The Lemonade Award

My friend Julie over at Momma4Real gave me the

Lemonade award last month and I'm just getting

around to posting about it! Sorry Julie!!

Thank you so much!!

The way this award works is:

1. Thank the giver of the award and link to their blog.

2. List 5 things about yourself.

3. Link 5 new recipients and notify them.

So...5 things about me...

1. I've always liked scary stuff. The first books I

bought on my own were Christopher Pike.

{tell me I'm not the only one who knows who he is}

I love supernatural stories...

vampires, ghosts, werewolves, vampires.

Hehe.

2. If life had gone according to my plan, I'd be living in

New York right now, singing in a Broadway show. When

I graduated I wanted nothing more than to be Eponine

in Les Miserables. I had the drama/vocal scholarship to

Northwestern State University (where I recently found out I

only missed meeting Kimber there by a year!! How cool would

that have been?? I only attended about 3 months.)

My plan, obviously, was not God's plan.

Thank you, Lord. :)

I am, however, halfway through my senior year of a music

ed degree with an emphasis in voice, but I haven't attended

school since around 2001. As of right now I have no real

desire to go back and finish it. My desire is to finish having

babies and raise my family. Then maybe I'll go back.

I do, however, miss the singing.

3. I don't like to take baths.

Wait-let me rephrase.

I don't like to bathe.

Good grief...that's not any better...

Let me try again.

I don't like bathing in the bathtub.

I love a hot soak in the tub, but then I wash my hair,

put the conditioner in to sit while I soap up. Then I

get in the shower to rinse off. I just can't stand knowing

I'm rinsing off in the same yuck I was trying to wash

off to begin with!

4. I'm a painfully picky eater. And I hate it. I don't like most

veggies or any seafood. Paul says my

tastebuds don't work right, but I say they work too well.

I think they're hyper-sensitive and I taste everything

TOO well. My overworking sense of smell doesn't help.

Things like broccoli or seafood smell so strongly that I

can't even put them to my mouth. I try to taste new things.

Alot of it just tastes bad to me.

5. I belly dance.

Are you laughing?? Stop laughing!

I didn't say I was any good at it, but I do take lessons.

My friend Konnie and I have taken 4 or 5 semesters

worth. It's fun time by ourselves, plus it's a workout,

and you can't help but feel sexy when you're moving

your various body parts like that! I highly recommend it.

And my picks are:

1. Kimber at Day in the Life of a Girl Named Kimber

2. Kelli at Random Thoughts of a Supermom

3. Erica at Scottsville

4. Christie Rose at The Secret Life of an American Wife and Mom

5. Mimi at He & Me + 3

TTFN,

P.S. I tried to post this way earlier but Blogger was wiggin'

out and wouldn't publish or save!

I forgot to say...

Roll Tide!!!

Sorry all my Texas friends (and Kimber ;) It was a great game.

I was really sorry that McCoy got injured. I think it would have

been a much closer game if he hadn't!!

Work in progress...and the one in which I talk about boobs.

Ok, so just to get rid of the Christmas stuff

-which I still haven't done around my house, BTW-

I went ahead and put up the new background and header.

I got the background from One Cute Blog, but I made the

header myself. (With her permission, of course.)

I will put a picture in when I get a new group shot-

hence the large space in the center.

I'm also working on a new button and a post divider.

Anyone know how in the world to make the background

on the divider transparent?? I'm going a bit batty failing trying.

I tried to make my own (really cute) background, and actually did it,

but I can't make it show up the right size when I put it on my blog.

I'm saving as the correct size, and uploading it correctly (I think)

but when I try to use it, it doesn't stretch all the way across

my screen. Any helpful tips?? HTML is very frustrating!!

In other news, as of Monday, Emmie has finally stopped nursing.

We were only nursing before nap and bedtime anyway, and

she was playing more than eating, and frankly I'm just ready

to be able to take Excedrin again! (I realize that sounds horribly

selfish, but my headaches have been more and more frequent

lately, and Tylenol and Ibuprofen don't touch them anymore)

It is a sad milestone anyway-even at 19 months-and I miss it

already. So do my boobs. Seriously, pain and fullness abound.

But they're already easing on their own without me having to do

anything about it-like wrap them or pump till the milk is gone.

I swore after I stopped nursing Ashton that I'd never wrap them

up again. After walking around for 2 weeks looking like the

uni-boober I was left with sad, floppy, pancake-like caricatures

of my former (quite nice if I do say so myself) boobs. So with each

child since I have just weaned to once or twice a day before I

stopped nursing so that things could dry up without assistance.

And it has worked! They will never be what they used to be

(without surgical intervention) but at least they don't resemble

large deflated balloons!

Speaking of Emmie (What? That last paragraph was about Emmie!

Cause there's no way I'd write a whole paragraph about my

mammaries! That might just be wierd!! :)

Yesterday she figured out how to climb out of her playpen.

What's the big deal, you ask? The play pen is her bed.

I don't remember if I blogged about it, but due to lack of

anywhere else to put her

room in our house, Emmie has been in our bedroom

since birth. She is the lightest sleeper I have ever known, and for

the first year of her life, she woke up every time anyone even moved

the covers in the same room with her. This, of course, led to sleepless nights,

and to Paul moving out of our bedroom-not out of anger, but simply so

he could get sleep and function at work! After a while we were unhappy

with that arrangement so we decided to put her in a playpen in our closet.

Miraculous.

She started sleeping all night and Paul moved back to our room, and

everything was wonderful. Till yesterday. Now she's back in her

crib in our bedroom and yesterday was pretty rough. Today was

better, though, she didn't cry at all when I laid her down for

her nap, so I think she's dealing. Other than the fact that we can't

go it our bedroom when she's asleep-and she's a long napper-and we

have to sneak into bed at night and we can't move once we're there,

I think it's gonna be ok. I hope. At this point I can't even think

about having to get up with her at night again...I'm yawning

just thinking about it! :)

TTFN,

Validated

Warning: This post is going to be on a controversial

topic. Which is why I'm writing it in the first place.

Cause it shouldn't be.

One of the hardest parts of raising children, to me, is

the discipline part. If I'm being totally honest, Paul and I

don't always see eye to eye on how discipline should be

handled. We have, after many years of struggle, finally

stopped criticising each other's methods in front of the children.

(I know-horrible and inexcusable! We are finally trying

to always back each other up as much as possible!)

There are still times, however, when I say nothing in the moment

because I don't want to contradict him in front of the kids but then

when we're alone, I am quick to point out if I didn't agree with

how he handled things. And he does the same.

In our defense, we also comment when we think the other handled

a situation well. I think this kind of support is very important!!

Now...these discussions are in some ways good and bad.

They are good because sometimes we fuss without seeing the

whole situation and the other can either defend or explain the

behavior (not in front of the kids) and we can discuss how it

could have been handled differently. We can then go to the

child(ren) and discuss what happened and why.

They are bad because it sometimes feels like we are second guessing

each other. Paul is the heavy and I am the softy. This causes

friction sometimes because some issues he thinks are big deals

I don't always see that way.

You would think at this point we would have our act together,

but honestly, as the kids get older, the need for different,

still useful discipline is making things difficult!

For example, we can't punish Ashton and Sydney the same way

we punish the little ones-time out or standing in the corner just

don't have the same effect on the older two!

So, I guess discipline is an ever evolving thing.

One thing we never disagreed on was spanking.

We DO spank our children. But only when;

A) they are young

B) all attempts at other discipline have failed, or

C) their behavior is endangering themselves or others.

Now let's be clear. We DO NOT beat our children or physically,

mentally, or emotionally abuse them in ANY WAY. We

love our children more than life itself and only provide what

we consider disciplline in the form of loving guidance.

Having said all that, I need to say that the world has taken

spanking and made it taboo. Parents who spank are the

pariahs of society and their children are doomed to either die

at the hands of their violent parents or become violent societal

misfits themselves.

Studies have shown this is true. Right?

Finally, there is a study that shows differently.

Read here:

Study: Spanked Children May Grow Up To Be Happy,

More Successful

Most everyone I know and have ever known were spanked.

I was spanked. And none are any the worse for it today.

Most are wonderful people raising wonderful children

who are almost always also spanked.

And after years of feeling like I needed to hide the fact that

I spank my children, I finally feel validated. Isn't it horrible

that we can allow society so much control over what should

be very personal decisions??

Do you spank your children? (or did you when they were little?)

Just wondering.

TTFN,

Wordless Wednesday-please turn into a frog!

Going way back to 2000 for this one!! :)

Please say a prayer for Paul's dad today. They discovered cancer

in his lungs yesterday and think it has spread to his kidneys.

They are doing a biopsy this morning to see. Thanks in advance.

