bad, bad. However, I DID pay them!

So, I got on the phone with the municipal court and find out that the 'system' says I never paid the ticket. Luckily, I had done my research, and I informed the lady that I wrote check number 1621 on October 18, 2007, for $188, and it cleared my account on October 25. I kind of yelled at her in a stressed-out voice ... WHERE THE HECK DID MY MONEY GO?!?!

She promptly transferred me to someone else, who was a very nice lady named Sandra. Sandra informed me that, although the original ticket was $188, I owed them $263. Guess what for?? You'll never guess. Late fees, of course, and a WARRANT FEE! Now, I only know of two kinds of warrants, and I'm pretty sure that they didn't want to search my house... And here I insert a note of gratitude to Heavenly Father: THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for not letting me get pulled over and arrested when I had no idea this was happening!!!!!

I'll make the rest of this short: After calling our wonderful bank manager, Drew (my hero), and having him locate the scanned image of both sides of the check, and having him fax it to the lovely Sandra ... it turned out that my money had been applied to someone else's ticket because someone at the police department had transposed two of the numbers in the ticket number. And for THAT ... they wanted to arrest me!

It has a happy ending, though: After a trip downtown to JPD (Wes drove, of course!) to meet Sandra and get my paperwork -- and a trip to midtown to drop off the paperwork, my license is now reinstated! What a lot of work (and gas) for something that wasn't even my fault. What a day!

Things to be thankful for:
-- Wes was off today, so he was able to drive us all to Harlan's gymnastics class and to the places to clear up the stuff.
-- Drew McIntyre, Premier Banking, BancorpSouth. He is my hero of the day.
-- Sandra really was very nice, which, if you've ever had dealings with people in Jackson, MS who work for the government, you know is EXTREMELY RARE. No, really. The term "Southern hospitality" does not normally apply to these people.
-- I really did pass a policeman this morning on the way to take Sophie to school, and I really was speeding. And I went through a yellow light. (He was going the other way. He stopped at the light.) And even then, before I knew there was a warrant out for me, I said a quiet prayer in my head to thank Heavenly Father for helping me out. And then I slowed it down a bit.
-- It's a gentle reminder to drive more carefully ... without having to pay for a ticket this time.

So, even with such an annoying situation today, I am looking for the lessons that the Lord would have me to learn. And for those lessons, I am grateful for this experience.

Oh, yeah, one other thing...

2008-09-17T00:28:00.006-05:00

The residency app is DONE DONE DONE DONE DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Wes was taking his own sweet time about it, so I did it!! I started getting frustrated with him a couple of weeks ago, when he wasn't filling it out, so I took matters into my own hands. Within a couple of hours' time, I had completed all TWELVE online pages, including personal info such as address/phone number; research/work/volunteer experience (I just had to type in what he had on his CV); awards recieved; results of step 1 and step 2 certification exams ... you name it, it was on there. I even pasted his personal statement (which HE wrote, and I edited a million times). Then I turned it over to him.
During the past two weeks since that wonderful evening, he has researched and narrowed down the list of places to apply (with much discussion between the two of us) but was still taking tooooooo long for my liking. So, with his permission and blessing, I (re-edited and) submitted his application and sent it to the seven programs he had selected. Best $120 I ever spent!
Wes had already gone to bed. He was too stressed out about it to stick around, so I captured the moment to share with him later. Please take a second to celebrate with me!

Now we need PRAYERS!!!!! Not that I didn't say a few before clicking SUBMIT ... but ... OHMYGOSH ... I am so nervous now!!

Oh, baby!!

