Life of a SAHM

How Many Men Does It Take...

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 19:59:00 +0000

The power guys showed up today to fix our power. We had been living off the portable breaker box all weekend.

Little Man was quite excited when a truck showed up and two men hopped out.

Then another truck with 3 men showed up. They got off their trucks and started poking around in our front yard. They found the place the line was broken at and grabbed the shovels.

Little Man wanted to help.

In no time, they had the bad line exposed. Then another truck (with 2 more men) showed up. This one had a tractor on the back.

Little Man was over the moon excited. He wanted to see that tractor digging up our front yard.

I didn’t have the heart to tell him they were already done, and the tractor would not be needed. We headed inside because Little Miracle was awake and I had to get him up, and Little Miss was demanding a nap.

They quickly filled in the hole and turned our power back on. Less than an hour from start to finish.

So, the question is: How many men does it take to fix a less than 6 inch piece of power line buried 2 feet under ground?

Answer: 7

Powerless Sleepovers

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 17:29:00 +0000

Little Man has been asking for a sleep over party since he got his bunk bed . He wanted his best “boy” friend over but he is busy busy on weekends, so he then asked to have his cousin over. She is 8 months older than him and they are the best of friends.

Last night we picked her up and brought her to our house for a fun night. We were going to play, possibly bake some cookies, and play glow stick hide and seek. You would think I would know better than to make plans and expect them to go accordingly.

We pulled into our driveway and hit the button that is built into our van to open the garage door. The door did nothing. I pushed it again, and again the door did nothing. I pushed the button and held it down hoping the garage door would open, and it did not.

We got out of the car and looked around the house. All the windows were dark. I am good at leaving at least one light on when we leave the house, because I do not like coming home to a dark house, so this was odd.

We peeked in the garage and saw our chest freezer light glowing. We could not remember if it had a battery back up or not.

{You may be wondering why we didn’t just go thru the front door this whole time and check breakers and such. Well, we have a toddler lock on the front door that makes it impossible for the kids to open the door when they are on the inside, and I am diligent about making sure that lock is closed when we leave the house too, thus making it harder for someone to break in. Or making it impossible for us to get in if the garage door is not working. I must rethink this plan}

We went to the front door and opened it as far as it would open with the toddler lock on it. I pushed the doorbell and it was not working. I reached in the house to try to turn on the porch lights, but could not reach. I grabbed a stick from outside and finally hit the switch for the lights, but the lights did not turn on. Our power was off, or so I thought.

I looked back in the garage and saw the plug that has its own breaker glowing. The power was on. Or was it. I was over confused at this time.

We called the power company to see if they could tell us if the power was off. They could not.

Stephen remembered he had the original garage door opener in his work, so off to his work we went. We were thinking maybe the opener in the van was not working. Returning home we discovered that the original door opener did not work either.

I called the power company again and reported an outage. I told them we could not get into the house to know for sure if the power was out, but it seems it is. Our neighbors on both sides of us had their outdoor lights on and the street lights were on too but our house was dark and the garage door was not working.

The power company told me they had a crew working 5 miles from our house and they would be out shortly to look at it. If the power worked, we would just have to break a window to get in. Not what we wanted to do but it would get us in the house.

We went next door and our neighbors were nice enough to let us hang out at their house to wait for the power company to come. While we were waiting I got a phone call. The power company had run a test on our meter (smart meter, so it was done electronically) and he was only seeing 50% power coming into our house. It seemed the problem was on their side.

About an hour went by and I finally heard a big truck outside. I went out and it was the power company. They ran tests on the meter and discovered it was a line coming into our house that was bad. They could not fix it that night since it was underground. They set up a temporary fix to give us full power until they could come out on Monday and dig up the line to fix it. This explained why the outlet and chest freezer were glowing, but the door bell was not working.

What is powering our house until Monday.

We were finally in our house! It was now an hour past bedtime though, so all my fun “sleepover” plans went out the window and the kids went straight to bed. They did play in Little Mans room for over an hour before they finally decided to sleep.

They both wanted the top bunk.

This morning I picked up donuts so we could have a fun breakfast. The kids have been playing for hours and although they are tired, I will say Little Mans first sleep over went well!

Happy Valentine's Day

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

I know its a little early, but I just finished up the treat bags and Valentine's Day cards for Little Man's preschool class.

I am so happy with the way these turned out!! I can't wait to hand them out!

More Glow Stick Fun

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

We love our glow sticks here.

We play hide and seek with them almost every night.

Hints why I was at Target buying more today.

So I am standing in the check out line with Little Miracle and Little Miss {while Little Man was in preschool}, waiting on my turn to pay for the random things that I have in my buggy. The woman in front of me {with 2 small children herself} sees me putting glow sticks up on the check out counter. She starts talking about her friend.

Her friend who puts her kids in the bubble bath with the glow sticks and turns off the lights

I’m standing there in awe. Why didn’t I think of that already???

So, tonight we gave it a try! I filled the tub with water and bubbles. I did not tell the boys what my plan was.

Boys, not knowing what’s coming!

