It only took 3.5 years

But I finally found the perfect fabric for curtains for our living room! There was exactly enough on the remnant table, and at $6/yd I couldn't pass it up. Imagine my surprise when it rang up at an additional 50 percent off! Wooohoo! I was able to whip up the curtains in about 30 minutes this morning. I do have to adjust them a bit more for length but they are just perfect.

I'm thinking about heading back over to the fabric store to see if there are more fabric options for the other rooms in the house.

With the possibility of a move in our future, I am trying to get the house spruced up to sell. I'm really nervous about this but that's another post for another day.

MIA

Uh yeah, I've been missing for I guess about 7 months now.

As you can see this blog has taken on many many incarnations. Now, I'm sewing a lot, so maybe this will be a sewing and cooking and all of that blog. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Please check out my pattern reviews. Check out my recipes. I might even add a few pictures now and again. Hopefully as my life becomes more organized so will this blog hahaha With five kids, I somehow don't think that's going to actually happen.

POTD...little graduate!

little graduate!,
originally uploaded by h2ohmama.

You can't get more sentimental than this.

I started getting weepy when i saw all the kindergarteners lined up in front of the church where graduation was held. Even though he's my third child, he's the first one to go to a school where a Kindergarten graduation was held.

My 8 yo didn't go to school today at the request of her teacher. They had a sub and my dd needs to carry an epipen and it's just easier to keep her home since they aren't doing anything in class anyway. She has been having a complete snit because her brother got to graduate from kindie and she didn't. *roll eyes*

I explained to no avail that she and biggest brother get to do everything first. This is the first time B has gotten to do ANYTHING first and we ought to celebrate it! this is B's time in the spotlight.

I am so proud of him. He has made so much progress this school year. He was my first child to enter kindie not knowing how to read. He now reads better than the other two upon leaving kindie. He started the year with a severe articulation delay. It was so difficult to understand him. Now, we can understand most of what he says! This is a huge milestone for him. He has worked so hard and it really really shows!

We have been truly blessed with a wonderful kindie teacher this year. She will forever be in our hearts! and, we've decided if we're still in this school zone when the 3 yo goes to kindie, we want her to have the same teacher!

POTD...the sound of music

the sound of music,
originally uploaded by h2ohmama.

any pictures of my kids is sentimental. But i really liked this one i took today. My 5 yo had an end of the year party at a local park and we tagged along. I snapped this one and then WHAM! my camera didn't behave and i thought I lost about 40 pictures. Thankfully, I was pointed towards some photo recovery software. Tomorrow, it will be a very weepy day as we are having kindie graduation!

POTD...my little reader

my little reader,
originally uploaded by h2ohmama.

My little 5 yo is about to graduate from kindergarten. I am so proud of him. Reading has clicked and now he wants to read everything he can get his hands on! I am so impressed with how much he has learned this school year.

POTD...girlie time

girlie time,
originally uploaded by h2ohmama.

any help on how to take this to the next level with my point n shoot would be great! The theme for this week is sentimental pictures. Yesterday was the most sentimental picture. Today, the picture is about building those special memories with my girls. We all did our nails today :D

baby in mommy's old dress

baby in mommy's old dress,
originally uploaded by h2ohmama.

for mother's day, i decided to put the baby in my old dress. i have a picture of me in this dress at about 6 months old. i was much more compliant as a baby and actually sat still for the photographer

jump

jump,
originally uploaded by h2ohmama.

I'm trying out this photography thing. Like most things I've been trying, it's close to being great but just a smidge off.

oh well... guess i'll be like Dori from Nemo "keep on swimming"

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

The meanest mommy in the world

It's official. I am now the meanest mommy in the whole world and I have my digital cable to thank for it.

The three youngest have been inside virtually all day. This means it's a house full of bickering and whining. They haven't done their chores and the oldest girl is bossing everyone else around.

And, the mean mommy part?

I used the digital cable to block off the TV so they can't watch a darn thing.

