Does it ever end?

Just FYI - this is a whiny post because I'm frustrated and feel like WHINING. So there. Read at your own risk.

Okay. Several weeks ago our dishwasher went out. Since then we've been washing dishes by hand until we could get someone out here to look at it. Not too big of a deal, but annoying.

Melissa has been sick 2 of the last 3 weeks. Thankfully we didn't have to pay to take her to the doctor the first time but we did last week. Plus a prescription.

Last week or the week before I noticed that our pipe was leaking under the sink. Not really something you can ignore. So a plumbing visit and over $100 dollars later, the leak is fixed.

I thought maybe we were done for awhile. Nope. Yesterday my washer went out. Can't really live without that one. Well, I COULD wash the clothes by hand, but I'm not that Little-House-on-the-Prairie, thank you very much.

So I called yesterday and made an appointment to have a guy come look at both of them Friday, hoping it would be an easy fix and by this weekend I would be able to wash dishes and clothes again. I can wait a few days, right? We have plenty of clothes.

WELL. This morning Kyler woke up throwing up. So. I NEED my washer! Brian stayed home with Kyler so I could go to work and we called and got the guy to come today instead of tomorrow. I thought, hey, he'll fix whatever's wrong and by the time I get home from work I can get all of this vomit-covered stuff washed. Is my luck ever that good?

Dishwasher - apparently had a leak we didn't know about for a while. Thankfully didn't mess up the floor or the wall, but it shorted out the motor on the dishwasher. Not worth paying to fix so we'll have to buy a new one. Great.

Washer - the transmission is dead. Not worth paying to fix so we'll, again, have to buy a new one. Fabulous.

Oh, yeah, I forgot. I think I might have pink eye. Praying that it's just allergies. I don't want to go to the doctor. It costs too much money.

Silver lining? Well, I didn't much like my washer or dishwasher anyway. Now I can pick out some I actually like. Even if I can't really afford it. At least I waited until the washer died and got both appliances checked out at the same time so I didn't have to pay for two repairman visits.......

Amazing sense of timing

I really don't know how she does it. Melissa managed to be sick on yet another holiday. Crazy child. Saturday night she started running a fever. I thought it was teething b/c she's cutting her two year molars. Sunday evening her fever shoots up to 103.5 and she starts having diarrhea. Yeah, more than teething. So I took her to the doctor today. Apparently it is some teething - and the beginnings of an ear infection (in both ears, actually). So the doctor gave me a Rx for antibiotics to fill if her fever continues through tomorrow.

Today she only napped for an hour and woke up crying so she's already in bed (I put her to bed at 6:15 - she was a grouchy little thing). What's funny (annoying) is that when we were at the doctor she had no fever and she was her regular little happy chatty self. Why do kids do that? I remember my mom complaining that we used to do that when we were kids, too. Weird.

Just a random side note. I used the abbreviation for prescription earlier - Rx. I don't understand that abbreviation. Where did it come from? I guess I could look it up but I'm lazy.

OH! Mother's Day! Almost forgot. I got to order my own, basically, b/c there was a picture I wanted to get to hang in our bedroom and new sheets for our bed so I ordered those. And then Brian and the kids got me a card and some Milano cookies and Blue Bell ice cream. :) We had a good time hanging out with my family and Brian's parents. Would have been better without a sick Melissa, but it was fun regardless.

Weddings

I've been in a few weddings over the years. I was the flower girl in my parents' wedding when I was 7, I was a bridesmaid in my cousin's wedding when I was 18 and I was a bridesmaid in my friend's wedding when Kyler was only about one month old. And, of course, I was the bride in my own wedding almost 6 years ago!

But I haven't even been to any weddings in almost 4 years but this year we're going to be overrun with weddings! Okay, there's just two, but when you add the bridal showers and bachelorette party and rehearsals, that' alot of wedding! One of my very best friends is getting married in August. Less than 3 months. Chara, you're crazy! Anyway, I'm a bridesmaid and Kyler and Melissa are going to be ring bearer and flower girl (how cute is that?). Plus we're having her bridal shower at my house.....

