Does Everyone Have Their Violin Ready?

So, as I said at the end of yesterday's post, Josh left AGAIN for Tuscon on Monday. It's been kind of a rough week. Starting on Sunday when Finn threw up around 8pm. Thankfully Josh was home to help with that (and get thrown up on), so I won't dwell on this. I will say that he woke up at 3:15 and 5:30am happy and ready to go. Oh yeah.

So Monday morning, Josh leaves and Finn turns Mr. Cranky Pants. I do not like Mr. Cranky Pants. MCP is NOT a lot of fun. In fact, he's no fun at all. He just walks around and whines. He doesn't want to be held, he doesn't want his drink, he doesn't want to play/read/eat/color/watch tv. He just wants to whine. All. day. long. But besides MCP showing up, it wasn't too bad of a day.

Around 10 that night though, I heard crying coming from the upstairs. Afraid it was Finn throwing up again, I ran up and found Deacon sitting up in his bed sobbing. Eventually he calmed down, but insisted I stay with him, which he never does. Usually, once he's calm he sends me on my way. But he said, "Mommy I need you to stay here and hold me." So I did. A few minutes later he told me I could go, but that I had to go to bed. So I did. I turned off the tv, got ready, read my Bible, and got into bed around 11. Which is when Finn started crying.

I got out of bed checked on him, no throw up. Just MCP making it known he was still around. Eventually he calmed down and fell back asleep. Until 1am when he woke up crying again. This time I stayed in bed and listened as Finn usually wakes up and cries at least during his sleep, but he goes right back to sleep on his own. Which is what he did this time. And sleep he did, until 3am. This time, he didn't stop crying so I got up and checked on him. Twenty minutes later he was still fussing, and I had no more tricks to try, not to mention eyes that were burning and twitching with exhaustion. So I put him back in bed and let him cry it out. And cry he did until 4am. Of course, listening to my baby cry for an hour made me feel quite stressed and so it was another hour until I was able to fall asleep (5am for those keeping track).

Tuesday morning Deacon had a hard time getting out of bed (I assumed because of being up the night before for a little bit), Finn seemed okay, but still cranky, and Zeke was fine. So Finn and I walked Zeke to bus while Deacon stayed home and played. Finn got super cranky at the bus (VERY unlike him) and I realized, hey, it's been quite some time since he's pooped, I bet he's constipated! Which, he was. He didn't poop ALL day, which meant he was cranky (again) all day.

I put Finn down for a little rest in the morning (mainly because I needed a break, but he did sleep some and woke up better - for a bit anyway). Deacon and I watched some Sesame Street. After it was over, he just sort of hung out on the couch together. For 20 minutes. It was really nice, but I should have known it was a bad omen. I got Finn up at 10, and we were going to go Target because I needed a few things from there. But, as I came downstairs with Happier Finn, Deacon threw up on the couch. Oh boy. Deacon then spent the rest of the day on the couch, doing nothing but looking miserable. (By the way, one of the things I needed from Target was some sort of children's Tylenol or something...yeah.) So, I sent Zeke to soccer with a neighbor and spent the whole day at home with one sick boy and one constipated boy.

Wednesday morning came and everyone was good! Finn had pooped so he was incredibly happy. Deacon was feeling much better so he was incredibly chatty and excited about everything. Zeke was, well, Zeke. Unfortunately Deacon wasn't feeling up to leaving the house Wednesday so I didn't get to Bible study OR Target (so there's still no medicine besides the infant variety). Zeke came home from school, and seemed a little off walking back from the bus. He went in without me as I stood outside and chatted with a friend. All of a sudden, I heard him crying.

I went inside and he was standing at the top of the stairs, bawling, because he had wet himself. The poor kid rarely has accidents, so when he does, it truly devastates him. So I helped him out of his wet clothes, he went some more in the toilet, and kept on crying. I thought, at first, he was just upset about the accident, but by the time I got him upstairs to get him clean clothes, he was holding his stomach, crying even harder, curled up in a ball on his bed. Great.

Long story short (too late!), Zeke spent a good hour or so curled up, holding his stomach, crying. He calmed down a little bit when I moved him to the couch and put on Backyardigans. He ate some dinner because apparently he was hungry. He was even fine during the movie. But as soon as it was over, he was upstairs and curled up and crying again. I gave him some infant stuff and put him in some pajama pants. I think he fell asleep in 2 minutes. Add to this day the fact that Josh texted me and said he was getting sick and felt awful. Yeah.

