I do Yudu...do YOU do Yudu too?

So a couple of months ago, Ande and I agreed to buy a Yudu machine.  For those of you who don't know what it is, it's basically a screen printing machine.  Ande thought it would be great in helping cut some costs for his guitar amplifier building business.  The first amplifier he made, he got the chassis (where you put the knobs) engraved.  Very pretty, but extremely expensive, and not really cost effective.  We're talking like $120 PER chassis.  EEESSSSHHHHHH!

So we got the Yudu.  Bought it on eBay to save some $$ (saved about $100).  Had to buy some supplies to actually USE it, and our first attempt didn't turn out so well, but we're not easily deterred here at Casa de Kirby.

Ande created and printed these pretty much all by himself.  I was there mainly for moral support.  I think they turned out AWESOME.  Added bonus, the silver ink is actually sparkly.  And you all know how much I LOVE stuff that sparkles.  HA!

The only think I don't like about the Yudu is the emulsion sheets - they're hard to find, and pretty expensive (like approximately $10 each).  The emulsion sheets are what you burn the image into, then after that you put the ink on the screen to make your print.  It's not as hard as it sounds, but with the high cost of the emulsion, let's just say we've had to dam up our "creative juices" somewhat.  However, I'm excited to say that one of the other blogs I read (Grosgrain Fabulous) give me hope that we might not be stifled for long.  I had read before that one could use liquid emulsion, but didn't know where to get it or how to use it.  This site showed me both!

What I'm saying is:  Dev, if I get some of this stuff, it might make it possible for me to make Col a "The Incident" shirt.  HA!! 

Wow, that just about sounded like a commercial.  HA HA HA.  Okay, now that my commercial for Yudu is done....what do you think of the chassis??  Did Ande do a great job or what?

I get to go on a date tomorrow night....

YAHOO! Ande and I never got to go out to celebrate our 6 year wedding anniversary back in March. I was a little disappointed, but life happens and sometimes you just can't do what you want when you want to...

This afternoon I got a call from him telling me to "put on my dancing shoes"...HUH??? Since we don't go dancing, that made no sense. Turns out Ande was trying to tell me that we are going on a date tomorrow night to Ann Arbor. I hope the weather is nice, because it's a LOT more fun to walk around down there when it is.

Maybe, if I remember, I'll take the camera and take some pictures. I wouldn't count on it though, mommy brain and all...

From Ande...

Today Ande played some basketball with Bubber and Bubber's friend - and whipped them in a game of 2 on 1. After that Ande cut down a couple of trees with his chainsaw. This afternoon he was taking Puckey to a Wild Game dinner at church.

While we were hauling the wood to the fire pit, he said, "It's not often that you get to whip a couple of kids at basketball, play lumberjack, AND eat grizzly bear all in one day, then get to come home and enjoy some time with your wife."

I love him.

Happy Birthday

To my two favorite little groundhogs...

Ande and Jib October 2008

May the groundhog see his shadow, thus giving you 6 more weeks of birthday!

Praise report & prayer request

PRAISE REPORT!!!!!

Ande went to see his grandma last night, and said that she had perked up a bit, and even was laughing with him and his cousin. Grandma even got moved to a "regular" room, which is good news. Ande didn't get to find out what the progress with the blood clots was, but I imagine it must be at least stable, as I can't imagine she would have been moved out of intensive care otherwise. Praise God! Thanks to any of you who have prayed on our behalf. The Lord does hear the prayers of his faithful.

*****I got a call from Ande's mom this morning telling me that Ande's grandma was placed back in ICU last night after experiencing labored breathing. Thanking you for your continued prayers.*****

Prayer for a friend...

I also have another prayer request, relating to a friend of ours. I can't get into much detail other than to say that someone who Ande and I care deeply about is in desperate need of prayer. Pray that he will seek help and remember that the Lord is bigger than any addiction. Also pray for his family, especially his 3 daughters, who are going to be affected in a number of ways by this.

Lord, you ARE so faithful, you CAN work miracles, you DO love us, you WILL NOT leave us or forsake us. I love you, Lord, and thank you for sending your son to die for our sins. There is nothing we could ever do to earn salvation, yet you freely offer it. I am amazed and in awe of you, Lord.

You CAN heal my friend, and I believe that with all my heart. Lord, if it is your will, I pray that you will show my friend in no uncertain terms that you have the POWER to help him, if only he will submit to you.

Lord, I don't know why this has happened to my friend. I can't even begin to imagine how this situation will be worked out. All I know is that you will hear and answer my prayer.

I pray for strength and wisdom for his family, and for you to place a hedge of protection around each of them. I pray that you would also place a hedge of thorns around my friend, so that this addiction will hold no pleasure for him. I cry out especially on behalf of those precious daughters, Lord, that you would keep old wounds closed and protect them from new ones.

Lord, I simply don't even have the words to speak, but you know my heart, and you know this situation. You knew it before my friend was even born, and if it is your will, I plead with you to intercede in his life and release him from this bondage that has held him for YEARS, Lord.

Whatever your will is, Lord, I pray that you show yourself in this situation, that my friend can have no doubt that you love him, and that he and his family will turn TO you, not from you. Help my friend turn his back on this sin, and to forge ahead with renewed strength.

Thanking you for working in my heart, Lord, and for giving me the ability to pray on the behalf of not only myself, but others as well. Thanking you as well for whatever work you do in my friend's life, Lord. In Jesus' precious name.

Amen

Just a bunch of stuff

In order to get my mind off of needlessly worrying about finances, I have been trying to pay more attention to the good stuff going on in our house....

Who's been sleeping in my bed?

Yes, that's a sock monkey (made by my mom) that Puckey tucked into our bed the other day.

Daddy is The Jib's new cupholder

This means that The Jib is finally "bottle free"! No more baba's. Whoo-HOO!!

Videos we've been watching:

Yeah, the big kids are LOVING this one (read with MUCH sarcasm). So far, Puckey has watched it 5 times, but doesn't have any interest in going potty. Apparently she's just watching it for the entertainment value?