With the tub full of water and bubbles and two boys happily playing in the tub, I cracked the glow sticks and then turned the lights off.

The boys were not sure what just happened. They were wondering why they were taking a bath in the dark.

I let them wonder for a few seconds, and then right when they were about to ask for the lights back on, I tossed the glow sticks in the tub, lighting the tub up.

And they LOVED it. They did not want to get out!! They played happily for almost an hour. I felt the water temperature at the end of the bath time and it was ICE cold. But neither of the boys was complaining. They did not want to get out!

What a grand idea!!

Any other ideas for glow sticks??

Little Man's First "Camping" Trip

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 20:18:00 +0000

Stephen was at drill last weekend when I pulled the tent out and put it up in the play room to amuse the kids for a while.

We "pretended" to camp that weekend and the following few days when Stephen was out of town. We roasted pretend marshmallows, we told ghost stories, made pretend dinners and hid from pretend bears. The whole time Little Man kept asking me to let him sleep in the tent.

I told him when he Daddy gets home he could "camp" with Daddy. Little Man was SO excited when Daddy got home.

The night Daddy came home we tucked Little Miracle into his bed while Little Man and Daddy headed downstairs to "camp". Little Man had SO much fun sleeping with Daddy in the tent.

I think when it gets warmer, I may send the boys on a REAL camping trip with Daddy.

Kids Are Weird

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 04:54:00 +0000

Little Miracle sat like this while watching Toy Story.

Not for 5 minutes of the movie, not for 10 minutes, no.

The entire movie.

I'll give you a minute to Google that.

Or, here, Let Me Google That For You.

81 minutes.

Kids are weird

Teething.

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

I am beginning to think Little Miss is teething. What do you think?

Bunk Beds and Toddler Beds

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 17:55:00 +0000

A few months ago we went looking for bunk beds. We knew we would need one when we moved the boys into the same room. We found one we liked, but I really did not want to spend $1000 on it. So off to Craigslist I went. Almost every day for the past 2 months I looked for one on Craigslist.

Monday was my lucky day. I finally found one I loved that was in my price range and local. We went to look at it and it was perfect so home it came.

On the way home we stopped to let Little Man pick out sheets. He picked out a Toy Story set. We picked up a plain one for the other bed since it will eventually be Little Miracles but I want him to pick out what he wants when that time comes.

When we got home, we set up the bed. Little Man was SO excited to finally have his bunk beds!! He {of course} chose the top bunk.

We moved his train bed to Little Miracles room fully expecting to start Little Miracle in the toddler bed that night. When Little Man was moved to a toddler bed, he went in no problems at all. I kinda hoped that Little Miracle would do the same.

I should have known better.

When the train bed was in Little Mans room, Little Miracle wanted it. He would climb up into it every night and tuck himself in under the covers, waiting on his bedtime story from Daddy. But once it was moved to his room, he wants NOTHING to do with it.

I tucked him in it last night, kissed him good night and left. 10 seconds later he is SCREAMING. I went back in and ended up sitting on the floor next to his bed rubbing his back and talking to him. Finally, almost 40 minutes later, he said “I crib please?”.

Sure thing Little Miracle. Back in his crib he went.

I guess he’s not quite ready. We will try again in a few days and see what he does. Once he is sleeping in a toddler bed, we will move him into Little Mans room then I get to redecorate the nursery for Little Miss!

{We are also using the toddler bed to take away the bottle. He only gets a bottle at nap and bed time, so when he gets the toddler bed he has to have a sippy cup. He drank all of his milk from the sippy cup last night while I was in his room, so we may be getting somewhere on that!}

Roller Coaster

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

The past 5 months have been such an emotional roller coaster in this house.

It has nothing to do with the birth of Little Miss or the fact that we went from 2 to 3 kids.

You see, Stephens dad had surgery on August 3rd. What should have been routine kidney surgery {removal of a kidney that was cancerous} turned into a 5 month hospital stay.

Stephens’s dad was over weight and in pretty poor health when it was discovered that he had cancer in one of his kidneys. The doctors recommended removing it. The surgery was supposed to be mid August, but since I was due with Little Miss around that time, my mother in law decided to see if they could do it earlier.

August 3rd he went into surgery. The surgery went well and he was sent to recovery at the hospital. On August 7th, we got a phone call from my mother in law. Stephens’s dad had taken a turn for the worst. His other kidney had failed {which was almost expected}, but his heart and lungs seemed to be failing also. The doctors had placed him in the ICU. We were told he had muti-organ system failure and that he had about 24-48 hours to live.

Stephens’s older brother from Chicago and his younger brother from Washington DC flew into town. Stephens’s aunt drove down from Tennessee. Lots of tears were shed.

We all camped out at the hospital waiting on news. My massively pregnant butt was chasing Little Man and Little Miracle all over the ICU waiting rooms. Every time we walked into the main entrance of the hospital, a doctor would remind me they “do not have labor and delivery at this hospital, and if that is why we were here, you need to go to a different hospital”.

Over the next few days he slowly improved. His other kidney never started working again {so they started dialysis}, but his heart and lungs did. We had a glimmer of hope.

