Coming Soon...

My blog will be returning soon.

I have so many stories to tell that I am ready to write.

I hope you all have a blessed Christmas, and as soon as the holidays have slowed down, my blog will be back. :)

Blah

I don't know why I haven't blogged lately. I'm sure there are things to write about, but I just haven't felt like it. I think I am taking a blogging break for a while and maybe I'm not. I just haven't felt a lot like talking lately. Everytime I sit down to blog, the fun, happy stuff isn't what's on my mind. This blog was intended to be a place for the funny stuff, so I would rather not blog than to complain here. :)

I am hoping the holiday spirit stuff kicks in soon, but so far, it hasn't. I don't know. So, if I don't blog for a while, it's not that I'm quiting completely. I just am in a funk right now.

Who knows, maybe I'll be back to me soon...

The Barrett Version

There are so many different versions of the Bible, and I typically will have at least two versions of it with me when I am doing a study. I like that when something is unclear in one version, it might make more sense from a different one.

With that being said, I never expect the story to change, but Barrett seems to have found his own version of the Bible.

Here is a conversation Doug and I had with him a few weeks ago:

We were driving, and Doug asked Barrett what he learned at school that day. Barrett proudly said, "I learned about Goliath, he was a GIANT!"

So, Doug asked the obvious question, "What did you learn about Goliath?"

"He was really big and mean, and Jesus shot him."

As Doug and I tried not to laugh, Doug then asked him, "How did Jesus shoot him?"

Barrett quickly replied with an air of confidence that suggested we weren't very smart, "With a bird gun."

We asked him if there was a man named David in the story too, and it's like a little light went off in his head. I breathed a sigh of relief and waited for him to now give me the story as it is in all of my Bibles, but here is what we got.

The Barrett Version of David versus Goliath

Goliath was a big, mean giant. Jesus used his bird gun to shoot a bird off of Goliath's head, and then David threw a rock at him and killed him.

His teachers claim this isn't what they taught him. :)

My Week in a Glance

On the 29th, Doug left for Colorado to go hunting. So, keep in mind, all the following happened with NO spouse. (In his defense, I am fine that he went. It's really the only thing he looks forward to.)

Sunday:

My first official day as the nursery director.

Oh, I might not have mentioned that I changed jobs. It's not really a promotion or demotion, just motion. I am super thrilled because I love our nursery staff, the nursery building, and the giant private office I get. ;)

With the time change to help me out, I made it to church early with both kids. Everything went amazingly smooth until the 3rd service hour. I fed a 13 month old a graham cracker who apparently has never had any kind of food. The dad was cool, the mom seemed upset. Luckily, the mom returned later and wasn't upset anymore. Note to all parents: tell people if your kid can't eat things. I went to the baby room after that because it's my happy place. I was puked on by a not-so-happy baby.

Overall, it was a great first day, puked on clothes and all.

Later on Sunday, Nana babysat so I could pick up my mom from the airport. I love the grandmas!

Monday:

I had a meeting at church, and then I went to lunch with friends. After school was over for the boys, mom and I played with them then we went out to dinner. It was a great day!

Tuesday:

The result of Barrett's ENT appointment that I demanded was surgery. In fact, he was so bad off that the surgery was scheduled as soon as possible. So, a babysitter appeared at 6:30 am (thanks Sarah!), and the grandmas, Barrett and I headed to Texas Children's for him to have tubes put in and his tonsils and adenoids removed.

Thank God I went to Texas Children's. The day sucked, but the staff there was great with Barrett and his nervous mommy.

Barrett was a trooper. He put on his cool doctor jammies they gave him. He didn't want to tag on his leg, but he eventually gave in when they explained that's how they make sure he goes home with his mommy. Even Peanut went with him and got a tag that matched Barrett's.

** Barrett is still wearing his tag. I tried to take it off to keep it, but he said that if he takes it off, he might lose me. I think the nurse might have done too good of a job explaining why he had to wear it and leave it on. I don't know how he'll react when it comes off.

When it was time for surgery, he picked bubble gum to smell in the mask, got into a wagon with Peanut, and waved with a big smile as he rolled away. Honestly, it broke my heart to see him go into surgery when he was in such a good mood.

