Car Seats!

Oh the car seat saga! So part of my meltdown on Saturday had to do with the car seats. I could not get all three to fit in the back of the car like I have envisioned and I was quite bummed and frustrated! Anyways Michael put Ella's car seat in facing forward and Jack's new car seat in and this is what the van looked like on Sunday when we went out to celebrate Jack's 3rd Birthday.

We thought that Ella would be a little bit more excited about being turned around, but it was just another day for her. I have noticed that she's a bit more demanding since she can see what I'm drinking...she reaches her hand out and makes this "Ah ah ah" noise that means I want your drink and I want it NOW! She is also so distracting! She is seriously so cute and to have her facing forward where I can just turn my head and see her cuteness is totally distracting. Yeah I know she has me absolutely and completely wrapped around her finger...okay fine fingers!

Check out Jack's new ride! It even has activity lights on either side of the headrest...you know just in case he needs to read his books when we are driving in the dark. So nice and I got a great deal online at Wal-Mart. Still can't believe he's 3 years old already!  

On Sunday Michael did actually get the car seats to all fit in the back, but we need to get seat belt extensions so we can buckle the boys up and not scrap off all the skin on the tops of our hands. I called the Chrysler dealership and they have them in-stock and will let us come down and see if they work. I hope so because the seat belt extensions are WAY less expensive then getting skinny car seats. The skinny car seats are $269 each! Not happening!!!

FlyLady - Day 10

Day 10 - You Can Do Anything In 15 Minutes!

FlyLady is all about using your timer and realizing you can do anything in a small amount of time. So far I've been tackling the Hot Spots in the house 2 minutes at a time and I've been doing a Room Rescue in 5 minutes....so it was time to do anything and go up to 15!

She also is trying to teach that instead of putting things off, if you just get to it and get it done there will be more time for play later. So true! This is something that Michael and I differ in. I'm all about getting the work done first and then play later. He likes to play as long as he can and then get the work done right before it's due. He used to do this all time when we were first married and then he'd lose track of time playing on the computer and then have to rush off to work and not have enough time to put the trash can out at the curb....needless to say there were some fights about that!

So yesterday FlyLady wanted me to set my timer and go around the house and pick up random trash that is laying around the house. Well...I didn't have any trash just laying around so I used my 15 minutes to go around the whole house and pick up random things that weren't supposed to be in that room and take it to the room or place where it was supposed to be. After I did that I still had time left so I used it to Swish and Swipe the upstairs hall bathroom. I Swish & Swipe the master bathroom every morning. The half bath on our first floor gets Swished & Swiped on Wednesday's and Saturday's, but I haven't set up a schedule for the hall bath upstairs since it doesn't really get used all that often. After that I still had some time so I started to clean off the top of a cabinet we have in our office. I was almost finished and the timer went off.

FlyLady is all about giving yourself 'Me' time after you tackle something for 15 minutes so after I finished I sat down to read a book for 15 minutes of rest time. Although it turned into longer than 15 minutes since I use my cellphone as my timer and I started at 11:51AM and I changed my timer to read 12:06AM....oops! I kept reading thinking...WOW this is the longest 15 minutes ever! Then it dawned on me to check my phone and it was 12:16PM. Such a blonde moment!!!

Garden!

This year I'm hoping our garden does better than last year.

Since Michael had a side job we got ourselves a raspberry bush.

I planted peppers, zucchini and cucumber seeds, but none of them came up so when I was at Fred Meyer's I got small plants at a really good deal. The zucchini and cucumbers are in the picture above and the peppers are in the picture below.

We planted sugar snap peas from seeds and those always come up...in fact even though last year was a really bad year for planting we still had peas. This year I'm hoping we can get two harvests.

The best thing in our garden right now is our strawberry plants. We are literally going to have hundreds of strawberries....yummy!

Our friend's Micah and Kim bought us a blueberry bush after Kyan died and we bought another one since you needed a different type in order to actually get berries. I know the boys are going to love coming out and picking berries off...they love blueberries!

We also have two tomato plants, but they aren't doing too well. The leaves on the bottom branches have turned yellow so we took them off. We do have one little tomato growing on one of the plants so I hope they aren't goners. We seem to have a really hard time with tomato plants for some reason.

Happy Birthday Jackson!

Today Jack is 3 years old!

He was my baby for so long and he loved that role that it's been hard for him to come out of it. He just recently started calling himself a big boy rather than a little boy. He is in the process of learning a bunch of new things...the alphabet, opening doors and putting on his socks and shoes are the most prominent ones right now.

He has had some regression in regards to potty training, but it's getting better. It's an ebb and flow kind of thing. He has started asking to sleep in just his undies rather than Pull-Ups. When Owen did that it wasn't long before he was not wetting the bed anymore. I do believe we are going to invest in some rubber sheets so he doesn't ruin his mattress though.

