Happy Birthday, Luke!

Luke turned 13 yesterday (2 teenagers in the house now!), but we have actually been celebrating all weekend! Friday night we brought cookies-and-cream cheesecake squares and cookie dough truffles to Bible study (along with blonde brownies, which Caleb made all by himself, for those who don't care for dairy, LOL). The truffles were really good, although I had trouble dipping them, and they didn't look as neat as in the picture. I slightly overcooked the cheesecake bars. lthough they were good, Luke and I both agreed that we like chocolate cheesecake better!

Sunday afternoon, Rivendell took a field trip to Medieval Times. Bob took the oldest 6 kids, and various members of the other 4 Rivendell families (that actually live here!) also went. Bob said he should have told them to announce Luke's birthday in the middle of the show when such things were announced. Luke was very glad he had not thought of that earlier! Everyone was very happy when Rivendell was announced, though. Definitely a fun thing to do with good friends on a birthday weekend!

Luke went ahead and opened his presents Sunday night after they got back, since Bob is TDY this week. Here he and everyone else (note the medieval attire) are poring over this Sports Illustrated For Kids book of football top 10 lists that I found by browsing Amy's Amazon wish list. It has been a huge hit! Luke was also thrilled to get the Tim Tebow autobiography from Grandma and Grandpa. He and Nathan have been taking turns reading it. Dan and Melinda sent him a book called Boyhood and Beyond: Practical Wisdom on Becoming a Man. I've started reading it out loud to everyone at the dinner table because it has some really great lessons in it. Lots of good books!

Here is a puzzle of Neuschwanstein also from my parents that I'm sure we'll be starting as soon as we figure out a good place for us to work on it! "After Latin is over"--that seems to be my answer to just about everything right now! Bob and I went to this castle on our honeymoon, and I can't wait to put this puzzle on our wall downstairs in the basement!

On Luke's actual birthday yesterday we had his birthday dinner. He picked chicken packets. I made 20 of them (they're pretty large--each one is 2 crescent rolls pressed together), but we only had 3 left over, and after lunch today, those 3 are gone as well. And Bob wasn't even there! I can't make enough food for any sort of left-over meal!

So we had a lovely weekend celebrating Luke! We're so glad he's been in our family for 13 years, and we look forward to seeing how the Lord is going to use the gifts and talents He has given Luke as he grows up!

The Correct Way

Grace, to Faith: You aren't saying "no" to Micah right. You don't say [sing-song-y voice] "Nooooo, Micah, noooo". You say [firm, no-nonsense voice], "No, Micah. No."

So if anyone needs to borrow an extra mother hen who knows the right way to say "no", just let me know!

Micah's Terrible, Horrible, Very Bad, No Good Night

Yesterday evening was our small group meeting. Bob and Nathan were at basketball practice, so I left the kids at home with Luke. I left small group early though, because Micah hadn't slept well all day, and I knew he would be a handful.

Well, I could have stayed longer! Micah was so tired and crabby that Luke put him down before 7:30! I figured he would jsut sleep all the way through, since he was so tired.

But at 12:30, he woke up, crying loudly. When I went in to check on him, he was clearly running a fever. I nursed him, gave him Motrin, and took his temperature (101.5) with our handy-dandy new thermometer, which Bob had to hunt around for downstairs since it wasn't where I thought it was. I held him for awhile after nursing, but he just would not stop crying. No matter how I held him, he kept crying. I took him downstairs for awhile, and we rocked in the big chair in the schoolroom and looked out the window. I tried putting him down again, but he cried for a solid 20 minutes with no sign of stopping, so I went in and got him again.

All this crying is so unlike Micah! He sounded really uncomfortable, so I started thinking maybe an ear infection or something, since he is still snuffly. Finally, a little after 3:00 AM, I did something I have never had to do with a child before--I put him in his carseat and drove around!

It was so weird being out on the roads so early. I was the only person on these big roads that are crowded with cars at pretty much every other moment of the day! Of course, I was sooo tired that I was worried I was going to fall asleep at the wheel, and then Bob would have no idea where I disappeared off to, and he would worry . . . So I concentrated on staying awake and singing to the radio, LOL. After 5 minutes or so, Micah finally fell asleep, and I drove home, where I put him back in his crib.

I figured he would sleep late, but I set my alarm for 6:30 so I could call to make an appointment. But he woke up crying again at 6:15! After I nursed him, he fell asleep quicker this time (no driving required!), and I made an appointment for 10:30 this morning.

There was all this unexpected traffic, so we were 10 minutes late, but Micah napped in the car and was so happy at the doctor's office! He smiled, blew raspberries, and generally acted like a boy who would never cry for 3 hours straight. His ears checked out (lots of wax though--another prodigious producer!), and his lungs and everything else were just fine. He's finally passed 20 pounds (20 pounds, 5 ounces to be exact). He cooed and played with his shoes on the way home, and he ate a sunbutter and jelly sandwich in his carseat. Now he's getting ready to take another nap while I run errands. I guess he just wanted to spend an hour and 45 minutes driving to and from Bethesda with me, plus the actual time in the hospital! What fun!

So who knows what all that crying was for? Gas? Who knows! I am praying tonight is not a repeat performance, however!

New Thermometer!

Yeah . . . it's a slow news week. Once upon a time, many moons ago (14, to be exact), Nathan was a baby, and I bought a brand spanking new Braun ear thermometer. It has served faithfully, only needing 1 new battery all these years. Late last year, the battery died, and I brought it downstairs to reminder me to change the battery. But no one was sick, and I never got around to it. Then someone knocked it off the counter, and it fell apart. It probably still was fixable, but I never got around to that either, so . . . the parts are still (somewhere, buried under paper) on the counter.