Choices now? Go to their rooms and clean; stay in the living room and clean; go outside to play in the sprinklers.

She's complaining that it's too hot. It's in the mid 80s. Compared to the mid90s we had yesterday, when they were outside the entire day, it's downright comfy!

I haven't even had a chance to shower yet today because of all the bickering. I can't turn my back for a moment. *sigh*

big surprise!

all they know is we're going to do something fun and it will be great.

what they don't know is they're going to be stuck in a car for FIVE hours driving to a little town on the Georgia/Florida border.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, my MIL and SIL are boarding a plane bound for Jacksonville, FLA. they are going on a cruise, leaving out of tampa. BUT my other SIL who lives in the above mentioned little town is going with them. AND MIL and SIL are going to be there tomorrow afternoon and all day Sunday.

MIL and SIL don't know we're coming.

The kids don't know they are going to see grandma and their favorite aunt.

:D

I wish we had a video camera for the reaction!

I also know if i told the kids where we were off to, we'd NEVEr hear the end of it LOL

Oh Christmas tree

being from the northwest, we've ALWAYS had a really big bushy fir tree for the holidays. the Saturday closest to DH's birthday, we'd all head off to the tree farm and chop down our very own tree.

Then, we moved here. Real trees are very expensive. Then with dd's asthma diagnosis I just don't feel comfortable having a known allergen in the house for a month, yk?

Anyhoo, last year SIL gave us their old tree since they had two. We had no idea what it looked like or anything.

Set it up last night and it's a 4 1/2 footer, that's more a Charlie Brown style than the big bushy trees we're used to.

The bright spot in this is it's totally NOT in the way LOL

We're trying to make the little tree a part of our holiday family and get in the spirit. I mean it's TOTALLY better than the 24 inch silver tree we had up last year LOL

stress

is it justifiable to serve halloween candy to the kids for lunch and just have scrambled eggs and pancakes for dinner because i can't handle one more thing today?

more on the school thing

anyway, the AP agreed with my assessment of teh situation, that all the incidents taken together, and knowing my child...were a problem.

The best news is they should be having a permanent teacher starting MONDAY! woohoo she's just waiting to get released out of her contract in another district.

She is also going to look into what happened with the posessive plural test to see if it was the whole class that bombed it or just alex. either way, they are going to have the reading coach go in and help either the whole class or just alex grasp the topic. Given that Alex is actually an EXCELLENT student, him scoring that low on a test is a big red flag.

I also let the AP know that we had dealt with Alex's behavior at home and he received appropriate punishment, so she knew I wasn't dumping this all on the school. I also told her that, honestly, if there was anyway to be in there teaching that class, I would have done it myself LOL I'm very glad the admin at this school is so open to parents. Of course, I don't know how much it has to do with us grilling the AP before we enrolled the kids about how things were handled at the school. She knows we are active and involved parents and since D is also a teacher, we won't be coming in with gripes at every turn...ya know, most of our complaints/concerns will be valid and have gone through the proper channels first.

last straw

i'm soooo NOT looking forward to this.

I think I mentioned that Alex's teacher's husband took a job transfer to Atlanta and he's been without a teacher for the past 5 or 6 weeks. they've been having week-long subs. The school still is looking for a 6th grade teacher they've needed since school started, so the prospects are rather slim for getting a third grade teacher in there any time soon.

A couple weeks ago, I picked Alex up from school and he sheepishly showed me he had cut a very LARGE hole into his pants! I asked him why. Naturally he said he was bored.

I had to wonder what the heck the teacher was doing that she didn't notice alex intently cutting away at the thigh of his pants and why I wasn't called to bring him a new pair of pants since holes in the pants are a dress code violation.

Then, Alex tells me that one of the subs is taking their shoes away as punishment for doing things at the "wrong" time...like she only allows the kids to sharpen pencils once a day, before the bell rings...but that was put to a stop when they had a fire drill and their class was still in the building get shoes on.

