Sleepless in Milledgeville

My children won't sleep. The little ones, I mean. It's not a complaint or a gripe. It's just a fact. They won't sleep alone, and they won't sleep together. However, they WILL sleep with me. So after (what are we now, almost two weeks into Austin being gone?) almost two weeks of battling each and every bedtime, I've made a decision. The little buggers can sleep with me until Austin comes home.

Yes, I know I'll regret it. I'm already well aware. But the lack of sleep is killing everyone, and yes, that does include myself. But really...7 1/2 or 8 hours of sleep is NOT enough for an almost-three year old and a four year old, so I've got to do something. Bedtime has always been easier with Austin here. (When he left the fire department and went to his job with the Department of Defense at Robins, nights were great, because he was here every night!) That's just one of the many reasons I'm ready for him to come home, and we still have quite a while before that happens.

So until then, Milledgeville - or at least our little corner of it - will NOT remain sleepless!

You never know how much time you'll have

"Life is short." I've heard it a thousand times. But never has it been more real to me than this morning. A wonderful friend of mine lost her baby girl last night. I can't imagine how she must be feeling; I hope I never have to.

And it made me realize how much I complain; I complain about my lack of sleep, about the constant craziness that my home is, about how I never have enough time to myself, and how I'm always on the go, doing something for someone. The sad truth about it all? I don't deserve it. There are so many people out there that would love to have what I do, and I take it for granted. And it's ridiculous.

So I'm going to shut up. I'm going to spend every second of my crazy life with my crazy family, doing just what they want to do. There's plenty of time for rest, and plenty of time for quiet....later. Now is all I know for sure that I have with them....and I plan to take full advantage of it.

In the words of Joseph b. Wirthlin, “Come what may, and love it.” I plan to.

The day from.....

Yeah, it was one of those days. It started off pretty normal (if there is such a thing in our life!); I had three CHAMPS classes to teach yesterday, and then had plans to leave work and take Jonathan to a doctor's appointment in Warner Robins. But life had different plans.

During my last class, the front office called and said that I had a phone call in the teacher's workroom. Odd, because nobody ever contacts me at my schools; I immediately knew something was wrong.

It was Jonathan's school. One of the administrator's, Ms. Hollis, said that Jonathan had fallen and "bumped" his mouth, and that he'd probably need a stitch or two. Now, I unfortunately have a tendency to panic, but there was good reason this time. I made a mad dash back to the classroom that I was teaching in, made my excuses, packed up and got out of there.

It was a short drive over to the Early Learning Center...it was just next door from where I'd been teaching. I ran down the hallway as fast as I could safely make it, and walked into Jonathan's classroom to see his teacher holding him on her lap, an ice pack and a bunch of paper towels pressed to his mouth. I got over to him and pulled the towels away...and almost freaked. The wide open space that used to be his lip upset me; there was a gap of about a half an inch that completely opened up his lip and split it in two.

After a quick conversation with the other adults in the room, Jonathan's teacher helped me get Jonathan loaded up in the patrol car, and the three of us took off towards the emergency room. We didn't have to wait too terribly long, and then we were taken on to the back to get started on some stitches. I won't even get into how much Jonathan screamed during the process (however I will say that his screaming was more directed at the fact that three people were laying on top of him, not allowing him to move, rather than the stitches that were being put into his mouth), but eight painful ones later, we were done. Or so we thought.

The nurse had us sign the discharge papers, and we were on our way. But no sooner had I gotten Jonathan into the car seat, when he reached up and yanked out the main stitch. So we turned around and paraded back inside for another round of stitching.

Finally we were truly on our way out of there and hopefully on the road to both recovery and home! It was a long night of Jonathan pulling at those stitches, and he had a lot of pain, but we made it through. Hopefully we're over the worst part of it. We go back to the ER on Tuesday to get the stitches out.

And of course, what would this be without a pictures of my little man's battle scars?

Just a few pictures

Life is kind of slow right now, but here's some pictures I've taken recently.

Oh, and Austin made it to San Antonio early afternoon on Sunday. There was major construction on I-10 (I think), and it was closed, so he didn't make very good time on Saturday, but I'm still glad he left on Friday; that way he didn't have to rush and it wasn't a frantic trip. (He thinks I forced him out on Friday, but the truth is, I would have loved him home one more day!

Anyway, on to the photos....