2008-09-16T23:54:00.004-05:00

So ... the receptionist at Sophie's school (Velma) and I were chatting recently as I waited for my little one to come down the hall. Another mom had just left with her son, who is a new student there. I had tried to start a friendly conversation with her, and she was totally grumpy with me and rude. Thank heavens I didn't ask when her baby was due, although she was obviously pregnant.
On this day, Velma had noted the strange conversation that had occurred, and when the woman left, she commented to me on her grumpiness and said that the woman looked pregnant (very) and I agreed. The strange thing, said Velma, was that someone else had come in and asked her how many kids she had, and she said just one. We were wondering why she didn't mention the baby on the way. But we let it go, and I didn't initiate any more conversations with her.
Today I went to pick up Sophie. Velma leaned over her desk and said that she had something to tell me. Evidently, the woman gave birth to a baby girl on Sunday. I was not surprised. The strange thing: The woman was!! She had no idea that she was pregnant! (I told Velma that now I feel bad ... maybe I should have told her myself!) Her husband came in and put a picture of a baby girl down on Velma's desk, and when Velma inquired about it, he replied, "THAT is what happened to us on Sunday!"

playing with photoshop

2008-09-11T10:12:00.003-05:00

Recently, I took this great picture of Harlan. He was not posing; he was just standing by Wes's truck, being himself. I happened to have the camera in hand (surprise, surprise!) so I snapped a picture. After looking at it, I decided it was begging to be messed with. I opened it for editing in Picasa, and then I went a little crazy. Finding pictures, photoshopping ... hours of entertainment! ...Um, literally. So here are the pictures!

Harlan as James Dean (I LOVE THIS PICTURE!!)

This one of Lillie is several months old, but it was fun to play with.

Sophie needs HUGS on the go!

Sophie Bella Cinderella

Update on life / random stuff

2008-09-03T19:46:00.002-05:00

So I have a few random thoughts ... Very random ...

--Wes took a course last month called "Review of Histology," which consisted primarily of editing the histology lab manual. One of the best sentences I have read is in this lab manual, and here it is for your enjoyment: "Ovaries lead a rather tempestuous life, so it should not be surprising that the specimens in the slide set felt no obligation to conform entirely to textbook descriptions." Feel free to comment on that one ... or just on how nerdy I am to think this is funny!
--Teaching preschool is interesting, to say the least. Ohmygosh. Aside from dealing with kids doing weird, disturbing things in the bathroom and beating each other up for cutting in line, last Friday I was puked on, spat at, and called a monkey ... all before 9:30 a.m. Good times.
--John McCain is annoying and creepy, and I don't agree with him at all, and his arms are too short. And his running mate scares me. Blah. (Wes has the RNC on right now and I'm sick of listening to it.)
--Wes is getting ready to send off his residency applications this week, which is unbelievably exciting. I'm ready to get this thing done!! In a few months, we could be moving to Texas, Missouri, Colorado, Massachussetts ... it's all very thrilling! And his essay is amazing. And he wrote it all by himself! I just polished it a little here and there. Yay, Wes!!
--My mom started chemotherapy yesterday. She will go in again in 3 weeks. She has to have it four times, for 12 weeks total. We're all ready to get it over with. Prayers are welcome. Please.

I guess that's about it for now. I'm too tired to think of anything else to write.

A work update ... and a small rant ...

2008-08-24T22:31:00.005-05:00

I guess it's been a month since I posted anything. Oops. We started school this week at Beth Israel Preschool. So far, the short days don't seem too bad ... the kiddos get a free lunch, Lillie gets her Spanish lessons for free, and I got paid on Thursday, which made things a little easier. But the long day -- which is every Friday, when I get to work from 7:30am - 6:00pm -- is going to be grueling. At least, it was this week. And although, at 5:30, there were FIVE teachers there, and only one kid waiting to be picked up (6 kids in all, 5 of whom were teachers kids and 3 of whom were MINE), the teacher in charge would NOT LET ME LEAVE. She said that "if something happened (she didn't specify what, exactly), we would all need to be here." Nevermind the fact that if I left, I would take half of the children with me, and also improve the ratio (4 teachers : 3 kiddos instead of 5:6) ... nevermind the fact that most of the problems were stemming from Harlan's frequent meltdowns because he didn't get a nap ... nevermind the fact that another teacher's kid (he's wonderful and affectionate...he's five but looks like he's at least 7 and probably weighs at least 85 pounds and doesn't have any younger siblings, so he doesn't know how to be careful) kept loving Sophie and accidentally knocking her head into the floor and she kept screaming her head off ... I couldn't leave "in case something happened." How ridiculous is that! I am still fuming. The worst part is I can't even talk to anyone about it because the director of the preschool seems to never listen seriously to my concerns.