School House Rock is pretty much the best I know of...and this set includes ALL of them, including your favorites like "Conjunction Junction" and "I'm Just a Bill." (You can thank me later for getting those songs stuck in your head) We told Ande's mom we'd like her to buy this one for Puckey for her birthday.

Ande and I have spent more time talking to each other lately. I mean, we have always talked, but it's usually about the kids or whatever. Recently, our conversations have held more depth (and sometimes laughter) than usual. It's pretty awesome.

The Jib is learning more and more new words every day. We've added:

• "Becko" (You're welcome) It's so cute, because she knows how to use it properly.
• Book
• Down
• Home
• Potty
• Puckey
• Ride
• Bike
• Outside
• Cold
• Pool
• "Muck" (Milk) - she can also do the sign language sign for it

Just yesterday, The Jib walked into our room, and she looked out our french doors into the backyard. You can see our pool from there, and she pointed and said, "Cold pool!" I love it!

Puckey and The Jib got a "new" ride a couple of weeks ago, courtesy of a local yard sale.

We went for a family bike ride yesterday. I got to try out my "new" bike. My mother in law gave me her bike, which is sorta like riding a lazy boy chair! (Pretty comfy).

However, even with all the comfort of the bike, I was left wondering just when I got so old and out of shape. My backside and thighs were feeling pretty rough by the time we got back home! I guess I'm going to have to start riding a little more often.

Bubber is now participating in "two-a-days" for football, which is just wearing him right out. He seems to like it, though, so I'm happy!! (Although he's eating us out of house and home!!)

Bug is excited about starting Middle School in a few weeks...although I think I'm going to have to start making her get up early pretty soon to get used to it. Right now it's after 10:00am and she's still asleep. (Meanwhile I've been up since about 6:45am)

Nans should be coming for a week at the end of this week or the beginning of next - it seems like FOREVER since we've seen her! We'll get to go school shopping with Grammy (my mother in law) while Nans is home, too. Always have fun doing that!

The bible study I've been doing is going well - it's still just the two of us, but I feel like I've learned some new stuff (and some stuff about myself) that I wouldn't have learned otherwise.

Thanks for all of the prayers you guys have sent my way - it's been effective! I feel more at ease than I did before, and things are looking better all the time. (Maybe part of my problem was hormones - you all know how that goes!)

So, what happened next?

I wish I had a great "fairy tale" ending to the kitchen story, but I don't. This is, after all, REAL life, and I don't know about the rest of you, but things often don't happen quite the way I'd like them to.

Well, much to my disappointment, the kitchen was not done when the in-laws came home. The sink was still not in, and the cupboards were still empty. I wanted SO much for it to be all done, but it just wasn't meant to be.

It WAS pretty awesome when my in-laws walked in and I heard my mother in law say, "Oh, my HEART!!" (Which, by the way, was a GOOD thing). She is just absolutely thrilled with her "new" kitchen, and even went today and bought some new accessories for it.

******Before I write anything else, I was asked to inform you, my readers, that my mother in law did NOT have anything to do with the former "look" in her kitchen. It was that way when they bought the house and she just never really knew what to do with it.******

I've been going over for a little while each day the last couple of days to work on finishing some stuff up, although it's harder now that they're back and we can't stay there all hours of the night. Oh well, it will get done when it gets done. The important thing is that Ande's mom is very happy with the kitchen. Ande's dad is pretty non-commital about it, but that's okay. Guys aren't really supposed to care too much about that kind of stuff anyway, right?

I probably won't blog too much this week, as my brother in law and his family are going to be visiting from Oklahoma and we will likely be spending a lot of time with them.

Once they are gone and we get the kitchen back in order, I will post pictures of the "finished product".

Little Chatterbox

Last night, Ande and I were doing a project together. Puckey came to the doorway and said, "Hi, Mama! What are you doing?" I told her I was washing walls, and she walked away. About 2 seconds later, The Jib toddled up to the doorway and said, "Hi, Mama! What doin'?" I wish I could write it the way she said it, it was so funny!! I about died!!

When Puckey started talking, she was always really easy to understand and she said a TON of words very early. The Jib, however, being more mellow than Puckey, has taken her sweet time in doing pretty much everything. Her current vocabulary now consists of (the list has gotten longer, I keep remembering or hearing her say new things):

• Bye
• Hi
• Ball
• Ee-i-ee-i-o (You know, from "Old MacDonald Had a Farm")
• Tee-Tee-Tee (Tickle, Tickle Tickle)
• All done
• Ba-ba
• Ta-da (while raising both hands above her head)
• Meow (although her version doesn't have the "e" sound)
• Puppy (she says, "AW, Puppy" when she's holding her stuffed animal puppy)
• I no-no (I don't know)
• No (a particular favorite)
• Uh-huh (complete with head nod)
• Mamma
• Daddy
• Whassat? ("What's that?" Usually said while pointing one direction and looking the other)
• Psss.... (that's what a cat says)
• ROAR (that's what every other animal, including mice, birds, and elephants says)
• Baby
• Tanks (Thanks)
• Peese (Please)
• Boon (Balloon)
• Papa
• Nana

It's okay Mama, I'll get my own breakfast...

I'm such a loser

So, in the last 2 weeks, I entered Amanda's Pay-it-forward contest, and when I LOST that one, I entered Amanda's friend, Jenn's, Pay-it-forward contest. I lost that one, too!!! MAN!! The good news is that my friend Cindy won Jenn's contest, so now SHE'LL have to have one. Maybe I'll win?!?! I might have to just continue following the chain of Pay-it-forward contests until I win!! (Because I hate to lose!)

On a completely unrelated note, Ande and I took Nans, Puckey, and The Jib to see a magic show at the Flint Public Library last night. It featured Doug Scheer, from "Scheer Genius" Productions. I have to say, I was very impressed. Mr. Scheer was very funny, had a great rapport with the kids, and was really good at what he does! If you are at all involved in scheduling assemblies for your children's school or fun activities for the children at your church, this is something you should at least check into! There are several different shows to choose from (we saw "Adventures in Reading", you know, since we were at the LIBRARY). All of the kids in the audience had a great time, as did their parents. Best part of the whole thing? Admission was FREE!

