She's Learning!

Yesterday was great. We went through an entire day without any major accidents. Evie had a few squirts that wet her panties but she recognized it immediately and came and told me she had to go potty. The problem was she waited until she was in physical pain. After holding it that long it is hard to let go. She would sit on the toilet and immediately bounce off telling me she was done but wiggling and squirming and crying. I finally just held her hands and made her sit on the toilet. She was wiggling the whole time but finally was able to let go. After this whole process the floor and potty seat was quite a mess but at least I didn't have to clean a whole trail of urine from one end of the house to the other as we tried to make the potty in time. She informed me about needing to go all day. I am so pleased with her progress. Sam was the same way. Around day 3 I am ready to give up thinking that they just won't figure it out yet and on day 4 they both were figuring out what was required. We have a long way to go before I consider her "trained" but at least I won't have to do diapers anymore.

As I'm writing this I hear Sam yelling at me for help. I just looked over and saw him contorting over his little coloring table. Apparently, he is trying to color using his feet and needs my help. Boy they sure do keep my day exciting.

Not Much Happening

What have we been doing? Not much. Potty training keeps us pretty housebound. We were planning on starting Saturday to potty train Evie but ended up waiting until Sunday as I wanted to get the house straightened and we needed to go grocery shopping. Sunday we had one accidental success at the end of the day. Monday we had no successes and yesterday we had two! I am so grateful that we are in a place where the majority of the floor surfaces are solid. I didn't have that with Sam and it has made a huge difference in my attitude towards accidents and clean-up. It is much easier this time around. I still can't say she is potty-trained yet. But she seems to be trying to get bladder control and is starting to figure out what I'm asking her to do. We seem to be going in a cycle of a lot of little squirts and then one big gusher. I can tell she is trying to hold it in. And she isn't 100% but she is occasionally starting to tell me immediately when she has gotten wet or has pooped. So we are on the right track. Yesterday morning I was starting to feel tired of the mess and thinking maybe we should put it off a couple more months. But then we had a success around lunch time and another one mid-afternoon. She got lots of praises and we have a sticker chart where she gets a sticker every time she is successful. I try to avoid the candy rewards unless it is a last resort. I have enough issues with food and weight without adding more junk into the house.

Still no success on the job front. I've been putting my application in at several places and have been good about calling and following through but one gal told me that they are getting several applications a day and they have the opportunity to be pretty choosy about who they hire. I'll keep calling and put my name out there. Unfortunately for me, all of my recent job experience has been in an office setting. I have had retail experience but not since I was a teenager. It just doesn't show up on my resume or application unless I want to make it unusually long. I'll keep praying and plugging away. As the holiday season approaches I'm sure I can get in somewhere as holiday help. Every little bit helps.

Potty Training

Well, it is official. Today after Evie's nap we are going to potty train Evie. I'm 50/50 on if it is too soon or not. I mostly just want the convenience of not using diapers anymore. She can communicate very well and knows when she is going poo. I think we will be ok. I'm a cold turkey kind of trainer. No Pull-Ups or slow transition for us. I go straight to underwear. The first 3 days are the hardest and messiest. With Sam I was about ready to give up when he managed to go potty in the potty seat at the end of the 3rd day and the connection was made. After that, it seemed to work well. Though it did take a few weeks for him to actually tell me he had to go. I hope it goes just as well if not easier for Evie.

Since I'm going to have a pee mess all over the house anyway I decided to take away Sam's potty trainer that sits in the big toilet. We have been using it for the convenience of not cleaning the toilet as often since he doesn't tuck well. The insert has a splash guard that takes care of all that. Well, it seems to be hampering him being able to relax and go well on any toilet that doesn't have that. So I'm going to take it away and force him to use the big toilet like normal folks. Dwayne took him in this morning and helped him stand and pee. He got pretty excited about that and I gave him a sucker for a job well done. I hope it motivates him to continue. Either way we will have to make it work. I threw out the potty trainer so there is no going back.

