Angel Food

I know I know, I promised a video of the kids. And it'll come ... eventually! ;) But right this moment I wanted to rave about a ministry that my family LOVES and has been extremely blessed by. It's called Angel Food Ministries.

Every month you place an order for one (or more) boxes of food. The basic box is usually $30/box. They have specialty boxes that are anywhere from $19-25/box. Each box comes with a set menu (that you can find on their website -- linked above). The $30 box would cost at least $60 if not more in my local grocery store. It is 60% meat, and usually has eggs, shelf stable milk, a dessert item, and then a few vegetables. The specialty boxes are things like "grill boxes" or the "fruit and vegetable box".

I placed my most recent order Oct 15. I spent $139. My freezer is full. And I mean FULL. As in, you have to be careful when opening the freezer door or else you'll have food falling on top of you. We will be able to eat off of this meat for about a month. There are frozen veggies. And I got the fruit and vegetable box. Kairi has already helped herself to a pear and it was "oh mommy! sooooo UMMY!!!!!!".

The food is of a great quality. Now, I will admit that some of the food isn't what you want/need if you're trying to lose weight, but there are always ways to modify it. And this month they began distributing a "Senior Box" of pre-cooked and pre-packaged single serving meals that are healthy and nutritionally balanced. I almost bought that box just so that I had easy to prepare lunches for myself.




Angel Food Ministries is found all over the country. To know if there's one near you, simply visit their website and put in your zip code where it offers to help you find a local host site. Jacksonville only has one, but Midland has 9, and San Antonio has 52!!!

Angel Food has several other ministries such as disaster relief, and they work closely with food pantries and soup kitchens to help those who simply cannot afford to eat. When a church becomes a host site, they donate $1/box distributed to the church's benevolent fund in order to help that church continue to serve their community!



Home Page: http://www.angelfoodministries.com
Host Sites: http://www.angelfoodministries.com/hosts.asp
The Monthly Menu: http://www.angelfoodministries.com/menu_0810en.asp

A Flashback

I was recently reminded of a video I took of Kairi when she was about 13 months old. It's the only video I have of other kid because it's hard to get Chris's camera (the only one w/ that capability) to record, and the videos always come out dark. But as I rewatched it today, I had to laugh because I saw so much of both of my children in it. I hear Alex's noises and see his smile, but the attitude, the cry, and the babble at the end are all Kairi. It's amazing to see how much of her personality was in full force at that age. So here, today I will share that video with you, and pledge that once both kids have been bathed and dressed, that I will pull out the camera and record them being cute today.

Someone come get my children ... PLEASE!

Please ... before I lock them in their rooms for the rest of the day?!? Please!

Kairi has followed me around today screaming:
Nohse gucky Mommy. GUCKY! (Boogers were hanging out of her nose because she would put her finger up there and pull them to the edge of her nose and then insist on a kleenex.)
Pussh Mommy. Pussh. In room NOW. (Apparently I'm supposed to sit on her bed while she piles toys on top of me ... so she was pushing me into her room.)
Mommy, tell Dash HUSH. Hear Dash? HUSH. NOW! (And he wasn't crying ... he was just talking to his toys.)
Mommy, shoes on. NOW. (She's taken them off 12 times already just so that I'll put them back on.)
Mommy! READY?!? COUNT! One ... two ...
Mommy ... socks! Now! (Because the newest pair of socks she found will certainly fit over the shoes she refuses to let me remove first...)
And repeat.

I have nothing left in my purse ... she pushed a chair over to the kitchen cabinet and crawled up to get my purse. I found her standing on the cabinet crying b/c the chair was too far away. This is the girl that cries b/c she's too scared to get up and down in those same chairs at the table.

I also found her trying to shove "anmal cackers" down the cat's throat b/c he was "huggy Mommy. Keycat eat cackers!"

Let's not forget her leading Alex into her room on 4 different occasions just to shut the door while he was in the room and then laugh hysterically b/c "Awix Stuck! HAHAHAHAHAHA Awix Stuck!"

