28 October 2008

Fall Has Finally Fallen!

It's finally fall here. No more 85 degree days. I love it! We've actually had to turn on the heat once or twice. Wahooie! And now that that's out of my system...

We took the boys pumpkin picking this past Saturday. It was a lot of fun. We drove the half hour to a little farm in the middle of nowhere, and picked some pumpkins, two little ones for the boys, one big one for Josh and me. This place was really neat.


They also had a little sandbox that was filled with corn kernels instead of sand. Needless to say, that was probably the boys favorite part.

Sunday, we decorated the pumpkins with markers. What fun! Both boys, okay, all three boys, did great jobs on their pumpkins and on themselves (Josh didn't really get any on himself, that would be the other two).

If you would like to see more pictures of our weekend, you can see them on my flickr page by following THIS link. Even though head colds are running rampant around here (again, the three menfolk have fallen to the malady leaving me feeling fine, but having to take care of them - at least there's no throwing up this time around) we had a great weekend.

20 October 2008

Some People


Like Sara, decorate their kitchens with nice tile and the like.





Other people, like me, use their husbands old parking tickets from college.





16 October 2008

This Song Is Amazing

It's so amazing, in fact, that I can't not share it with you all. I have nothing other to say about it than it is amazing. I posted two videos of the song. The first is the album version and it's great. The second is a live acoustic version he did, which is great as well. I can't decide which I like more, so they're both here for you to listen to depending on what you like more. It's called "True Love" and it's by Phil Wickham. Enjoy!







Here are the lyrics (just in case you need them):

True Love

by Phil Wickham

Come close listen to the story
About a love more faithful than the morning
The Father gave His only Son just to save us

The earth was shaking in the dark
All creation felt the Fathers Broken Heart
Tears were filling Heaven's Eyes
The day that True Love died, the day that True Love died

When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn't move came crashing down
We were free and made alive
The day that True Love died,
The day that True Love died

Search your heart you know you can't deny it
Come on, lose your life just so you can find it
The Father gave His only Son just to save us

The Earth was shaking in the dark
All creation felt The Fathers broken heart
Tears were filling Heaven's Eyes
The day that True Love died,
the day that True Love died

When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn't move came crashing down
We were free and made alive
The day that True Love died,
The day that True Love died

Now, Jesus is alive
Jesus is alive
Jesus is alive
Jesus is alive
Jesus is alive
Oh, He is alive
He rose again

When blood and water hit the ground
Walls we couldn't move came crashing down
We were free and made alive
The day that True Love died,
The day that True Love died

Come close listen to the story

14 October 2008

Take It Away Zeke!

Zeke likes to sing. A lot. You can usually find him walking around the house, the food store, WalMart, anywhere really, singing. He mostly likes to sing TV theme songs. And "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)" by MIKA. He'll sing along with anything he recognizes, but the songs he sings on his own are ones he knows from watching almost every day. So, for your viewing pleasure, here is Zeke singing along with some of his favorite tunes. (I do not have him singing the Thomas the Tank Engine song, but I'm working on it.)

We'll start with his new favorite, "Spongebob Squarepants". While he still needs a little more work on the words, he has truly nailed the laugh at the end.





Isn't that precious? It's really fun when he does it up and down every aisle at the commissary. Moving right along though, we come to another new favorite show, and that is "Franklin." Now, he usually does a FANTASTIC job singing this one, both with the TV and by himself, but there's something about my busting out the video camera that seems to stifle his creative soul. That being said, my favorite part about this song is when he sings the "Youuuuu" towards the end. It's too much sometimes.




Up next, we have an old favorite, and that is the theme song to "3-2-1 Penguins". Again, he usually does a better job with the words, but that dang camera was in his face again. I love the hand motions though. He really gets into this one.



Leaving the theme song genre behind, we now move onto two of our favorite YouTube videos that I'm guessing we've watched with the boys one time too many. Up first is a song called, "That's the World of Warcraft That You Play" (or something like that...I linked it). I only filmed the end because it's a long song, I was making dinner, and Josh didn't think to grab the camera. But really, it's the hand motions again that kill me. If you look at the right corner towards the end, you can see the guy on the computer that he's imitating. Or watch the whole video and see.