Wish us good luck and lots of patience this week as we start our potty training adventure. It is moments like these that I am so grateful I only have two kids and this is the end of this particular milestone in mommyhood.

File Folder Fun

I decided today that I wanted to do something other than being on the computer all day. I looked around at my various projects and tried to figure out what caught my interest. My eyes finally landed on my laminator that I bought several months ago and have only used once. I bought it with the intention of making games for my kids. I had found a website called http://www.filefolderfun.com that has templates and patterns for making your own file folder games. The first two games I made for the kids back when I first got the laminator had the pieces lost pretty quickly. I decided this time around I would only let them play with them in a structured sitting where I can keep an eye on the pieces.

I went to the website and started printing out all the games I wanted to make. I had forgotten how long cutting out the pieces and gluing them to folders actually takes. I had printed out enough stuff to make 6 games. I started out all cheerful in the morning and with only a quick lunch and a few bathroom breaks I was still cutting and pasting till late this afternoon. My hand is cramping and my back hurts. I don't know why I get so gung-ho and then usually bite off more than I want to do. Oh well. I finally finished at 4:00. Just in time to clean up and start a new mess with dinner. Now I'm going to let the glue dry completely before I allow the kids to play with them. But I am happy that I have 6 new games to occupy them for approx. 15 min. tomorrow. LOL

Parade is a Bust

Our little town this weekend is celebrating Oregon Trail Days and has a little Wine and Music Festival. Apparently this is a big deal around here and Dwayne and I just didn't know it. If I hadn't seen the newspaper insert that highlighted the festival and schedule, etc. we would have been clueless about what the noise was all about. I saw that they were going to have a parade in town on the main drive. Luckily, we live close enough to walk to the parade route without having to deal with trying to find parking, etc. So even though it was going to be way too hot for my comfort, I figured I would suck it up, put on sunscreen, pack some snacks and walk down with the kids. We even loaded the camera for those oh so perfect picture moments of our kids experiencing their first parade! We arrived shortly after the parade already started but it was ok because it is a small town. We found a nice spot right at the beginning of the parade route, parked the kids strollers right in front where they can see and started pointing and waving. At first, they just watched the whole thing with great big eyes not really sure what the noise was all about. Most of the parade participants started tossing candy and Sam showed a little interest but there was no way he was getting out of the stroller. So the dutiful Mom that I am, I ran out and grabbed all the candy for my two darlings even though I felt a little ridiculous being one of the only adults running after the candy. And I am large woman. I can only imagine what people were thinking. Oh well, anything for my darlings.

I gave them both a sucker hoping that the candy would help liven them up a bit and they sucked on those thinking it was pretty good. Evie almost immediately became a sticky mess which I hate but I stopped worrying about the mess and just let her enjoy it. Then the firetrucks and ambulances came. Sam pointed at it and said, "Firetruck." We smiled and said, "You are right! Smile and wave at the fireman." Sam started to do that and then they started their sirens. Both kids jumped and started bawling. They were freaked out. And there wasn't just one firetruck. There were several scattered throughout the parade. So we would just start them getting calmed down and they would see another one was coming and start up again. Evie and Sam both wanted to be held which led to sticky fingers all over my shirt and a sucker in my hair. (That is why I hate sticky stuff and little kids.) And in between the bouts of crying I was still running out into the parade route to get my kids their share of candy. About half way through the parade Sam looked right at me and told me that he does NOT like firetrucks. But we stuck it out to the bitter end. At the end they cheered up a little bit because there were a bunch of people riding horses.

We were going to go check out Trader's Row in the park but Sam emphatically told me he wanted to go home and I was tired and hot anyway. It sounded like a good idea to me. And through it all we forgot to take out the camera. Oh well. Apparently, this is a yearly event so I'm sure I'll suck it up and try again next year. But ya, this year was a bust.

