Three Things Thursday- Mental Health Edition

1. If you say, "I AM sane," three times together, people believe you.

2. If you talk to yourself, it helps keep you sane. (It has to be out lout to work).

3. If you ask people if you are crazy, you MUST be crazy if you think they're going to tell you the truth, so just don't ask.

This should save everyone lots of money in psychotherapy bills. You may send me a portion of your new found savings. For your small donation, I will tell you about how sane you are.

My Hero

As the younger sister, I always found myself in competition with my older sister's accomplishments. I remember, however, the day when I realized that there were just some things that she could do that I could not. That was a hard lesson for me to learn. For a while I was able to keep up, doing the things that she did, even if I didn't enjoy it.



I remember the time that she did really well in a tryout for a special competition band. My dad ordered a collection of balloons that were tied to a bucked of candy to congratulate her. I WANTED that! I decided that in order to get my candy bucket, I'd try out for that band the next year and I'd do well, and dad would get me a balloon bouquet, too.



I did tryout. I didn't get in, and I didn't get my balloons... ever.



I realized after that painful tryout that I bombed, that I didn't really enjoy this competitive side to music so much. I got all nervous, and even the things I could do, I messed up! I could play well, but just enough to get by, not enough to stand out.



I realized that she had a gift that I did not. We were, in fact, different. Hmmm....



As we have aged- that's right, I said it- I have been able to appreciate our differences and not covet her proverbial balloon bouquets. I have realized that different things make us tick, but we are cut from the same cloth and for that, I love her endlessly.



I appreciate that she can do a lot of things really well that I can not, and that she is willing to try things that I would never!



Saturday, my sister ran a marathon. All those miles, she ran every one! She finished, I hear, in style; no tears, no collapse, no heart attack! She did well. I am so proud of her. I am so happy, too, that I've learned to be happy for her and not feel the need to compete. I'm perfectly okay with her running and not me! She's officially my hero!

Turkey Trek

So, my crazy, marathon running sister talked me into this little Thanksgiving Day Turkey Trot. "It's so much fun," she says. I figure a little 5k never killed anybody, so hey, why not. After all, it may help me feel better about the three- that's right, three- turkey dinners I'm obligated to eat. Well, to be honest, my mom would let me out of hers, but that's my favorite. My favorite people, my favorite foods, my favorite memories, but I digress. Back to this 5k.

So, I'm all into the idea, thinking that I can get my way out of shape rear into running mode in just two and a half weeks. I'm ready to go punish myself for the trial run when I get the friendly memo that it's not a 5k, but a 5 MILE run.

That may not seem like a lot of difference to the girl who is about to run twenty some miles, but that two extra miles is way more than I can wrap my head around. So far, I have gotten down my road, .5 miles at a slow plod. All together yesterday I probably ran a mile and walked a mile, but I never ran for more than a half mile at a time. Today was a repeat performance. I am going to have to pretend that someone is after my neck with an ax to accomplish even running through half this race. I guess I can't call it a race if my goal is not to die. I think I'm going to register as Anne Boleyn for extra motivation. Do you think anyone will notice? No that won't work. We all know the ax DID catch up with her...

Any motivation for me people? I need help!!

NOVEMBER

Wow! How did that happen? I swear, I don't know what I've been doing, but yet the calendar still rolls over again. On this beautiful day I should be outside, but I've been trying to clean up some of the mess we've made in trying to move all the people in our house. I've mostly got our room done, but the hubby is in charge of his clothes because some will have to be donated to make our closet door shut. I have been able to get lots done though. The girls have played outside non-stop since we got home from church. Baby sleeping for a good long nap has enabled me to be productive.



The girls had a good Halloween. We didn't really trick or treat, but instead dressed up and went to see family and a few friends. This turned out to be just enough to feel like we did something, but not too much to feel dead tired for it. The girls didn't get a truck load of candy either which is really a good thing. I mean, who am I kidding, I'm the one who usually eats half of it and I don't need it. Anyway, Dorothy, Glinda the good witch and the cowardly lion still got plenty of treats just but mostly pencils, straws, books and sugar free gum. YAY!

Friday was an interesting start to the weekend as we carved pumpkins. One was the headless horseman and the other a vampire-ish clown. They were not frightening enough, however, to scare away the brave souls who came to toilet paper our trees in the rain. That wasn't fun to clean up... or at least I don't imagine. The big kid was assigned the duty as a lesson in not being destructive towards others' property because, well she needed the lesson!

