random

so, i know i am a total blog slacker. our lives have been a little crazy this month. if you are my facebook friend, then you know we have spent way too much time at doctors' offices this month. also, it has been a very busy wedding month, there has been family stuff, and now i am forced to entertain my children 24/7 for the next 3 months. oh, how i miss you preschool (and it hasn't even been a full week yet!) 

but, back to what i planned to tell you, while thinking about how i needed to blog, i decided to do a little update. i have been admiring my friend sonya's adorable background from shabbyblogs.com, so i hopped on over to see what else they had. since i love all things vintage and shabby, i decided to change it up. my favorite thing about the change-a white background!! i love the way pictures look on a crisp white background, but it is so hard to find a cute one. i love it, now i just need to change the header (well, i need to have josh do it because i don't know how!) and i think i will be set.

another random rambling, i have been thinking about a weekly post of some sort (if any of you are still reading since my hiatus). i, of course, don't like any of the ones floating around because well, they just don't seem to fit me-

not me monday-i honestly don't understand this one. i occasionally read them on other blogs, but they confuse me. 

wordless wednesday or almost wordless wednesday- i rarely have little to say, so this wouldn't work at all.

i have a few ideas:

fun foto friday-a random picture and a story to go with it. i know, i know. it is not original. maybe a photography tip every now and then, but i am not very good so i don't know if i could help anyone take better pictures.

fun find friday-a little something i have found and how i use it or plan to use it. as you may already know, i love to go estate saling (yes i made that up, but i use it all the time and so it should become a word soon or at least be designated slang.) with my mom and you may or may not be interested in knowing about discovering little vintage finds. apparently, most of you didn't grow up scouring estate sales and antique stores with your family!

wedding wednesdays or something-josh claims that several of his brides read this blog, but i only know of one. so, this is a shout out to all of you brides-holl-a! (in true ellen style!) i have some ideas of things to share about . . .well if i told you then that would take all the fun out of it, wouldn't it?? but the only problem is i don't think i could do it every week. maybe once a month or so . . .

wow! this is one random, sporadic post! but here it is:

busy, busy. new look. weekly post ideas?? now you comment and let me know your thoughts about a weekly post.

thanks! if you read this long, you deserve some serious gratitude!

doggie doggy

the following conversation occurred in our car on the way home from the beach.

carter: mommy, how do you spell doggie?

me (on phone with my mom): d . . .

josh nods that he will finish for me.

josh: o . . . g . . . g . . . i . . . e

me: did you just spell it i-e?

josh: you don't think it's y

me: i guess both are grammatically correct

my mom (on the phone): i think it is doggie with an i-e in the window, but rappers are doggy with a y.

me: you mean like snoop doggy dogg?

josh: are you telling me you are going to use snoop doggy dogg as a gramatical standard for our children? He spells dogg with two g's, too. in that case, it would be d . . . o . . . double gizzle, for shizzle, dizzle.

i think having the grammar police as parents may cause our children some distress in the future.

wish we were there

we have been back from the beach for ten days. those crazy ten days have included 2 weddings, an engagement shoot, a cancelled shoot, 3 days of preschool-one including water day, a ballet class, a work dinner, an allergic reaction and trip to the emergency room, a follow-up appointment, 2 trips to church, a ten year anniversary date, a birthday party, a mother's day family engagement, and a ballet recital. add in your regular trips to target, the grocery, a quick trip to hernando to check out an antique store, a leaking washing machine, locking myself out of the house on a preschool morning and so on. but, i haven't forgotten about the beach. oh, the beach . . . 

mr. david made up a song with really cool lyrics that everyone could remember. it goes a little something like this:

"we're going to the beach, beach, beach"

these simple words were sung by everyone all the time

it takes some of us longer to adjust after sleeping than others. carter could wake up, put on a bathing suit and hit the door, but this sweet guy needs a few minutes to welcome the day or the afternoon . . .

i find that with each kid we add to the mix, the longer it takes to do anything. by the time i slather down three kids, put on swim diapers and bathing suits, it is already noon. it is a good thing our condo is on the beach; otherwise, i don't think we would ever get there.

it never failed that this precious girl had to eat shortly after my toes hit the sand. (it didn't matter when the last time she ate was.) but, the good thing about babies, especially third babies, they can sleep anywhere . . .

especially under a tent listening to the waves hit the shore.

and when she woke up, she could always play with her friend, charlie. and, if he was sleeping, just hit him in the face until he woke up, too.

spencer had a few firsts on this trip . . . 

first time at the beach

first pair of sunglasses (not her thumb, she is an old pro at sucking her thumb)

first time to put her toes in the pool

first time to have her toes colored orange when someone got bored riding in the car

by the last day, we have it all together, but before then, we spend more time going back to the condo and trying to talk someone into staying just a few more minutes before we go to the pool. 