Vacation Bible School

I have been busy this week helping out with VBS at our church. What an exhausting but also fun week. The church provided babysitting for the helpers children that are too young to participate. The cut-off age was 4 so Sam couldn't do it this year but I am excited for him next year. I decided to volunteer though because they need a lot of hands and it provides a great opportunity for me to get out of the house. I worked at the snack station this year. I think I liked that much better than being a crew leader. I was a crew leader last year and by the end of the week I was tired of chasing down the same kids day after day. With snacks it went really smoothly and the troublemakers are gone in 20 minutes. LOL. It was hard to get started in the mornings though. Evie still cries when Dwayne and I leave her so I had to go through that heartache every morning when leaving her with the babysitters. The workers told me that she settles down pretty quickly and has lots of fun but it sure does rip out the heart to hear her screaming as I rush out the door. Today was the worst because she started crying as soon as we pulled into the church parking lot. We didn't even make it to the classroom today before the tears started. I never had to experience that separation with Sam. He has always been "see ya" and off playing with his new friends. Luckily, they didn't have tears when I picked them up. They are happy to see me but also interested in staying and playing with all the neat stuff. It is only the promise of lunch that gets them to come to me and out the door. I'm really looking forward to next year. I'll probably be a crew leader again and see if I can lead Sam's group but we'll see. I have another year before I have to think about it.

I have Air Conditioning!

My mom came up this weekend to say hi to the kids and return our van to us finally. They had borrowed it to take with them to Idaho when they went camping on the 4th of July. It sure is nice to have it back! I never thought I would miss having a mini-van but I really missed all the room. Melody and Mom also realized that they had a small air-conditioner sitting in the garage. It actually belongs to Melody but she said we could borrow it since she doesn't know if she will ever move out. LOL. It works perfectly! I am so so grateful because we are staying so much cooler now and I am soooo happy.

Saturday, Mom and I finally went to Wolf Haven. I have had some passes from my birthday and haven't gone yet. It was really fascinating and I learned some things about wolves that I didn't know before. There gift shop prices were also outrageously low and I intend to go back there to get a couple things for the house when I run into a little more money. After that we ran to Home Depot to pick up a piece of plywood for our window and the air-conditioner. Mom also graciously agreed to babysit and Dwayne and I went to go see Harry Potter. It was very good but definately not the best of them. You can tell that they are just laying the foundation for the big finale. But it was so great to finally go on a date with my husband. It has been a long time since we have done anything alone.

Sunday we just relaxed in the house most of the day. I had a meeting I had to go to at the church around 2pm. Mom left about that time too after waiting long enough for Evie to get up from her nap so she could say goodbye. I'm volunteering at Vacation Bible School again this year. I had a great time and they are offering babysitting for the volunteers so I can go and help even though Sam and Evie aren't old enough to participate. So Sunday they had a volunteer meeting to go over the last details. Last year I was a crew leader and actually herded a group of kids around. This year I was placed at the snack station. I'm not sure which I like better. They both have their pros and cons. I'll probably rotate every year to give myself some variety. Especially since I like parts of everything. I'm excited for next year as Sam will finally be old enough to participate. I'm really proud of Evie too. Usually she cries when we leave her but I ducked out when she got occupied with something and she didn't throw a fit at all. Apparently, she had a great time playing with all the kids and toys. I'm so happy. Hopefully, she will continue to be so accomodating the rest of the week.

A hot one

Yesterday was a hot day! I know I shouldn't complain but for someone who finds 75 just perfect, 89 degrees was way too hot. Today is supposed to be another hot day. Luckily, the forcast for next week is back in the upper 70's which is supposedly the average temperature for this time of year around here. I'm finding I like the summers up here in Washington better than in Oregon. We are consistently about 10 degrees cooler than in the Portland area. If yesterday was hot for me, I don't want to even think about how miserable I would be down there. But, of course, down there I had air-conditioning but we aren't going to think about that. LOL.

We started the day going to the park with a friend. I'm so excited that I think that I have made a friend finally. We have gotten together every Thursday for the last few weeks to let the kids play. She has a 12 year old from a previous marriage and a one year old. Her kids are great and we are even talking about exchanging babysitting so we each can go out occasionally. This would be a wonderful solution and an answer to prayers. Please pray that our friendship continues to grow and we find great value in each other.