Thursday Zeke woke up fine. They all did (including Josh). So we FINALLY went to Target (there was no school for Zeke Thursday or Friday for Rosh Hashanah). We got there, I got them all set up in the cart and realized I didn't have my wallet. SIGH. An older woman smiled at me when she saw what was going on and said, "We all have days like these." SO, I loaded the boys back up into the car, drove home, and spent 5 minutes looking all over for my wallet without any luck. SIGH again. I found my phone (apparently I forgot to grab that the first time around) and my one credit card, but no wallet. My license and my military ID were already in my car (for various reasons) so I had everything I "needed". And back to Target we went. Half way through our shopping though Zeke started looking worse and worse. By the time we finished and got some lunch he really wasn't doing well. (Josh wasn't doing as well as his day went on either.) Poor Zeke was SO excited to "go to the red circle store and eat pizza for lunch!" But when it came time to eat the pizza, he was feeling so terrible that he only had one bit. Maybe.

We got home, I put the other 2 in bed, took Zeke's temperature (102-ish), gave him some Children's Tylenol (yay!) and put him down for a nap too. I then sat down to blog and do some things on the computer. Ten minutes after sitting down I found my wallet.

Yeah. Right there next to the keyboard. Ahem, moving on. After nap time all boys were doing pretty well. They played quietly while I cleaned the house a little (IE. cleaned up the papers that had been multiplying all over my counter during the week). Then we had dinner, but by dinner Zeke was fading again. He ate half of it, so I figured that was pretty good. I set up a movie and gave him a pillow to lay on so he'd rest during the movie. A few minutes before the end of the movie Katherine and Kirsten showed up (they babysat for me again today) and that made everyone super happy and super excited. I'm kind of glad Zeke was a bit ill as it kept him relatively calm. Deacon on the other hand...

But today everyone woke up feeling well, and so far, has stayed feeling well. Josh says he has a headache, but hopefully he'll be better by the time he gets home. Two hours late. Yep. He texted me this morning and said they were 2 hours delayed before they even took off or boarded or anything. Hopefully he won't have to go anywhere next week.

So there you have it. My rough week in a very big nutshell. Thanks again for listening and for your support. Next week I'll catch you up on some of the more fun things we've done this past month!

Can I Get a Little Cheese to Go With This Whine?

Not that I like complaining or anything, but we've been having a rough time here lately and I just need to vent a little. Plus, I mentioned how stressed I was to a friend last night and she asked what was going on and I realized that I've been trying so hard to keep my head above water here that I haven't been blogging/tweeting/whatever-ing, to keep my friends aprised of all that's going on over here in Walterland. So, forgive me, and now allow me to fill you in and catch you up a bit.

Two weeks ago Josh left for Fort Benning, Georgia on Monday morning and got home Thursday afternoon. That trip went fine, nothing major to write about really. The next week (or last week) Josh left Wednesday morning for Tuscon and came home Friday evening. This trip didn't go as smoothly as the first did.

Wednesday morning I fell down the stairs. During naptime that day my sisters came up to babysit for me that evening as it was my first ever Back to School Night. So, the twins showed up, Zeke got home from school, and then he promptly went insane. Just being crazy and melting and getting crazy again, and running into his brothers and what's it. SO I sent him to bed for 10 minutes. He, of course, cried as I put him up there, and about 5 minutes into his "rest time" he started screaming. I went up, spanked him and told him he is not allowed to scream like that just because he's upset. Cry? Fine. Scream? No.