But this week Faith got sick and was running what I would guess was a 101 degree fever, but I realized I could not verify that without my thermometer, because I didn't feel like fighting the rectal battle with a very grumpy sick 3 year old. So after Luke's orthodontic appointment yesterday, we stopped in at Walmart to repenish our childrens and infant motrin supply, and also to check out the new thermometer technology. We decided on a Exergen Temporal Scanner Thermometer, which works by you simply running the scanner from the middle of the forehead over to the ear while pressing a button.

I LOVE this thermometer! No more searching around for a clean probe cover! No more wondering if the reading was incorrect (or just getting a plain "error" message) due to massive wax buildup! (I don't like to brag, but certain members of this family are world-class ear wax producers. It's a gift.) Today Jonathan and Luke were just feeling run-down and bleh, so I took their temperatures too. They're just running slight low-grade temperatures, nothing big. I think it sounds like what Christine had earlier this week, so just another little virus running around. But taking their temperatures was so EASY with this handy-dandy new thermometer!

May it last at least 14 more years!

Low-Key Week

We're taking a light week this week as far as school goes. Caleb and Jonathan didn't do any school at all on Monday--they went snowboarding with Bob! Bob had wanted to do the same deal he got when he went skiing with Nathan and Luke, but alas, the hotel was all booked up. It worked out for the best however--Caleb really wasn't feeling well Sunday. He rested all afternoon (missing his basketball game) and went to bed early, and he felt better Monday morning. Bob left with them to drive to PA about 7:30. The weather was beautiful, and they had a grand time! Jonathan did not like falling down and losing his glove, although he pointed out that only actually happened once. Caleb did not feel it was like rip-sticking at all, and he complained about his aching leg muscles for days afterwards! But Bob said they both did really well. Bob also wanted to point out the instructor was right--fall on your bum, not your front.

Everyone has been somewhat sick this week as well, it seems. Nathan was sick last week, and he has just had a hard time kicking this bug. He didn't feel well at Rivendell on Tuesday, and he had to miss CAP a second time in a row. He's finally seeming better now.

Faith was a little bit snuffly Monday, but nothing too bad. She was in the nursery at TNT on Tuesday morning while I was aiding, and she did just fine there. Christine brought her and Elena back to their house in the afternoon so the girls could nap a little, and she called me while I was still back at the church to tell me that Faith was sounding terrible! She had a bad cough and just didn't seem like herself. She was definitely running a fever that night, and Wednesday she was a sick little girl. She fell asleep on the couch by Nathan around 5:30 while I was making dinner, and I could never get her to wake up enough to eat! So finally I just got her pajamas on and put her down. She slept until 7:30 this morning, when she got up to pee. Then she went back to sleep in my bed until 9:30! She is still coughing a bit, but not as badly, and she's not running a fever anymore. Yay!

Now Jonathan is feeling sickly, as is Luke. Everyone is just sort of snuffly, coughing, and feeling puny! Well, everyone except me, thankfully. I feel fine! Micah has been snuffly and coughing as well, and he ran a little fever over the weekend. That seems to be all gone though. Anna isn't snuffly, but she slept funny last night and has a crick in her neck. She has loudly moaned and complained about that all. day. long. She took a nice long shower tonight, and I gave her some Motrin, so hopefully the kinks will get worked out. She didn't appreciate my attempts at giving her shoulder rubs! I definitely have felt like I have been surrounded by germy, whiny kids all week long!

Luke had an orthodontic appointment this morning (which is why we didn't get much done today). He had a bracket come off, but they ended up putting some kind of ring on there and giving him bands to wear. I realized that he just celebrated his one year anniversary of wearing braces in Phase II back on Feb. 14. I can't believe we didn't celebrate! Ha! I know he'll be celebrating getting them off, that's for sure (whenever that may be)! Nathan too!

So there are some not-very-highlights from our not-very-productive week!

Anna and Grace

Today I "aided" in our elementary co-op for the morning, which means I spent time doing the character lesson, taking prayer requests, helping the kids eat lunch, and helping them exchange their valentines. I aided for the K-4 and K-5 classes, so I got to spend time with Anna and Grace in the their TNT environments, which was so fun! I had Anna's class first, and one mom, who had recently taught those 2 classes was commenting on how sweet my girls were--especially one of them, but because there were kids coming in, I couldn't hear which name she was talking about. She was talking about how this girl was more quiet, so I automatically assumed she was talking about Grace. Wrong! It turned out she was talking about Anna! I was shocked!

Well, as the morning went on, Anna really hardly said 2 words! That's not totally true--they had some free time, and she played happily with some of the other girls (there are only about 10 kids in her class total), but she definitely didn't chatter away, even at lunch. And she's definitely a chatterer at home, LOL. But she LOVES the co-op, and she considers these kids GREAT friends of hers. it was just surprising to me to see how shy she did appear to be in that environment!

So then the classes switched, and Anna's class went off to learn about France. Right now the kids are al studying "Europe". Last week Anna and Grace's teacher taught them all about Poland, since she is a native of Poland. The girls came home spouting all sorts of random facts about Poland--they were both listening very attentively, I can assure you! I don't think they had ever really put together that Grandma B is Polish as well!

Anyhow, Grace's class came in, and I was VERY curious to see how they all interacted. Last week when I had picked the girls up (which I only did because Christine was over there aiding that week--normally I am teaching science, and the other Rivendell ladies pick everyone up), the aide told me that one little boy just loved Grace--he calls her "Beautiful Grace", and he always wants to sit next to her. Awwwww . . . so sweet! Well, the little boy actually sat on the other side of the table, across from Grace, today, but he is a little cutie, LOL. And I was shocked to see how confidant Grace was in there! She talked to the kids, and just in general acted like she was at home. Huh!