"my teeth are cold!" 

a response to my asking "are you cold?" to carter on a bathroom break from the pool.

ms.jennifer tells miller "it is not good for your body" for him to drink water out of the pool, to which miller replies, "but it's yummy for my mouth!"

miller's "diamond ring," as he called it:

talk about a boy-he would sit in this and kick himself around the pool. he liked it because he could be independent, but he didn't want to wear the swimmies or work on learning to swim. looks like swim lessons should be fun with him, too?!? ha!

we, of course, had to make our required outlet shopping day. luckily, it rained one day to help us make the decision easier. here, they are entertaining ourselves while spencer had a little snack . . .

carter: how old are you?

josh: 32

carter: wow, daddy, that's a lot of oldness!

we had a blast! miller is already asking to go back. 

"we're gonna miss the beach, beach, beach . . ."

10 years ago . . .

ticket to ride

let me preface this by saying that i have so many posts started and beach pictures to post, but they have taken a back burner to the craziness that began yesterday after preschool.

so, when i found out i was expecting our third bundle of joy (and joy, she is), i was told by several seasoned mommies that the thing that changes most is the amount of time you spend at the doctor. we have never been regular appointment holders at any one doctor, but miller's skin has caused us to visit quite the menagerie. we have been to two pediatricians, a dermatologist and an allergist. with each step, we have seen miller's skin improve. our visits were driven by a desire to improve his eczema, but we did eventually end up at an allergist because we feared he had food allergies due to two reactions that occurred between 6 months and 1 year. the first occurred during friday night dinner when his big sister touched his arm with her food covered hand. she was eating strawberry yogurt and a salad with ranch dressing. the reaction subsided with benedryl. the second occurred at preschool when his teachers supplemented his lunch with a townhouse cracker. once again, a trip to target for some benedryl did the trick. when we did go to the allergist, miller had a skin test that revealed allergies to peanuts (4+), wheat (4+) and corn (2). they told us he is not to eat peanuts and gave us an epipen, but said the others could stay in his diet unless his skin improved when removed (it did not and that is another story of 10 miserable days).

fast forward more than two years to yesterday afternoon, i am feeding spencer when everyone starts asking for a million things-water colors? scissors? snack? milk? yada, yada, yada. i ask for them to wait one minute until spencer is finished or josh gets home. when he arrives, he dishes out several snacks and they sit on the floor to enjoy them. while they are eating, miller makes a gagging noise, but keeps eating-not at all uncommon for miller, he LOVES to eat and very littler can deter him. at the point he starts coughing. and coughing. and coughing. he sits with me for a while and wants me to carry him around-a little clingy. josh makes dinner and miller helps while coughing. he drinks some water and some milk, but still coughs. when asked, he says he is fine. when he begins to eat dinner (salad), he says, "i want this out." he doesn't eat dinner at all. he is scratching (not uncommon after a week at the beach or a day at preschool) and coughing. i asked it he wanted something different and he replied,"no, i will eat it when i get this out," and gestured towards his neck. hmmm . . . . josh gives him some benedryl as we are beginning to think he may be having an allergic reaction. we notice his cheeks are red and he is really scratching, so i ask josh to carry him to his room so we can see him in better light. when we take his clothes off, his knees are covered in whelps and he has red dots on his thighs. all of his typical eczema areas are severely inflamed and warm to touch. i decide to call the after hours line to talk to a nurse. while we wait for her call, miller begins to wheeze but is still carrying on a conversation and appears to have no difficulty breathing or communicating. he also starts asking for medicine and climbs onto the changing table to get his topical cream from its basket. i am definitely starting to think this is more severe. josh reads the epipen instructions where we notice it has an expiration date and it is nearing it. (people we have never seen anything other than some hives and they were more that 2 years ago.) when the nurse calls back, she says we need to go to lebonheur urgent care just in case he is having a respiratory reaction. we decide it is best for josh to take him because i need to be able to feed spencer. 