While he was upstairs having a fit, I ordered some Chinese food for dinner. Kirsten, apparently, doesn't like Chinese food (what?!) and so I said she could make a frozen pizza for dinner. Since we live on base, delivery food people aren't allowed on so I had to meet him at the base's Visitor Center. While I was waiting for him I texted Katherine to start the oven as I had forgotten to do it before I left. When I got home, the oven was beeping like crazy and it wasn't heating up properly. So I cleared whatever Katherine had done to it, reset it and burned Kirsten's pizza. However, after Kirsten's pizza finished cooking, the oven refused to turn off, and just. kept. getting. hotter. Then it started beeping. Every. 5. seconds. And it would beep until I hit the Clear All button. But 5 seconds after that button had been hit, it would beep. Again. And again. And again. Then I accidentally locked the door. I finally figured out how to clear it and get it to stop beeping, but it stayed hot and locked. Housing Guy (who I called) said it sounded like the Self Clean button got hit, which I'm not sure it did as I was very careful NOT to press that button ever, but whatever. Evenutally it cooled down, and once it cooled down it unlocked. It was just a lot to have to stand there, so sore from falling earlier, stressed out because of Zeke crying and Finn freaking out over dinner (I forgot to give him his silverware), pressing the button over and over and over.

Anyway, eventually I gave up on the evening and left for Back to School Night, which was lovely. Zeke's teacher is super cute and super excited about everything, so I think he's going to have a really good year. Maybe I'll revisit BtSN in another post. But that's it on that for now.

Thursday afternoon was soccer practice. Sigh. K&K had already left so it was just me and my boys. Finn was everywhere, it was warm and I was in jeans and a long sleeve since it had been cold in my house, so I got tired and a little cranky quickly. About half way through practice though I looked up and saw Zeke and Deacon wrestling. I let Finn run in their direction so I could go over and tell them to knock it off. Actually, I first yelled at them from behind the bleachers and it was pretty funny watching them look all around like, "where did her voice come from?!" So as I was standing there telling them to knock it off, one of the coach's helpers came over and offered to separate them. Without Zeke there, Deacon apparently decided to mess with the next kid in line. I looked up to see him tugging on this boy's shirt, making the boy cry. So I called him to me, told him to go apologize to the boy, and then come back to where I was because he was done with soccer for the rest of the day (it was 10 minutes from being done). So, he apologized to the kid (I think/hope) and came back to me a bit upset. But he got over it quickly. Good times.

Friday was pretty uneventful. I think. And since this post is now longer than I had expected already, I'm going to end here and write about this week tomorrow. Thanks for listening, whoever is still reading. Sometimes it helps to just vent.

Not So Graceful Actually

For those of you who didn't know, my middle name is Anne. The name Anne, means "grace". Grace, however, is something, physically, that I lack. It's part of the reason I don't like to dance. It's the main reason I constantly walk into things and bang various body parts on various items (like the top of my head on the refridgerator "ceiling" this morning). Let's just say it, I'm clumsy. So, it shouldn't be too much of a surprise that I fell down the stairs last week. (In fact, I'm a little surprised it took me until last week to fall down the stairs here.)

So last Wednesday, Josh left in the morning for Tuscon. So I got up, got the boys up and breakfasted (yeah, I'm making it a verb now), and brought them back upstairs to get dressed. Zeke does fine on his own, so he was no problem. As I was picking out clothes for Finn, Deacon informed me he had to go to the bathroom. I told him to go, and continued getting Finn ready for the day. As I took off his pajama pants I saw that he had pooped - for the second time that morning. I went to the bathroom to get a diaper and some wipes, and realized that Deacon was still in there. I opened the door and Deacon said, "Mom, I pooped."

Oh, did he ever poop. Apparently he pooped while standing in front of the toilet, so there was a bit on the floor and a bit running down both of his legs. Awesome. So I turned on the tub, washed him down, washed the floor and piled up all the poopy clothes and towels so I could wash them after we got Zeke on the bus. (I did take the time to tell Deacon he did a good job by NOT pooping in his underpants, but that next time he needs to poop IN the toilet.) By the time I got all this finished though, it was already time to get shoes on and get Zeke to the bus (apparently if you're late here they leave without you, even if they're early - ahhh!). But Finn was still poopy and pantsless. SO I sent Zeke and Deacon downstairs to put their sneakers on, and quickly changed Finn's diaper.

The evening before, Josh took Deacon school shopping for new jeans and sneakers. And of course, Deacon picked out the same sneakers Zeke has. It is very sweet and cute, but made for a bunch of yelling that first morning, "MOM! ARE THESE MY SNEAKERS?!" "MOM! IS THIS MINE OR DEACON'S?" Already stressed I picked up Finn and headed for the stairs, telling the boys to wait until I got down there and then we'd figure it out.