This is such a big switch from church, which is the girls' other big social weekly experience. There, Grace hardly says a word in class, and she acts PAINFULLY shy, as if the act of cutting paper is too much for her. Although, maybe I should ask her teachers specifically on Sunday. Those reports were from a few months ago, and maybe she's had this blossoming transformation, LOL. Whereas Anna has always seemed perfectly comfortable there even when she is the only girl with a bunch of boys.

It just goes to show that you can't pigeon-hole your kids' personalities!

Another Birthday Season Kicks Off!

Of the 10 people in our immediate family, 9 of us have birthdays from February through June (and then Caleb gets all the hype and attention when he has his birthday in November). So yesterday we started our time of birthdays with my birthday! Since it fell on a Tuesday, we spent the day at Rivendell, where there was a lovely party for 3 of us celebrating birthdays this week--Monday for Emily H., yesterday for me, and today for Faith. Quite a special week!
Our party had balloons for each of us, and not one, not two, but 3 different cakes! I made a castle cake exactly like this one I made for Grace's 3 year birthday for Faith. I wasn't as careful this time, because I was making it at 10:00 PM Monday night, LOL, but it was fine. Then Emily's sister Amanda made a yummy big frosts chocolate chip cookie, and Christine made a delicious flourless chocolate cake! So for someone who doesn't even really like regular cake, I had wonderful options!

The weather was absolutely beautiful yesterday, so we were able to eat the cake outside, which I'm sure saved a ton of wear and tear on the church's vacuum. I love it when the weather is nice on Tuesdays and the kids can really run around outside. We had a very special treat in that my other friend Christine and her 2 daughters were able to come by for the party! Look at these 6 beautiful little girls! So fun!

After we got home, the kids ate leftovers, and Bob and I went to Cheesecake Factory for dinner. We split my favorite, a Chinese chicken salad, and then we split a piece of Hershey's chocolate cheesecake. It was so good, although I would have to say my favorite is the chocolate mousse cheesecake. Still, no bad options there!

I got some fantastic gifts too! My brother and sister-in-law sent me a book off my Amazon wish list that I've been dying to read ever since my friend Johanna recommended it--Amelia Earhart's Daughters. I also got a Baby Blues book and a CD called Hymnworks, which features hymns, played on a piano, interwoven with classical music pieces. It is absolutely beautiful. I have it as a cassette tape from way back, but there is never a tape player around to play it anymore, you know?! I've already listened to it, and it is so relaxing and enjoyable. I highly recommend it!

Faith's birthday is today--hard to believe she is already 3 years old! I barely made it to the hospital to have her, and she continues to grab life by the horns--she's not afraid of much, except for anything that lives and breathes and is not a human, LOL. She is not an animal lover! her favorite things are her "bear blanket" and her Cedarmont Kids DVDs. She adores those and will watch them as many times as I will let her. And if she's not listening, then she will sing the songs--loudly, and over and over. It is really sweet to hear old Sunday school songs being sung again, like "Climb, Climb Up Sonshine Mountain", and "Do, Lord". She's a lot of fun!

Here she is with the shiny pink "princess" balloon she got yesterday. She loves the balloon and drags it around everywhere, but when I tried to take a picture of her with it, she got all shy and uncooperative. So you'll just have to take my word about how happy she usually is! I guess she only cooperates with the dentist!

"These Are a Few of My Favorite Things . . ."

Micah's favorite things, that is: his thumb, a big brother, and his fuzzy blue blanket.

We gave him the blanket for Christmas. When it got cold back in November, I searched around but couldn't find any appropriate "boy" thick blankets, which was a source of great annoyance, since I know my Aunt Rocky made a big fleecy one with teddy bears and a red edge for one of the boys. It must be in some clever place, because I know I have seen and used it in this house . . . Anyhow, all I could find for Micah's crib was this really soft fuzzy pink blanket that someone in our co-op passed down to the girls. So of course I used that without a second thought. Hey, it's dark!

But then I realized Micah REALLY was liking the blanket. He was definitely searching for it in the crib, and he would sleep with his face on it. Very cute, but I really didn't want a fuzzy pink blanket to be his "lovey", LOL. So I found this nice soft blue blanket at Babies R Us, and he has taken right to it.

Now I have 2 "blanket babies"--Faith has her "Bear Blanket", which is another one my Aunt Rocky made, and she absolutely adores that. She always sleeps with it, and when she's upset, that's what she wants for comfort. No one else was really into blankets! A thumb-sucking baby with a blanket is soooo cute and snuggly . . .

Candy Question

I was perusing the kids' Clubhouse magazine over lunch today. This year Clubhouse is celebrating its 25th birthday, so it had a little comparison chart for what was popular back in 1987, and what is popular in the same category now. So for example, cassettes were popular back in 87, and iPods and cell phones are popular now. Gas was apparently $ .89 a gallon, versus $3.50 now, although I wasn't driving back in '87, so I don't really remember, LOL.

But here was the weird thing--Clubhouse claims that Atomic Firealls and Bit-O-Honey were the most popular candies from 1987, while Snickers and Reece's Cups are popular now. Seriously?! Fireballs and Bit-O-Honey?! I would never have eaten a Fireball, and I would only have eaten a Bit-O-Honey if there was absolutely no other sweet options available, and I was a freshman in high school in 1987. I think of both of those as sort of the "get a big bag for cheap to pass out at Halloween because you're too stingy to buy the good stuff" candies. I didn't know anyone who would have preferred eating them to a Snickers or a Reece's Cup, both of which were certainly popular back in 1987!