3 Month Update

It's been a while...

Hi! How ya been?

In the last three months sooo much has happened.

• New Job for Hubby
• Leaving my baby to go back to work
• New baby having H1N1 and pneumonia
• New baby turning into a six month old with three teeth and at least four words
• Big girls back to school with lots of homework
• Multiplication tables
• New child care
• Major car repairs
• A car rolled down a huge hill to hit a pole
• Changing who lives where in our house
• Currently most of the girls furniture is still hanging out in the kitchen/living room while we move stuff
• A trip to Nashville
• Getting stranded for hours with a broken car and a dead cell phone in Crossville.
• A lot of other stuff

I have not been writing because, well, I just needed to breathe and keep moving one foot in front of the other. Many of these changes have been difficult for me, but not enough to be undone! After adding a new baby to the mix I have to figure out the new balance every day because her needs change that quickly. I'm getting there. I love my family. I'm finding the blessings in the challenges.

Speaking of Pooped

I was explaining to my husband yesterday that I was so happy that I didn't have two babies in diapers, as I did with my first two. I explained how my niece, who I was babysitting yesterday, has this habit of taking off her diaper. At one point I checked on her diaper status yesterday, and found that although it was still on, it was saggin'. It wasn't that it was that full, it was just that she had unfastened the Velcro and refastened herself. The diaper was so low, it was basically just keeping her knees warm.

"Oh, our daughter won't do that," he says.

Sooooo, you see where this is going, right?

Someone gave me some diapers that although were a little snug, by George, I was going to make them work. Hello freebie! Well this morning, I got up changed her diaper and fed her without fastening her pj bottoms back up. Later, I heard her cooing so I looked in her crib. Yep, there it was... the freebie had betrayed me! The Velcro popped open, hopeless against her big baby belly.
As soon as our eyes met, my mouth dropped at the sight of the mustard yellow baby poo pile. She however, just started to belly laugh at my reaction. I mean after all, her job right now is to eat and poop, and by golly, that was one well executed job. Proud baby. Dirty, proud baby.

Mommas who drive the bus

I watched my sister's kids along with my own today. I wonder how moms who have enough kids to drive a bus do it. I guess as you have them you adjust, but wow. The kids were great. I had no disasters. Only one Band-Aid was applied; no real tears were cried, but at the end of it all I was Pooped! "Pooped means your tired," as Addie always dutifully explains.

In other news, I'm wondering WHAT it will take for the media to start playing something other than Michael Jackson, The life and death of... I am so relieved that this MJ special just ended with the announcement of, "more on this tomorrow on Today, MSNBC, and MSNBC.com." Great!Now I'm not wishing for WWIII or anything, but perhaps just some good Independence Day feel good stories would do. Don't get me wrong, the man obviously had a following, but geeze! Can't we just make the Time Life special already and leave it for the people who want to buy it to watch? I don't think that's too much to ask.

Can I just say? ...Nope

Don't you just hate when you feel like you have all the weight of the world on your shoulders, and it would help so much just to talk about it, but you can't?

I DO!

Ahhh.... I feel so much better just having expressed my need for expression.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.

Cheeeeese!

Yesterday, we had our pictures taken for the first time since we've become a family of five. We had a ton of fun, but I think a monster was born.

Click- Pose!
Click- Pose!
Click- Pose!

That's the oldest girl in action. She did not need to be told, she just had it in her... to a fault! I've never seen anything like it. After a while she announced, "I think I'm going to be a fashion model!" Our photographer said, "That sounds fun, but you wouldn't REALLY want to do that would you?"

"Oh yeah!" Came her reply.

Ok, great. Just great. This from the child that is constantly worried that she's too fat, or on the good days when she knows she's not fat, she worries her clothes may make her look that way. So, I've got that to start prayin' over!

Any who, I have the link to the pictures on my facebook if you want to take a look. We have been blessed with some darn cute girls, even if I do say so.

Walkin' on Sunshine (Oh-oh)

In effort to de-stress my summer, I've taken to walking every night. After dinner, I pull out the stroller and all four of us girls hit the road. I'm guessing we walk just a mile and a half, but hey, little six-year-old legs will only go so far (yes, I'm blaming the little ones). I've started to notice that besides the lowered stress level, we've seen other benefits.

First, I got to send Bradley an unexpected love note:

Addie found this! How many pot holes do you stop to notice?

