Bathroom Moments

Ok our little Lulee who is only 2 1/2 is fascinated with the potty and all it's magical abilities. I try to go out of the bathroom when she is in there doing her "business" to give her privacy. She becomes very imaginative in the bathroom and loses herself in the moment. She was looking at a PC magazine, because you know she HAS to have a book while she potties, and decided that the front cover was a picture of me as Super Mommy, a Super Hero with Super Powers.

She will, most of the time, let me know when she is done (unless she gets into something that she doesn't want me to know she's into. Like the time that she decided to write on the wall with lipstick!!!

The other day I came back to check on her after her 10 minute session. She was turned around with her head down toward the potty saying something. I could barely hear her so I had to get really close and listen. She was saying "March, march, march". March of the Penguins......I think not!!!

This is me as Super Mommy according to Lulee.

She is going to be a great artist!!! She works well with any material... fabric, sheetrock, flooring.

Happy 3 Year Anniversary!!!

Today is our 3 year anniversary!!! Let me start out by saying I am so in love with my Hubby and family. Last night our 13 year old, Sadie Bug and our 2 year old Lulee was working on our presents. I came in on them and caught them, or should I say Lulee told on themselves. :) As soon as I walked in Lulee said "We are making presents!!!". I said for who and she said for you and Daddy. She was so excited.

She ran in to the office last night while I was on the computer and was screaming "Happy....(still contemplating what she was supposed to say per her Big Sister's Cue) Present"!!!

Happy Present? I said. She said Mmmm Hmmm for you and Daddy. She handed me this cute little paper airplane that she colored and Big Sister made. Big Sister has also made us something else, but she is keeping us in suspense. She won't give it to us until after school today. :)

Are't they precious. Here is the pic of our paper airplane present:

Then I wake up this morning to find a dozen red roses, a picture of our wedding day (at our reception), and a card which reads "Sealed with a kiss...12.10.05". Hubby did so good!!!! It was a pleasant surprise. Then he admits to me that he has NEVER, EVER in his lifetime bought a dozen roses. I was shocked because I could've sworn that he got me some before. I'm the type of girl though that is just satisfied with getting any and have never really counted them. I asked him how did he escape ever getting a girl a dozen red roses. He had some smooth answer, but to be honest I think he could get away with just about anything with his gorgeous, mesmorizing, blue eyes!!!

I love you Hubby and am so glad to have met, fell in love with, got married to, and have children with!!! Happy 3 year Anniversary!!!! I am looking forward to many, many, more with you!!!

I've joined the bandwagon!!!

I have heard so much about these Twilight books and the movie that I was sick of it before it was even playing in the theaters. I did not want to read anything about bloodsuckers much less watch the movie.


Well, after talking with my friend Jolie and hearing over and over about her love for the book and mainly "Edward" I have become really intrigued, to say the least.


Then low and behold my friend Stephanie, who I read her blog everyday, has switched over to the dark side too and now she is having a "Twilight Christmas Giveaway" on her blog. Ok, so now not only am I intrigued, I am now DETERMINED to win this giveaway. Go on over and check out her blog. You can enter to win too!!


The other day I was talking to my friend Jolie and I decided to take a picture and send it to her for my contribution to the "Twilight" cause:

Yes, we had been making our traditional Christmas cookies while I was talking to Jolie as she was reading excerpts from the 3rd Twilight book. I felt inspired and had to show her my support. It's hard to smile with big cookie bits shaped like fangs in your mouth. ;)

You know you've gone to the doctor way too much when....

your 2 1/2 year old daughter comes to you and says:

Lulee: I need to call the doctor

Mommy: Why do you need to call the doctor?

Lulee: Because I stepped on a cracker.

Mommy: I'm sure you will be ok. Let me see.

Lulee: I NEEEED to call the doctor.

Mommy: (Making a call to her friend and having her pretend she's the doctor) Yes Dr. J Lulee must talk to you. She stepped on a cracker.

Lulee: (says absolutely nothing and runs away)

Problem solved. :)

Also, ever since Sadie Bug got braces Lulee has decided that she needs them too. She told me the other day that her teeth hurt. She said that the doctor would fix them and give her braces. I even caught her putting cheerios on the fronts of her teeth and telling me they were braces.

Lulee also had a bad rash a few months back and she has let me know over and over that the doctor fixed her booty. She thinks that this doctor has hung the moon. I'm not sure she hasn't. ;) Truth be known this is the kindest, caring, and thorough doctor I've ever met. We are lucky to have her and she's young so we may have her through the duration of childhood years on up into the teens maybe.

Fun Day Off for Veteran's Day

Yesterday was a fun, laid back day for the Fam. Sadie Bug was home from school. Hubby was able to be with us, Lulee was loving it all. We made the most of our day without going anywhere. Sometimes it is nice to do just that, when you are constantly running here and there.