Jack is my most imaginative child. He loves to pretend play! He can get SO wrapped up in movies and his characters. He still loves Buzz & Woody the most. He is quite fond of Madagascar and that is the theme of his birthday party next Sunday.

Jack is still my snuggly boy...he loves to lay on my lap and have me scratch his back. He also loves to sleep with his "babies"...Elmo, Grover, Cookie Monster and his 'No-No'...it's a classic Pooh Bear head with one of those blankie things.

Jack is a classic second child! He loves his older brother SO much that sometimes I think he wants to be Owen. In fact most of the time he argues with us when we tell him his name starts with 'J' he wants his name to start with an 'O'. At the same time he LOVES to drive Owen up the wall. He has this smirk on his face the whole time Owen is screaming in frustration, anger or pain. He truly takes pleasure in it and I should know since I was the second child myself! I LOVED to drive my older brother crazy too!

He still loves Ella like he did the day she was born. They actually play really well together most of the time. As long as Ella doesn't try to take the toy he's playing with.

I remember when I was pregnant with Jack, I prayed that he would be strong-willed and able to stand up for himself and not get run over by Owen's prominent personality and boy did that prayer get answered. He is so strong-willed!

Jackers...Mommy loves you so much. I love that your silliness can bring a smile to my face even when I'm down. I love that you are quick to say, "Ah nuts!" if something goes wrong and then just move on. I love that you still are super clumsy and fall down all the time, but you always pick yourself back up. Every morning you want me to pick you up and carry you into the bathroom and I love it! I love those morning snuggles with you. I can't believe you are 3 years old....you really are getting to be a big boy!

Love you buddy!

FlyLady - Day 9

Day 9 - Declutter A Few Minutes At A Time

So Friday was a super busy day and I completely forgot to check the FlyLady website to see what Day 9 entailed...oops! So even though I was in a super grumpy mood on Saturday I still did my FlyLady stuff.

FlyLady has a whole tutorial on How To Declutter.

It's a really good basic description of how to get rid of stuff that has been collecting in your house. It reminds me of that show Clean Sweep that was on TLC....not sure if it is anymore, we don't have cable! Anyways bascially you need to have 3 boxes - throw away, give away and put away!

Since we are taking baby steps FlyLady just wanted me to add a 5 minute room rescue to my morning routine. So yesterday morning I didn't have much time (remember Jack's pictures) so I rescued the dining room from the clutter that had accumulated in there. Pretty simple and easy...I know it will be harder and more time consuming once I actually start opening drawers in other rooms that might not have been opened in a while.

My hope from this decluttering aspect of the process is to finally have a spot in the house to put gifts for others. I have a few things lingering around my house that I have accumulated as gifts, by finding new things at garage sales, or winning a prize and not opening it because I don't need it and thinking...this would be a good gift. I need a place for these things and I'm looking forward to having that.

Struggling!

Today was a big struggle for me. To be honest ever since I found out the baby was a boy I've been struggling. I was really just starting to feel a lot better and now those wounds have been reopened. It's like when you accidentally rip off a scab and your cut starts bleeding again. It hurts! I'm so frustrated and just plain grumpy most of the time.

This morning my mom came with me to get Jack's 3 year pictures taken and it was just awful and so completely frustrating. Jack did not want anything to do with it. He was whiny practically from the moment he got out of bed this morning and that just continued right on through the pictures. The photographer we got at Sears was the worst we've ever had. We were trying to get Jack to smile and she wasn't doing anything. I actually had to ask if she had any tricks up her sleeves to get him to smile and that she could use them now. Amazingly she did get a few shots that are good....I'm still in shock over that!

Then this afternoon I spent an hour cleaning the van in order to get Jack's new big boy booster seat in the van and it won't fit! For months I have been waiting for Jack to be big enough to go in a booster seat in order for all 3 of the kids' car seats to fit in the back of the van. Owen on the left, Ella in the middle and Jack on the right. That way I can take out one of the captain seats in the middle of the van and Logan can go in the other one. Without having one of the captain seats in the van it makes getting the kids in the way back SO much easier! But now that's all shot to hell....I was so mad! I guess I still am! I am going to look online to see if there is a car seat for Ella that is skinnier so it can work. If we do ever have another child we are going to have to have all 3 of the kids in the back anyways.

Then to top it off I checked the mail! Yeah how bad can that be? Oh...bad! See it's not enough that I lost my baby and had to have a D & C. Oh no...now I also have a bill for over 2K from the surgery to removed said baby from my body! Salt in the wound!!! Seriously that sucked! Thank God for insurance because the original bill was over 8K, but still! I did have Medical Coupon for myself while I was pregnant, but now I'm not. I'm not sure if that medical coverage will cover a D & C. I didn't give the hospital my DSHS information, but on Monday I am going to call Swedish and see if the state will cover some of this cost.