Next, we picked lots of blackberries and some pretty wild flowers.

The girls helped me arrange them in a vase for a new neighbor.

We've stopped to enjoy nature...

And the girls got an unexpected ride...

Can you believe all this is going on right down my

road? Who knew living out in the middle of no where could

be so exciting? Isn't God great to provide some cheap entertainment? As Adam Sandler says in Bedtime Stories, "For meeee? For FREEEE?!"

Oh, and I'm pretty sure the walking isn't hurting my caboose, but I'll not provide photo evidence!

Summer Stress

Summer is supposed to be fun, relaxing, rejuvenating, but I think I'm more stressed out. Where's my Popsicle? Where's my beach towel? WHERE'S my CRUISE TICKET?!

I always feel the need to be productive, but where to start? So, I don't.

We went to the library for craft and story time. Imagine a small room filled with 40 kids and their parents... hmmm. Relaxing? No. Now, imagine said children are making drums, yes, drums out of coffee cans.

Then I drug the other kids to an appointment for baby. Next to get food, which is a rare occasion for us to eat out, so this should be fun. Now imagine taking a bite of your favorite fried food to discover it is still FROZEN in the middle. YUCK!

Next, off to the pool. Exit car to sounds of loud thunder lightning. Back into the car we go.
I'm ready for bed time! Can I just move the clocks forward?

Winds of Change

So I've gone the blob to Super Woman or maybe I'm having a bipolar-like experience. I don't know what happened over night, but the need for change has hit our house. All of the crazy build up of stuff that accumulated over the last year and a half of my sicknesses and hospital stays has gotten under our skin for long enough. Yesterday, I woke up at 5:30 fed the baby and then went full steam until just after midnight. Here's what was accomplished during that time:

1. Year's worth of paperwork shredded, sorted, or burned. (I shredded so much I burned out the motor on the shredder, but undeterred I kept it up and just got a match.)

2. Holes that the dog dug in the flower bed- filled.

3. Fence to keep out the dog- put up.

4. Upstairs- vacuumed.

5. Upstairs stuff- moved to any free space downstairs.

6. Carpets and stairs- officially Rug Doctored.

7. Gutters-cleaned.

8. Dinner made- Made the best corn bread of my life. If you're lucky I'll share one day!

9. Spelling words practiced, fashion advice given, fights mediated, baby burped, prayers said, and diapers changed.

Now, all this is great, but perhaps there's more change yet to come. Praying for openness to change, wisdom, and peace. I hate change, or rather, I'm fearful that change will rock the boat. But, heck, it's not like my boat has stayed in placid waters for a while! Pray with me?

Oh, and my husband, he's great. He did the gutter cleaning, the fence, and a lot of the carpet cleaning. THANKS!

Blob

I remember the feeling after having my other girls that I suddenly became a brainless blob.
It's happening again. It could be the lack of sleep. It could be that everybody has been sick again. I have nothing interesting to say because, heck, I don't get out much lately! I am on a quest to keep my brain active this time however. Here are my methods:

1. Play word games on facebook.
2. Keep up my typing skills on facebook.
3. Read for entertainment on facebook.
4. Eat a healthy diet of ice cream (protein).

See you thought I was just wasting all my time on facebook. Puhleaze! Very constructive use of my time.

Something Extra for my Easter Basket

"Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the Lord has been good to you."

Psalm 116:7

I think mostly I have girl blog readers, but just in case you're a guy and you don't want to hear a labor and delivery story-stop reading. Although, my most graphic word in here is contraction, but still...

My family and friends were all quite busy this time last week sending up prayers that I would go into labor before my scheduled induction on Monday. My husband and I agreed that it would be really special if our baby girl happened to come on Good Friday or Easter Sunday, and that's how we prayed.

On Saturday, we were on our way to celebrate Easter with Bradley's family. I noticed some contractions, but tried not to get my hopes up. As we were sitting around the table, we decided to just keep an eye on the clock. These contractions were consistent, but having taken the trip once before to the hospital only to be sent home, I was going to be DARN sure it was time before I got too excited. We went for a walk, and I had to stop a few times during contractions, so things were looking promising.

We decided to take the girls to my parents house, and I stayed there while Brad ran up to the house to get our hospital bag. Now, that bag had been in my trunk for three weeks, but since I felt like I was going in on a schedule I pulled the bag back in to recheck, rethink and repack accordingly earlier that day. Of course, why hadn't I thought of that before? When you're good and unprepared, of course that's when I'd go into labor!