Moving on...in addition to not letting Ande push Puckey on the swings anymore, he is also no longer allowed to use the hair clippers unattended. Last week he gave himself a haircut (which he does every 2 weeks or so), and then decided to trim his eyebrows. Except he forgot the blade guard. So his eyebrows were nearly non-existent for a few days. I was reminded of the episode of "Friends" when Joey got his eyebrow waxed and then had to have Chandler fix the other one...

No, I seriously thought I was going to have to get him a set of these:
These babies are multi-purpose, too!!! Notice the packaging shows several different options. I'm digging the Tom Selleck-style moustache...LOL

There ARE actually eyebrow kits out there (I'm guessing for cancer or alopecia (sorry if I spelled it wrong) patients), which is a really cool product idea.

And for those of you who are wondering, YES, Ande's eyebrows are growing back in nicely...

It's FINALLY happened...

Playing together

Oohhh, I love Ruggeros focaccia bread!

On July 4th, 2008, The Jib FINALLY "declared her independence" and decided she was ready to walk. She's 17 months old, and had BEEN ABLE to walk for months. She just refused to do it. Ande decided that he was just going to make her do it that day, and she did!! (YEAH!!) Now when we go somewhere, she gets mad if she doesn't get to walk! Kids are so funny!

Throwing a fit because I won't let her out of the stroller...notice the flying hat!

July 4th was a day of many firsts for the babies (the older kids weren't with us). The girls both tried cotton candy (or candy cotton as Puckey called it) for the first time. I wasn't sure if they'd like it....JUST KIDDING! What kid DOESN'T like spun sugar with flavoring in it?? (Okay, so there may be kids who don't like it, I just don't know any...)

Sharing with Daddy

Another first was the fireworks. They both LOVED them! The Jib would gasp each time a new firework exploded in the sky (good thing they weren't shooting them in rapid succession, she would have hyper-ventilated!)

We had a really nice time playing at the park together, although I did decide that Ande is no longer allowed to push Puckey on the swings...

Umm...Mama, look at what Daddy's doing...

Puckey is the little red blur in the middle of the picture

DO YOU SEE HOW HIGH DADDY PUSHED MY BABY?? She's almost as high as the top of the swingset!!

New Updates...

So this weekend Ande and I went to my cousin's wedding. My baby cousin. Who really shouldn't be old enough to be getting married. But he IS, and he DID. You see, I forever think of him as this silly little boy who used to follow his older brother and sister (and me) around, begging to play with us. Of course, being kids, we pretty much ignored him, or would only let him play so we could torture him...LOL

Anyway, Stan and Lindsay were married this weekend, and it was a beautiful wedding. There was a little bit of awkwardness when we were seated at the same table as my mom (who's in denial) & my stepdad (who won't speak to me). I tried to make the best of it, but I was pretty relieved that Ande and I had to leave fairly early in the evening to pick up the kids.

One great update came from that night, though - my Aunt Kathy was there. I previously blogged about her here, here, and here. She is still pretty thin (she lost about 30lbs while she was sick), but she was smiling and said she feels pretty good. She told me she spent 46 days in the hospital, 21 of which she was in a coma. Her pulmonologist told her that he had not thought she would survive. At that point, I told her that there had been many, many people praying for her, and she made the remark, "It must have worked!" It would be great if you would continue to pray for her salvation, and for me to have more opportunities to talk to her about it.

Everybody seems to have recovered from the "funk" that took out Puckey, The Jib, and Ande last week. I am SO thankful that I got away with only a mild sore throat...

Ande's job has another change, starting today. His route (the car dealerships he regularly visits) has been changed. It's a little sad, because he had made a few new friends on his route, but it's also very good in that he will now be within about 5 minutes of home ALL DAY EVERY DAY! Each dealership he has now is located within about a 5 mile radius of our house. Closer location equals less miles to drive equals less gas to buy! It also means he can come home for lunch, so that will save on "lunch money".

The kids are getting ready for camp...Bubber leaves on Saturday, and Bug and Nans leave 2 weeks after that. I'm praying that they have a great time, and wonderful fellowship with Godly men and women who will help them build a better relationship with Christ.

Speaking of building a better relationship with Christ...a friend of mine from church, Susan, has asked me to do a Bible study with her. We decided on Tuesday evenings, as that's one of the few nights I don't have other obligations. If any of you local readers are interested in checking it out, we're going to meet at church (don't have a time ironed out yet, but I'm sure it will be reasonable). It's a Beth Moore study on Daniel. The book is $15, and I believe we will have a DVD series that will go along with the study. Anyway, if you are interested, leave me a comment or send me an email to let me know!! We haven't officially started yet, so there's still time to get involved!

Another cool thing relating to building a relationship with Christ - a guy who works for one of the dealerships that was on Ande's old route was in a triathlon this weekend. Ande has been sharing his faith with Trevor, and Trevor has been pretty receptive. So, as a way of showing how much Ande (and the rest of our family) support him, we went on Sunday morning to encourage Trevor and some of his co-workers and family who participated in the race. Trevor was absolutely bowled over that we would come down to support him, so I'm really glad that we went.

I was amazed at some of the people I saw who were in the race. There were some people who were pretty old (I heard the oldest participant was 73), and one kid JUST met the age requirement (13). Some people were extremely fit, while others looked quite out of shape. I have to give everyone who was involved credit. I got winded carrying The Jib back to the car when we were leaving, I can't imagine doing the swimming, biking, and running...

Also, thanks to all of you for the compliments on my hair!!! I'm thrilled with it, and your comments have only made me feel that much more happy about it! For Cindy, I go to CC & Co. in Fenton, and have Bridget Shea cut my hair. I've known her since I was 11 (wow, that's 22 years!), and she is definitely my stylist of choice. She's also a Christian, which is an added bonus...