After the 30 minute surgery, I went back to recovery. It was HORRIBLE to see him unconscious with wires everywhere, a tube in his mouth and a mask on. I was so upset, and then his doctor said," Everything went well, but does this look familiar?" He was holding a plastic container with a green bead in it. Apparently, it was in Barrett's ear. It wasn't there when we visited his office two weeks earlier. The doctor said it isn't that uncommon for kids with really bad ear pain to try and relieve the pressure by sticking things in their ear. I was just glad to have a little comic relief.

When he woke up, he freaked out. He was screaming and crying. We put him in my lap, and he fell back asleep. When he woke up the second time, it was worse. He screamed and tried to pull out the IV in his hand. They put some really good drugs in his IV, and he went back to sleep. While he was asleep, his oxygen level would go to low, and the nurse would come over and shake him and hit him to breath. After a few rounds of that, I would hit him when I saw the level drop. I was not thrilled with having to smack my kid so he would breath. When he woke up for the third time, he was still unhappy, but it wasn't nearly as bad. He drank some apple juice, and they moved us to the "almost ready to go home" area.

We just got settled in the area, and he puked. I mean PUKED. All over me and all over a nurse. It was gross.

After cleaning him and moving him to Nana's lap, I went to clean up and take a much needed mental break.

He slept for another hour or so, and when he woke up, it was great. He ate two popsicles, and sang "Hey Good Lookin'" to the nurses. We went home shortly after that.

Night one at home was not easy. He slept ok. I stared at him all night.

Wednesday:

This day sucked. He was miserable. I was tired. It just wasn't good. I was thankful for codeine and Fisher having school. The night was awful. He didn't sleep. I didn't sleep.

Thursday:

Barrett and I were up early. He was grumpy. Fisher slept late, yeah! When Fisher woke up, we discover he puked in his bed, boo! Fisher can't go to school. Gigi, Barrett, and I are tired. Fisher is full speed. Gigi and Fisher go shopping, and Barrett whines. Late in the day, both boys are better. Both boys actually eat some dinner. Fisher then has a nasty poop, but Barrett is in a great mood. The night goes a lot better. Barrett still wakes up for water every hour, but he's not screaming at me.


Friday:

Fisher again wakes up with puke in his bed. He does not go to school. Barrett wakes up in a great mood. Barrett and I go to see his first movie, Madagascar 2, while Gigi and Fisher hang out at home. Barrett loves it. He is amazed by the giant tv. He only asks me to pause it once so he can go potty. While attempting to explain that I cannot pause a movie, he tells me to be quiet because he is missing the movie. I guess he forgot about the potty.

We are now home and Fisher is not napping in his bed and Barrett is not napping on the couch while Gigi runs to the outlet mall to shop.

I am officially exhausted. I know I told Doug that it was fine to go hunting, but he is still going to owe me big for this one. I really hope he's had fun because when he gets home on Sunday, it's all downhill for him! :)

Saddle Up

I officially don't like Halloween.

Don't get me wrong, there are parts of it I love.

I love all the pumpkins everywhere. (Fisher loves pointing to all the "pun-kins" too.)

I love having an excuse to eat all kinds of candy.

I love the cute Halloween t-shirts at Old Navy.

I love seeing kids in costumes, specifically my own kids.

But I hate dealing with two kids that are beyond sugared up. I hate listening to them beg for more candy. Seriously, who came up with this tradition??

We did have a great Halloween though. The boys had a blast trick-or-treating.

Fisher was a perfect horse. He even did a strange little galloping neigh thing. He was just too cute!

Barrett was also a great cowboy even though he carried a pink pumpkin bucket. He obviously wasn't a real tough cowboy. That was really evident when a dog was running in the street. Barrett squealed like a girl and wanted to quit and go home. Luckily, a quick reminder that we were collecting candy gave the cowboy back some courage.

When we came home both boys dumped out there buckets and started eating. They were in heaven!

I hope everyone else had a great Halloween!

The Class Pet

Barrett's class this year has a class pet, Rocky the raccoon. Thankfully, he's just a stuffed animal. The kids take turns bringing him home for the weekend, and the parents get the "honor" of journaling his weekend. So, to not waste my efforts, here are the pages we added to Rocky's journal.

(click on the pages to see them in a bigger format.)

Has It Really Been Two Weeks?

I have no good excuse for my lack of posts, but I'll give you my Top Ten Excuses of why I haven't posted in forever.

