Vignettes

The morning started with a fang (not a bang). David was holding all three girls with him on the couch so I could make a nice egg and sausage breakfast for everyone. David made a statement that Bekah was so "scrumdilyicious," that he could "just eat her up." Well, Haleah took that phrase literally and took a bite out of poor Bekah's arm. The screams of pain were terrifying coming from Bekah. It was an awful scenario.
During breakfast Haleah said, "Rock on, Dude," at the table. David told her not to say that because she didn't know what it meant. I told him that our niece, Cora, taught her that. Then, all of a sudden ,Kaelah (a 1 year old) said it too- "Rock on, Dude." It was so hilarious that I got our video camera out and asked them to say it again. We couldn't help but smile.




At snack time mid-morning, I gave each Kaelah and Haleah some Puffs in a bowl. Kaelah sat on her little chair to watch Barney, while Haleah put her bowl down on the coffee table to go get a diaper for her baby doll. When Haleah left the room, Kaelah quietly got up from her chair and went over to the coffee table and dumped Haleah's Puffs into her own bowl, and turned and went to sit in her chair again. It was so funny, because it was so innocent and so matter-of-fact at the same time...


My niece, Gracyn, arrived soon after. While outside for a bit, David found two more baby black widows "left over" from the killings of the other day under the Sand and Sea table. Ugh. We then left to run errands and go to Walgreens. Haleah calls it the green store. I let each of the girls pick out a color book (they all got Mickey Mouse). Then, we went to a McDonalds drive thru for a treat. They all got Happy Meals with the Polly Pocket toys inside. I never thought I'd see the day again where I'd care about the Happy Meal toy inside...


On the way home, Haleah told me she had to pee. This was the first time she has said this in the car since potty training, so I practically veered off the road when she said this and stumbled into a gas station. Haleah has peed in her undies a couple of times for unknown reasons in recent days, so I was happy that she told me of her need to go. I took her into the (thankfully) clean potty in the gas station. Haleah was afraid of the potty's large size at first, but she was brave and did her potty business. I was very proud of her.


During our short car ride home, Kaelah and Bekah fell asleep. Gracyn wanted to take pictures of them sleeping, so she did. Then she took a picture of Haleah pretending to be asleep in the car too. It was funny.

We made it home to eat our lunches. And I knew I shouldn't have left David alone so long to his own devices. He got that long tree extension cutter from our neighbor and was hacking up trees in our front yard. He was going at it! And now our yard looks naked. Ah, men!!!!

After I got the kids down for nap (and it was no small task to get Haleah down today for some reason), I made a peach pie for my friends, Laura and Justin, who just had a baby. It looked so yummy that I wanted to keep it for myself (even though I made one for myself yesterday---this one looked far more delicious than the first one). Seriously, though, I was happy to bring it to them. Is it not beautiful?

When we opened the mail after arriving home from delivering the pie, we received a pleasant surprise. Haleah's Uncle John and Aunt Mar sent two packages. Each of the girls got matching sundresses. And Haleah received a birthday outfit and three dollar bills (for being 3), and a box of glow sticks (which proved to come in handy later in the evening when the power went out).

After dinner, when Gracyn was gone for the day, massive thunderstorms ensued in our town. Kaelah was getting scared and she kept saying, "boom," "boom," "boom." She does this thing now where she repeats things over and over and over again for at least 15 minute durations. She is a funny little thing. But it's hard to convince toddlers that everything is going to be okay.

Within minutes, the power went out. Luckily I was right next to the girls when the lights went down and I scooped them up. I found a flashlight and let Haleah man it. I then went to find candles and lit them. Haleah and Kaelah helped me put a candle in every room. I tried to make a game out of it. The rains were pounding our house. It was scary, but I put on my brave face for everyone. And we said a prayer that the power would come back on so that my food wouldn't go bad in the fridge. And after one hour, just when it was about to get truly dark outside for the evening, the power came back on. I was so happy! I did not want to think about what the bedtime scenario would have been otherwise. So in my glee, I took pictures of the girls on the couch together, since they were in a happy mood too... at least for the moment.

