I Believe in Fairies!!

Do you belive in Fairies? Because I do!! I can't even begin to tell you how many times I've looked around my house, at a mess that I didn't want to deal with, and wished I could blink my eyes and it would all be magically taken care of. Or that I would go to bed at night with a messy house and in the morning everything would somehow manage to find it's way back to where it's supposed to be. Or maybe the job was so big that it was overwhelming and I would find myself wishing that little Fairies would come and bail me out. Over the last 3 months little Fairies have indeed been visiting my Dover house. Grandpa Bud and Grandma Ruth have been keeping up with our yard work for us. They were on top of the mail situation and got it taken care of right away. Not to mention taking care of getting the garbage out to the curb and the cans back to the garage each week. They have planted, pruned and watered. They also fixed all the paint boo boos that Isaac made while he was "helping" us paint. Making sure that our little house was taken care of. Our other magical Fairies are Mary and Randy. We seriously could not have asked for better neighbors. We have been so completely overwhelmed at all the work our Dover house needed in order to be put on the market. And when it comes down to it we only have 1&1/2 days a couple times a month to get all this work done. Not nearly enough time. We didn't have a clue how we were ever going to get everything done this time around. Our goal was to have the house ready to be put on the market. However we knew that nothing short of a miracle was going to make that happen. There was simply too much work to be done for 2 people in less than 48 hours. When we walked in the house on Friday we were amazed to see that Fairies had indeed visited us. Our bathroom was completely made over and all our painting jobs were complete. But wait, they didn't stop there. When they were done upstairs they moved on down to the basement. Cleaning, organizing and painting. Over the last 3 months they have: fixed our cracking walls, updated our wiring, brought our outlets up to code, Scraped the paint from our front porch, painted walls and woodwork, completely remodeled our bathroom and cleared weeds from our gravel driveway. They also added a built in buffet to our living room that they made themselves!! It is really beautiful! Randy will also be finishing the paint job that we didn't have time to complete while we were home. Talk about a huge load being taken off of our shoulders. Because of all of their help we were able to load up yet another uhaul this weekend, finish up some odds and ends and clean. The house isn't exactly where I wanted it to be but it is hitting the market this week. We never would've been able to accomplish this on our own. Someone even cleaned out our garage...but I can't give credit out for that because so far no one has fessed up. So you see Fairies DO exist and if you buy my house you could even live right next door to a few of them yourself.

some losses and some gains

It seems that this past week has centered around losses and gains. We've all lost some things and some of us have gained things as well. Isaac lost his bid for a seat on the student council. He was devastated!! He really really wanted this and I think he thought he had it in the bag. He was stunned when he did not win the election. We all lost the opportunity to come "home" this past weekend. We lost valuable time to prepare our house to get it on the market. Maia gained a new friend. I'm not sure how we missed her the first 2 months we lived here but there is a little girl that lives directly across the cul-de-sac from us. Her name is Brianna, she is in 2nd grade and she loves Hannah Montana. She also takes piano lessons and loves to ride her bike. She has been over every evening since we discovered her. The girls lock themselves up in Maia's room and pretend to be rock stars. They turn the volume on Maia's cd's up and grab their microphones (bed posts) and rock it out. They chase each other around the back yard and play tag. Then they hop on their bikes ride around the cul de sac. With Maia's gain has come a loss for Isaac. He feels like he has lost his sister. His best friend. Maia is growing and changing and Isaac is afraid she is leaving him behind. Shiloh is losing all her fur. She is biting ALL of it off. I have NEVER seen anything like what she is doing to herself. It's almost like self mutilation. Therefore she has gained herself a visit to the vet. While we are there I will lose lots of money!! I just hope we don't lose her. None of us could handle that loss. Andy has lost all his free time. He comes home from work and promptly locks himself in the basement to do more work. Which makes me feel like I've lost my best friend. I've also lost myself somewhere along the way. I was hoping to make it to the PTO meeting last night. To volunteer and maybe make some new friends as well. To maybe find a part of myself that is missing. That was a lost opportunity as well. My desire to scrapbook is completely lost!! I could care less about creating anything these days. Asher has gained some newfound one on one time with me. He has also gained the opportunity to play with his and his brother's forbidden toys in peace throughout the school day. We have all gained a fantabulous metro parks system with countless things to do on any given day. I have gained an aquaintance. However I think I may be losing my sanity. We're losing money every single day our house sits empty in Dover. I've gained the absolute BEST shopping ever here. Isaac has gained a jazz lovin' teacher. He doesn't really count that as a good gain though. Andy has gained a heavier work load but with that comes a heftier check. Gains and losses. Good and bad. But isn't that what The Bible tells us in Ecclesiastes. That there is a time for everything. Ecclesiastes 3:1-8

