Novena to the Immaculate Heart of Mary--Day 1

O Most Blessed Mother, heart of love, heart of mercy, ever listening, caring, consoling, hear our prayer. As your children, we implore your intercession with Jesus your Son. Receive with understanding and compassion the petitions we place before you today, especially ...I pray that our marriage stays strong and that we always remember to put Jesus first and that we always make time for one another as well and that we don't take each other for granted. I pray for job security for Andy always and I ask for blessings for him as he continues to provide for his family and that he will always be a good husband and father with a good heart. I pray that you will always provide me with patience and love as I strive to be the wife and mother that God intended for me to be, I pray for Deidra as she starts 2nd grade that she always remains safe and protected at school and that she always enjoys learning and that good values and morals will always be instilled in her and that she will always respect her parents and have a love for God. I pray for Baby J as we start our preschool curriculum and that he enjoys learning as well and I pray that we are able to adopt him when we go back to court in October. I pray for Little E and Baby T that they will have peace and comfort adjusting to our home and that we can teach them love, kindness, and patience and meet all their needs while they are here. I pray that our family will always stay strong and put Jesus first. I ask for your blessings and prayers for our family, dear Mother. Always keep us close to your heart. I pray for Baby E, Baby D and Little J, Little A and Baby L also dear Mother, that you will always keep them close to your heart in prayer for safety and a loving home always.

We are comforted in knowing your heart is ever open to those who ask for your prayer. We trust to your gentle care and intercession, those whom we love and who are sick or lonely or hurting. Help all of us, Holy Mother, to bear our burdens in this life until we may share eternal life and peace with God forever.
Amen.

Little J and Baby D have gone home...

We had a pizza party for them last night and I gave Little J a cross necklace so that she would always remember that no matter where life took her that Jesus was always with her. I gave Baby D a new blanket with a fire truck on it that was soft and cuddly. My caseworker had given them each a teddy bear to bring home to cuddle as well. Saying good-night was hard, Andy broke down crying when he said good-night to Baby D, and after we put the boys down to bed I went to cuddle with Little J while Andy talked with his Dad. Little J started crying and I started crying...then the wolf spider (Mr. Big himself) decided to crawl up next to us and we had to get Andy off the phone to come kill it...we got to hear him scream like a girl...so that made us laugh instead of cry. We put the girls to bed and Little J thanked us for being good to her and for making her be good and for taking them to do fun things. She kept telling me that she didn't want to leave. I made it through a tearful good-night and then tried to finish packing them up. I went to go to bed myself and tossed and turned all night long.

I got the girls up for school this morning and Little J was tearful this morning, which also made me cry. I got them to school and spent some time with Baby D talking to him about what was going to happen and so forth and he didn't understand that it wasn't just his visit, he wasn't coming back here. I gave him a bath and just spent some time cuddling him. It came time to go get the girls from school and Andy came home and I cried all the way to the school. I managed to pull myself together just before I was supposed to get her and when her teacher put her in the car, she started crying too and so the tears started flowing again. I cried all the way to Deidra's school and Little J kept asking me all these questions and I couldn't answer as I was crying and trying to hide it. Finally she asked me "Mommy, are you crying?" She started crying when we picked Deidra up when Deidra asked to go get ice cream and I said that we didn't have time as the CPS worker was coming right away to get Little J and Baby D. Little J cried and cried that she was so so sad and she didn't want to leave us. Then, she kept saying that her tummy hurt and she didn't feel very good. I told her that I thought it was just nerves. She got in the house and the kids all played together for a bit and we got some great pics. It was hard. Then the doorbell rang and I put my brave face on. They actually couldn't fit all their stuff in their two cars so they're coming back out on MOnday to get the rest of the kids things. I learned again that not all foster parents are like us. Their brother only had 3 bags to take home with him. Little J and Baby D had 8 garbage bags full of toys to bring home, Little J had 5 bags of clothes, Baby J had 2 bags of clothes, and they had several other bags full of their coats, shoes, and other miscellaneous stuff. I had made up a bag with their bedtime stuff in it and their tooth brushes for each of them, and I gave them their scrapbooks and all their meds to bring home with them along with a few diapers for Baby D in case they didn't have any yet. And both kids had their bikes to bring home with them and Baby D had a ride-on Mater to bring home too. Anyway, we all said our good-byes and Baby D started saying good-bye to the CPS worker and I had to explain that he was going with them. CPS asked if we wanted to walk out with them and I was fighting tears at that point, so I declined and told her just to take them or I'd start to cry and I didn't want to upset Little J and have her cry again. They left and I turned to Andy and cried for them.