I got the girls to bed and then went to put the baby down for the night. Bekah has started doing the cutest thing. She "talks" to me as I rock her. She has her lips, crooked, as she tries to form a sound, and drool just dribbles down her chin. Her eyes are half open and half shut. And she is babbling away. It is the THE MOST precious thing I can imagine. I imagine she is telling me she loves me as she drifts off to sleep. And I tell her how much I Iove her too.

Happy Birthday, Haleah!

Three years ago today, my firstborn arrived after a very "labor intensive" birth! I looked at her today and could not believe that she is a walking, talking, inquisitive, independent human being. She is smart as a whip and is very driven. She has big ideas, a wild imagination and amazes me every day with how much she observes about the world around her. Haleah loves life, even though she has a serious side to her. She is a lover of the outdoors and adventure. My baby is growing up! Sometimes I can't even believe that I grew her inside of me. This thought amazes me on a daily basis. Other than it being a special day because of the significance of Haleah's birth, it was a rather humdrum day around the house, with a couple of exceptions...

I took the girls outside to play and decided to sweep up the patio. I was going to sweep the cobwebs from inside their playhouse too. Then David appeared and volunteered to help tidy. In doing so, he found a black widow spider in the playhouse and one under the kids' Sand and Sea toy as well. I told David that I could also guarantee that there would be spiders underneath the truck cap/topper that we had stationed on the patio. It just looked sketchy to me.... Well, he lifted it up and it took all that was within me not to start swearing in front of my kids. Out of the pile of leaves jumped a MASSIVE brown wolf (?) spider. I have never seen the likes of it before. It was the biggest arachnid I had ever seen. It must have been about 4 inches in diameter. David started doing a tap dance and was freaking out too. We were both squealing like little girls. He had his Crocs on and needed something more than that to kill that huge animal.

After the giant beast of a spider was slaughtered, and the topper was tipped upwards, more inspection took place. David uncovered two more black widows, and I just unleashed more shrieks. God help us! I had the broom with me, but could not even bring myself to sweep down the topper to clean it off. I was literally paralyzed with fear. I told David that we are bringing that topper to the curb tomorrow with a 'For Sale' sign on it. It's got to go. And I think the playhouse is going to have to go too. We can't keep this kind of haven for these spiders. I cannot function in this kind of environment.

Towards the end of the day I was so tired, but I had to get to Walmart for our staple items, and I did not want to have to go late at night when David got home from work. Luckily the weather cooled down due to a brief rain storm, so I was able to manage with the three kids.

The end of the night was rough for me, and my fuse short. It wasn't the kids' fault, in retrospect. It was just that I was (am) entirely exhausted. I feel so defeated that my house is such a mess. I can never get ahead of it, though I try (I just cleaned for an hour before blogging). And I know I've blogged before about not worrying about it and letting it go, but tonight it just got the best of me. I look around and can't even get to the deep cleaning. I just vacuumed yesterday and today the house is trashed with things like Goldfish snacks and tiny pieces of toilet paper. And Haleah peed on the bathroom rug (had a potty training mishap), and laundry never ends. And I clean the litter box, but the house still smells. And I haven't dusted in ions and it just looks so gross. And my garage is an ever lovin pit. And I have kids' clothes to sort by sizes and rearranging to do. And I have all of my photo albums and boxes out in my room to "organize," but I don't have big blocks of time that I need to look through them without kids grabbing at them and ruining them.

David tells me I'm not a failure, and I love him for that. I'll just keep trying to do my best and raise my kids through another year...