While I was waiting, I walked the entire time with my Dad, trying to move progress along. I was down to four minutes apart when we finally left their house at 10 something. By the time we got to the hospital, we were taking bets on what time we'd be holding our baby, because things seemed to be moving right along. I'd been having these progressively closer contractions over the last five hours, so we had no reason to doubt.

I went in to the hospital confidently prepared to hear that I was at least half way along. Oh, but no! I about screamed when the nurse said, "yeah, you're still at two." WHAT!?! I almost cried!

I stayed hooked up to monitors for an hour, and no change. They had me walk for an hour and nothing. I felt so defeated!

My doctor wasn't on call, and it was about 2 a.m. at this point. It was becoming clear that I wasn't moving along quickly enough to get admitted. Brad asked the head charge nurse if there was any way that the doctor on call would just let us stay since we were getting induced in less than 24 hours. "No, you're not his patient, so he won't," she said.

"Well, I'm going to ask our nurse to ask the doctor anyway," he whispered to me. Our nurse agreed, that he'd likely say no, but she promised to ask. Brad was praying, and falling asleep, I was praying, and inwardly hating my lazy uterus. The nurse came back in after about 10 minutes and said, "ok, let's go get you a room."

"WHAT? REALLY?" I went from being so defeated, to feeling like we just conquered the world. Thank you! Thank you!

Of course, the condition to staying was getting the dreaded pit-drip. The funny thing was that at this point my contractions had started coming farther and farther apart. I was so used to the strong, hard contractions I'd been having, that by the time I was actually getting pitocin, those contractions were like nothing. I slept through several hours of them!

At 12:52, on a beautiful, sunny, warm Easter Sunday, D'arcy was here. She won't always have an Easter birthday, but she will never have a Friday the 13th birthday either. On the one day we all ponder the miracle of Jesus rising from the tomb, we had the privilege of considering how God brought this seemingly perfect little baby from ME, and my oh so sluggish womb!

Good News, Bad News

The full moon was last night. Ah, that was the ticket... or so we thought. No baby here, though. So the good news is that we can relax. Our baby won't be a werewolf. What a relief that is! I'd hate for her to suffer Jacob's fate (I'm only part way through Eclipse, so no spoilers!).

So, it's Good Friday. There's a lot of pressure to make it a really good Good Friday from my family. I'm drinking pineapple juice for Aunt Ruth. I've been eating crazy spicy foods for my hubby, and I'm going to go clean some more for my sanity and baby's good health. I'll go for a walk this afternoon for my mom. That's what got stubborn me to come. OH, NO! I just had a thought... What if this baby's unwillingness to cooperate is a sign that she'll be as stubborn as me?!

The more I've been thinking about it, the less I want to go in at 1:15 A.M. on Monday for an induction. I'd hate for her to have a 13th birthday. I'm not really superstitious, but you know... it's just one of those things. She'll have Friday the 13th b-days every so often and that's just not desirable. Of course there's the entire idea about induction and what that means for my body, level of pain, etc... and it's supposed to be an ugly day on Monday. See, this is what happens when you know what's coming. I think I'd rather go back to the wondering how long I have...

I guess any day she comes, will be a happy day. 13th, rain, whatever.

Happy Easter

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,
When sorrows like sea billows roll;
Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Refrain: It is well, with my soul,
It is well, with my soul,
It is well, it is well, with my soul.

Though Satan should buffet,
though trials should come, Let this blest assurance control,
That Christ has regarded my helpless estate,
And hath shed His own blood for my soul.

My sin, oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!
My sin, not in part but the whole,
Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more,
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And Lord, haste the day when my faith shall be sight,
The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;
The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend,
Even so, it is well with my soul.

-Horatio Spafford

Good job, Horatio. Sweet comfort in truth.

HE IS RISEN! He sits on his throne. He is in control.

This is the Day... but is it?

This is the day the Lord has made. I will rejoice and be glad in it. My question is this: is it THE day. I'm so funny right now. I'm one of those people that can see a sign in anything. Signs only relating to labor, I mean. "Oh, I felt a twinge. Could that MEAN something?!"

The ironic part is that I know how ridiculous this all is, but I can't stop! I'm like one of my girls waiting for Christmas, a birthday, or the end of a long car ride. Is it here yet? Is it time? Are we there yet? And I always say, trust me you'll know! But I can't say it to myself and believe it.

