Yesterday's Debacle

Yesterday Cade had a dentist appointment.  It had been on my mind ever since Jay scheduled it over Christmas break.  As the day got closer it looked like I would be the one to take him.  It was stressing me a little because this week is horrible at work.  And I've known it was going to be really bad for quite awhile....The loan officer is going on vacation next week, we have 5 loans that need to close this week, 3 of them have FSA Gurantees, one is a poultry loan with 3 different loans for one person...I know that means nothing to most of you, but to me it means a long, hard, very bad time to leave work early kind of week.  But yet I didn't want to cancel the appointment.  We actually got one of coveted after school slots so I hated to give that up.  I was just going to take him and hope for the best.  I was so glad when Jay's thing got rescheduled to another evening.  That meant he could take Cade to the dentist and I could stay at work.  No one had to miss any work for this appointment.  I was so relieved that I completely forgot about the appointment.  So did Jay.  Yesterday at 3:40 it hit me for some reason.  Luckily Jay answered right away.  I quickly blurted out "Cade has a dentist appointment".  Jay had to grab Cade from the computer lab and head out the door.  It was 3:45 by the time they got on the road.  The appointment was at 4:00.  They were at least 30 minutes away from the dentist office.  I called the dentist office and said they'd be about 10 minutes late.  I knew that I was lying because I thought it would be 4:15 before they got there but I didn't want to say it.  I was afraid they would make us cancel the appointment.    I got a text from Jay at 4:06 saying they had made it.  Since they made it there before 4:10 I didn't feel like I had lied anymore.  I just breathed a huge sigh of relief that they made it and the appointment would take place.  I also told Jay he needed to drive extra slow on the way home to make up for it!

A few minutes later I got a text from Jay saying I owed him big for this trip...Cade got ticked when he got ripped from the computer lab and then he got even more ticked when he fell asleep on the way and Jay woke him up once they got there.  I reminded Jay that Cade would be even worse once he got done.  He had to have some fillings so his mouth would be numb.  Two things really aggravate Cade - when he gets his eyes dilated and when he has his mouth numbed.  Neither are good experiences for Jay or me.        

And yes, Cade has had teeth filled before.  Thankfully they have been baby teeth, but I find it to be disturbing.  I'm sure a dentist would argue with me, but I'm convinced the health of your teeth has a lot to do with genetics.  I know people who brush and floss all the time and still have issues, while others only brush once a day and never have problems.  I never had cavities until after I had Cade, (since he sucked every nutrient out of my body and left me with only an additional 50lbs) - then I had a billion of them that we watched for a couple of years.  Once we decided to fill them it took several trips to the dentist.  Fun times, fun times.  With Cade I think part could be genetic and part is also the fact that it takes him all of 14 seconds to brush his teeth.  And then a friend of ours pointed out that we are on well water so Cade hasn't ever had any fluoride.  That was a good point...I'm going to blame it on that and believe it's not from  lack of parental involvement of standing over him twice a day making sure he actually moves the toothbrush around and doesn't just spit out unfoamed toothpaste.  I sure clean a lot of hunks of blue toothpast out of the sink... 

I tell you - being a parent is so totally exhausting.  Before having a child I knew it would be hard. I understood all of the big things like discipline and the fact that you worry about their safety constantly.  It's the little things I was unaware of...like teeth brushing and multiplication tables and homework and monitoring how much TV they watch and what kinds of things they are watching/listening/reading and do they exercise enough and do they eat right and is him talking about the NFL constantly something the other kids make fun of....

There is so much to do and not enough hours in the day!!!  Sometimes I think God must know that one at a time is all I can handle.  At least when we have a 2nd child Cade will be old enough to monitor some of this stuff.  Jay and I will be too old and tired by that point.     

The Great Birthday Debate

It is that time of year when I start thinking about Cade’s birthday party. I LOVE planning his parties. I know most people think I go overboard in what I do…but it doesn't bother me. I enjoy the planning and the decorating and making this day really special for Cade. It’s not that we try to spoil him with gifts but with the experience of the day  I know Shelley gets this because she had Lucy’s psychiatry booth at her daughter’s Peanuts party. That is something that I would’ve done if we had a Peanuts party. Over the years I’ve done lots of online research on ideas for whatever theme Cade picked. Probably the biggest year was the Civil War for his 6th birthday. I found Union Draft notices and turned them into invitations. I even researched writing styles of the 1800’s and changed my writing on the invitations and envelopes. Yes, I am serious about Birthdays! I did used to think that they were just another day, not any big deal and then stuff started changing in my life and my attitude changed. No, I don’t want Cade to turn into a spoiled kid on his birthday and think it is all me, me, me BUT I do want him to know how special he is and how grateful we are to have him. Birthday’s are big deals because it means you are alive and here to celebrate another year…and God willing, many more years to come!


So this morning I took Cade to school and decided it would be a good time to start thinking about a theme…

Me: Do you know what theme you want for your birthday

Cade: (silence)

Me: Are you maybe getting too old for themes? Do you just want to have a regular cake and no particular theme.

Cade: Who’s ever heard of a birthday without a theme? Yes, I want a theme.

Me: Yeah, a birthday without a theme would be boring. What are you into now….I know we could do something with WWII since you are so into that.

(in this brief pause I already had a couple of ideas for WWII party…)

Cade: Let’s think that over for awhile. There may be something else I get into before my birthday….

At least he recognizes that his obsessions change on a daily basis!

Our Weekend

Our weekend was pretty low key. Since Jay didn't get home Saturday morning until 2 am we took it pretty easy both days.

On Saturday our project was to go pick up this...

and this...

Finally, two months later, all of Cade's furniture is in. The nightstand looks short and silly next to the enormous bed but we'll make it work. We are just glad we've got it. This morning I heard Cade say "wow, I didn't have to get my underwear out of a laundry basket". Yes, it was exciting for all of us.
Sunday afternoon Jay cleaned out the garage.  I was supposed to be helping but I got sidetracked by the enormous box of sidewalk chalk I found...so did Cade....


and so did Charlie.  Charlie was a little too interested in it, so our sidewalk fun was short lived.