We started out with a nice breakfast together, which we hardly ever get to do with Sadie Bug because she is out to meet the bus so early. We then spent time together watching our favorite shows. Then came the really fun stuff. We started painting Sadie Bug's room, upon her request. It was a really calming and pretty color of blue (kind of like the toothepaste color) and now it is a brighter, pretty shade of orange. I helped hubby paint a small amount. I did the trim work around the doors and the windows and then he did the rest. It still needs a second coat, but it is looking good. All teens should be this lucky. To be able to request a color even if it is one that you may not agree with. Let them express themselves in as many areas of life as you can.

I wanted to paint my room black when I was a teen (I know that is a little much) and my Mom wouldn't let me. The closest she would compromise on was a dark green. I painted my room myself that weekend and learned to enjoy it almost as much as I would the black. I swore that when I got out on my own I would have a black room. Yeah, I've been on my own for a while now and I have yet to have my black room. I do have dark chocolate in my bedroom however. That's getting close right???

Anyway, we all enjoyed our day yesterday. I felt like we were giving Sadie Bug something she truly wanted. Lulee was satisfied with getting to play and spend time with Sister. Hubby loves to paint. I actually had some time for myself as well to work on my hairbows. With all the Green and Red ribbon that I have been using I feel like I can't distinguish between the two anymore. :)

I had lots of pictures to put on this post, but I'm having trouble loading them for some reason. Anyway, I will work on getting the pics put on soon. :)

A rough bath time....literally

Our two year old, Lulee, is so sweet trying to do for herself. Miss Independent tries to do everything by herself. She doesn't like when I try to give her bites of something. She wants to take it away from me and do it herself.

It was bath time the other night and she decided she was going to bathe herself. That's fine, I had a soft washcloth in there for her to use and she knows how to use the pump to get her body wash out. It looked like she had everything under control. She was all sudsied up, smiling and very proud of herself.

I was taking a bath with her and looked up and noticed that she had left the nice, soft little washcloth that I had gotten for her. She was definitely using something. It had suds all over it and I couldn't tell what it was. I grabbed it from her and rinsed it off. I can't believe I didn't even notice that she was washing with none other than a pumice stone. Why didn't she use her soft wash cloth that I had purposefully put in there for her?!?!?

She chose the hard pumice stone over the cloth!!! I told her "Lulee that is not for your body. It is for your feet!". Of course her reply was the same reply that I have heard a hundred times over lately. "WHY?"

Apparently her technique of exfoliating her body didn't seem to bother her any. I had to, of course, pick the stone up and rub in on my skin to see how bad it would feel. If you don't rub it over your skin too hard it doesn't feel too bad. :)

She might be on to something...

I'm aspiring to be more like my cats...

Our Relaxing kitties Lylah and Lizzie

Everyone who knows me, knows that I max out my day with everything possible that I can fit in and then some. I don't even know if I know how to relax. I am constantly trying to rack my brain to come up with ideas on how to make extra money for the family, even when it is not really needed. I clean my friend's house for her twice a month, I make and sell hairbows, and I sell things on ebay. I even started a new stay at home job today, receiving calls from customers, after already feeling overwhelmed and overbooked with my time.

It did not go well to say the least. There were several things we had to do to get ready for this job. We had to cancel our existing internet and phone service because they cut out intermittently ALL the time since we first signed up with them about a year ago. We had to sign up with another provider and get just a basic line with no call waiting, caller id, or voice mail. We also had to put a bi-fold door on our office to eliminate kiddo and animal noises that would be heard when taking the calls.

First two calls I got today, the headset that we purchased specifically for this job had a super loud buzzing in the line where they couldn't hear me and I got hung up on. The system did not work right. I had a man that was in his 90's and could not hear well (poor thing). I had to shout the scripts that had to be read verbatim to him along with all the 6 or 7 up sells. The F Keys that were required to maneuver throughout the screens did not work. I got booted out of their system twice. The phone disconnected a couple of times as well. Every time I tried to type information in, there was a delay of about 10 seconds with each key stroke! The customers were getting upset as was I.

It was truly a MISERABLE experience today. So much that I have decided to resign EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY for that specific skill not the company itself. Now whether they will assign a different skill for me or not is left to be determined.

Until then, I will continue being a full time Mommy with all the Mommy duties that come along with it, clean my friend's house twice a month, sell items on ebay, and make and sell my hairbows.

In the future, however, I believe that I am going to take the unspoken lessons that I have learned from my cats and JUST RELAX!!!!!

I would love to be in their shoes, or paws rather, for just ONE day!!!

Thanks for letting me vent.

No Lylah eating Mommy

Our little kitty has this habit of nursing. She loves to get on your lap while you are trying to watch tv., on the computer or whatever you are trying to do. She will start nursing your shirt or your pants. I had never had a cat do this before.

I was trying to google it to figure out if something was wrong with her. Maybe she had been taken from her Mom too early. Apparently after some research, it is quite commen for kitties to do this. This person online had a cat that did it's whole life (20 years). I had talked to a friend of mine the other day and he said that his cat had done it it's whole life too. It is a thing that they do for comfort and they are content with their home.

