Catching up

Boy, have we been busy! Let me get you caught up. Before I go too far, I want to say Happy Belated Birthday to my niece IZZIE!

That picture was taken of her after she'd eaten some of Claire's birthday cake. She was born on my anniversary. She's a ball of fire and we love her to death. You weren't forgotten sweetie - I promise. I'm going to mail your gift soon. Love you!

Here is a slide show of happenings from the last few days.

On Tuesday I took Nathan to get his pictures taken at Black Studio's. I can not wait for you guys to see them. They turned out so great! I will get them back in the next couple of weeks.

Jack screamed his head off much of Tuesday. I was ready to go nuts. He wanted to be held and made good and sure everyone knew it.

Yesterday I ran to Sioux Falls to get some groceries and do some running around. The kids went to the sitters which is always strange for me. I'm used to having at least one of them with me. When I'm alone I feel like I'm missing an arm or something. At least I got everything done that needed to be done. That was good.

Here is a link to the video I took at the zoo. http://media.putfile.com/The-Zoo-94

Happy Anniversary Justin

Today is the day I celebrate the day I married. It was 7 years ago on this date. Our lives have been a roller coaster ride, that's for sure. But if I'm happy about one thing it's that we're doing it as one. I LOVE YOU!

Prior funnies

Before I had a blog I wrote all the funny things Nathan did or said in my daily planner. Here are some of them. Remember - he was only 3 years old during this time. Some I guess happened right after he turned 4. This is long - so bare with me.....skim if you must.

• Nathan: It's not a good idea to call you a barnacle head, right?
  Me: That's right. I'm glad you asked before you decided to do that.
  Nathan: You know that's what Squidward calls Spongebob and Patrick, right?
  Me: I do know that. It's still not a good idea.


• Nathan was playing with his doctor set one day and wanted to take my blood pleature.
  


• I gave Justin a box of Turtles for Valentine's one year. Nathan opened up the box and thought those 'hippos' looked delicious!


• Nathan: I'm so tired I'm gonna sleep like a hippo.....or a pig.


• Nathan: Can we eat at 'Subway eat fresh' tonight?


• We were in Sioux Falls one day and Natey was being a handful. Trying to mend the fence by making conversation he said "Mommy, aren't all those candylions beautiful?"
  
• In April of 2006 Nathan said "I don't know how to tell you this - Santa is upset with his crew and the elves aren't doing things right. I'm sorry I had to tell you that."
  


• Nathan: My heart told me to be shy around McKenzie. (She was a little girl in his class. He'd just turned 4 and already a casanova.)


• I was 4 months pregnant with Jack and already showing when Nathan was trying to get past me in our very small bathroom. He was eye to eye with my belly and said "Well excuse me belly".


• One of the officers that Nathan thinks is pretty wonderful drove by our house and waved at him. He came running inside saying "Guess who drove by and waved at me!!! JESSE! He's a good friend to me....and I like his hair."


• I was outside with Nathan and Claire when the annoying little girl from up the alley came walking by with her friends. She said "These are my neighbors. HELLO NEIGHBORS." I smiled and hoped with all I had in me that Nathan wouldn't talk back to her. He said "What did she say?" I was trying to ignore him. He said it again - only louder "WHAT DID SHE SAY? Did she just call me a looser???"


• Nathan had been asking what words meant a lot. I had been pretty proud of myself being able to answer most of them. Then came a day when we were driving back from Sioux Falls. He said "What does dirt bag mean?" I didn't know what to tell him so I said it was someone who wasn't very nice. He was immediately sad, hung his head and said "Great, I'm a dirt bag because I sometimes pee my pants." I tried to explain to him that he was wrong but he wouldn't have it. He (- sigh -) was a dirt bag.


• One night when Natey was trying anything not to have to go to sleep - the following conversation occurred:
  Nathan: Daddy, when will I loose my teeth?
  Justin: It will be a couple of years.
  Nathan: Will it be a Tuesday? And will it be right on time?
  Justin: (Speechless)


• Natey: Mommy - what are you going to be when you grow up a little?
  Me: This is as big as I'm going to get. I'm a 911 dispatcher.
  Natey: (He seemed very confused.) Oh, well I'm going to be a football player.