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the Heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; A time of war, and a time of peace.

We were planted in Dover and God saw fit to pluck us up and move us. We are all trying to heal from that move. Some of us are breaking down but others of us are being built up. Some of us are laughing while yet others of us are weeping. Some of us are still mourning while others dance around us. We are all getting and we have all lost. Some of us want to be held and some of us just want to be left alone. While 5 minutes later we switch roles altogether. Some of us are painfully silent while others of us are joyously overflowing with words. Some of us are at war with our own selves while the others feel at complete peace. Who's who you may wonder? Well that's part of the beauty of it. We are constantly shifting. Building each other up until the next one falls. That's the uniqueness of the family dynamic. We are constantly changing. When one of us struggles the other's pull together and carry the one who's faltering. Just until they are able to stand on their own 2 feet again. Then we gently put them down and pick up the next person who's heart is full of hurt. And this is the very best part....God is growing ALL of us ALL the time. Whether we are mourning or dancing. Whether we are weeping or laughing. He is growing each of us through our own unique experiences...shaping us to help each other. Such is the journey of life. And I wouldn't want to take the journey with anyone other than these unique individuals that God has blessed me with.

who needs electricity?

Losing your electricity for days at a time stinks. For real it really stinks. You should smell my house right now. I had to spend the day throwing out everything from my fridge and freezer. Hundreds of dollars worth of food. And cleaning melted ice cream off the bottom of your freezer is no easy task. It's gross. Thankfully my pampered chef scraper came in handy for that job. I've been spraying Febreeze like a mad woman trying to get rid of the stench. But the good news is my fridge is now sparkling clean!!

The other good news is that my kids learned a valuable lesson in teamwork. The neighbors right beside us lost several trees and some siding off their house. On Monday when Andy got home from work the first thing he did was go to their house and help out. The kids quickly followed. They picked up sticks, raked, ran the wood chipper and wheelbarrowed. Okay so wheelbarrowed may not officially be a word...but this is my blog so I can make it a word here if I want to. Is it barrel or barrow? Maybe I should've looked that up before I posted it. That's just too much work for me today though! Anyways I worked on our yard while my family helped the neighbors out in their yard. In return, the neighbors took all of our limbs, sticks and debris and put it through their wood chipper. When their yard was almost done their Daughter, Merritt, came over to help me with our yard. She was a huge help. For some reason just her presence over here made my kids want to work alongside her. How's come kids are thrilled to help out anyone and everyone except their parents? Merritt also kept the kids entertained. Because all work and no play make for a dull day, they caught and observed bugs. They found a praying mantis and then fed crickets to it. Merritt totally upped her cool factor with Isaac when she not only touched the bugs but was actually quite knowledgable about them. Speaking of Isaac...he showed everyone how smart he is. When the wood chipper suddenly stopped Isaac suggested that it was outta gas. The adults assured him that was NOT the case. After about 5 minutes of tinkering with no success they decided to pour some gas in. Whaddya know...Isaac was right. It took 2 days but our yard is finally as cleaned up as it's gonna get. And we got to know our neighbors a little better.