One day Lylah the kitty was on me nursing as usual and my two year old Lulee got really upset. She came over to us and tried to push the cat off of me. I told her it's ok. Lylah is just trying to nurse. She would not have it. She was really upset and yelled "NO LYLAH EATING MOMMY". I laughed so hard. Poor thing thought this little kitty meant business and was going to eat me. Needless to say kitty had to get off my lap at this point. I didn't want my child witnessing my early demise due to being eaten by a kitty. She would have been traumatized for life.

Please Vote

Don't Forget to Vote

Don't Forget to Vote

Happy Halloween

Isn't my little pumpkin carrying a pumpkin cute!!!

My sister and my nephews went with us to trick-or-treat.

It started getting a little colder toward the end and Lulee decided it was time to ride in her wagon. She wanted to walk the entire time up until this point.

Here we are. I'm helping Lulee get up the steps for her first house to get candy from during our trick-or-treating spree.

Here is Logie (dead football player/car crash) , Sadie Bug (gothic rag doll), and Nick-Nick (live football player).

Hubby dressed up as a pirate and then forgot his eyepatch and earring. Check out his sleeve of tattoes on his left arm (when facing him). Our dog Piper had a sweater on that is orange and white (hubby claimed that she was a Freddy Crueger dog. Sadie Bug is a Gothic Ragdoll (yes she made this up). I actually did not dress up this year. I really don't have a ligit excuse. I just didn't. :)

Here is hubby trying to put our little Piper on his shoulder like a parrot. Ha-ha!!!

Early that day we took Lulee to the library dressed in her Halloween shirt. I forgot to take a picture earlier. She was not too happy with me when I took this picture. She had already messed up her little hairbow and absolutely refused to smile. She's still a cutie though. She did pretty good considering she had not had a nap.

Update on Lulee: Please pray for Lulee today

Everything went really well today. She was so good. She let the doctor do an ultrasound on her heart without even flinching. I held her and she was so calm.

The doctor is concerned about the condition, but said that it is really too soon to tell right now. Typically it shows itself around teen years. We will need to have her checked every 5 years.

We will continue to monitor her throughout her life up until young adulthood.

Thanks for all your prayers and please continue to pray for her and hubby both. Hubby's appointment is Halloween day. Maybe we will get some good news. We found out that we were pregnant with Lulee on Halloween so we need some more good news then. :)




As most of you know Hubby's dad had to undergo open heart surgery a few weeks ago due to a condition called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. This disease is hereditary and therefore has the ability to affect Hubby and our daughter Lulee. It also can be a very serious health concern, especially in children.

Hubby is scheduled for testing on Halloween and Lulee is scheduled for testing today. Please say a prayer for both of them that the testing will end up having normal results and that neither one of them will inherit this disease. Also, that Lulee will be calm during her testing as she is scared of doctor's sometimes.

Thank you and I will keep you all posted.

FALSE ALARM!!!

We have been really busy during this Fall break. On day one we had the cable guy come out to add something that he was supposed to have done the week before (waking us all up from a sound sleep at 8:00am ringing the doorbell and NOT CALLING FIRST). On day two we had an orthodontist appointment for Sadie Bug, and a doctor's appointment for Hubby followed by a midnight till 3:30am search for a neighbor child that had attempted to run away. On day three we had an unexpected doctor's appointment at 9:50am for Sadie Bug. We are also expecting a contractor from the same cable company to come out tomorrow to assess the damage to the ceiling that the first cable guy did during the first trip out. Apparently he missed a rafter up in the attic and his foot almost came through our ceiling in the dining room/playroom. Friday is a free day for us unless Murphey's Law deems it to be something different.

Needless to say our staycay has not been what we had planned for. Poor Sadie Bug really wanted to go to the beach for the break, but it was out of the question with hubby not being able to get the time off to go.

Getting back to the reason for this post, Sadie Bug's false alarm at the doctor's office today. Sadie showed me a spot on the back of her pallet close to her uvula (hangy thing). It was a dark red patch and dark red dots that appeared to be the beginning of strep throat, which we had been to a birthday party two days before that where a child had just gotten over strep.

I went through a series of questions with Sadie. Had she had sucked on a lolly pop or any candy that would create suction toward the back of her throat, did she eat a chip that may have hurt that area, does she feel nauseated, does her throat hurt, fever, etc... The answer to every question was a big NO!!!

So I proceeded to call and make an appointment thinking it could possibly be strep without a fever and other symptoms other than the red patch. We go in today and Sadie Bug is so nervous about having to have her throat swabbed. The doctor asked her pretty much the same series of questions that I had asked her before acquiring this appointment.

There must be an airborne truth serum floating around as soon as you walk into the exam room because as soon as the doctor got the questions out of her mouth, Sadie Bug remembered that she DID IN FACT have a dum dum sucker, pre-red patch, earlier the day before. Did I not ask that?!?!? I asked her. She said you said a sucker, it was a dum dum.

Earth to Sadie Bug?!?!? Ha-ha!! She swabbed her throat for strep anyway for a better safe than sorry measure. It came back negative for strep and positive for dum dum. Ha-ha!