Seriously--who would pick anything over Snickers or Reeces? Okay, M&Ms too. How come those didn't make the list?! Allergies is the only thing I can think of!

Clubhouse also had a little paragraph about how kids who grew up reading the magazine are now working there. So maybe they just polled those young whippersnappers and asked them what candies they thought were popular back in the olden days of 1987. In which case I should be glad that horehound candy and peppermint sticks didn't make the list!

Random Happenings

I've started several posts in my head lately, but I have never gotten around to actually typing them. And for those of you who aren't my facebook friends and assume you are missing vastly exciting things that I am only posting on there--wel, I haven't updated my status either, LOL. Sometimes it just seems like too much effort all around! So here are a few random and undeveloped thoughts of late.

1. Our big project last weekend was my desk. When my family moved to Ohio from Okinawa, my parents bought me a big antique oak teacher's desk at a sale that, if I recall correctly, was at the Springfield Mall, of all places. The desk has a huge oak top with 3 drawers on the left side, one same-sized drawer on the right, a big double-sized drawer also on the right that you can put files and folders in sideways, and a skinny drawer for pencils. When I was on college, Tram, the Vietnamese man who lived with my parents, made Amy and me both hutches to go on the back of our college desks. We use one of the hutches on the back of this big desk now. So, this desk that is over 100 years old has had a good long life--but let's just say it was not made for a military life! The only way to move the desk is to unscrew the top from it, and each time we have moved, it has become less and less stable and secure. The last straw was when we thought we were moving to Guam in Dec. 09, and we got new carpet put in our downstairs. When we put the desk back together ater that, the drawers one by one starting falling into each other and not sliding in and out. So we solved that by just stacking the drawers in various locations on the floor of the study! We knew that eventually we needed to tackle the desk and give it one more shot, and that was last weekend. We took it apart, and Bob used this nylon clamp thing to wrap around each section of the desk. He glued and nailed, and eventually the desk shaped up! I started putting the drawers back in--until I realized they didn't fit! They had also succumbed to old age and started sagging, so Bob had to get back out the clamp and wrap them up as well. So finally all elements are nice and tight again, and we are just waiting for another weekend to put it all back together! Maybe then I'll get around to taking a picture.

2. I never got the vomiting bug that the kids got, but Wednesday I did not feel well at all. I didn't throw up, but my stomach roiled around all day. So we did a minimal amount of school, and I laid around on the couch the rest of the day, reading Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein. It was an interesting book, but I wasn't too alarmed at any of her findings. My girls love princesses and dressing up, but I am not worried that they will "give up everything for a man", a la Ariel, or that they will emulate the latest "older" Disney girl, like Miley Cyrus or whoever. That's where, to be honest, it's really nice to homeschool and not watch much TV, where these things are blasted at kids. I'm definitely a "moderation" mom, so I'm not going to allow anyone to become obsessed about anything. She did have some interesting, if questionable, points. She said that babydolls were invented essentially in the early 1900s as a way to "revive the flagging maternal instinct of white girls, to remind them of their patriotic duty to conceive . . ." Really? What about all those colonial corncob dolls? Girls have always loved babies! Aso, she is definitely not one for traditional values or feminine roles, which is not too surprising considering she is definitely a liberal (always clear to point out how she hopes her daughter explores all of her sexual options, etc.).

3. Micah has been so much happier this past week! Even though he has a little cold right now, he's been sleeping well and playing so nicely, even by himself. Of course, if we don't hear little noises anywhere, that is our clue to jump up and check the stairs--he loves climbing them! Since I realized that he just hasn't gained weight since he started crawling, I have been making a concerted effort to give him tons of extra stuff. So he has been happily munching on whatever table food I can give him, plus English muffins with honey and butter, toast and jam, regular muffins, fruit, whatever. I do think that he is sensitive to milk. It's been tricky to tell because he is also sensitive to hot and cold things, and he'll get a little rash from things like little pieces of ice or rice cereal that is a little too hot. But like I gave him some cornbread (made with milk) last night that was not wam at all, and he got a hive on his cheek--there have been a few things like that lately that have made me think he is reacting to the milk. So that rules out things like yogurt and cheese. After the freedom of this past year of being able to cook whatever without worrying about subbing milk, I am not looking forward to going back! I'm definitely not even going to try peanut butter or any nuts. I need to get a jar of sun butter next time I'm out. I don't really want to start him on soy butter, like Caleb likes.

So there are a few random thoughts to get you caught up on our busy life! You can fill in the rest of the time with school, laundry, cooking, and running people around to various basketball practices and Civil Air Patrol. That's my life!

Still Alive

Hey, it's me! We didn't all succumb to the dreaded plague! In fact, I never even got sick! Nathan and Jonathan did, though--last Wednesday night. They felt better by Friday. Funny Jonathan story though: I was soooo tired last Wednesday night, due to my being up all the previous night dealing with various vomiting children. So when Jonathan came in around 2:00 in the morning to tell me he had thrown up, I didn't even open my eyes.

Me: "Did you throw up in the trash can?"

Jonathan: "I think so."

So I stumbled into his room, tied up his trash can bag, took it downstairs to the big trash can, and stumbled back to bed, all with my eyes barely open. I did register that his trash can didn't really smell, which should have been a big red flag, but like I said--I was tired! Jonathan came into bed with me and threw up several more times, but each time he hit the trashcan like champ, and by the end, I just had a ton of bags lining the trash can, and I would just reach over, tie up the thrown-up-in bag, smoosh it down, and leave the trash can ready for another shot.