I got an e-mail from the CPS worker saying that things went well returning them home, they thought their scrapbooks were adorable, and the Mom didn't have any issues with Little J calling us. So, I'm hoping and praying for the best and I hope that the parents can truly see that I loved their children while we had them and that they were well-taken care of. Our therapist will continue seeing the children at their home and the Mom wanted to stick with the same doctors that we were using for the kids, so it makes me feel a bit better too knowing that some sense of what was normal here will be normal to them there too...if that makes sense.

My heart is very broken today and I miss them. Baby J saw a little girl when we were at the park with blonde hair and he kept screaming Little J's name. I know he must miss Baby D an awful lot too as they were truly buds and did everything together. Deidra is acting out one minute and then quiet the next, and she's quiet about what she's feeling and then when I try and talk to her about it she says she's just sad. So, I think she's just dealing with things in her own way. It's going to be hard. My Mom and Dad have both called to check on me today as well as a couple close friends. I have my moments where I think I'm fine and I turn and see something or hear something and I'm in tears. Like my caseworker said though "you can't take care of these children for months at a time and not get your emotions wrapped around them and what they're going through...you can't help but love them." We talked for awhile and she said "you're the ones out of all of us that know them the best, it makes me sad and I only see them some of the time...they've lived with you for almost 9 months...it's ok to be sad and to miss them." This is the first long-term placement we've had to say good-bye too and I knew it was going to be hard, I just didn't expect it to be this hard. I'm a mess...I really am.

Answered Prayers...

Little J and Baby D's scrapbook pages came today. YEAH! I can finish putting their scrapbooks together tonight. I am so relieved!

Let Little J's and Baby D's scrapbook pages arrive on time...

I ordered their pages and they gave me a shipment date of 5-26. I asked to have the order shipped sooner than that if possible. She was going to forward the message out and said they could ship today. Well, I haven't gotten shipping notification today. I emailed her backa nd told her that if they could ship them tomorrow (Friday) I would really appreciate it and I was willing to pay more if I needed to. I just want to ensure that I have time to put them together and I'm not rushing to do it and I want to make sure that I don't run into any problems and they show up too late for the kids to have their scrapbooks to take home. Please let their pages arrive asap, Abba. I'm trying to be patient, but I'm worrying about it. I put it into your hands, Abba.

Scratched another thing off the list...

The kids layouts have all been uploaded to the scrapbook place to have them printed. Andy was awesome and helped me since it takes so long to upload the files since they're so big. We spent an hour last night each uploading as many layouts as we could to each of our computers. Then, he said he'd work on them at work too for me so I didn't have to do so many here. Well, when he called to wake me up this morning, he had all of them uploaded for me, so all I had to do was go in and select them to be printed and pay for them. I did FedEx 2 day air so that I can make sure that I can have them all put together in time. I feel a huge weight off of my shoulders now. Little J found out that I was done with her book and she was so excited. I can't wait to show them both.

I really do have the best hubby in the world... :-)

Crossed that one off the list...

I'm done with Baby D and Little J's books. :-) That is one load off my shoulders. Now to upload all the layouts tomorrow to have them printed.

Prayers for our family...

I pray that my Mom has a good visit with her sister this weekend. I pray for my brother as he turns 18 this weekend, which is also the same day that my Mom is taking her vows to become a 3rd order nun.

I pray for Andy as he is such a good and caring husband and father. Sometimes his patience runs thin, but whose doesn't at times. But give him your blessings, Abba, and I pray and hope that he'll always know how much he truly means to me and this family. I pray that he'll always have job security where he works and that he'll always have good rapport with them. He is very blessed where he works.

I pray for Deidra that she will always be my sweet little Deidra. I've seen her get some spunkiness lately and I don't like her attitude sometimes. I pray that you will watch over her and always keep her safe and give me the guidance to nip her attitudes and mouthiness in the bud.

I pray for Baby J and his Mom today. He really is such a sweet baby boy although a bit agressive at times. However, he's been a little more on the agressive side lately than I'd like to see and I pray for lots of love and guidance there for him and I so that we can get him back to being the sweet little boy that he is and curb this agression that he seems to be showing lately. I pray for his Mom too and I truly hope that when we go to court in October, that we'll all do the right thing by this little boy. We still desperately want to adopt him and hope that he can be in our family forever, but I know that only You truly know what is best for him. I continue to put it into Your Hands, Abba.