The cross stitch project I've been working on for Annah-bug's bedroom door (took me like four months!):



Matthew with his new "Plan B" skateboard that he got from Uncle Randy (and Grandma) for his 12th birthday last week:



Trying out the grind rail that I bought him:





Jonathan "bird watching" with a pair of binoculars that he made at school:





Miss Halloween herself!

The countdown begins

My sweetie left this morning for Lackland AFB in Texas; for the next three months, I'm on my own. I'm sad, and feeling overwhelmed at the thought of taking care of three kids by myself. We've been through deployments before, but it was before the two little ones were born, so it was a bit different. However, I've got a lot of help lined up; my mother-in-law (MaLew) plans to come up once a week and help out with things like laundry and pre-making some meals for us for the week ahead. I also have a friend at church who has offered to keep the kids for me while I do grocery shopping, which in and of itself, is a huge help. Another friend has offered to pick Matthew up from his Disc Golf practices and tournaments each week. So while I know that all will be fine, at this tender moment it doesn't feel that way. The weekend ahead seems long, but I have specific plans - nothing at all! I'm going to stay home and catch up on laundry and house cleaning, and go nowhere. I might not even get dressed.

So the countown begins. The calendar is up on the fridge and ready for days to be marked off each night. I'm not normally one to say this, but December just can't come fast enough this year.

Saving the world, one episode at a time!

I've gotten sucked into the saga of Stargate SG-1. I bought the complete series (Seasons 1 through 10) for Austin for Christmas last year, not knowing that he was going to pull me into it; we've been watching an episode every night or so (sometimes skipping up to a week here or there for a variety of reasons) after the kids go to bed.

With Austin's TDY looming in the very near future though, we've started a race against the calendar; we are now three short episodes and two full length movies away from the end of the SG-1 team! I know it's crazy, but I'm a bit sad. It's become such a part of our routine that I'm not sure what we'll do when we're done. I'm sure we can think of a few things though. :)

Hey...maybe we can start renting Stargate Atlantis!

Weekend in Savannah

Austin and I went to Savannah this past Friday night; Malew kept the little kids for us, while Matthew was visiting David. We got down there around 6 p.m., checked into our hotel (the Inn at Ellis Square), and then went walking on River Street, trying to find a good restaurant. The one I really wanted to eat at was out (we'd been there before, but Austin hated it, so it was a no-go), so we wound up going to the Boar's Head. It was pretty decent, but we didn't get a lot for our money. As much as I wanted the lobster (I've never had it before), it was $40, and I couldn't managed that. So, I had steak. And it was good...but just not enough.

Afterwards, we went walking again, and our plans had been to go dancing at this club on River Street, but it was dead at that time of evening. So we walked some more, and then went for a drive. When we came back, it was in full swing, but Austin really didn't want to go, so we changed our plans again. We wound up just doing a lot more walking and talking, although it was harder and harder for me to walk up and down the cobblestone street (Austin was very courteous of me being careful, going up and down steps, and resting when I needed to!); we finally went back to the hotel at around 12:30 a.m. Good thing we were able to sleep in the next morning!

We got up around 8 a.m., went to the free breakfast the hotel provided, and then checked out of the hotel. We walked along River Street a bit more, this time going into the different gift shops and such, and bought a couple of things. One thing was a bottle of hot sauce, called Dave's Insanity hot sauce. Austin told me about some that he bought a while back, and when we saw it, I gladly paid the $8 for the bottle, because I know he loves hot stuff. Imagine my surprise though, when I had to sign a waiver of liability just to buy the stuff!



After our stop to buy the hot sauce, we strolled a bit more, went to River Street Sweets to get MaLew a promised Praline, and then decided it was time to get some lunch. It was after 1:00 p.m. at this point, but we thought that if we went somewhere off River Street, we'd pay less and get more for lunch, so that's what we did. We wound up at a seafood and BBQ place off of Abercorn Street called Carey Hilliard's. It's a local chain that specializes in hearty portions and good service, so we enjoyed it.

We made a couple of stops after that, and then headed on back to Swainsboro (or as Austin calls it, "the 'Boro"). After so much walking, my hips and back were killing me and I was exhausted, so we decided to just stay the night in Swainsboro and got up early this morning and head home.

The kids had a great time with MaLew, and I think MaLew enjoyed herself as well, although all parties involved were glad to see Mommy and Daddy pull in the driveway!

MaLew says we need to do this a bit more often (it's been more than six years since we've been off alone together overnight!), and if she means that, I definitely plan to take her up on that offer! We had a great time!