10. Fisher has discovered writing utensils, and he loves to write. Specifically, he likes writing on himself, the walls, carpet, furniture, and Barrett. Because of his new hobby, I cannot turn my back on him at all. If he's awake, I can't be typing. (By the way, I am amazed at the number of sharpies in my house, and all the locations I apparently chose to store them.)

9. New tv shows have started. When I have spare time, I am watching all the shows I have taped on the DVR. I am a total tv junkie. It takes a long time to watch all my shows even when I skip most of the actual show to get to the "scenes from our next episode".

8. I have been busy at work. I "work" almost every day the kids are in school. If I didn't end up going out to lunch with work people all the time, my job wouldn't take long at all.

7. I haven't uploaded pictures lately, and I like posts with pictures.

6. I helped with a retreat with the high school and junior high kids two weekends ago. I was worn out. I am not young anymore. The only thing that made me feel young was when I scraped a dead skunk off the road for extra points in a scavenger hunt. It only made me feel young because it was stupid. Stupid = Young.

5. Doug has been working WAY too much. I think it is to prepare for his upcoming hunting trip to Colorado for 12 days. I will complain about that in future posts.

4. Fisher and Barrett have decided it is fun to take all the toys out at one time. Having them clean up their own mess takes forever. I think cleaning for them will be better for me. It'll get done fast and right. It will suck for their wives one day, but it's really all about my sanity at this point.

3. The boys are obsessed with the computer. They both play with it all the time. Basically, I can't leave it on or they will destroy it. Without the computer on, blogging is hard.

2. Barrett doesn't nap at school anymore. He is HELL when we get home. All I want to do once he goes to bed is curl up in the fetal position and cry.

And the #1 reason I haven't written...

1. Barrett is on day 17 of antibiotics for an ear infection. When he has an ear infection, he doesn't sleep. He has had ear infections since July 7th pretty much non-stop. I haven't slept in weeks. I am exhausted. The doctor wants to wait to go the ENT. We go to his doctor tomorrow. She will be referring us. If she doesn't refer us, we'll be going anyway. He has an appointment on Monday with an ENT everyone recommends. I sure hope his pediatrician recommends him too. :) If I get more sleep, I might be in the mood to share their funny stories. Right now, nothing is amusing.

Both boys are asleep for a moment, so I need to sleep while I can!

Bouncy, Bouncy

I realize I have been a terrible blogger lately, but things are just crazy busy lately. I don't even have time to write much now, but I will at least give you a little story to tide you over until I have time to write all the things on my list to blog about.

A week ago, we went to a bouncy place and met up with my Mothers of Preschoolers group. Since all the elementary kids were out of school because schools still were without power, there was no mothers day out either. All of the moms had been home for over a week, some with no power, so instead of cancelling our normal meeting, we went to Pump It Up.

We had our own room and 53 kids playing. The moms and kids had a blast! Barrett, Fisher and I definitely had fun. We were all playing the whole time. Fisher hung with the bigger kids with no problem, and Barrett just ran from place to place laughing and jumping.

When we got in the car to leave, I asked Barrett if he had fun. He said, "Yes, can we go again today?"

I then asked him what his favorite thing was about Pump It Up.

Did he say the slide?

No.

Did he say the basketball bouncy thing?

No.

Did he say the potty since we went 4 times?

No.

My lady-killer had an answer I don't think many 3 year old kids would have.

"I liked the mommy's boobies when they bounced."

Yes, you read that right.

My three year old is a boob man.

Ugh.

yIKEs

Sorry for the lack of posts, but we were busy preparing for, sitting through, and recovering from Ike.

We were very lucky. We lost our fence, a tree, and our power.

We actually were there for the storm, but the boys and I are now at my aunt's in Dallas since we have no power.

I will have pictures and stories once we return.

Please pray for all the families that were not as lucky as we were. There are not words to describe what some people are having to deal with.

Woo Hoo!

My cousin was called up by the Astros today! On his first pitch in his major league debut, he hit a homerun.

I'm allowed to brag.

That's little Mark on the left. :)

How cool is this?!

Cool Days

The boys started mother's day out last Wednesday. Barrett was so excited to be going back to "old school days" as he calls it.

Fisher didn't really know what the big deal was, but he was excited because Barrett was.

I tried to get a good first day picture at home, but it didn't go to well.

I also tried outside the house, outside at school, and again inside at school. Fisher was a little tired of it.

I finally managed to get a decent picture although the boys wouldn't stand together and Fisher is sporting his "pretty" smile.