Cade then moved into Indiana Jones mode.  Here's Indiana hunting ants, which he then put in Jay's burn pile.  I guess he's a typical boy...even if he is wearing a purse messenger bag (you might recognize that from Halloween)



After Jay got the garage cleaned he moved to the shop.  It's chicken time again.  He's supposed to bring the babies home on Wednesday so he needed to get their pen built.  Since we have a title to maintain this year, Jay's already been talking about what he can do to grow them bigger.  We'll be the ones with the 15 pound chickens in our freezer the second week of June.  In a few weeks I'll be back to checking on the babies at lunch to make sure the poor overweight things haven't had a stroke.  Even though I grew up on a farm it didn't prepare me for being married to a man obsessed with show animals.  Did I mention Buttons is getting a pedicure this week???



And one last highlight from the weekend.  We've lived in this house five years and never knew we had a Lilac Bush.  Yesterday afternoon Jay and I realized it was blooming - it never has before.  It was just a nice little bonus to the day.  I love Lilac's.  Maybe this means my Hydrangea's will bloom this year???

Plans and Blueprints

I've got several different posts rolling around in my head, but this happened on the way home a few minutes ago.  I had to post this instead, mostly for our on memory.

Cade is obsessed with dates right now.  He's constantly asking how old we were in different years, what year we were married, what year we were born, how old would he be if he was born in X year, etc.  Tonight he asked one of his favorites with a different twist.  He wanted to know when we were married but then he said he knew when we were married, he wanted to know what season it was.  I explained to him it was December 18 so it was one week before Christmas.  We talked a little bit about having a winter wedding vs a summer wedding and stuff.  Then he said "I know what I'm going to get you for your anniversary".  Thinking it would be something like a card or something along those lines I asked him what he was thinking he'd get us.  He was quiet for a minute and then he said he didn't want to tell me.  I said that was fine and I understood.  Then he says (completely serious)....

 "I also need to draw the plans up first.  Actually if you knew of a place I could have blueprints drawn that would be the best"

Unfortunately we arrived at our mailbox at that moment and he got distracted from his plans by a shiny advertisement for Dish.  He then started  a conversation about why he thinks DirecTV is better than Dish.  Of course my interest in the gift idea went from being "oh how cute" to "what in the heck is he imagining ".  Maybe someday, when he has access to blueprints, I'll finally know.

The Crazy Eights

I hope the other 362 days before his 9th birthday aren’t as crazy as the first three. It all started on Thursday, the 18th (my birthday). He woke me up around midnight to wish me Happy Birthday tell me that his stomach hurt. I’m not convinced that he knows the difference between nausea and cramps because we went back and forth. I’d try to get him to explain how he felt – one minute it sounded like nausea them it sounded like cramps. Whatever it was, it made for one long night in our household. The next morning he went to stay with MeMo and Papa Jim to recover from whatever he had. When Jay and I got to their house Thursday evening Cade was running a fever and did not look good.

Later on Thursday night he perked up, but we still thought it was for the best to cancel the sleepover. He was disappointed, but we promised to make it up to him. We told him we’d take him to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid. It was coming out Friday night. We also knew that we had to cancel the party because we couldn’t send him to school on Friday even if he did seem to be feeling better. On Friday he got to hang out with MeMo again, but he was about 99% back to normal. Thank Goodness!!! I’ve talked to some other people who’ve had this and I think it does consist of nausea and cramping. As dramatic as Cade was Thursday morning, I’m guessing he had both too.

On Saturday things started looking not so good for his Sunday afternoon family party. We had the worst March weather I can remember in my 33 years. Saturday started with a nasty rain and it progressed to freezing something and then into snow. I think we got around 6 inches Saturday into Sunday. Then Sunday morning it started raining again which turned the snow into a slushy mess.

Did I mention we planned to grill for Cade’s party? Unfortunately I didn’t get any pictures of Jay and Terry at the grill, but it was funny. Two guys standing over a grill with a nasty white mess all around them. Definitely not what you’d expect on March 21st.

Because of the weather not every one made it to the party, but we still had a good time. Thanks to Terry, MeMo and Papa Jim for sticking it out and trying to make it good. Cade was so excited for this party – he even made some of his own decorations Sunday. Even though he knew the weather was bad, he was still pretty disappointed that not every one could be here….he is only 8 after all….

In keeping with the tradition set by the 6th Civil War party, Jim and Sharon came in costume. There was a loud banging on our door, with Jim yelling for Indiana Jones. He said that someone had Marion and that Indiana needed to free her. Sharon appeared as Marion from Raiders of the Lost Ark wearing a white dress – her wedding dress! Behind her was Terry carrying the Ark solo (Megan was on a school trip). Luckily Indiana jumped up and helped Terry so no one touched the ark. That would’ve killed the party mood!

Even though it was a small group we still had a good time and I’m sure Cade will always remember his 8th birthday….I know Jay and I will always remember it!

As usual Janella did a great job with the cake.

Here is one of Cade's decorations.  He used pillow stuffing to make spider webs.  He also made some signs warning us not to step on the diamond shaped squares. 

Here's Jay's crepe paper version of jungle vines

Terry and Cade with the Ark

Here's Marion after Indiana saved her

The older Indiana with his purse  bag

The older Indiana and Marion.  Guess who got to keep the whip?

The party guests

Eight Candles on the Cake

The wax hadn't even dried before Cade started taking the toys off the cake.

This was the present from Uncle Terry and Aunt Megan - a Castle Dig.  It's been a big hit, and it wasn't even an "assigned" gift.    Last night Cade got covered in dust.  It was pretty cute.

And I'd like to thank Terry and Megan for the layer of dust covering our kitchen table!

Beds, Parties and Cribs...

