BUSY BUSY BUSY!!

Ok, so I know I haven't posted in quite awhile, but I've been super busy. As a matter of fact, my update today is going to consist of the reasons I haven't had time to update.

1. I have three two children and a husband. Nuf said.
   
2. I'm reading two books and yes, I'm reading them at the same time. I'm reading Scream-Free Parenting which is actually a really good book so far. And I'm reading Storitelling. It's a guilty pleasure so get over it. AND I'm reading my dad's second book and editing it. However, I haven't picked up any of these books in several weeks.
   
3. See number 1 above.
   
4. I'm working on a baby blanket for my sisters baby. Well, I intend to make a baby blanket. I haven't actually started it yet.
   
5. Have you met my family?
   
6. I'm working on a how-to/procedures manual type thing for work to make my life easier. This is a much bigger task than it sounds.
   
7. Thank goodness for BC. You figure it out.
   
8. I am planning my sisters baby shower for this Saturday. Yes I know. It's crazy to have it during a holiday week, but that's the day that worked.
   

In addition to these ongoing projects, I have stuff I have to do everyday. I get up at 5:30 a.m. every morning. I get Ereka up at 6 am and feed her breakfast. I pick out clothes for both kids and lay them out for Eric. If Ereka happens to be done with breakfast by 6:20, I help her get dressed. If she's dilly-dallying around, it's Eric's problem. I try to be out the door by 6:30. I am at work from 7 am to 5 pm. I'm home by about 5:45 pm and before I can even put my keys down, I get "What's for dinner?" If I'm lucky, I have dinner on the table by 6:45. Then I get to clean up after EVERYONE. Then I start getting the kids ready for bed. Ethan is usually in bed by 7:30. Yes this seems early, but remember, we rise early. Ereka is in bed by 8. By this time I'm too dang exhausted and have absolutely no interest in doing anything listed above. And I'm pretty sure somewhere in there I'm supposed to clean the house, do laundry and spend quality time with my family.

All of this being said, I finally started on a baby hat for Kandyce's baby and will hopefully finish it tonight. I am prioritizing and I figure I will get everything done I want to get done some time in the next 10 years.

I'm thinking I need to reorganize.

Explanation...

Ok, the story behind Gary's name. Last week, Ereka came up to me and Eric and the following conversation took place:

Ereka: I want a pet snail.
Eric: We have pet snails.
Ereka: No. I want a REAL snail.
Eric: Those are real snails.
Ereka: No! I want a real snail that lives out of the water that I can put on a leash.
Me: Honey, snails can't live outside of water.
Ereka: Yes they can! Gary doesn't live in the water.
Eric: Who's Gary?
Me: Spongebob's pet snail.
Eric: ::rolls eyes::
Me: Ereka, Gary does live in water along with Spongebob and Patrick and Squidward. They all live in water.
Ereka: Whatever mom.

Clearly, I have no idea what I'm talking about. And so, we decided to name the new dog Gary. He's not a snail, but she can pretend he is.

Meet Gary!!

Well, we have a new addition to our family. Meet Gary. Gary is a Miniature Dachshund aka a weiner dog. We just picked him up yesterday and already, the entire family is in love with him. He's only about 7 weeks old and is absolutely adorable. Ereka is so in love with Gary. She wants to hold him all the time. She was a little frustrated yesterday because he just wanted to sleep. But he more than made up for it this morning. He was chasing Ereka all over the house. They both were playing great together. Unfortunately, this was at the same time, I was trying to get Ereka to eat her breakfast and get ready for school. There are a couple of pictures of Gary at the end of this post along with a video. And there is a story behind the name Gary which I will explain later this week. I first want to see if anyone can figure out why we named him Gary. I will give one clue. Ereka and Eric had a conversation last week about Ereka wanting a pet snail. That's your clue. I don't have anything to give the winner (unless they want a simple knitted scarf or hat). If you have kids, you may be able to easily figure it out. I really wanted to name it Oscar, ya know, Oscar Mayer Weiners. But I was out-voted.

Good News!!

I have some absolutely great news. Ereka has been accepted as a role model for the Early Start Education program in the Douglass Public School system. YAY!!!!! I don't have any specifics yet so don't ask me. I was beginning to worry I would have to find another preschool out of town for her to attend which would cause serious transportation issues not to mention cost us more financially (especially with the rising cost of gas). I was so thrilled to get the phone call. Unfortunately, this means Ereka will have to go back to the doctor to get her last round of shots (so much fun for her and me). I am hoping this will give her the social interaction she really needs. Not to mention, prepare her for Kindergarten. Hmmmmm. This means we have to go $chool $hopping for new clothes and school supplies, start a new morning (and evening) routine. Ohhhhh, my baby is growing up. Yep, I do believe I will be taking the first day of school off from work.

That's it; I'm Moving!!

I have had enough of this weather. Wind (and I'm not talking about a nice summer breeze), rain torrential downpour, lightning and thunder (which is nice to watch for an hour or so but NOT all night long) and tornadoes. I'm tired of it. And yes, I'm sure in a couple of months when we're in the middle of summer, I'll be thinking, "Boy I hope we get some rain soon."