Anna came into my room about 4:00 to ask if she could use the potty in my bathroom, because there was throw-up in (on? I wasn't really listening, LOL) her potty. I told her (with my eyes still shut) to flush her potty, but that she could certainly use mine.

But when Jonathan came back into my room (at some point he left? I wasn't awake for that!) to tell me he needed to use my potty because there was throw-up all over their potty, I finally woke up enough to realize that indeed Jonathan had NOT thrown up at all in the trash can. I mentioned that to Jonathan, who said, "Oh yeah! I was peeing, and then all of a sudden I had to throw up, and it went all over the back of the potty!" LOL! Glad it all came back to him!

So I found myself scrubbing the toilet at 5:00 in the morning. I will say that I think my attitude was a little better than if I had been doing it at 2:00, but still . . .

When I got up to get Micah at 7:30, and Nathan told me he had also thrown up a few times during the night, but had not needed me, he became my new favorite child, LOL.

Bob was TDY this week as well. When I drove back home from picking up Nathan from Civil Air Patrol on Tuesday night, I was praying I would not come home to find anyone lying on the couch, sick, like I found last week! Thankfully everyone was well, so the only thing I just had to deal with was getting all the boys to and from their various basketball practices by myself. And I'll take that over dealing with vomit any day!

Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

No one has thrown up since early this morning, so I am cautiously hopeful that this bug is behind us. No one really ate much of anything all day either, with the exception of Nathan and Jonathan. It turns out that cleaning up all that puke took my appetite right away too, LOL. But I was getting a bit hungry by dinnertime, and I decided to make some chicken noodle soup. This is an easy recipe that is really tasty--and hopefully it will stay down for everyone!

Easy Chicken Noodle Soup

1 T olive oil
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. chopped celery
2-3 cloves garlic
as much chicken broth as needed--I used . . . hmmmm . . . 1 big can (48 oz) and 2 little cans (14.5 oz), and I probably could have used one more small can
1 pound cooked chicken (I always have bags of this--okay, more like 2 pound bags--in my freezer)
1 1/2 c egg noodles (I just eyeballed about half of a 16 oz. package)
1 c sliced carrots (I dumped in a whole bag a frozen sliced carrots--did I mention how tired I was?!)
1/2 t. dried basil
1/2 t. dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste

In a large pot over medium heat, saute onion and celery in olive oil until tender, about 5 minutes (add the garlic in for the last 2-3 minutes). Pour in chicken broth, and stir in chicken, carrots, basil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Add noodles and simmer for 15-20 minutes.

As I Was Saying . . .

So just back on Monday I posted about how whenever Micah would happen to sleep through the night, other people would have problems, so I would still not get a full night's sleep.

Well . . . last night I got the girls and Micah into bed by 8:30, and then I left to pick Nathan up from Civil Air Patrol (Bob is TDY this week). When we got home, Luke was lying on the couch. A little while later he leaned over the side of the couch and threw up into the trash can. Huh. A little while later he threw up again. I stayed up until 11:30 to see if he needed anything, but when he went upstairs to lay on the hallway floor (his choice, LOL), I went to bed too. But first I checked on Micah as well as the girls, like I always do. Micah was fine, but as soon as I walked into the girls' room, I knew someone had thrown up, because the smell hit me like a wall. A little investigation determined it was Grace, who had apparently thrown up next to her pillow, sat up, thrown up again down by her feet, and then, completely inexplicably, lay back down again and went back to sleep. She was, to put it mildly, a big stinky mess.

As I gingerly tried to extricate her from the mess and scrape some of the more solid stuff into the trash, Faith, who was sleeping on the trundle bed I was standing on, got up on all fours and threw up on her bed. Ack! Now I had a war on 2 fronts to deal with! I got both girls stripped, as well as the beds, and I put Grace in my shower, since she had vomit in her hair. I left her there while I tried to get Faith changed and settled in again. I put new sheets on her bed, and then ran back to check on Grace, who was crying in the shower and making no effort to wash any part of herself. That is the problem with showers that are taken at midnight! So I got her washed and then decided she would sleep in my bed, since she has a track record of having a sensitive stomach and vomiting often once she gets started. But then I heard Faith crying, so I ran in just in time to see her vomit on her bed again. Ack! One more sheet (bottom only this time), and a towel over the pillow. During this time, Luke had thrown up a few more times, but he can be relied on to always hit the trash can, and he can wipe his mouth up by himself.

So i got the girls settled and went back to bed. About 15 minutes later, a little after 1:00, Caleb threw up, although he managed to hit the trash can as well. Yay!

I went back to bed for a few minutes, until I heard Grace make a funny noise. I leaned over, pulled her upright, grabbing the trashcan in the process, and forced her head into it, right as she threw up. Lightning reflexes, LOL! I was very glad she didn't mess up my sheets! I had to do that at least 3 more times during the (very long) night, so having Grace sleep with me was definitely the best option.

So Caleb threw up again, as did Faith, and around 3:30 Anna started whining and complaining that her stomach hurt. I knew it was only a matter of time, and sure enough she threw up for the first time around 4:00. She threw up once more, and Grace threw up for the last time around 5:30. So then I got 2 whole hours of sleep before Micah woke up at 7:30 . . . Micah, who had slept the entire night, from 8:30 until 7:30. Sigh. It is indeed some kind of cosmic conspiracy.