Alex hasn't been as bad, but he still doesn't feel well, so he's crawling around whining. The only thing that calms him down is Sister sitting down and playing with him. But instead of playing w/ him, she sits down on the floor, calls him over to her, and the moment he reaches her she jumps up and runs away laughing yelling "sapize!" Which always results in tears.

I have laundry to do, dishes to wash, a floor to mop, I need to wash my sheets, change Kairi's bedding, hang up clothes, and to vacuum the living room floor. Oh, and I have Dash all day today.



So please ... come rescue my kids before their mother loses it. Or, better yet, come rescue me!



And on that note ... a little diddy for you:
http://www.turoks.net/Cabana/TheyreComingToTakeMeAwayHaHa.htm

Alex's Costume Came Today ....

Clickable pictures again. :)

How we know that Alex is related to me....

Besides the fact that he was cut out of my body and everything ....

He loves his sleep. This morning he crawled into his room, pulled up on his crib, and yelled at me to get in there. I walked in and picked him up. He practically crawled out of my arms to get into his bed! So he's in bed. An hour early, but it doesn't matter because he CHOSE to go to bed!


Now, if I just could find a reason to make Kairi take a nap I'd join him. ;)

We made the plunge!

I finally talked Chris into letting me purchase some of the more expensive cloth diapers. We bought primarily the BumGenius 3.0s but we also snagged a Happy Heiny and a FuzziBunz. Oh, and one BumGenius 2.0 -- I haven't used it yet though as it's pink. I still prefer the BG's, but the other two will come in handy when I just need that extra diaper. Our first shipment came Wednesday so we started them Thursday. Our next shipment will come sometime next week -- I can't wait! That'll give us 13 diapers. 10 BG's that I'll want to use on a regular basis. 1 BG that will only be a night diaper. And two others for backups. It'd be great if we could afford to get Kairi in a cloth diaper fulltime as well, but they're so expensive and it was already out of our budget....

Actually, that's what I plan on getting Alex for his birthday ... more diapers. ;) And it's all I really want from other people. We have clothes. (I mean, the boy is still in 6/9 month clothes.....we may have enough clothes to last him another year if he keeps growing at this rate. Especially now that I invested in pants w/ an adjustable waist band.) And this house already looks like ToyRUs threw up in it. So diapers is all he's getting from us!

It's all about Kairi...

Or this post is at least. I know, I know, I need to get better about blogging during the week and not all at once. But at least I blog! So I'll title each part of this as if it were a blog post in and of itself. :D



"What happened to Six?"

Monday was the day to clean Kairi's room. I had Kairi and Alex and Dash in there to "help". Which really means that Dash was sitting in the bumbo and yelling b/c I wasn't holding him. Alex was dumping every single thing that I had just filled (think bag of foam blocks, basket of plastic blocks, bookcase full of books, etc). And Kairi was running behind my back and transferring things -- take the block out of the bag and put it in the play stove, take the food out of the play refrigerator and put it in the bookcase, take a book out of the bookcase and put it in the bed,.... you get the idea.

Now, when Kairi "cleans" she also counts. This started when we were living in Midland and we went to visit my grandparents' house. Every time it was time to go we would have her put the toys back in the toy box, and the only way to get her to do it was to count each toy as she put it in. Normally Kairi's counting goes like this "two, twree, two, twree, fif, eight, nine, two, twree, fourf, ten, svn, fif, nine". More recently she's been able to go "one, two, twree, one, two, twree, one, two, twree, one, two, twree". But Monday, I was in shock.

I heard:
One, two, twree, fourf, fif.
With this feat alone I was rejoicing and praising her! But she wasn't going to stop there...She started over
"One, two, twree, fourf, fif. Svn,Eight,Nine,Ten."
After every number my heart jumped ... how smart is she?!? I was proud and excited and laughing because she skipped the number six.

She hasn't done it again since then, but she has counted along with me several times. I'm so proud of her, but also a little sad -- my baby girl is growing up!



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"My Favorite Lipstick"

Last night after supper, Kairi was set free from the table while Chris and I talked and started to clean up. Eventually we walked into the living room at the same time.

