new furniture...

Remember this big event almost 6 months ago? Baby C's birth was a wonderful experience to all involved, except...our couch! It was hauled away in the next garbage pick-up, and the plan was to replace it fairly soon after. We looked and even found the one we wanted at IKEA (with brown removable washable cover, yeah!), but then the furnace needed to be replaced, and the computer, and all sorts of other life things happened, and pretty soon we were doing just fine with a somewhat uncomfortable makeshift couch from S's folks.

But then, a couple weeks ago, we saw IKEA was running a livingroom sale where you could get fairly significant $ back in giftcards with a purchase of the right line of sofas - the ones we liked! So we figured that it was a good time to buy. And that we could get a new chair and footstool since we were getting good money back, too!

It took a trip to IKEA with 2 vehicles and an Aahma, a special order for the chair that wasn't in, major rearranging in the 2 vehicles, a trip back to IKEA (2 weeks later) to pick up the chair, and of course assembly, but that is the fun that is IKEA!! And we are so happy with the new furniture!

assembly...
fun in the sofa box...

(poor c...left all alone!)

...the results!

(we secretly chose a red chair to match the kids' turtle...=)

PS. To finalize the look of the room we needed to move and get rid of some old furniture. Here is how it went down on Saturday - old couch to garage - old entertainment center from guestroom to garage - $10-2-person chair to guestroom - Great Gma B's rocker from G's room to W's room (after rearranging W's room) - glider rocker to G's room - Phew!

happy birthday W...we love you!

kids.... being kids

I'm pretty sure this was taken while W was sleeping. Go ahead, try to watch without smiling...=>

goals...

Ummm...yeah, remember when I said in the last post that I was going to try to post a blog entry every day this week? Well, yeah, that isn't going so well. The breadstick entry is kicking my butt for some reason and I can't get it how I like it. I love goals and think they are very important (and totally give props to my cousins that are doing 101 in 1001), but S and I have pretty much gotten used to the fact that with 3 kids under 4, surviving somewhat happily is the only goal that we make sure we complete each day, and the rest is just bonus! So if that means stopping working on the blog post and watching TV with my hubby and a bowl of ice cream...so be it! (by the way, he is glaring at me as I was supposed to stop 5 minutes ago, but felt compelled to write this...guess I am scooping tonight! =)

stream of consciousness...

...is that blog title right? did I spell that right? is that what I mean? it is late, S is sleeping with W and hasn't been able to wake up after bedtime routine, and I should be sleeping too as I am quite tired, but I also am enjoying an hour or so without children hanging on me, and I am going to try to post something to the blog everyday this week as I have many things to share and haven't been very diligent in keeping up, so here I am.

...have been working on a pictures that we took for a post on how we make our Sunday night breadsticks. I was hoping to post that today, but it is taking way too long. there were so many pictures that I decided to collage them a bit as to not post 30 some individual pictures. I miss my collage program, Lumapix, which I lost thanks to the computer fairies in all our motherboard messes. Picasa 3 has a collage function now, but it is not the same and takes a lot more work and is not as versatile. but I got it to work. Lumapix must have been reading my mind though (as I was working on the collages I was thinking about just biting the bullet and purchasing a new Lumapix program) because when I finished the collages and checked email, there was an email from them about a new release. means we should buy it, right honey??? please??? =)

...since breadstick post won't be happening tonight, I will post pictures of how we spent our afternoon:
...yep. it was "road-working" day today (G's own words). a burly somewhat crabby construction guy banged on our door at 3:30 this afternoon and told me that they were tearing up the curb in front of the driveway, and if I had any vehicles that I wanted to get out of the garage to do it quick. we knew this was happening this month, just not what day so nothing like advance warning right? I quick threw the kids in front of the TV and parked our van on the other side of the street (we are not going to be able to get in our driveway for 4-5 days as the cement cures). then I tore the kids away from the TV to watch the crew working. took dragging them upstairs crying, but once they saw the trucks and chaos outside, they were hooked and spent the better part of the next few hours sitting on our new couch watching. and commenting. and asking a LOT of "why..." questions. meant we didn't get out to the grocery store this afternoon, but that was just fine by me.

...baby C slept through all the excitement:

look at those chubby legs!!!! I love this sweet baby so much.