If I had it to do over again I would do it the same way. I believe in the better safe than sorry approach. Plus I really have zero room to talk when it comes to emergency situations. When I was in second grade I was trying to pull my tooth with a kleenex and ended up swallowing some of the tissue. It felt like it was stuck in my throat regardless of how much I drank and how many times I swallowed.

I came home and told my parents and they told me that I would be ok. I had anxiety all ready in second grade and didn't trust that answer. I decided since that didn't work I needed to make up something that would make them rush me to the hospital to get an x-ray on my throat. Yes, I was a little neurotic even in the second grade. Ha-ha!! I told my parents that I swallowed a tack. My neurosis was pacified for a little while as I was on my way to the E.R. Of course they did not find a tack during my x-ray, but my mind was put to ease. Can't say the same for my parents. :)

Sadie Bug's incident was a little different than mine in the way of not making up some crazy story to go to the doctor's office and the fact that she just forgot that she ate the lolly pop, I mean dum dum.

I told her that I would pay the copay and be happy either way knowing that I took her in just in case she had it. I got lucky I had a 10 dollar credit and only had to pay 5 dollars for the false alarm appointment.

I think she felt a little embarrassed by the diagnosis and was not too amused when I joked on her by calling her dum dum for the rest of the day. She's got to know me by now that I won't let her live this down. I only joke on people I really care about. :)

Courtesy Flushing and the Need to Read

Ok, most everyone knows what a courtesy flush is. For those of you who don't know. I googled "what is a courtesy flush" and this was the best description that I could find that was kid-friendly, short and sweet. :

A pre-wipe flush that's intended to remove the odorous matter before it stinks up the whole bathroom.

Courtesy flushing and the need to read tend to go hand-in-hand with each other. It makes sense though, If you are sitting there long enough to read books, catalogs and or magazines, you would probably need to flush more than once, right?!?!?

It also makes you wonder, is courtesy flushing and the need to read hereditary?

I googled it, but I haven't gone any further as to research the above subject matter. I guess I will just base it on the household knowledge that I have.

My hubby has retreated to the bathroom many, many times staying in there forever and flushing many, many times. In his area of retreat, he has his on little drawer full of reading material. It is just a ritual that he feels he must perform before he is successful in his mission.


As for Lulee, we took her to the doctor's office about a month and a half ago with a MAJOR diaper rash. It was so bad that desitin would not clear it up. We had to get the prescription diaper ointment (Vusion) which worked really well, but not immediately. In conjunction with the diaper ointment, we had to give her baths with baking soda and keep her without a diaper as much as possible.

She had previously been potty training, but had grown really tired of it and had refused to try anymore until this diaper rash. THANK GOD FOR DIAPER RASHES. Ha-ha!!!

She is doing really well now and is wearing panties during the day and pull-ups at night. She is telling me every time she has to go. For a few weeks now, every time she has gone at home she needs a book. I will give her privacy and come back to check on her. I noticed that she was flushing the potty, but still sitting there not ready to get up. She says she was not done. I finally realized after the first week of this happening, that she was courtesy flushing......hereditary or learned?!?!

Now that is pretty funny when your two year old is doing it!!!

We went to Lowe's today and she had to go three times. We made it without any accidents. On the last trip to the potty, it was a longer visit than the other two. She looked up at me and requested that I get her a book. This was the first time the request had been made in a public restroom. Ha-ha!!! Just like Daddy.

Does anyone else have little ones that do this????

Ya hear dat Mommy!!!

My two year old is so precious. She is trying hard to learn all there is to learn in this BIG world. She is learning how to put all the right words into sentences. She tells me that she needs a piece of milk, or a piece of Daddy, ha-ha!!!

She is also learning to relay messages. A few weeks back she and I were in the bedroom waiting on Daddy who was getting ready for work. He called her into the bathroom with him (not knowing that I was in the bedroom with her). I heard everything he was telling her along with his request that she relay the message to me.

The message from Daddy was "Tell Mommy that I love her so much, forever".

She came out all excited and came straight to me and said Mommy........(thinking really hard how to relay this very important message to me)......... "ya hear dat Mommy, ya hear dat".

That was the cutest, most precious message I think I have gotten relayed to me, EVER.

Daddy came out of the bathroom and we were laughing so hard. It is true, kids say the darnedest things.

God Love them!!!

Go Sadie Bug, It's your Birthday!!!

Happy 13th Birthday Sadie Bug. Click on her name and see a cute video to hold you over until we get pics from today's partying!!!

We have a lot of fun activities planned today for her venture into being a teenager.

How much can they remember???

My hubby and I were out in our pool with Little Lulee the other day. She loves to "chwim" as she calls it.

I was asking her all kinds of things just enjoying the moment with her when I came up on this one question she got very excited about. I asked her "Do you remember being born ?". She looked at me and said "Uh huh, arm". I said "what about your arm?" She took her hand and punched her fist up toward the sky.

Some of you know that when I had her I had to have an emergency C-Section because she was trying to come out arm first. Which by the way, the day before we went to see the new Superman Returns movie. Coincidence??? Maybe. Ha-ha!! So there she was with her hand down and the doc did an exam and she grabbed his hand. The doc was surprised to say the least. He even let hubby check the hand out before birth. Lulee was waiving at him.