As we walked in, Kairi tossed my lipstick tube and tried to wipe her hands on her shirt -- like that was going to help.




















Again, clickable links.



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"See the Moon!"

Kairi has found the led flashlight that Chris and I bought as part of our hurricane prep. She's been carrying it around the house and pointing it at dark walls shouting:

See the moon! Mommy! The moon! See it!



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A House of Sick

It became official Thursday afternoon.

My son has a double ear infection. He may or may not have a stomach virus. It could be the antibiotics he's been on causing his problems. Or it could be all the mucous draining from his head to his stomach. Whatever it is ... he needs a bath twice a day just to handle the smell.

Kairi woke up from her nap shortly before I took Alex to the doctor running a fever. So she got to join us at the appointment. (This also meant that Daddy went with us -- yay!) I didn't think that she was terribly sick but, as my mom pointed out, something caused the fever. Might as well find out what it is while we're there. Turns out, it's viral tonsillitis. She has blisters all over her tonsils.

Leaving the doctor's office, it hit me that my throat had been bothering me that day as well. Looked in the mirror, and yeah, I've got a nice red throat too. Wonderful.

Oh, and one of Chris's ears is bothering him.


Would you like to come over and eat w/ us? hahahahahahahahaha................

More Crib Recalls....

If you hadn't heard yet, there have been more crib recalls. Simplicity is once again the culprit.

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml08/08401.html

And yes, our crib was on it. The recall states that you should return the recalled item to the original retailer for a refund/exchange.

I bought our crib from our neighbor when we moved into the house -- I had no clue where they originally bought it. So I asked them. :) They bought it at WalMart. Chris and I took the crib apart and loaded it up in the car. I took it up to the store for the recall.

They almost didn't let me in the store w/ the old crib. The guy didn't understand English and kept telling me that returns must have a upc or else you can't come in. He eventually called his manager on me.

The manager turned me over to costumer service after letting me in. They promptly told me that they don't accept returns on products that are 3 yo. The manager got called BACK over there. He lectured them on the difference b/w a recall and a return and said that recalls are ALWAYS good.

And then they still had recalled cribs on the shelf! I almost bought one! The manager ran into me a THIRD time, saw the crib and almost blew a gasket b/c he recognized it from the recall list. He said that it should have been removed first thing this morning and then apologized over and over again b/c it wasn't.

There were only 2 on the shelf that weren't recalled. One was a $200 nursery in a box, which was made by Simplicity. No thank you.

Instead I got an ugly white one. It's a 3-in-1 convertible. And it's the absolute EASIEST crib I've ever put together. And Alex is already asleep in it. And I keep telling myself ... at least it's safe. :) Well, maybe.

Pinning her down

I've just about decided that I need to buy a second highchair to strap Kairi down. She was still eating breakfast while I cleared the rest of the table. I turned around for less than 30 seconds to put dishes in the sink, and when I turned back around she was standing in the middle of the table with my glass of tea upside down. I spanked her butt and put her in timeout, but I seriously doubt that it prevents a repeat performance.

Maybe I can just use duct tape to keep her at the table .......


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If Alex has another ear infection I may lose my mind. His nose is pouring, and I mean POURING. And when he's tired he's messing with his ear again. Hopefully it's nothing, but if it continues through Friday, I'm calling the doctor again.


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Who taught my daughter what an ice cream cone is? She had never had one before ... but yesterday when we walked by an ice cream store in the mall, she started screeching for ice cream. I had already planned on us going in at the end of our shopping trip, so we stopped for a cone.

First of all, she would not share with her brother. Nor would she allow me to hold it. Alex let me hold his cone, and he ended up with some on his face, but no where else. He also allowed me to frequently wipe his face off. Kairi did not. She had ice cream from her eyes to her belly button. It was caked all over her arms and dress and her half of the stroller. It was under her chin in the crease at her neck ... ick. She ate down to the cone, and then tried to steal Alex's.

You could hear her shouting several stores away: "Ummmmmmy Mommy, so ummy! Ank you Mommy! Ank you! So ummmy!"

