40 Reasons to Celebrate Miss Musicality

Yesterday my awesome sister, Miss Musicality, turned 40! We're celebrating this big event this evening. But, I thought I would begin by celebrating her here on my blog a bit before the big bash.

40 Reasons to Celebrate Miss Musicality in no particular order
1. Her name describes her
2. She trusts me with her kids (what is she thinking?)
3. She is my Gossip Buddy (according to her 15-year old daughter)
4. She kept Little I for us when we stayed at Disney World for 8 nights
5. She still loves me even though I once got in HUGE trouble for calling her a "rump"
6. She first sang in church when she was 18-months old
7. She was nice to me in high school when we were in the same band class (I was a LOWLY Freshman and she was a Senior)
8. She lives locally now (after years in Iowa and Texas)
9. She made a homemade French silk pie for Cowboy a few years ago--a true labor of love
10. She made bread pudding with banana foster's sauce for me for my birthday (from the Ohana restaurant at the Polynesian resort at Disney World) YUMMY
11. She is organized
12. She starts a project and completes it in one fatal swoop
13. She is teaching a Narnia class next year at our homeschool co-op because I'm not creative enough to pull it off
14. She throws amazing parties
15. She is an awesome example of a godly mom
16. She is a fully devoted follower of Christ
17. She had her first child at the exact same age as I had mine (2 weeks before we turned 25)
18. She is training for a 1/2 marathon
19. She loves fresh veggies
20. She loves to try new things
21. She bravely parasailed in the Bay of Banderas at Puerto Vallarta last year
22. She had a c-section baby at 37 and was back teaching at co-op after a couple weeks
23. She gets me and all my weird ways
24. She mills her own grain and bakes amazing breads
25. She is a gracious hostess
26. When she was tiny (before I was born) she said, "boner me" to let someone know she was thirsty and needed a drink
27. She began homeschooling before me
28. She adopted a child before I did
29. She is a wonderful pastor's wife
30. She is loyal
31. She is a great pianist
32. She is an awesome show choir teacher
33. She is thoughtful
34. She is not worried about what people think of her
35. She introduced our family to an amazing chiropractor
36. She is not a huge fan of medication, but not afraid to take it when needed
37. She decorates her kids' rooms with such enthusiasm
38. She loves her some Diet Coke
39. She is a gracious hostess
40. SHE IS 3 YEARS OLDER THAN ME!!!

Tenderness

As a mom, these are some of my favorite moments. My children snuggling together


or my children showing their tender side with a pig


or my children playing with their younger cousins


or my children

yikes-I don't even know what to say about this

Moving on...


OK, apparently that's as good as it gets tonight!

Little Bit's Visit

Well, it's been a crazy month since Little Bit went home to live with her mom, brothers, and sister. She's doing well. I've stopped by their place a couple times in the past month to get my fix, but my family has not been able to see her.




So we decided to have her over Thursday to spend the night. What a reunion!!! She had been talking about "Daddy" for 2 days and couldn't have been happier to have had Cowboy pick her up Thursday evening. She and Cowboy then headed to Miss B's practice pool. She lit up at the first sight of a swimmer with her goggles and cap on, thinking it was Miss B! They had a sweet ride home, then she was reunited with C-Man--sweetest hugs and excitement from both of them. Then she found Little I--another precious reunion. We had a great evening. She was enamored by our newest family member, NoBo. Even though they're only two months apart, he is extremely behind and she most definitely is NOT!!! She hugged him, wanted to pick him up, patted him, gave him her paci, kissed him, and generally tried to mother him to death. :)



Since she's no longer our foster baby I can legally show her pics to all of you. She's SO beautiful and we love her dearly, but we know without a doubt that she is supposed to be with her mom and we know without a doubt that we are doing today what God has called us to do--love on NoBo for as long as God wants us to. By the way, he's gained over a pound this week!!! YES!

His Head is a Canvas

I am obviously white and have never stepped into a salon that caters to ethnic hair. I've been asking sweet brown-skin people all over the metro area for a couple years now where they get their sons' haircuts. The answers have varied, but ultimately NONE of them get their hair done on my side of town.