Over the course of the next few weeks, he came out of ICU and was placed on the regular floor of the hospital again. Little Miss was born and he heard that he had his first grand daughter {he has 5 grandsons}.

{My memory is blurry of the dates and times in-between things from this point, since I was now taking care of a newborn also}

A few weeks later he was placed back in ICU because they thought he had pneumonia and his organ systems looked to be failing again. We were all on edge again, thinking he would die.

He once again pulled out of ICU and was placed back in the regular part of the hospital.

In mid October we brought Little Miss to see him. I felt she was old enough, and he was not with “sick” people in the hospital, but on a floor specifically for kidney patients.

Meeting Little Miss for the first time {and almost 50 pounds lighter!!)

Oh my how happy Little Man was to see him!!

Loving on the boys!

In early November, he was sent to a rehab hospital. All he needed to do was gain his strength back and he would be sent home. We were all hopeful that he would be home for Thanksgiving.

He developed an infection at some point at the rehab hospital. The area where his kidney used to be had an abscess. He would need surgery again. He was sent back to the regular hospital where they did surgery to clean out that area. A minor setback.

Thanksgiving came and went, and then Christmas and New Years did the same. In early January we found out he needed another surgery because an aneurism developed in his arm {I believe due to the dialysis port}

At this point, we were all just thankful to have him alive, and had no idea when he would come home. We were shocked after this surgery that the doctor declared him well enough to go home!

After 5 months and 1 day in the hospital, 3 surgeries, 2 ICU stays and 100 pounds lost, he is HOME!!!

He still has quite a road to recovery since he has to get up and moving again after spending so much time in the hospital. He will also have to do dialysis for the rest of his life, but he is home!

It as a roller coaster we are glad to be off of!

Busted

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0000

Little Man loves playing with my camera. He knows he is not allowed to, but I often find him with my camera strap around his neck, pretending to take pictures. Telling his brother and his toys to all say cheese, standing back and saying “click” to take a picture.

To keep him from playing with my camera, we bought him a “kid” camera. One that takes crappy pictures, but will not break when dropped. Bad thing is it eats batteries so fast he hardly gets to take a few pictures before its dead. Then he is left looking for my camera again.

He finds it and continues to "take" his pictures until I spot him playing with it, take it back and remind him that we don’t play with Mommies camera because it would take all of the money in his piggy bank {and then some} to fix it if it breaks.

He says "yes ma'am" and goes off to play. I then put my camera up in a high place where he can not reach it and go about my day.

He has not played with the camera to my knowledge in several months.

Imagine my surprise when I went to get pictures off of it yesterday and saw this.

Funny. I didn’t remember taking a picture of my living room. With the snow flakes hanging from the ceiling, so within the last month.

The next picture was this

My Little Miracle, taken from a height not much taller than him. With a long sleeve shirt on. Hum. The past few days have been really warm. We did have a cold snap a few weeks ago, but I still don’t remember taking this picture.

I continued flipping thru the pictures. Some more of the living room, some of the ceiling fan and a few that were too blurry to decipher. I was beginning to suspect Little Man.

But this picture gave him up

Ah, yes, those would be Little Mans new light up Cars shoes.

Busted.

How To Amuse Kids

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:53:00 +0000

I learned a 10 step process to thoroughly amusing my kids today.

Step 1: Spend half your morning building a really cool blanket tent

Step 2: Tie a safety pin to the end of a piece of thread

Step 3: Attach safety pin to top of tent

Step 4: Tie the other end of the thread around the ceiling fan pulling as tight as you can {thus raising the tent}. Tie the thread around the fan.

Step 5: Wait a day. This whole day, the boys will ignore the tent, refusing to play in it. But they will beg you to leave it up for tomorrow, because they swear they will play in it then. The next morning wake up feeling like crap and lay down on the couch while the boys go play in the tent

Step 6: Realize after about 30 minutes of it being *too quiet* you are now hearing something that sounds like the boys hitting each other, but with laughter involved

Step 7: Drag your sick self off the couch to see what they are doing

Step 8: Find this

The tent you took half the morning building on the floor. Two boys on the top of the tent, clapping and trying to catch *something* that is swinging in the air

Step 9: Freak out when you realize that something is now an open safety pin, swinging right at your child’s eye.

Step 10: Close the safety pin, and let them continue their game.

Seriously, the boys have been trying to catch that safety pin ALL day today. This is a “why play with the toy when the box is more fun” type thing I suppose.

I have since packed away all the blankets that made the tent, but Little Man requested “you please leave this up?” {talking about the thread and safety pin}. Sure Man, you got it.

Made To Love

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:08:00 +0000

I usually do not talk about religion on my blog {or in person for that matter}. I feel religion is a very personal topic so I am reserved in talking about religion and my feelings on the topic.

That said, I do have to share this story. It is not preachy, I will not tell you that you are going to hell or share my faith. Its just a neat story.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Our pastor challenged us to a 21 day fast yesterday. Give up one thing for 21 days. Or even for certain hours during the day. When you crave what you gave up, use that time to focus on God.

I knew immediately what I wanted to give up.