Since the subbing started, Alex is frequently missing the gifted bus on thursdays AND on the days he has missed, the teacher is giving him HOMEWORK to make up the classwork he missed ... which is against the rules.

Last week, my child who's flippin GIFTED and despite being a bad speller has a knack for memorizing obscure grammer rules and other useless info, tells me he got a 32% on a language test. Obviously, if my really smart child didn't get it, what the heck did the rest of the class get???

This week, I pick Alex up yesterday and immediately notice a chunk of hair missing.

Today, he freaking SHAVED part of his eyebrows off with a pair of scissors.

At first, Dh thought I was making a mountain out of a molehill, but NOW he finally believes me that there's a significant problem. First, Alex can't handle or thrive in such a chaotic classroom environment. He needs structure. He's not getting it. SEcond, the subs aren't consistent enough in teaching academics to reteach something after the test. If they test Friday and the Friday sub grades, the Monday sub may or may not even look to see if something needs reteaching, yk? Third, WHAT THE HELL is going on in that classroom where a child can vandalize his clothing and CUT himself with scissors. I can understand the pants under the desk, but c'mon...he shaved his eyebrow.

So...after bringing this to the school's attention, I'm going to request Alex be moved to a classroom with a permanent teacher.

My friend is going in tomorrow and talking to them about teaching there, but she wants the 6th grade job. She really doesn't want to teach Alex's class as she also teaches his Sunday School class...and we live across the street from each other and she's like Alex's second mother. We're not entirely convinced this would be the best academic match up, iykwim. Meanwhile, Jill is trying to convince DH to dump his current district and try to snag the 6th grade job if she takes the 3rd grade. DH has a lot more reason to leave his current district than she does.

I hate going in there and having to be a b****h about things. Please send me strength in how to do this without backing down and giving it some more time.

am i invisible?

After an incident at the school today, I was left wondering if I really am invisible. See, my super powers...i can vanish and overhear you talking about me and you never will know I'm there!

Reality check...not for me, for the lunchlady who, for whatever reason, felt it necessary to badmouth me to her coworker when I was standing 3 feet away! And, being the mature person that I am, I restrained myself and left a note for the principal of the school to call me. Yup, I tattled.

First of all, whatever issues I have for the wicked lunchlady/evil crosswalk dictator are between the two of us. Yes, I realize that it isn't HER problem that I had four children under 4 and couldn't park a half block from the school, get out all the children, walk through the parking lot, cross the street all to get my kids from school. What I asked her was where I could go where I didn't have to get everyone out...if I had any options. All I got from her was "It's not my problem" UGH Forgive me for expecting the person telling me where I *COULDN'T* park could tell me some place where I COULD park! I have since found out I CAN park in the main parking lot despite the 3 foot pot hole and city sewer warning baricade. It would have been nice if the administration at the school would have notified the parents ahead of time that there would be changes in where parents could park for pickup.

Second, it was highly unprofessional and downright inappropriate for her to start blabbering to her coworker while I was standing RIGHT THERE about it. I heard her say "she's the one who said she had four kids in the car and i *told* her that it's not my problem" yadda yadda yadda

If she's going to say things like that in front of the parent she's TALKING about in a room cafeteria full of students and other parents, what else is she saying?

I understand that people gossip and talk about "those people" they encounter at work. I'm not upset about that. Heck, that's what I'm doing here :P What I'm upset about is the FORUM in which she did it...like IN FRONT OF ME, in front of students, in front of other parents.

Anyway, now I'm waitinf for the principal to call me back. If I don't hear from her on Monday, I'll be giving her another call.

Of course if crosswalk dictator flips me the bird or some other dirty look, I'll know the principal said something hahaha

Oh and if this makes ANY difference in this, this particular crossing guard is the ONLY ONE that doesn't wave or smile at the parents as they drive by. All the other ones do. She NEVER smiles. Always has a scowl on her face.

Freecycle Rocks

I think those that are familiar with freecycle know what an awesome thing it is. For those that don't know what freecycle is, WHAT? ARe you living in a cave?