• Natey was a bit infatuated with male and female anatomy. He was very interested in my boobs and the boobs of other women. He noticed that some were small and some weren't so small. One day he nudged me and I told him not to do that because it hurt my boobs. He asked if he'd ever have boobs. I told him that boys and girls have different kind of boobs. He told me that his daycare lady's daughter had big, BIG boobs - right in front of her. Fantastic! (Buckle your seat belts people.) One day he went to the bathroom and came out wanting answers. He pointed....down there....and said "MOM - does my weenie have boobs???" (Oh lordy!)
  

Ok, this last one is more of a story. Here we go.....

I went through Arby's one day while in Sioux Falls shopping with the kids. Nathan didn't want anything to eat, but wanted some chocolate milk. So I got it for him and asked them for a cup which they gave me as well. I had to go to the beauty supply sore for some stuff and told him that I wanted him to stay in the van with Claire so that I could go quickly. That was fine with him. So, I gave him the remote for his video, remote started the van (now having 11 minutes on the clock), locked it, and ran inside. I was quick - the van was still running by the time I got out. Just what I wanted! I opened the door where Claire sits and noticed that things didn't look quite right. I looked at Claire and there was chocolate milk all over her coat. She had it on her face, in her hair - all over. I looked at Nathan and he had it on his face too. I asked him what happened and he got this horrid 'Oh crap' look on his face. He said, "Well, I had a problem with my milk." I asked what kind of problem he had. He said, "Some of my milk came out of my straw." I didn't REALLY have time to sit and listen so in my mind I thought he must have been drinking his milk and his straw slipped out of his mouth. I've done that myself. However, there was much more milk than that on Claire. So I shut the door and as I walked over to Natey's side of the van (to wipe him up) I realized what I thought might have been the 'problem' with his straw. I opened the door and I said "Did you put milk in your straw and then blow it at your sister?" He looked at me with those HUGE puppy dog eyes and said "Uh-huh".

It cracked me up because I'm sure Peach thought this was some kind of fun! Of coarse Natey started laughing too - which made me laugh harder. Then when I finally could, I told him that I was upset that he did that and blah, blah, blah. He said "But I'm still a good boy, right?" "Um no! No you're not!" I told him. Well, you would have thought I told him that he only had seconds to live. He cried and cried trying to redeem himself. About every 3 minutes he'd say "But I'm a good boy now, right?" Ugh, that kid!

I'm naked

Ok, so I'm not naked, but I feel naked. I feel defeated and sad. To my male readers, you might want to just stop here.

I guess my body is done making milk.
I pumped yesterday morning and didn't even get a collective 2 ounces.
Sadness and anger filled my body.
I was almost reduced to tears at work.
I'm not ready to be done.
It's not for the lack of trying.
I tried!
I'm just so unhappy about it.


Today I came to work without my pump.
I feel naked.
It wasn't a good feeling.

I don't like it.

Can you get me this?

Tonight I was looking at the Wal-Mart ad. Against my better judgement I showed Nathan what I found.

He told me that he'd like me to get the Jeff Gordon one for him and the Dale Earnhardt Jr. one for Dawson so they could race. I told him that the cars were very expensive and that I didn't have enough money to buy them.

Nathan: You could use my money.

Me: It still wouldn't be enough.

Nathan: People could give you money if you told them I wanted it.

Me: Like who?

Nathan: Tracy, Icky Bug, Aunt Shannon and Uncle Jim.

So - Tracy, Jennie, Shannon and Jim - I'm going to need you to empty your pockets and buy my kid an expensive car that he doesn't need. If you can't, you'll have to break the news to him. I'm sure he'll take the news like a champ!

NO MORE MONITOR!!

Yesterday I took Jack in for his check up. The Pulmonologist said that everything looked good. Jack sounds really bad right now so the doctor wasn't sure if the crap was in his chest or if it was just the Laryngomalacia. He listened to his chest and said that it was clear so that was good. He said that he was going to download the information off of Jack's apnea machine to check his alarms. If he finds that they were false alarms, we can take Jack off the machine all together and go back in 4 months. If the alarms were not false alarms, we'll need to keep him on the machine and go back in 2 months. He told me to call back on Friday to find out which it will be.