Last night while I was at Wal-Mart I asked a lady about her son's hair. She told me the shop and the barbers name. Today, after I dropped off Miss B at swim practice, I headed to that shop. The people there were very nice. However, I will never take my big kids. The language and TV shows that were on are not what we allow our children to hear or see.

Tony did a great job dealing with me, the white mom who didn't even know how to give him a good description of what she wanted. My exact words were, "I don't know. Something cute. Maybe some sort of pattern or swirl thing." He went to work on Little I and the end result was the COOLEST haircut any of my kids have ever had. Tony created a masterpiece on Little I's head!



Little I looked in the mirror when it was all said and done and said, "I have a triangle in my hair." Cowboy took some pics and video of him so he could see the cut from every angle. He couldn't keep his hands off it at first. He was very proud!





This haircut will only cause more double-takes when people see our family. As if we don't stand out in the crowd anyway with our tow-heads and brown-skins! It's a good thing our whole family is outgoing!!!

At the Airport

OK, it is 5:23 on Friday evening. Dinner for my family will be delivered by a friend soon.

WOW--the airline personnel just handed me our boarding passes!

I must go now!!!

No Flight Out Yet

Well, the airline representative (the pediatrician overseeing NoBo's care) came in a little while ago and said flights may or may not be leaving this mission field today. They have to assess a few things and we'll know by late afternoon.

In the meantime, let me update you on how last night went. I think I can sum it up in one word.

HORRIBLE

Not since vacationing with my parents and sisters while growing up have I had to sleep in such a weird way. Keep in mind there were 3 of us kids and when we stayed in hotels one of us had to sleep in the chairs in the hotel room or on the floor. Last night the grandma slept in the chair "bed" and I sat in the rocking chair with another chair from the waiting room pulled in for my feet. My sweet family brought me my own pillow. So I slumped over, alternating sides throughout the night, and laid my head on the pillow, which rested on the wooden arm of the rocking chair. I do have my "bad hip" to deal with, so laying on my right side for very long wasn't a good idea. How old am I anyway? To actually put on here "my 'bad hip'"! YIKES! That's ridiculous!

NoBo has not had nearly enough sleep! He didn't go to sleep until around 11 last night and woke up at 6:30. He also had blood drawn at 4:30 and was up for a while. I'm trying my best right now to ignore him and cause him to want to sleep. OOPS--that's not going to happen! Grandma just woke up and is smiling at him. Peek-a-boo will come soon, I'm sure.

At one point, while trying to go to sleep last night, he became extremely entangled by all of his leads. I waited a couple minutes to see if Grandma would do anything, but then realized I hadn't even seen her raise or lower the side of the crib. After this realization I took over my duty again and untangled him.

I'd like to now take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported me on this mission trip and made it possible for me to love on NoBo the way God wants me to.

In no particular order:
Cowboy
Miss B, C-Man, & Little I
My Parents (keeping my kids, sitting in the hospital with NoBo so I could attend a fundraising luncheon for City Rescue Mission, keeping my whole family overnight)
My In-Laws (feeding my family, taking Miss B to swim team, transporting my kids)
My Sisters (taking care of my kids)
Amy (sitting with NoBo in the hospital)
Nicole (keeping my kids)
Stacey (keeping my kids)
Lisa (feeding my family)
Cottagebaker (feeding my family)
Jene' (feeding my family)
NoBo's Case Worker (encouraging us and loving NoBo with God's love)
DHS workers (staying 2 nights with NoBo & hanging out during some daytime hours also)
Too many friends to mention (encouraging phone calls, texts, FaceBook messages, & prayers)

I am a blessed woman to have such an amazing support system! You guys all rock!

Let's pray that NoBo and I can get a flight out of here this afternoon!

Never in a Million Years

My mission trip continues. Apparently, there were no flights out today so I'm staying at least an extra day.

Tonight I'm experiencing something totally new and surprising. I'm not only sleeping in a hospital room with a little guy who's still mostly disinterested in food, and has beeping monitors, but tonight I'm sharing this tiny room with said little boy's grandmother.