And then in October my brother is getting married and Brian's going to be a groomsman and Kyler's going to be a ring bearer. I'm trying to convince them they need two flower girls (their daughter, Hannah, is going to be the flower girl) because of course, by then, Melissa will have experience. :) But maybe I shouldn't convince them of that because at this point I'm wondering if we're going to need to take out a loan for wedding clothes and wedding/shower presents!

Kyler and Cars - and Melissa's pictures

Kyler loves the movie Cars. He has since before he turned 2. As a matter of fact, he had a Cars birthday party when he turned 2 and is having one again this year. In the past week or so the Cars obsession has risen to a new high...or low.

Our family members have become Cars characters. Seriously, he calls himself Lightning all the time. When I call him Kyler he corrects me.

Melissa is Sally. She sometimes even calls herself Sally. And the other day at Brookshire's the checkout lady asked Melissa what her name was and before Melissa or I could answer Kyler pipes up with, "She's Sally....and I'm Lightning!" I looked at her and told her I did NOT name my child Lightning. And that Melissa's name isn't Sally. The lady looked kinda confused.

Brian is Mack. And I'm Flo. He doesn't really call me Flo much, maybe because I don't respond to it. :D

Anyway, tonight...Brian was telling Kyler to do something and SERIOUSLY called the kid Lightning without even thinking about it. REALLY? Please, Lord, no. My children are named KYLER and MELISSA. I'm all for pretending. For a brief time. And then can we go back to real life?

Melissa's 2 year pictures:

Birthday Time!

I can't believe my little girl is 2 years old. Her birthday (burs-gay :)) was Friday and we had her party yesterday. It was supposed to be at the park but it rained (bleh) so we ended up having it at our house. I was a little worried about that cause my house isn't very big but it wasn't too crowded.... :)

Pictures!

A couple of pictures from the bluebonnets

I had to bribe my kids with ice cream to pose for me. :) They were good sports, though. Think I actually snapped about 75 pictures. They definitely earned their ice cream!

So on Friday Melissa got a runny nose and that night she woke up once during the night. Bad news. She NEVER wakes up unless she's sick or getting sick. I should have expected it, though. I mean, it was a holiday weekend. In case you haven't been reading my blog long, let me explain. My daughter apparently hates holidays. She had RSV her first Christmas and pneumonia her first Easter. She got sick this past Christmas on the 23rd and was doing breathing treatments all throught the holiday. So, naturally, allergies hit her yet again right before her second Easter. Shocker. She had a fever Saturday night so I missed the Easter church service for the second year in a row - ironic, isn't it, since that's the day when more people actually get up and go to church even if they don't regularly? Anyway, she didn't have a fever Sunday so we decided to go ahead with our lunch plans with my family. I was glad we did. We all had a good time. But apparently Melissa doesn't like Easter dresses either. Last year, when she had pneumonia, she threw up all over her dress. This year she fell and got a bloody nose and bled all over it. Poor kiddo, she just can't get a break!

Pictures from various Easter celebrations:
Waiting to get eggs at our MOMS Club Easter egg hunt.

Dyeing eggs. I put them in the bathtub to do it because then the mess just goes down the drain. Easy clean-up. In a couple years Kyler will be too old to let me take pictures of him in his underwear so then we'll probably dye eggs outside! :)

Church egg hunt:

Easter morning - checking out what the Easter Bunny brought....

Sick again

*Sigh* I wonder if Melissa is ever going to be well for Christmas or Easter. She is now officially sick - tonight she has a fever of 101 degrees. That means she's been sick for her 1st two Christmases and now her 1st two Easters. Geez Louis.

There were two in the crib.....

So my kiddos let me sleep until almost 8 this morning! Right about 7:50 I heard Meli chattering in her bed and then I heard Kyler's door open. So I started dragging myself out of bed. :) When I finally made it out of my room this is what I found......

As soon as I walked in Kyler stood up and looked at me with an uncertain expression - he thought I was gonna be mad cause I've told him not to get in Melissa's bed. But I just had to laugh and ask if I could take a picture! :) Did you notice that Melissa had already taken off her pajamas? I'm just glad Kyler went in there before she took off her diaper and wet her bed!