Today his nurse called and said that the alarms were false alarms and that we could take him off his machine. YEA!!! We were so happy about that. You might be asking how or why we would have been getting false alarms with the apnea machine. Good question - I asked it myself yesterday. The monitor that he's on is over sensitive for obvious reasons. The company doesn't want to be held liable for not going off when a baby stops breathing. What probably happened in Jack's case with his alarms is that the electrodes on his chest either got too far apart or didn't move in the same rhythm which made the alarm sound. As you know babies breath very shallow. When he went into a deep sleep the electrodes possibly didn't move as the machine thought they should which caused the machine to sound. The machine records his respiration's, so when he has an alarm it's recorded on the hard drive. They download it at the office and then look back at all the information. They check his respiration's and such to determine if it was a real or false alarm. That's how they determine if it's a real or false alarm. I'm so glad he's well enough to be off that monitor. Yea!

After the doctors appointment we went to Wal-Mart to get some groceries. After that it was a quick stop at a beauty supply store and then we were on our way back to town. Jack is a very easy traveler - all the kids are, actually. Last night he was pooped. See what I mean?

Isn't that adorable? He was so tired that he rolled over on his belly and went to sleep. He'd never done that before. I was freaking out a little because he had a dirty diaper and I didn't want to leave him in it, but I also didn't want to wake him up. He didn't get to sleep like that long because Claire was just as interested in "Jacksleepin'" as the rest of us were. She'd walk up to him and yell "JACKSLEEPIN'", giggle, and run away.

Here is a picture of Nathan and Claire having a snack. Not long after that it was bedtime. And that was our Tuesday!

Special bonus Tuesday

Ok, before you view this video, I have to set it up. It happened last night when I was at work and I HAD to show you how horribly annoying I thought this was. First, please go to Miah's blog and read her take on what happens. Click here to read Miah's post.

I hadn't yet uploaded my video blog when 'it' started happening. I grabbed the camera so you could hear it for yourself. I'm sorry Tracy, but you are looking up my nose (and I'm chewing my gum like a cow - nice). I would have filmed more of it, but I ran out of room on my memory card. It was horrendous. Finally I just shut off the outside speaker. That sound is great when I'm in the jungle and all, but at work? I have to pass. My point to the post isn't as much the video is it is the noise level of that damn bird!


Click here to watch 'that-damn-bird'

Video blog

I hope this works. My file was too big for YouTube and Photobucket. If you have a problem viewing it, let me know.

Click here to watch 'Video-Blog-052107'

Proverbs - Nathan Meyer style

In March of 2003, I got this e-mail that was going around about well known proverbs. Supposedly a 1st grade teacher asked her class these questions and got some really funny answers. I thought I'd save the e-mail and ask Nathan the same questions some day. That day was yesterday.

Answers by Nathan - age 5.

It's better to be safe than.......to be you (while pointing at Claire - nice).
Strike while the ............................base is there.
It's always darkest before.............bed time.
Never underestimate the power of.................which is true.
You can lead a horse to water but.................you can't ride it.
Don't bite the hand that.............is your dad and mom's.
No news is.........................................you can't watch TV.
A miss is as good as a.....................................man.
You can't teach an old dog new...........................stuff.
If you lie down with dogs, you'll........sniff them.
Love all, trust..............people - and your mom's.....and dad's.
The pen is mightier than the.............................piggy bank.
An idle mind is.........................247.
Where there's smoke there's...............we can't smoke, Mom.
Happy the bride who.....................likes you.
A penny saved is.....................................in your piggy bank.
Two's company, three's.........................four.
Don't put off till tomorrow what.........is your family.
Laugh and the whole world laughs with you, cry and..........you must be sad.
There are none so blind as......................you can't see.
Children should be seen and not...........fussy.
If at first you don't succeed...............cheat. (WHAT?)
You get out of something only what you......(he didn't have an answer for this one).
When the blind leadeth the blind...........wear glasses.
Better late than...................rejoice!


When I got done asking him these, I asked if he had a good time doing it. He said "Yes, we learned a lot." Indeed we did.

Baadewy

If Claire came up to you and asked for a baadewy, what would you give her?

Luckily - I knew. What's your guess?

Hint (although it probably won't help): She says it in two words although the word itself is one word. She says it like Baah (like what a sheep says) Dewey (like Donald Ducks Nephew).

Baah Dewey

Happy Birthday Justin!!!