So we canceled Latin for today, and everyone is just sitting around. Well, actually Micah, Jonathan, and Nathan seem perky! I am so hoping they don't throw up all this night. I think I'm going to start a video for the girls and then go take a nap!

9 Months Old!

What are you looking at?! Yes, Micah is 9 months old today. He is crawling all over the place now, and he is a champ at going up stairs. I really need to work with him on turning himself around so he can go down stairs as well, although so far he hasn't shown any real interest in going down. He loves pushing this little rolling walker thing around (I meant to take a picture but keep forgetting). He will stand by himself, but not for very long, so he's got a little way to go before walking.

Micah has hit a weight plateau at right around 20 pounds. I never did make a 9 month well-baby appointment for him, so there won't be any sort of official numbers coming out! He's not gaining much, since he's been really active and crawling, which is just like all my other kids. That boy does love to eat, though! He is eating a lot of table foods now, which is nice since I never did get around to making any homemade baby food for him, not even sweet potatoes or squash! Poor 8th baby . . . Good thing he has all those teeth! I haven't started him on meat yet, but pretty much everything we eat he will chomp away on.

Micah is a happy baby who loves all the attention lavished on him by his older siblings. However--he is by far and away my worst sleeper. Not for naps--he takes great naps. But at night. There is always something! He was the latest of my kids to sleep through the nap, at around 10 weeks. Then after a (very) few good weeks, he started teething in July. That lasted until November, when he finally got the last of his 8 teeth pushed through. But then he started this terrible habit of pooping between 3:00 and 4:00 every morning. Seriously?!?! And of course it woke him up, and changing him was disruptive, so of course he wanted to nurse, and so the whole thing takes a long time, and is very disruptive for me! How do you change someone's bowel movement schedule?! He seems to be one who just goes often during each day (and night)! And even when he would go the whole night and not poop, then there would be an unexpected pee accident or someone would have a bad dream or something. It seems like a conspiracy! I really think that interrupted sleep is some of my problem these past few months, as far as me not being motivated or energized at all to clean or start big projects (or even little ones!). As we start up our co-ops again tomorrow, I am really praying that Micah will be able to get onto a good sleep (and intestinal, LOL) routine so that I can feel better able to handle life!

What's New in 2012?

A haircut for me! That is actually a big deal, since my last haircut was in February 2011, back when we were visiting in Ohio for our winter break. Usually my plan is to find a cheap place where I can walk in and be done in a short time after the person just trims my hair a bit, since I have no ideas about what to do with my hair!

There's a lady in our church who has a real gift for working with hair. I can't even say how many times I've gone up to someone in the past year whose hair looked really great, and the answer has been, "Oh, Suzy cut my hair!" We have a bunch of ladies in our church with naturally-curly hair like mine, and she always does a great job with their hair. One of the families in our co-op lives across the street from her, and one of their daughters got an amazing haircut from her this past summer. But I was very intimidated to make an appointment with her--she is always so polished-looking, while I am frumpy and frizzy-headed, so I was worried she would take on look at my scraggly hair and be like, "I have no idea what to do with this mop!" And then where would I be?!

But at our women's fall retreat this year, Suzy was in my small group, and she wasn't at all too polished to talk to, LOL, so I decided to call and make an appointment. Although I move at glacial speed, so I didn't get around to calling until after Thanksgiving. And by that time she wasn't taking any new clients until after the New Year. The lady at the desk sounded like she thought I would be disappointed, but in reality, it was perfect timing! After Thanksgiving I was looking at visiting Bob's family, finishing co-ops, going to Great Wolf Lodge, finishing Christmas stuff like chocolates and present-shopping, visiting my family--I definitely didn't really need to add in a new haircut to all that! So I made the appointment for Tuesday, Jan. 3--after all the stress of the holidays was over, but before co-ops start again!

It was so nice to go to someone who really knows what they are doing! She spent a ton of time with me beofre even cutting my hair, going through all of my hair-care routine (well, that didn't take too much time for me to talk about my part, LOL), and giving me a ton of hints for how to better care for my hair. I told her my main requirement was that whatever she did had to not take much time to do, since I definitely don't have any extra time at this stage of my life. and then she went to town! Another lady walked by and said, "Oooh, look at all that hair on the ground!" So now my hair is short, and it's really easy to work with. I have to remind myself not to run my fingers through the curls all the time (that separates the curl strands and contributes to frizziness!), LOL. Bob has always preferred me with short hair, so he was thrilled. The kids were . . . surprised by the change, LOL. Nathan is going to be one of those men who only wants his wife to have long hair . . . but everyone seems to have adjusted! Micah was funny. He stared and stared at me for awhile when I first got home, but you could practically see him think, "Hey, the milk's still there, so who really cares", LOL.

And I've already made another appointment for May, right after testing is over. I'm going on the "2 or 3 haircuts a year" plan now!

Cousins!

So my brother Dan and his family also drove to Ohio for Christmas. They have 2 girls--Emily, who is almost 5, and Elia, who turned 2 back in September. These ages dovetail in quite nicely with our girls, who are 5 1/2, 4 1/2, and almost 3! The girls always have SUCH a grand time whent hey are all together!

Anna, Grace, Faith, and Emily all slept in one room. The first night we were there, the girls got pretty much no sleep at all! I kept hearing giggling, so I went down to check on them around 11:00. The lights were on, and they were all chattering and reading books! I told them to get in bed and go to sleep, but when Bob got up around 2:30 to go to the bathroom, he heard giggling and told them to settle down. When Micah got up to nurse around 6:00--more giggling! I again told them to settle down and go back to sleep, but they were all upstairs a little after 7:00! We were expecting them to all be very crabby, but surprisingly they were not.