I don't know...I feel like I've taken a few steps backwards in my healing and it's frustrating. I was really starting to feel stable and now I feel like the rug has been pulled out from under me. My hormones are getting all situated again too so I know that had contributed to some this "downerness" that I feel right now. I have another therapy appt on Friday and I hope that will help some.

Conserve Water Drink Chocolate Milk!

I keep thinking...

she can't possibly...

get anymore...

cuter...

sweeter...

goofier (this is Ella's new dance move...the one leg stomp!)...

cheesier...

or precious then she already is!

But then...

I wake up the next morning and she's is!

FlyLady - Day 8

Since Wednesday was such 'A Not So Good Kind' of day I didn't do my FlyLady stuff. I did keep my sink shiny and all the other stuff I've learned I just didn't do anything new for that day. But here I am back in the saddle again!

Day 8 - Get A 3 Ring Binder And Put Paper In It!

This is the start of my Control Journal! When my friend Jen introduced me to FlyLady this is what she pulled out for me in her kitchen. She had all her routines written out and to be honest it was a bit overwhelming for me at the time. Probably another reason I procrastinated about starting this whole process. Even as I write this I'm getting a bit anxious thinking about what all goes into the Control Journal....baby steps...baby steps! Remember I'm one of those people that just loves to jump in the deep end and do everything all at once. This taking it one day at a time and forcing myself NOT to look ahead at Day 20 or something is killing me. I'm not though...really I haven't cheated once and looked forward...I'm learning this process slowly because I want it to be like a seed that takes root in me.

During this first part of setting up my Control Journal FlyLady doesn't want me to get all creative and artsy. It's not something I'm going to be graded on. BUT....since I couldn't stand to do nothing on the front I did copy the picture from the website and made a cover for my Journal!

I'm sure as I move along I'll probably type up my routines and leave blank spaces to add some new ones, but for right now it's all hand written and simple. I would also like to get some page protectors so I can use a dry eraser markers to cross things off the list as I got and then I can just wipe them off at the end of the day to start over. I'm one of those people that loves lists and I love to cross things off lists. In fact I've been known to write something off the list that I forgot to write on there and I've already done it, but I just want to cross it off! I like accomplishment...so kill me! ;)

Not So Good Kind Of Day!

So yesterday was a not so good kind of a day. We were doing really good with the new discipline method over the weekend, but now I'm doing it by myself. When things happen in the moment I have a hard time catching myself and knowing what to do. Thankfully I never did get upset, but I did have to call Michael for advice after one particular incident that I had idea how to handle. The boys are just testing me and seeing if they can get away with their old tricks and now that their old tricks are working they are upping their game. Totally expected! In addition to Daddy being at work we also had Logan on Tuesday and Wednesday so that adds a new twist to the whole process as well. Now they have to share me with someone else...another reason to try harder to get my attention.

When Michael got home I finished up dinner and then once Jen got here to pick up Logan I went out. I needed to get out of the house anyways and do some grocery shopping and it was definitely needed time away. I also needed to go to Bath & Body Works to get more hand soap since it's on sale right now. As I pulled into parking lot my phone rang...it was my OBGYN's office. The test results were in....there were no chromosomal abnormalities with the baby! I'm kind of confused by this...I think in my head I thought if they told me there was something wrong I would perhaps feel better (that's not the right word) about the baby dying. Like there was something wrong so it couldn't survive outside my womb. I know that there still could have been something wrong like a whole in the heart or other issues, but in regards to chromosomes the baby was fine. From a medical stand point that is a very good thing since some of those chromosomal abnormalities can be reoccurring...thankfully we don't have to worry about that.

The nurse was also able to tell me the sex of the baby....it was a boy! I was totally shocked! I was sure it was a girl, but then I got to thinking. The reason I was SO sure it was a girl was because the pregnancy symptoms were so similar to my pregnancy with Ella. BUT, the symptoms like acne and losing my hair actually started to happen AFTER the baby had already died. I carried the baby for 3 weeks after he died so those were actually a lack of pregnancy symptoms. After the kids were in bed I told Michael about the phone call and he said he knew it was a boy. I pushed him further and he just said he knew from the beginning it was boy. Now I find myself thinking what would he have looked like..smelled like...felt like? My baby boy! It makes it more real and more raw all over again!

This morning Michael and I talked about it and we've decided to give him the original boy name we had picked out for him....Kyan William Martin!

Memorial Day Fun!