I thanked God that I had already bought her a new dress, and took her to the bathroom where I stripped her, bathed her in the sink, and then dressed her in her new clothes. From there we went and bought her new shoes to go with her pretty new dress. We also found a skirt, and 2 shirts all on sale.

Alex got one outfit and a pair of pants with an adjustable waist band -- Can you imagine? Pants that FIT him! Hurray!!!


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I need to stop typing. I'm hearing a rattling noise coming from the kitchen that I KNOW is not a normal noise...........

Today as I walked through my house ...

I held a magic eraser in one hand, and the camera in the other. Let me show you what I found.


We can start in her bedroom. This was her sheet.





Of course, I later found 2 more spots on her walls that I didn't get a picture of.

Then through the rest of the house.

































And finally, here's Kairi.




Oh, and Chris pointed out before supper that she has also decorated the trashcan's lid.


This has taken place over the last week.

It started when she discovered where I was hiding the colors. I moved them to the "art box" -- air tight container w/ snapable top that sometimes even I can't open. Kairi at this point realizes that I have crayons in the diaper bag for church. They get moved to the art box too. Kairi learns how to open the art box. It gets moved to the garage. Kairi finds where Daddy keeps sharpie's on the desk. They get moved to the art box in the garage. Kairi learns that Mommy keeps a pen and pencil in her purse. They get moved to the art box in the garage. Kairi slowly begins pulling crayons out of her "stash" which at this point in time has not been located.




ETA: I'd like to point out that the pictures are small for a reason ... if you click on them it'll open a new window/tab and show you the full-sized picture.

Learning to Fail

Our church is doing a special class for parents on Sunday mornings. It's called Teaching Your Children to Mind Without Losing Yours. So far we've only had one class and it was the introduction of the series, but an interesting thought was brought up that I thought I'd pass along.

We need to teach our children how to fail. If they can't learn how to fail and move on in our homes, where it's safe, then where will they? In the video series, Kevin Lehman uses the example of spilled orange juice. When the orange juice is spilled you teach them how to handle their failure ... do you hand them a rag (which is all they really need) or do you clean it up for them while yelling/lecturing them about not being careful? Which one will actually teach them how to handle failure?

I love that idea ... it's in my home that Kairi and Alex are going to learn how to deal w/ the rest of the world. I want to teach them that when you mess up, you clean up your mess, apologize, and move on. Don't dwell on your mistakes, but do learn from them. Don't avoid things just to avoid failure (don't refuse to get the oj out of the fridge b/c you're afraid of spilling it), but instead learn to deal with the mess when it happens.

This thought was really revolutionary to me, although it seems like something that should be common sense. I hope to start looking for the areas in my relationship with my children where I can teach them to fail, instead of overreacting about something minor.


I'm really excited about the rest of this series!

It's a Bright Day

Kairi has a taggie sun that she adores. His name is Day. Day goes everywhere with her. If she really really really likes you, she'll let you hold Day for a few minutes. When she wants to calm Baby Dash, she'll give him Day -- but Alex would be hit for touching Day. She does NOT sleep without him. I did not encourage this. Just one day she picked him up, named him, and he's gone everywhere with her since that day ... until Wednesday.

We went to the doctor's office and Day was with us. We got back in the car, and Day was with us. We got to Walmart to fill Alex's prescriptions, and Day was with us. We left Walmart. Kairi fell asleep on the car ride home. I put her to bed.

She woke up screaming for Day. He's not in the car, or in the diaper bag, or in the house, or in the bags from Walmart. I can't find Day. I don't say his name without spelling it out from this point on.

I spent 20 minutes on hold with Walmart's lost and found department. They couldn't find him. I decided to drive up to Walmart myself and find him. But he wasn't there. Kairi screamed for him the entire time. "Daaaay! Mommy, home. I wan Day! Day NOW Mommy, Where my Day?" A sweet lady offered to help find him in the store b/c Kairi was so upset. No such luck.

Kairi cried herself to sleep b/c she missed her Day. :(

I called the doctor's office and Walmart a second time the next day. Still no Day. I found him online, but he did NOT fit into our budget. It's not that he was terribly expensive, it's that our budget is that restrictive. What to do, what to do?

Over the last few days, Kairi has 1) screamed for him for hours, 2) woken up multiple times asking for him, 3) bawled every time we got in the car b/c he was missing, 4) thrown up because she was so crying so hard for him, and 5) cried at a picture of a sun. We needed a new Day.

I told my girls online about it. I knew they could sympathize, and they did. We all "grieved" for Day, for Kairi's loss, and for what that meant for my future in trying to get Kairi to sleep. And then, one of them decided to do something about it. Joyce found him, bought him, and had him mailed to us!




Today might as well have been her birthday:















She has clutched him all day. Right now she is taking her nap, and because she was allowed to sleep with Day, there was no screaming or crying or fighting nap time. She went down, and she's still out. :)


THANK YOU JOYCE! YOU ROCK!

Ms. Dee, Meet Kairi.....

Since the first time we moved to Jacksonville, Kairi's Sunday School teacher has been Ms. Dee. Kairi loves Ms. Dee and gets excited about going to see her. When we moved back, Ms. Dee was one of the first names that Kairi started saying again. She was thrilled to be back in Ms. Dee's class. Every Sunday between class and nursery, I would go and stand in the room to see how she behaved during class and to wait for the nursery worker to come in so that I could give any instructions that may be needed about Kairi. Ms. Dee and Miss Kathy (the other teacher) have always assured me that Kairi behaved perfectly. She interacts and sings along and shares. She never yells or pushes or takes things away from the other children. And every Sunday I've wondered, who is this child that they speak of, and why does she disappear at home?

Today was no different than most. I walked in the room b/w class and nursery to wait for the teacher exchange. Ms. Dee and I started talking.

M: How did we behave today?
D: Alex was perfect. He always is. He behaves great.
M: Well that's good!
D: But I have to be honest with you. Last week about 3/4 of the way through class, Kairi became a different person. I thought that she was just exerting her independence. She did it again today.
M: Really? (trying to not laugh) She did just turn two. And honestly, this wonderful child you've always described, I didn't know her. I know the one you described today. Since the day she was born we've called her a diva.
D: That was her today!
M: (Still trying to not laugh.) I'm sure it's a mixture of the terrible twos, exerting her independence, and finally feeling comfortable enough in here to show you exactly who she is.
D: That's what I thought, but I really was surprised. I didn't know who this child was! I've never met her before...I was in shock.


Ms. Dee ............ Meet Kairi.

1, 2, 3...

Every six days Chris has duty. This means that in the morning we take him to work, and we don't see him again until after work the next day. It also means getting up at 5:30-5:45am in order to get him to work on time. Can you imagine, me?, getting up that early in the morning, dealing w/ children, driving w/o swerving, and in general not biting someone's head off? Yeah ... me neither. I have found that I can force myself to be kind and patient and pay attention to my driving, if I have the promise of a Diet Coke. I don't keep Diet Coke in my house most of the time, so if I want some, I have to make a run for it. More specifically, I make a Sonic run for it. I know that I will not tolerate my children's antics without my Sonic run, so we've made it a tradition of every morning that we drop Daddy off for duty, we stop at Sonic on the way home and get "cokes an tots".

Wednesday Chris had duty. This morning was no different than most in that we stopped at Sonic on our way home. I bought our tots and cokes and we went on our way.

At home Alex felt bad. Not just a little bad, he felt BAD. I was dealing with him, but Kairi was impatient for a tot. I finally handed her the sack and told her "1, 1 tot" while holding up one finger. She reached in, grabbed one tot, and repeated back to me "1, Mommy, 1 tot" and held up the number! It repeated several times and I was extremely excited about her beginning to grasp the concept of one.

Kairi reached in and grabbed another tot. But this time instead of showing me she just had one, she said "1,Mommy,1.Thankyou." and tried to run off. She didn't show me her finger, she didn't show me what was in her hand. I was suspicious.