Last night, I had to get the kids out of bed and take them to our tornado shelter. I honestly don't remember exactly what time it was, but I know it was after 8:30. I was watching the weather and pretty soon they started talking about tornadoes west of us heading east. Well crap. Of course this time, I wasn't prepared. After all, last time they had been warning us for days. This time, it was about 10-15 minutes. I went outside. It wasn't even raining yet. I went back inside, got the diaper bag, made sure there were plenty of diapers and wipes, threw in a few snacks, a flashlight and my contact solution because of course on this night, my contacts would be bothering me. I got a sippy of milk for Ethan and a cup for Ereka and went ahead and put them in the diaper bag. Looked outside again. Still nothing except some a lot of lightning and thunder. Ereka gets out of bed and asks, "Mama, I think we need to go to our tornado shelter." So I told her to get a pair of socks and her tennis shoes. I then proceeded to get Ethan up. Of course he was already asleep and trying to get him up was like trying to wake the dead. I put both kids on the couch. The weather man said that people in Douglass should be heading to their tornado shelter. Well crap. I decided to go ahead and take the diaper bag and purse out to the car and unlock the car doors just in case, but I still wasn't sure we would be going anywhere.

As I'm putting stuff in the car, I notice everyone in the neighborhood is leaving. I took that as a sign. I went back inside, grabbed the kids and loaded them up. Just as I was buckling them in, the tornado sirens sounded. As I drove to the tornado shelter, I decided I better call Eric and let him know what was going on. I knew he was working and wouldn't answer his phone and honestly, he probably didn't even have a clue what was going on, but just in case, I wanted him to know where we were. It was a good thing, because I had limited cell phone service inside the shelter. And as much as I was trying to stay calm and collected, I left a very teary-filled voicemail on his cell phone. Because of course this would have to happen on a day that we were cranky with each other and barely even said goodbye when he left for work.

I took the kids inside the storm shelter and we sat and waited. And waited. And waited. We were in there over an hour. There were probably at least 50-75 people (as I try to picture the room and recount in my head) the same area as us and there was no air conditioning. Before I had left, I grabbed my MP3 player from the computer and threw it in my purse. I'm glad. It has an FM tuner and so I was able to somewhat listen to the weather on the radio while we were in the shelter. But I had to turn it off. It was making me nervous. At one point, a lady actually said, "Everyone sit down and cover your children because it's headed right for us." And yet at this point, I was calm. I've been in this situation before a few times; back when I was a girl scout. It never failed. Every year, while at girl scout camp there would be a tornado near us and we would have to go to the storm shelter. It always upset me. But I was younger then. I think I was calm because I was too busy trying to keep an eye on Ereka and keep Ethan from running off to explore. I didn't have time to be scared.

Luckily, nothing happened. I believe there was circulation that passed over us, but nothing touched down near us. THANK YOU LORD. And so we went home.

And of course we still had lightning and thunder and wind and rain all night long so I didn't sleep at all. I am absolutely exhausted today. That ugly orange couch in our conference room is looking mighty comfy right about now.

My New Toy!!

My new mp3 player was finally delivered yesterday! I had ordered it at the end of March from Target.com after receiving a generous gift card. It wasn't available yet, but if I pre-ordered it, I saved over $50.00. So I did my research (since I've never even owned an mp3 player) and decided to go ahead and purchase it. Fast forward 2.5 months and here it is! It's a SanDisk Sansa View 8 GB. I played with it last night and I absolutely love it! There is no way I could write a decent informative review so here is a link to the review that convinced me it was a good deal. There are also some customer reviews for it over at Amazon. Just click on the My New Toy link over on the right and it will take you directly to it. Granted, I've only had the thing a day, but I am very happy with it and will be glad to answer any questions.

Here's a cute video of Ethan dancing and clapping to the TV. It's a little dark, but you can still him pretty good.

And here's a video of Ereka enjoying her new swimming pool.

You ate the WHOLE box?!

Girl scout cookies were recently delivered. We had ordered some boxes from my sister and some from Eric's cousin. My absolute favorite are the Caramel Delights. They have always been my favorite. When I sold cookies, they were called Samoa's. Same cookie, different name, still taste great. Anyway, so I ordered 2 boxes of those from my sister. One evening while I was knitting, I devoured about 7 cookies. When I got home the next day, the rest were gone. Eric said he and Ereka ate them. Ok, no biggie, there's still a whole other box. Well, fast forward to Friday evening, I wanted some cookies. I go in search for the purple box and I can't find it. I ask Eric about it. He looked at me and said, "Well I was just going to eat a couple, but they were so good, I ended up eating the whole box." Are you kidding me? At first, I thought he was just joking and he had hidden the box from me. But no. He ate the whole dang box. He said, "Don't worry, I'm sure I ordered a box of those from my cousin." Ok.