josh takes him to urgent care where it is relayed to me that he is having a severe respiratory allergic reaction. he receives a shot of epinephrine. they attempt to give him oral pretizone, but he screams and "spits up" (miller's words). so, instead they give him an albuterol treatment and start an iv of pretizone, benedryl and fluids. then, they tell josh they need to keep him overnight in case of a secondary reaction. they call an ambulance to transfer him downtown. so, now, josh must call his unsuspecting wife and tell her this information. he begins with the good news/bad news question-really? all i hear is your baby boy (who is screaming bloody freaking murder in the background) has to spend the night in the hospital without his mommy (while josh comforts his shrieks of terror with "it's okay, buddy." is it??) 

he looks so tiny

they transfer him downtown in the ambulance (first picture and the second ride for our family this year). josh has to ride with him as he is terrified. they arrive and are put in an exam room. when the nurse walks in to assess him, it is our friend, jodie! what? i didn't even know she still worked occasionally (and she doesn't very often). after the doctor assessed him, he said he thought miller could go home. great news to this momma who just wanted to hold her baby boy! when jodie told josh, he said "that's great, but we don't have any way to get home." it just so happened that jodie was getting off and had a car seat in her car. so, after all the paperwork was complete, she drove them to the pharmacy and then to josh's car. josh arrived with a very sleepy boy asking for ice cream. he literally fell asleep in my arms as he finished his ice cream. we have a follow up with our pediatrician tomorrow and he is on pretizone for the next week. but all in all, God carried us through this extremely scary situation and we are thankful to have a healthy little boy today!

how many is too many??

that is the question. i have always felt it was a personal decision. 

we are currently vacationing with our vacay buddies, the tillmans. at the end of last year, we both gave birth to another baby, our third and their second. our biggest concern in traveling was entertaining the infants. would they cry, be too loud, need to nurse all the time? but no worries, people rarely even notice we have infants. they are too busy gawking at how many of us there are.

when eating at restaurants, we have heard the following:

"put them in the back." (whispered to the hostess seating us)

nice. 

photo hijacked from jennifer's blog

"do you mind eating inside? if not, i have a great place for you."

in case you were wondering, that is the bathroom door behind us. we were the only table upstairs that wasn't on the balcony. we spent the entire evening telling people they had to push harder to get the door open. seriously.

while hovering for the only large table at panera, we mommies and toddlers apparently sparked a new topic for the older ladies occupying only half of it. i overheard one say to the others while eying our children, "i mean, i want my grandchildren to come visit, but i don't want to raise them."

we aren't asking you to raise these cuties, we're asking you to get up so they will have a place to eat

another photo i hijacked from jennifer's blog

while entering banana republic, one of the people waiting for us to come through the door, "wow, did you see that party of 12?" no, lady, just 9.

while shopping at j.crew, i overheard two twentysomethings say, "this place is full of babies and strollers." nope, just two, us and them.

i always joke that my 3 kids can feel like 15 or 492, but apparently i am not the only one who feels that way . apparently, the world feels that i have reached my reproductive limit.

am i permitted to have 8 or 18 children only as long as i allow the public to ogle us like side show circus freaks?

oh, so tacky, and yet so funny

i have always loved the idea of having a big family, not in the octomom or duggar kind of way, but in the normal kind of way. i have actually read several editorials recently where people said they thought having more children was irresponsible in our current economic crisis and ecological distress. are you freaking kidding me? 

ugh. back off. and be nice. i know it is shocking but not everyone puts the priorities of the earth above the people that reside on it. not everyone sneers at the contagious laughter of children because it is too loud. not everyone's heart is two sizes too small . . .

we are here.

the beach, that is. as you can see above, it is working quite nicely. don't they look like a little old couple? you can picture them in a similar way in about 60 years! she is intently evaluating him and he is completely enthralled in something else.

we headed down on friday afternoon so josh could do this. it is complete eye candy. seriously.

because he was engaged the first two days here, i was without any memory documenting paraphernalia. if you are curious about the traveling antics of this party of 9, check this post here about our experience at dinner. it is all true, i promise. never a dull moment when we travel with the tillmans and our 492 children!