Once it was time for Barrett to go into class, I told him to tell Fisher good luck on his first day. He was so sweet telling him good luck, and he even added his own I love you. Then, to make it all better, he asked Fisher for a kiss.

They both had a fantastic week. Fisher even asked for "cool" when he got up on Saturday. When we didn't get dressed to go, he brought me his shoes and socks and was saying, "go, go, cool."

I love that my kids love school because I sure love when they go!

Barrett's 3rd Birthday Party (2 weeks ago...)

Barrett had to have his birthday party at the gymnastics place. He had no second choice, so Barrett had his first "kid party" this year.

He was so lucky to have so many friends come to his party. He was so excited the night before that he didn't sleep.

He normally naps at 1:00. The party was at 2:00. Do you see where this is going?

No sleep the night before + no nap = grumpy birthday boy

Actually, he was happy for about the first half of the party. He just loves jumping into the foam pits!

Fisher had a ball too. He loved to hang from the bars.

Once we rotated to the mountain room, the kids really went wild. I didn't get many picture because I was trying to keep up with Fisher. He was a crazy little guy.



Barrett didn't play on the mountain much. He just wanted to jump on trampolines with one of his school friends, Chloe.

At our third rotation, Barrett was done. Coach Eddie tried to cheer him up, but he was too tired.

After we made it through all the rotations, we went to the party room for cake and drinks. My friend, Michelle, made Barrett's fishing themed cake and not only was it cute it was REALLY good.



Here is a picture of the table decorations. (I know no one cares, I just want it somewhere because I had to hunt down those giant fish!)



Somehow, Barrett perked up after a capri sun, and he was excited to have everyone sing to him!
After eating, we opted to keep playing instead of opening gifts. I think the only disappointed people were Barrett and one of the Daddies.

We'll call this Daddy the Pister. Barrett got a little confused because sometimes we call him Mister and sometimes we call him Pastor because he's one of our Pastors, and he called him Pister once. It cracked me up.

Pister is a great guy who my son has an interesting love/hate thing with. Barrett loves his daughter, and Pister hates that...

Pister was really excited about Barrett's gift because it was "a message".

As soon as we got home, Barrett was ready to open his gifts. I can't lie, Doug and I were both curious about Pister's gift.

When he got to the bag from Pister's daughter, we had NO idea what to expect.

Barrett dug into the bag, screamed, and pulled out his hand with a bloody finger.

What kind of message is that?

It turns out there was a battery package inside that he cut his hand on. So, those of you that go to my church, no, Pister did not purposely harm my kid.

Once we bandaided the finger (conveniently, he had just opened some Curious George bandaids from Nana), he came back to the package.

Then, he pulled out this...

Apparently, Pister is serious in his constant threats that he is watching Barrett.

Unfortunately for Pister, Doug and I both quickly thought that in high school, that will come in handy when he is sneaking to her window to profess his love. :)

I think the cut finger was more of a message than anything. Poor kid... all he did was fall in love.

There were two clear favorites among the gifts.

Again, Steve, Christi and Mary found him something he loves. He was so excited, he hugged the gift.



Then, the last gift he opened has been played with by all three boys nonstop since we got it.



If you are having problems with imaginary deer, hogs, and coyotes roaming your house, let me know. Fisher and Barrett get 'em every time.



Thank you to everyone who made Barrett's day special!

Our Florida Trip (three weeks ago!)

We had so much fun on our trip to Florida for Papa and Mary's wedding.

Barrett was so excited when we told him we would be flying on a plane, but it wasn't Barrett who was thrilled to see all the planes, it was Fisher.





"Pane, pane, pane," is all we heard while we waited.


Barrett was just ready to get the beach and see the dolphins, fish, and turtles.





We couldn't convince him that we probably wouldn't see the sea turtles.

We didn't get to Captiva until right before dark, but we stopped at Papa's beach house and ran to see the beach. Barrett seemed a little disappointed, but we assured him it would be more exciting in the morning when he could see the waves.

We then drove across the street to the house Papa rented for us to share with my sister and her family. Barrett and Fisher were thrilled to see their cousins when we got there. While "we" unpacked (I unpacked clothes and stuff & Doug unpacked his fishing junk and went straight to the dock at our house), all the little boys relaxed while watching the Olympics.

As you can tell, Fisher really likes my nephew, Tyler.