Sorry for the rant. In good news, I got some interesting compliments from the kids at school ("Your hair is fluffy!"), Harlan and Lillie are perfectly happy in their classes and their teachers love them, and I haven't had to drop Sophie off early because Wes has been around to take her to school. These are all nice things. I just have to focus on those, I guess.

There goes another decade

2008-07-25T13:10:00.002-05:00

I realized yesterday that it has been 10 years this week since Wes proposed to me! TEN years!! It seems like such a long time! I don't remember the exact day ... it was the 20-something of July 1998. I just think that's cool.

Med School Update

2008-07-24T20:04:00.003-05:00

Wes got his Step 2 score back yesterday, and he did GREAT!!! Seven points higher than the national mean! Woo-Hoo!! He has basically decided on PM&R (for a definition, visit this site: http://www.aapmr.org/ ) and he gave an awesome presentation the other day about ulcers and abscesses in patients with spinal cord injuries -- and the chair of the rehabilitation dept. -- who is a majorly important guy with a building named after him -- was impressed enough to offer a letter of recommendation!!!!!! AND he has friends at the PM&R programs in San Antonio and Denver, the two top places we've been looking at! Things are looking UP!!

Beach ball wonder

2008-07-24T13:07:00.002-05:00

This morning, while Lillie was at theatre camp, we were playing in the back yard with our across-the-street friend Nathan. Terry and I heard crazy laughing coming from the air conditioning unit! When we looked, check out what we found! It was SO FUN!!

Sophie Sweet!

2008-07-18T21:25:00.003-05:00

This post is mostly for Haley and Betty, Sophie's teachers. I think you'll like this one! I took this video last Thursday (7/10) and it is very fun. (Haley, this is the thing I told you about today. And Betty, I got her new class info today and I'm so excited that she'll be with you again!! Yay!) Enjoy the video.....

30 - 1 !!!!!

2008-07-15T12:12:00.002-05:00

So ... I know this may sound silly to people who are older than I am ... but I'm 29 now! Twenty-nine! Thirty-minus-one! That is so weird! I always thought that at age 30, people had to stop messing around and be grown-ups. I'm not ready for that yet! I feel like Wendy, from "Peter Pan," and it's my last night in the nursery. I have one year of 'twenty-something' left before I enter a new decade of my life. So bizarre. My mom says that having three small children will keep me young. Any thoughts on this one?

Summer Reading Champs!!

2008-07-13T21:24:00.006-05:00

After taking two summers away from the Willie Morris Library Summer Reading Program (due to ninth-month-pregnancy and impending surgery, respectively), we signed up once again. Probably exactly like every other library in the country, they give out forms to the kids who participate, and the families keep track of every book they read to their kids -- or the kids read by themselves -- during the month of June. In early July, there is a big party, and the top three readers in each category (Independent Readers and Family Readers) get trophies. Last time we did this (summer 2005), Lillie and Harlan won 2nd and 3rd place in the Family Readers category. This year, we signed Lillie up as an Independent Reader! She read 10 books a day during the month of June, totaling a whopping 303 books! She won first place in her category!

(Yes, that is Wes behind her ... he took a couple of hours away from school to come! Lillie was so diligent and excited to write down all of her books that it was a big deal and he had to be there!)

I tried to read 10 books to Harlan and Sophie each day, to keep up with Lillie, but it was HARD with two very wiggly, very distracted, very hyper kiddos! Harlan had 252 books on his list! First place in his category!!

And let's not forget our Sophie, who also loves her books!! Her list had 239 books, which won her second place!

This may seem slightly dorky ... but Lillie had so much fun reading and seeing the big list of the books she had read that she now has a goodreads account! If you're on there, make sure to add her as a friend ...
http://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1311187

I need your blog address!

2008-07-05T15:59:00.002-05:00

Okay, so I previously accessed my friends' blogs through a link on my own blog ... Just easier that way. But when I changed my layout, it erased my list! So, to my friends who read this and have blogs: I need your blog address please!! I don't know how to find you without it!!

Thanks !!!!!!!!!!!