So, today IS the day that I get to go to the doctor. Yea! Not that I just love all that going to the doctor entails right now, but I'm having an ultra sound done to measure exactly how big this big baby has gotten. That means I get to at least see her. It's so encouraging to see what all this waiting is for. I'm not normally one of those visualize and it will actualize hocum-smokem (yeah, I just made up a word) people, but it's a pretty certain thing that I'm getting this baby I see!

And further... oh wait, I felt a pain. It may mean something, so I better go!

I think I can, I think I can

As I approach my time to deliver, I have started to see some of the signs that baby's arrival is emanate. For one, I was a cleaning fiend this weekend. I mean, seven loads of laundry, ironing, vacuuming, dusting, scrubbing. folding, mopping, digging in the flower bed, and all the other stuff I couldn't seem to do for the last few months. If I hadn't hurt my back doing all this, I'm sure I would have done more. I was ready to hang from the rafters to dust ceiling fans, and crawl on the floor to hunt dust bunnies. I think I saw a wabbit... a waskawy wabbit.

I accomplished all this with one serious distraction. My face is so swollen I can see my own lips. It's so annoying; I have no idea how Angelina Jolie functions! I mean maybe that's something you get used to, but I'm sure since she's been pregnant for the last three years straight, it only gets worse for her... poor thing.

And then there is the sleep issue. As I woke up at 7:30 yesterday and did all that big ol' bunch of stuff, you'd think I would be ready to pass out. Oh, but no. Finally at 3:45, I gave in and took a Tylenol PM. (Thanks sis, for also being awake to tell me to give up the ghost and just take it already). The heating pad, the stack of pillows to prop me up so I can breathe, the blankets that I can tear off... how does it feel to just go to sleep like a normal person? I forget.

Any who... as I'm annoyed by all these things, I think about Angie who lost her baby girl a year ago today, and I can do this. I think about how significant it will be to have a strong, healthy, fully "cooked" baby and how many mommies would just love to be able to carry a baby to term, and I can do this. I think about baby Stellan, and his mom who just wants fix his broken heart, and I can do this. I have NOTHING to complain about, God knows the little annoyances, like going to work on less than three hours sleep, and He can help me do this. I did the months and months of IV fluids as a substitue for food; I can do this. At least I can eat now. I carried that medicine pump everywhere I went, I can carry this baby a few more weeks if that's what she needs. I can do this.

Baby Names

My husband has complained that I'm propagating the association of our sweet baby and the name Sasquatch. But every time I tell someone that my doctor called our baby a Sasquatch they have their own funny name story to tell.

My aunt told of a lady who named her baby girl what was thought to be LEAH, but she spelled it Le-a. When someone complimented her on her choice of Leah, she explained, "Oh no, honey, that dash ain't silent. Her name's Ledasha.

A friend at work told me about a student he had that was named Absadee (this is how I would spell it). Her mother was a little more creative. She spelled Absadee- Abcde. This made me wonder about her middle name. How many letters of the alphabet for that one? I guess FGHI isn't as cute...

Have any good name stories? We're still not set in stone for her middle name. You never know, we may take your funny name!

Sasquatch

Officially I'm 38 weeks today. I feel like baby was due last week! I guess my trip Friday to the hospital with false labor only reinforced the feeling that the time is near.

My best friend from high school and I have both been pregnant with our third child. Both of us with our third girl. We go to the same doctor, we both had an appointment on Monday. She and I commiserated that induction may be in our future. She for being over due, me for carrying, as my doctor put it, a Sasquatch. We both had made relatively no progress, but what do you know, she had her baby in the middle of the night.

Not me, still growing the Sasquatch. Ah, yes, a big baby. How in this world is she so big? I lived on I.V. fluids for months. I have not really felt the need to eat. I have to remind myself to do so sometimes.

The bright side of having a big baby, the rest of me looks really small. My youngest asked today, "How does a belly get so big? The bigger your belly the skinnier your back gets, Mommy." Well, thanks, I'll take it. If any part of me looks small, right now is a good time to hear it!

So, the hope is that baby beautiful and healthy and not too big to budge!

Yes I am. Are you?

I've done this before. The two other pregnancies were no different. I remember the stares, the comments, but still they never fail to leave me slack-jawed.

Here are a couple fine examples of what leave me wondering, "Who RAISED you people?"