We finally got the parts to Cade’s bed last Tuesday. We still don’t have the chest and nightstand, but at least we have the bed. He’s no longer sleeping on the floor and I was able to get his toys put away. This new bed is a captains bed and it is huge. It’s supposed to have a library headboard where Cade planned on keeping some of his Lego Model treasures. Either the bed in the store didn’t have a box spring or Cade’s mattress is really tall because we can’t see the headboard. So far Cade is really pleased with the bed. It has a total of 8 drawers and two cubby holes. It also has a door on the end. He’s discovered he can crawl in that door and hide under the bed. I tried to not store anything in that part because he was so excited about that little hiding area. I’m not sure you can tell by the pictures, but the bed is taking over the whole room. I have no idea what it will look like when we finally get the other furniture pieces.

Another big diversion around our house the last few weeks has been Cade’s upcoming birthday. Jay and I are being really brave and we’ve invited 5 boys over on Friday night. Due to our girls basketball team going to the Final Four I think only three of the boys will be at the party. Still, a total of 4 seven/eight year olds in our house will be plenty. Cade wants to do an Indiana Jones treasure hunt. Jay and I aren’t quite sure what we are going to do, so we’ve been thinking on that for the past week. We’ve got to get something nailed down tonight. I told Cade the weather might not cooperate so we’d be inside and I didn’t know if the treasure hunt would work. He was disappointed with that answer so we’ll be pulling a treasure hunt together tonight.

His big family party will be Sunday afternoon. Out of his other 7 parties only two have them have been decent weather. I think this Sunday may hold the record for being the nastiest day ever for his March party – they are even calling for snow!!! Seems like I remember things being a whole lot warmer on my birthday when I was a kid. One year I wore shorts. I think this year I’ll be in a turtleneck!!! We are looking forward to the big get together. Hopefully everyone in the family has found their “assigned” gifts…ha ha.

Other than the party and regular school stuff – Cade seems to be handling everything ok. We’ve finally got the ok from him to take down the crib a couple of weeks ago. Due to us moving all of his toys into the spare room to make room for the new bed we weren’t able to put up we didn’t have enough room to take the crib down. Now that the toys are cleared out of the way were still debating where we are going to put the crib. I know that there are at least three basements where we could store it, but we aren’t sure we want to do that. We still have high hopes of using it someday and we don’t want it to be ruined. In some ways I think I’m dragging my feet because taking it down seems so final. I was so ready to take it down and get the room back to normal but the day we moved the couch in was hard. We ended up pushing the couch to one side of the room and the crib to the other. I just wasn’t quite ready to let it go. I don’t know that I’m any more ready now so it’s hard to know what to do. Something about it feels so final…like I’ll never see it again… or like we are giving up…

But I don’t want the other parents walking back there Friday night and wondering if we’re looney because we have a crib and obviously no baby. Also, Cade in his 7 year old innocence, suggested that one of the smaller boys coming Friday night could sleep in the crib. Yeah, I guess it’s time to take it down.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

My New Hobby

I’ll try to spend some time this week detailing how each of us is doing and how we are keeping busy. Really, we are doing ok. Nobody is curled up in a corner rocking back and forth, but keeping busy is a way for us to cope and to make sure that we don’t end up in a corner somewhere. Last week I did have a few days where I felt a little weepy for about 10 minutes but then it passed. One morning I decided that I wanted to get out the new dish towels and wash cloths I had bought to use in the hotel room for the baby bottles. When we first got back I put them away with the baby things because I couldn’t look at them. Last week I ran out of clean kitchen wash clothes so I decided to get one of those out. The tub they were in was stuck in the closet and there was no way I was going to be able to get to it unless I pulled everything out. That situation ended up with me crying – I think part of it was the frustration from the tub being stuck, but it caused the other emotions to let loose. After a few minutes I was pretty much back to normal. Last night though I decided it was time to really try to dig the towels out. Mine are really looking gross. I calmly went to the room and got the tub out. This time there were no tears, but I had to tell myself to not think about it, don’t look at the stuff, just grab what I needed and get out of there. I’ve learned that I really have to be in the right frame of mind before I attempt to get stuff out of that closet otherwise it turns into a disaster. I think that’s part of grieving/coping – you have to learn what works for you and what allows you to deal with the situation.

So back to how I’m staying busy – I’ve decided to take up sewing. I took Home Ec my HS Freshmen year and I hated it. I really hated the sewing part. It gave me tension headaches. so once I got my shirt and shorts finished I never touched a machine again. Lately I had been thinking it would be nice to know how to make a few things. I really started thinking about it once I decided we needed new kitchen curtains. I’ve looked several places at different times and never found a style that suited me. Finally it hit me, I could solve two problems at once – my need for a hobby and my need for new curtains. I decided to sew them myself.

Two Saturday’s ago mom and I went to a fabric store in Springfield. It was like heaven. There were so many colors and choices and options – I wanted it all. Finally I settled on a fabric and I bought 7 yards of it. It came on an enormous roll that barely fit in my car. Then we headed to Hobby Lobby and bought the other supplies that I needed to sew. I was set. I got home that night and I quickly whipped up a practice curtain for our utility room. I decided to wait on the big roll of fabric though until this past weekend. I wanted mom to help me. With mom’s help I got the new curtains made on Saturday. Yesterday, I got up at 6:30 am because I was so excited. I wanted to get them ironed and hung before we left for church. I’ve got a few other sewing disaster stories to tell you about, but I’ll wait. This post is already long and I want to add pictures of the final product. I’ve got to go to Springfield tomorrow and I’m planning on going back to the store. I’ve got an idea for a couple of other projects.

Here is a before shot.  Just kind of plain.  When I took these down though I couldn't beleive how much the yellow had faded, but they were 5 years old.

Here are the new ones.  The yellow is a little brighter than it looks in this picture.  I took these at 5:30 am and I realized you can see my reflection in the window.  Ignore the crazy morning hair!!!

No, I'm not trying to turn my cabinet into a jungle.  I worked over my houseplants yesterday and I'm hoping those shoots will grow some new roots.