One of the worst parts about the electric being out is not having any working stop lights. I thought everyone knew it turned into an automatic 4 way. Not really here. It was more like a free for all. Try to imagine 16 lanes of traffic all trying to go 4 different directions at the same time!! I prayed, held my breath, bit my nails and prayed some more. Then I breathed a huge sigh of relief when we finally made it home. And vowed not to venture out on my own again until power is restored to all of our city. Franklin county alone still has about 220,000 customers without service. The other surrounding counties only have tens of thousands of customers without service. Maybe by next week I can venture back out on my own again. We also had cell phone issues. Because we don't have a land line and we don't have electricity we really worried when our cells got down to one bar of power. Andy HAD to go to Starbuck's to plug his in a couple of times. I'm sure it was a real chore for him. Coffee, quiet and solitude. Yeah I really felt bad for him. He also had a real hard workday on Monday. They didn't have power there either. The company wanted them to stay however just in case it suddenly came back on. They were worried about shutting Honda down. So he got to sit in his car all day and work on his own stuff. He drank coffee, read books, and wrote books as well. All by himself. In the quiet. Yeah it was real hard on him.

Serene Sunday?

We spent Sunday early afternoon at the Inniswood Gardens. That is one of our 15 really amazingly cool metro parks:)Isaac found some wild mushrooms while we were there. As we were hiking along the paths at the gardens sticks, acorns and other such things were falling on my head. Not my family's head mind you just my head! The wind was howling so loud that it was seriously freaking Maia out. She was scared to death that one of the trees were going to fall on her. We of course told her she was crazy and to relax. Of course we would never take her somewhere where she would get hurt. Or face certain death. Geesh what kind of parents does she think we are anyways??? Never mind that this tree was uprooted. Just ignore that little tidbit okay...because we did!! We weren't about to let this little okay fine huge blown over tree deter us from a stroll in the woods. Andy took this fab picture of me and the kids. I asked him if he was sure he got a good picture and he looked at the view finder and said it was a great picture. Uh GEE ya think so? Really? You can tell me this is a great picture? No wonder I have no pictures of me and the kids on display!!Isaac decided he was Tarzan!Andy checking out the rock garden. Asher loved checking out the trains.And then he found a face on the tree. Can you see it? He thought it was hysterical!!!After we left the gardens we somehow stumbled on a body of water(Hoover reservoir?) so we decided to get out and enjoy the waves. Curiously nobody else was there. Except of course that poor seagull that was being tossed to and fro in the wind. The kids wanted to see boats but none were out. Hm wonder why? We enjoyed the water anyways. Andy and Isaac skipped rocks while Maia and I held onto each other for dear life. The wind whipping our hair into our faces hard enough to actually sting. Still we didn't have a clue as to what was going on? After I had enough gritty sand in my mouth to make me gag I made an executive decision to leave. I know technically Andy is the CEO in our house... but If mama ain't happy...ain't nobody happy. We went on our merry way and found yet another metro park. If I thought the wind was bad before now it was really picking up speed. Tree branches and leaves were flying every which way. The kids started complaining about not being able to catch their breath. But did we leave? Nah. The kids were having fun!! After awhile I told them I was leaving with or without them. I was getting sick of tree bark hitting me in the head. They decided to see it my way and off we went. We have a new game that involves trying to find our way back home without hitting the highway. It helps us find cool new spots and figure out how all the suburbs fit together. Remember we are new in this town. So on our way home we were determined to not get on the highway. This is when we noticed that something was terribly wrong. There were downed trees everywhere. On cars, in the streets. on power lines, in parking lots...you get the point. We saw a tree fall on a car for heaven's sake. The 3 young men inside were all fine. Anyways as we got closer to home we realized that our neighborhood was hit just as hard as all the hoods we had seen. All of our neighbors lost trees and siding!!! Plus power!! It looked like some kind of war zone. And I gotta tell ya....the wind won this war!! We tried talking to the peeps in the hood. They were trying to give us the lowdown on how the wind was getting the best of us. Then I looked at my kids running through our yard, you know the one with all the trees? Wow my babies sure are having a good time I thought. But then I looked at the trees instead of my kids and realized maybe we better get the freak in the house. Because either we were standing sideways or the trees were. Plus I couldn't really hear all the details of how each and every tree went down because hello!!! it sounded like a tornado out there. So in we came. To ride out the storm. There was no rain, no thunder, no lightning.....just incredible crazy scary wind. I can't even begin to imagine what the people in Texas went through.