Scary movie and funny comments

So Disney's matinee movie club is doing this thing over the next couple months where every few weeks for one week they are showing an older Disney movie club every morning at 10 am. A couple weeks ago they showed Mulan. This week it's Tarzan. I loved Tarzan the one time I saw it when it came out. I thought, hey, Kyler would like to go to the movies! I'll take him to see it! Yeah, not a good idea. He was terrified of Sabor, the leopard in that movie. We had to leave about 30 minutes into it. If I'd really remembered how the movie went I probably wouldn't have taken him - it was pretty intense and made me a little nervous. No wonder he was scared.....

Oh well, we'll try again when they show Cars in April. He's seen that one about 20 million times so I'm sure he won't be scared of it on the big screen. :)

Recent comments I've heard from my goofy almost-4-year-old:

"God found my other shoe, Mommy. I prayed and He found it for me."

(Melissa's blowing razzberries) "Melissa, we don't spit in the house or the car. You know better." (She does it again) "Okay, that's a spanking!" (yeah, we had to have a talk about how he doesn't spank his sister even when he's pretending to be the Daddy and besides, since when has Mommy or Daddy ever spanked them for blowing razzberries????)

Today while we were at the movie he told me needed to go potty so we went out and he told me he didn't like that movie. He said, "I hope that movie is over for me but not for the other kids!" I guess he knew that the other kids liked it even if he didn't! :)


By the way, I am sitting here listening to my country songs playlist while I'm on the computer. Just have to say that I absolutely love "I'm Still a Guy" by Brad Paisley. Have ever since the first time I heard it. So hilarious.

My trip

Well, I've been home from Atlanta for two days and have now found the time to sit down and post about it. Let's see....highlights of the trip....almost missed our plane from DFW to Atlanta, that was exciting. Oh, and on the way home there was a Dallas Maverick on our flight. Have no idea who he was - just overheard a woman ask him if he played basketball and he said he played for Dallas.

Went to see Confessions of a Shopaholic and loved it. This is considered a highlight of the trip because I was really glad to get to see it while I was in Atlanta - Amanda was the one who got me into reading the books so it was fun to see it with her!) We got to go to a hockey game, which was really fabulous. Thanks, Amanda, for thinking of that idea! I like hockey. :)

Went to Medieval Times. That was fun even though our knight didn't win and wasn't very cute. Our server was REALLY cute, though. Really should have given him Amanda's number......

Played games and painted a picture (a tryptic (sp?) so that we could each take a piece home with us) Just have to figure out where to hang mine up.........

Enjoyed alot of girl time with my friends who I never see nearly enough. Lots of laughs and talks. Some light-hearted, some very enlightening.

I really loved seeing so many of the places that Amanda spends her time - now I'll know where she is when she says she's at home/work/church. :) Thanks for letting us come, Amanda! I had a great time! Thanks for going with me, Chara! I love you both so much!

Missed my hubby and my kiddos. They missed me, too. Kyler didn't want to leave my side after I came home and they both clung to me when I dropped them off at their classes at Mother's Day Out on Tuesday!

In exactly one week I will be at the airport preparing to board a plane with Chara headed to Atlanta to visit Amanda! I'm so excited to get to spend almost a week hanging out with my two very best friends! We haven't all three been together since the night before Melissa was born, which, unbelievably, was almost 2 years ago. I will miss my babies and my hubby, though, of course. I haven't slept away from him that many nights in a row since we got married. :)

In honor of my upcoming trip, pics from the last time we were all together -

Chara and Amanda painted my toenails that night - to give me something to focus on when I finally delivered Melissa (none of us realized it would be the next day!) Can you tell which feet belong to which face? Chara's are easy....... :)

And a picture of my 9-month-pregnant self that night. I can't believe that little girl who looked like a basketball under my shirt will be 2 in about a month. That's insane.

Conversations with my kids

Last weekend Kyler colored on the seat of my car while we were driving home from a visit with his grandparents. Yeah, I thought he knew that he was only supposed to color on the paper, but I won't make THAT mistake again. Anyway, yesterday we went to pick up my sister and when she looked back at the kids she said, "Who drew all over your seat???"

When I told her Kyler did it she asked him why he did it and if it was a nice thing to do. He just looked at her for a minute and then said, "Daddy already told me this."