M: Kairi, show me what's in your hand right now.
K: *sigh* Here mommy. Holding out her hand of tots.
M: Kairi, there are two tots in that hand. See? 1, 2. I told you one tot. I'm taking one of the tots.
K: *sigh* 1 tot, Mommy. 1. *held up one finger and slowly, dejectedly, walked away*

That was her last tot. And I'm fully convinced that she now understands the concept of one. :D


To help prove my point, yesterday she dumped a set of computer screws on the table. I scolded her and made her help me clean them up. As she put each one in my hand she counted "1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3, 1, 2,". How smart is she?!? Hurray!

Moments like those remind me on a regular basis that the piles of sugar, the dumped mineral powders, the clean diapers strewn about the house that Kairi tried to put on every baby doll she can find, and all the items that have turned up missing in the course of a single day, are worth it. Every single one of them is worth it. Because I get to teach my children! I get to see their minds grow and expand on a daily basis. I get so excited to see Alex as he stands up more and more on his own, knowing that soon he'll be learning to take steps. Yes, I'll cry the first day he walks, but it is still thrilling to get to be here as he learns all these new things. I can't help but get excited as he giggles through "head, shoulders, knees, and toes" because I know that in the blink of an eye, he will be pointing at those body parts and singing along.

I am blessed to have such a wonderful opportunity to be with my children. Of course there are days, shoot weeks, that go by and cause me to question my sanity for choosing to stay home with the kids. But moments like the ones I just described are those that make me love what I do and where I'm at. :)

What did you have for supper this evening, Kairi?

That would be a full bag of salad and over half a sugar container. :D

Seriously, I fed her real food ... this was her doing after supper. But she probably ate more of it than she did her actual meal.

A quick tour of my bathroom ...

I laid Kairi down for her nap, and then walked into my bathroom. Captions are underneath the pictures.


Notice the tampon package lying on the floor. I just found the rest of it in pieces in my living room floor.


What's that on the cabinet door, you ask? My mineral powder. There are similar spots on the wall. If you could see it a little bit better, you'd notice the smooth brush strokes. Oh, and don't worry, that's not the only place she applied the mineral powder. There are other beautiful circles on the wall.


The tears in the blinds were put there by the cat, but Kairi made it worse.


The brown stuff on the toilet seat would be my liquid foundation that I only use once in a blue moon mixed with the mineral powders. Do you see the box of contacts on the floor? There should be two unopened packets in it ... but they're not there.


The inside of my bathtub.



Can't miss the nail polish in the drain.

And the doctor's appt....

His ear infection is still in his right ear, but it's much worse. It caused so much wax buildup that she had to irrigate his ear twice just to see into it. At that point she said that the ear drum was bulging that he probably wouldn't have made it another night w/o it busting. :(

She prescribed a stronger antibiotic. She showed me how to irrigate his ear and I have to do that twice a day. She prescribed a pain med for his ear (which she gave him part of a sample of it in the office). She upped his tylenol and motrin dosage and told me to alternate it every 3 hours since the lowest his fever's been in the last 12 hours is 102.6 -- we have to get it down and keep it down. And lastly, she told me to give him 3/4 tsp of benedryl just to help him get some sleep.


I'm sooo glad I took him in.

Alex is Sick

Last week Alex was diagnosed with his first ear infection in his right ear. Amoxicillin proved to be a miracle drug and within couple days he was doing amazingly well. We even had a couple nights of almost uninterrupted sleep!

Sunday he wasn't feeling 100%. He ran a fever and pulled at his LEFT ear, but showed no other symptoms. We chalked it up to teething.

Monday he was perfectly fine! Until last night. His nose started to pour. I went to bed at 11:30 (Chris had/has a migraine). Alex woke up at 11:45. I got him back to sleep, but not for long. He was up every 20 minutes. A few times in the night I got him to sleep w/ me on the couch where we were both sitting up. But they were few and far between. His temperature this morning has not been below 102. Who knows how high it was last night b/c this is cool compared to then, despite tylenol.

We got up this morning at 5:45 to take Chris to work.

I'm taking Alex to the doctor this morning. We need a solution.

Eatin' Scagettie and Setting Clothing Trends

And Kairi has decided that the latest trend in fashion is to change your nightshirt into day wear by making it a skirt!