The Book Incident

About 4 weeks ago I checked out a book from the county library. One day I put the book in the front seat of my car so I could read it during lunch. When it was time for me to go to lunch that day I was so looking forward to it. I was going to Subway and have 30 minutes of uninterrupted bliss eating a sandwich and reading my new library book. Except when I got to Subway I picked up the book and it weighed about 10 pounds. It didn't weigh 10 pounds when I put it in the car. That's when I realized that a glass of water in the console tipped over when I got out of the car that morning. The book sat in the front seat of my car soaking up a huge glass of water for about 5 hours. I wasn't about to let something like a drippy book stop me from enjoying my lunch. I lugged the book into Subway dripping wet. I had water drops down the front of my khakis. I did try to stuff the book in my purse so it wasn't as obvious to everyone that the book was soaked. The first couple of chapters were relatively dry.

That evening I put the book in the upper drying cabinet of our dryer. It ran for 3 hours and didn't make a dent in the wetness of the book. Then I tried using the hairdryer, which worked pretty well except there were 375 pages in this book. All but about 50 of them were wet. I was going to burn up my hairdryer if I tried to dry every page. Over the next couple of days I ran it back through the dryer two more times for 3 hours a time. Then I opened it up and laid it by a furnace vent.

By this time about a week had gone by and I had two dilemmas. #1 was that the pages were pretty dry….except for the back cover. It was a hardback book but the back cover was like a soggy newspaper. Problem #2 was that the book was due. I couldn't decide if I wanted to face the music now, or delay it. Since I'm a procrastinator I decided to delay the punishment. I asked the library for an extension. Luckily our library will do that over the phone. I had two more weeks to get the back cover dry and figure out a plan.

Finally I got the bright idea to take the jacket off of the book. If I had thought about that little detail two weeks earlier the back cover probably wouldn't have bent. Sometimes the obvious ideas are slow in coming to me. After several more days the back cover finally dried. I had a totally dry book, but you know how paper dries – it was 5X as thick as it once was. I then got another brilliant idea. I put the book on the floor and piled a Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, my K-12 hardcover yearbooks, Jay's 9-12 hardcover yearbooks, a large John Deere book and any other book that had any weight to it on top of the ruined book. After a few days of that Jay put the books away and told me I was going to have to face the music.

The book was due today, but I took it back yesterday. I was very tempted to drop it in the night drop and hope they didn't notice. But what if they put a hold on my account? That would be really embarrassing if I was trying to check out a book and they asked me about a ruined book. You can't really pretend you didn't know anything was wrong when the book's pages are all puffed up and the back cover is bent. I also thought about buying the same book off Amazon. I'd put the old jacket on the new book. But again I didn't know what kind of information those librarians can see of their screen. There might have been something off with the book and they would've known it was an imposter. I knew facing it now would be the best thing.

I took the book to the counter and told my story. Confessing that you damaged a book to a librarian ranks right up there with confessing to your doctor that you smoke or your weight watcher team leader that you ate an entire cake. It's just not something a person looks forward to. The librarian was nice, but I could tell underneath her smile she was thinking I was a careless ninny and couldn't be trusted with anymore books….or at least that's what I thought she was thinking. I might have just been sensitive. She might have really been thinking about what she was going to have for lunch. Anyway, she told me I owed $18. I didn't have my checkbook with me yesterday, so I went back today to pay my fine.

When the librarian saw me she knew right away who I was. She disappeared into the office and came out with the mangled book. On top of the book was a yellow sticky note that said Crystal Shepherd is buying and can have book. Nice. I now have something permanent to remember this whole debacle by. I can't wait for Jay to see it tonight. He's going to love it.

Yeah…things have been a little slow around our house. I'm blogging about a ruined book.

 

They Learn Early

Speaking of boys learning early how to handle women, I had another example happen to me last week.
It was the day after Lawson was born. It was a Wednesday, which is Jay's staff meeting day so I have to take Cade to school. This particular Wednesday I was pretty tried and was moving at snail speed. I usually am pretty good at getting around in a decent amount of time. I don't tend to hold up the family or make us habitually late getting where we need to be. I do have my days though and this day was one of them.

This is also a good time to mention that Cade can't tell time yet. But he very clearly has an internal clock because twice he marched back to the bathroom to ask me if I was ready yet. He worked himself up because he thought he was going to be late. School doesn't start until 8:20, but his internal clock was telling him that he and his dad would've left a long time ago. I kept telling him he was fine, we had plenty of time, etc. It settled him down somewhat and we were able to head out the door to school.

Everything went fine on the drive. We sat in silence, which is how he likes it in the morning. Things took a bad turn though when we pulled up and there was no one else being dropped off at that moment. Cade just knew we were late. I assured him everything was fine. I pulled up and unlocked the door for him to get out. I was in the middle of telling him to have a good day and that I loved him when he opened up the door, got out, turned around and huffily said "what took you so long to put on your makeup anyway", then slammed the door and marched into the school.

Oh, his poor wife. I hope he marries someone who doesn't piddle around because he's not going to have the patience to deal with it. Now, taking forever to find a toy to hold in his hand while you drive him to school is all together a different deal. Applying makeup and looking for a toy isn't even something you can compare to each other. I'm learning that boys learn very early that women stuff is dumb and a waste of time, but it's ok to spend lots of time on manly things.

When I told Jay the story he was relieved to learn that apparently Cade does have an internal clock.  Up to this point we really weren't sure he had one. 

It Was Back….