You see, I have a small {ok, big} addiction to Twitter and FaceBook. I find myself checking it at random times thru out the day. Kids playing quietly, Mamas on FaceBook. Daddy home from work and watching the kids, Mamas on Twitter.

Even while playing with the kids I find myself messing with my phone.

What message is this showing my kids? That my all loved smart phone is more important to me than playing with them. I don’t want that!

So, I vowed to give up FaceBook and Twitter unless I am nursing Little Miss. So, that gives me about 10-15 minutes of social media time every 3-4 hours. Not bad. I can do this.

I started this morning. I did great. Nursed Little Miss and fiddled with my phone checking in on Twitter. Then Little Miss was done. But was I?

I had to be, so I put my phone up on the fire place mantle and went to play with the boys.

After about 15 minutes, I found myself reaching for my phone. As soon as I realized I was doing this, I put my phone down and went in search of my iPod so we could listen to music to take my mind off of the lack of social media.

Ah, the devil at play, my iPod was D.E.A.D. Like, wouldn’t even turn on when plugged in dead.

And the kids were screaming and driving me insane.

So I turned on the radio.

The station was 104.7 the Fish which is the local Christian radio station. You know what song was playing when I turned it on? “Made To Love” by TOBYMAC. Now, this song does not have too much personal meaning to me. Until now. The part that was playing was this:

“Anything I would give up for you (nah, nah, nah, nah, nah)
Everything, I'd give it all away (nah, nah, nah, nah, nah)

Anything I would give up for you (nah, nah, nah, nah, nah)
Everything, I'd give it all away (nah, nah, nah, nah, nah)

Anything I would give up for you (nah, nah, nah, nah, nah)
Everything, I'd give it, I'd give it all away, Oh yeah

Cause I was made to love you (I was made to love you)
Yeah I was made to love you (I was made to find you)”

Yeah. Process that guys. Think about that for a minute……..

The exact moment I was struggling with “giving up” my beloved social media, the radio was playing this song, and this exact part of this song, talking about giving up anything.

Isn’t God awesome?!

Glow Stick Hide and Seek

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:36:00 +0000

Santa brought my boys some glow sticks for Christmas. They have been itching to play with them for a while now.

The other night, we broke them out. We turned off all the lights in the house, shut the curtains to block the street light that is outside of our window, and played hide and seek.

Only the "seeker" has a glow stick. The "hiders" do not. The "seeker" then uses the light that the glow stick gives off to find the "hiders".

Glow stick hide and seek is so much more fun than regular hide and seek because you can hide out in the open. I laid down on the couch, and it took the boys 10 minutes to find me. They were RIGHT there at me a few times and did not see me.

Stephen laid down in a corner in the play room, and it took the boys 10 minutes to find him.

The most fun part of glow stick hide and seek? When they can’t find you and are so close, you can jump out and scare them, resulting in lots of giggles and screams from little boys!

{We got our glow sticks at Target. I read now that Target glow sticks don’t last long. I am picking up some more from the Dollar Store soon since we used the last ones from Target tonight}

Who Says You Need A Girl To Have A Tea Party?

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:51:00 +0000

Little Man met a little girl the other day at the park. She was talking about a tea party she was going to go to that evening. Little Man was intrigued and asked if he could go to. Since this was a birthday tea party (and a complete stranger) I told him he could not.

He seemed to all but forget about it until today.

This morning Little Man asked me to have a tea party.

I immediately said "yes!" because I remembered the tea set that Stephens mom had passed down to us many years ago in hopes that we would have a girl and be able to use it. I got the set down from the storage closet, opened the box and carefully unwrapped each piece.

Little Man set out a blanket for us.

I made the tea (milk) and got us some crackers. Little Man also set out some toys on a near by table for us to play with after we had "tea".

We then sat down to have our tea party.

Little Man LOVED his tea party. He even pretended that his tea was hot. He had to blow on it to cool it down.

Little Miracle got in on the fun too.

The boys loved the tea party. And why shouldn’t they? Society has a way of saying that little boys should play with cars, and little girls should play with dolls. Those rules do not apply at my house. If Little Man or Little Miracle wants to play with dolls or other "girl toys", they are welcome to it. I’m sure Little Miss will fight the boys for the trains and cars one day too.

Tea parties are not the first thing that society considers "for girls" that he has asked to do.

One day last summer when I was painting my nails, he held his hand out to me and said "red is my favorite color" in a "paint my nails too" kind of tone. So, I did.

He also LOVES to play dress up at his cousins’ house.

He also wanted to wear a hair bow on "crazy hair" night at AWANA.

Am I concerned that he likes all these "girly" things? No. He’s a kid. And if he turns into a teenager that likes to have tea parties and paint his nails, I’m ok with that too.

Introducing: My Kids

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:19:00 +0000

Since I started this blog, I have made it a point not to post my kids faces on it. I thought it was for safety, keep my kids faces off the internet. But now that I think about it, their faces are already all over the internet. On my FaceBook page, on my Twitter page. Yup. No hiding them.

Frankly, I am tired of trying to take pictures of them looking away from the camera just for the blog. So, here they are! My kids!

