Shots and thoughts

I'm feeling very thankful today, thankful that I have such wonderful children! We went to the free shot clinic this morning because Jess needed some more shots before entering school this year. I had my 3 kids and the 4 yr old childcare little girl with me. It was packed,, lots of people waiting. We ended up being in there for an hour and fifteen minutes! Luckily my kids were great. They were either sitting nicely beside me or playing quietly with the little toy thing they had there. A few times Emma said she wanted to go home and she was hungry but it was nearing lunch time and I wanted to go home to., haha. Now some of the other kids in there were a different story. There was this one poor mom,, I felt bad for her. See, I try not to judge because all of us mothers have been there with a screaming kid acting up,, but it was kinda hard not to judge today. She had 3 kids with her, one about Jessies age,, another probably 5 and another little boy probably 2. the 2 year old was acting awful, screaming and carrying on. She had one of those monkey leashes on him and he was trying to run everywhere and she kept tugging on that thing and pulling him back. I felt bad for the little kid cause he had all these red marks on his neck and shoulders from her tugging on the leash. The kid didn't have any shoes on, his feet were black,, all of them wernt dressed very nice, the mother just kept screaming at all of them and the older ones weren't even doing anything. It really made me think. I try to tell myself that appearances don't mean much but in this case they did. I was just so thankful that my kids were being good,, but even if they wernt I think I would have handled it a little differently. I'm thanking God today for my great kids!

Life around here has been pretty normal with the exception of the latest news from my neighbor... Good news for her, bad news for me. I am so happy for her but will miss having her next door. It makes me sad cause I consider her one of my best friends and shes leaving me :( at least she's not going far,,,, hopefully, and we can still visit and talk sometimes. Who will I borrow eggs from though??? I'm just giving you a hard time neighbor ;;-) I am thrilled that you guys are able to get a bigger home. I think my real internal drama stems from the fact that I feel like we are never gonna be able to leave here. There is nothing wrong with this house, its in a nice location, looks cute, its just too small for our big family! And of course our dream is to get into the country. The reality is that we just can not afford a bigger house payment now without being totally strapped for cash and never being able to do anything extra. That's no fair for the kids and I know my husband wont stand for never doing anything extra. So unless by some miracle the perfect house falls into our lap with payments I can afford were staying here until Ben gets a raise or something like that happens. I'm trying to think in Dave Ramsey terms and not try to keep up with Joneses. One day it will happen and we will be able to move onto bigger better things..... I hope! I'll just keep my eyes on the prize and in the mean time try to do the best I can with what I have. I'm just waiting for the inner peace to come to me and tell my brain that it will happen someday.

Well there's laundry waiting for me so off I go..............

Chain o Lakes

Spur of the moment Sunday we decided to go to Chain o Lakes, its one of our state parks. It was looking cloudy b4 we left but I had faith that the sun would come out and it did! This was Emma's first actual beach trip. She loved it. We took along some sand toys and all the kids had a blast!

She wasn't scared one bit of the water. Next time I think we'll take her arm floaties because she keep wanting to go further and further out in the water. She is so brave. I think her favorite thing to do was stand way back and then count to 3 and run as fast as she could into the water and jump in. She did it tons of times, it was so cute I caught a video of it.

My husband isnt really into swimming so he took along his fishing pole and fished while we swam. So he got to do his thing and we got to do ours. Everyone was happy! After we swam for about 2 hours we did some hiking. We walked to the playground, but that one was covered with bees, so we hiked through the woods and went to the campground. This was during what would normally be Emmas naptime. She was a tad grouchy and didnt wanna walk and was scared a bear was gonna get her in the woods, haha! But when we finally arrived at the campground we went to the campstore and got everyone a icecream. Then found a bigger better playground there with no bees. So we played for a while then made the walk back, this time with Emma riding on Ben's shoulders, she was much happier that way. We started hearing thunder on our way, Gary got a little scared. I just told him it was our grand adventure. :) We made it to the car just in time and drove home in a pretty big thunderstorm.

It really was a lot of fun. Ben said we could go back again sometime!! I put off my housework all weekend long,,,, so now I have to try to catch up with all the extra kids here this week. Oh well it was totally worth it just to hang out and have fun with the family!