Did someone in the crowd say, "Awkward!" You nailed it! Weird is another word that would correctly describe this situation. Never in a million years would I have guessed that our plans to foster parent would have landed me in this situation.

Without divulging too much information, let me tell you how this came to be. NoBo's family is encouraged to spend time with him, even at the hospital. I'm not sure which one of them came up with the brilliant idea of the grandmother being the one to stay overnight with him, though. His grandmother thinks on a similar level as my dear cousin, J., who has Down Syndrome. Does that shed some light on the situation?

So far she's almost let him fall out of the tall hospital crib onto his head. She's watched him throw a bottle and a toy out of the crib and not gone to pick them up. She's sitting in the chair that turns into a "bed". She didn't know how to turn on the TV with the remote. She has silently played peek-a-boo with him while he's trying to go to sleep and then whispered in that loud whisper that only a mentally challenged person has, "Noah, go to sleep!" I'm trying so hard not to laugh my head off!

I'm completely unsure of where or how I'm going to sleep tonight, but she told me she normally stays up until 1 and sleeps until 11. Good times, people! Good times!

The good news is that she really loves NoBo. She just smiles at him all the time.

I hope I'm smiling in the morning!

My Mission Trip

You may not know it, but I'm currently on a mission trip. It wasn't planned, but here I am trying to show the love of Jesus where He's sent me. What far-off, exotic land have I traveled to? Children's Hospital in OKC! That's right, it's not far-off or exotic, but it is most definitely a mission trip.

Sweet NoBo, who I'm trying to avoid making eye contact with right now so he'll nap, came down with the stomach crud Saturday morning at 1:45. Cowboy took him the the ER Saturday morning because we were so worried about NoBo losing anymore weight. The poor guy was already so tiny, we didn't want to risk letting him get any smaller. The Dr. at the ER said he wasn't dehydrated and to just do our best to keep liquids in him. By Sunday evening we could see that we were not making any progress so Cowboy took him in to the ER again. This time they gave him some fluids through an IV. They returned home Monday morning around 3.

Monday afternoon NoBo was set to have an appointment with his pediatrician at 3, but he was acting extremely lethargic and I was getting worried. I called the pediatrician and was told to take him to Children's ER. After about 7 hours in the ER, NoBo was admitted. DHS workers were kind enough to stay that first night with him. I stayed all day and night last night. As of this morning, he's still losing weight. He's staying here for the unforeseen future. His weight has to come back up and his gag relfex has to take a chill pill and let him keep down every calorie he takes in!

I was whining a little to my friend, Mrs. Supersize (not because she's big, but because she has a BIG heart for God & kids and her family is SUPERSIZED!) about not spending adequate time caring for others in my life right now and she reminded me that if I went on a mission trip I would leave my family behind and they would be well-loved by others. She told me to just think of this time in the hospital as a mission trip.

So...I'm trying my best to stay focused on the task God has placed before me. I am NoBo's foster mom to help him become big and strong and to give him an enormous amount of love. Thank you to everyone who is caring for my family while I'm on my mission trip. :)

Here's the scripture I'm meditating on today to keep my focus:

James 1:27
Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.

Double Whammie

The following story is VERY true and is one of the many reasons that my sweet Cowboy and I want our children to not suffer through dating the way we did. I recently heard someone explain dating as "practicing for divorce". Although originally I was confused by his statement, I thought about it and it eventually made sense. On with the story...

It was the summer of 1988 and a once skinny, now bulkier blonde haired hunk of a teenager was experiencing a newfound confidence with his new muscles. He was dating cute girls left and right, and also catching the eyes of others he didn't even know. Even though the dates were fun, he was blowing through WAY too much money on all these girls. He had a new idea. Why not take these girls to the dollar movie instead of the more expensive movie theater and then skip dinner altogether? It sounded like a good idea to him so he gave it a shot.

The movie went well, then she said she was hungry. What was a boy raised by a fine mama supposed to do? The only logical solution came to him. He pulled into the 7-Eleven and told her he was going to get some dinner and she could get some if she'd like. He got himself a "Double Whammie" and a Mt. Dew and she, surprisingly, decided she didn't want any food after all. She decided, instead, that he should probably just take her home.