She said, "Well, I'm telling you again. Was it a nice thing to do?" And he comes back with.....

"Only one grown-up can tell me about it!"

I don't know how he thought up that rule but it didn't fly with Aunt Kate! :)
______________________________________________

A couple of weeks ago we were at church and they had donuts in the lobby. I had already shared one with the kids before the service but after I picked them up from the nursery, Melissa wanted another one. My dad was holding her and she asked me for a donut. I told her she didn't need another one because we would be eating lunch soon. She scowled at me and turned to my dad with a sweet expression, "Donut, Pawpaw?"

Of course, he told her that Mommy had already told her she couldn't have another donut.

So she scowls at me again. And then....

She leans over and whispers in my dad's ear, "Donut, Pawpaw?"

Clever little thing but still....no donut for Melissa.

Matching

Melissa and I are really going to have to work on her fashion sense....I put an orange and white striped shirt on her this morning. She then comes to me with her pink house shoes and yellow socks wanting them on. I told her the yellow socks didn't match and she needed white ones (b/c she doesn't have orange ones) so then she says, "Wear purple socks!" I said white and she said, "Wear pink socks!" I said white and she then wanted blue. I laughed and asked if she wanted a different shirt on....she said, "Wear orange shirt!" So she decided she would wear the white socks....

THEN I told her she couldn't wear her house shoes because we were going outside and they are only inside shoes. So she picks her boots to wear. That's fine.....

And now her socks are completely covered by her boots so it wouldn't really have mattered what color socks she picked.........Hm.........

:)

Lazy Monday

We're apparently having a very lazy day here today. It's 10:45 and Melissa is still asleep and Kyler's been playing (mostly) quietly in his room since about 9. It's almost the time I normally give them lunch and about an hour before Melissa's usual naptime. Guess our schedule will be a bit off today. Oh well, what are Mondays for, anyway?

We had a very busy weekend and Melissa only got naps in the car - which means only about an hour each day cause that's the longest she'll nap in the car - so that's why she's sleeping so late today. I really really really wish Kyler was still sleeping too so that I could still be sleeping! The past three nights I've gone to bed way too late (around midnight - which is really late for me because I am one of those I-need-more-than-8-hours-each-night kind of people) and 2 of those nights Kyler woke up in the night crying about something or other. And LAST NIGHT he did that and was awake for about 2 hours. Good grief. He kept getting up and turning on his light (He turns his light on anytime he wakes up - even just to go to the bathroom. We're working on that....) and crying. Well, fake crying. It was more a screaming wail than anything else. He's always been a much better sleeper than this...at least since we got rid of the pacifier and he didn't wake up several times a night because he lost it and needed us to find it. Don't know what's going on with him right now but it has got to end because I'm too tired to deal with him in the middle of the night!

Good news - I'm down to the weight I was when I got pregnant with Melissa! Only 5 more lbs to go and I'll be back where I was before Kyler.... and then I can enjoy that for a while before I decide to put on more weight with baby #3. But my goal with baby #3 is to watch what I eat more closely so I don't gain as much as I did with the first two. We'll see how that goes - not sure I can give up my pregnant woman license-to-eat-whatever-I-want. :)

Different topic. Every year Brian does Lent. He's given up sweets a couple times because he has a huge sweet tooth. This year I think he's doing sweets and cereal (he would eat cereal for every meal if I would buy that much). And he wants me to do it with him. He wants us to both give up eating out. Ugh. That would definitely be a sacrifice....I love eating out. So much so that over the last 2 months I'm pretty sure I spent at least 75% of my Christmas money on eating out. I'm thinking about it.........

Valentine's Day

It's taken me a while to get around to posting, but here it is. We had a good Valentine's Day....the kiddos loved the gifts we got them. Usually I would just get them a little candy and maybe a little bear or something but they both found something at Wal-Mart last week that they LOVED and I couldn't resist. I knew they wouldn't play with a stuffed animal, anyway... We got Melissa an Elmo that blow kisses and says he loves her and that she's a sweetheart. It's cute. Not like she needed another Elmo (she now has FIVE) but she loves it, so it's okay. :) We gave Kyler a Disney Cars track that when you push a button, Lightning races down a track and "tips" tractors. And it has "Frank the scary tractor" so Kyler was in heaven. He played with it ALL weekend long.