...I'd like a new camera. I'd love to have a nice digital SLR, but am just not ready to spend that kind of money. and as my photo-genius sil pointed out, I am constantly taking pictures with one hand (because I am holding one or more children or children's stuff in the other!) and the digital SLR really needs two hands to be used properly. I have been crabby with the flash and focus on our camera lately, especially with indoor pictures. the focus goes haywire sometimes and the shots look just awful with the flash - completely washed out! and I need the flash to get any decent shutter speed to capture wiggly kids! photo-genius sil again to the rescue - she mentioned to me the other night to check my ISO settings. I am embarrassed to say I generally use the auto-settings on my camera. mostly because I don't have time to think about the other settings - hey, I am almost 4 years sleep deprived and my brain is tired. so I pulled out the photo part of my brain that I know is there and figured out what I needed to do in the manual settings to shoot with a higher ISO, or film speed. yay! and all the peasants rejoiced as I was able to now take pictures without flash at a much higher shutter speed! all is great and I should not pine for a new camera now, right? nope. because as I have been looking at the photos in Picasa, I noticed they are much grainier or "noisy" (I read a few photo blogs and really didn't know what they were talking about when they talked about how thier cameras had "noise" in their shots at high ISO's - now I do!) and not as crisp as I would like them to be. so back to pining for a new camera. the technology in point and shoot digitals now is SO much better than it was 3+ years ago when we bought ours. means we should buy a new one, right honey? please?? =)

...boy, I have looked at a lot of things on the internet today that I could buy that are all good things and would make life a bit better but really we don't need. maybe I need to try to follow the advice in the xkcd comic today (language warning! I know it is not that bad, but hey, we say carp around here! =).

...I have to post this now to make it on the books for today. although we did figure out yesterday how to change the time and date of your post and how to even "schedule" a post for the future. so you won't know if I truly posted this close to the end of today or whether I even made it and just back posted it or whether I am sleeping and pre-posted it...bwah-ha-ha!!!

...my head hurts. I am tired. I am going to bed. you are probably all relieved this post will end now.

...oh boy, I better have S read this tomorrow and edit!

all in a days work, even on Sunday

- woke up to W saying "wake up dada, lets go find G.... come on, lets go!"
- maintained status quo while C showered and finished getting extraneous items ready for church
- put out small toaster fire started by bagel I was attempting to eat for breakfast
- fixed W's pants - in his own words "momma, my bottom fell off. fix it"
- still managed to be 2 min late to church even though up @ 7:00 and don't have to be there until 10:15 (summer schedule - no Sunday school)
- carried noisy W out of church during congregational prayer. Most kids yell and cry, W shouts "Bye G, Love you!"
- took G out to go potty during church service
- sang to W and talked to him to keep him awake on ride home
- put monitor out in garage to keep ear out for sleeping Baby C in his carseat (DON'T disturb a sleeping, peaceful baby)
- bounced / rocked W for 1/2 hr once we got home in an attempt to get him to sleep. (awake/asleep, awake/asleep. sheesh)
- attempted to catch nap on new couch (in brown). got about 10 mins before W woke up
- got G down for short nap (I think C might have sat on her to get her down)
- clipped all kids finger nails and toe nails along with removing small plank that had lodged itself in W's heel (didn't seem to bother him though) while G and W watched veggie tales on TV
- got snack ready for kids once show was done and let Baby C go down for nap
- sunday night breadsticks
- ate said breadsticks and watched selected chapters of a DVD of kids choosing (also a smallish tradition here), which the popular choices as of late have been "Flibber-o-loo!" (Veggie Tales), "kids singing!" (Sound of Music starting with My Favorite Things and ending with So Long, Farewell - basically all the scenes with the kids singing), or tonights choice, "cars!" (Cars)
- changed poo-ie Baby C diaper (yeah poop!)
- played tag and ran around in backyard for 1/2 hr before bed
- yogurt, jams, brushed teeth
- prayers, Bible stories, hugs and kisses
- Sleep for everyone under 4 yrs old. (fighting off sleep for those of us who are just a little bit older)
- relaxed, ate ice cream and enjoyed A/C

----Rinse and repeat----

Another Sunday in the B household...... I'm tired.

happy anniversary J&C...

While this cute couple went out on the town and enjoyed an evening together for their anniversary, we enjoyed a night with their girls. And once again S & I were impressed with the "subtraction by addition" phenomenon. We add two more kids to take care of, yet find ourselves often not having to actively "baby-sit." The kids really play well together and have lots of fun too. (No, that is not making us contemplate having 2 more by any means!) Here are some pics of the fun the cousins had.