Little Man

Little Miracle

Little Miss

Aren't they cute? And now that they are out "in the open", I have a few more posts I am going to be sharing!!

2011 In Review

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 23:15:00 +0000

2011 was a busy year for us!

In January, we got to see our precious Little Bean
and see that it was a baby and not another molar pregnancy. {Each time I get pregnant, the risk is higher that it will be a molar again, so we have early ultrasounds to rule this out}

We also decided not to find out the gender of our “Little Bean” this time around. It was something I had wanted to do in previous pregnancies but never ended up having the patience to do so.

In February, Little Miracle started walking and also weaned from nursing. Just like his older brother, he did both at 14 months.

In March, I played with chemicals again to get some “guesses” on the gender of the baby. Both tests said “BOY!”

We also painted our house and did lots of other small projects

In April, we had our 20 week ultrasound and stayed strong with not finding out the gender. At that appointment, Stephen swore he saw “nothing” between the legs {even though they did not even look}, so he was convinced from that day on that the baby was a girl.

In May we celebrated 7 years of marriage. We went out to dinner. I was craving a bacon cheeseburger so we went to Chili's. This was the first year we did not go somewhere REALLY nice, but the pregnant lady had a craving! We also went to The Melting Pot for dessert.

June brought us our annual Florida trip and my growing suspicions that the baby was, in fact, a girl based on how I was carrying.

July we finally redecorated the boys bathroom and finally got them out of my bathtub.

August brought us the birth of Little Miss. Another fast birth, though we {barley} made it to the hospital this time around {And Stephen missed the whole thing. He was parking the car.} I had it planned that no one would tell me the gender. I was shocked and surprised to look for myself and see that she was a girl!

In September we started AWANA and my Little Man started preschool. They both love AWANA and Little Man is doing amazing in preschool.

October my Little Man turned 4. We also spent lots of afternoons playing in the leaves. Our fall this year was absolutely gorgeous.

In November we celebrated Thanksgiving with my family. I hosted and we had 15 people in our house for Thanksgiving dinner. Lots of delicious food and great company.

December brought us another birthday. My Little Miracle turned 2 and shortly there after started putting himself to sleep

We also celebrated Christmas {and I have not written that post yet}. The boys LOVED their Santa gifts and the gifts that we got them. Little Miss also got some fun stuff from Santa and us, though most of it was socks and tights.

What’s the plan for 2012?

Well, we have our annual Florida trip planned in June. We are planning a Chicago trip {and TweetUp} for some time this year. Little Man will continue preschool and Little Miracle will most likely start preschool also. We have a lot of house improvement projects planned for the beginning of the year, and Stephen and I are going to be buying a whole new wardrobe for us. It’s seriously been 10 years since we bought anything significant for our wardrobe. Little Miss will most likely start walking and also celebrate her 1st birthday!

I am excited to see 2012 here!

Random Act Of Kindness

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 01:02:00 +0000

Last week we were eating at our new favorite pizza place and a man came up to our table and handed Stephen a gift card. He mumbled something about "it has $35 on it, but their machine was not working, thanks for your service" {Stephen was in uniform}. He quickly walked away. We thought it was originally a $35 card, and he was giving us the change that was left on it. Still a nice gesture.

We thought nothing more of it until yesterday. Yesterday the pizza place posted this on their Facebook page:

“So we had a family eating at one of the outdoor picnic tables and the dad was dressed in his military uniform... Another man walks in and buys a $35 gift card and then walks outside and hands the card to the soldier and says Merry Christmas and thanks for your service and then walks away... Huge brownie points to this man for the anonymous gesture!!! God... I love this country”

I called Stephen and asked him to check the gift card out, that the restaurant was posting about it on Facebook and it should have $35 on it. He looked into it, but the card was originally bought in June and had $10 on it. Some was spent in June, and the card was zeroed out in October. Talk about confusion.

I went back and forth for an hour with myself about contacting the company. I decided to contact them so they would know there was a mistake. Maybe their machine WAS down, or the man was just mistaken. I emailed them and explained that we were that family they were talking about on Facebook and that we had checked the card and it had nothing on it. I said that maybe the man was mistaken (like he had 2 cards, and gave us the wrong one maybe) or maybe their machine messed up. I was not expecting anything in return, just wanted them to know, incase their machines were malfunctioning.

Imagine my surprise when the owner of the company replied and said “I would love to fix this for you. The man did buy the card and we must have messed up somehow”. There was a new gift card waiting for us in the register.

I don’t really know why I am sharing this story other than to praise the anonymous man who gifted us with the card and also to praise the restaurant for fixing a mistake. It was such an odd thing, the man mumbling and handing the card over and leaving just as quickly as he came, then the restaurant posting about it almost a full week later and being so willing to fix something that they did not have to do.

We are so blessed by people in our lives, be they anonymous or ones we know.

Thank you to everyone.

Little Miracle, My 'Going to Sleep' Fighter

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 19:01:00 +0000

Little Miracle has always needed help falling asleep.

When he was a baby he would nurse to sleep while swaddled. When he weaned we would swaddle him and rock him with a bottle of milk for him to go to sleep.