I still don't know how it happend. I was rushed, I was stressed, I was in boots I haven't worn in probably 2 years, Finn was wriggling, and I missed a step (I guess) and stumbled down the stairs in slo-mo. I know it happened in slo-mo because I had the where-with-all to clamp down on Finn and position myself so that if I acctually went down my body would absorb most of the blow. I also saw Deacon sitting at the bottom of the stairs, directly in my path, staring at me, completely ignoring my constant yelling of "MOVE DEACON!" "DEACON GET UP!" "MOOOVEE!!!"

Now, I never actually "fell" as in falling onto my butt or my back or my side. I did "fall" in that my feet kept slipping out from under me and I flew/slid down the majority of the stairs, stopping on the step right above the step Deacon was sitting on. This didn't help my stress level at all, by the way.

After I stopped falling, and sat down to try and stop myself from shaking I looked at Deacon and yelled, "God dammit Deacon! When I say move, get off your butt and MOVE!" (I owe Linda $5 for her "consequenses jar" now.) And no sooner do I finish yelling at Deacon and stand up then Zeke says, "Is this my shoe, Mom?" I screamed. AAAHHHHH!!!! Then he asked if I was hurt, and boy was I. My entire left side was SO hurt. My shoulder, wrist, thigh, ankle and 2nd toe were all so sore. At least everyone else was alright.

I then calmed myself, showed Zeke how to determine which shoes are his and which are Deacon's by their sizes (and it's never been an issue again). I got all of us to the bus without further incident, and on time. After Zeke got on the bus, the other 2 boys and I went to PWOC, came home, had lunch, and as I put Finn down for his nap (after changing his 3rd poopy diaper of the morning), Deacon did it again. As I walked into the bathroom to help him Deacon looked up at me and said, "Mom, I need another bath." After assessing the situation it was clear that this time he had tried to poop in the toilet as he had put the little seat in the toilet and there was poop on it, but I guess he just didn't make it. So, I cleaned him up, again, put him in a diaper, lest there be more poop, and gently collapsed onto the couch. And that was just the morning...

I Am Now, Officially, A Soccer Mom

Soccer "season" started yesterday. We registered Zeke and Deacon, and boy did they have fun last night. I'm fairly certain they had NO idea what was going on most of the time, but that didn't stop them from running around like a bunch of monkey-headed hooligans.

I am pretty excited about this little soccer league they're playing in. It's through the base, so it's on base. In fact, it's about a 5 minute walk from our house, so I don't even have to drive there. It's an hour on Tuesday and an hour on Thursday. After a few practices, they'll make Thursdays game days. I like that, as it means we won't have any games on the weekends or at crazy times on whatever evenings. And since our boys have never played in any sort of organized sports before, this will be a good introduction for them.

There are a bunch of kids playing this year too. I think the head coach was a little overwhelmed at the number of kids that showed up yesterday. He made the comment at one point that there are probably twice as many kids this year as last year. Then he made them all go run a lap around the field - I think he needed the time to mentally prepare for the rest of the hour. Whee!

But it went well. All the kids had a good time. And besides the mosquitoes, all the parents seemed to have a good time. I was thankful when Josh showed up and took Finn home so I didn't have to chase him all. over. the field. anymore. I will have to go better prepared next time with plenty of things to (hopefully) occupy Finn. On our walk home, both boys informed me that "they won" at soccer that night. Yes you did boys, yes you did.

The House Part Three: Second Floor

Let's just jump right in today, shall we?

Coming up the stairs from the first floor to the second floor:

Josh's idea as to where to put the hope chest, and I love it.

Since this is how the pictures loaded today, this is the order I'll show you the upstairs rooms.
(It will be slightly different on the video.)

First, is the master bedroom.
Forgive the "mess".

Here is our closet...nice and big.

Our bathroom (again, not very exciting).
Hi, Finn!

Now we have Finn's room.
I got the bigger boys new mattress/boxsprings the other day so I put the toddler bed Deacon was sleeping on in Finn's room for when he's ready.
This is the boys' bathroom.
It's the only one with a tub (which is hidden behind the door).

Now we have Zeke's room.
(Sorry it's a wee bit dark. The sun was shining too brightly. Not that I'm complaining.)