Your purse is contaminated

2008-07-03T17:57:00.005-05:00

I found this article at http://hospitalacquiredinfections.blogspot.com -- I thought it was interesting...I think I'll throw my purse in the washer tonight!

(Wes thought I shouldn't have the whole article on here, so if you want to read about how nasty purses are, paste the link in your browser. It's a good article.)

Happy Birthday, Sophie!!

2008-07-01T15:43:00.007-05:00

Sophie is Two today!! Yay for Sophie! It is amazing the way that we have all learned so much and grown so much (physically and otherwise) in the two short years since Sophie has blessed us with her adorable presence! We've had a crazy time, figuring out life with a child with hearing loss, trying to survive -- and pass -- medical school, and surgery, and ... well, too much to list. That isn't my point here. My point is, check out Sophie!!

February 2006 ... It's a girl!

July 2, 2006 ... One day old

July 1, 2007 ... One year old

July 1, 2008 ... Terrific Two!

Do the Grasshopper Hop!

2008-06-29T23:04:00.005-05:00

This is a clip of Sophie's class during their part of the end-of-school program. She did a GREAT job!! Each of the girls had a little line to say about grasshoppers. Sophie's is "Watch me HOP!" The lady on the stage with them is Betty, one of Sophie's teachers. Her other teacher, Haley, is the one who goes in front of the camera, with the short, blonde hair. We miss you both already! :)

Check out Sophie's awesome dance moves! (By the way, she is at the far right. And she is the one at the beginning yelling, "Hey, Daddy! Hey, Mama! Hey, Lillie!")

You Are My Sunshine

2008-06-29T14:26:00.007-05:00

Well, I didn't realize that people checked in on the blog ... but Harlan and Sophie's teachers have requested more blogging, so here are some Harlan videos! He loves to sing the song "You Are My Sunshine," and it is really sweet when he does it. So I tried to take a video of him singing it for the blog. It took 4 takes! I think that in order to see his quirky little self a little better, you have to see all 4 ... don't worry; they are all REALLY short! (And I'll post videos of the others later, I promise!)

Take One: The Whispered Resistance

Take Two: Harlan starts singing and gets distracted by some little rock or crumb or something ...

Take Three: The Pouting Headshake

Take Four: Success! Sort of...

A tough one...

2008-05-20T21:34:00.000-05:00

I've got a tough decision to make here ... Wes and I are finding it harder and harder to survive on student loans, and we're sinking deeper and deeper into other debts to make up the difference. Our bank account is all but depleted, and we still have one more month of bills before we get more loan money in July. This is how it is at the end of every semester ... the money is gone too soon. And the loan money that we will get in July is already spent: pay off what we've had to put on the credit card during May/June, pay homeowner's insurance for the year, mortgage in advance for the next 6 months, car note, utilities in advance for 6 months, etc ... and we also have to put aside enough money for Wes to travel to interviews for residency programs and possibly live somewhere else for a month for an away rotation.

On top of this, we don't qualify for stupid George Bush's stupid economic stimulus package (sorry for the slight political rant there), because we didn't make $3,000 last year. Oops, we're just trying to be a good student and good mom here ... and now we're being punished for it. So instead of getting the $2,100 that could float us through June and help us out during this crunch, we're still high and dry while our friends all decide what extras to get with their bonus checks ... even though they have jobs and don't need the money as much as we do. (GRRR... again, sorry for this rant...but not really...)

So, there's not much I can do about June ... the mortgage is paid, and we have $500 in the bank to pay some of the rest, and every time we've had this problem in the past, the Lord has pulled us through. But I'm thinking about next year.

I've been offered a position as an assistant teacher at the kids' preschool next year. I know everyone there, and I love them all, so I am sure I could work with them ... but I don't really want to be a preschool teacher! Ugh! Anyway, here's the deal: It will pay $950/month. I will work 5 days a week -- until 12:30 on 4 days and until 6pm on one day. Lillie and Harlan will get to come early and stay late for free and have free lunch every day, and on the early days I'll get off in time to pick up Sophie. On the late day, I'll be allowed to leave to get her and bring her back with me, and she will play there with the other kiddos until it's time to go home.