There is a new Trader Joe's opening up in the Olympia area. I'm planning on applying for a job there today so please think extra thoughts around 2 or 3pm that I will do well and leave a good impression. They are only allowing in person applications so I'm hoping that will mean I get an onsite and immediate interview. I know I have the skills it's just getting people to get past the physical appearance. It shouldn't be that way but I know that my weight has factored into people's hiring decisions. Hopefully, my personality will outshine everything. I'm getting a bit nervous. It has been a while since I've had to interact with other adults in a professional manner. I hope I'm not too rusty today. Anyway, I'll let everyone know how it goes.

A few Cute Pictures

We caught Sam actually falling asleep with his teddy bear. So cute!

"Get the camera Mom! Look I have THREE hats!"

This one is my favorite. Dwayne and I all of a sudden hear Sam yelling at the top of his lungs, "Yee Haw!" We turn around to see him like this.

Help with my soup.

Evie is getting so big. She seems to have gained even more personality these last couple of weeks and I'm always amazed at her vocabulary for her age. She rarely makes mistakes with her words. She doesn't do complete sentences most of the time and her words can be a little slurry or hard to understand but the sounds are always in the right order. So it made me giggle to hear her asking for help with her soup at dinner. We weren't having soup today. It was fish, rice, and corn. I finally realized that she was wanting help with her fork! All utensils apparently are spoons which are pronounced soups. I hope I can remember these small things when they get older. I'm amazed at how quickly they are growing.

Doing Better

The last few days have been a trial of patience. I have been off emotionally and that doesn't leave much room for patience with the kids. I am happy to report I am doing much much better now and I'm feeling like my old self again. Thanks to everyone who listened to me and offered words of wisdom to help me get by. I've been doing a little soul searching to figure out why I am disastisfied and have come to several conclusions. I also asked myself, of those things, what are the items I can control and do something about? One of the big pressures for me and our household is our financial situation. We are just getting by. All the bills get paid and we have food on the table but there is absolutely nothing left. Most often I can't fill my vehicle with gas so I'm stuck at home. I can't spontaneously bring home pizza for dinner or take my kids to the pool or buy ice cream or any of those small things that are enjoyable. If something drastic should happen we are screwed. I realized that I can help with this and having a little extra cash would be very helpful. So I'm going to start to look for a part-time evening or weekend job. I have already put in an application with Wal-Mart and will be sending more applications out there soon. I have decided that the kids are still my first priority so if I can't find a job that will work around my being home with them then it wasn't meant to be and I'll keep trudging on. I think a part-time job will help with my sanity a bit too. I have been feeling so isolated and alone. I don't have any girlfriends or other adults to talk to or hang out with. I recently met a woman at the church that I feel comfortable with and we went for a walk yesterday. It was so nice to get outside and I hope that we develop a good friendship. Keep us in your prayers as I pursue this new avenue for work and that the right position will fall into our laps.

The Tattling Has Begun

Yesterday was one of those days that Mommies are so glad when they are finished. It started out bad enough when I had a dentist appointment at 7 am in the morning. I'm grateful our dentist has extended hours so Dwayne doesn't have to miss much work but it sure does make an early morning. Luckily, there were no new cavities so I don't have to worry about new dental work for another 6 months. I got home and did my usual morning chores and then sat down on my computer to check email, etc. All of a sudden behind me, I hear Sam screaming at Evie to get off him. I turn around to see her lying on her brother and ignoring my instructions to get off him. This behavior continued all morning long, with one or the other picking on the other one just to hear them scream. This isn't an unusual occurrence but my patience yesterday was non-exsistent. I was about to pop. So I started calling around to all my cousins, family, etc. just to do something to distract me from doing something I would regret later. Unfortunately, everyone was busy. Don't you realize that you must drop everything when I call and need you? *Sigh.* It did finally calm down when I put Evie down for her nap. I stuck Sam in front of the TV and I vegged in front of the computer for a couple hours. (Yes, I used the TV as a babysitter and I have no regrets!) The afternoon went much more calmly and I was able to take their antics more in stride. I think they got over most of their obnoxiousness towards each other because I didn't hear screaming half as often as the morning.