I'm just glad this tree didn't fall on us!! I can say with a certain amount of confidence that Andy and I are complete morons. Because really who takes their kids out in the middle of the mother of all windstorms without even realizing that there is a windstorm? That's right people......morons do!!!!!

Am I mean?

So Asher isn't feeling well. He woke up from his nap on Monday with a fever and a nasty headache. I mean a nasty headache!! Monday night was not a good night. I don't think anybody slept. Tuesday morning was worse. Asher's fever was out of control and he kept complaining about this awful headache. We started the whole tylenol/motrin ritual. It was so pathetic whenever he looked up at me, with tears streaming down his face, and told me he thought he was dying:( When he woke up from his nap Tuesday he started complaining about a sore throat! By last night we knew he needed a Dr. Of course we don't have a Dr. here. So we started looking into emergency rooms. Eventually Asher crashed and I stayed up all night researching urgent cares. First thing this morning we headed out. I knew my boy had strep. No doubt about it. We got to the urgent care and had virtually no wait. In fact we were the only ones there. The receptionist and the nurse were both super. They talked to Asher and tried to engage him. Of course he was having no part of it. So in comes the Dr., making all sorts of crazy claims about cows saying meow and frogs saying moo. pretty funny stuff. He was talking about how he was seriously considering teaching his brand new baby all the wrong animal sounds just to mess with the kindergarten teachers. oooookkaaayyy then...looks like we have a winner. Actually he was pretty funny. He took a throat culture then told Ash to feel free to sit on his motorcycle while we waited. He seriously had his ginormous Honda Goldwing INSIDE the office. Well Asher was thrilled to be sitting on this thing. I do think he took the unsuspecting Dr. by surprise when he asked for the keys and wanted to rev the red beauty up:) I gave doc the rundown on Uncle Kyle and explained that's how Ash knew his stuff. Kyle, you may be receiving a call from someone named Bob. Turns out he's trying to sell his bike because now that he's a daddy himself he feels kinda bad about lying to his own pop. Seems his dad has some steadfast rule about moped's and motorcycles being a big fat no no. He expressed concern that his sisters were gonna rat him out. Guess he doesn't want Karma to bite him in the butt in 30 years or so. So the culture came back positive for strep. No surprise to me. And this is where I start to question myself. I had to choose between two treatment options. A 10 day round of the pink stuff......or 1 shot in the butt of penicillin. I hate the pink stuff...it gives Ash an upset belly and I'll be honest here-it's a pain in the butt to remember to give that stuff 3x a day for 10 days. HHMMMM? Pain in the proverbial butt for me or a literal pain in the butt for Asher? What would you have done? It only took me a sec to bare my boys cheek for the nurse. She kinda gave me a dirty look and handed the needle over to the Dr. Bob. Asher was totally unsuspecting. By the time it was over he had snot, slobber and tears all rolling down his face. Dr. Bob told him he could sit on his bike again but Asher lamented that he will never never never be able to sit down again. It is 7 hours later and he has not sat on his bottom at all!! Poor guy!!! For what it's worth I chose the shot because I was told it would start working much sooner and be more effective than the pink stuff. So did I scar him for life? Will he never want to go to the Dr.s again? On the plus side he did enjoy looking at the Solara convertable parked in the ambulance entrance...I think we found a Dr after Ash's own heart.

Look what I did!!

I know it's shocking right? I haven't scrapped at all this entire Summer! Anyways here are 2 that I did this weekend.

First Missing Tooth.