Grocery shopping

Well I'm down to two kids today, Emma and a childcare kid. Its been rather quiet,, you would think since their the little ones they would be the loud ones but apparently its the older ones that cause all the noise.lol So I decided to brave it out and take them to the grocery store this morning. Emma did a good job, but the other one...grrrrr.....she was running around acting like it was a dance marathon or something,,, I think I told her to come stand by my cart about 100 times! We did make it through though and I'm proud to say I stocked my cart with lots of fruits and veggies! I made the comment the other day to Ben that when I buy snacky junky stuff its gone in like 2 days and the healthy stuff I buy gets put in the fridge and forgotten. So he said stop buying the junk and just by the healthy stuff,, so that's what I did. I bought a LOT of fruit, here's the run down:
-watermelon
-cantaloupe
-blueberries
-sweet cherries
-bananas
-grapes
-peaches
-nectarines
All those were fresh, I also got some canned fruit. I bought some lettuce that I vow will not sit in my fridge and rot,,,that's what usually happens. I've got to get back on my healthy kick, I've been doing terrible lately!!

While changing Emma's stinky diaper today I told her that if she wanted to go to Disney World and see Mickey Mouse that she needed to start using the big potty and wearing big girl panties. I said Mickey Mouse doesn't like girls in diapers (I know, I know,,,, I shouldn't lie but I've got to get this girl outta diapers!!). Then she started talking about Disney and saying she was gonna give Mickey a high five and a big hug and not be scared of him. She went on and on and we talked about what all she would see there. She was getting very excited!

So guess who's not going to re do her kitchen this weekend.......I'm gonna bank the money,, I can't let my kids down, they have only been waiting 2 years for this Florida trip.

A Good Day

Today has been a great day so far(accept for my massive headache). All the kiddos are getting along(Jess isn't here today), but the other 5 are doing great. The ten month old I've started watching has been all smiles today and has went down for both naps without a fight!! That's the best part, I was getting a little worried cause she's been having some trouble. The only thing I did different was put her playpen in Jessie's room instead of Gary's. Maybe she likes that room better, lol. Emma went down for her nap, thank God, because she hadn't napped in 3 days!

Tonight were taking Gary over to mom's to join Jess to visit with our cousins from North Carolina. He's so excited to see Spencer and learn some new soccer skills!

I've been debating in my head today over whether or not to do something. I've been wanting to redo our kitchen since we moved in 7 years ago. I just wanna paint the walls and put in new counter tops. Well I saw in the Maynard's flier that they have countertop on sale this week,, I did some measurements and we can do painting and countertops for less than 100 dollars I believe. Ben said we could do it,, but my dilemma is if I should spend the money now on that or bank it for the Florida trip. I'm so concerned lately that we will be short on money for our trip.....I don't know what to do! What do ya think?

Anyways that's what's on my mind today.

Phil Vassar - Just Another Day In Paradise

We had a fabulous 4th of July holiday. I'm so thankful to live in this great country! Saturday morning Ben and I went golfing, it was so much fun! I just wish it wasn't so darn expensive,, were going to have to cut back our trips because we've got to get our Florida fund built up or were not gonna be able to go! :( After golf we came home and vegged out, then we went to watch fireworks at Winona Lake,, it was fun, Emma really enjoyed it.

Sunday we had a cookout at moms house with all the Bayles family. Ben and I challenged everyone to corn hole,, and did pretty well if I say so myself! Then afterwards we came home and watched some more fireworks from our back porch. Everyone around us was setting them off, it was nice to enjoy them without spending the money on them. :)

Monday morning Ben went fishing with my brother in law and Emma and I went out to moms and layed by them pool and swam. Then we came home, did some more vegging, then played corn hole once it cooled off a little. We defiantly get good use out of the corn hole game my step-dad made for us! I love long weekends!

So today is full of laundry, getting the house back in order,, all that good stuff. There is always some sort of household chore to be doing around here. My work is never done. But it is worth every minute. I'm so lucky to have 3 great kids. Jess is such a help, Gary is my little comedian, and Emma can always make me smile...no matter what,, even if I'm crying she will come up to me and hug me, tell me she loves me over and over and do anything to make me smile. I love that baby! My house is sometimes like a 3 ring circus,, very loud and crazy, but it is a household filled with LOVE! Have you ever heard the country song "just another day in paradise"? That sound describes my life to a T,,, I love it. Here's the video.