Today is Justin's birthday. I bought a cake for him last night and was going to give it to him today. However, Nathan saw it and that was the end of that. Natey likes to call Justin to tell him when to come home for supper. I told Nathan that the cake was a surprise for Justin's birthday tomorrow and that we would have to keep it a surprise for one more day. Nathan's 5, people. I knew it wasn't going to work. When I asked him to call Justin for supper he said "I'm just going to say 'Daddy, we have a surprise for you but you can't have it until tomorrow. Do you like carrot cake?'" I told him that wouldn't work and that Daddy would know the surprise. Natey was sure that he wouldn't tell him the secret and didn't understand that Justin would probably figure it out if he asked him if he liked carrot cake. Finally I told Nathan that we'd just give Justin his cake a little early. It was an obvious weight off his shoulders.

Happy Birthday JUSTIN!!!!

In 1949 the Effanbee company made the prototype. In 2006 I made the real thing. :)

Ouch!

Last night I was putting something in the oven and burned myself on the top element. Holy cats did that hurt! I put it under cold water right away, but that didn't seem to do any good. Giving the kids a bath last night was an extra treat. Of coarse they weren't in cold water, so the warm water made my burn hurt worse.

This is what it looked like when I went to bed last night. It hurt if I bumped it, but nothing major. It looked much worse than it was at that point.

Today I took Natey to school. I usually just leave Claire and Jack in the van and run him in quick. Not today. Claire started to cry, so I brought her in with me. I was standing there talking to Susan when I realized that my hand was hurting. I looked down only to notice that I was rubbing my skin off. EWWW! (and ouch!) I don't think you can see it very well in that picture, but it was yuck and hurt.

We are having a little game at our house. It's called 'pass the fifth'. About 3 weeks ago I woke up to a rash over my whole body - except my face. It didn't really itch, but if I was holding one of the kids then it would kind of burn. I'd remembered that Pam said something about a rash going around her house but didn't really think anything of it until.....
Nathan woke up with what I thought was a spider bite. His cheek was warm to the touch with no other symptom to speak of. It wasn't until his other cheek turned red (the pic. shown) when I remembered what Pam said and gave her a call. She told me it was Fifth Disease and told me what she knew about it. I looked it up on the net and sure enough it matched. The day of his party he had it all over his body. Now Peach has it on her face. Jack hasn't gotten it yet. I hope that's not what his 'cold' is. I guess we'll just wait and see.

So....anyone want to come visit the Meyer's?

Birthday pictures and more

Here is a picture of Natey's cake. It was made at the Wal-Mart bakery.

Blowing out the candles.The guests!The HUGE balloon.Proudly displaying a flag that Susie and Megan gave him.I made this for my mother-in-law for Mother's Day. My sister and I sent my mom and step dad to a concert they wanted to go to for her Mother's Day gift.

Last week we were playing out side. It was fun until........

.....Claire fell in the mud. Then all bets were off. She was mad. Not Jack - he was having a great time enjoying the nice weather.

Here is Natey opening his gifts from us on his birthday.

The gift was a bubble blower. It makes LOTS of bubbles.

We also got him a hula hoop. Stand back Dawson, he's giving it a test drive.

Dawson taking a turn.

Shortly after that, the boys went out to play leaving the girls inside.

It was long enough to hatch a plan. Claire will fix those boys......

This last one is just a bonus photo. You would think it couldn't possibly be comfortable. Must not have been bad - he slept like this for a couple of hours.

Video blog

**The video should work now**
After I watched the video blog, I realized that I said that Jack's appointment is April 22nd. I realize that we've already had April 22nd and the main reason for that is because it's Claire's birthday. His appointment is obviously May 22nd. I just wanted to point out the error before you did. :)

Busy, busy, busy

We've been so busy lately. Last weekend Justin was supposed to go on an annual fishing trip with some high school friends. He'd lined up his parents to come and take care of the kids while I worked. His parents came on Thursday night which is always a big deal for my kids. They love to have company. Justin left Friday morning for a weekend of fishing with a forecast of rain. I knew he planned to take some sort of liquor with him, so I knew he'd be catching a buzz if nothing else.

Friday came and went with nothing major. Saturday was a whole different story. Justin called me and told me he was on his way back to Madison. He said it was too windy to fish and there was no reason to sit around the cabin and look at the other guys, so they all decided it would be better if they all just went home.