I finally regained my sense of humor towards dinner time especially as I had convinced Dwayne to bring home good ole Mc D's for dinner. I was busy folding laundry when all of a sudden I hear from across the house Sam yelling at me, "Mooooommmmmmyyyy! Evie is not being nice to the cat!!!!" I chuckled to myself as I realized Sam has reached a new milestone. The tattling has begun!

4th of July

Sorry I'm so late updating this blog. I've been really busy getting ready for the holiday weekend and I haven't been feeling well the last couple of days. I tried to do an update last night but the website was acting up and I didn't have the patience to give it another shot. We had a wonderful weekend though it was a bit hot for our tastes. Dianne and Terry came up Friday and we spent the day doing as much precooking and prepping for the BBQ as we could so we could enjoy ourselves on Saturday. Dwayne was able to have Friday off as well so it was nice to have him around for 3 days.

Saturday, Dave and Charlene and their boys came up to visit and stay the night. We spent time just trying to stay cool and watched a couple movies. We BBQ'd some hamburgers and hotdogs with all the fixins and I made a huge potato salad. I always plan too much food but that is ok because now I won't need to cook for a couple of nights. I just have to find a couple new ways to serve leftovers. I tried to have Sam take a nap in the afternoon and he stayed in his room but I'm not convinced he actually napped. He gave those up a long time ago. But at least he relaxed for a little bit. We let them stay up extra late to see a few fireworks for us. We didn't do anything special. Just some snakes, sparklers, and groundblooms. Sam wasn't sure about this whole thing. He thought they were exciting but you could tell he was a little nervous about them. Especially when one of the groundblooms shot straight towards where he was sitting. He asked to be held pretty much from then on. I was going to try and keep them up even later so they could see all the big ones being shot in the sky but they (and Mom) were pretty much done after our little bit. So into a bath and bed. They went straight to sleep and didn't even move most of the night even when all the other fireworks were going off around us.

Watching the fireworks from the sidelines.

Sunday, I got up and made everyone a large stack of pancakes and then everyone took off pretty quickly after that. They wanted to hit the road while it was a little early and before the worst of the holiday traffic hit. We all had a great time and I am grateful they stopped by to come and see us. Hopefully, next year we will have a little more money and take advantage of living in Washington with some cool fireworks we can shoot in the air.

Nice Weekend

We had a wonderful weekend. We spent Saturday doing a mixture of things that needed to be done and just relaxing around the house. We have 3 trees in front of our house that had branches hanging really really low. Dwayne kept getting annoyed because they made it difficult to mow around. We finally grabbed the ladder and a hand saw and went out and trimmed back the trees. It has made a huge difference. We still get the shade because the trees are so large but we can finally move around freely underneith them without feeling like our head is going to get taken off at any moment. The kids frequently play around them also and I like being able to see out the kitchen window and seeing them much easier. Saturday night we went to church and I spent my first official week as one of the Sunday school volunteers. I've been procrastinating and not wanting to do it. I love my own kids to death but I am not always fond of other peoples kids. I feel horrible saying that but it is what it is. I've been feeling a desire to serve at our church but I'm haven't been able to figure out what ministry I've been wanting to help in. It has been especially hard because the kids were still so little and needy. The children's ministry always needed help and I finally decided to bite the bullet and do it. Sometimes the best personal growth comes from doing something you don't necessarily want to do. Besides, I'll get to hang out with my kids and husband as Dwayne has already been helping out for a year now.

Sunday we mostly just hung out around the house. Dwayne did break out the sprinkler and let the kids get wet but it wasn't all that warm out (only about 70) and Sam especially wasn't very fond of the cold water. They then spent some time in the sandbox while Dwayne sat outside reading. I also finally got around to attempting making pretzels again. They turned out so much better! I can't say they look very professional but they tasted wonderful. We even bought a can of Campbell's Nacho Cheese Soup to use as a cheese dip for them. Everyone thought they were great.

This coming 4th of July weekend will be very busy for us. We have Dwayne's core family coming up to visit and I'm so looking forward to it. We are planning a BBQ and I'm going to let the kids stay up for the first time to see some fireworks if they don't fall asleep first in the meantime. I'll be spending most of the week trying to catch up on housework and making the place ready for overnight visitors.

Small Update

I finally heard back from the doctor yesterday regarding my MRI results. Good news is my brain looks normal and the last bloodwork came back normal. So the only thing that is unusual is I do have high levels of testosterone. Usually they combat that by giving estrogen in birth control form. But I did have a small period on my own last month. It only lasted about 2 days and was very light but the doctor says it counts. So he wants to wait before assigning me any drugs. I am to wait until November and then I will go in for another ultrasound to take a look at my uterus again. If I have any more periods in the meantime, I am supposed to report it. So we are pretty much just in a wait and see mode before he gives me any kind of diagnosis, etc. I'll keep everyone updated as I learn more but at this point I don't think they really know. I will just try to continue upping my activity level and stay as healthy as I can in the mean time.

Sold the Crib

Yesterday, I managed to sell Sam's old crib/toddler bed on Craig's List. I have had it listed for the last 3 weeks with a couple people interested but no one actually taking it. Well, I got an email the night before last and the people came and picked it up yesterday. I managed to sell it for $100. The people who bought it got a great deal! We paid $300-400 for it brand new when Sam was born. It gave me a little heartache to see it go but they had brought their little girl who was getting it and she was cute as a button. I'm glad to see that it will be well-used again. I would have kept it if we had the storage space but that is just impossible with our current house. I just can't keep things that aren't needed at the moment. I don't want to be so surrounded by stuff that I start feeling like many of my pack-rat relatives. (I'm not talking about anyone who reads this, of course. LOL)

So, of course, we immediately went and spent the money. I picked Dwayne up from work, we had a light dinner, and then visited Walmart. We bought a set of cheap bookshelves and got a few more groceries. Dwayne stayed up late putting up the bookshelves last night and unpacking his entire Star Wars collection. It has been a very long time since we have been able to display the whole thing for him and he is so delighted. I keep teasing him that his geekiness is shining through this morning. He has been so nice in making other books a priority any time we get extra space and keeping his collection in boxes. I'm glad I decided to let him unpack his books rather than the rest of our other books because he is so happy.

Father's Day

Mom and Melody came up to visit us this weekend. We were very excited to see them as Sam had been asking a lot lately where Aiden, Auntie, and Grandma were. We spent Saturday playing a little Maplestory and then spending the afternoon at WalMart. Dwayne went to go get the brakes fixed on the van and the guy asked us who told us we needed brakes? It turns out that in his opinion we don't need brakes for at least 4 months of solid use and we don't use the van all that much anyway. So we got to spend money on things I had on my list. I was very excited and we spent the afternoon shopping.

Today we all woke up and decided we wanted to spend some time outside and get out of the house a little. There is a State Park near by that I have been wanting to visit and it turns out there are a couple Geocache finds in the park. So I loaded up the coordinates, a picnic lunch, and the strollers and off we went. We ended up only finding one as it had two parts and by the time we were done the kids were really tired. We ended up hiking a little bit but it was a lot of fun and we got to explore the park a little. Even though it is close to our house we will probably end up camping there in the future as the park is gorgeous and there are swimming holes, hiking trails, boat rentals, fishing, and picknicking. We had a wonderful time and came home with that drowsy feeling of an active productive day. We ended the day with a pizza dinner for Dad and some chilling out.

Sam and Aiden loved the water and the lake was so pretty and calm in the morning.

Melody was the one who spotted the first part of our cache hunt.

After 10 minutes or more of hunting, Melody was the one who found the final cache as well. Here she is posing with her find. This part of the hiking trail was so pretty and the kids had fun tramping through all the dirt and bushes "helping" us find our hidden treasure.

Busy Weekend Ahead

Today was payday and the nice part was a little extra bonus too. I've been making a priority list for weeks now on all those extra odds and ends that you want to buy but never have the money for. On the top of the list was a sandbox for the kids because I can't seem to keep them out of the dirt. Every time I turn around they are playing in it. Since I don't know what kind of creepy crawlys or poo or fertilizer, etc, etc is in it, I would much rather they play in sand. I've been checking Craig's list and no such luck for sandboxes. I also needed to have the tires rotated and breaks checked anyway. What do you know? Les Schwab is conveniently located next to ToysRUs. So off we went shopping while they were working on our van. I found the sandbox, bags of sand, and a bigger slide for them too. I managed to get it all home and set up............just in time for it to start raining. Sigh. Evie had a borderline tantrum when I told her she couldn't play in it. I also have this big beautiful slide set up for them but they could care less. They are all about that sandbox. At least I know it was worth the money spent. I think we will get many many years of use out of it.

Les Schwab told us that our rear breaks are at 10%. Since I'm letting Mom and Melody borrow the van for a few weeks so they can use it to travel to Idaho over the holidays, I figured we better get them fixed. Besides, I don't know when I'll have a large chunk of money again to take care of them. But it means putting my fun list aside. Oh well, most of it can probably wait for the next bonus. (But I'm selfishly and sorely disappointed.) And I know Mom and Melody will be safe. Our appt. is tomorrow so that will be taken care of in time for them when they come up this weekend for a visit and to take the van. Since they are coming up, we will be busy running around with them and I probably won't have time to post. I'll try to give everyone an update on all our fun happenings on Monday.

Meet Shadow

Well, we did it. I got a 2nd kitten! It was totally unexpected and unplanned but I'm in love with him already. He is a dark gray tabby whom we are calling Shadow. I haven't gotten a good picture of him yet but you can see profiles of him with Moon in the pictures below. He is approximately 8 weeks old so that makes him about 2 weeks older than Moon.

So how did this come about? Let me tell you. Friday, I got an email from Dwayne with a picture of a momma cat nursing some kittens. Apparently his coworker's friend sent an email around with the picture to help find homes for them and to show off the surprise of their birth. Apparently, they didn't know they had this bunch of kittens underneith her porch until she saw them all nursing in the front yard. I wrote Dwayne another email back just laughing at him and commenting that it was too late. I was already too invested emotionally and financially in Moon, unless he was interested in a 2nd one? I was totally teasing and just being silly. Well, Dwayne writes me back with a comment like whether or not you get a second kitten is not up to me. I'm staying totally out of that decision. I was like, Huh? Are you serious? Will you really let me have another one? So I called him up immediately. According to him, he was indifferent to the idea. He had no feelings one way or another. Well, you know me. You give me indecision and I'll take advantage. (Giggles with an evil grin.) I did decide in my own head that if the kitten didn't just fall into place and was going to cost us adoption fees, or was getting to complicated to meet the person, I would just bag the whole thing. Fortunately for me, they were giving the kittens away for free and as it turns out they would be ready in a few days. They also only lived about 15 min away. So after several email exchanges, we went last night to pick up our new kitten. I didn't have a lot of choice as they had found homes for everyone. There was a white female with pointed ears that looked very similar to Moon that I wanted but someone else had priority on that one. I had my choice of the last gray one or one of 3 orange tabbies. I took the gray male and now I have two!