I put the fear of God in them the next night, telling them that if there was any trouble, Emily would have to sleep on a mattress in her parents' room. I told them they needed stay in their beds, close their mouths and eyes, and go to sleep! I was very firm, LOL. So firm that Emily was scared to get up at all, even though she needed to go to the bathroom! Anna didn't feel that same fear, so she got up, and Emily was amazed at her bold disregard for the clear law that had been laid down. I was actually directing my comments to Faith, who is one of the main troublemakers, so the next night I had to be careful to clarify!

Emily is just a lot like me, in terms of taking things literally. When I was 4 or 5, I was in this day camp for a week through our church, back when we were stationed in Los Angelos. One little field trip we had was on some pirate boat out in some bay. The pirates were being all fierce (and completely over-the-top, as I can clearly see now when looking back on it), and they threatened to throw any kid overboard who did anything wrong. I. was. PETRIFIED. I sat in one spot and didn't move the entire trip. I kept wondering when they were going to come around and get all of our names and addresses, because without those, how would they let our parents know that we had been thrown overboard?! LOL!

Aunt Melinda was a very patient reader of stories for everyone! Grace has obviously been in her stocking stash of chocolate, LOL.

Even though Emily's birthday isn't until tomorrow, we celebrated in Ohio early. We went bowling at the base. They have this little dragon thing that the younger kids can roll the ball down, so you don't have to wait an approximate year for the ball to get down to the pins. Also, they have the nice bumper things in the gutters, and you can lift them up and down, depending on who's bowling, which makes it nice for Jonathan and Caleb. The boys were really helpful with the girls, helping them carry their balls over to the dragon, making sure it was centered and all.

Elia had the absolute most fun. As soon as she gave the ball a push, she would start jumping up and down, clapping and cheering, as she watched her ball roll down the lane! A very enthusiastic bowler indeed!

She was not an enthusiastic eater of green beans however, LOL. We had those at our Christmas day leftover dinner, and while she would have eaten as much of the cranberry sauce as possible, she wanted nothing to do with the beans, so Dan had to lay down the law--eat this green bean, which was cut into 3 pieces, or no more cranberry sauce. And with that, the battle was on! She refused the green bean the rest of that day, and on until Monday evening. Bob and I went out for pizza with Dan and Melinda, and while we were gone, Luke somehow convinced Elia to eat the bean--all 3 pieces! Yay!

So now we are all missing Emily and Elia, and wishing they lived closer!

Christmas Downtime

It was so nice to have some downtime during this break! We all got a lot of games for Christmas, so much time was spent playing them! The boys got Settlers of Catan, plus the expansion pack so a total of 6 people could play. That is proving to be a very popular game! They also got a card game called Quidler, plus a game called "Sort It Out", where you're given a weird collection of things which you have to organize in some given order. Here's an example: Sort these things by length, from longest to shortest: average female sea lion, anaconda, giant salamander, a yardstick, and a bootlace worm. You have to get each item in the right position, so you can basically have them all but one in the correct order, but you put that one wrong one in the first place, so it pushed all the rest off a place, and then you get credit for none of them being right. The good thing about this game is you pretty much have as much a chance of getting things right by randomly guessing than if you have some idea of what is right. So Jonathan never won, but he hung out in the middle of the pack, when he had no idea about pretty much all the cards!

The girls got some fun games too, which were played by all. A big favorite was a charades game Dan and Melinda gave to Emily. All the younger kids thought that was great fun. The Princess Memory game was also a favorite.

One thing I really love to do is work jigsaw puzzles. One day when I was in Barnes and Noble I saw this 1000 piece puzzle, which I just loved. I hope you can see the picture clearly, but it's a grandma and grandpa sitting in their huge library--but then as you look down the hallways, you see that the books stretch out in every direction! My dream house! So we gave that to Mom and Dad as a Christmas present, and then we brought up the old card table and actually started it Tuesday. It was a fun puzzle to work because there were lots of separate areas you could do. Luke finished it up Friday morning!

I was also able to spend some time just reading, which was so relaxing. I read the second book in the new 39 Clues series, which was a quick read. I also read The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, about the woman whose cancer cells became the hela line. Absolutely fascinating!! I am going to have the boys read that book next summer before we start biology at Rivendell. Christine has recommended the book after her book club read it, and I was so glad I read it! I also finally got started on the 3rd Harry Potter book. I read the first 2 in August, but then Rivendell started, and I have pretty much had no time for pleasure reading. I need to finish that up tomorrow so I can take it back to the library! We also listened to about half to The Lightning Thief on CD on our long trip home. We have the book, so right now Jonathan is finishing it up, then Caleb is in line, and then me.

Wow--puzzles, reading--what a lovely break! We don't start back at Rivendell until Jan. 10, so I technically have some more break time. But now I really need to do more prep work for science and Latin, plus I still have goals for cleaning and decluttering, so I think my break is more or less over. Wah. It was good while it lasted, and it was so nice being at my mom's house, where I wasn't constantly reminded off all the stuff in the house I need to clean and organize!

Christmas Weekend

We had our big Christmas meal on Christmas Eve, in the afternoon, and then we went on to the candlelight service at the base chapel. I think I am going to make this our new tradition, because it was so nice on Christmas to just be able to heat up leftovers, and not have to worry about cooking stuff while trying to watch people open presents!

Look at all those beautiful girls in their Christmas dresses! We went to church Christmas morning at the chapel, then we came home and ate a quick meal of leftovers before opening our presents.

We all got some really neat presents (and the best part is that they all fit in the van for the drive back!). Lots of games, legos, and other fun things.