When he was about 17 months, I was swaddling him for nap, he screamed “UP” and immediately gave up the swaddle. Now I was worried about how to get him to sleep.

We started lying him down in his crib with his milk at nap time, letting him put himself to sleep. This worked from day one for naps.

Bedtime was a different story.

He flat out refused to be left in his room at night to put himself to sleep. He would SCREAM and beg us to get him before we had even left his room. I know many people who believe in the “cry it out” system, but it is not something that I believe in for my family.

So, for about the past year, Daddy has been sitting downstairs while Little Miracle lay next to him on the couch and fell asleep. Then Daddy would have to lug the sleeping boy upstairs and lay him in his crib. It was a lot of work, but it worked for us. He would sleep all night once he was in his crib.

We have wanted to change this habit for a while now. With him falling asleep downstairs, I am forced to stay upstairs. This was nice while I was pregnant, because I would just lay in bed and relax. But Little Miss is a night owl, not going down until around 10. I had to stay upstairs with her while Daddy got him to sleep on the couch. All of her "stuff" is downstairs, so if she needed a diaper, I had to sneak down and get Daddy to toss me one. If I needed to do laundry or tidy up I had to wait until Little Miracle was asleep.

We wanted to be able to lay Little Miracle down in his bed, tell him good night and walk out; having him put himself to sleep quietly.

For the past few weeks we were talking about starting to lay him down and leave the room, just to see how he would take it. We planned on going into his room and rubbing his back, rocking him or getting him if he fussed and putting him on the couch like we had been doing. We had decided on a start date of Monday for this.

Seems he got the memo.

Monday we were at urgent care all afternoon (Little Miracle took to stage diving Sunday, and was still limping pretty well on Monday, so we went in for x-rays ~ nothings broken, just a strain, sprang, tear or pull). By the time we ate dinner and got home, it was bedtime. We put Little Man to bed and then changed Little Miracle to get him ready for bed. It was such a long day I had all but forgotten about him going straight to his crib. Seems he knew what was up though. Without me saying anything, he walked over to his crib with his milk, and pulled on the side, as to say “I want in please!!”. I asked him if he was ready for night-night and he said “yes”. I picked him up, kissed him goodnight, laid him down and left the room. I walked down the stairs and waited for him to start fussing.

It never happened. We didn’t hear from him until about 4 am, when he needed a diaper change. He went back to sleep after that and got up around 8 am for the day.

Last night was the same thing. We changed his diaper, and he ran over to his bed. Put him in, tucked him in, and left. Again, didn’t hear a peep till this morning.

I feel like that was too easy. He is such a strong willed, independent child that I fully expected a fight. I envisioned telling him over and over that it is night night, rubbing his back, laying him down over and over and over in his crib. I guess he was ready to give up using the couch to fall asleep on.

We shall see how tonight goes.

Wish us luck!!

To My Little Miracle On Your 2nd Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:08:00 +0000

To my Little Miracle…

You are now 2 years old. I can’t believe you made it to two. You were the fussiest new born EVER. You screamed for 11 weeks straight. Non stop. SCREAM. Night and day. Day and night. We tried reflux meds, gripe water, catnip tea, every trick in the book and they did no good. IT.WAS.HELL.

But now. Now you are a somewhat different child. You don’t scream as much because you are working on learning to use your words. You are VERY independent and strong willed, you know what you want, and you want it NOW.

You were my toughest newborn. And my hardest toddler. Separation anxiety hit you again, for the 3rd time, after your sister was born and it has not ended at almost 4 months. You still LOVE.YOUR.MAMA.

Nothing wrong with that. You are a lover. Buy only on your terns. Mama wants to snuggle? No way. Only when Little Miracle is ready to snuggle. But when you are ready, you pile on the love, hugs and kisses. Then as quick as you decide it was time to snuggle, the snuggle is over. You love your brother and sister with all your heart. And the Christmas tree. “Night Night Is-mis”. You say every day before you lay down for a nap.

You LOVE cars and trains and balls. You ask for a sucker every time you get in the car. You want a soccer ball from Santa. You will sit and play with cars on the floor all day if I let you.

You wanted nothing to do with your sister when she was born but now you are in love. You giggle and she giggles. You love to look at her and laugh. She laughs right back at you. You have always been in awe of your older brother. You want to do everything he does. He’s jumping off the couch, you are right behind him.

You were swaddled until around 17 months, and then as I was swaddling you to put you down for a nap one day, you screamed “UP” and pushed your way out of the swaddle and never looked back. I am hoping you will do the same with the bottle here soon. You nursed until you were 14 months, and then Mama was pregnant with your sister and got the flu. You took milk in a bottle that week and never looked back.

You are fiercely smart. You knew all of your colors and letters by 18 months and now at 24 months you know some of the letter sounds. Your brother loves teaching you what he learns at preschool and you soak it up like a sponge. You are my cleaner. You love to help pick up and will pick up every piece of dirt off the floor if I let you. You let me know when its time to vacuum.