We've been able to get rid of so much stuff. It's great.

But tomorrow, I'm going to pick up a toddler sized bike for my 4 yo! I'm so excited. Now, just to figure out where to hide it until Christmas :P

And, yeah...I know some of you are going "ew used Christmas presents" but when you have four kids who are really hard on their toys, you realize that getting things "broken in" is really the best way to go. I don't want to invest a lot of my hard earned money in toys that accidently get left outside and ruined. THere's no emotional attachment to the toys (and my money). I have no qualms about letting the natural consequences happen. If I spend money on a toy, I get really weird about throwing it away, even if it breaks. It's weird, I know...but doing it this way, we really cut down on the clutter :D

good news!

the derm wanted to see me asap. i went in this morning. he said there's a 95% chance its benign! woohoo but we'll get the biospy results next week.

he removed it and the needle for the local hurt worse than the procedure. I didn't realize I'd have to be grounded for them to do it ...that was a bit "shocking" hahaha

anyway, the site is starting to hurt a bit now, so i'll probably take a tylenol for the pain.

oh i also had him look at a couple other spots and he said while it's very unusual to have what i have in the particular shape it is, that it's nothing to worry about. I can't remember what it's called, but basically my stretch mark tore and teh capillaries or whatever healed super close to the skin and you can see it. i wish i could describe it better. it's weird.

too freaked to sleep

Why do I do this to myself? Really? Why?

I know I've been ignoring the growth on my back. It didn't fit any of the warning signs to be worried about it. But tonight when we were swimming, DH finally noticed and commented about the growth. *sigh*

Now, I feel this wriggling in the back of my mind getting louder...the wriggling I've been TRYING, quite successfully until now, to ignore. The little voice in teh back of my mind says this is more than I think it is. I hate that voice because that voice is ALWAYS right.

Before I got pregnant with my first baby, that little voice said there would be complications and he'd be born early.

When I was pregnant with my fourth baby, the voice said 'you're going to have problems with the heart rate decellerating and will transfer to the hospital, prepare for it' and that's what happened.

Now I don't believe for one minute that any of that is self fulfilling prophesy. I mean, any woman can attest that you can't WILL a baby to come early just because you think it will. Nor can you control the baby's heart rate during the labor.

The wriggling voice has also brought me immediately to my knees in prayer for the safety of my husband. That time, at the very moment of my prayer, the truck he was driving was about to go off a steep embankment on a snowy mountain. For some reason, the truck skidded the other direction ... ya know UP HILL...and he was safe.

And deep in my heart, I feel that one reason I haven't been able to get pregnant is because God wants me to get this taken care of first. But, getting it taken care of is terrifying, too. I mean, you have to admit something is wrong! And, let's face it...even if it is *just* skin cancer...the word cancer is absolutely frightening. No one really wants to face it. Yeah, they can cut it out and it's no big deal, but that big bad ugly word is there...taunting you.

So, by putting this all on "paper" I'm hoping to write out my anxiety over this and be able to sleep. hopefully, I'll be able to post in a couple days that it is all just my overactive imagination and a bad google search.

the body shaping continues

I finally got up the courage to measure myself. I'd been putting it off. I was so horrified when I started with my measurements...afraid that i wasn't going to see results. Then the pants started getting loose, so I knew it was really happening.

Anway...drumroll please...

I've lost THREE inches off my waist
TWO inches off my hips!

Ok so my waist is the size my hips were before I had kids, but, and I have to keep reminding myself of this, I was a size zero before having kids. I was a Calista Flockheart with hips. I've always had hips. When DH and I met, he could almost wrap his hands entirely around my waist. My waist size was in the TEENS. Not exactly healthy.

ANyway, my goal now is to get my waist out of the 30s and into the 20s and the hips from the 40s into the 30s. Two more inches all around should do it.

oh and my abs...i have them. and my post baby tummy pooch...it's like HALF the size it used to be.

One of these days I'll get brave and post before and after pics