On Memorial Day we wanted to have a full family day of fun so we started out dipping into the rain day fund and taking the kids to a movie. We went to the cheap theater in Federal Way and saw Gnomeo & Juliet in 3D. We also got the big bucket of popcorn and a pop. It came to $23, but was WAY less expensive than going to a regular theater. The big bucket and large pop come with one free refill and we did use those. Ella seriously thought that the popcorn bucket was all hers. Even if she wasn't eating it she just had to have her hands in there. All the kids did great and had a wonderful time.

After leaving the movie we decided to use our GPS and go on a park hunt. Our first stop was at a park we knew was there, but we've never gone. We weren't even sure it had a play structure. Steel Lake Park isn't far from the theater...we've driven by it lots of times, but you can't tell from the road that there is a play area by the water.

The play area is awesome! It's one of those older wood ones and I love those. I hope they don't change it anytime soon. It seems like they are changing all those old wood ones out to plastic ones. This place is huge and lends the kids to using their imagination big time. We could probably have stayed there all day.

Ella was on a mission to check it out. She is very comfortable about being around older kids and she will just jump right in.


She almost went running down the slide the first time...thankfully Daddy was there to catch her. After that she was really good about going down feet first and belly down.

The main play structure has so many different staircases and "hidden" passageways. The boys had so much fun just go up and down, in and out and all around.

This way mommy!

Wait up Owen!!!

Love this picture...not sure what Jack is saying, but he looks serious. I also love Ella's jeans...her tush is so cute!!!

Towards the end of our adventure we took the kids down to the beach. Ella almost lost her balance and fell in the water, but thankfully she caught herself. I can't wait to come back here and spent the whole day this summer when the weather is nicer.

After we left this park we went to another one on our GPS, but it was lame so we went to another one and had fun. It was a newer plastic one and it had some trails that we walked on too. I didn't get any pictures there because I thought my camera battery had died, but later on I found out it hadn't. Oops! The kids definitely got their energy out and it was nap time when we got home!

FlyLady - Day 7

Day 7 - Pick Out Your Clothes!

Yesterday FlyLady wanted me me to add something to my bedtime routine to make things easier for me in the morning. So last night I picked out what shirt I was going to wear this morning. Really picking out my clothes in the morning isn't something I struggle with. I just pick something and go.

As you can see my closet is well organized and all my clothes are in this one spot. We have a dresser in our bedroom, but it doesn't hold any of our clothes...it's where I put all our sheets. The only time I think this might things easier for me is on a Sunday when I'm trying to get dressed up a little bit more for church. Since I'm a SAHM I don't typically dress up for doing my Mommy duties so getting dressed up does seem to take me longer.

I also decided to join in with the correspondence that FlyLady sends out in regards to Zones. Tuesday was Zone 5 Mission #2 which was all about going around the Living Room/Family Room and cleaning all those nasty I mean absolutely adorable fingerprints off everything. I cleaned my big mirror that was in the playroom in the photo from Day 6 and the big picture window in our Living Room, the TV, the front door and I took down all the artwork that has been on the sliding glass door and cleaned it off as well. Oh my...there is so much wonderful natural light shining into my craft area now it's amazing! Oh and I also used the bleach I bought the other day on the other side of my sink so it's now nice an shiny like the other side. Love my shiny sink!!

Remembering Our Heroes!

On Sunday we took the kids to see Peepaw's grave at Tahoma National Cemetery. We know that Peepaw is not there...his body is, but it's good to go and remember him. I do remember him at other times, but it's good to have a focused time to honor him and the man he was. It's also a wonderful way to have conversations with your kids that might not otherwise come up. The kids know that when you die God gives you a new body and your old sick body is left behind and you are healed. What a wonderful thing for our children to understand at a young age.

Hey Ga-Ga & Pa...here we come!!!

C.K. Grant 02/16/1920 - 10/05/2008


All the graves looked great with the flags and flowers. So many people were there to honor the heroes that have fought for our country.

Most of the time I don't get choked up when I think about Peepaw. I know that he is in heaven and he is healed and we will see him again, but today I got a bit choked up. I miss him and I'm sad that he's not here to love on my kids. He LOVED my boys...Jack was still so little (exactly 4 months old) when he died, but he loved those boys. I'm sad that he wasn't here to meet Ella and he'll never be able to hold her in his arms and say, "Sakes and Days!" I know he would have LOVED her so much!

Ella is such a gem...she had so much fun just wandering through all the graves. We had to stop her from messing up all the flowers. She was like a kid in a candy store.

Peepaw's grave is right on the edge of a greenbelt so the boys got to have their own adventure of turning over rocks and finding bugs.

It was nice a visit!

Then it was time to go!

We told Ella to say bye-bye and she turned around and waved....talk about choking you up! When I got to the van to put Ella in the car Owen was already buckled in and he looked out and said, "Bye Peepaw...see ya next time!"