Sunday morning I got up with Jack at 4:40am. He had a cold or something and he'd been waking up in the 4 o'clock hour for the past week and a half. I was just getting ready to go back to sleep for an hour (at 6am) when Justin got up to check if we had any water in the basement. You should have seen the look on his face when he came back upstairs. We had about 3 inches of water in our basement. The last time we had water it wasn't a huge deal, but this time it was in every room in our downstairs. I couldn't believe my eyes. It was a mess.

I helped him until I had to go to work. His mom took care of the kids and his dad took over where I left off. It was a mess! Justin asked me to find someone to work my overnight for me so that his parents could go home, he could take care of the water, and I could take care of the kids. I was beat though. I was really looking forward to going home and going to bed. That didn't happen. Justin got up every hour and a half to tend to the water that night. He was beat.

Justin took off work on Monday so that he could finish up with the water. I don't even remember what I did on Monday. Tuesday I took Jack to get his 6 mo. pictures taken. Wednesday I went to Sioux Falls to finish up getting stuff for Nathan's party. I actually went by myself....no kids. It was very....odd. I like to have at least one of my kids with me - usually Nathan. When I'm alone like that I just feel like I'm missing something.

Anyway, it's been busy around our house. Last night Tracy and I took the kids to McDonald's in honor of Nathan's birthday. Then after that, Justin came home to eat and watch Natey open his gifts. Natey had a good time. Claire kept asking me "Where Claire's presents?" Cute.

So, that's what kept me away from my blog. Don't fret - you'll get a video blog bright and early Monday morning. Oh - yes you will!

Happy 5th Birthday Nathan!!!

First of all, this picture makes me giggle. I'm at work right now and don't have access to all my photo's of Nathan, but this one will do. He makes me laugh and so does this photo.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATHAN!!!

I still find it hard to believe that one person changed my life so much. I had no idea what I was in for when I became a parent. I wouldn't go back to my life pre-children if someone paid me. Now that I'm a mother I couldn't do without them.

My pregnancy with Nathan was wonderful. I had no issues to speak of. The day he was born, my life was changed forever. I felt it immediately. I cried the biggest tears of joy when I heard him crying for the first time. It's a feeling I'll never forget.

I know people always think their children are great, but Nathan really is great. He's polite, funny, charming, charismatic, smart. He's everything you would want in a child. I never have to worry that he's not being a good boy while he's away from our care. He knows better - and does better.

I love him so much that it brings me to tears. I called him today to wish him a happy birthday. Here was the conversation:


Me: Happy Birthday!
Natey: Thanks.
Me: Do you feel older today?
Natey: Yes.
Me: Do you?
Natey: Yes. I can tell that my legs are longer.
Me: Oh really? That's pretty neat. How do you know they're longer?
Natey: Well, you know the rocking chair has that stool? Well, today my legs can reach 10 feet to that stool.
Me: Awesome!

I can feel his love down to my bones. Happy Birthday Nathan. I love you so much!

Please check out this post on Tracy's blog too. Thank's Tracy for doing that. It was so nice of you.

Your weekend is not my weekend

When I got pregnant with Nathan, I was dispatching full time working a very strange 12 hour shift rotation. I was also doing hair part time at a salon here in town. I don't know how I did it, but most work weeks were 64 hours long. There is no way I could do it today. My 12 hour shifts were from midnight to noon. It was horrible. Not only does a 'normal' person tire working those hours, but add pregnancy to that and things get interesting.

I'd tried and tried to figure out a schedule that would be more appealing and pitch them to my boss. I was turned down schedule after schedule. One day when I was in the shower it finally hit me. I could work weekends and go down to a 32 hour work week. That way I could work 8-4 and be able to spend more time with the new baby. Great! I pitched it to my boss and got the green light. Awesome!

I was so much fun working 4 days and having 3 off. My days off felt like a mini vacation. I would work Thurs-Sun and have Mon-Wed off. That lasted for probably 4 years. Then when I got pregnant with Jack I decided that I needed to try to pick up another shift. It was then that I started adding an overnight to the mix. I used to do my overnight on Wednesday, but Justin works until 8pm and there were days I wouldn't even get 3 hours before coming to work. That was too hard for me. My co-worker, Miah, got pregnant and wanted to go down to 32 hours a week, so I piked up her extra day. It works out for me.