Playing nursemaid

Okay, I just have to give a little shout-out to anyone who is a nurse, caregiver, or in some other career that involves cleaning up vomit or other bodily fluids. I don't know how you do what you do, but each time my family gets sick, I know why I DON'T do it! I have a hard enough time cleaning up my own children's messes...I just don't know if I could deal with someone else's.

Poor Puckey threw up about 7 or 8 times yesterday. Fortunately, I kept her on a towel and would just throw the towel in the wash when she got sick on it. That only works, though, with little kids who haven't eaten in 24 hours....

Last night she managed to keep down some oyster crackers and water, and perked up a bit. I was glad, because I was starting to worry a little because she wasn't keeping ANYTHING down for most of the day. I didn't want her to get dehydrated.

Speaking of oyster crackers, am I the only one who refused to eat them when I was a little kid because I thought they were MADE of oysters? Just wondering.

Both Puckey and The Jib slept like babies last night (meaning they were up every couple of hours), so today they have been somewhat cranky. I have been a little MORE than somewhat cranky. I don't do well on broken sleep. Fortunately, Bug & Bubber were here today and helped keep the babies entertained so I could have a bit of a nap. I'm feeling almost normal now.

So, now that the babies are feeling a little better, Ande's got whatever they had. He woke up this morning with a headache and a slight fever. He ended up coming home late this morning, and he's been in bed ever since. He did get up once, and almost threw up on me on his way into the bathroom (I was on my way out as he came shuffling in). I'm just glad he made it all the way to the toilet.

I'm starting to feel a little under the weather now. Except I have to follow the "mommy rule" and not actually get sick. Or if I get sick, I still have to take care of everyone else. I have to admit, this is one thing about being a wife/mother I really don't like. I don't get pampered when I'm sick. I still have to be the mommy, even when I feel like my head is going to explode or am on the edge of throwing up. I AM thankful that I rarely get sick, and even when I do, it usually doesn't last too long.

But I WOULD like it if I got to get babied when I got sick, too...

Floods and Broken Power Cords and Holes in Pools, OH MY!!

Yes, so those three events, along with many others, have contributed to my absence from blogland over the last week or so.

First, the "GREAT FLOOD of '08" hit. It was Friday, June 6. Bubber had gotten suspended from school for 2 days because he called one of his teachers "retarded". Well, that wasn't the ONLY reason, more like the straw that broke the camel's back. Anyway, I had to go to his school to pick up his assignments, and had to get into his locker to get a couple of books. In his locker, there were about 8 or 9 sweatshirts (which I hadn't seen in MONTHS, to give you an idea of how long they'd been there). So later that afternoon, I asked Bubber to put the ones that stayed here (about half of them belonged at his dad's house) in the basement so I could wash them. So, being the "obedient" (read with a splash of sarcasm) son, he stood at the top of the basement stairs and tossed the sweatshirts down. They splashed when they hit the floor. Not good. Apparently the power cord for the sump pump had a small cut in it, which was causing it to short out. Which eventually caused the breaker in the circuit box to flip off. Which in turn cut the power to our back-up sump pump (say that ten times fast). The water table is pretty high here, so it doesn't take long for the water to start rising. Fortunately, it was only about 3 inches deep at it's deepest point when we discovered the problem. We got all of the water drained, and spent the next day hauling everything out of the basement to dry. We didn't really lose anything important, as most of the stuff I had down there was packed up in plastic containers. Unfortunately, we (still) have all of that stuff sitting on our front porch, so it looks like we either A) are having a yard sale, or B) got evicted. I want to paint the walls in the basement before we put that stuff back down there, so hopefully in the next couple of days I can get that done.

Our next incident was on Saturday, June 7th. We had a tornado watch (or warning, I can't ever remember which is which), plus severe thunderstorm watches and warnings, so we were in the basement. (Yes, the basement that had flooded the previous day). To help keep track of the weather, I brought the laptop down there. It was running on the battery and we have wireless internet, so I didn't have to worry about being electrocuted or anything... After the watch (or warning) was over, I just put the computer back on it's stand and didn't think much more about it. Then Ande wanted to watch a movie or something, and noticed that it was still unplugged. When he went to plug it in, Ande noticed that the pin inside the connector for the power cord (where it plugs into the computer) was bent. In an attempt to "unbend" it, Ande broke it. (OOPS) So...we had to get a new power cord. (THANKS MOM!! Ande's mom bought it for us. She spoils us...) We didn't get the cord in the mail until yesterday, but it's (obviously) working well for us.

Last Wednesday (the 11th), I finally got to visit with my friends Amanda, Cindy, and Marcy. Amanda was visiting from Oklahoma, Cindy is Amanda's mother-in-law, and Marcy is a mutual friend of all of ours. So we (and a total of 9 kids, including Amanda's cousin(?)) met at a local park for a few hours. I'll be posting some pictures of that later. It was fun to get to visit with other moms and get out of the house for a while!

On Friday (the 13th), Nans came to stay the weekend for Father's Day. On Saturday, I decided to (finally) get our pool up. It's just one of those easy-set ones, but it works nice for the kids to splash and play in. So Nans helped me get it ready to fill, and we turned on the hose. A little while later I went out to check on it, and noticed a puddle next to the pool. There was a hole in it. GREAT. We had to empty out the water that remained in the pool and see if we could patch it. We had promised Nans that we could go to the library, and we were also supposed to take Ande's dad to dinner that night, so we got ready and headed out the door. We made a stop at a local pool/spa place and bought a patch kit, then headed to the library. Ande took The Jib upstairs, while I helped Nans & Puckey find some books. The girls found what they wanted, and we headed upstairs to find Ande and The Jib. I stepped out of the elevator just in time to see Ande frantically trying to get the bathroom door open while The Jib was throwing up all over him. Not good. They got cleaned up and we headed back home. We had to cancel our dinner plans, so we ended up watching a couple of videos and hanging out on the couch for the night.