Remember my post right after Thanksgiving about the nasty mouse in my car? I hadn't had any more problems with it so I thought it was gone….until last Friday. Charlie has developed this irritating of habit of sitting in the garage until the door is about 6 inches from being completely down then he decides to run out. Then that triggers the sensor on the door and makes it go back up. Then he will stand right in the way so the door won't do anything. This is a new little trick he's learned in the last few weeks. I think he loves it because he knows there is nothing more irritating than a dog, which stands 6 inches off the ground, holding up your entire day. So last Friday he did this little trick and he wouldn't budge so that meant I had to actually get out of the car to physically move him. When I got out of the car I saw a mouse run under my car. I'm not 100% sure where it came from, but I really thought it ran from the inside of the car. Can you imagine if Charlie hadn't held me up? I probably would've ended up in a ditch on Highway 39 that morning. So that caused me to text Jay "Mouse 911, Call me when you can". When Jay called me back he said he'd take care of it.

Jay's taking care of it meant he bought more mouse poison, which we did the last time. My concern was what if the mouse ate the poison and then died somewhere in there car that we couldn't get to? I know there are probably a million fries stuck between my seat and the console because I can't get my hand in the crack. What if a mouse got down there? And the last time we did this we found that the mouse had drug the block of poison into the battery box. We were dealing with the mouse equivalent of the Incredible Hulk. Jay thought about that Saturday night/Sunday morning so he got up early Sunday and tore my car apart. He pulled up the back seat and did all sorts of things I didn't know the car was capable of. He declared it to be mouse free. I believed him.

Everything was all fine and dandy until yesterday when I left work to head home. I opened up my car door and tossed my purse in the passenger seat.  I then looked down and saw the mouse lying right where my feet should go on the driver's side.  I screamed and shut the door.  I hesitated for moment wondering if I should grab my phone from my purse.  I was too grossed out to reach across the seat so I ran in and called Jay from work. I repeatedly hit redial on the phone until Jay decided to answer. Once he finally answered the phone I told him the mouse was dead in the car and all he could do was laugh.   Pam heard and took pity on me. She said she'd get it out of the car. All Jay did was laugh at me on the phone. Luckily Darrell, my boss, came to the rescue. He took a pair of pliers and grabbed the mouse by the tail and threw it in a ditch.  Then he checked the other side to make sure there wasn't another one hiding out, waiting to run up my pant leg.   He said it wasn't a regular house mouse, he thought it was a field mouse because it was so big….which would explain how it was able to drag a bar of poison into the battery box.  Jay called the office as I was pulling out of the driveway and he and Pam had a good laugh over the whole experience. I drove home with my left leg extended straight out and the tip of my right big toe on the very top of the gas pedal. 

Cade came home and told me we should call my car the Mouse 'Mobile. Then when I was telling Jay how nasty this whole experience has been Cade threw up his hands and said "I'm not getting involved in this". I guess men learn at a young age to ignore women when they are having hysterics. I'm sure that's something Jay has taught him during all the hours they spend together before and after school. I am so out numbered.

I will be calling about getting my car detailed as soon as I can.  YUCK!!!

What Does It Mean.....

When your 7 year old boy insists on wearing a brown Fedora to school every day?  Does he think the hat is cool or that it makes him look like Indiana Jones?  I really don't have an idea what's swirling around his head, but I'd like to know.

Here's what's swirling around ours...
Jay - He's going to loose that thing and then we'll never hear the end of it....

Me - I hope the other kids aren't putting it on their heads....  I'm not germaphobic but I am liceaphobic.

We gently tried to voice our concerns today but Cade gave us such a disappointed look we let him go out the door again, with the Indiana Jones hat on his head.  (sigh) I really hope he doesn't bring home lice in the thing.

10 Years Today...

  1 Wonderful Husband
+1 Happy Wife
+1 year of dating
+ 3 month engagement
+1 beautiful wedding
+1 Great Little Boy
+1 Obnoxious Dog
-2 not so lucky dogs
-6 even unluckier cats
+2 different home loans
+1 old house that made us appreaciate our newer home
+2 different trucks
+4 different cars
-1 totaled Buick
-1 tree that fell over and landed on the Monte Carlo and our fence
+3 different church families
+4 different jobs
-4 grandparents lost since 2004
+9 major trips together
-4.5 years of infertility
+3 years of an adoption journey that's taught us a lot
-1 police report for stolen tools 2 weeks after our wedding
-4 surgeries
+4 because the surgeries were for very minor problems
-6 of the longest months without a dishwasher in 2005
+1.5 Hereford Embryos and the excitement thats gone along with that
-1 Call to the fire department
-1 Opossum stuck in a Wal Mart sack in our garage
-2 roof leaks from a hole in our roof
+1 husband willing to dress up like a Wisemen (complete with paper crown) and sing We Three Kings because I needed the part filled
=10 wonderful years full of excitement, ups and downs and a whole lot of laughs and love

Happy Anniversary, I love you!!!!

Car Update

Jay cleaned my car out last night and he's declared it to be rodent free. He said he was also pretty grossed out by the whole thing, he just tried not to freak out as much as I was. We left it parked out side last night so that the cold would hopefully kill it….as long as it didn't die inside the car. Jay put several traps around the garage and he moved Charlie's dog food out of there. He's also going to set some traps in the house just for my piece of mind. We don't think it's in the house, but I don't want to take any chances. I drove the car this morning and nothing climbed up my pant leg. I'm considering that to be a wonderful start to the day.

I did ask Jay how he'd feel if he found a big fat possum sitting in his truck.  I did get the reaction I had expected....totally grossed out.  Just a little insight in to a couple of our phobias.

Not the Way I Planned to Start My Day…..

Jay was a substitute bus driver today. He had to be at the school by 6:30 this morning so we both got up early. He got ready and then helped me finish getting the house in order. We had kind of destroyed it Wednesday night. We still had some time to spare so I decided to wrap some Christmas presents. I got two wrapped for Avery and then decided to get Cade's out of the trunk of my car.

I bought three things for him the day after Thanksgiving. Two of them were not a big deal – a fleece and the traditional pair of PJ's. The third thing was a little bigger deal. It was a really nice vest that I got at Gymboree (that's a picture of it). The tag said $32, but since I was at the mall at the break of dawn that day, I was able to purchase it for $15. I thought it was a pretty good deal. Sunday, when we got home from church, I popped the trunk so I could show Jay everything. I like to make sure my clothing purchases are "boy appropriate". Everything appeared to be fine. I held up the three items and nothing struck me as being weird or out of place.