I don't remember if Cowboy ever told me who that girl was, but I do know that once I had the guts to have our friends set us up (a few months after he caught my eye that same summer at our neighborhood pool) he never once asked me to pay for any date we ever had. He willingly took me to the nicest restaurants and the nice movie theaters. Love will do that to a cheapskate-at-heart-handsome-blue-eyed-boy.

I love that man! (Even if he still sometimes eats Double Whammies from 7-Eleven).

My Love Affair with Sam's Club

If you know me very well, you know I LOVE Sam's Club. It's 10 minutes from my house, easy to maneuver all my kids through their wide aisles, workers are friendly, they give us free food, we can all grab lunch at their cafe for cheap, ....

Several weeks back they had a little table set up when you entered and asked to scan your card to let you know how much you saved by shopping there over the past year. This made me excited because I LOVE saving money and I'd just been thinking about how much of our money goes there. The sweet lady even told me how the family before us had saved over $400 in the past year. WOW--how exciting! She scanned the card as our family waited patiently, while eating some of the candy from her candy bowl.

Then she told me the disappointed news, "You saved fifteen twenty-six." I was thinking, "Are you kidding me? We only saved $15.26 by shopping here for a year!" Then it hit me! YIKES--how much had we actually SPENT here to have saved $1,526 in one year?

Maybe I like Sam's a little too much. Or maybe, just maybe, it costs a fortune to buy diapers, pull-ups, baby food, Tide, Downy, dishwashing detergent, Coke Zero, Mountain Dew, and groceries in general...for 6 people for a year.

Can you say, "Overwhelmed"?

So...I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed. I'm not being attentive to others' needs the way I should and that's when I know I'm too consumed with my own issues.
The main issue at this moment is the enormous amount of time I've spent on my kids recently, mostly NoBo.
We're enjoying NoBo being in our home, but I completely forgot what it's like to get a little guy who's so far behind in so many areas. Appointments, appointments, appointments....
Our goal is to invest as much love as we can into his little life for as long as God sees fit. However, there's always that thought, "This child belongs to someone else." Because I'm not the person who deprived NoBo of enough nourishment, it's very frustrating to me that I am hauling kids from one place to another to get him back on track. He hasn't even been in our home 2 weeks yet and I've taken him to his pediatrician once, his G.I. specialist once, and his ear, nose, and throat doctor once. He will continue to be checked monthly by the G.I. doctor for weight gain. He also sees the pediatrician again in a few days for an ear recheck. He'll go in to get tubes in his ears in a couple weeks. Also, he starts some therapy at home in the next couple weeks.

Here are the people who I know I've neglected because of my ongoing appointments:
My own children--I'll say no more because I feel guilty right now. Yes, I know they get way more of me than most children do, but I still feel a bit guilty.
My husband--nothing more to be said here, either. I'll just make myself feel worse.
My sweet father-in-law--he had surgery a couple days ago and I've only gone to see he and my mother-in-law once since then.
My sister--she's planning a huge pirate murder mystery party for our homeschool co-op moms and I just realized yesterday that I hadn't called to see how I could help. YIKES! I made the call yesterday and I called again today. I can't help as much as I'd like, but I'm doing something at least.
Sorry to everyone who's not gotten enough of me lately!

My BIG Scare

OK, I laughed my head off several months back when my sister had her BIG scare because I never thought it could happen to me. Remember, we're the couple who were infertile and couldn't have a third child biologically.
Yes, I am a homeschooling mom who truly believes every life is a gift from God, but I'm feeling a bit too old to carry one of those precious gifts myself. Anyway, I can talk of this now because the scare is over. God is not currently growing a precious life inside of me. The other day, when Cowboy found this out, he was truly disappointed. WOW--he is some kind of amazing! He reminded me that a gift of that nature would be a HUGE miracle from God, therefore he was disappointed. Anyway...I'm happy to be the mom to 3 (4 including NoBo). If God decides I need more, he's more than welcome to make that happen!