The only bad thing about my schedule is that my weekend isn't the 'normal' persons weekend. None of the rest of my family members have the same days off that I do, so going to visit anyone is a bit of a chore. I either have to finagle my schedule around or take vacation which isn't always easy. Don't get me wrong, life could be worse. I'm just sayin'......

Words or phrases I overuse

1. Totally - What year is it anyway? 1980? I totally don't care. I'm still using it.
2. Pretty sure - I'm pretty sure totally isn't acceptable - still using it.
3. Holy Cats! - Where did this ever come from anyway? I say this all the time. Sometimes I get real excited and you get....
4. Holy Cat Smokes!!! - That's what you say when you're really blown away.
5. Oh Lordy! - What you use when you feel that you've over used Holy Cats and Holy Cat Smokes that day.
6. Seriously? - Thanks to the Grey's cast, this is way overused now. I'm no exception.
7. Exactly! - Tracy and I use this 47.5 times in each conversation we have. It's ridiculous.
8. Ridiculous :) - If I don't agree with something or someone - they or the situation become ridiculous.
9. Fixin' - It's the last of my southern roots. I don't use ya'll anymore. I'm stickin' to fixin'.
10. For the love of Pete - We don't even know anyone named Pete.
11. Awesome - Refer to #1.
12. Okie Dokie - Who on God's green earth says this....I mean other than me? (rhetorical)
13. What the crap? - Sometimes I thrown in an even worse swear word at the end - just to be dangerous.
14. Are you KIDDING me? - Usually followed by seriously.
15. And last but not least - Coo Coo for Coca Puffs - Enough said.

Claire's 2 year pictures

Last week I took Claire to Black Studio's to have her 2 year pictures taken. The scanner here at work is a bit goofy when I scan things and won't let me 'size' the picture like mine does at home. That's where all the white comes in. At least you can see the photo's though.Ok, so that's not the best picture of her, but who could pass up that sassy pose? Not I!I loved this one. Look at her face. She's so proud of her flower. She was very scared and cried for the first 30 minutes we were there. Finally she loosened up and took some cute photos. This last one is my favorite.Isn't that adorable? I love it. They also gave me some wallets of this pose where they pulled out most of the color, but left the flowers pink. It's beautiful. I can't scan it here at work. Maybe Tracy can scan it for me. Stay tuned......And here it is. (Thanks Trac!)

I LIVED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Can you believe it? I lived and loved the circus. WHO KNEW? This wasn't the first time I'd ever been to a circus, but it was the first time I'd been since developing a fear of circus animals. Shannon, you were right, I think I did see an 'When animals go wild' type show and was scared to death thereafter.

Anyway, after buying a light up toy, Natey was ready to rock and roll. I'll show you just how ready he was.Now that's ready people! I asked him to stop and let me take his picture and this was the pose he came up with. Not exactly what I had in mind, but a pose nonetheless. He and Dawson were both stoked for the show to begin.

I wasn't nervous at all - not even close to what I thought I'd be. Maybe it was because I was so tired. Doesn't matter, I'm just glad it wasn't a big deal and I was able to enjoy the show. The show started and Natey and Dawson held their swords high.The lion and tigers were first. The lion tamer and his girl helper were kinda (sorry) trailer trash looking. Everyone else had on these sparkly outfits - but not them. They kind of looked like those cousins you have that you hope never come to visit. Anyway, we got through that and then came an elephant. He was really cute. Natey kept saying "Mommy, that elephant looks really tired". It reminded me of another reason that I have a hard time going to the circus. I'm not sure that it's a wonderful life for an animal. I don't know, maybe it is, but he was right - a few of the elephants looked really tired. I know one thing for sure, I wouldn't want to be the man in blue!At intermission it was time to ride the pony's. Dawson could hardly handle himself he was so excited. Nathan, on the other hand, was a bit nervous about it. See what I mean?Natey told me that he wants to ride the elephant next year. Yeah right big talker, we'll see about it when the time comes.

Both of the boys loved the ending. They loved the motorcycles.It is pretty amazing. I can't imagine the amount of practice that goes into that part of the show. One miss cue and they are in a world of hurt. It was fun to watch and we all had a good time.