it’s becoming (shout out KL) my life statement these days. furthermore, why is it that when a mom gets sick, she just has to keep going? there is no option of laying in bed, sleeping, someone making soup, t.v. watching until she’s better. i’d like to talk to the person who started that trend. it’s beginning to get a bit old. i can’t even take the medicine the doctor gave me yesterday becasue it causes drowsiness. i mean, it says on the bottle not to opperate heavy machinery, and i’m pretty sure children classify as such. it’s just the same excact way it is when i’m well…only my apperance has a tendency to scare the kids. i find that mine just kind of look at me like….WHOA. cue the whispers…”she doesn’t look so good; what’s wrong with her; why is she in her bath robe and why does her hair look like that?” followed by, “MOMMY…WE NEED BREAKFAST…WE NEED OUR DRINKS…I NEED MY CLOTHES…I’M TIRED…I DON’T WANT TO GO TO SCHOOL…I DON’T WANT WAFFLES…WE WANT TO WATCH A VIDEO…NOT THAT VIDEO…I NEED MY LUNCH MONEY.” speaking of lunch money, i tried to send colton to school today with ukrainian money. now, i don’t think this would have got him very far in the lunch line. i can hear it now…”honey, tell your mom that we don’t accept foreign money here.” i noticed it when i was putting it in his backpack. thank God. i’m not sure my reputation could have recovered from that one. i had already tried to buy my coffee at starbucks the other day with chuck e cheese game tokens. someone needs to talk to the people from chuck e cheese and tell them not to make their tokens look so much like quarters. it’s enough to confuse a girl…which deserves a loud and proud “WHY AM I SO CONFUSED?”

Chad is the realistic one in our family and I am the dreamer. I have these “tendencies”…(shout out to KL; pump the shoulder twice and peace sign)…to float through life on my little cloud…imagining of all the things I want to do. There is a running joke amongst some of my friends, where they have to pull me down off my cloud. I say…join me.

updated list with a little help from my friends:

conflicted
imbecile
vagabond
asinine
exacerbate
conglomeration
tarnation
tumbleweed
passionate
serendipity
promenade
tom foolery (technically 2 words…but for this one, i’ll make an exception)
imposter
bafoon
catywampus
plethora
superfluous
menagerie
fidgety
mojo
surplus
bubbies
smooch
slacker
superb
crack (as in…”are you on crack?” had to be explained!!)
miracle
meticulosity – extreme attention to detail
pococurante – nonchalant
eudaemonic – producing happiness

and the list goes on. add to at random.

I sort of told myself that I would never put poetry on this blog. I don’t really know why…except because. Sometimes I find that nothing follows my because. I try to come up with a good sentence to follow, but I draw blanks. Because. That’s all there is. Anyhow, this weekend, I have been in a very contemplative mood…mainly due to some good music and good conversation…which typically has that effect on me. I have not been able to get this poem/whatever you want to call it…(I’m sure all the timing is not accurate, nor the punctuation)…that I wrote so, so, so long ago, out of my head. I dug through my old journal tonight to find some of my favorites, from what seems like lifetimes ago, in some attempt to connect with myself…who I’ve been…who I am…who I am no longer…etc. etc. etc. Why was I so confused? Why am I still confused? The funny thing is, Chad asked me what I was doing and I told him. He said to read him one. I reluctantly read him this one…to which he replied, “What’s the title?” I said it did not have one. He titled it “Simple Things”. Here it is:

The other night at dinner, Colton made his first and hopefully last racial slur. We had been reading and discussing the Easter story being that Easter was upon us and Colton had some questions reguarding Jesus’ ethnicity. Colton asked if Jesus was white or brown. Chad answered that Jesus was not white, not black, but probably more brown…and then compared him to some kids that Colton knows so that he could have a visual. You could tell that Colton’s wheels were spinning. He thought for a minute and said, “Too bad I’m not brown.” I was thinking, “Ahhh, he wants to be like Jesus. How sweet.” then he added, “Because brown football players are better than white ones.” Silence……..Chad looked at me and I looked at Chad……..cue the equality speech; cue the equality speech!

I have a running list of words that I really like. Here are some:

sachel
waterlily
sketchy
unfortunate
trite
tinker
pajama
copesetic
yonder
galeleo
agape
incubation
petrol
sacral
satellite
xopenex
clever
perplex

Try using some of these on a regular basis. It’s fun. Also, if you have any favorite words…please share! I love using good words.