Our motel and view from the window (on the 7th floor):







What I called "Diagon Alley" (it just reminded me of Harry Potter!):



One of the crazy pigions that kept walking under our feet!



This bardge came through and it was sooooo huge! All those things you see on top of it are the trailers like are on the big 18 wheeler trucks, and you can see the tug boats pushing and bumping the barge to keep it in the right place in the water:



Finally, one of us:



And a shot of River Street (I love the cobblestones and the railway car tracks):

Patriotism....kid style!

Annah's class at daycare has been (unknown to me til this afternoon!) working on the Pledge of Allegiance. So today, she was playing with the magnets on the fridge, and picked up the flag magnet. She put her little hand over her heart and began the best rendition of The Pledge of Allegiance I've ever heard come out of a child's mouth. Talk about mother's pride!

Faith In God

Matthew has been working on his Faith In God award for church/scouting for quite a while. It normally takes several years to complete. This week, he finished. His final task was to help the Primary Presidency at church to prepare for an upcoming primary activity. His assignment from the Primary President: do posters announcing the upcoming activity.

Matthew loves to draw, but wasn't completely up for doing every bit of the drawing required for this; we really wanted them to look good, since they would be on display at church. So Austin helped him out. Austin did the major drawing, and Matthew did the decorating/coloring. They make a pretty good team when they work at it!

 

 

 

Anyway, he finished his final project, we turned them in this past Sunday, and tonight, Matthew had his interview with both the Primary President and the Bishop. One of the major things that he had to do was to memorize all thirteen Articles of Faith, which is no small task! So, he met with both officials, and got their signatures on his Faith In Goad book. It's done!

As a visual reminder, he will now be allowed to wear the scouting religious knot on his uniform. And I'm not sure who's more excited about that...me or him!

School pictures

Every year I dread Matthew taking school pictures - for a couple of reasons. First of all, they're crazy expensive, and you have to pay upfront, before you even take the pictures. Second, Matthew ALWAYS takes horrible school pictures. I used to also, but that's a different story. Anyway, picture time came around, and I decided (I'm not sure why) to go ahead and order the smallest package they had (being $25!). I picked out his clothes very carefully, instructed him on how to avoid smiling so big that his eyes closed, and hoped for the best. And amazingly, the best is what we got.

I'm thrilled with them! They're the best pictures he's had taken at school in years. So, with that said, I had to brag a bit.

Doesn't take much...

to make my kids happy! Pancakes and sausage for supper...mmmmmm! And just to be fun mom, I made heart pancakes for Annah and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle pancakes for Jonathan (yes, that's what they are!). Matthew's too old for this, of course. However, the lack of desire for shaped pancakes aside, he can surely put a stack of them away!

 

I need to remember more often than pancakes and sausage makes a Tuesday evening quiet...at least til the food is gone!

Robins AFB

We took a trip to Robins Air Force Base Air Museum this afternoon, and had a pretty good time. We'd already gone to two birthday parties, and by the time we got to the museum, the kids (and Mommy!) were tired, but we managed to see some neat stuff, and made plans to go back again soon. Matthew wasn't with us, but hopefully next time he will be!

 

 

 

 

Labor Day labors

It was a really nice, long weekend for us. Yesterday was Labor Day, and we were able to enjoy an extra day off work/school. What made it even better was that we were able to all be together. That doesn't happen much.

Austin got out and cut the grass and cleaned the yard on Saturday, and I did my major inside cleaning over the regular weekend so that Monday would be a stress free day. We invited Malew up, and put the grill to work. My goal? To cook enough food so that I wouldn't have to cook this week! And so far, it's worked! We ate good too....spare ribs, barbequed chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers, corn on the cob, green bean casserole, baked beans, Mommy/Annah-made (out of a box) cake, and ice cream. It was a feast!

The kids got to play outside for a bit, although the rain kept threatening to run us inside. Austin spent a good deal of the day playing playstation with Jonathan and beating new levels on the Lego Indiana Jones game. Matthew went off on his own to play outside, and Annah and I headed into town later in the afternoon to get her hair cut. It really was a nice day - the nicest and most relaxing (although I worked my behind off on the food!) day in a while. It's nice to have one of those every now and again.

And of course, I took some pictures....