Father's Day was pretty uneventful - The Jib was feeling better, so we went to church and out to lunch with Ande's dad afterward. When we got home, Ande patched the pool and we started the process of filling it. (The patch seems to be working like a champ - the pool is now full and there seems to be no leaking! YEAH!!) Later in the afternoon, we had to make the first of what will likely be our usual Sunday afternoon trips to meet Nans' mom to drop her off. It was about a 140 mile round trip "adventure". Poor Jib cried a good portion of the trip (the sun was shining on her face, and it was pretty hot in the car because the A/C is broken). I'm definitely going to have to get a window shade for her...

Yesterday, Bubber had his first football practice AND a baseball game. It's going to be a busy summer. Bubber's team won the game by 5 runs, so that was a good thing. I know he likes being on a winning team! (Don't we all)

This morning, I woke up to Puckey crying...and throwing up. Yep, whatever The Jib had, Puckey's got it now. I'm just hoping that the rest of the kids don't get it! So I got her cleaned up, and she went back to sleep. Hopefully she'll be back to normal soon. Right now, The Jib and I are the only ones up (and it's 9:00AM!). We're watching a little "Old School Sesame Street", and I'll be making some breakfast pretty soon. I'm thinking pancakes...YUMMY.

Oh, and two last things...

Ande found out last week that his pay structure is changing. There will be no more commission per car, only an hourly rate. His hourly rate DID go up, but it's not going to make up the difference. He's also been working a shorter number of hours (for example, he only had enough work to last him 3.5 hours last Friday), so our income will be taking a major hit. If you could keep Ande's job situation in your prayers, we'd appreciate it. His company anticipates that business will pick up again soon (only a couple of months ago, Ande could work 12 hours a day and still have plenty to do). On a positive note, we will soon have health insurance!! It's been almost a year since we've had it. Thanks to God for His watchful eye on our health, we've not had any serious illnesses/injuries that required a trip to the hospital!

Also, Tricia Lawrenson has been diagnosed with Post-Transplant Lymphoma. Apparently this is a very treatable form of cancer that occurs in transplant patients. Please keep them in your prayers.

A Message from the Lawd...

Lately one of Puckey's favorite movies has been Jonah (you know, the Veggie Tales movie). So she sometimes quotes phrases like, "Jonah was in the belly of a whale." or "A message from the Lord" (but she pronounces it "lawd" - apparently she is from New Jersey or something).

I have recently been trying to lose weight. (Hi, my name is Julie, and I'm a food addict) I haven't made a big deal of it to the kids, I'm just slowly trying to change my eating habits. Last night, Ande and I went with his dad to Fuddrucker's (which is one of my favorite places to eat). I was good, I ordered a grilled chicken sandwich and NO FRENCH FRIES. I didn't even steal any fries off of Puckey's plate. I wish I had Puckey's appetite - she picks at her food for a few minutes, usually taking 1 bite of each piece of chicken or whatever, then starts running laps around the table. Alas, I don't. This is why I'm overweight.

I was finishing my sandwich, and Puckey was on lap 6, 427. She stopped next to me and held her hands out like she was holding something. Then she said, "A message from the Lord" (remember, it's pronounced "lawd") She "handed" me the "box" that the message was in (I LOVE that she has a great imagination!). I "opened" the box, but told her I couldn't read the message, and asked if she could read it to me. She looked up at me, TOTALLY serious and said, "Don't eat donuts."

I looked and Ande, and the expression on his face was, well - let's put it this way, if he would have smiled any bigger, I think I would have seriously been able to see the inside of his head. He even had the nerve to chuckle about it.

Okay, so I laughed too. It WAS really funny.

Out of the mouths of babes, right??

WIDE AWAKE

This morning, at 4:15am, I dropped Ande off at the airport. He's flying (in a shark) to Atlanta for a week for work. His plane should be getting ready to take off any minute now.

So....I'm totally wide awake and thinking about how tired I'm going to be this afternoon once the fact that I've been up since 3:00am catches up with me. It wouldn't be so bad if Puckey and The Jib would take a nap at the same time, but the likelihood of that happening is less than the likelihood that I'll win the lottery. Seeing as how I don't even PLAY the lottery, you can see how the chances of the girls' naps to coincide are pretty much non-existent. Although I guess I COULD technically win the lottery if someone bought a ticket for me. LOL

Oh, and apparently there may be some confusion as to how to pronounce Puckey's nickname...I saw my friend (and fellow blogger) Cindy at an event yesterday and she asked me just how we pronounce it, as there has been some debate over it at her house. It's pronounced like "lucky". I first typed "yucky", but thought then people might think I was saying she was yucky...which she CAN be sometimes, I even sing a little song about it - usually when I'm changing her diaper. Anyone familiar with "The Bunny Song" from Veggie Tales?



Okay, so to the tune of that, sing "The Puckey, the Puckey, WHOA I love the Puckey. She sure is cute, but she's sometimes yucky...." Yep, you're going to have that little ditty stuck in your head ALL DAY LONG now! LOL I guess some might think it's pronounced like Pookie (pooh-key). Sorry for any confusion...Hope that clears it up! Thanks for asking, Cindy!!

Wow, Puckey must have known I was blogging about her, and that Ande was gone - she woke up crying just now, and she told me that her daddy was in the road and someone took him away. Poor little Puckey. It only took me a minute to get her calmed down, but boy do I feel bad for her when she has a bad dream! I used to have a recurring nightmare when I was a kid, and I know how terrified I would be when I'd wake up.

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Updates

My aunt Kathy is out of sedation, and has a trach for breathing. She can't speak right now, and is depressed about that. I suggested to my mom that my uncle ask a speech therapist to help Kathy learn to communicate without speaking. Once they wean her completely off of oxygen, they will cap her trach until they determine she won't need it anymore. At that time, she will be able to talk again. Thanks for all of your prayers!! Now, if we can just work on her spiritual health...