You are a sugar addict. I blame this on your older brother who gave you a sucker when you were a tiny newborn and Mama left you on the floor to run to the potty. You eat cupcakes by the icing only, love suckers and think Halloween is the best holiday EVER. You don’t like it when Mama says no to sugar. But Mama knows best.

You will always be my middle child. We conceived you on St. Patrick’s day shortly after a molar pregnancy. We found out you were going to be a big brother on your first birthday. Middle child syndrome hits you hard.

You are finding your way in this world. I are so proud of how far you have come and I can’t wait to see what you will do!

I love you.

Fall Fun In The Leaves

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:44:00 +0000

We are enjoying fall. The weather has been gorgeous. Fall festivals have started. Hay rides have been had. The most fun we have had though, is playing in the massive piles of leaves in our yard that we rake up.

Little Man helped Daddy rake up the leaves

The boys surveyed the pile

Mommy joined the boys, and brought Little Miss too

Daddy played too

We buried Daddy in the leaves

Then Little Man buried himself

How are you enjoying the fall?

Friday Review

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 18:26:00 +0000

Saturday Stephen had drill. I despise drill weekends because it means I have all three kids by myself all weekend. It makes for a LONG weekend.

My mom came over on Saturday and helped me with the kiddos. Stephens mom was also at our house off and on thru out the day. It was very nice having both Grandmothers to help with the kiddos.

Sunday was church. I started back working in the nursery for the second service. I was working it when I was pregnant, but it got to be too hard for me to get up and down off the floor and I knew I would take a break when Little Miss was born, so I stopped in July. It was very nice to get back to the nursery and the little kids I have missed so much!

After church I picked up Stephen from drill and we headed out to Norcross for the Labor Of Love reunion picnic. Labor of Love is the doula and child birth educators we used for Little Miracle and Little Miss. They have an annual reunion for all of their current and past clients. It was nice to see some of the ladies that I took my child birth classes with and also to see our doula and child birth educator.

The boys had a blast playing on the play ground while Little Miss and I ate and chatted. When we got home, I went to get Little Man out of the car seat and noticed what I thought was dirt on his forehead. I went to wipe it off, and it was not dirt, it was a bruise! He BUSTED (hard enough for a LARGE goose egg on his forehead and a nasty bruise) his head while playing and did not even flinch! I did not know he hit his head until we got home, over an hour later! Needless to say, he is fine.

Monday was back to preschool for Little Man and back to the daily grind for me.

Tuesday was appointments for Little Man and Little Miss. Little Man had his 4 year check up. He is 43 pounds and 42 inches tall. Perfectly healthy and growing like he should. Little Miss is 11.12 pounds. This blows my mind. I looked back and Little Man was 11.5 pounds at 4 months, Little Miracle was 12.6 pounds at 4 months.

She is a big baby. Little Man at 2 months was in the 4th percentile for his weight, Little Miracle was in the 5th. Little Miss at 2 months is in the 71st. Shes perfectly healthy though, just big. I am not used to a big baby, but I have always wanted a chunky baby, looks like I finally got it!

Wednesday was school again for Little Man and then AWANA. It was store night. At AWANA they earn "bucks" for things like attendance, wearing their vest, saying their verse and bringing their Bible. Little Man had 32 AWANA bucks. He bought a Cars ping pong game and two Veggie Tales CDs for the car. He also saved some of his bucks for the next store night.

Thursday was another chill out day at home. I started a fire in the fire place because it was overcast and quite chilly for Atlanta.

Little Miss laughed for the first time Thursday night. She was smiley and trying to poop, so I made up a silly cheer about poop, and she laughed! I find this really funny since Little Man laughed for the first time with poop also. What is it with my kids and poop?

Friday, well, its Friday morning right now. I haven't done much. Little Man is at school and Stephen is working a half day. We will see what trouble we get into tonight!

See ya next week!

Friday Review

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 19:10:00 +0000

This week was amazing!

Saturday we celebrated Little Mans 4th birthday at Catch Air. Little Man had.a.BLAST! Him and a bunch of his friends played for well over an hour then we went to the party room and had pizza and cupcakes. After they all ate, he opened his presents. He got a bunch of new toys that he LOVES.

Little Miracle playing with the light floor.

Little Man hiding under the light slide.

Sunday was a chill at home type day. After church we went home and relaxed.

Monday was Little Mans actual birthday. I made cupcakes for his pre-school class and took them there for him. He LOVED Mama being in his class. We sung to him and he shared his cupcakes with his class. After school, we went back to Catch Air (he wanted to go) then came home and had spaghetti and broccoli for dinner, one of his favorite meals.

Wednesday Little Man got to play games on the computer for the first time. He loved it! He now asks me daily to play games.

Thursday we got Little Man a new car seat and recovered his old one for Little Miss. New seats for both!

Today Little Miracle and I went to Joyful Noise Acres Farm for a tour with our local moms group. Little Miracle got to hold a baby chick and helped feed the laying hens. It was a ton of fun.

After the farm, we picked up Little Man at school. I was very surprised when I got home and pulled out his folder and saw this.