We will get a childcare loan for Harlan's tuition again, since he's under 5, but I'll have to use $250 of my check for Lillie's tuition. And, no, I don't get a discount for being a teacher.

950
-100 tithing
-250 Lillie's tuition
---------
600 take home

Is it worth it, for five days a week of preschoolers who are not my kids? And giving up my free mornings (which I don't actually get as much as I was thinking anyway)? And the added stress and guilt of being a 'working mom'? And that one day a week that I'll only see Sophie for an hour before putting her to bed?

Shame on Wes for coming to medical school. And shame on that stupid economic stimulus package. Grrr......

Let me know what you think......I could use your thoughts on this one.

Funny video

2008-05-18T22:27:00.000-05:00

Here's a good video of Harlan from today as well. It is hilarious. It makes me laugh and laugh. My tummy hurts from laughing. I hope you have as much fun watching this as we did! Two things to watch for: His funny face when he tries to open the paper, and when he says, randomly, "take a picture" for no apparent reason. I might cry I'm laughing so much. Enjoy!

My little author

2008-05-18T22:05:00.000-05:00

Lillie wrote a book today! She has done this several times before, but it is usually a silly little story with not a very complex plot, and only simple words. This time, she made up a song, and we worked together to make the book from that. Here is a video of Lillie reading her book! Enjoy! (She does get a little distracted by some "love bugs" at one point, but it's all part of the fun!)

A funny story...

2008-05-12T09:25:00.000-05:00

So, if you don't know already, I'll go ahead and admit it: I'm a terrible housekeeper. There is currently clutter all over the kitchen counters and a pile of clean, not-yet-folded laundry on the couch. And that is where my story begins...

It was Saturday night, the night before Mother's Day. I was singing the kiddos their bedtime songs, and Wes said that he was going to go to the store to pick up a couple of items we would need for Sunday. I finished getting the kids to bed and came out to the kitchen, where I checked my email and wasted a few minutes doing NOTHING important. After about 45 minutes, I started to wonder what was taking Wes so long at the store. I tried to call his cell phone, and it was off. I thought that was strange, because he had told me to call him with any extra shopping-list additions, so I looked outside. His truck was IN THE DRIVEWAY! I searched the yard, I searched the house, I looked EVERYWHERE, and he was nowhere to be found. I called out to Lillie, who was still awake, to ask if she had seen him and she said no. I went back outside to look again and was just starting to panic when Wes ... came OUT of the house!

When I finally got it all straight, I found out that this is what had happened: Wes had come out to the living room when I was singing, and he hid under the clean clothes (note to self: FOLD!!), where he was planning to jump out and surprise me when I came down the hall. The snag in his plan was that he was so warm and comfy that he fell asleep! He was on the couch, under the clothes the whole time! He only woke up when he heard me asking Lillie if she had seen him.

Luckily, my Mother's day got better after that! :)

The feeling of sound...

2008-05-10T23:34:00.000-05:00

A couple of weeks ago, Sophie taught me something that I will always remember. It was bedtime, and I was lying in her bed with her. She didn't have her processors on, so she couldn't hear anything, but she kept saying, "aaaaaah" and laughing. I was pretending to sleep (so she would sleep ... tricky, I know ... but it didn't work) so my eyes were closed. Then Sophie reached out, grabbed my hand and placed my fingers over her mouth and repeated the sound. I felt it! I'd never thought about that before -- the feeling of sound. Of course, everyone knows that you feel bass when it booms at a concert, or the rumbling of an airplane engine, but I never noticed how the little sounds felt. So then, she put her hand on my mouth and made the sound, indicating that it was my turn. I did it, and she giggled. We took turns, and each time she made the sound with my hand on her mouth, she would look at me to see if I reacted. Finally, I took her hand and put it on my throat and said, "aaaaaah" ... she was amazed! She had never thought to try it there before! And I had never thought to feel the sound coming out of my mouth.

I am so amazed at this little person. What seemed like an insurmountable trial just one year ago has shown me the greatest miracles I've ever seen. She is bright and bossy and talkative, and she loves to dance. Even when she isn't wearing her processors, she dances because she can feel the music. Her way of experiencing the world is already so different than mine, and I am extremely grateful -- and humbled -- to have this wonderful little girl, who --although she is not yet even two-- is already teaching me so much. I can't wait to see what comes next!