(And soon, all too soon, baby C, you will be able to run and play with these big kids!!!)

updated computer

Well, apparently the computer fairies have replied in the form of a Fed-ex man and a box. When the box was opened a familiar looking box was inside. Along with said box, was a service reports from the good fairies. And the faulty part/problem was ....... (drum roll please)..... (you'll never guess it)...... (what are the chances?).....
...
...
...
...
...
...

THE MOTHERBOARD.

Yes, that is right. The first computer's motherboard died and was replaced. And then that motherboard carped out again. Now this new, updated, nicer computer also has had a motherboard die. What is going on? I like mothers and boards and combined they are even nicer. Why do these things dislike me so, computer fairies? Why? Thanks a lot computer fairies, thanks a lot!

Back to full speed, large displayed computer..... for now.......
-s

computer issues...again

Dear computer fairies,

• New computer died last week. (won't power on - faulty power supply?)
  
• Much grr-ness and shaking of fists as this makes 3 computers that have died on us in 6 months. (is it us?)
  
• Very thankful for back-up computer, even though it is slower than desired and slower than what we are accustomed to working on. (G tells us, "You can use my computer, momma & dadda!" Thank you G.)
• S's wonderful brother J got all our data off dead new computer. (Thank you J!!! =)
• Issues with HP and warranty.
• Those resolved (1.5 weeks later grrrrr!)
  
• Box sent to us by Fed-Ex.
• Explanation given to G about sending computer off to be fixed by the computer guys, Hewlett and Packard. ("Why can't Hewlett and Packard come to our house to fix it, dadda?")
• S just packed computer in sent box (impressed with packaging- can you tell we are REALLY stretching to find the silver lining?)
• Will have Fed-Ex pick it up tomorrow to send it off to TX.
• Hopefully will have working computer again within 1-2? (if we're lucky) weeks.
• Bill SHOULD be $0.00....unless they find non-warranty issue is source of problem, then who knows how much. (if that is the case, we'll just stop answering our phone and go on the lam....except they have our address. carp, carp, triple carp. I hear hard drives make good door stops!)
  
• Told S, I am almost ready to buy a Mac. (He says, really?)
  
• Backing up computer monthly (or daily) just became much higher on the priority list.
  
• As did printing hard copies of photos.
• Blogging went down a little bit on the priority list right now as back-up computer does not have good access to photos. And frustration with slowness or other issues just isn't worth it. (Lack of familiarity with ubuntu. Ubun-what you say? Don't ask.)

that's all for now,
- addicted to computer / internet access in CR.

a little understanding...

You all know that our kids deal with sleep issues. G, especially, has suffered from nightmares among other things. When she has a nightmare, she needs comforting to be able to get back to the state where she can go to sleep again, and often wants to come in bed with us (ok, all the time wants to come and sleep with us!). This is completely understandable, but sometimes hard to carry out after you have been up with the other two just a half hour before and just want to sleep.

Well, I have received a little bit more understanding this month. Some of you also know what crazy dreams I can have (ok, so maybe G gets her nightmares honestly! And we also found out my mom had nightmares every night as a kid too.), but normally they are just weird things like eating pancakes in the middle of the street at midnight or starring in an episode of Friends that takes place in my parents old farmhouse. But in the past month, I have had 3 nightmares - I can't remember ever having nightmares before. Someone grabs me from behind as I walk into the room and drags me back out very quickly, men hiding in our garage trying to get into the house, dinosaur dragons flying through the air attacking me and my babies (yes C, that one came after your post about the dinosaur show! And I was worried about G having dreams about them! Sheesh.=). Ok, as I type those, they sound a bit silly, but all of them had me waking up in a complete and utter panic.

And all I wanted to do was get a hug from S and snuggle next to him to know that everything was going to be ok.

That's when the reality of G's nightmares and her needing comfort really hit home. Of course I know that she is scared and needs a hug, but not until I experienced it myself did I really truly understand G's reaction after she has a nightmare. Made me want to get out of bed and go hug her even as she slept soundly and peacefully! So now when G has a nightmare, I am going to happily get up and comfort her (or happily kick S out to go and hug her, ha! =) and snuggle her in between S and I if she needs it so that she knows everything is going to be ok - because that is what a mom and a dad are supposed to do, make the world ok for your kids, right?

We will sure try, honey.