I pray for Baby D and Little J as they prepare to go home. We're going to tell them in play therapy that their sister isn't coming home with them and I truly hope and pray that you'll be with Little J and give her peace and comfort when she finds out. I truly think that she's going to flip out. She's got conflicting emotions when she talks about going home. On one hand, she wants to go home and be with her parents and on the other hand, she doesn't want to leave us either. Baby D has had little temper outbursts too that I couldn't figure out what was going on until my caseworker asked if Little J had talked about them going home in front of him. That's got to be what is causing them. So, I pray for peace and comfort for them over the next couple of weeks as they prepare to go home at the end of the month. I also pray for their parents and grandma that they'll be able to give the children everything that they truly need and that the children will only know peace, love, trust, and comfort when they go back home.

I also pray for our home...that it will always be a place of peace and comfort love and protection for anyone who walks through our front door. I pray that we'll be allegation and investigation free during our time of foster care. We ask for your blessings, Abba, for our family. We thank you for all that you have done for us and will continue to do for us.

So tired...

I went to bed around 9:30 last night and got up around 6:45 this morning. I woke up with a sinus headache. I wish I could go back to bed. Baby J has been on the aggressive side lately (mainly towards the end of the week and it's mainly toward me, so I think he's mad at me and the only thing that I can think of is that he's seeing his Mom now and I'm not there with him when he sees her like I was before). The caseworker said that it's entirely possible. But, he's majorly trying to test me when I tell him no about things too, so he's been in time out a lot lately. It kills me to have to keep putting him in there, but he's got to know that he has to listen and respect me. All day yesterday, he'd get mad at knock stuff over. I put him in his room as he kept knocking our dining room chairs over when he was mad and I didn't want anyone getting hurt. I heard a big crash coming from his room and he had knocked over the changing table. So, I went up and pulled that out into the hallway and put him back in his bed. He started kicking the door and when I went up there he was literally hanging from the doorknob screaming "No, Mommy, No." When I went in to put him back to bed and tell him to calm down he scratched me in the face and all up and down my arms. I'm trying to teach him that he can only do "soft hands" but man oh man, does this child have a temper. He's got so much upper body strength too...everyone is so surprised by that when they see him do some of the things he does and he just turned 2. Ever since Little J started talking about how they're going home, Baby D has had crying episodes and has been defiant with me too. I didn't put two and two together until the caseworker asked me if Little J had been talking about it around him. But, this all started around that time, so that really may be what it is. These are first placements that I've had for quite some time that are going home, so I guess I'm not used to what some of their behaviors can be. I know Little J is torn as she talks to me about it...on one hand she wants to go home and be back with her parents and on the other hand she's so scared that we're going to forget her or that she won't ever see us again. It's hard to know what's really going to happen. I told her I'd give her my cell phone number so she can call me from time to time if she wants to and her parents will let her (although I don't really think they'll let her). But, we'll see.

I really need to get their scrapbooks caught up. I need to have them done by the 20th to ensure that I can get them printed and back in the mail to put into their books by the time they go home on the 30th.

I think I'm going to go try and take another tylenol and see if that helps my headache and try to do some stuff with Baby D for a bit while Baby J naps (he fell asleep after his tantrum).

What an hour and a half!

I took Deidra to the doctor. Both the boys were crazy, Baby D wouldn't stop whining that he wanted a popsicle and Baby J was way past the overtired stage and was throwing fit and after fit and scratching me and slapping me when I wouldn't let him down. Deidra had the chills and zonked out on the doctor's table. We waited forever and the doctor came in to see her. Took a look at her and said "I can tell you just from looking at the stuff coming down her throat that she's got a nasty sinus infection." She gave her some amoxicillin and said that in a day or two she should be feeling a lot better. She handed me the script and said that I looked really tired myself. I told her that I thought Deidra had something viral as I thought I had caught what she had. She told me she thought I needed to get myself into the doctor. I'll ride it out a few more days...

Now, I've got all the kids down for a nap and I'm sitting here pondering do I catch up on some scrapbooking and enjoy the peace and quiet or do I try to lay down myself.