Here is the hall closet, filled with towels and sheets and the like.

And last, but not least, we come to Deacon's room.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes the tour of our house. In the middle of our street. It's our castle and our keep. And we like it. Which is good, since we'll be living here for a few years. Now, here's the video "tour" and if you'd like to visit in person just let me know. We love having visitors.

The House Part Two: First Floor

First, welcome to post number 500. Whoo! I feel like I should throw a party or something. But I won't. Anyhoo...

Yesterday I posted a little tour of the ground floor of our new house. Today I am going to post the first floor of our house. And that's all the introduction I have today.

Okay, so here are the stairs from the ground floor to the first floor.

Once you reach the top of the stairs you walk right into the "main room".
Here you find our computers, tv, couch, etc. It's big and it's beautiful, really.

(the other half of the room)

If you look next to the blue (grey?) chair, you'll see a door.
That door is the door to a closet.
That closet we have turned into the boys' "toy room".

Behind the same blue chair you'll find a bookshelf and the boys' little table.

Off of the living room (and right next to the stairs) is bathroom #1.
Not much to see there really.

There is plenty to see next to the bathroom, however, as that's where the kitchen is.
And a lovely kitchen it is too. There's so much space (counter and cabinet-wise) that I was a little overwhelmed at first. I'm not used to having nice-sized kitchens.

The kitchen has 2 pantries.
In the first we have some food. Obviously.

In the second, we have our small appliances and the garbage can.
Finn has taken to throwing things away.
Things that usually shouldn't be thrown away.
Things like new boxes of dryer sheets and pot lids.
Hence, the garbage can is now in the pantry.

Directly off of the kitchen is the dining room. Breakfast nook?
Whatever. It's where we put our table, and it's where we eat.

And that's pretty much it for the first floor. It makes a nice little loop for the boys to chase each other (and the cat) around. It's all hardwood and tile floors so that makes it a little easier to clean (I don't like to vacuum much).

>The only thing I don't really like is that there isn't a "back" door here, that I can use to get from the kitchen to the backyard quickly if the boys are out there playing. Instead I have to go through the house, down the stairs, and then through the house again. Granted, it's not a HUGE house, but it's still inconvenient, plus I can't yell at them real well through the window. But, it is what it is, and it's really my only complaint about the place. (Not to mention that Josh's mom pointed out that if there's a fire in the basement, there's no exit as both doors to the outside are in the basement. But we won't dwell on that. Happy thoughts from here on out everyone!)

Now, here's the video and tomorrow will be the final installment: the bedrooms!

The House Part One: Ground Floor

Now that our stuff is essentially unpacked, and our house is, for the most part, "settled", I figured it was time to let you all see Walterland New Jersey. And since I don't really want to overburden the post with picture after picture, I've decided to break it up into a 3 part series, one part (day) for each floor. I have also taken video of each floor, so that those who want to maybe feel like they're actually here, being given a tour, they can do that. And since I'm the only one home right now (Josh is on a trip to Ft. Benning) the video tour isn't all that great. I guess I could wait until Josh is home and shoot it then, but I don't want to wait anymore. SO, without further adieu, I give you, the ground floor of our new house.

First, we have the front door, as well as the rest of our building (I guess). Upon entering the house, you find yourself in a little entryway...go figure.

(from the other side of the entryway)

To your immediate left, as you enter the entryway is the garage.

We are still working on this area, but should soon have it ready to house my car.

If you look, you'll see a door in the back wall of the garage. This is the first (of many) storage areas the house has.

Josh has chosen this one to be the home for his little selection of "man cave" stuff (his bow and arrows, fishing stuff, some army stuff, etc).

Now, if you scroll back up the entryway, you'll see a doorway directly across from the front door.

If you go through this door you will enter into the laundry room/area.

Very exciting stuff, I know.

Now, while the laundry room itself may not be very exciting, what is super cool is the laundry shoot the house has. Oh, yeah! There's a door on each floor to drop laundry down.

We all love it.

Now if you scroll back up to the laundry room picture, you'll see a door. That's our back door.

It leads to the backyard.Eh? It's nice and fenced in, even if it is a wee bit small. But right on the other side of the fence is a bit of a bigger area that we can just go out to and run around in.
(Also notice how conveniently close the chapel is located.)