Those of you who know me, know my love of my kids footprints. I have both boys newborn prints tattooed on my shoulder, and will add Little Miss as soon as I can. I love that they did a footprint craft. A 4 year old footprint sure is bigger than a newborn print!

This next week is slow, with not much planned. Cant wait to see what fun we have!

To my Little Man on the eve of your 4th birthday.

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Sun, 09 Oct 2011 23:51:00 +0000

I am so proud of you. You are becoming such a little man. Your nick name suits you.

This year you welcomed a sister. You told Mommy she was pregnant before Mommy knew, told us it was a sister and told us she would be born on a Sunday. You were right. You love your sister with every inch of your being. You always ask me to let you hold her, if she fusses, you tell me she is crying and will get her pacifier for her. You swing her in the swing and love kissing and hugging on her, even if she is screaming at you. You would probably change her diaper if I would let you.

You started preschool this year too. You LOVE preschool. You only go 3 days a week, but you would go every day if they offered it. I love seeing your artwork that you bring home from school. Painting, drawing smiley faces, practicing your letters, I love it all. You love playing outside at school. Every day when I ask what you did, you tell me “we played outside”

You know all of your letters, numbers, shapes, colors… You are as smart as a whip. Quick to correct me if I am wrong. You love learning. You love sharing what you learn.

You love to sing. ABCs and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star are your favorite, but you love singing Rock A Bye to your sister. You learn so quickly that we can sing a song once and you have all the words down by the next time we sing it.

You are in AWANA right now too. You love it just as much as preschool. You learn your verses every week, and have not missed one yet. You even get the address of the verse, even though they don’t ask your class to do it (you are one of the oldest in your class because of where your birthday fell). You are so proud of your patches you get on your vest.

Your favorite thing to do at home is play outside. You got a bike for your birthday this year. A real bike! You tell me all the time “I am learning to ride my bike”.

You still love to cuddle with Mommy in Mommy and Daddys bed. Any chance you get to come in you will. You also fully potty trained this year. You had day time down at 33 months, but night time was tough.

You love to help Mommy cook. Although brownies are your favorite thing to cook, you LOVE broccoli and snow peas to eat.

Your best friend right now is your cousin Sydney. Your eyes light up every time you see her. You just love her! I love seeing how close you two have become.

Your favorite color is blue. And you tell me all.the.time.

You love your little brother too. You love to play on the floor with him. He tries to steal your toys all the time. You are not the best sharer, but you are learning. You always tell Little Miracle that we are almost home when he is fussing in the car. You tell me when he is up from his nap and demand that I go get him right then and there.

I am so proud of who you are becoming. I can’t believe that you are 4 years old. Time really flies when you are having fun! I am excited to see what this year bring us!

Love Mommy

Friday Week In Review

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 02:38:00 +0000

This week was fun!

Saturday we went to the fair. Little Man and Little Miracle had SO much fun riding the rides and at the petting zoo. Little Man got to feed a cow and thought that was the coolest thing in the world. Little Miss slept thru the fair.

Sunday our church had a tailgaiting party. Lots of food and fun. Little Man loved the bounce house the most! I liked the chili cook-off! Lots of different kinds of chili to eat.

Monday my mom came and hung out with us all day. I love when my mom comes over. It's very helpful to a stay at home mom to have some adult conversation during the day! Out new next door neighbors got a new fridge and we stole the box. We made it into a fort and then had the boys paint it. It takes up a massive amount of space in my living room, but the boys are still playing in it tonight!

Wednesday Little Man got his second patch at AWANA. He got the first one last week for completing so many pages in his workbook and memorizing so many verses. I am so proud of my Little Man. He learns his verse every week and proudly says it to his teacher when he gets to his class room. At 3, he is not required to say the address of through verse but I make him learn it also. This week his patch was for attendance. He has not missed a week yet!

Wednesday Little Miss wore her first tu-tu. It was adorable!

Yesterday was a play day. We went to Catch Air and played for hours. The boys love that place. Little Miracle loved going down the huge slide in my lap.

Today we went to the park while Little Man was at school. Then we went to the bookstore with daddy and played with Thomas the Train. Tonight we spent time learning to ride his bike and then we walked to the neighborhood playground and had a picnic. We talked to our new neighbors and some old ones on the way back.

Tomorrow kicks off a new week for my week in review, and next week is going to be epic!

This Week: In Review

noreply@blogger.com (mrsstrickland) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 16:29:00 +0000

My favorite day since Little Man has started preschool is Friday. That is when the teachers send home a "this week" paper. It is a review of everything they did and learned that week. I love talking to him about everything he did and reviewing what he learned.

I am going to start a "This Week: In Review" here on my blog. Every Friday I will post what we did that past week. I am excited to start this!

Here we go!!

This Week:

We went to Hilton Head, SC for Stephens work. While there, we got up early to watch the sunrise

We played in the ocean with our clothes on

We looked for and collected shells

We built couch tents in the hotel

Back home, Little Miracle started using sentences! "Light on please" and "Let's play outside" are his current favorite.

Little Miss smiled for the first time!

Little Man got a REAL bike for his up coming birthday! We got to watch them build it!

That is our week in review. What happened at your house this week?