I don't recall her ever hearing her whole birth story, I mean it's possible. It is just so cute and shocking to ask her the question and she will look at you and shoot her arm fist first up into the air every time.

We took her to the doc for a routine check up, which by the way she did beautifully at this visit which is really saying alot for this doctor. We switched doctors recently from one that had been my oldest's doctor for thirteen years. I was really anxious about meeting the new doctor because Lulee is always so scared of any medical facilities.

This doctor was amazing. She came in and decided to stay far away from Lulee and said she wanted to talk to Mom and Dad to get to know about her. She grew really comfortable with the doctor and then the doctor saw birdies in her ear and Lulee fell in love with her at that moment.

Almost everyday since the visit she has said over and over how she did good at the doctor and she will also say "Mommy, I like it Doctor". This is really nothing short of a miracle.

Anyway, while we were there we told her of the birth story and what happens when we ask her "the question". She asked the most obvious question of whether she has heard the birth story or not, but she said that there have been stories that babies have remembered stuff from birth, so maybe Lulee does remember.

Maybe we all remember stuff like that, but the older we get we lose those memories when replaced with more current memories.

It definitely makes you think.

Updates-revised

Just a quick update.


Olivia is scheduled to have her surgery this morning. Please say lots of prayers. Her Mom and Dad are really nervous about the surgery. Please pray that she makes it through the surgery and recovery without any problems.

Olivia made it through surgery and anesthesia beautifully. She is now recovering with her Mom and Dad at home. They have determined that they believe it is a typical dermoid cyst. They are sening it off for testing and they will have the results in a couple of days.

Ian is recovering really well and can't wait to start farming with his Daddy, according to his Aunt Jolie.

Also Mandy is doing really well handling her treatments with chemo and radiation.

Thanks for everyone's prayers.

My Baby Got Braces

Here's Sadie Bug awaiting her "grill", ha-ha!! She was so excited and nervous at the same time. She has been waiting for this day for a long time. She knew what color she wanted to get and made sure to dress accordingly. She got the color perfect pink and she had her pink shirt, pink mani and pedi and probably pink undies too. She takes the matching thing seriously!!! She got that from her great grandmother Nanny.

Here she is getting her "before" pic done. She looks like a cute little duck doesn't she.

Lying there with MUCH anticipation. Perfect Pink here we come!!!

This lady was so nice as she prepared her teeth for braces. She also finished up by putting the wires on and the color bands for the brackets. She must have known what color Sadie Bug was going to choose because she dressed accordingly as well. :)

Here he is, Mr. Orthodontist giving my baby a new smile.

Look how proud she is of her new braces.

We of course all came down here for this big event. Lulee came back a couple of times to check on Sadie Bug. She hung out with Daddy mostly in the waiting room doing what she does best. She loves to clean things. Daddy gave her a wipe and here she is cleaning under the table. She cleans all the time at home too. She's a sweetie!

Hubby's Ficticious Wife

All of you who know my hubby knows that he is a talker, he is a regular Chatty Kathy!!! That's why we go so well together like rice crispies and marshmellows.

My hubby is such a handy manny. He fixes everything at home from cars to computers to even holding my hairbows, that I've made, delicately so the glue can dry. Believe it or not, he even cuts his on hair. 99.9% percent of the time it looks good too.

The other night he decides he is going to cut his hair and it gets a little on the late side once he's started. He then decides he is tired and will finish up his haircut the following morning. Needless to say he doesn't finish up the haircut until a week later therefore forcing him to sport a date-stamped mullet.

OH MY GOSH as if that wasn't bad enough to look like that. He is getting ragged at work and I find out that he has told all of them that his wife cut his hair and just has to finish the job. Whatever floats his boat right?!?!?

I live in the South and will not reveal exactly where, but I know very little about hunting. I have done my fair share of fishing and have only gone hunting a few times. I didn't go to hunt, but to hang out with my Grandad and my Dad also on a few occasions. Those hunting ventures were to hunt squirrel and also dove, but never ever have I gone coon hunting, nor do I know of anyone who has. However, my hubby was talking about me at work one day and he and this guy apparently were discussing hunting and it came up that I had gone coon hunting. WHAAAAAT???

Does this man even know me at ALL?? Were we even BEST FRIENDS (for three years) ???
Ok, so either my hubby is super confused and has a fantasy of being married to Daniel Boone's sister, or he just loves to see what people will think about me once they've met me in person.

Either way I have to make a really good first impression, huh!!!

Prayer requests

I have prayer requests that I would like to share with you all today. Please pray for a friend of mine, Mandy James she has had surgery removing a brain tumor learning that it was cancerous. She is now undergoing radiation and chemo. Here is her website to read her whole story. www.caringbridge.org/visit/mandyjames.



Please pray for my friend Jolie's little nephew, Ian. He is 11 years old and just had surgery last night for appendicitis. He will be in the hospital for a week for recovery and monitoring.