The following morning, Fisher was up well before anyone else, so Doug and I were playing with him in the living room. He was obsessed with the crazy little windows that overlooked the pool.

They were really weird, but the owners of the house were pretty proud that the house had been in Architectural Digest. Since the windows were the only really different thing about the house, I guess they were special.

Each day, Mary sent over little gifts for the boys to help keep them entertained. (Apparently, the beach, bay, two pools, two dogs, fishing, and people to play with might not have been enough!) The first day's gifts included something Barrett, "NEEDED!"

He was so happy to have some "gaggles" that fit him. Even Fisher had a pair.

While we were all getting ready to head to the beach, Fisher amused himself in his other obsession of the week, the cabinet...

Once we organized ourselves, we headed over to Papa's house to play at the beach.

Barrett didn't like the waves or the seaweed,

and Fisher HATED the sand.

Needless to say, the beach lasted about 10 minutes before we headed to Papa's pool.

Barrett had so much fun swimming by himself with his life jacket on. He would jump in, swim to the side, and jump back in over and over again.

Fisher was just happy to wash all the sand off of him and be held.

My cousin, Jeff, flew in with his parents. He was going to stay at Dad's house, but decided to stay with us instead. We are so glad he did. Barrett and Fisher both loved him and he was a huge help.

Fisher thought he was so big riding on Jeff's shoulders.

Barrett just wanted to do whatever Jeff, or "that big boy Jeff" as Barrett called him, was doing.

This is just a great shot of Fisher's pretty smile. Hopefully, he'll our grow this look.

That next day was the wedding. I didn't take any pictures because there was a photographer. The only picture I have is one of us before we left for the beach wedding.

The day after the wedding, Tyler and I went parasailing. This is us...

We had so much fun. I never get to just hang out with Tyler anymore, so it was fun to have him all to myself for a while. We literally hung out! We also convinced Papa and Mary to go to. Papa wasn't too thrilled with the idea, but he claims he enjoyed it.

Later that afternoon, we again spent all our time swimming and playing. Fisher wouldn't leave Tyler alone, so Tyler was a great sport and entertained him. He even taught him to show his muscles.

While Fisher was working on poses, Barrett was mastering his jumping techniques. Maybe it was watching too much Olympic gymnastics and diving, but he seems to be pointing his toes?

Because we weren't able to have the complete ceremony the night of the wedding (let's just say the weather didn't cooperate!), we decided to do the shell throwing part the next night.

Barrett's part in the wedding was to hand out shells to everyone.

After each person had one, we were to go to the edge of the water and say a prayer for people that weren't with us. After we prayed, we threw them into the ocean. Well, everyone but Fisher. He clung to his like it was his life source.

Barrett was very excited to throw his in the water.

After the shell toss, we all just hung out on the beach playing in the water and sand. Quite a few of us were hunting for shells. Apparently, Captiva is the shelling capital of the world? It seemed like we really were just pulling pennies out of a fountain since we all just tossed shells out that we were then finding.

The best part of that night was that Barrett got over his fear of the ocean. He was having so much fun playing in the water, jumping waves with Daddy, and making things in the sand.

Fisher, on the other hand, was still not a fan of the beach. He was happy to just sit on a mat with my Aunt Jeanne and hold his shell.

That night, Fisher was all about Tyler again. He didn't really care what they did as long as Tyler was touching him. It didn't take Tyler long to figure out he could play his games and amuse Fisher at the same time.

Our last day there, Doug went fishing with a guide, and the boys and I swam.

**Doug has fished for his entire life, but he caught something he's never caught before, a bird. I always worry if I cast near a bird, and Doug always tells me there is no way I would hook one. Well, he was wrong. He hooked one in the neck, and reeled it in. He was happy to hand the pole to the guide and let him deal with that catch!

The highlight was Barrett swam without his life jacket! By the time he swam all morning, he was able to swim pretty far without any help.

Later that afternoon, Austin and Barrett were swimming for gold in their own Olympics. Daddy would say,

"On your mark, get set, shake your booty,

take a deep breath,

go!"

Barrett would jump in and swim to Doug. Doug would then help him across the pool, and Barrett would swim the last 6 feet on his own and climb out. He was such a big boy!

The only real problem was that Fisher would walk to the side of the pool, say go, and step in.

We had such a great week, but we were exhausted when we returned. Thanks Papa and Mary for a great "bay-K-shun!"