My great aunt, Verla, is not doing well. She moved in with my mom several months ago due to being treated for cancer. She had been making a little progress, and had gained some weight (which she really needed to do). About a month ago, Verla fell in my mom's dining room and broke her hip. She entered a nursing home for rehab, and was really doing even better than expected. She was slated to be released from the nursing home last Tuesday. Tuesday morning my mom got a call that Verla was being sent to the hospital. She had pneumonia. On Wednesday she was doing better, but Thursday she started becoming disoriented and wasn't really sure what was going on. She got some sort of scan (I think it was a CT scan, but I'm not positive), and it was discovered that she has at least 6 cancerous spots on her brain, as well as several areas in her skeletal system that are also cancerous. The doctors have not given her a good prognosis, and it appears that if/when she leaves the hospital, she will go into Hospice care. Verla gets very stressed out over little things, and since there is really no hope for recovery from this, the decision was made to not tell her how serious the situation is. I don't know that I agree with that decision, but it's not my choice to make. Prayers for her comfort and wisdom for her doctors in her treatment would be greatly appreciated.

Ande just called me from Carol's, and he said she was doing "pretty good". I think that the fact that Bob was sick for so long perhaps helped her prepare herself a little bit for his death. While I'm sure she's still deeply saddened by his death, I think in a way she's probably a little relieved, because she doesn't have to watch him suffer any more.

Speaking of Ande, he did, in fact, put in his "notice" at the shelter. I'm so looking forward to having him home on the weekend!!

I suppose that is all for now.

Random Stuff

Well, there are several things I wanted to blog about, but didn't really want to do a bunch of different posts, so this post is going to consist of a few different topics.

First of all, thanks to all of you for your prayers for my family and friends (Carol, who lost her husband Bob, my Aunt Kathy, who became critically ill while on vacation, and my sister's friend Kathrina (who lost her husband Kenny, and is now a widow and mother of a small baby), as well as Daniel (the boy who was born a micro-preemie and had surgery to help relieve seizures), and Nate, Tricia, and Gwyneth (the family with the CF wife and micro-preemie baby). And of course, thanks for all of your prayers regarding Ande and his job situation!!

Carol is doing as well as can be expected. My husband has stopped to visit her a few times, but she's not ready for our whole "gang" to come over yet. With time, I think that will pass. Continue to pray for healing for her broken heart.

Kathy is still in the hospital under sedation. The last I heard, she has not gotten any better, but she's not gotten worse, either. My Uncle Steve could use prayer, too. My Aunt Kathy is his whole world. Continue to pray for her healing, as well as a conversion of her faith (she is Wiccan).

Kathrina and her baby are staying with her parents. The church she currently attends, as well as the church she and Kenny used to attend (where my sister met her), has pledged to help Kathrina financially through this situation. My sister said her church had a great memorial service for Kenny, and that Kathrina was really blessed by it. Continue to pray for her in dealing with her loss.

Daniel is unfortunately still struggling with seizures, and his family could use prayers in seeking medical treatment that can help him.

Nate, Tricia, and baby Gwyneth are still doing remarkably well. Tricia was placed on the waiting list to receive a set of new lungs. Nate continues to deal with having his wife and child in the hospital with grace and humor. Please pray for Tricia, as well as her donor's family, for Gwyneth (for continued growth - she's really doing great!), and for Nate, that he is able to find time to rest and renew himself through all of this.

Ande is struggling with his new job a little (it's mostly outside work, and it's COLD here in Michigan!). He really likes the people he works for/with, and is looking forward to the warmer weather. Pray for his attitude to remain positive (and for warmer weather!).

Next, my mother in law forwarded an email to me, and I would like to share yet another prayer request. This is for my sister in law's sister, Julie (great name, BTW!). Julie is a very sweet girl, who unfortunately has made a few pretty bad choices in life. A few years ago, she married a guy against the advice of her entire family. This guy is very controlling, and abusive towards her (both physically and mentally). Right now, I believe Julie is with her parents after a very ugly incident with her husband. Please pray for Julie, as well as Chris and Wes (her mom & dad), for protection and healing. Her husband, from what I've heard, is a real piece of work. Please pray that he would get out of Julie's life without there having to be any police intervention.

Now, onto a totally unrelated topic...

My oldest daughter, Bug, took dance lessons from the ages of 5-10. Last year she decided to stop dancing because she was unable to participate in other activities that she wanted to do because of timing conflicts. There are a few other reasons, as well, but I just don't feel like going into all of that right now. These are two of my favorite pictures of her...

Anyway, last week, we were at a local restaurant and we saw her dance teacher. I asked Bug if she had gone over to say "HI" to her, and she said she hadn't. I encouraged her to go after we were finished eating. Now, Bug went to the same dance school, and was in the same class of girls, for 4 years. It's been about 8 months since she's gone there. Her teacher had no idea who she was. Not only that, but she TOLD Bug that she didn't recognize her. I had no idea that happened - Bug told me that she told her "hi", but that was it. Then a few days later, Bug was talking about how she was glad that she didn't go to dance anymore, and when I asked her why, she told me that story, as well as one from when she missed a week, and the teacher never even knew she was gone. Mind you, there were only 12 girls in that class.

You know, that really makes me mad. Thousands of dollars were spent (not by me, thank goodness) to send Bug to this dance school. She wasn't a star or anything, but she tried hard, and she did whatever they asked her to do. It absolutely breaks my heart that this girl's memories from dance include the fact that her teacher doesn't even remember her.

Maybe it's because I have spent much of my life being "invisible". Most of the people I went to school with have no idea who I am. I ran into someone a couple of years ago that I had been "friends" with, and she had no recollection of me. It makes me a little sad, to think that no one remembers my name. I mean, I can see not recognizing me because I do look different than when I was in school. But when my name comes up and they still don't know me? Oh well. Maybe I'm just too sensitive.

The whole point I am going to eventually get to is that when a child approaches you, and calls you by name, the least one could do as an adult is JUST FAKE LIKE YOU KNOW THEM! It wouldn't have taken but a moment for her teacher to say, "Hi Honey, how are you?" Then Bug would have felt good, and the teacher wouldn't have been stuck trying to match a name with a face.