Always on the move. They aren't my most creative pages ever but seriously I just had to do something to get out of my rut. I think I forgot how to scrap this Summer:(

Here are 2 pages I did late last Spring. Both layout are based off of sketches by Jodie at http://sketchitout.blogspot.com/. The Elmo was handcut by Jenny. She sent it to me as a prize for a contest I won last Spring.

Sorry for the crappy pictures!!

Movie Night Makes Comeback

We revived movie night last night after a long 4 month hiatus. It felt good to do something normal for our family again. Friday night movie night was instituted more than a year ago. Everyone in the family looked forward to it and we rarely missed a Friday. Somewhere in the midst of all the chaos this Summer it got lost. Last night we all sprawled out together, with lots of yummy treats, and watched Nim's Island. What a way to bring movie night back...this movie was so good. Even Andy raved about it and let me tell you he is normally very hard to please. We welcomed our tradition back like an old friend. With open arms and lots of smiles. Today we are off to a festival! Andy and I have made a pact to purposely smile. Even when the kids are in the backseat fighting or whining about not getting their own way. We will smile. And eventually they will smile as well. I think this Summer we lost sight of the fact that our mood sets the tone for their mood. So even if it kills us we will smile and talk softly:)

Have a good day all!!

A Mother's Heart

Wow 2 posts in one day!! Aren't you lucky? I'm kidding of course:) Just wanted to give everyone at "home" a heads up. We will NOT be making the long trek back this weekend. We need a break. We have been running ourselves ragged. And frankly we need to reconnect as a family. Seems all I've been telling my kids lately is "wait a minute" "just a sec" "no" "why in the world would you want to do that?" "go find something to do" And "huh?". The catalyst for our decision came a couple of days ago when I heard about the tragic loss of another blogger mommy. She is a homeschool mama to 3 boys. The youngest was very close in age to Asher. He died last week in a very tragic accident. Every mother's worst nightmare kind of a thing. It's all I've been able to think about the last few days. It seems when something like this happens we all hug our little ones a bit tighter and take stock of all we have. I'm here to tell you I have a lot. God has blessed me so tremendously. But with everything that has been going on around here lately I seem to have lost track of that. It has become very clear to me that everyone in this family needs their love bank filled back up. All our love "saving's" have been depleted. I have been impatient, selfish and exasperated the last several months. Meeting each of my family member's requests with a sigh and an eyeroll. Like it's some sort of gigantic effort to meet their needs. Not exactly treating them like the blessings they are am I? So this weekend we will stay home. I will apologize and they will forgive me. Then I will say things like "sure" "sounds great" "let's go right now" "I would love to" and "why didn't we think of this sooner?". And I will say it all with a smile on my face and in my heart. I will close the computer and put my books away. We will curl up and read books about Anne from a place called Green Gables. We will eat popcorn and watch movies. We will play silly games and laugh until we cry. We'll build train sets and towers and have loud rock band concerts. We'll bake cookies and bread. We'll color and sew and glitter and glue until our fingers stick together. And through it all I'll re-discover my mother's heart....

Thank you Lord for blessing me with these three. May I never take a day spent with them for granted. For we know not what tomorrow brings. Please be with the Drew's as they mourn the loss of their sweet "Dozer". Thank you for the almost 4 years that this family got to live, love, laugh and hold little "Dozer" here on Earth. I'm sure he taught them much. May they feel Your love blanket them and may they find peace that they will see him again on the other side.

rain rain don't go away

It has been raining here all day. A nice steady rain with a tiny bit of thunder thrown in every once in a while. Normally we walk to school. In fact we avoid driving to the school at all costs. Because of the traffic and bizarre loopy thing you have to navigate through. But today it was unavoidable. Now keep in mind that all Summer long I have been complaining about my attached garage. It makes the house smelly!! But today was another story. I walked out of my family room into the garage and loaded all 3 kids in the van. Drove through the funky drop off loop and promptly headed back home. Where we drove into our garage and re-entered the house through the family room. It took a total of 10 minutes!! And not one single drop of rain touched me or Ash. Which is important because of course we would melt if it did....