This last video is of Zeke singing the ROFLMAO song. Now, you can't hear most of the song, but you can watch it here. ROFLMAO, for those of you who don't know, is rolling on the floor laughing my a$$ off. This video is a bite off of the Muppets video here. Zeke usually does the dance that they do, but he didn't want to get off the chair for this filming. I just feel lucky to get the "doo-doo-doo's" he does so well.


So, there you have it. My musical boy. I hope you enjoyed the shows and


13 October 2008

This One Is Going To Be a Little Gross

So, if you have a weak stomach, or don't like/want to hear about puking and pooping, you might want to come back later in the week when I'll most likely have something more pleasant to share. That being said, allow me to tell you ALL about my Columbus Day Weekend.


Friday afternoon, Josh got home from work early and cooked dinner, and we ate and we played outside. I had noticed that Deacon hadn't really eaten as much as he usually does at any of the meals he ate that day, but I figured it was because he was getting to that point where his growing rate slows down, so his eating rate does too. So, we were outside in the heat (it still gets to about 85 degrees here every day) and Deacon was seriously drooping and yawning. So I said, "That's it. I'm going inside and I'm taking Deacon with me. I think it's too hot out here for him." I brought him inside, we sat down on the couch, Deacon was on my lap facing out, with his head resting on my chest. All of a sudden, Deacon bolted upright and spewed, and I mean projectile vomited with a force like I have never seen from one so small, everything he had eaten all day, all over him, me, the couch, the rug, and the pillow lying nearby. Oh yeah. This was at 6 o'clock.

So, Josh came in, saw what happened, scooped Deacon up, put him in the tub, promptly stripped him down, and started bath water. I peeled off my capris and changed my shirts and gave the boys baths while Josh cleaned up the living room. My hero. He volunteered for clean up as he knows what little tolerance I have for throw up and I guess he didn't want me joining in the festivities. Festivities, which lasted for quite a bit longer. For the next few hours Deacon continued to throw up. And throw up. And throw up. Eventually he ran out of food and started throwing up bile.


Around 8:30/9:00ish, I had Deacon on my lap after yet another mess having been made in his bed when I heard Zeke crying. So I pointed that out to Josh who went to check on Zeke. "Oh baby!" I heard Josh exclaim from Zeke's room. "Did he throw up too?" I asked SO afraid of the answer, which was "yes". And BOY did he throw up! So I plopped Deacon down in Zeke's room and helped Josh strip Zeke. We put Deacon back in bed since he seemed to be doing okay at that moment and I held naked Zeke (he had a diaper on, so I guess he wasn't completely naked) under a blanket on the couch while Josh once again cleaned up a major throw up disaster. Sigh.


The rest of the night went like this: eventually they both fell asleep. Josh went to bed around 11:30 or so. For the next two hours, the boys took turns keeping me from getting any sleep. Zeke's version of this bug decided that it didn't want to come out in the form of throw up, but in the form of burning diarrhea. I deduced that it burned by the AWFUL hiney rash Zeke developed after the first little bit escaped his body into his diaper. And by the SCREAMING he did when we tried to wipe his bottom while changing his diaper. This meant that, every time he felt like he had to poop, instead of just going and letting it all out of his system, he would scream and wriggle and climb up me and cry until the feeling passed. So, Zeke would have one of these "episodes" I'm calling them. I would hold him and soothe him and when it would pass I would put him back in bed where he would mostly fall asleep. I would go to bed myself, only to have Deacon start crying just as soon as my head hit the pillow. I would take care of Deacon (he had stopped throwing up by this point, but was dehydrated and craving drinks so I was giving him little glasses of Pedialyte), put him back to bed, then go back to bed, only to have Zeke start with another "episode" again. For two hours.


Finally, around 1:20am Deacon had hydrated enough to make it through the night without waking up again. Zeke, however, was in the throws (I'm sure that's spelled differently) of another "episode". What made him feel better was if the two of us went out the couch and I rested against the pillow, and he laid down on me. Not really wanting to go through all of it again and again, and hoping for some sleep, I brought him into bed with us.


Here's the one bit of humor we had during this fabulous night. Ani was staying with us again for the night and she was sleeping by my side of the bed on the floor. So when I brought Zeke into my room, he was crying and carrying on until he saw Ani. At which point he stopped crying, said, "Hey. Dog." Then started up again. It was sweet.


