The Puddles

I was awoken abruptly this morning by Ainsley announcing that she had to throw up.  Those two words always get me up quickly.  I grabbed her and ran to the bathroom where she refused to throw up in the toilet.  I grabbed a trash can where she could finally throw up.  Poor thing.  She hates throwing up.  I mean it is like a battle of the will with her.  Her body says yes but her mind says “NO WAY!”

So now I am desperately praying that this is a one time thing.  So far no fever. I can only hope!  I am taking the entire Girl Scout troop to a play tomorrow and I am counting on Chris driving so we have enough drivers and seats for everyone to go.  So cross my fingers!

Ben was sick last weekend so we all could have guessed that this was coming.  There is no way that we could avoid this illness from spreading.  It is just not in our DNA to keep things to ourselves that way. So now it is up to Ainsley’s poor little body to decide whether or not it is finished.  I can only hope.

The kids attempted to make the slide into a waterslide.  I wouldn’t help, because (being a Texas girl) I did think that 62 degrees was still just too cold for me to get wet.  My yankee children thought otherwise and tried to do it.  It got them very wet and they even got chilly and quit trying to do it.  Instead decided to use their wet bodies to get dirty.  I hate cleaning the bathtubs after all of that. Yuck!  But worth it!  So much fun!

I just read my last post again and the last thing I wrote sounded like the Seven Dwarfs heading off to work in the mines.  Except they sounded much happier.

Sigh.  This is Chris’s day to worry so I am busy trying to get stuff done.  Now if you walked into my house today, you would say, “Katherine.  What have you done all day ?  Bonbons and soaps again?”  Seriously that is what our home looks like.  Like a tornado hit.  (Well I guess I do have three miniature tornados in the house. No . . .  Make that three miniature tornados and one F5.) But tons of things were accomplished today.  Most of which was not cleaning the house.  Tonight I will work diligently to get things picked up so that tomorrow we can spend the day outside.  It is suppose to be the last pretty day of spring break.  Today it was . . . (to my fellow citizens above the Red River please disregard the following.  it will only depress you!!!)

70 degrees and no humidity with tons of sunshine.  Gorgeous.  I truly believe that this is what God has ordered up paradise to be like.  So I plan on enjoying the day as much as possible.  Or at least force the kids to be outside all day in it.  I am such a cruel mommy (Insert insane cackling here.)!

That is what it can feel like on most days. You know that feeling. When all you can do is the bare minimum of human function.  If you dare try to feel something, all of the emotions come bubbling up to the surface and start to overwhelm you.  Sometimes it can truly stink being an adult.  Adult worries can seem so huge.  We seem stressed about everything . . . life, church, home.  There is always something that crops up that gets moved to the stop of the list pushing everything else down a notch to be done later.  Stress. Stress. Stress. Worry. Worry. Worry.  Vicious cycle.  Chris says that we cannot both worry at the same time.  We have to take turn or nothing gets done.  So he has volunteered to take the first shift.  Thank goodness.

Luckily these moments are fleeting and do not succumb us.  Good.  Because there are children to be hugged, laundry to be done, and meals to prepare.  So off to work we go.

Why go to Fry’s of course! Fry’s is the super store of all things electronic. There is enough things there to make both me and Chris happy. I wouldn’t be surprised if they sold vaccum tubes. 60 plus aisles of stuff doesn’t make for a great place to take kids so only date night it is!!!

Ben is talking to his friend Joshua through the window since he can’t be outside because he is sick . . .

“There is this girl who is s…  Wait. Mom, can I say a bad word just this once?”

“What does it start with?”

“S.”

“No.”

He turns back to Josh.  “O.k. there was this girl who was fabulous.  Mom, can I say fabulous?”

I love it.  I am looking forward to when the hormones kick in.

***Note*** Chris wanted me to put in that this entire conversation was about Daisy Duke from the “Dukes of Hazzard.” He loves the car chase scenes in this movie but apparently he loves something else too!!!

we have one down for the count.  Ben got sick yesterday.  Vomit and fever.  We hope that he will be better today.  He took a bath this morning and is taking it easy, but he has already started to eye the open box of Thin Mints and is asking to eat some.  I think he is better.

We had the privilege of having Gordon come over yesterday and spend the night with us (yeah!!!!).  It was fun.  We always enjoy it when he comes to play.  At one point yesterday, we had seven kids playing at the house, so it was a full house.  I managed to get most of the house cleaned and I am almost finished washing two weeks worth of laundry.  Chris fixed the garage door, mowed the yard, and cleaned the entire garage.  Somehow we managed to get a lot done yesterday.  I can only hope that the rest of the week will look like yesterday.

After all of the laundry is put away, we still have to go through all of the closets and pull out the clothes that don’t fit anymore.  We are taking stock of what we need because Grandma and Papa Grace and Aunt Debra are all heading north tomorrow morning and we are going shopping together.  I (according to both Madie and Aunt Debra) don’t do a good job of picking out clothes.  Madie hates to shop, so I am bringing my two experts along for help.  Of course, my only goal for tomorrow is really just to have a good time with my family.  Chris and the kids are hopefully heading to Brenham to help put a roof on a garden shed and then the kids are staying with the other grandparents for a little bit.  They hardly ever see the other set of grandparents so it will be good for them to hang for a little bit.

We missed church this morning because of Ben being sick, but the sun is out. The windows are open. My azaleas are about to bloom and my world is good.

Ben had a really good time with the Rodeo games on Thursday.  They had barrel races, horse races, cowboy dress up relay, bandana relay, and more.  The kids were all exhausted by the time we finished on Thursday morning.  It was chilly when the kids started playing and several of them had to go inside and get their jackets, but by the end of the play time the kids were stripping to get their extra layers off because it was so hot.

We had a really good time trying to get all of us in a photo together.  Finally Dad came home and took our photo for us.  We needed to mark the day!

I dearly love those babies!