Now that I'm thinking about dance....it brings me to another thing - the other dance parents. Never in my life have I seen such a "clique-y" group of people. Two summers ago, Bug's dance team was invited to Myrtle Beach for a National competition. Pretty big deal, right? So for months prior to the competition, I worked different fundraisers to ensure that Bug could go. We couldn't afford to stay in the same hotel with the other girls, but our hotel was only about a 3 minute walk from theirs. I gave the other moms my cell phone number so that Bug could be included if all the other girls were getting together for something. I even called a few of the other moms while we were there to try to arrange something. NOT ONE PARENT CALLED ME BACK. Not because the other girls didn't do stuff together, they just didn't call. Now, frankly, I was annoyed by it, but whatever. Bug, on the other hand, got a serious first taste of being left out. I think that was the beginning of the end of Bug's enjoyment of dance. (We did have a good time, anyway, spending some mommy-daughter time together) Here's a great picture of Bug next to a statue of the world's tallest man (Robert Wadlow).

Again, maybe I'm just too sensitive. But it really ticks me off when someone does something that hurts my kids.

Wow, I didn't expect to write all that!! Sorry for being so long-winded in this post!

One last thing - Ande just called and asked how I felt about him giving his "two-weeks notice" at the homeless shelter he works at on the weekend. I'm thrilled, because I miss having him here on the weekend (it's been almost a year), and we'll be able to go to church together again. I don't think we'll feel a huge difference financially, either, because even if he only works 8 hours of overtime in a week (just over an hour a day for 5 days), he'll make up for the lost income from the shelter. Doing this will also give him more time to work on his amps for the New York Amp Show in May. He wants to get 5 or so amps built to take with him. Pretty hard to do when you work 60+ hours a week!

He's still debating it a little, but I am pretty sure he'll give his notice today.

Yeah, God pretty much ROCKS.

The subtitle to this post should be "Heat, Glorious Heat." I'm sure the grammer in this post is terrible, but I pretty much typed this like I would have told it...

Well, I've been FREEZING my backside off all day (well, now that I think about it, is that REALLY a bad thing? I mean, I certainly COULD use a little less backside....). I got up this morning and the house was a little chilly. I think maybe one of the kids bumped the thermostat last night. Anyway, I turned up the thermostat and didn't think much more about it.

After I took Bug to school this morning, I remembered that I had bought a new furnace filter the other day, and figured I'd go ahead and change the filter while it was on my mind. (I usually have to do things this way, otherwise I wind up forgetting about them)

I changed the filter on the furnace and put the cover back on. A little while later, I noticed that it seemed to be getting colder in the house. And come to think of it, I hadn't heard the furnace kick on. Okay, no biggie, I'll just turn up the thermostat. Yeah, so I do that and NOTHING HAPPENS. Hmm...not good. I take the cover off of the furnace and look at it, as if I know what I'm doing. I wiggle a wire here, wiggle one there. Then I notice that one of the wires looks like it came unhooked. So I get a screwdriver and some wire strippers and fix that wire. I reassemble the furnace and turn it on. YIPPEE, it started right up!

Uh-oh, instead of heat, now the air conditioner is on. The thermostat is set on "heat" and the A/C is on? As Puckey would say, "What the heck? What the heck is going on around here?" I turned off the thermostat and just about started to cry. I'm not a big fan of the cold, and I'm starting to get pretty chilly. Ande is at work, and I can't just call him, so that's not an option. My father-in-law, who would gladly give someone the shirt off his back, knows absolutely NOTHING about home maintenance/repair stuff, so he would not be of any help. Hmm...what to do? Can't call a heating/cooling guy, we don't have the money. Guess I'll just freeze until Ande gets home. Well, I might as well bake some cupcakes, so at least the kitchen will warm up a little....(yeah, this is why my backside NEEDS to be a little less...LOL)

Ande ended up calling me, so I tell him what's going on. He doesn't know what to do, and says he'll have to look at it when he gets home. Man, that's like 4 or more hours away!!

Okay, I decide to go downstairs for one last try. I turn the furnace off and take the cover off of it. It's then that I notice another wire is loose. I get the screwdriver and the wire strippers back out, get the wire back in place, reassemble the furnace (again), and go upstairs to turn the thermostat back up. I listen for it, and hear the furnace come on. That's a good sign. I run downstairs and watch as the pilot light gets the burners going....l

WHOO-HOO!!! WE HAVE HEAT!!!!

So, I'm thrilled that God gave me "problem solving" skills. That way we didn't have to call a furnace repair guy and pay him a small fortune to reattach these two wires that I must have knocked loose when I was replacing the filter....I'm feeling pretty happy right now!

Now I'm going to take a nice hot shower to warm up. Yes, it's nearly 2:00PM and I'm just getting in the shower. I know some of you can relate. To those of you who can't...well, I don't know what to tell you.

The birth of a Puckey

Okay, I finally have a chance to sit down and type up another birth story for Michelle's contest. This is the story of Puckey. Well, first a little back story. After I had Bug, (#2), my doctors told me it would probably be best to NOT have anymore babies. "Okay," I thought, "I can handle that - healthy boy, healthy girl. Good enough."

Well, after a couple of incredibly unhappily married years to my (now ex) husband, we got divorced. Not a pretty thing to deal with, and certainly with it's own consequences. I often tell my kids now that I NOW know, and I want them to understand, why God hates divorce and that's why they need to make smart choices in the future. (But that's a WHOLE other topic)

I met Ande one night at a birthday party for a co-worker of ours. We had actually worked for the same company for over a year and didn't know each other. We got to talking, and found out that we were in very similar stages in our lives - both going through divorces, I had 2 kids, he had 1, we were both done having children...blah blah blah. Ande was cute and funny, and we became fast friends. I quickly realized we'd be married someday.

Fast forward 2 years, to 2002. Ande had given his life back to the Lord, and I had gotten saved around the same time. We were allowing God to be a part of our relationship, and wanted more than anything to honor Him. We got married on March 14, 2003 in a beautiful wedding at the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. Just the two of us, and his cousin & his wife as witnesses. Very cool. Before the wedding, I got the Depo-provera shot, so I wouldn't have to worry about taking the Pill.