Back to the fun times. Two hours later, and a few more "episodes", Zeke FINALLY fell asleep, which meant I could FINALLY fall asleep, and Josh could fall back asleep (he woke up when I brought Zeke in). And sleep I did from 3:30am until 4:30 am when it all started again with Zeke. Yes! By this point I had started giving him Pedialyte as well, but he was still refusing to all out poop. Stuff would sneak by occasionally, but it was rough going (hahahaha) for awhile. Plus, Josh's alarm went off around 5am which made sure Zeke was wide awake and feeling all his pain again. Awesome. But Zeke fell back asleep (as did I) around 6:30 and we slept until 7:30 when Deacon woke up.


Now, at this point, both boys seemed to be looking and acting better already. Praise God! But we still weren't all the way in the clear. Neither one would eat anything. I had made them both toast and they wouldn't even touch it. So, we watched cartoons and just relaxed. I put them down for their morning naps at their usual times, took a shower, and got them up at 10:30. Josh got home (he had taken my car to the Volvo dealership in Oklahoma City for it's timely service, hence the 5am alarm on a Saturday), and we decided to try some milk with the boys since Zeke was asking for it specifically, and Deacon was too, only instead of words, he would just freak out whenever anything else was presented to him. Zeke did great. Kept it all down, ate a little cookie or something, and was well on the road to recovery. Deacon, on the other hand, well, he threw up his milk almost as soon as he finished it. Along with the Ramen he had for lunch. Not so close to recovering apparently.


The rest of Saturday was pretty uneventful. Zeke got drastically better as the day progressed and was pretty much back to normal by dinner time. Deacon was doing better, you could see it, but he was still not quite there all the way. But he kept down the little bit of dinner he ate, kept drinking Pedialyte, and slept through the night.


Sunday came and went and the only incident was when Deacon threw up his milk again, but we think that happened only because we gave him too much too fast. Hey, he was freaking out for it. Next time we'll take the freak out. But after their afternoon naps, it was as if no one had ever been sick (except for the smell coming from the one couch where Deacon threw up twice). Yay!


But now Josh is sick. Yup. When the alarm went off this morning, I heard him moaning, asked him if he was okay and he said, "My tummy hurts. I have awful diarrhea, and I've been pooping since 4am." Three hours. Yuck. So, I left him in bed, made juice for the boys and have been going through the day today taking care of my healthy boys and my sick husband. Let's just pray that whatever it is stays clear from me (I did feel a little poopy this morning too though...get it? poopy?). I am worn out.


So, how was your Columbus Day Weekend?

09 October 2008

I'm Finished!

It took me an entire month (and then some) but I finally got the rest of my pictures from our trip to New Jersey up on Flickr. Well, all the pictures that I've decided to put up anyway. I concluded the journey of picture uploading today with the set of pictures from the day we went to visit my dad and Karen and Bobby (and JP) in Brick, at their house down there. We had a great time that day, which you can see from the pictures here. Also, if you want, you can view all the pictures from our trip by going to the collection I have them all in by clicking here. And now, I am finished. I can breathe a sigh of relief and call it a day. This means whatever pictures I have from October so far will be finding their way to Flickr soon. You'll know they're up when the pictures in the badge to the left are different than what they are now.

In other news, we were in a little fender bender last evening. We were on our way to Bible study. We pulled onto the driveway that leads to the church parking lot right behind another car who stopped, for whatever reason, on the driveway. All of a sudden, she started backing up! So I leaned over Josh and honked the horn, but she ignored it and backed right into us! She got out and apologized, then started talking about how she was looking for Cache Road and was going to turn around in the parking lot at this church. Then decided instead of actually pulling into the parking lot, doing a "Uie", and then driving out of the parking lot she chose to back up onto the busy street she just left? I'm not sure what her line of thinking was at that point since I was incredibly close to crying as I wasn't in the best mood that evening to begin with. But since we were both stopped and we never actually started moving again, the damage really isn't too bad (that we know of anyways). Here's some pictures...
