TTFN,

Just random

OMGosh it's cold here!! We're having record lows.

I HATE cold weather. Seriously.

That's why I live in the south!!

Getting up and getting the kids back to school has been

so much harder due to the low 20 degree weather

I've had to drag everyone out in the last 2 days!

I guess I'm glad we're actually having a winter, but

**********BBBRRRRRR**********

We are considering getting a dog. I must be crazy.

CRAZY I TELL YOU.

We actually went to the Mobile SPCA on Saturday and

met the sweetest doggie ever. We are discussing going

back and getting him, but he's so timid I'm afraid our

household would just be torture for him! We did decide

that we weren't going to pay for another expensive breed

cause that hasn't worked out so well for us in the past,

so we've been scouring petfinder.com for a shelter dog.

On a sad note, a local family lost their 10 month old when she

fell in the tub after her sister got out. Apparently the tub wasn't

drained and by the time her mom found her it was too late.

I found out later that her dad is someone I have known all my

life, but haven't seen in years. I am brokenhearted for this

family. We have been very strict about the bathroom since

Jacob was about 13 months and a friend of a friend lost a 14 month

old who fell head first in the toilet. After that we have been

insistant that the bathroom doors stay shut at all times,

and when the little ones get big enough to open the doors

by themselves we put door knob covers on. I never even

thought about that stuff when the older girls were little, and

it's scary to think about how quickly something like that

can happen. Please say a quick prayer for this family.

I hope everyone is enjoying the first week of 2010. It's been

crazy and COLD here, but we're getting back into the swing

of things, which is always a relief. Now, if you'll excuse me,

I'm going to go put my new Shark mop to good use!!

And yes, I do realize it's not Christmas anymore!!

I am currently working on a new background!! :)

TTFN,

Not Me Monday...is it over already?!?

Let me start by saying we did not have a super-fantastic

Christmas/New Year holiday.

Christmas was not the usual mad dash, last minute shopping

that it usually is, although it was not better than years past

-think; this year we were only still shopping the weekend before

versus still shopping on Christmas Eve in the past-

I know. Nice.

I did not, for a few days, let the house go to the point that I wanted

to close my eyes as I walked through it. This would not have

been seriously dangerous, as there were toys EVERYWHERE.

Anyone else not have a toy factory explode in their living room?

We did not have a nice family Christmas with no travel crammed

in anywhere. We usually go somewhere on a mini-vaca in the 2

weeks the kids are out. This year we opted to stay home. It totally

did not make the time seem to last!!

Having said that, however, we did not take a spur of the moment

trip to a fantastic, fun restaurant about an hour away. As we were

leaving the house we did not decide, also spur of the moment style,

to get a hotel room for that night and did not call our closest friends

to see if they wanted to do the same!

They didn't! (Except they really did!!)

It was not a great excursion, and I probably won't do a post

about it later in the week!

I also did not book our Disney vacation for this May-

and these same friends are not going at the same time!!

And I am not so unbelievably excited!!

It was not nice to be able to put our new timeshare to

work, not just for us, but for our friends too!

I am not one of those people who is kind of sad to see 2009 go.

I did not think 2009 was a pretty good year, and I really can't

think of anything in particular to complain about.*

*Sidebar: this is not a 'my-life-is-perfect-nothing ever goes

wrong-we-have-no-problems' bluff. I am not covering

up unhappiness or telling fairy tales. I am just saying that

in 2009 for us, there was more good than bad and I prefer to

remember it that way. This sidebar was brought on by the sudden

insurgence of people demanding 'totally honest blogging' and

'full disclosure blogging.' I try to do that as much as I am comfortable with,

but come on.

It's my life, my blog, and my prerogative to tell as much

or as little as I darn well please. Sorry if that sounded harsh.

We do not have 2 birthdays in our household this month, so it's

not possible that my baby is turning 13!!! OMGosh. Writing that

made it seem so much more real!! I'm not having trouble getting

my brain around that one!! Pray for me! :)

I am also not coming up on my one year blogiversary,

AND

my 200th post!!

I am not thinking I might just have to have one wicked

fun giveaway. You know, if I can get creative!! :)

More about that later.

Not Me's aside, I cannot believe the holidays flew by so

quickly. I was not ready for Paul to go back to work, or

the kids to go back to school!! Although, I must admit, I

am loving the reinstating(reinstatement??)of naptime!!

I hope everyone had a great holiday vacation as well.

TTFN,