Why, Oh, Why...

2008-04-25T12:13:00.000-05:00

...Although I am NOT a fancy girl (I much prefer my bellbottom jeans and a t-shirt to a fancy dress anyday ... and makeup --forget it!) it seems that both of my girls are going to be the fancy type. Since she was about three, Lillie has loved her dresses and absolutely refused to wear jeans. She loves it when I paint her toenails and longs for the day when I will let her be in charge of her own shiny lip gloss (which was a gift from someone else ... not anything I would ever in a million years buy my own kid), but I was just sure that Sophie would be different. I thought that having a big brother would make her a little more of a tomboy, and the frilly stuff just didn't seem to fit her spunky personality. Was I ever wrong!

Not only does Sophie love all accessories: barrettes, sunglasses, shoes, headbands, bracelets, etc ... she is demanding dresses! And she isn't even two yet! Last night I tried to put her in some cute pajamas-- shirt and pants -- but she would not have anything to do with them. She kept the shirt on, but she stripped off the pants (and her pull-up) then marched into the bathroom, where she picked one of Lillie's fancy summer dresses from the dirty clothes and tried to put it on by herself. Finally I gave in -- it wasn't that dirty, anyway -- and she wore it to bed with the pajama shirt underneath.

Shoes are even better, though. She insists that everyone must wear shoes at all times. She loves to stomp around in Harlan's, if she can't find any princess dress-up shoes around. She adores her shoes. She tells other people about them. If we have to search for them before school, she worries and whines until we've found them, and when we do find them I can see the relief on her face. When she gets new shoes, she dances and watches how her feet look when she moves with them on. It is a love affair with shoes.

So, this morning, I was getting her ready to go to the hospital and get tubes put in her ears. I had picked out some very comfy sweats that are pink and matchy and cute. As soon as she saw them, she pointed her finger, made her mad face, and yelled out an angry string of jibberish that started with "NO!!" and ended with "DRESS!" I got a dress, and she giggled as she stepped in.

Now, fast-forward to after the tubes ... she was groggy and weird, but we had to stop by the pharmacy to pick up her ear drops and some tylenol. We got into the place, I was carrying Sophie and trying to find the tylenol, and then ... blech! ... she puked up apple juice everywhere. Not just a little bit, either, but quite a lot. It was on me, on her, on the floor ... Her dress was soaked. But guess what her lament was, as she was moaning and scared and covered with puke! She pointed to her foot and wailed, "MY SHOOOOOOOOOE!"

Attitude

2008-04-23T10:49:00.000-05:00

So, the other day, Lillie was having a terrible attitude. I told her to go and wash her hands, and she put her hands on her hips and just told me NO! I told her again, and she replied, "I will not go wash my hands!" Finally, I won the battle ... and as she was headed toward the bathroom, I called out, "While you're in there, wash away that bad attitude, too!"

A few minutes later, I told Harlan that he needed to go and wash his hands. His reply: "But I didn't have an attitude!"

I guess he was listening, after all...

The difference 5 years makes

2008-03-20T08:53:00.000-05:00

I know this might seem kind of random, but it's interesting ... to me, at least ... When Lillie was three months old, we took her on campus and took pictures. There is a statue behind the chapel there that we like, and we don't know who it is supposed to be or anything, but it's this man praying and he is holding his hands cupped. We were a little silly that day and we laid Lillie down in his hands and took a picture. Last weekend, when we went back for a visit, she was hanging around the statue, so I put her up there and took another one. The first is from April 3, 2003, and the second is from March 16, 2008 ... almost exactly 5 years. What a difference!

Another day in the life...

2008-03-13T13:15:00.001-05:00

Today does not like me. Today's story must be told.