Jonathan and Jackie Bear (Jackie Bear is Jonathan's class friend at school; he lives at school during the week, but the teacher picks someone for Jackie Bear to go home with on the weekends so that he can be taken care of. Then the kids and their families get to write in Jackie Bear's journal about all the fun things they got to do together. Jackie Bear had lots of fun at the Lewis home!):
















Annah's new hair cut:


Annah helped Mommy make the cake for dessert; too bad we forgot to take pictures pictures after it was decorated! It was her first time helping in the kitchen, and she really did a great job!

Hello!

This was an email that Austin sent me this morning. He had drill this weekend, but since he works at the base full time, he also has an office there, along with email access. He knew I was tired and not feeling up to par, so he sent me a little pick-me-up, make me laugh email. Just a one liner, but it did the trick!

"Good morning babe. I just wanted to send you an Email to say “Hi” and good luck today with the demon possessed children. - Austin"

Jonathan the helper

Jonathan got to be the helper in his pre-k class today. Apparently the teacher pulls a name every morning, and the helper for the day gets to do all kinds of fun things. It was great seeing how animated Jonathan was as he described all that he got to help with today!

"I got to be the helper today! I fed Fanny (the fish). And I got to write my name. And I got nine bears. (Huh?) I got to come up and pull the wiggle worms. (I think it's some kind of 'get the wiggle worms out' kind of thing they do first off.) And I picked out the three colors. And you know what? Oh yeah, I was the line leader. And I passed the books to my friends because they needed them."

He also told me all about riding the bus, taking a nap, going to lunch, and eating strawberries. He's really enjoying school! Heck, that's the most he's told me about school since he started!

Row, row, row your boat

Jonathan and Annah have never really gotten a chance to spend a lot of time with my brother, Randy. Lately though, he's been better at being around, and they've gotten to know him a bit.

Last weekend, we went out to Culpepper Lake (which is owned by my uncle) for my mom's family day with her church. We didn't stay very long, but Jonathan and Annah got to spend some time with Uncle Randy, and they enjoyed it a lot.

The difference between boys and girls

I posted a couple of days ago about Jonathan starting Pre-K this week; today I went by to check with his teacher, Mrs. Johnson, and see how he's been doing. She assured me that he has been fine, and that she finds him to be a very funny and loving little boy. She did tell me a story, though, that made me laugh so hard I had to hold my stomach!

Mrs. Johnson said that the other day as they were going over the rules in the classroom, she started telling them about the different bathrooms - one for girls and one for boys. She said that she stated over and over how important it was that the boys never go in the girls bathroom and vice versa. So after her words of warning, Jonathan piped up with an explaination of why this was all so important: "That's because girls have vaginas!"

Yep; even at four years old, he's got the basics down!

Tomatoes ARE NOT a fruit!

Last weekend, we stopped by my parents house for a quick visit. My step-dad grows a lot of his own veggies and stuff, and as we were leaving, he picked some hot peppers for me to take home to Austin. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but he also wound up giving Annah a tomato, which she believed was an apple.

I tried to convince her otherwise, but she just wasn't hearing it. I did manage to persuade her to wait til we got home to eat it. And after dinner, she grabbed ahold of it, sat down at the table, and took a big bite.

Let me just say that you will NEVER convince Annah that tomaotoes are a fruit!!!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to school they go!

Yep, it's that time of year again; school started back in Baldwin County today. And my two boys were among the back-to-school crowd!

Matthew entered 6th grade: Middle School! He was excited, but the look of excitement on his face was mixed with a bit of fear as well. He didn't start off so great; we forgot to pack his schedule, so he went to school without a clue as to anything other than where he was supposed to be during first period. Then he got a bad headache around lunchtime, which turned into an evil migraine. And to top it all off, guess who missed the bus going home? Yep. When I finally mananged to get him, he was tired and frustrated, along with feeling sick from the migraine. He started throwing up within just a few minutes. Poor guy. Luckily though, after a quick nap and a shower, he felt much better, and started telling me about his day, and the old and new friends he'd met up with.

Jonathan also had a school experience today; he started Pre-K! I'm so excited for him; he loves his teacher, and loves riding the big yellow bus even more. He says he made some friends today, but couldn't tell me many names. Oh well, it will come. I'm glad he enjoyed his first day; I was really concerned that he might have one of his meltdowns before we could even get him there, but he did great.

And of course, what kind of post would this be without some back to school pictures? (Although I do have to say that Matthew refused to let me take any of him if other people could see!)







A picture with Daddy while waiting for the bus:


Waiting at the bus stop:


Being a big boy and getting on the bus:


Getting off the bus at school (he realized Mommy was there!):


Jonathan starting off in his new class: