Summer Time

Summer time is here!  Our trip to San Diego kicked off our summer this year and here we are only in the first week of summer break and I am already searching the web for free/cheap summer entertainment.  Thought I would pass along some of the things we will be doing here and maybe you can join us or find the same things in your area.
The first thing is the pool... ours opens this weekend and I will be signing up the boys for swim lessons.  We will be hanging out at Deer Creek Pool.
Through our recreation district there are summer concerts that are offered.  I am going to try and make it to a few of these at Clement Park.
Then for those hot summer days there are a few options as well...
The boys and I will, I am sure make it to a few of the summer movies.
I also just signed up the boys for summer bowling.
Then on top of all that stuff my MOPS group is hosting weekly park playdates at various local parks on Thursdays... with that being said, we have to get going to our first summer park playdate!
Hope that you have a great day!

Published again...

So I told Michael that I would just send in my posts to be published only after the previous was published... So after my last one was published I sat down the next morning and wrote another... Here it is....fluff-times-two

For Sale

You know those days as moms where you would gladly give away your children for a moment of peace and quiet?!?!  Well, I had one of those days this week.  I spent my entire day yelling at the top of my lungs, "Stop your screaming and crying!"  Yes, I know... I was contributing to the yelling but between the three kids they were all screaming and crying and it was all I could do to not lock them in the basement and throw away the key, or stick them on the front lawn with a for sale sign!  As I spent my day screaming at them I was reminded of how many times as the oldest of three daughters, my sisters and I would push our mom to the very edge of her own sanity... two pictures stick out in my mind like no other (sorry mom I have to divulge!).
One time my sisters and I were screaming at each other, my dad had got home from work and threw his stuff on the floor as my mom was trying to clean the house from the week's chaos.  Mom lost it, she started screaming and then went and locked herself in her walk in closet, of which at the time her closet was our cat's favorite place to spray... so when mom finally cooled down she opened the door and there she sat on the floor with cat urine smell and said, "Look what you have done to me!"  The other time was like any other morning commute to school, my sisters and I were bickering about who knows what and our tone got louder as mom tried to drown it out the praise music.  Mom had had enough and screamed, "Just shut up and praise the Lord."  Those two visions ran so clearly through my mind this week!
Although I lost my cool by the end of the night, all three boys had snuggled next to me to give me a hug and tell me that they loved me... I guess it makes up for it all in the end!

Talking Ki

Ki has been doing really well with his talking lately!  It is fun to hear him and to see this sense of independence that he has.  Some of my favorite things that he is saying are "Riah" for Zach... He can't get Zechariah so he has just shortened it, there is a part of me that is thinking that Zach's name should be changed to Riah instead!  Another Ki word is "Tu" now this would make no sense to anyone but myself.  He comes up to me lays his head on my shoulder and says, "Tu" for "I love you".  It took me a while to figure out what he was saying but Zeke came and said it to me and then Ki came over and did the same thing... I guess having a monkey see, monkey do is helpful in Ki translation!  While Zeke is at school on Tuesdays Ki has speech therapy and then on Thursdays I was involved in MOPS and Bible study but those of those finished last week so yesterday was one of the rare days where Ki, Zach and I had nothing to do.  Zach naps in the morning and so Ki and I had time to play together - we had so much fun!  Ki is so different than Zeke in his personality and it is neat to get those peeks when we have that one on one time. 

The Clock Is Ticking

Michael and I got to the point of being at the end of ourselves with Zeke and his eating habits.  That kid could sit at the table an hour or more eating his dinner.  In recent weeks he has taken a meal that takes the rest of the family twenty minutes to eat and made it into an hour plus.  A common sight in our house is Zeke sitting at the table finishing his dinner while I am cleaning up the dishes, sweeping the floors and then turning off the kitchen lights to head upstairs to shower Ki.  Last night was the last of that... Michael and I decided that we will set a timer out and he will have a set amount of time to eat and whatever he does not eat will be thrown out and he is out of luck for the rest of the night, no snacks no juice just water.  I sure hope that it works! 

Idiots

I spent almost two hours dealing with idiots and it was a clear reminder of why I love being a stay at home mom.  My encounters with idiots are very limited of which I am soooo glad.  Today was one of those encounters however!  UGH! 
I spent two hours trying to get insurance issues resolved.  I realize that people do not go out of their ways to be idiots and I know that people are just trying to do their jobs... but sakes, some people suck at their jobs!  As a law abiding citizen, who follows speed limits, pays my taxes, and supports the local and national government why is it that I get the short end of the sticks all the time? 
My first issues were with Zach's insurances... when he was born we were on one insurance the day after I delivered him I called in to announce his arrival to three different companies.  It took those three companies a month before the all talked to communicate that in fact there was a birth.  Now I am dealing with trying to figure out who is responsible for his bills... I know it is not me!  With three different insurance companies someone should be paying the bills.  Then there are the companies that provided services to Zach who can not figure out that there was insurance so they are not submitting to insurance and are getting grumpy with me.  If people would just do their stinking jobs!!!
Then there is another issue that dates back to 2008 for me!  While we were applying for our house loan we were notified that there was a negative on my credit report.  Come to find out in March of 2008 I went to urgent care and they never submit my bill to insurance.  Did they contact me?  No!  The original urgent care sent my account to collections.  Did collections contact me?  No!  I had to find out about the problem as we are applying for a home loan.  Now I am trying to track everything down... I had insurance during the time of service.  The Urgent care never sent a claim to insurance.  The urgent care will not talk with me because the sent my account to collections.  UGH!  What is a person to do? 
After all my phone calls and such I feel drained and discouraged.  I can't wait to curl up in bed and sleep away my frustrations, although I fear that I will think about it all night since I am so worked up about it.  UGH!

Mulligan

Yep, that is pretty much what I am calling!  I think that I should get a Mother's Day Mulligan.  Yesterday started off nice... just hanging around the house with the three little munchkins that make me mommy.  After trying to get Ki to nap we decided to just head out in hopes that he would fall asleep in the car (no such luck if you were wondering!).  We headed up to Michael's office so that he could try to get his computer fixed (no such luck if you were wondering!).  After about a half an hour of hanging out at the office we came down to my car to find a large puddle under it... since it was hot the air conditioner was on and so we assumed it was just that (no such luck if you were wondering!).  A quarter of a mile down the hill my car lost traction and we pulled over as it was overheating.  Michael poured all the water bottles that we had full of water in hoping to cool the car down (no such luck it you were wondering!).  After a few tries we ended up about two miles from the office with a car that was overheated sitting on the side of the highway with three kids and 80 degree temperatures.  Michael realizing that he was not going to be able to get the car fixed had me call triple A.  I was told that we would have to wait for 75 minutes before a truck could come and get us because we were a family of five and there are only three seats in each truck so they would have to dispatch two trucks and they were really busy!  Desperation set in and Michael began trying everything he could to get the car to cool down... a trip down the side of the road to a stream brought back some cold water that he used to put in the pump.  After about forty minutes we were back on the road.  We made it home and Michael immediately took my car to our local repair shop and left it in the parking lot for this morning.  Michael rented a car for me and the plan was that my car would get fixed in a day and we would be back in business.  Well I spent my day driving in a mini van (not my favorite thing to drive, in fact I swore years ago that I would never drive one and today I had to eat my words).  My car is still in the shop and we are hoping that by tomorrow afternoon it will finally be done.  I will say that there was one good thing that came out of the whole ordeal... the warranty covered my car being fixed, which is a good thing since Michael had to buy a new computer today!  So as you can see... Mulligan!

Published!

Not that it is a big deal but I had submitted a guest blog post about a month ago and I woke up this morning to see that my post has been published.  It is nothing huge but a little vote of confidence!  Here it is... to-cloth-or-not-to-cloth.

Mother's Day

My first Mother's Day - Five Generations

Mother's Day 2011 - What makes me a mommy!

Zechariah William

Malachi Alan

Ezekiel Michael