This morning, Wes woke up feeling awful. He needed to stay home from school, so he called and let his 'team' know that he wouldn't be coming in. I didn't feel very well either, but I had my one day of 'awful' on Tuesday, so I got up and did what I had to do. I got the kids dressed -- Lillie in her school t-shirt for her field trip today -- and had to leave 15 minutes earlier than normal, also because of the field trip. The kids ate their waffles in the car as we drove to Sophie's school to drop her off first ... and when we got there, I realized that I took my poor tiny kid to school with no backpack and no lunch! I carried her in, my poor little no-lunchbox, no-backpack, short-sleeved baby in the 43-degree weather (because the high is 74 today), and had to drop her off in the cafeteria with the office manager because we were there before 8:00. After asking Mrs. Addie if Sophie could just have a school lunch today (for 5 bucks!), I left my screaming, crying, reaching-for-me baby and rushed out to the other kiddos in the car.

So, then I started driving, planning to go to the other kids' preschool, needing to get there just in time to drop Harlan at his class and arrange seating for any other kiddos who would be riding with me, and then I realized that I never packed a snack for Harlan. His lunchbox, he told me when I asked, was on the kitchen floor, obviously empty. I called Wes, who groaned at me from the pillow, and he agreed to get some crackers and a juice box together for me to pick up on my way to the school. After hanging up the phone with him, I heard Harlan whimper, "Mommy..." and I looked back just in time to see him PUKE all over himself and his clothes and his car seat. I called Wes again and said, "I know you're home today because you're sick, but you also have to take care of a kid who just puked. We'll be there in five minutes. Welcome to a day in my life." Then my low-gas light came on.

We had about five minutes to get Harlan and his car seat out of the car, clean up the mess, call the school to inform them that I was coming, and get there. Harlan felt fine and played the whole time we were gone. Meanwhile, at the science museum, Lillie and her friend Jacci (the two in my charge) were very good and had lots of fun. But I hadn't had time to eat a very good breakfast, just a granola bar. And since I am still under-the-weather with this cold or whatever it is, I started feeling a little woozy. No, I did not pass out or anything dramatic and scary like that; I was just hot and dizzy. I came home, told Wes that I really needed a fried-egg-and-turkey-bacon sandwich on a biscuit for lunch, and crashed on the couch for an hour.

Now for the happily ever after ... well, happily ever now, at least: I feel much better after food and sleep; Harlan seems to be perfectly fine; Wes is better and has now gone to school; the weather is warm enough that Sophie's short-sleeved t-shirt should be just fine; and the car has a full tank of gas. I guess we were really lucky that Wes was too sick for school this morning because otherwise, I would have been home with Harlan, and Lillie would have gone on the field trip without me! So, even though today doesn't like me, I am thankful for blessings in disguise!

Lillie reading some more!

2008-03-08T13:38:00.000-06:00

This is another video of Lillie reading. This story is from the same book. It's about Ariel (the little mermaid). Enjoy!

Lillie reading!

2008-03-08T13:15:00.000-06:00

I am posting these mainly for the grandparents' benefit ... but everyone is welcome to view if you're interested. They are short; each story is about three pages.

Here is a video of Lillie reading a story from her Disney princess beginning reading book. This one is about Jasmine (from Aladdin):

Stranger Danger!

2008-03-07T12:31:00.000-06:00

Today as we were driving out of the Target parking lot, Lillie started talking about strangers, and how she didn't like them because they might take her. Don't get me wrong; I am not making my kids paranoid, but I have given them the normal instructions: Don't go with someone you don't know, etc ... so I thought that was the perfect opportunity to review our address and phone number. I told the kiddos that if anyone ever takes them away, to look for a phone and call 911 and give their names and their address and phone number. Lillie did pretty well remembering it all: 645 Newland Street, Jackson, Mississippi ... she only needed a little prompt. I'll work on that. Harlan, however, when it was his turn, said, "My phone number is 345 Jack-issippi!" I think I need to go over that a few more times...

An outlet for the energy!!

2008-03-06T21:57:00.000-06:00

And here's one from today. It was Harlan's second gymnastics class! The parents sit upstairs, so you'll get the aerial view, but it's still fun! Harlan is the one with the white shirt on ... and, yes, there is ONE other boy in the class! He isn't the only one! He's a natural at jumping and running and climbing ... now, if we could just get him to follow directions...

ROARRRR!!!