Brian and I had a home date Saturday night. Got pizza and wings and watched a movie and just snuggled together for a while. Rented Nights in Rodanthe. It was okay, book was better, of course. :) And then Sunday Brian surprised me by having Kate come over to baby-sit and we went to lunch at Chili's and went bowling. But I bowled a 60. Are you kidding me? A 60???? It was horrible but not really my fault. The bowling place had crappy balls. I'm weak so I needed a light one but all of the light ones had holes that were too little for my fingers/thumb. And I have small fingers! Anyway, it was fun regardless..... I think I'll stick to Wii Bowling though...it's easier and WAY cheaper. I can't believe how much bowling costs!

Oh, here are a couple pictures from when Hannah was over...

It went pretty well but there are alot more things to think about when you have three kids! At least when I have baby #3 I will be starting with a newborn and my kids will be older - not adding a 14 month old in with my almost-2 and almost-4 year olds! I took the kids to Wal-Mart with me because I needed a few things and I swear people were looking at me and thinking, "Wow, she's been busy!" Come on, people, it wouldn't even be possible for the girls to both be mine!

Okay, I've really gotta get ready to go to work! Have a great day!

Tornado

So, last night was the first time I have ever hunkered down in the bathroom with my family to wait out a storm. Thankfully, the tornado(e?)s passed right around us and we were all fine. But we got the kids up out of bed and snuggled them into the bathtub for about half an hour until we knew it was clear. Kyler thought our grand adventure was rather boring - he just wanted his pillow and blanket in the bathtub so it wouldn't be so hard. Melissa loved being up when she was supposed to be in bed. Once the storm was clear we said it was time to go back to bed and she looked at us like we were crazy and said, "No!"

Anyway, so we were up late and I'm tired! The kiddos are still asleep (yea!) after getting up in the night. I'm up waiting for my brother to drop off my niece for the day. They needed a fill-in baby-sitter so I will see what my life would be like with 3. :)

I have recently been trying to lose the last 10 lbs of baby weight from my pregnancies. I've been doing pretty good, too, counting calories and working out with WiiFit. Problem? WiiFit tells me that my ideal weight is what I'm at right now. It's not where I want to be but when it keeps telling me I'm at my ideal weight I don't try nearly as hard...... And today I'm going to a Valentine's get-together with my MOMS Club and we're all bringing sweet stuff....ahhhhh....yeah, guess I won't be counting my calories today!

Oh, better go, Hannah is here to play. :)

A conversation between my kiddos

I walked into the kitchen this morning to hear Melissa (who was sitting in her high chair) ask Kyler to open the pantry. We have a doorknob cover on it so he can't open it. He told her that he would "open it when he got bigger." And then he runs over to her and says, "Melissa are you going to be a mommy someday?" She said, "Yeah." And then he said, "Yeah, you can be a mommy and I will be a daddy someday. And I will have a beard!" So cute that he wants to be like HIS daddy!

Of course I didn't think Melissa really even knew what she was answering Yeah to but when I went to get her out of her chair she said, "Me-issa be Mommy?" Oh, my heart - these kids are growing up too fast!

And now for a picture to begin the day - Melissa's first pigtails.

No church for me today

Melissa had a runny nose yesterday and this morning she was congested and yucky sounding, so I stayed home with her from church. At least she'll get down for her nap at the normal time today which always makes her happier....although since she's congested she might not sleep well so then she'll be cranky cranky cranky.

Anyway, I'm being very productive this morning since I wasn't able to go to church - I'm about halfway done with the laundry and I washed the dishes from the last couple days (by hand because our 2-year-old dishwasher is having issues and I can't afford to pay someone to come look at it right now......). And I put some meat down to thaw for dinners this week. Brian will be happy about that because he's sick of me asking what he wants for dinner and hearing, "We can't have that because the meat's frozen" when he picks something. :)

OH OH yesterday I went to the The Well, a coffee lounge and sandwich shop in downtown Royse City. I'd never been but I got a gift certificate for it at my Pokeno game last weekend. I got their chicken salad sandwich and it was SO good. I'm totally considering going to get another one this week.....if you live in Royse City and you've never been there, go check it out!