Well Sunday, we picked up the cookies he ordered from his cousin. Hmmm. There is a red box, an orange box and a green box. I look at Eric. He just smiles and says, "I'm sorry. I must have ordered you the green box instead of the purple one." Oh well. It's not like I really needed them anyway. Yesterday, he was scrounging looking for something to snack on and I commented, "Well why don't you eat a box of cookies." I was joking, but apparently he didn't realize it because he ate another box of cookies. Well that's ok. Last night, I proceeded to hide the rest of the cookies, with the exception of the green boxes because I know he hates Thin Mints. Ahhhhh. I feel much better. We'll see how long it takes him to notice they're gone.

On a completely unrelated matter, both kids have had their well-baby and well-child checkups. Ereka had hers last week. She is doing great. The doctor went to check her ears and lo and behold, an ear infection. Go figure. Other than that, she's fine. She's growing perfect. I was a little concerned about her weight, but she is in the 98% for her weight and 77% for her height. The doctor said she will probably burn quite a bit when it warms up and she is outside more being more active. Although I'm sure the snacking her and Eric do everyday doesn't help. And she didn't get any shots. She was sooooo worried she was going to be getting shots or blood taken. The doctor asked me if I wanted to do it that day or wait until next year. Well since I had Ethan with me, I opted to wait. The doctor said that's typically what they do anyway.

Now on to Ethan. He had his 15 month checkup yesterday. He wasn't quite so lucky with the shots. He got three yesterday. Ethan is weighing in at 23.5 pounds and is 30" tall. He's developing great. He's doing everything he's supposed to be doing with the exception of talking. He's still not talking. He does a lot of babbling. Everything is dada dada dada dada. The doctor said he could just be a late talker. She said we'll give until he's 18 months old before we start worrying. She's not too concerned about it because he's doing everything else he supposed to be doing. She also said, that if we, um, lose, um, the, um pacifier, that would probably help. We're working on it. I promise. I think we're just going to have to round them all up and toss them in the trash. The doctor said they really don't need them after 15-18 months anyway because typically, they can be given something else to soothe them, such as a blankie or a toy. I see a sleepless weekend coming on.

Happy Birthday Ereka

And Happy Valentine's Day to everyone else! Today is Ereka's 4^th birthday. Awww, my baby is growing up L. I asked her how old she was today and her response, "I'm 3 years old."

"No, you're 4 today."

"I don't wanna be 4, I wanna be 3."

"Well I'm sorry honey, but you're a big girl now and you're 4 years old."

"Well I'm mad at you now."

"Well I still love you."

"I love you too mommy. I guess I can be 4."

I'm glad that's settled (cause I'm not sure I could handle her being 3 again)

So after I got off work yesterday, I stopped at the store to buy something for Valentine's Day for Eric. Let me tell you something. Valentine's Day is all about Women. Everything is for women. Nothing for Men. Unless your man likes cutesy little animals or heart-shaped anything. And I was not the only person waiting until the last minute to buy anything. It took me 10 minutes to get through the VD section. I was finally able to find a lovey dovey
cutesy nice card and a frog balloon. Here is a couple of pictures of the balloon.

It's actually quite cute. And my wonderful husband got me a very nice card and a stuffed bear. And we're going to double date with my brother and his wife tomorrow night and go out to dinner. YAY! An evening among adults (thank you Mom!!). HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Can you hear me now?

Well I am still fighting this stupid ear infection. My ear doesn't hurt anymore, but it still feels full and it's still ringing and I can barely hear out of it. It's driving me crazy!!

On another note, I finally was able to finish my plastic bag holder. I was on hiatus from my knitting since Ethan was sick and I was sick. I finished it last night and I really like it. Here's a couple of pictures:

It was really easy to make and I probably could have had it done in just a few evenings if I hadn't had sickly interruptions. I'm gonna make another one and try putting some stripes in it and if I can do it, eventually I want to make one with our last name down the side or maybe at least just an H. We'll see. I haven't decided what my next project is gonna be. I want to practice some different stitches first.

Some more news on the home front, Ereka got a new bed last weekend. Here's some pictures:

This was the first day we brought it home and put her brand new sheet/comforter set on it. We just set on the floor and picked up the frame the next day.

This was after we put it on the frame and rearranged her room a bit. Some of you may recognize the footboard. It's the same frame me and Kandyce slept on for i don't know how many years!!! Now if only Ereka would actually sleep all night in her bed. I could have just bought the sheet set and set it up on the floor.

Chipmunk Dancing

My daughter is so cute sometimes. I don't know if any of you have seen previews for the new Alvin and the Chipmunks movie yet, but it looks really cute. Here's a short preview:For a preview, it's kind of lengthy. But what I really want to show you is at about 2:10 of the preview. Watch at that point for a few seconds and then watch the following video and make sure your sound is on:

I'm a little biased, but that is the cutest thing. LOL. The first time Ereka saw that commercial, she immediately stood up and danced like the chipmunk. Me and Eric just looked at each other and started laughing. It was so funny.

And while I'm showing videos, here's another one of Ereka doing what many adults can't do at all:

And here's a couple of videos of Ethan walking. He's getting pretty good at it:

And here's a little prayer to end the week on:

Dear Lord,
I pray for wisdom to understand my man;
love to forgive him;
and patience for his moods;
because, Lord, if I pray for strength,
I'll beat him to death.
Amen