2008-03-06T21:02:00.000-06:00

So, Sophie's class has been learning about dinosaurs lately, and I thought you would enjoy this little video I took yesterday. Watch for these things:
--Sophie's funny face (only one of many!)
--Sophie's awesome ROARRR!
--She says "dinosaur" at the end so clearly you wouldn't even believe it if you didn't see it!

Enjoy!

Zero Miles to Empty

2008-02-17T16:05:00.000-06:00

The other day I was rushing around -- as usual -- up early, dress myself and three kiddos, pack lunches/snacks, remember coats, shoes and backpacks, spend 10 minutes trying to convince them to get in their seats and get buckled, drop off Lillie and Harlan at their school down the street from our house, then drive the 15 miles in traffic to Sophie's school ... and if I get to her school at or after 8:30, she's tardy and the teacher has to come down and get her in the lobby, which is traumatic for both of us. Of course -- as usual -- Wes had gone to school before we even woke up, so I was flying solo.

It was Valentine's Day, and Sophie's class was having a party for which I was assigned to bring "pink juice," which was sitting 15 miles away on my kitchen counter. I dropped off Sophie in her classroom, then I got in my car, drove to the nearest grocery store, obtained MORE pink juice, dropped it off at the school, and commenced my drive back home. I remembered on the way home that my gas was getting low-ish, so I pushed the button to show how many miles were left in the tank of gas (yes the car is new and has a few fancies) ... and much to my surprise, it said, "0 Miles to Empty." Luckily, I was very close to a gas station, and I made it there all right. But in the meantime, I freaked out. I thought about how scary it was to have ZERO miles left, and of course, I planned what I would do if the car died before reaching the gas station.

After getting gas, I had to hurry to make it to my other kids' school in time to attend their parties. Immediately after leaving the parties, we had other places to rush to, errands to run, trying to clean a little at least, picking up Sophie, getting pizza for dinner, giving them a bath and bedtime alone ... because Wes was on call and stayed at the hospital all that night ... and planning for the next day, when Lillie and Harlan would have their big-deal Winter Program at school, making sure they had the right clothes clean for the program, taking a few minutes to reply to a few emails, folding clothes, washing more, loading the dishwasher, sorting the kids' artwork, and finally dragging my weary self to bed around midnight.

Since that day (a typical day for me), I have thought more about the message from my car, and I decided that one day, far from now, when I write my memoirs, the title of this chapter of my life will be "Zero Miles to Empty." It wraps up everything perfectly: Running out of money, out of time, out of energy, out of patience. But it will be okay. I know that, just like the other day when I made it to the gas station just in time, I'll get to the light at the end of the tunnel just in time for some relief ... and to fuel up for the next adventure.

My page

2007-09-12T20:29:00.000-05:00

I'm new to blogspot, so I'm figuring this all out as I go along. I'm not sure how I'll use this page in the future, but for now I'll just type a little.....

I have three kids: Lillie, who is 4.5; Harlan, who is 3, and Sophie, who is 14 months old. Sophie was born with hearing loss, and she wore hearing aids for the first year of her life. At 8 months old, we learned that her hearing loss was progressing, and her audiologist and ENT recommended cochlear implants. She had her surgery -- bilateral implants on the same day -- on August 24, and she gets them turned on Friday (9/14). We're excited to find out what she can hear with them!

Lillie is exceptionally brilliant, and can read and do simple math. She is a sponge, eager to learn everything...especially math and physics, because that is what you have to know in order to be an astronaut. She is cute and fun, and she just started playing on a soccer team for the first time ever. Her first game is this Saturday.

Harlan is full of energy. He wants to help with all of the housework, but he is really better at making a mess than cleaning it! He knows his letters and is also learning to read simple words and add small numbers (using his fingers, of course). He is the sweetest little boy ever, and he is fiercely protective of Sophie. He's cuddly and wonderful...but watch out for his temper!!

Wes, my husband, is in his third year of medical school. His dream is to become an interventional radiologist. He earned his bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, and he loves gadgets and machines...and there are plenty of both in radiology!

I have a degree in English and journalism, but at the moment, I don't work outside our home. My main focus is on the kiddos. One day, when they are bigger, I'll save the world, but for now the world can wait. I have more important things to do.