Pretty Easy Day

Today was a pretty easy day. I watched Cora and Gracyn today. We ate party leftovers and played with Haleah's new toys from her Birthday party. We also set up fingerpaints outside for the kids to create. And they rode Haleah's new Barbie "vehicle" around the driveway with Gracyn's help. Cora went off to basketball camp mid-day and came back for dinner with her mom. We had chicken fajitas, which were fun. Then the kids were given a bath. Bekah got into the tub with Haleah and Kaelah for the first time. Then the kids had some Jello and were rounded up for bed. Grandmama swung by and read Haleah her bedtime story. They were good girls today who took decent naps and didn't fuss or fight too much. Any day like that is a good day for me.

Time for 3~

It's was time for another fun-filled packed weekend with my firstborn turning three. Her actual birthday is July 29, but we celebrated with a little family party on Sunday afternoon, a couple of days early. All day Saturday I was trying to cook (see my famous 'Cowboy Caviar' below), and make Caillou decorations for the party. I had ordered all of the decorations online a couple of weeks ago, but I got a phone call from the manufacturer last minute that they were all out of stock. Nice. So I had to devise decorations on my own. And it figures that no one seems to sell Caillou party themes (not Target, not Walmart, no party stores---no one)!

I printed out pictures of Caillou from the internet and created a mobile decoration to hang from the kitchen light above the table. I also made a place setting for Haleah and formed a decoration for the cake as well. They turned out okay.

While I was party prepping, the girls were swatting flies in the house and watching the rains pour down outside. The weather has been super wet around here lately.

We had our family party over at my mother-in-laws, so we could have more of a surprise factor for Haleah. And besides that, she's got the pool in the 100 degree heat! I decorated over at Irene's house on Saturday night after I got the girls to bed. I also made the cake that I saw in the Schwan's catalog. It was a cake made by layering ice cream sandwiches, whipped cream and M&Ms. Haleah loves these three things, so I thought this cake would be perfect for her and the other kids. It was super simple to make; I just had to unwrap each ice cream sandwich and assemble it quickly before everything melted. Then I had to freeze it overnight.

The party was a success, I thought. It was low-key, which was what I was going for for a three year old. We had balloons for Haleah and lots of food. She got to swim and open a lot of nice presents from her family. She got games and puzzles and a child laptop. She received a baby doll that talks and wets herself (nice), a bug scope and some Chapstick. One of her favorite gifts was a whoopie cushion, which I thought was a hit. She loves it and it is fun to use. Not bad for an 88 cent gag.

The two mishaps of the evening occurred when I went to retrieve the cake and realized that it had toppled. I had to fudge it and put it back together. I was not happy, but luckily it was just for a toddler. The taste of it was excellent, though. The second mishap was when Haleah fell off the new/refurbished battery powered Barbie vehicle that she got from Aunt Missy as a gift, and gouged the top of her foot and forehead. Blood came a pourin... but she did survive! And at the end of the night when we tucked her in, Haleah said, "Thank you for my party. It was really, really fun."

Firsts

Today was a day of Firsts...

Haleah started grinding her teeth at me in anger. I don't know how, physically, she can do that, but she did.

Haleah and Kaelah actually played a "game" "together" taking turns. They rolled a toy caterpillar back and forth in the kitchen. It was all done very patiently and calmly, and I was thrilled!

Bekah rolled over for the first time. She also spun around in her crib for the first time. And I realized that she likes to snort too, when she's mad.

My friend Laura, had her first baby boy born today. She has 2 girls already, so this babe is a welcomed, healthy sweet one.

My bath towel got shredded by the dryer for the first time. We haven't gotten new towels since our wedding in 2001, so I supposed it's time to break down and buy new ones...

And, finally, the highlight of our evening: We loitered at Blockbuster for the first time. I told David to strap the kids in and go for a ride tonight because they were just bouncing off the walls. Haleah said she wanted to see her Grandmama, so we called her to see if we could swing by. Well, she was at Blockbuster with my nieces, so we decided to ambush them. And when we did, we just hung outside the store for a good half hour. So I just enjoyed myself taking pictures of the fun-filled Friday event. Ha!

All For Love

We decided to take a spontaneous ride to another small nearby town this morning. I forgot my camera and wished I had it to take in all the southern beauty that crossed my eyes. As we drove, I loved seeing the bales of hay, the vast corn fields, the old street posts in the town, the quaint antique shops and the 'make a wish' penny fountain. The mission of our trip, though was to find a bird bath to finish out our front yard landscaping; however, the ones we ended up seeing seemed too goth and mystical for me (not the vibe I'm going for). In my minds eye I have a gentle misting bird bath in mind, perhaps copper in tone. We're still hunting for that...

Later in the morning David had to venture off to work. So I decided to venture off to Walmart in 102 degree heat. I believe my cart was packed to it's max and was the fullest I had ever seen it. I could hardly push it. In the end I had to take Haleah out of the cart because I was "packin her in" too much. When I got to the Walmart checkout line with a lady named Nearine doing the scanning, I was huffing and puffing. When all the bags made it back to my cart, Nearine informed me that my card didn't go through. I tried two more times, and it was rejected. She just said, "Sorry." I absolutely freaked out at this point. I did not have any more cards on my person and I did not bring my cell phone with me---of course! I told her it was a debit card and that we just got paid and I KNEW their was money in the bank. I asked her if we could try just one time. Then I started praying out loud, "Please, Lord, let it work!" Well, God was good to me today. My card went through. Catastrophe averted.

I then packed up the car and the kids in the 102 degree heat. I was sweating buckets, and my mouth was so dry and I was starting to get dizzy. I don't know what possessed me to take this Walmart jaunt in this weather, except for the fact that I am trying to whisk together stuff for Haleah's 3rd Birthday party on Sunday. It's what I do for love....

The Itsy Bitsy.....AHHHHHH!

Today I watched Cora and Gracyn, my nieces. David was home in the morning, so I bravely suggested that he might want to work on our front yard landscaping since it was cool outside. He accepted, and moved some hostas around, planted some "monkey grass" and laid some more rusty red mulch. Things are looking better and better in the front yard, but we still have a little ways to go.

This afternoon, I attempted to paint clear rock gems with my nieces while my girls slept, but Bekah had other plans for me and decided not to nap very long. So, I didn't paint very long. It started to hail outside during our snack time, and we all watched the small balls of ice bounce off of our trampoline.

This afternoon, Haleah took to terrorizing Kaelah and hit her with a bowl and also knocked her down on two occasions. I don't know where this aggression comes from, but it's really starting to get to me. Maybe Haleah feels I don't spend enough one-on-one time with her, and she's just vying for attention. And the truth of the matter is, I don't spend enough one-on-one time with her, and I rarely can with all of these kids I'm watching. I don't know what to do. All I know is that I am really upset that Kaelah gets the brunt of it.

After the rains fell tonight, Grandmama came over and she and David got into a discussion/banter about the age of the Earth and about creation. I stayed out of it and went to my Facebook page instead. I also took pictures of the beautiful jalapeno peppers that Mr. Beau brought over to me from his garden. The colors were so vibrant. Sometimes, I get taken away by the beauty of God's creation.

The night is now ending on a creepy, freaky note. My skin is crawling right now. David started asking me if we had a flashlight and he was milling around outside while I was at the computer. Well, he came back with pictures of the spiders he found both outside our front and back doors (great, now I'm trapped in my house). We initially thought the spider out back stringing his web was another black widow; it was freaking huge! (See pictures below, both living and dead, per my request). After research, we discovered it was an Orb Weaver spider. It had black and white striped front legs and black and red striped back legs (or visa versa--I don't know). It is said to have a bite, but is not poisonous. But it's enough to send me into the depths of insanity!

The spider hanging on our front porch after the rains (they must climb up high to their webs to dry off or something), was a brown spider of some sort. We didn't look it up, because it's now smashed into our house. And David also sprayed it with wasp killer to be sure it was dead. I can't believe I am posting pictures of them, but I will. And if there is one thing I cannot stand about Alabama---it would be spiders. I HATE THEM!!!!!!!

Out of Control

I'm beginning to think my kids have me figured out. They know exactly when I can't get up to chase them or hunt them down. And when that moment happens, they decide to break it loose! Today, control was lost.

It began pretty much after naptime (though there were chaotic moments prior to that as well). Haleah woke from nap with a wet bed. I decided to see if she could make it through nap and stay dry in her undies. Actually, I halfway decided and halfway plain forgot to put a Pull Up on her. Anyhow, she woke up soaked, so I immediately stripped the sheets down. And since Kaelah was already a bit stir crazy after her nap, and it was pouring rain outside, I decided to give the kids an early bath.

As I "dumped" them both into the tub, Bekah woke from her nap and decided to screech the whole time as I washed the older kids and tried to tend to her at the same time. Haleah got out of the bath, sooner rather than later, because she threw water in Kaelah's face, twice, when I told her not to.

After the bath I was thinking that I better give Bekah a bath too, because she really needed one and I knew I'd be even more tired later in the night. So as I was bathing Bekah separately, Haleah and Kaelah took off to Haleah's room and decided to "let loose." They dragged out Kaelah's bin of diapers and dumped them all over the room. They got out books from high in the closet and threw them all over the floor. They emptied out their dress up drawers too, all while wearing their "funny hats." They like to do things they believe are funny while wearing these "funny" winter hats. So strange. And that room was quite a sight by the time I got back to see it...


Kaelah was also injured a lot today, as usual. Haleah pushed her to the floor twice, right on her head. And this morning, Kaelah walked right into the handle of the wheelbarrow outside, hitting her right in the noggin. Ouch!

And finally, there was near death experience... As I was putting dirty laundry into the washer, I happened to look back at Kaelah behind me and saw her as she was thisclose to touching a black widow spider sitting on her play kitchen set in the laundry room. I screamed. I screamed so loud that Kaelah pulled back her hand, thank goodness. I am still so shaken up over this, I can hardly stand it. Last year I saw 7 black widows around our house. This was the first one I've seen this year, and I am going to go totally ballistic, especially since I have a toddler who is into everything. I don't even want to think about what my night would've been like had she been bitten by a black widow spider. God was watching over us tonight, for sure.

p.s. This one pic is one of the only quiet moments I had today of the kids reading. So precious.

The Rest is History...

Here's a recap of the last couple of days, in list format, because I must go to bed:

1) David installed a new kitchen faucet.

2) We took the kids to the kiddie carnival.

3) I painted my toenails electric green.

4) Kaelah fell off a chair, straight onto her face and forehead. HUGE bruise followed.

5) Went swimming at Grandmama's house.

6) The kids went to "be funny" in Haleah's room by trying on hats and wigs.

7) I called someone the wrong name to his face. No wonder he looked at me like I was CRAZY!

The rest is history....

Three Good Men

My poor husband has been wanting more of my time at night, so I need to try and make this a quickblog, so that I can spend more time with him. I have heavy thoughts running through my head tonight...

The sad thing is that three people that we know through various connections have backslid after having been in recovery from drug addictions. The story for each of them includes basically the loss of their homes, families, jobs and faith. It's so sad to see the devastation that their "hunger" for the elusive and forbidden leaves in their wake. David helped one person move out of her foreclosed home and into a trailer due to the fact that her now estranged husband left her in financial ruin due to his recurring addiction. The house is gone. The marriage is over. All savings is lost. Love is done.

Another person has been missing in action for a couple of weeks now after his year long stint in a local recovery facility. Things were so hopeful and positive for this young man---he had a good job lined up and a beautiful family anxiously waiting on him to finally come home clean, yet he gave it all up in an instant to go hunt his drug. When he's on the straight and narrow, you cannot find a better man. But when he's down this other road, there is no one who will let you down more. And there are children in the picture who just don't understand.