Alrighty, I'm gonna go see if my little one is done eating her lunch.....oh, by the way, I find it hilarious that Melissa says Amen instead of The End when she gets done with the last page of a book.

Sleep is good!

So, I'm the type of person that needs alot of sleep. Brian was actually the one to get up and feed Melissa most nights because he is usually good running on 5 hours of sleep and I am not. At all. My parents will tell you that I was always a horrible grouch when I came home from sleepovers or camp because I never got enough sleep and it made me cranky! They were probably glad when I would come home and go straight to bed so they didn't have to deal with me. :)

And I HATE HATE HATE being woken up. It makes me tense and annoyed because I then have trouble getting back to sleep because I just expect to be woken up again. When Kyler was a baby (and until he was 2 when we got him off the pacifier) he would wake up several times a night crying because he lost his paci and couldn't find it or get it back in his mouth. And he took the shortest naps ever. That whole sleep-when-the-baby-sleeps thing? Didn't work for me because I was too tense waiting to hear him cry that I couldn't fall asleep. I was so thankful to discover that Melissa has NO problem keeping that paci in her mouth or finding it if she drops it! And, once she started sleeping through the night at 2 months, she never wakes up during the night unless she's sick or getting sick. And she's an awesome napper! Anyway......

Kyler rarely wakes up in the night anymore but now that he's potty-trained there are the occassional nights that he can't hold it all night and he'll actually wake up to go potty. Problem? He thinks it's morning and turns all the lights on! This morning at 4 am I woke up to bright light and the sound of Kyler lifting the toilet seat. Grrr..... I went in there and told him he needed to get back in bed. And he asked for a book. Uh, no. Go back to bed and SLEEP! He said okay and I was getting him back and bed and discovered his PJs were wet. And his sheets. Grrr some more. Not sure what happened but apparently before he woke up to go potty he went in his pull-up and it somehow leaked out. That hasn't happened since he was a baby...... So then I had to change the sheets and his PJs. Annoyed, the whole time, of course, because I want to be SLEEPING and I know that it will take me forever to get back to sleep....sigh. But at least I did fall asleep eventually. And at least Kyler went back to sleep instead of trying to get back out of bed to play.......

Bragging on my husband

I just have to say that I have an amazing husband. The past two nights he has readily, if not joyously, ushered me out the door for time with friends and stayed home with the kiddos. He is so good about doing that but I don't usually ask him to twice in one weekend! I have just heard so many women talk about how hard it is to get away without the kids - and for many, it's not that husband can't watch them, it's that he can't because of work or whatever. But for some, their husbands just don't want them to leave him with the kids. I can honestly say that this may be my very favorite thing about Brian - he knows that I need some time away from the house and kids after a while and he is more than willing to give it to me.

Friday night I went with some MOMS Club friends to a yoga studio in Rockwall for a private class. I really love yoga but I don't have the money to do it reguarly like I want to. The class was interesting - this studio does hot yoga. It was about 90 degrees in the classroom! It was an hour long class and I'm so sore!

Saturday Brian and I went to see Inkheart. I was really pleasantly surprised by it. It's based on a book I loved, so I went in not expecting much from the movie - movies based on books typically disappoint me. But I really liked the movie. Although, I haven't read the book in quite awhile, so that probably helps - when I reread it I'll find all the things they did wrong!

Saturday night Brian let me go out again - I went to a friend's house to play Pokeno with some ladies from church. I'd never played before but it was easy - like Bingo with playing cards - and alot of fun. And we had yummy food, too. What more can you ask for?

And, to add onto the amazingness of my hubby - he's letting me go out next Friday night, too. I'm going scrapbooking at my aunt's church. I'm excited - haven't done any work on my scrapbooks since my retreat back in November. I'm so very behind. I'm still on October of 2007...and now we're in 2009. The thought of all those pictures piling up makes me want to go hide under the covers in my bed. But I will get them organized and I will go to the crop Friday night and work for 7 hours and maybe I can make some headway -maybe I can even get into the 2008 pictures!