Fast forward to this morning (before 6 I might add!) and I'm sitting on our family room floor. I had just brought in my sack of goodies so I can wrap them while Cade is still asleep. I grab the wonderful, cozy vest and give it a little shake. I hear things hitting the floor. I look down to see these brown pellets pouring out of the vest. I froze for a minute and tried to think back to what my car had been used for the past few days. Had Jay hauled something? Was it dog food? Had we even bought dog food recently? All the while I knew what it was, but I was trying to think of every possible thing except what I feared the most…..I had a mouse IN MY CAR. Not just any mouse….a mouse that loaded up what appeared to be at least of cup of Charlie's dog food, hauled it to the trunk of my car, climbed inside a Gymboree sack and made itself at home inside one of the best of my Black Friday Deals.

I was so grossed out and mad. I HATE MICE. I think they are the nastiest creatures on the planet. They absolutely tick me off. They chew up things, ruin what ever they get their nasty little teeth on and then leave their filthy calling cards lying around. Then the stupid little thing didn't touch the fleece and the PJ's it chewed on the vest.

So at around 6:00 am this morning, if you had been our neighbors, you would've seen Jay and I carefully taking apart the trunk of my car. We also discovered the mouse had chewed a hole in the cover that goes over my spare tire. Jay put on gloves because he was afraid there might be a nest around the tire. We didn't find a nest, but we found 6 inches of water around the spare tire. I guess I have a trunk leak? I was so ticked off…and grossed out.

Jay drove my car today because I couldn't. I don't know what I'm going to do. He thinks the mouse is gone, but I'm not as confident. Our next dilemma is what do we do? Do we put poison in my trunk but then risk having the mouse crawl somewhere unreachable and die? Do we put the poison in the garage and take the chance it will still get in my car and die? Do we do nothing and risk having the mouse crawl up my pant leg while I'm driving down I-44? I knew I should've traded off the car when I had the incident in Cassville this summer. This was the car that was supposed to last me for awhile. I was going to drive it for years after it was paid off. Having a mouse loose in the car may change that plan. Jay just shrugged off my rant this morning about the car grossing me out. He doesn't quite share my hatred for mice though.  I need to ask him how he'd feel if he found a big fat possum sitting in his truck.....

The Clark Griswold Moment

We had a Clark moment Saturday afternoon. Cade was at the table eating a bowl of cereal, I was taking Christmas tubs back to the garage and Jay was somewhere on a ladder hanging Christmas lights...

This is a good time to explain Jay and when he yells. I think I've heard rumors that he inherited this trait from someone...but he tends to overreact sometimes with his actions. I don't know how many times he's scared me to death because he's yelled so loudly I go running to him to find out he dropped something or bumped his head. I know he over reacts but I'll always go check because I think what if this was the time it really was serious. Just explaining that so you'll understand my part of the story.

I was sitting a tub outside and Cade was asking me to come and look at something. At that moment I heard Jay yelling for me. It took a moment to register that Jay really was yelling for me. I told Cade I'd have to look later, dad needed me. His yelling was louder and more urgent sounding then usual so I really was worried. I tore out of the house with no shoes on. I had no idea even where he was at outside. In the two seconds it took me to get out of the house and around the corner I was imagining all sorts of horrible things that could've happened. Once I rounded the house I saw him on the ladder with the Christmas lights. Everything appeared fine so I quit running. I thought if he yelled like that just to get me to come out and pick up something he dropped I'm going to be so mad. As I was walking up to him I was telling him pretty much the same thing. About that time though I noticed the ladder. It had tipped over to the left side and Jay was hanging onto our guttering. I ran over and tried pulling it (and him) back over. Then the ladder got hooked on the downspout and got stuck. I didn't know what I was going to do. I pulled harder and finally I got the ladder down. Jay nor our guttering suffered any damage. As I was leaning against the ladder trying to recover from the weak kneed feeling you get when you get scared I looked up and saw Cade standing there (without shoes). I thought that we must've scared him to. Wrong - as soon as Jay got off the ladder Cade said can I show you this now. I said yes, go ahead. It was Chex cereal and two pieces were stuck together. That was what he wanted to show me when the yelling started and he was determined to show me no matter what. He certainly is a persistent little thing. As soon as I made the appropriate response to two Chex pieces being stuck together he went back inside.

I told Jay that he looked like Clark Grizwold on the ladder. Luckily we don't have any ice or the neighbors might of came home to find a window busted out and their CD player destroyed. Jay said the whole time he was on the ladder that was the scene going through his mind. He said he could've jumped and been fine, but he was afraid the guttering would've gone with him. Then when he saw me he thought everything would be fine, but I stopped running once I saw him and started lecturing.

I went back inside and put on some shoes so I could stay outside with him. My heart couldn’t take any more scares.

Charity said that it was a good thing Charlie didn't find Jay on the ladder before I could get there.  With all of his hostility towards Jay he probably would've pushed the ladder over.  I guess there's always something to be thankful for in any situation...

How We Indirectly Ruined a Surprise Party

We had a couple of big happenings this weekend...one was how we managed to ruin a surprise party.  The second incident was a Clark Griswold moment concerning a ladder and outdoor Christmas lights.  I'll get to that in the next post.  Right now I'll explain how our family managed to ruin a surprise birthday party. 

An important note to remember about this story is Saturday morning I did some cleaning and Christmas decorating.  I was thinking about random thoughts and I thought about this surprise party.  It was for a dad that helped with the baseball team.  His name is Chez.  He has two boys (Kaul 2nd grade and Joel 1st grade).  I thought "I bet Joel and Kaul didn't know about this party until today when their dad left the house.  That should be exciting for them."