The third person we know has a drug and sexual addiction that he can't seem to get a handle on. We have been trying to keep him accountable through phone calls and follow up, and be helpful and non-judgemental, but we don't know what it is we can really do for him. He is breaking up relationships in an instant. He makes promises and doesn't keep them. He opens the doors to temptation a tiny bit during his weak moments, and sin comes and slaps him in the face. Satan will do that to you if you just give him an inch...

It's hard to watch these men make their own decisions, the wrong decisions, and not be able to do anything about it. I guess all we can do is pray... It's only the hand of God in these men's lives that can save them from the drugs and themselves. These men all have known God and professed to be Christians. We have prayed for and with each of these men. And I know in my heart that they want to do right. It must be a terrible, self-loathing, extraordinary type of battle they wage each day. My heart hurts for them tonight....

(I will blog about my family tomorrow night in a weekend recap)

Same Ole

Some days it's not worth writing about, as it seems like I might be writing about the same ole, same ole... Some days nothing changes. My house is still a mess, I still feel tired, I still play the same child games, I still take it one battle at a time... And I fear if I write about it, I will bore myself and others with the drowsy details. But, I didn't blog yesterday due to extreme fatigue due to watching between 5-7 children, so here's a go at it today:




Today I went to Lowes with the kids and David to get some more landscape materials as we slowly tailor our front yard. We also picked up a doo-hickey to fix our master bath toilet (which David says is broken and off limits now---I didn't break it, I swear). And we got a new faucet for our kitchen sink because the one we have just sloooooooowly drips out. It's been maddening dealing with it. We didn't get a super fancy faucet either, because it would look dumb in our outdated kitchen. We'll save the dream faucet for the day down the road that we get to remodel our entire kitchen. That will be the day! Uh, huh.




David worked really hard on the landscaping, but we still have a long way to go. I set natural looking paving stones around as a border for the mulch in the front of the house. It's looking pretty cool! (will post pictures when it's done).


Later in the day, though exhausted, I hyped myself out to get down and have some fun with the kids. We set up their tent (aka. castle) in the toy room and made a fort/path out of their blocks. Then we used their blankets as water that they could "swim" to the castle in. The fun, imagination filled activitity lasted about 13 minutes before a meltdown occurred (not by me).

As for other things, my diet didn't do too well today. It failed me. I also think that I set myself up for failure when I made lasagna last night for dinner for the whole family. Hello, what was I thinking? I was thinking what a delicious lasagna it really was, and I had three pieces (both last night and tonight)! Blech!

Well, I'm hoping I can sleep well tonight. God bless my cat. Every morning she's been warning me when Haleah is up. Haleah likes to sneak ever so quietly into our room before the crack of dawn and just stands there. Our cat notifies me that Haleah is there by meowing. I don't know what kind of trouble Haleah would get into if I didn't hear that cat mew. Whew!

Night. Fight. We Fight All Night.

After reading Hop on Pop last night (the current favorite of my kids), I put them all to bed. I also thought I'd go to bed early to catch up on some much needed rest. Well, that didn't do much good. I was in bed before 10pm. Bekah woke at 11pm. Kaelah woke up at 12am. Haleah did the same. Then both Kaelah and Bekah were up two more times each during the course of the night. After that, I stopped checking the time. I was exhausted!

I don't know what got into them all. When I heard Haleah scream, I ran into her room and found her cowering next to her nightlight beside her toddler bed. I don't know if she fell out or what! I lifted her up and back into her bed and she thrashed and screamed like a mad little lady. She was out of her little mind. Somehow, I calmed her down and sneaked out...

Kaelah, on the other hand, was another story. She cried and cried for us last night. I don't know if she was in pain or was scared of what? She has not had antics like this since I "Ferberized" her before Bekah came along. She just would not settle. She kept saying, "In there. In there," (pointing towards the living room).