Jolie and her nephew Ian

On to a happier prayer request, my friend Stephanie and her hubby had their baby yesterday and I would love for them and their new baby girl to be added to your prayer list as well. I spoke to them this morning and they are "cruisin' " as Steph said, which translates to doing well.
Ha-ha!!

I stole a copy of their family pic (before new baby girl). Aren't they a cute fam.

Thanks for your prayers.

Happy 2 year birthday revised with pics/videos

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Lulee, Happy Birthday to you!!!

You are now 2 years old. It is so sweet seeing you develop and mature from a sweet little baby into an even sweeter little girl .

We love you so much!!!

Click on the arrow to play this video
2 year old birthday dinner at Red Robin

We had a finger painting birthday party at our house.
Here she is with little Alex and Ariel painting their masterpiece.

We set her play room up as an art studio. Daddy painted Tigger on one wall and I painted "Lulee's Art Studio" with a butterfly and a flower on the other wall.

SadieBug is not too old to fingerpaint. She got in and had some fun too!!!

Here we are opening presents, which by the way she would not open one single present. I had to open all of them.

Postal Madness

I have been doing really well selling items from my home on ebay. I haven't had hardly any problems worth mentioning at all. I have had really good experiences with purchasing through ebay as well. Most of Lulee's clothes are from ebay. After working retail for years and knowing the mark ups I just can't bring myself to pay full price for anything anymore.

Anyway, to get to the main reason for this post. We proudly sold an item to a gentleman in North Carolina for a whopping $11.00 plus $8.99 shipping. I had sold 6 other items as well and took them all to the post office to be mailed out. Unfortunately, the post office didn't have a box big enough for this particular item. They however were nice enough to point me in the direction of a UPS store located only a little over 12 miles from my home. Happy as a lark, I went to the UPS store thinking that I am about to complete a transaction smoothly and travel back to my humble abode. I walked in and it apparently wasn't for customers with small (big to me) items. More for commercial type stuff. They did not have a box that my item would fit in. I had even called the 1-800 number to check before going to this UPS. I went there and not only did they have a box, but they offered to pack it up for me (not mentioning that it would be a $17 and some odd change charge). After she boxed it and rang it up she said that it did not include shipping (shipping would be around $30 dollars). I was like "You've got to be kidding me!!!" (or did I say that right after she told me the charge for her simply putting it in the box and taping it with no packing materials inside???

So I couldn't very well make her take it out of the box at this point (although Hubby said he would have). I asked her if it would be cheaper to take my now big enough box back to the post office and send it. She said yes, but most of them are closing. I found one, with the help of Hubby, that stayed open later in yet a different city a few miles away. I took it there and it costs $19 and some change to ship (that was the cheapest way possible).

Also, while I was going to all these places with this awkward shaped box, my little Lulee, age 2, was trying to sleep. Somehow I managed to carry her, trying not to wake her, and carry the box around to and from these places to get it mailed. Believe it or not she stayed asleep and I was even able to take her in and out of her car seat without really disturbing her nap!!!

So, lesson learned. I will definitely be prepared next time and search for a box at grocery stores before paying to have someone lift my item and tape it up in a box.

I hope you all find the humor in this post. After feeling like one of my ovaries were going to fall out carrying both the box and sleeping child, I am now able to laugh as well. :)

Update #3 on Olivia

Another update email from Olivia's Mom:

Well, I’m officially frustrated. Yesterday we took Olivia to the pediatrician office with her allergies. While there I turned in a copy of the preliminary report from Dr. C…the doctor that said the knot “is nothing” to have in her file. The pediatrician said “oh, I know him. Let me see her eye.” He felt of her eye and then went to call and speak to Dr. C at the hospital. Dr. C wasn’t in so he spoke to another doctor who said “there’s definitely some sort of lesion there according to the scan, but I don’t know what it is.” He told the pediatrician that it didn’t look attached to the bone. Flash forward to 8:00 when we got home last night. We had a voice message from the plastic surgeon saying that she agreed with Dr. C and didn’t see anything.

This morning, I called the plastic surgeon who told me that she had received a note to call the pediatrician’s office on this finding. The pediatricians office wasn’t open yet so she called and talked to the radiologist on staff at the hospital who looked at the scans AGAIN. The plastic surgeon called me back and said this radiologist person confirmed that there was a lesion there and that there was an amendment being done to the original preliminary report stating this. They spoke and she says they are “99.9 % sure” that it’s what they call a dermoid cyst. She says that dermoid cysts attach to the bone. ??? Remember now that the doctor yesterday said it wasn’t attached to the bone. ??? Dermoid cysts are fairly common but most of them are on the outside of the eye. The surgeon said that most of the time the only reason they are removed is for cosmetic purposes. The surgeon told me “I missed it on the scans.” Tell me that’s supposed to make us feel good. On the day that she originally saw Olivia she also said “it’s too hard to be a dermoid cyst.” She did say that she didn’t feel surgery was necessary to remove the cyst (if this is what it really is) unless it’s starts to grow. I’m hoping she’s right, however with all the changing of the minds going on it leaves our confidence in these doctors in limbo.