It is already working out great! Moon was bottle-fed so he is very attached and cuddly to humans but doesn't have very good kitty habits like burying his poo or grooming himself real well because he didn't have a Momma to show him how. Shadow was raised outside and had a Momma and siblings to play with and show him how to be a cat. But he is a little shy and startles easily. They have been learning from each other and they seem to enjoy one another's company. Shadow was really shy about being held until he saw Moon hop onto my lap and start purring away. He then allowed me to hold and pet him and totally relaxed after a short amount of time. Moon has been eating exclusively soft food and still making a mess. But after seeing Shadow eat the solid kibble, this morning he started eating hard food for the first time. It is fun to see them learning from each other and even though Shadow is still a little shy, I am amazed at how much he has settled in just overnight. I think these two will be life-long buds and they will both be quite attached to us. Which is fine. I try really hard to make life-long commitments to my animal friends when I bring them into our lives.

.

Untimely Interruption

Well, Dwayne and I experienced a first, and hopefully last, parent moment last night. Shortly after putting the kids to bed and taking our own showers, we decided to enjoy each other. Well, when things were getting nice and exciting, into our bedroom walks Sam. He looked a little surprised to see us "wrestling" but seemed more sheepish about the fact that he was out of bed. I don't think we scarred him for life but Mom and Dad took a little while to get over it. Once he was tucked back in and our bedroom door was firmly closed we laughed it off. But I think we might have to rethink our schedule for such things in the future.

The past few days, Evie has been fighting a major break-out in hives. You can tell they itch terribly and I have been keeping her dosed with Benadryl. They are completely covering her belly and now venturing down her left leg. I have been racking my brain trying to figure out what she was exposed to and can't come up with any likely candidates. I even took her to the doctor because they were getting so bad but he wasn't much help either. He didn't even give me a cream or anything to help clear them up. Pretty much we were given the instructions to keep dosing her with Benadryl and if they don't clear up in two weeks to come back again. The nurse said that many times we don't know what causes them and it could have even been a virus she fought off that caused it. Who knows? Luckily, they seem to be starting to clear up now.

Sam is turning into mister independent. Lately, he has been wanting to do things for himself. Small things like getting himself dressed and wanting to wipe his own butt after a poo. This is a huge relief for me since he has been one of those kids who wants Mom to do everything for him because it is just easier. I'm especially excited about the bathroom issues because I'm planning on potty training Evie this summer and don't want to deal with two at the same time. Though Sam will still need help for a while. He still is reluctant to pee standing up and doesn't tuck very well when sitting on a "big" toilet without the toddler seat. But small steps. I look back at everything he is doing and realize that he has started doing a lot the past 4 or 5 months but it hasn't been as noticeable because they have happened in small steps.

Dwayne and I have been having good discussions about Creation vs Evolution. This past year I have subscribed to a magazine called Creation Magazine. http://creation.com/creation-magazine It has answered so many questions for me in regards to science, dinosaurs, how the universe was made, etc. All from a Christian perspective but with the science to back it up. Having gone to public school, I was indoctrinated in evolution and that the universe was not created. But my church and faith was telling me otherwise. I believed the Bible was true but how do you explain all the varieties of animals and the millions of years it supposedly took to create the earth. And what about dinosaurs? I even started to compromise by thinking that when Genesis said the world was created in a day that it was a metaphore and since time means something different to God that maybe a day was actually a million years? I just didn't have the Biblical or theological knowledge to know. This magazine has been a wonderful eye-opener and has given me a huge relief in regards to the Bible and my faith that I didn't even know was a worry. It presents nature articles and scientific information with the same evidence out there being used to support Evolution, but shows how it actually fits better using God as the creator. It also helped me to realize that if we can't even take Genesis at face value that God did indeed create the world in 7 days then it allows us to start to question everything in the Bible. This line of thinking would then question everything in regards to Jesus. If I can believe that Jesus did in fact die and 3 days later rose again from the dead, then why can't I believe that God is big enough to create the world in 7 days? For me, this has always just been in faith. I didn't have the knowledge to argue why I believe. This magazine has been a great tool in opening my eyes to how wonderful God really is and even in science he has proven his existence. If you have the extra money, I highly recommend you get this magazine. It has been a wonderful education for both Dwayne and I.