See? Nothing terrible. While Josh sat out there with her and waited for the police, I took the boys and walked the rest of the way to church, dropped them off at child care, then went and told Joni what happened when she asked where Josh was. Yeah. It had started out as such a good day too. But it ended well since we watched the latest episode of "Chuck" after we got home from study, put the boys in bed, and Josh finished his schoolwork.

And now I can hear the boys moving around in their beds (well, I'm sure Zeke is moving around in his room) so I am going to go and get them up and out to get some new sneakers for the fall. You know, should fall ever come to Oklahoma. It's currently 86 degrees right now. I suppose there are people who like wearing shorts in October still. I can't admit to being one of them. I want to wear my jeans and I want to wear them all day long with out breaking out into a sweat around lunchtime! At least it's a three day weekend for Josh, so that'll be nice. We will most likely be potty training through it, but it'll be nice.

06 October 2008

To Train, Or Not To Train

So, we've been thinking about starting the potty training process with Zeke. We're sure he's old enough and pretty ready. He lets me know every time he poops (usually by singing the PU song from Backyardigans...I'm working on getting it on film because it's fun) and he's showing most of the signs that the books say are signs of being ready. So, we bought him a potty this weekend and he pretty much freaked out. I don't know if it was because it was closing in on bedtime and he was overworked and tired out and just not ready for that kind of thing at that particular moment or what.

Deacon, on the other hand, LOVES that toilet. He plays with it, sits on it, climbs on it. Deacon has also woken up dry a few mornings in a row now. So now I'm thinking maybe we should train Deacon instead. Linda and I had a laugh about that last night. I said, "Couldn't you just picture that post? 'So, we potty trained Deacon this weekend. I know, I know, he is the younger one (by almost 18 months) but he was ready. Zeke, well, Zeke just wasn't.'" And oh, how we both did laugh.

Now I'm thinking, maybe I should just try both of them at the same time. Then I think, "AM I NUTS?!?" Do I really want to train two boys at one time? Could be easier in the long run, I guess. Might be a lot of work upfront though. And am I really ready for any of this? Not really, I'd be happy to keep them both in diapers until they are about to start kindergarten. I kid, I kid. So I don't know. They both are showing signs that they're ready, but they both seem (in my mind anyways) not quite there yet.

04 October 2008

Aack! I Can See Their Faces!


So, Josh FINALLY agreed with me that the boys should get their hairs cut. After months and months of comments made by me (and a few questions from strangers as to whether they were boys or girls) he finally caved and said it was time.


I think it was the shock if him saying it was time that made me the one not wanting to have it done anymore. Zeke looked like such a rock star...almost like a young Bon Jovi, if you will. Deacon had such sweet curls that I would just hate to lose.


So, we both finally caved, and I spent the week looking through the Yellow Pages, trying to figure out which barber shop I would want to take the boys to. After going back and forth (based solely on the location and the name of the shop), I decided I could do it myself.

And do it myself I did! (Josh helped a little by shaping up around the ears and back, so it wasn't entirely my work, but it mostly was.) I must say we did a pretty good job. Deacon's hair came out great. Zeke's was a harder job and looks a little less good (plus he wouldn't sit still as nicely as Deacon had). But both boys got their hairs cut, they look fabulous, I can see their faces (which was really only a problem with Zeke), and we are all happy, and Josh has deemed it that I shall henceforth be the barber for my menfolk. And now, without further adieu, the boys with their spiffy new haircuts! Ta-daaa!!!

03 October 2008

The Best I Could Do

Sadly, I could not figure out how to get a PowerPoint presentation to play on Blogger. I'm sure if I cared enough I could email someone about it and/or actually spend time trying more than the two things I thought of, but I don't really feel like it's all that necessary. BUT, what I did do and figure out is through the lovely site of Flickr. So, if you follow this link to the pictures of our house (click on it, go ahead...but once you've read the rest of my directions), in the upper right corner of the Flickr page you will see a "button" that says slideshow. If you click this button and then DO NOT move your mouse anymore, it will play the slideshow I had created, minus the music I had going in the background. If you want the full effect and have the song "Our House" by Madness at home, feel free to play it as you watch. The song and the slideshow are not equal lengths (the song is longer), but it's still a good time. And since I closed the show with a picture of Deacon, here is a picture of Zeke, just to keep it all fair...sort of. Enjoy the show!