Oh, and just before we went to the doctor I got my period (I was a week late and was wondering what was going on) and I have the most horrendous cramps I've had in a long time. Just what I wanted for Mother's day.

So much to do! Too little time!

Man, oh, man...I know the end of the school year is always a busy time, but my calendar is filling up quicker than I know what to do with. The last week is already pretty much filled up. I still feel like crap...Deidra wanted to go back to school today so I loaded her up on cough syrup and motrin. She's still running a slight fever, but she's bouncing off the wall with boredom. I guess if I have to go get her early, I'll have to go get her early.

Baby J starts weekly visits with his Mom today. I asked that they not be on Mondays or Wednesdays and that they could do them in the morning so that I made sure that he was back in time for me to go get the girls from school. They scheduled them on Wednesdays from 12-2 (and she specifically said that he should be back in time for me to go get the girls from school...I notated that the key word in that sentence is SHOULD). All I can do is hope and pray that he's back when they say he'll be back as I have to leave at 2:20 to go get the girls from school and I don't make it back until about 3. And now, I have to figure out when we're going to be able to fit his therapy in on Wednesdays since he'll be gone now when we were originally going to do it. I got his Mom a Mother's Day card that he can give to her and I'm going to put his Chuck E. Cheese picture in it for her.

The CPS worker for Baby D and Little J came out yesterday since she's going on vacation (cruise to the Caribbean for 10 days...I'm so jealous) and I was trying to get an idea of if they were going back at the end of the school year or when they went back to court. It's just a matter of a couple of days, but they have SO much stuff that I need to inventory and pack up for them, that I just wanted to make sure that I knew when they were going to go home so it was all ready. I really need to kick it into high gear too to get their books done. I'm trying to schedule a good-bye party for them too. I'm going to get Little J an angel necklace so she always knows that her angel is watching over her. I'm still trying to figure out what to get for Baby D. Any ideas?? Anyone? I want it to mean something, something that he'll always be able to have.

I can't believe that school is almost done...Deidra's field day at school she wants us to be there for. Then, Little J has her graduation and class party (we held her back so she'll go on to kindergarten again next year). Then, we have our quarterly monitoring which our caseworker said they changed the form and she thinks it's going to take about 3 hours to do. Then, school ends and the kids go home.

May is going to fly by...

did I mention that I still am sick...? I don't want to DO anything!

In honor of National Scrapbook Day...

I put Little J and Baby D's scrapbooks together for them and we sat down and looked at them with them. Little J's eyes just lit right up and she was so excited about it. Baby D just kept saying "that's me, Mommy, that's me!" I was thrilled that they liked them so much, I just hope their family doesn't throw them out or anything.

We also pulled my scrapbooks out of the tote in the garage and Deidra wanted to look through hers....well we only made it through 3 of them. I am SO glad that I scrapbook when I looked back on some pictures...man I had totally forgotten some stuff and was so glad that I had it there on a layout and I had journaled about it. Deidra totally got a kick out of seeing herself as a baby and a toddler too. It was nice to ponder through her books and see how totally cute she was at different stages and we even looked back on her terrible 2s and the tantrums she'd throw (yes, I have pics and it's all documented in her book).

I don't have time to paper scrap anymore, but I'm glad that I kept going digitally. It still get the story down and she'll always have her books to help her hold her memories. I always worry about that when I think about how young I was when I lost my Mom....it's important to me to get Deidra's life documented so if anything ever were to happen to any one of us, she always has those books to help her to see that she was loved. I think that's always something I'll struggle with with losing my Mom so young and wondering about so many things. My Mom took lots of pictures for me, but I don't have the journaling to go with it...I wish that all would have been recorded too to help me remember or to help me know the type of person that she was. That's part of the reason that I think it is so important to scrapbook for my family.

Major Household Duty Day...

Well, Baby J didn't want to listen at all today and got to throwing his tantrums, I got smacked in the face and scratched, so I put him in his room. He got a bit too quiet and so I went to check on him. He had torn the shelf in his room down that held his diaper wipes and diaper cremes and had started to throw his wipes all over his room and so I made him pick them up. Moved the diaper changing table to the opposite side of the room so he can't climb it to get into anything and then I took everything out of his room for Andy to fix when he gets home as no matter how many times I tried I couldn't get that shelf hung back up.