A co-worker, known for her ability to take a perfectly nice conversation to the offensive level asked a week or two ago, "How much longer do you have?" Me, knowing what I know decide to keep it less specific than I've been known to during this pregnancy. Oh, 40 days or so."What? Oh my word! You're going to be HUGE!" Nah, it's not that much longer, I say trying to give her a chance to redeem herself. "Are you kidding?" She retorts, "That's a month and a half, and look at you now! You're already huge."

Thanks.

At the girls' doctor appointment, this nurse kept pointing and going "ummm, uhhh, ummm." What? What's wrong. By the way she was acting you would think my fly was down, and she couldn't bring herself to tell me. When's the last time you've seen a woman 35 weeks pregnant in pants with a zipper? So, that was out. Finally, she brings herself to mutter the words she found so difficult. "Um, are you? You're? Are you expecting?" Yes, I'm almost done being pregnant in fact. "Oh, thank goodness, I'm always afraid to ask because I've been wrong before."

Well, I'm sure the awkward gesturing, hemming and hawing, and general beating around the bush will definitely help the poor overweight woman you offend next time. And did I mention this lady was a nurse? She should know what pregnant looks like!

So, all you non-pregnant folk, don't point! Don't proclaim people to be huge. It's not nice. Eventually there may be a rash of pregnant ladies being just as rude back. Just a few weeks left; pray I'm nice!

It's a date!

My hubby, despite all his really good qualities, is a really bad sleeper. I have no understanding of what this is like because if they had sleep Olympics, I'd be in! I'm great at it.

Yesterday was one of those nights when, despite working for 12 hours and not eating until he got home, he still wasn't able to just conk out. So, as he finally decided to come to bed at 4 AM, I was awakened.

Being as pregnant as I am right now, I have approximately five minutes to eat before my hunger turns into all consuming crisis.

So, I lay there for a bit until I couldn't take it anymore. I'm starving.

"Yeah, I'm pretty hungry, too."

Want some cereal?

"Sure."

Ok, lets go!

We both piled out of bed and ran down stairs. We filled up our bowls and brought them back up to bed. We sat in the dark talking, laughing, and downing Corn Pops like we were at our first slumber party.

When we were almost done, he looks at me and says, "I feel like we're on a date."
My response was, "how sad!" But now that I think about it, I'm grateful that that's all it takes to make us happy.

So, do you have any more cheep date ideas that still were very meaningful? Please let me borrow your ideas! (Valentine's Day is Saturday and I need help!)

Government Bluberment

So, with the time I had off thanks to the chicken poo, I decided it was high time that I take care of some business that I have been working on F O R E V E R! This all goes back to enrolling my youngest for kindergarten. If you know us, you know that's been about 2 years ago as she is half way through her first grade year now.

When I got all of the paper work together to do official school enrollment I noticed I had two problems.

1). I could not find her social security card.

2). I could find her birth certificate, but holy cow, it said she was male! How'd I miss that!?

As nothing with the government is easy, this was going to take a relative act of congress to correct, I could just tell. And I was pretty much right.

Again, if you know us, you'll know that one day I lived in a certain place, and then suddenly the next day, I literally owned what got thrown in a large trash bag and my babies. We were safe, and that's all that mattered. Somehow, that's just not good enough for documentation purposes.

So, I had to contact the office of vital records, plead my case that I did indeed have a girl and I needed them to make a correction to her birth certificate. Well, that requires BOTH parents signature. Ummm... Have I mentioned the restraining order I'd have to work around? Well somehow, with lots of court documents, I convinced that office that indeed, I had a girl, and that I would not be contacting anyone to sign with me.

I got the amended birth certificate, so the social security office was left. Did you all know that they close every day at 3 PM. That's just annoying! But today, I was off at 11:15 (thank YOU chicken POO) plenty of time to make the hour drive and wait my turn.

I got there, took my number and I kid you not, waited with 100 other people. Two hours later I get called back and begin to explain and show my corrected documents. "No problem ma'am." The man reassures me. (Oh thank goodness! )

Hmmm.... "Well ma'am, we do have a problem, it seems your daughters birth date is wrong in our system AND" (as if we needed an AND) " it seems this number was also assigned to a boy."

"You mean it says she's a boy right?"

"No, I have a name for a boy with this number, his parents, place of birth all coming up attached to this social."

Oh my word. Could this BE any more messed up? (Chandler Bing speaking here).