On (in?) the back side of the house are two more storage areas.
One has a few things since it also has the heating system and stuff.

The other has all of our "play stuff".

Oh, and all of our strollers.

Now, last but not least is possibly the best room in the whole house. It is certainly the best room on the ground floor at least.

The book nook!

SO many books. And board games. It's a little out of control, but that's how we like it.
And that brings us to the stairs, and the end of our tour for today.

My name is Beth, and I have enjoyed being your tour guide this day, and look forward to showing more of the house tomorrow. Until then, here's the video I mentioned earlier (for those who want to see it).

Kindergarten!

Yesterday was Zeke's first day of kindergarten. It was also his first day going to school all day long instead of for a couple of hours in the morning. It's kind of funny, I didn't realize what all full day kindergarten entailed until a few weeks ago when the chaplain was praying and asked God to provide good friends for our kids at school to play with and to eat lunch with. Then it hit me. Oh. my. goodness. My baby is going to be eating lunch at school. In the cafeteria! Talk about a mind blowing moment (not to mention a tear producing moment).

Anyhoo, back to yesterday. I hate to say it, but there isn't too much to say. We got up, I made pancakes for breakfast, I got the boys dressed and such as usual. I did have to put the tv on for 10 minutes just to get them all to be quiet for a few minutes as they were starting to stress me out. Since Zeke was super excited, he walked around the house for 20 minutes asking, "Is it time to go yet? Can I put my sneakers on now? Can I have my backpack now? Is it time to go? Is the bus coming? Can I put my sneakers on? Can we go? Is it time to go?" Et cetera. Obviously this is completely understandable and didn't really phase me. Added to it though was Deacon walking around behind Zeke asking, "Can I go to school too? Can I have a lunchbox too? Can I ride the bus too? Can I go to school too? Can I have my Thomas backpack? Can I go on the bus? Can I go to school too?" Et cetera. Again, understandable, but slightly unnerving since my answers to him were all the same NO. I don't enjoy repeating myself over and over and over. Et cetera. But THEN, to top it off was Finn who was following me everywhere whining and falling over and pulling on my shorts and whining and trying to bite my legs/eat my shorts (I'm not really sure what he's doing there) and falling and whining. Et cetera.

FINALLY it was time to go. We put our shoes on and dashed to the bus stop as it was pouring out. We met another mother whose little boy is going into 1st grade at the same school Zeke is going to, which is really nice, as now we have more new friends. Yay. The bus showed up, Zeke threw out a "Good-bye Mom" as he got on the bus. No hug, no kiss, no sign of hesitation. He just threw out a good-bye and off he went. For my part, I didn't cry. I think because I was still a little stressed, and because I had to go food shopping, plus all the rain made it more like, "good, he's taken care of, on to the next thing".

The rest of the day went like usual. Food shopping, lunch, naps, laundry, and all that jazz. Nap time does seem quieter without Zeke here for that, but I'm not sure why. Poor Deacon adjusted to Zeke being at school all day the hardest. I think he asked for Zeke a good 17 times. As we left for the store, when we got to the store, when we got in the store, when we left the store, when we got home from the store, when "rest time" was over (we had "rest time" yesterday so I could unload the groceries without "help"), when it was lunch time, when lunch was over, when he watched some tv while I made lunch, when he went down for his nap. So maybe not 17, but close enough. Deacon really missed Zeke yesterday.

When it was time, I walked back to the bus stop (leaving the other two in bed since it was still raining, and since they were still sleeping) to pick Zeke up. He bounded off the bus, super excited that he had eaten ALL of his lunch. He chatted a little bit about his day, but not much - boys. After a few questions he got this look on his face so I asked, "Are you tired of me asking you questions about your day?" He said he was so I stopped pestering him, and waited for him to offer more info about his day, which he did.

Apparently, on his first day of school, Zeke went to the gym, but they didn't play gym (I think they had a little assembly - listen to the principal kind of thing). He went to music and sang songs. He has boys and girls in his class but he doesn't know how many or any of their names. His teacher is nice. He ate all of his lunch. And he really likes it. So that's good. In fact, this morning he was getting dressed and said, "I'm excited to go to school today." That's my good boy. Here's hoping he keeps that attitude all year long.