Little Miss Independant

If this move has done anything at all it has made me more independant. I'm not usually a girl who likes change. I like things to stay the same because new situations tend to scare me. Okay fine they terrify me! Really sometimes just the act of ordering a pizza from a new place can send me into a panic. Poor Andy has had to live with my irrational quirkiness for a long time. He's kinda gotten used to my...hmmm...how to put it nicely...crazy ways. He knows right away what I'm not comfortable doing and he just does it for me. Well we really don't have that option anymore. His new job doesn't allow him the freedom that his old job did. He can no longer come home in the middle of the day to deal with something that has me in a tizzy. I've had to be a big girl and take on some things that would normally immobilize me with fear.

• Enrolling the kids in a brand new school all by myself.
• attending student walk through all on my own.
• calling repairmen
• obtaining all the kids records
• looking for new drs/dentists
• contacting new sports opportunities
• wrapping up all our old bills
• setting up new utility services
• participating in school supply store
• meeting new teacher

Now I know any sane 30 something girl should be able to complete all these tasks with no problem. However, I'm not sane! Before this move I needed Andy to stand beside me and give moral support the first time I did something new. After the first time I am good to go but I do need some hand holding at first. Especially with this being a town I am NOT familiar with. But you know what? I did all of the things above, plus so much more, all on my own in the last several months. Heck I'm even the one who found our new home. On my own!! After we dropped the kids off at school today Ash and I headed to the grocery store. In this big city that I now call home. All by ourselves. Busy roads and all. And you know what? I wasn't scared at all!!! God is growing me people!! And I know it sounds ridiculous, being that these are things most people do everyday, but I'm pretty darn proud of myself.

Oh did you notice my new music feature. Click on the pop out selection and you can listen to some tunes while you read!!

A whole new set of worries

It just keeps getting better people. My week that is. This is my sink:

It's looked like this for 2 days now. I know...totally gross right. Both sides are completely clogged up. Plus the bottom of my brand new dishwasher is full of water as well. No amount of plunging or Liquid Plumber seems to be working. I think it might be time to give Roto Rooter a call. I did learn a lesson though...you can't shove half a ham down your disposal. And the little wrench thingy they give you with your disposal, to reduce service calls, is useless without directions. I've stuck that stupid little wrench in every crevice I can find with no luck whatsoever.

This is my fireplace: See the 8 "missing bricks"? That's where my critter's come in at. We had the brilliant idea of duct taping the whole mess up. I CANNOT cohabitate with critters. See that mess of tape? Down there at the base of the fireplace? That's where we found it when we got home on Monday. It seems it isn't gonna stay stuck. I thought duct tape worked for everything? So the critters are free to roam my family room and who knows what else in the wee hours of the morning again. Free to party in my abode. Hopefully they like intimate gatherings and aren't into rave like bashes. It's easier for me to stomach if I can think of one little chipmunk trying to woo his little girlfriend (Alvin and Britanny anyone?) with a little bit of mood lighting and some yummy crumbs from under my dinner table than a whole mess of them partying it up disco style!

The wise words of my grandfather keep coming back to haunt me. "You know" he said "if a chipmunk can get in then a small squirrel could fit in that there hole as well". Hmmm...thanks grandpa, I hadn't thought of that.

Exhaustion

I am absolutely completely totally exhausted. I am physically and emotionally drained. Spent and wiped out. We went to Dover over the long weekend to work on the house there some more. There has got to be an end in sight somewhere right? Every time we go back and forth like this it just makes it harder for those of us that are still struggling with the move. Please say a little prayer for us that we get all our loose ends tied up soon and get that house on the market. And if you're feeling extra generous maybe you could throw in a few prayers that the house will sell quickly. We have made the long trek back 3 out of the last 4 weekends and it looks like we'll probably be going back this coming weekend. Really, I'm not sure how much more of this I can take. I need some closure and rest.....