Nathan has been talking about how he would like a hatchet, so my dad gave him his old Boy Scout hatchet!

Then we had our birthday party for Jesus. After we ate our cake, we looked through catalogs to decide what our birthday gift to Jesus was going to be. After much discussion, we settled on a goat and 2 chickens, plus a share in a deepwater well. I think we ended up going with the World Vision catalog. Looking through those catalogs makes us wish we could give a thousand times more--so many needs!

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

We spent Christmas in Ohio with my parents, and my brother and his family, who drove up from Texas. They arrived Wednesday, but we got to Ohio late Friday, since we couldn't leave until noon because Bob had to go in to work for a few hours. Then Bob rode back to VA Tuesday with the son of a friend of my parents. He is a USAFA grad who is now out of the service. He lives in downtown DC, but he was kind enough to drop Bob right off at our house!

The kids and I stayed until yesterday. We got a late start on the drive because Anna woke up feeling sick. She heaved a few times before we left, but since she hadn't eaaten anything since dinner Friday, there was nothing in her tummy. She moaned and groaned pretty much the whole ride home, and we had to make a really long stop at lunch because of her tummy troubles, so the trip just took forever, it seemed. We drove straight to the L's house, since we were planning on going to their annual New Year's Eve party. We were only an hour late! Bob met us there and took Anna and Micah home, while the rest of us stayed and ate dinner. The boys played games, including their new Settlers of Catan game, which they brought in. Grace and Faith and I left before everyone counted down (at 9:00) because I was just so fried. Bob went back for awhile and brought the boys home eventually.

I am glad to be home, but dealing with all the stuff Bob unloaded from the van is almost too much to think about! I'm not feeling 100% myself, actually. Micah never really slept well at all at my parents' house, and I have 2 big canker sores in my mouth from the lack of sleep, as well as just some general snuffles. So I'm sitting here, foggy-brained, trying to muster up some motivation to do something useful. Maybe I'll upload pictures from our camera and write some more posts. That might be all the motivation I can muster, LOL.

Rivendell Goes to Great Wolf Lodge

We just got back yesterday from 3 days at Great Wolf Lodge! We all really needed the break, and we had such a good time! Our homeschooling group got the same great deal we got last year, so we were able to stay in the 2 bedroom Grizzly suite again. Woo-hoo!

Micah really enjoyed the water! As it turns out, however, he doesn't like his bare knees to touch anything like water or even carpet, so he spent a good deal of the time doing this gorilla walk. I guess he hasn't been in any shorts since he learned to crawl! He really liked the wave pool, and he would sit in the shallow part and splash, or crawl around like in the picture, when it was still. But as soon as he heard the wolf "howling", signaling when the waves were starting, he would crawl over and sit in my lap!

Grace had a really good time as well--much more fun than last year. She also LOVED the wave pool, and she, Faith, and Anna would all bob around in these rings forever, during the still times as well as when the waves were going. She was so much braver! She went on one of the big water slides (River Canyon Run) with Bob and the other girls several times! Yes, Faith went on that slide too, as well as the ones from the center fort thing! She was absolutely unafraid. What a pill!

I love how the skillful photographer was able to make it appear like Caleb was peeing with wild abandon--LOL. I didn't get too many pictures of the boys, since they were running around and I hardly ever even saw them. Fun was had by all, though.

We all (3 Rivendell families plus one other homeschooling family in our bigger group) went out to Golden Corral Wednesday night. Micah was a total pig (well, everyone else was too!). Carrots, green beans, rolls, tons of fruit--he kept stuffing it in. The kids were quite excited by the chocolate fountain Golden Corral now offers, even though the strawberries weren't really in season. After we got back, the boys all watched "National Treasure" in the room of the other family.

Thursday we went to Cici's for dinner, and then the boys came to our room and played cards for awhile. We brought Skip-Bo, Monopoly Deal, and Uno. While the boys were playing cards, the girls, Micah, and I went down to the lobby for their little "show", and to hear "storytime with Rowdy the Reindeer". Rowdy was one of those costumed actors with the gigantic heads--the kind that used to terrify Anna at Chik-Fil-A and cause her to scream hysterically. We have come a long way, however, since now Anna, as well as Grace and Faith, all lined up to shake Rowdy's hand when the story was done. They all drew the line at giving him a hug though.

We left Friday right after lunch. This was a little earlier than we had planned, but the girls and Micah were just done. Since we were on the road so early, we decided to stop at Ikea for the first time. Wow--so much stuff! Bob and I had a great time looking at everything. There was some complaining, although not from any of the younger 7 kids . . .

We got back home, unloaded, and immediately got ready to go to Bible study for our annual Christmas story play,. The nicest part was that we had a baked potato bar, so I brought shredded cheese and sour cream, but I didn't have to cook! Woo-hoo! Elizabeth cooked 15 pounds of potatoes, and we had exactly 2 potatoes left over. The kids said they didn't want them because "there weren't any toppings left". And they were right! Chili, taco meat, ham. broccoli, bacon bits--all gone. There was just a bit of cheese left. Locusts, they are!

Then after the grand performance (parts for all kids who wanted one--and there were 25 kids!), we had an absolutely delicious ice cream sundae bar. I brought M&Ms for that, but there were also brownies, oreo crumbs, pineapple, and lots of sauces including Amy's homemade chocolate marshmallow one. Mmmmm.

Our Christmas break is off to a good start!! (And I just want to point out for the benefit of other homeschooled readers who might be envious of our Christmas break, that this is a break for ME, LOL. The boys will still be doing some school next week, especially math and English . . . so don't be too envious!)