So as you can see we are still uncertain of what this REALLY is. Mother’s intuition tells me to get a second opinion. I have a call in to the eye doctor for a referral to Birmingham. I’ve requested that the plastic surgeon here mark on the scans where she sees the dermoid cyst so that I can be sure a new doctor will see what she sees. Keith and I saw something on the scans and we’re not trained in reading CT scans…tell me how two doctors missed it. Tell me too how 3 different radiologist can make three totally different calls. One says it’s nothing, one says it’s a lesion that’s not attached to the bone, and the third says it’s a dermoid cyst.

Please continue to be in prayer for us. Olivia’s eye doesn’t seem to be bothering her and I pray it doesn’t start. According to the eye doctor, her vision tests were great. Pray that God will lead us to someone in Birmingham who can definitely confirm what the lesion is and whether or not it needs to be removed immediately for biopsy. I pray that it is in fact a dermoid cyst and nothing more. I’ll update again when we know more.

Update #2 on Olivia

Second update from Olivia's Mommy on her condition:



First of all let me thank each of you for your kind words in your messages and most importantly your prayers. I was overwhelmed when I opened my inbox. We appreciate it so much!

Olivia did well today. She was a strong little girl even though the I.V. hurt! She tolerated her anesthesia well and had no problems. The nurse that we had was awesome and I know that God was working through her. Olivia loved her and she made such a sense of calm come to the room. I know it was HIM showing us that he was there with us. They were so nice at the hospital. They could sense my concern, had compassion and allowed us to be in the imaging room looking in on Olivia during her cat scan. We never were asked to leave her side. I was so grateful for that. It's scary when your child is put under anesthesia since there are so many risks involved. When you have a family history with anesthesia problems, it's that much worse. But as I said, all went well and we were able to be at home and relax this afternoon.


Now on to the important stuff. I asked everyone to pray that this is nothing. The preliminary report from the radiologist says that it's NOTHING!!!! What an answered prayer!! We still have to take the scan pictures to the eye plastic surgeon and let her review them on Monday. This still leaves the human nature in us doubting the results just a bit. It still leaves the question of what the knot is and why when it's felt by doctors does her eye get blue and swell a little. There is a knot there and why the radiologist didn't mention it in simple terms to us, I don't know. In other words, we don't know just yet if it's bone or sinus cavities etc. I guess that's why the surgeon wants to see it. She's definitely of aware of where the knot is and has felt and seen it. I'm not a radiologist by any means but in one picture, you can definitely see it on the scans. God makes each of us unique and it could be her bone structure for some reason. The main thing is that he didn't spot any type of growth that was mentionable.

Please continue to keep us in your prayers as we go through next week and let the surgeon look at things to be sure the radiologist didn't miss something. We're happy that the preliminary report states that it's nothing but will be alot better after confirming it with the surgeon since she actually did the exam. With things like this you can never be too careful.

Thank you all again for your prayers. I'll email again on this next week. I love you all and am thankful to have each of you in my life. God bless you!

Update on Olivia Please continue to pray

An update email from my friend regarding her child Olivia:

Thank you all for your emails and for your prayers.

We took Olivia to the eye surgeon yesterday. Unfortunately an ultrasound could not be done. She said it would only show what she could feel from examining her which is a boney type of mass. The eye surgeon said she really doesn’t know what it is. She said that she’s hoping it’s a benign boney mass but the only real way to know for sure what it is would be to do a cat scan. She did say that normally malignancies grow very fast. Since this “mass” hasn’t changed much since I noticed it in late April, she said that hopefully was a good sign. It still doesn’t make it any less scary for us especially when they stop calling it a cyst and start calling it a mass. Olivia is scheduled for a cat scan tomorrow at 11:00. Keith and I are very worried. Please continue to lift Olivia up in prayer. Pray that she’ll be o.k. during the sedation tomorrow for the cat scan. Pray that the cat scan will show exactly what type of “mass” it is. Pray that it’s nothing serious. Pray that God will lay His healing hands on her and that this will go away on its own without major surgery. Thanks.

Prayer Request for a friend

A friend of mine sent an email to me and others today asking for prayers. Please read this copied email from her and please take time to pray for their daughter. :

I’m asking you all to lift Olivia up in prayer. She has some sort of “cyst” under her right eye lid that has been there since at least the end of April and doesn’t appear to be getting better. After going to an eye doctor this morning, we’ve been referred to an eye plastic surgeon (for tomorrow) to see if an ultrasound can be done to determine the density of this knot. The eye doctor sounded very unsure of what it could be and said it did not feel as if it was a fluid filled cyst. This is very alarming for us. Please lift her up and ask God to lay his healing hands on her. Pray that this is nothing serious and that the doctors can determine what it is and take the appropriate course of action. Thanks.

Our newest baby

Well despite all the "don't do its" we received from several friends and family members, we got a new baby. Her name is Piper and she is a sweet little Yorkie puppy! We have had her for three days and absolutely love her already. She had her first vet visit today. She's nine weeks old and weighs 2 lbs. I think 1/2 lb. was poop, full bladder and full belly, Ha-ha!!! The vet said everything looks A-ok!!! and gave her a clean bill of health.