The shot made me SUPER cranky. I talked to Ande about stopping the shots, and we talked about the "what-ifs" if I got pregnant. I talked to my doctors, and they said it would be okay for me to have another child, as long as the delivering doctor knew my history of retained placenta and all that. So we decided to let God do His will in our lives, and just take things as they came. We didn't tell any of our friends or family members, so as to not get the pressure of "so, are you pregnant yet?" kind of questions.

In December 2004, I started feeling pretty crummy. My cycle was never really regular, so I didn't really know if I was "late" or not. I decided to get a test, and sure enough, it was positive pretty much immediately. Being the pessimist that I am, I did another one to be sure. Yep, STILL positive. I was scared and excited all at once. I wanted a creative way to tell Ande without just blurting it out. Since it was December (and almost Christmas) I decided to wrap up one of the tests and give it to Ande as a "gift". Of course, I couldn't stand to wait until Christmas itself, so he got the "gift" that very night. He was a little stunned at first, but then was really excited about the baby.

We didn't tell anyone our big news until February. I will never forget the look on my mother in law's face when we told her. We almost always went to lunch together as a family after church on Sundays. So this particular Sunday, I handed her a card that was addressed to her and my father in law. The card said, "Congratulations!" on the front. She looked at it, a little puzzled, and then opened it. I can't remember exactly what I wrote, but it was something to the effect of "Congratulations on becoming Grandparents again!" I think I might have had my first ultrasound pictures in it, too. She immediately burst into tears of joy, although I think she could have killed Ande and me for keeping it a secret for so long!

Ande was very excited all through the pregnancy, and was really happy when we found out Puckey was a girl, although he thought for sure she would be a boy. (We've since discovered that Ande and his brother can apparently only make girls, which has been a big joke in the family) Ande picked her real name (which I won't reveal here, for privacy reasons), and even made baby purchases occasionally.

Finally, my due date in August came, and went. I ended up being induced a week later. We got to the hospital at something like 6:00am, only to sit in a labor room for HOURS before they actually got to me to start the pitocin. I have no idea what the nurse was thinking, but she set the drip on the bag so that it emptied in MINUTES. Needless to say, I started having some pretty bad contractions REALLY quickly. We were watching weird old black and white movies in my room as we were waiting for things to progress, and Ande kept dozing off. I was starting to really struggle with the pain, so we called for the nurse. I don't know what in the world she gave me, but I started to feel really weird. I would fall asleep between contractions (which meant I would sleep for about 3 minutes, have a contraction, then go back to sleep for 3 minutes....) The few times I managed to stay awake, I would say really odd things to Ande, then I would ask him if I really said it out loud. I didn't like how I felt at all!!

After a while of waiting, I was taken to the delivery room to be given the epidural. That went fine, and I felt comfortable again. It was getting to be late, and Ande was hungry. He called his dad and asked him to bring some food. Ande went down to the parking lot to meet his dad and didn't come back. I thought maybe he was just eating in the cafeteria or something so I wouldn't have to smell his dinner (since I was hungry too, but they wouldn't let me eat). The nurse came in to check me, and she said I was ready to push. Ande still wasn't back. I tried calling his cell phone, he didn't answer. I was starting to panic, thinking he was going to miss our baby being born! I finally got him to answer the phone after several tries, and much to my dismay he told me he was locked out of the hospital and couldn't find a way in. NICE. My nurse called security and they let him in. I could hear him talking as he came down the hallway, and I heard my mom's voice, too. So they both come into the delivery room and my doctor comes in and tells me to push. I push twice, and then he tells me to stop, because he didn't even have his gown on yet, and Puckey is on her way out. One more push and she was born (piece of cake!!). My husband later joked that the doctor nearly needed a catcher's glove because Puckey came "flying" out. Puckey was 7lbs, 6oz, and about 20" long. She was the most beautiful baby I've ever seen. Seriously. Her head was perfectly shaped, her skin was pink, she wasn't all wrinkly...she was perfect. I also remember thinking, "YEAH!! I didn't poop on the table!!" (That makes more sense if you've read my other 2 stories here, and here.) Then probably the WEIRDEST thing I have EVER had happen to me in my life happened. (It's sorta gross, so if you get queasy easily, you might want to skip this part) My placenta wouldn't deliver (again), so my doctor reached in and "swept" my uterus with his hand. He got the placenta out, with minimal bleeding, and ordered an IV antibiotic to prevent infection. The image of my doctor with his arm (which seemed to be up to the shoulder) inside me is permanently seared in my brain. CREEPY. But it worked, so I'm okay with it.

The pediatric doctors wanted to take Puckey to the nursery to do the necessary newborn stuff, so Ande went with them (I think he was terrified that something would happen to her). My mom must have gone with him, because I don't remember her being in the room at that point. As I was lying there, I started to feel nauseated. I asked the nurse if I could get up and go to the bathroom, but since I had an epidural she wouldn't let me. She offered me a shot of something to help me feel better. I said that would be fine, so she gave me the shot. Almost instantly I felt better. For about 3 minutes. (Okay, more TMI coming up....you've been warned) All of the sudden, I felt something happening "down under". Yeah, apparently one of the side effects of this particular anti-nausea drug is uncontrollable bowel movements. Again, I was horrified. My nurse was nice though, and she just cleaned me off as best she could until I could get up on my own. I don't think I had to "go" again for a week!

You'd think after all that, I might be done, but there's one more story coming....LOL

Mmm...cupcakes

In the interest of keeping the mess to a minimum, I made cupcakes for The Jib and Ande for their birthday. I started doing the cupcake thing when Puckey turned one, and it just seemed to work really well. I was even able to recruit Nans & Bug to frost the cupcakes for me (good job, girls, they looked GREAT!)

Ande and The Jib enjoyed their cupcakes, as you can see...

So, I took The Jib to the doctor today for her 1 year check-up. She is now 31 inches long and weighs 24lbs, 11oz. She's a monster! It's not going to be too long before she's giving hand-me-downs to Puckey instead of the other way around!!

Okay, just a short post tonight. It's late, I'm tired, and I still have some dishes I need to get done before I crash for the night!