So we get to the party and got in the food line.  We then sat down by Austin, Chez's nephew and Jay's FFA President.  Jay started making small talk with Austin.  We knew he was the one that was supposed to be resonsible for keeping his Uncle busy that morning.  Jay asked if Chez was surprised.  That's when Jay and I got a surprise.....Austin said that Chez had an idea because Cade went to school and asked Kaul about his dad's surprise party.  Great, our kid had a part in ruining the party.  Here we came in talking to everyone, wishing Chez a Happy Birthday.  We would've never known what happened if Austin hadn't said anything.  How embarassing. 

Obviously we had to make the rounds again offering our apoligizies.  Which worked out good because we got to hear the rest of the story and how it exactly took place....Kaul didn't know anything about the party, which isn't surprising (remember my thought from Saturday morning).  I'm sure he didn't want someone knowing something about his family that he didn't know.  Kaul's dad just happend to be at the school the day this 2nd grade conversation took place.  Since Kaul needed to know what was going, rather than waiting to ask his mom, he asked Chez what the deal was with his surprise birthday party.  So when Lanette, Kaul's mom, found out about him asking his dad she had to find out where he heard about the party.  That's when she found out that it was Cade that had started the whole thing.  Lanette said that Kaul was irritated with her because he didn't know anything about the party.  She said "it's a SURPRISE, why in the world would you ask your dad about his SURPRISE party".  Kaul said "because you hadn't told me about it"  Lanette said "I know because it was a SURPRISE."

Jay and I laughed over this all Saturday afternoon.  Luckily everyone in that family is extremely easy going so no one was upset.  I think (or at least I hope) everyone thought that the whole thing was pretty funny.  What is amazing to Jay and I is that we really didn't talk about the party very much.  Jay brought home the invitation, it was a mutual agreement that we'd go, we didn't have to discuss it or anything.  I thought I then put the invitation in our bill basket, but maybe I didn't.  The only other thing I can think of is maybe I left it on the table for awhile?  I sometimes forget that Cade can read.  Maybe he read the invitation?  The other thing that's funny is that Cade and Kaul aren't in the same room this year.  When did they even have time to have this conversation?  Jay and I have always wondered what the kids talk about at school.  Now we have somewhat of an idea.  Kind of makes me wonder though what else Cade's picked up on around the house and is spreading it around.....

A Halloween Story

Saturday morning we had a wardrobe malfunction with Cade's costume. He wanted to be a Northern Solider and mom was supposed to make him a haversack to use to put his candy in. I knew that mom was having problems with her sewing machine, but she never said she wasn't able to finish it so I never asked. Mom thought since I knew that her machine was broken that I would know that she didn't get the candy bag finished so she didn't say anything. Needless to say, Cade was disappointed when we stopped to pick up the unfinished haversack on Saturday morning.

Once we got back in the truck Jay and I knew we were going to need to stop to purchase him a replacement bag. We stopped at Wal-Mart and Jay got our stuff to tailgate with while I took our boy purse shopping.

Right off we found the perfect thing. Of course we didn't have to pay anythig for this years costume, but I ended up paying $14 for a purse that resembled a haversack to keep the peace. Cade told me I could have it after Halloween...I think we'll keep it in the costume basket.

Cade was so excited when we found the bag. Almost a little to excited. I thought back to James Dobson's Bringing Up Boys book that I read 7 years ago wondering if I was doing the right thing. I don't know that James would've bought his boy a purse. To ease my mind I had to make sure that Cade knew I was only buying this to go with his costume. I thought we were on the same wavelength. We were buying a "bag" to use as a haversack to put his candy in.

When we got to Nana and Granddads I asked Cade carry in the cookies we baked and give them to Nana and Aunt Mary. He said he would if I would carry his purse...

I think it's time to re-read Bringing Up Boys. If anyone needs me I'll be at the library.

Anxiety and Santa

Last Tuesday I took Cade to the doctor for his adoption check up and to discuss his anxiety problems. The doctor quickly agreed that we need to get these anxiety problems nipped in the bud so he referred us to a counselor. I was actually relieved to hear that because I want him to handle his anxiety better than I have over the years. For those who aren't Type A perfectionists it's easy to say "don't worry". For those of us that anxiety is woven into the fibers of our being, it's not that simple. In fact telling me to quit worrying is as annoying as hearing "just adopt and then you'll get pregnant". Both of those phrases are like nails on a chalkboard to me. So I'm really hoping Cade will learn some coping skills and maybe pass them on to his mother….

That same evening, after the doctors appointment, we had another stressful moment occur. Cade straight out asked me if Santa was real. Since he asked me a direct question I knew I needed to answer it truthfully. Before I had a chance to answer he went on to tell me that he had been arguing about this with Neilson. I knew it was time. My heart broke a little. Jay was in the back of the house and walked out to see me sitting on the floor in front of Cade, in our recliner, trying to gently break the news to him. Cade took it very hard. He cried and Jay and I felt horrible. I told him that we could still pretend for as long as he wanted. I didn't know what else to do. Jay was also at a loss so he tired to divert Cade's attention by asking him to help him feed Buttons.

After the initial disappointment of Christmas loosing just a little of the fun for Jay and I, we started laughing about it. I told Jay that at least now Cade had something to talk to the counselor about. We looked back over the years and talked about how we were the cause of Cade's breakdown over learning that Santa wasn't real…There was the year that we wanted to give something to Cade early on Christmas Eve so Santa dropped the bag out of his sleigh right into our front yard while he was on his way to the other side of the world….then there was the year that he forgot to shut the fireplace doors when he left….or the fact that he would never eat a whole cookie, he'd just take one big bite and leave teeth marks in it….or that Santa made a black pirate ship especially for him because he would like it better…etc. You get the picture…I think Jay and I enjoyed what we could dream up each year more than anything.

Later on in the evening I was sorting through some old Kindergarten papers, finally putting them in a scrapbook, and I came across scheme #546 of us trying to cement Cade's belief in Santa. I found a letter that Santa Jay wrote to Cade telling him he knew he'd been a good boy that past year. I took the letter to Jay to show him that Cade had actual written proof to show the counselor when he told her we were the root of his anxiety. At that exact moment, while I was holding the letter, we had a household emergency. I laid the paper down and completely forgot about it.