Baby D went down for his afternoon nap and the girls both decided after they put a basket of their clothes away that they were bored. I told them they'd better find something to do or I was going to do it for them, I have a whole house to clean and put back into shape today. Deidra picked up the playroom and the living room and Little J picked up their room and then the girls decided that they too were going to take naps. Fine with me. I turned on my tunes and cleaned the kitchen and mopped the floor and got my little bathroom cleaned up. Now to just go upstairs and vacuum and clean the kids bathroom and our master bathroom and finish up laundry and my house will be sparkly clean.

It's also National Scrapbook Day so I hope to get some scrapping done later too as well as get Little J's and Baby D's scrapbooks put together.

What a beautiful day...

It is absolutely gorgeous outside. I babysat this morning and we took the boys to the doctor this morning. Baby J had his 2-year physical (he's 33 lbs and 35 inches tall). He had to get a finger stick to check his hemoglobin and he never even cried. He was such a good patient. Baby D I just needed to make sure he was up-to-date on his immunizations. He just needed a DTAP shot and he was good to go. Went and got Wendy's for lunch and all the boys scarfed down their lunches. Put the boys down for a nap and did a scrapbook page. Then my caseworker called so I ran up to the agency really quick. We talked a bit about Baby J's mom and she's hoping that if there are enough inconveniences for her that she'll relinquish. I just think for someone that just made the statement that they were having issues being separated from her son and needed some therapy to deal with it (no sooner did she say they that they transferred her to another RTC program that was a whole lot closer...so she went from being 6 hours away to about 40 minutes from us)...anyway, I just thought that she would have taken advantage of the time I was willing to give her with him rather than being selfish and wanting what she wanted and since she couldn't take him to the fair, she just wanted me to come get him. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me anyway. She hadn't seen him since February, I guess I just would have thought that as long as she spent time with him it wouldn't have mattered where they went or what they did.

Andy ran and got the girls from school while I gave the boys a snack after they woke up. Then, when he got back with the girls, I ran up to Wal-mart to get some diapers, stuff for Deidra's field trip tomorrow as she needed a sack lunch, and got a few things that we were out of. Came home and had a snack myself and tried to declutter my countertops a bit. Now, I'm blogging while Andy is filing the bills away and I'm trying to keep Baby J out of things. Then, I'm off to get ready for our foster parent appreciation banquet tonight. It'll be fun to have a night out. I get so shy around a bunch of people that I don't know, but I'm slowly getting to know the other foster families, so hopefully it won't be too bad tonight. I really need to come out of my shell some more.

It's so beautiful outside that I may go take the boys for a quick walk around the neighborhood and enjoy the green grass and seeing all the flowers. They love to go down by our pond and see if they can see some duckies.

Going to be another busy day...

It's Baby J's birthday today. I have to wrap his presents still. Then, Baby D and Little J have their visit today. After that, I have to run to the bakery to get Baby J's cake. Then, I'm going to run and pick up dinner...I think we're just going to get Chicken Express tonight (we're taking the kids to Chuck E. Cheese tomorrow).

Scrapbooks Please is having a scrapbook print sale today and so I have about 70 layouts to upload to have printed for 99 cents each. Then, they have 20% off on orders of $50 or more. Not bad really since I get most of my scrap kits for free. So, it really just costs me to print them and buy the albums that they go in. This way, I have their albums caught up through November. Then, I just have to catch them up through April and then print those. Then, they'll have their books to take home with them.

I love my case worker...

I wish all my caseworkers could be like her. She let me know how much she appreciates us being on top of everything and we're always really thorough on our logs so they know what's going on behavior wise with all the kids and socially, emotionally, and with their visits and therapies. She told me how she's always singing our praises and that I'm one of her best foster parents and she wishes all of hers could be like us. She wanted to make sure we were going to be at the foster parent banquet next week and she wanted me to know that she appreciated all the hard work that I do. It felt good to be appreciated.

We talked about the kids for a bit too. My heart is heavy knowing that Little J and Baby D are going home next month. My case worker and I really don't feel that they need to be going home just yet until we find out some other things that are going on with Baby D (that's all I can say, sorry), but CPS feels differently and there's nothing we can do.

Baby J's mom is back in our region and we're taking him to see his Mom on Sunday for a quick birthday visit at her RTC. Then in May he'll see her twice a month up until we go back to court in October. My emotions are different from day-to-day worrying about that, although my foster care workers keep telling me that if she keeps her behavior up that keeps her in RTC, she's not able to work a caseplan and that looks really bad to a judge that she can't take responsibility for herself and her behavior to get herself out of there. I'm just glad that Baby J's attorney knows that we are interesting in adopting him now and the judge is pretty quick to move on permanency. So, we wait and see what his Mom decides to do in the meantime.