Well, it took a long time and a lot of paper work, but I am happy to say that my daughter is officially a girl, and she's officially only has one birth date, and her number is hers alone now!

I think I deserve a medal after all this. Have you ever had to fight the government and did you win?

(Thanks for the shout out Bethany!)

Chicken Poo

Spring was in the air today. With the sky clear blue and the temperature hitting the low 70's, it felt only natural to keep the door propped open to let in the fresh air. Now it does happen from time to time that someone in class isn't quite so fresh, but today the odor was foul- dead body foul. I turned on the fan, but to no avail. The stink still stunk. Finally it dawned on me that maybe a dog crawled right up to the door before he died, so I went to check it out. Sure enough. The smell was coming from outside, but I never did see the croaked canine.

Well, as I have written before, Rhea County gets out of school for some interesting issues (non-existent snow), but never before have we gotten a call from the Superintendent saying we were going home early due to Chicken Poo.

Evidently a farmer, in an attempt to save money, covered his field with four loads of chicken poo rather than purchase fertilizer.

Last year the field behind our house was treated the same way. We seriously started thinking we were going to have to move. The stink yes, that was bad. But the worst thing was the plague like swarms of flies that followed. We're talking straight out of Exodus. So many flies, that you couldn't see what color our house was in places.

So, keep your eye on the news. "Rhea County Schools let out due to Flies" should follow soon.

Click here to listen to a hilarious song about the mess!
http://www.us101country.com/cc-common/mediaplayer/player.html?redir=yes&mps=us101media-skin.php&mid=http://a1135.g.akamai.net/f/1135/23902/1h/cchannel.download.akamai.com/23902/2061/richmedia/What_Was_I_Thinkin_(All_That_Stinkin)_WUSY.mp3?CCOMRRMID=25123535&CPROG=RICHMEDIA&MARKET=CHATTANOOGA-TN&NG_FORMAT=country&NG_ID=wusy101fm&OR_NEWSFORMAT=&OWNER=2061&SERVER_NAME=www.us101country.com&SITE_ID=2061&STATION_ID=WUSY-FM&TRACK=what_was_that_stinkin#

Pregnant and All That

Here are some of the factors that lead me to believe that I am officially pregnant.

1. I can't wear my own socks anymore. I don't have ankles, but rather cankles (where the calves become indistinguishable from the usually slimmer ankle). I have to borrow my husband's socks so I can hopefully not totally cut off circulation to my tootsies.

2. It's 9:30 A.M. I am eating chocolate cake.

3. Last night I had the strong desire to eat mini-marshmallows in my coleslaw. And so I did, and I liked it!

4. I just dropped my bottle cap. Nope, couldn't get it.

5. My fingers are like Ball Park Franks. "THEY PLUMP!"

6. My once innie belly button is now more like a turkey timer, and this bird is cooked!

7. I normally don't know the date, but I can tell you exactly how many days are left until 4-15. (Seventy-one is the magic number today.)

8. If it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck. If it waddles like a duck, look twice, it might just be me.

9. I can get up to pee at any hour without lights, and really only one eye open. No really, cracked is more like it.

With all these subtle hints, I wonder... What's with those women who don't figure out they're pregnant until they're in the ER with horrible pain they think is an appendix rupture or kidney stones. Are they for real?

Balancing Act

It has been quite a while since my last post, but I've been actually DOING stuff. I applaud all women who can work, keep house, AND blog. I have found I'm not that talented! Over my Christmas vacation I really did clean out a ton of clutter from my kids' rooms. I'm trying to be ahead of the game, so when the baby comes I won't cry every night from the overwhelming mess. I'm sure I'll be able to cry about something else every night now! Gotta love those hormones!

So, yesterday we got back into the routine of school. My kids were surprisingly pumped about going to school, not just a little excited, but pumped! I, however, not so much. But prior to jumping into the hustle and bustle, I talked to the kids about really trying to maintain order so these big cleaning sweeps were more of the exception than the rule. My oldest actually genuinely asked, "Why?" And she was for real. It was a real question of why it's important to have things neat and clean. She really didn't understand the value. I'm so sad that my bad habits have already marked my kids. They have not had the benefit of watching a mom who is organized and on top of things at home. I don't want to be the clean freak mom who doesn't allow children to be children in there own home, but I don't want them to grow up to be always overwhelmed like me, either.

Balance, I need some balance. If you have extra to share, let me know!