After the emergency was over and cleaned up I looked up to see Cade holding the letter from Santa…and he was reading it. I couldn't get to him soon enough to get the letter away. He read the whole thing, but he didn't make a comment. In one day the boy heard me discussing his anxiety with a doctor, learned Santa wasn't real and saw proof that his parents had lied to him for 7.5 years. Jay asked if I was trying to finish him off.

This Santa thing has really bothered Jay and I. It was one of the last things of babyhood that Cade was holding on to and now it's gone. I know this is what kids are supposed to do, but it makes both of us so sad to see it happen. It's probably good for Jay and I that this year Christmas was going to be a little different anyway. Maybe it will take the sting out of it somewhat. I'll post more on our Christmas plans later.

 

The Cat That Used to Have 9 Lives….

There is a cat running around the farm of Cade's Sunday School Teacher who used to have all of it's lives but unfortunately, after being around Cade, his number of lives dropped drastically. This post is not for the squeamish or those who are huge cat lovers. I wish I could say no cat was harmed in the making of this post but that just wouldn't be true.

Saturday evening our church had their annual hayride at the home of the Brown's, which is where Cheryl (Cade's SS teacher) lives. They actually live on a dairy farm so they have a large number of cats and kittens running around the place. As soon as we got there Saturday evening we spotted a tiny black kitten. It looked to be about 3-4 weeks old and was probably the runt of the litter. It was such a cute little kitten. For the rest of the evening these kittens were running in and out of the barn and all over the yard.

Cheryl worked on a treasure hunt for the kids. Because of illness/weather related issues, Cade ended up being the only kid at the party. The High School/College age kids were asked to go on the treasure hunt with Cade. Since we have a very good group of older kids they readily agreed without any hesitation. We started out on the hunt – Cade, Me, Cheryl, 2 HS Seniors and 3 college aged kids. We made it through stops #1, #2, and #3 without a problem. Stop #4 is where the incident occurred.

At this point it was starting to get pretty dark. Cade read the clues at stop #4 and was getting ready to run to the next stop. He got ready to take a step at the same time one of the other kids said "watch out". Yes, the black kitten was right under Cade's feet. Cade didn't have time to stop his Size 3 Nikes from smashing down on the cat. All of us were standing in sort of a semi-circle around the kitten. We paused for a minute, waiting for the cat to run away. The cat didn't move. Then I hear Cheryl say "oh no". I'm thinking Oh crap, Cade just killed a cat….what kind of an apology works in this sort of a situation? I quickly grabbed Cade and said "lets move on to the next stop". I didn't want him to realize that he just killed a kitten. As we were running away Cade yells "sorry".

We went onto the next stop which was around the corner from where Cheryl and the rest of the kids were inspecting the kitten. I couldn't see what was going on, but it was probably a good minute of two before I heard a cheer go up from the group. The kitten ended up being fine, it may not ever be totally right again, but it is alive.

I laughed and laughed about this on Saturday. I seemed to be the only one laughing really hard about it…not because Cade hurt the cat, but because I think he knocked it unconscious. I'll never forget the gasp that went up from the group when the cat didn't move nor will I forget Cade saying sorry. I think Cade shortened the poor cat's life by several lives that night….and it's only 3-4 weeks old. It still has a long farm life ahead of it. The cat didn't learn it's lesson though because I caught it around Cade's feel later on in the evening. Luckily it escaped any serious injury that time.

 

 

 

Dress Up Day

Today I think I might have had a small inkling into what many mother's felt during the Civil War. I watched my son, dressed in the Union Blue, march out into an unknown fate. No, he wasn't actually going into battle…he was just participating in Spirit Week.

Today's day was Dress Up Day. The little paper that we were sent home said "come as a mutant, come as a princess, come as yourself". In my opinion that's pretty vague so we weren't sure what to do. Of course Cade knew exactly what he wanted to wear – his Civil War costume. Jay and I both cringed when we heard what he had planned for today. Last night we tried to come up with good excuses for not wearing the costume and with some alternatives. For some reason telling him that he could fall on the playground and rip the leg just didn't cut it. Either did trying to persuade him to dress like a baseball player or a cowboy. We were even going to let him wear his 4-H belt buckle. This morning when I suggested the cowboy theme I got a sigh and a stomp off. Jay and I decided we were going to have to let him wear the costume.

I've never seen the boy get ready so quickly in the morning before. We did put shorts and a t-shirt on underneath so he could change if he wanted to. He did make a comment about hoping the other kids were dressed up. I asked him what he was going to do if they weren't. He said he would go to the bathroom and take it off and just wear the shorts and t-shirt. Great, if he takes it off we'll be the cause of the "reminder note" that will be sent home next week telling parents to dress their children appropriately for the weather. I felt like Jay and I couldn't win this morning. At least Jay did remember we needed to send Cade' tennis shoes along in case he did change. Could you imagine trading the Civil War Uniform for shorts, t-shirt and BOOTS. I don't know what would be worse.

As I watched Cade come running from his bedroom with his outfit and hat in place, grab his bag, and run for the truck I felt my heart tug a little. No, his unknown fate wasn't the horrors of war but it was the cruelty of 2^nd graders. I hope he does not get made fun of at school today…but like Jay said this morning "sometimes you just have to let your boy blaze his own trail". I'm just wondering why he has to blaze it covered in blue nylon. I asked Jay this morning where Cade got this …uhm…slightly nerdy studious side. Jay said that it clearly came from me….thinking back he's probably right….I am the one who bought the uniform so he could wear it at his 6^th birthday party. I think I was living out my own fantasy thorough my child. I so would've worn a Southern Belle dress at his age.

Here's a look back at the Costume. Oh yeah, that's what he looked like today…only a few inches taller.