Busy Day...

my van is in the shop getting fixed, Andy's working from home, I babysat this morning for a 15-month old baby boy. Then, I just ran and ordered Baby J's birthday cake (Thomas the train), I need to wrap his presents, I've been trying to get laundry put away and the house cleaned up. We had our pop-up visit from our caseworker and then I had to go up to the agency to drop off some stuff I had to make copies of before I could turn them in. Then, I had the intake worker that had some questions for me as they were confused on if we wanted another placement of just anyone or whether we wanted it to specifically be from the compound. I said we'd take anything...we just wanted to let them know that we were willing to help with the compound (LDS) stuff too if needed. They're trying to put those kids in large group homes and stuff though so they're not exposed to our cultures and stuff, so it's not your typical foster care settings. So, I'm doubting we'd get picked anyway. But, I told her what we were wanting and I gave her permission to say yes for us and so hopefully we'll have another little one soon. Then, I ran and get the girls from school and now I'm going to try to do a few scrapbook pages.

Therapy...

Abba, please let the therapy sessions for Baby D and Baby J get approved soon. I want a chance to get a handle on some things for Baby D especially before he goes home soon. I worry about them (Baby D and Little J)because I just don't know if I trust that the parents will follow through on what they need.

Weekend Plans?

Anyone have any exciting weekend plans? I'm tired...TX got hit by some strong winds, rain, and hail last night and so we went to bed late. All I know is that by 9 pm last night it felt to me like it should have been midnight. I didn't want to get up this morning either.

I'm not sure what we're doing this weekend, I'd like to tackle the backyard landscaping and get that done. I need to totally clean the inside of my house. I need to catch up Baby D and Little J's scrapbooks. Heck, I'm behind on all of them, but since they're technically going home soon, I really need to make sure they're caught up. So prepare to see lots of pages from me this weekend. I know they're probably boring to everyone, but I enjoy sharing them. :-)

I'd like to go out thrift shopping for ebay this weekend too. It's supposed to be beautiful this weekend. I'm enjoying seeing all the green grass, the flowers blooming, and I really want to go take the kids pictures with the Texas Bluebonnets that are popping up all over the highways and stuff.

I love spring...to see everything popping up and blooming reminds me that we're always given a fresh start in life and in everything we do.

It's a little after 7 pm and the whole house is quiet!!

I don't know what to do with myself. I know what I SHOULD be doing...but I'm just enjoying the peace and quiet. The boys didn't take naps today and they wanted to go to bed early...so they went down a little after 6:30.

Deidra came home from school in a good mood, but she also came home with her very first F and Andy and I had a stern talk with her about her grades. Granted, it was 4 questions on it ( a story that she had to put the events in order)...but she got every one wrong. She has to redo it this weekend. She also got a 68 on her spelling test...Andy practiced those words with her all week long. I'm beginning to wonder if she gets nervous about her tests as she spells them fine here at home. All of her other papers were high 80s and high 90s. Anyway, we went to run errands and she just completely melted down in the store about how we all hate her because of her grades. She wasn't even going to get in the car to come home, she wanted to stay in the parking lot. Andy told her if she kept it up she was going to be grounded for the rest of the day. I wasn't sure that was the approach to take as something lately is clearly bothering her as she doesn't usually act like this. Anyway, I wasn't going to argue with him about punishment in front of her...so she got herself grounded. We got home, we weren't even home 10 minutes and she was asleep on the couch. She is out too...I tried to wake her for dinner...nope she wasn't budging.

Little J had some medication added to her regimen as of last night. She takes it three times a day. She was fine last night. I gave it to her this morning and the teacher said she couldn't even keep her eyes open in class. She sent her to the nurse and she took a hour and a half nap and still wasn't acting like herself. I reported it to my caseworker so they could get back to the doctor, but they agreed to see how she does over the weekend and if she's still having this much trouble by Monday they'd try to cut it back or change the dosage for her to see if that helps. I had to go get her from school early though as she just kept wanting to go back to sleep. She did look pretty out of it when I picked her up, I barely thought she was going to be able to stay awake long enough to walk to the car. She's pale and says her stomach hurts too and everyone...nurse and pharmacist said that's not a side effect of the drug...so I'm wondering if she doesn't have a bug or something now. I had to give her another dose before her visit and I guess she slept on her Dad's lap through most of the visit. She came home and crashed on the couch...woke up to eat dinner...and went to lay back down. I had to wake her up to give her her night time meds and she went right back to bed. She hasn't budged. I hope everyone falling asleep early, doesn't mean that they're going to try to wake up way early tomorrow morning. This Mommy needs some sleep herself after the week we've had! Flooding and tornadoes in the area...just lots of stressful things going on! I'm just glad it's the weekend!