Here are some cute puppy pics for you all to be in awe over:

Lulee is anxiously awaiting her new puppy.

Here we are choosing which puppy we wanted. There were only two females, one male and then a female yorkie-poo.

We've got a winner!!! Lulee wouldn't let this one go. Sadie wasn't with us, she was having a Nanny night.

Lulee is checking on her baby on our ride home.


We stopped by and let Auntie Lori and Jose,Uncle by association, Ha-ha!! see their newest niece.

Sadie is holding her new furry baby sister.



Daddy is so attached to his little Piper already.



Daddy still holding his baby.

Stop the Madness....

My gosh, this day has been INSANE!!!!

So I wake up this morning and first thing Hubby asks me is to please go get twenty 40lbs. bags of topsoil in my minivan. Ok........ so I went to get the 800 lbs. of wet dirt and come back to the house, proud, but my suspension on my van almost dragging. Ha-ha!!!

My Mother and my youngest went with me and we had to listen to my little one scream and cry the whole way back. We are potty training and she thinks she has to pee-pee all the time. I pulled over for her once at a gas station and yes she did go. She asked me at least five more times after that. Three times at which I tried to appease her and get her into a bathroom. When guess what, once we made it there she refused to go and got really upset if I tried to take her pants down.

OK!!!!!!! No more trips to the potty we are homeward bound!!! I am NOT pulling over one more time.

So we get home and she has not had a regular nap in three days. Yesterday took a nap at 6 and did not go to sleep for the night until midnight. Today we have had four roofing companies come over to give us estimates on our roof and to assess any hail damage. So, I'm thinking ok the first appt. is at 8:30am, the second at 10:00am, third 3:30 and the fourth at 5:00.

We were late getting to Home Depot so therefore we were on the late side getting home (around 12:45). I am wondering how in the world am I going to get my child to take a nap. She was not wanting to take one at this time because my nephews were over and she wanted to play. Around 3:00 I thought would be the perfect time to try to get her down for her nap before the guy comes around 3:30. Low and behold if the neighbor child does not start up his extremely loud dirt bike right beside the bedroom window. Ok, well now I have another shot at getting her to sleep before the 4:20 before the 5:00 guy shows up. Can you believe it, here goes the dirt bike starting back up AGAIN and Oh, no!!! The 5:00 guy is ringing the doorbell and he is 40 minutes early. Lets try again once he leaves around 5:30.

So I take her to pee-pee before her nap and see she has something in her mouth. As I am trying to pry her mouth open to see what it is, she is saying "chew chew, chew chew" (her lingo for gum). At this point I have no idea where she got it from, hoping it was new and not from someone's shoe!!! Ok, I see, Daddy put his pack of gum on the night stand. Thank God!!!

Ok so she is really getting sleepy now and she has already pee-peed, but apparently not enough because she has now tinkled all over me and the couch. I only knew this because I caught her rubbing it all over with her hand.

So, I decided I need to put a diaper on her during nap time and went in to her bedroom to get a diaper. I stepped in something cold and mushy and looked up to see one of my kitties slinking away out of sight. The kitty had barfed up a hairball and when I thought the quarter sized area that I had to clean was gross enough, I found yet another one 5 times as big!!!!

Now she is a little more awake so now it is time for another snack and I wanted some cheerios. I filled up the bowl because I was planning on sharing it with Lulee. I walked across the living room and spilled some, ran to get a towel to clean it up and darn if I didn't do it AGAIN!!!

After that, we ate, I went to check my email really quick and she tried to climb up the barstool. She fell backwards and hit the back of her head on the ground. Poor thing. I felt really bad for her. I had to kiss her all over and make sure she was ok and to let her know that I understood that she is just over tired and very accident prone at this time.

She finally ended up going to sleep around 6:15 and I tried to wake her up around 45 minutes later. She was so out of it I couldn't force her to stay up. She woke up again around 7:30. It will be interesting to see what time she goes down for the night. :(

Man, this household is OVERDUE some sleep!!! I need to stop all the madness and put a ban on all bodily functions from the kitties on up!!!

A visit with their Great-Auntie

Yesterday my Harley-riding aunt came over to visit with the kiddos. My children love to visit with her because she is always interesting to talk to and plus most of the time she will bring over goodies for them (coloring books, crayons and stuffed animals). She loves to color with Lulee which is one of her most favorite things to do at this time. My Aunt most always wears something interesting too, whether it is a Harley do-rag, jacket or other kind of Harley apparel. The kids love it.

I remember when I was little, I used to hang out over at her house all the time. I would ask her for a honey sandwich and she would make it for me. I wouldn't even have to ask twice. :)

While she was over yesterday, I was trying to be the hostess with the mostest. I made coffee for us and even offered her my MOST favorite mug to drink out of. I also asked her if she would like a honey sandwich, we just cracked up reminiscing over my honey-sandwich-eating days.

We really enjoyed her visit yesterday. She was playing with Lulee in her playroom and they put on a concert for us.