And Bekah, the little baby one... she was up and up and up. I think it's my fault, though, because I'm trying to lose weight and am eating lots of vegetables and salads and I think nursing is affecting her in a gaseous sort of way. I feel bad. Does this mean I have to stay fat so that my baby won't suffer? (wink)

Today I dragged along throughout the day. I took Bekah to my doctor's appointment and she cried there too (still wasn't over it). And later in the afternoon I went to visit my pregnant friend, Laura, who is very anxious to give birth. The picture below is of her daughter, April, holding Bekah.

Tonight I took the kids to Walmart after dinner. When we came home and I was getting the kids out of the car, they started heading for the dirt pile David had formed in the front. I near panicked, and then found a way to bribe them inside---ice cream! We ate our treat and then, as they say, all hell broke loose. I tried to read stories, but the older girls couldn't agree on a book and threw fits. I tried to brush their teeth, but Bekah was screaming her head off wanting to nurse. I tried to get pajamas on the kids, but tantrums were thrown. I tried to put them to bed, but they just screamed and screamed!

Haleah eventually settled down, but Kaelah pulled out the same trick as last night. It took her over 45 minutes to settle down. I don't know what was wrong. I finally went in to hold her after I got Bekah down and told Kaelah that she needed to be a good girl and rest her eyes. I also turned on another light in the room for her. Perhaps she was scared---a new found fear? I don't know, but it finally worked. And we shall see how the remainder of this night goes as I now head for bed...

Accessory to a Bird Murder???

Yesterday I saw a bird sitting next to the planters on our front porch. I watched him for a moment and realized he wasn't eager to get "moving along," so I asked David to check him out. As he headed for the bird, about five robins in flight nearby started to divebomb him, sending David a message to "back off." The bird was injured, apparently, but our fat cat was also on the loose. So David quickly moved the bird to the side of the porch, for cover, as his own head almost got pecked upon.

Later in the day, we noticed the bird had hobbled to the back yard and settled underneath our trampoline. (At least I think it was the same bird; unless injured birds keep falling out of the sky for some reason). Anyhow, we let it be...

But today, as the kids went out back to play with their Sand & Sea toy, a terrible discovery was made--- a bird floating bottom up in the "Sea." It was just at that moment, thank goodness, that David came home from work and met up with us in the back yard. He was the one we initiated to scoop the bird out and make arrangements for him. So my toddlers and my two nieces had an impromptu funeral (orchestrated by David), behind the shed. The poor birdy was buried with the yellow plate-like toy that he was scooped up with, and David made a cross out of sticks.

And for the rest of the night Kaelah was heard walking around the house going, "Birdy. Birdy. Birdy..." It kind of makes me wonder... if I didn't forget to pour the water out of the "Sea," then perhaps that poor bird would've been alive today. I didn't mean to kill him. I feel horrible about it, I really do.

On a lighter note, I watched my nieces today and they helped me out a lot. Gracyn cleaned my tub (God bless her), and made cheesecake for dessert. Cora searched the Kohl's website for potential work shoes for David. We presented him with his options when he came home, as his current shoes HAVE to go! Cora also made a new Poopy Potty Chart for Haleah, to coax her into doing #2 on the pot. We'll see! We also went to the post office to deliver a special care package to a sick friend. Gracyn helped me pack it up.

Cora and Gracyn also had a fun time today writing down all of the cool clothes from Kohl's that they want to have, writing down the descriptions and item numbers and sizes. Somehow they got it through their little heads that I am going to purchase these items for them someday. Okay, I guess I'm made of money!

The precious parts of the day were when Kaelah hugged me around my neck, when Haleah said a prayer thanking God for a "naughty day," and when Bekah cooed wided-eyed at me as she drooled, and then slowly fell asleep. I can tell my kids love me, and I love them too---so much!