Our master bathroom disaster...

Most of you heard that the boys flooded our bathroom the other day when they were supposed to be napping. I took some pics of the incident just in case we needed some for any insurance purposes or Andy needed to show them to work since he left early to help me gain some sanity.

I never thought two toddlers could be so quiet while making such a HUGE mess. They stopped up Andy's sink and let the water continuously flow on full blast. I was trying to clean downstairs while I thought they were napping (Baby J was asleep when I left their bedroom and I left Baby D rubbing his eyes and I thought he was quickly on his way to napping...WRONG!). Anyway, after I cleaned the guest bathroom downstairs, the playroom, and went to unload the dishwasher I heard the footsteps and a giggle. I went upstairs to find my master bathroom door closed and them laughing. I opened up the door, saw the huge mess, and proceeded to slip and fall on my butt. What I didn't see at first was all the water ALL over the floor... I got the water turned off, the boys changed and put back to bed and went to put down all the towels that I could find. That wasn't nearly enough. I went and got all the blankets that I could find...that STILL wasn't enough. By that time, I called Andy in tears and he said he'd take lunch and come home to help me. Right after I talked to him, my Mom called. She was able to get me the number for some emergency people that deal with flooding (THANKS MOM!) and they came out right away. By that time, I had taken every bin of dirty clothes that we had and dumped them all over the bathroom floor to sop up the water and that helped get more up off the floor. I came downstairs to grab my mop and found that the water had started to pour through the laundry room vent over my head. I cleaned up the water downstairs that was on the floor and ran back upstairs to make sure that I got all the major water soaked up. I discovered that Andy's cabinet drawers were FULL of water...so I quickly dumped those out and got towels in them to dry them out. Unfortunately, they have some water damage...but it's only on the inside of the drawers so he's not too worried about it. By that point, Andy was home and the emergency people came shortly after. They probed our floors and walls and the downstairs ceiling and thankfully only a section of our drywall and baseboards and ceiling had anything to worry about. He recommended setting up 3 huge fans and a dehumidifer to those areas for 3 days to dry them out. They're coming out tomorrow to probe again to make sure it's all dried up. We did wind up with a small crack in the downstairs ceiling, but I guess it could have been a whole lot worse. We'll have to putty it and patch it up and repaint.

This is the only photo that you can honestly see that there's water on the floor (reflection of the window on the floor). But, they sure had a field day in there in the 15-20 minutes that I was THINKING they were sleeping. Now, they have a safety knob on their door so they can't get out and we're installing a door alarm as well so we know when they've opened the door for SURE.




Yeah, I think the cats will be glad to have the blowers and stuff gone too. They're so loud that they freak the cats out too....

We're constantly having to yell over them too and it would be nice to just be able to use normal voices to communicate with one another. UGH!






Yeah, they completely dumped out all the contents of my bathroom cabinet and scattered it all over the place. Then they dumped the cat litter all over, turned Andy's faucet on and plugged his sink and let the water flow out all over (did I mention that the water was also on full blast), dumped our hand towels in the cat's food and water dishes, they just had a grand old time and could not seem to understand why I was just not so amused when I found them having field day in all the water. There was not a dry spot on my bathroom floor at all! They also got into some ebay stuff that was in our bedroom and they tried to throw some stuff out of the window after they pushed the screen out. Little terrors! I did learn one thing though...I'm not opening up the upstairs windows anymore...I do not want them falling out!!

One thing that I am grateful for though is that it wasn't as expensive to clean up as we thought it was going to be...don't get me wrong it was still a pricey event to take care of, but we were more concerned that we thought we were going to have majoral structural damage when we saw that the water had made it through the ceiling and so forth. I'm just grateful that we had a real emergency fund built up and that it was only a small fortune to take care of it rather than the big one we thought it was going to be. Thank You, Dave Ramsey who we're taking our baby steps after!