Yesterday afternoon, I came home from running an errand for a friend of mine to Chad laying on the couch and children destroying the living room. He immediately said, “I don’t feel good. I think I have fever.” In my mind I was thinking, “Oh no…you are NOT getting sick again.” I felt of him; said he was fine; and told him to look alive. So, I got busy making dinner and when I called everyone to dinner, Chad shows up in a hooded sweatshirt with the hood on and then preceeds to wrap himself up in a blanket. He says his throat hurts and that his body aches. I put my fork down and said, (in a somewhat huffy tone) “Do you want me to take your temperature?” He nods yes. I took it with an ear thermometer and it read 95.5. We both knew that it couldn’t be accurate, but assumed he didn’t have fever. We continued to eat and talk with the kids. We asked how Colton’s day was at school and he said, “Not good.” Here is how the conversation went…

Colton: kids at school said mean things to me.

Me: Like what?

Colton: Like I’m yucky.

Chad: Well, God made you…and God doesn’t make anything yucky.

Colton: God makes soggy fruit.

Chad: silence…followed by “How do you argue with that?”

Then we were talking about money for some reason. Here’s how that conversation went…

Chad: I’m trying to save for your college.

Colton: My college????

Chad: yeah.

Colton: Is that in like 4 years?

Chad: No…you have 12 years until college.

Colton: Will I have to read then?

Chad: It helps.

Chad went to the doctor this afternoon, and he has strep throat. I feel really bad about having him bathe the kids last night. Turns out, he did have fever. Poor guy.

Whoa…! This has been quite the week. I’ll try to keep this little update brief…which could be difficult, on account of all the events that transpired. First of all, Chad’s mom, sister, and our 2 neices flew into town last Wednesday. We were all very excited to see them and have them spend Spring Break with us. The kids and I had so many fun things planned…and expectations were high. Since Chad was still in Ukraine, I hired a babysitter, and drove to Intercontinental Airport to pick them up. Now, they were coming from Des Moines, Iowa…and had one thing in mind. Sun. So, the fact that the airport trip took 5 hours due to flooding rain and hail seemed like just a minor glitch in the plan. “No problem”, I told myself…and them…on the way home. Tomorrow was a new day. We were going to the boardwalk. We decided to wait until after Aiden’s nap to go, because that just seemed smart. Always thinking. So, shoes were on; kid’s were fed; potties had been used; sunscreen had been applied; and I went to wake Aiden. She had 102.5 fever. WOW. I was not expecting this. NO PROBLEM. I gave her some Tylenol, strapped her in the stroller, and told myself that the fresh air would do her good. Not so. She proceeded to come down with a horrible cold and ear infection that had us both up for the next 5 nights…but I digress. Chad was scheduled to get in from Ukraine in the middle of the night Friday night. An extra set of hands was on the way!! (Not that that’s the only reason we wanted him home:).) Due to being up with Aiden, I was awake when he got in. We said our hello’s, and he slept in Chase’s bed, due to Chase and Aiden ending up in our bed. Since he was all messed up on time, we thought he would sleep better upastairs, while I handled the kids. Not a problem. The next morning, I woke from my 3 hours of what I loosely call sleep, to Chad saying, “I don’t feel good.” Then…BOOM. What the doctor calls “Traveler’s Diarrhea” hit. Now, for those of you who are like the rest of us were, and have no idea what this actually is…it is a food or water born bacterial infection that causes nausea, fever, body aches, diarrhea, and other related problems. He had picked it up in something he ate or drank in Ukraine and was in bed or the bathroom for the next 3 1/2 days. Luckily, there was a gastoenterologist who happened to go to Ukraine as well that came over and gave Chad a shot and some different medications to help him. So, there we were…Chad’s mom, sister, and me with our 5 children. The next night, I had Aiden (who was still not up to par) all ready for bed. I was getting her medicine from downstairs and she had already gone upstairs for bed. Katie was preparing the bath water for her girl’s bath in the boy’s bathroom. The boys were all ready for bed and Sue was at her post in the kitchen doing the dinner dishes. All’s well so far. Well, the “Mommy instinct” kicked in and I got the feel that Aiden was somewhere she shouldn’t be. I ran upstairs to find her in the boy’s filled bathtub. The water was still running and Katie and the girls had left the bathroom for something. She had snuck in and was having a grand time in the girl’s bath. She did not bother with taking her pajamas off either…nor her socks. Let’s see…what’s next? Well, I caught Aiden’s cold, and my voice went out…making parenting a bit difficult. AND…the grand finale was waking up this morning with my left eye swollen shut. To quote Colton, “I’M AFRAID YOU’RE GETTING SICK…WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOUR EYE.”

Our family went home yesterday afternoon, and I just talked to Chad’s mom on the phone. Somehow we managed to have a fun visit in spite of the…well…interuptions, you might call them. We went to the boardwalk, the beach, the park, space center houston, and played outside ALOT. Katie managed to get a book read, and she and Sue successfully talked me down from several anxiety attacks during the night that Chad was so sick. Like I’ve said before…I don’t do stomach stuff. Thankfully, HIS mommy was here and stepped up to the plate with no hesitation. I’ll have to post some pictures in the next couple of days. If I have my days correct, yesterday or today was the first day of Spring. I wecome it with open arms.