Happy Anniversary Sweetheart!

Fifteen years ago today I married The King Fish. What a day it was! It's hard to believe that it's been that long.... and yet the photos don't lie. We were just kids back then. :-)

So, To the Love of My Life:

Thank you for being my biggest supporter here on the home front. Thank you for walking alongside me through this marriage for a lifetime. Thank you for being such a great dad as you strive to teach and lead our boys. Most of all thank you that you accept me just as I am, imperfections and all. Your love means so much to me.

Love,

Me

One Rainy Day....

A large stroller box.... is transformed one very rainy day.

It becomes an airplane for the smallest of the three. Two older brothers helped with the aerodesign... all to make their little brother happy. Can you tell???

And one by one they took turns decorating the new aircraft carrier. No carefully thought out plan... like I would have done. No perfectionism to squelch their creativity. Just random scribbles here and there with some simple crayons.

The young child was overjoyed with his gift. Oh the places he could go with his imagination and one wonderful airplane.

Of course with all the rain that fell this past week.... his plane soon became a boat.

Goggles and all, he floated down a stream of make believe.

For more Wordful Wednesday posts visit Angie at 7Clown Circus.

A Masterpiece by Small Fry

Last evening the King Fish and I were spending some time relaxing on the couch before dinner. He had been away since Sunday evening and just got back in town. We sent the boys up to the playroom and Tiger Shark was in charge of his little brother.

But throughout our conversation stray thoughts kept wandering through my mind....

"It's awfully quiet up there."

"Hmmm I wonder what they are doing?"

About 15 minutes later Jabber Jaw came down because he smelled dinner. I asked him what his brothers were doing. His answer... "I don't know".

Minutes later Tiger Shark came downstairs with Small Fry and deposited him between The King Fish and I on the couch. Everyone was hungry.

And then I noticed this:


I looked at Tiger Shark and asked him.. "What was your brother doing up there? Were you watching him color with green marker?" Then I showed him the evidence.


Big round flying saucer eyes from Tiger Shark.... "Ummmm no."

Me: "Well you better get back upstairs and check and see exactly where he drew with that green marker."

A few minutes later this is what we found.


Not good. It's our bedroom sheet, and our new white down comforter.

The King Fish calmly talked to Small Fry about only drawing on paper.... and I snapped a photo of the masterpiece for posterity.

I really must have mellowed from my first child, because when Tiger Shark drew all over my almost new entertainment center in green crayon I freaked........ and bawled..... and hoped The King Fish could make it all better. (Which he did- thanks to a handy product called Goo-gone).

This time I just snapped a picture and headed downstairs as the sheet got thrown in the wash and the comforter got spot cleaned. The King Fish once again made it all better.

And as for our little Small Fry... well he doesn't look that remorseful. Little Stinker! :-)

Not Me Monday....

I did not go to Target and pay full price for the last pair of Lightning McQueen rainboots from the Cars movie for my two year old son. Nope not me.

I then did not allow that same toddler to completely run and jump and practically wade through puddles to keep him occupied during his older brother’s football game. A game which lasted an hour and a half. No not me.

I then did not allow my son to lay in the sopping wet grass under an umbrella while he played “house”…. Just so I could watch the last 4 minutes of my oldest son’s first winning game. Not me again….

I also did not forget my camera and therefore did not miss every opportunity to document this memory making day. (One brilliant mama).

I did however snag a photo of his boots online. Does that count for anything???

Yeah, probably not.




For more Not Me Monday Stories stop by My Charming Kids.

Quiet Mornings...

Most morning when we wake up the boys and I will have a Quiet Time reading our Bibles. Tiger Shark and Jabber Jaw take their Bibles and journals and head to a quiet area of their choosing. Small Fry stays in the schoolroom with me. Typically I will spend time reading at my desk and journaling, and Small Fry sits in his cozy spot with pillows and reads his little Bible.

This is how the conversation goes:

Me: Small Fry, Mommy's going to read her Bible and brothers are reading their Bibles too... we're going to have a little Quiet Time.

Small Fry: My Bible too?

Me: Yes, You can read your Bible too... why don't you get it off the bookshelf?

Small Fry: (holding up his little Bible with a huge smile) " My Bible!"

He then proceeds to look through his Bible pointing to the things he knows. When he's done with this... it's onto the nearest car he has available.

He was so cute one morning I had to snap some photos.

Reading his Bible

"All done Bible.... cars Mama??"

"Maah-om - another picture??"

Silly Boy- who I love so dearly!

Falling Bricks- A funny story- updated with photos

This is funny.. and if I had a picture it would be even funnier.

Today I drove by our next door neighbor's house and noticed their brick light post was completely knocked down. I mean as in toppled over. They have a huge RV and it was parked right next to the light post thing and so my immediate thought was, "Oh no! He hit his brick posts.... that stinks!"

I passed it on the way back from church again and had the same thoughts. He must've backed that RV right into his brick style lamp post.

Fast forward to this afternoon.... the neighbor (who is nice enough, though he and his wife pretty much keep to themselves) comes walking up my pathway. I saw him through the window and so I went into the living room to tell the King Fish that the neighbor was stopping by to see him. I was thinking maybe they were tired of all the tennis balls landing over their fence from the kids playing baseball.

Imagine my surprise when my husband jumps up and tells me, "Oh yeah, I knocked over his lampost with the truck..."

WHAT???? Are you kidding me! You did that????

I was just too dumbstruck and the neighbor had alread arrived and was talking to The King Fish.

Apparently it happened a few days ago at 7am in the morning. The thing must have been on it's last legs or had been bumped before, 'cause the King Fish told me he barely tapped it when he was backing up to turn around. He literally could not believe the whole thing fell over. He did tell the neighbor's wife immediately and asked her to have her husband stop by when he had a chance.

Go figure! I have wanted to have a brick mailbox type thing put in the front of our house for the longest time, but dh said we couldn't afford it. It's never been high on the priority list.... So now we get to pay for someone else's! Yay!

:-) Ya gotta laugh.... right???

P.S. Our neighbor already moved all the bricks over to his fence, or I would surely have taken a photo to post on here. I still might take one of what's left. I keep joking with the King Fish to be careful when he's driving and to not let any lamp posts jump out at him.... He's so not living this down!

P.P.S. I scraped the side of the garage once pulling in, but this is so much better. lol! I laughed and told him that this is definitely blog worthy.... :-)


P.P.S. You didn't think I could let this opportunity pass without snapping a photo? I wish I had snapped it earlier so you could see it toppled. These are just the brick remains. And you know I had to do this... payback for the darling husband who moved my van while I was grocery shopping.

Feeling less than well... is it my norm?

I think we are almost done with this round of sickness in our family. The King Fish is better thanks to Tamiflu. They have sent his test away to see if it was swine flu. A friend of the family just got results back that his was swine flu, so I anticipate that dh's will be too.

Small Fry is better and the big guys never did catch anything.... so that is a blessing!

I am on the mend with my cold from h-e double toothpicks. I also had a physical last week and was anxious to get back some blood work.

I don't think I have shared on this blog, or to many IRL friends either.... but I have a bum thyroid. Basically almost 7 years ago I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism. (An underactive thyroid.) I was having symptoms for almost a year, but wrote many of them off as life circumstances. I had hair falling out, and thought it was stress from a recent move. I was exhausted and chalked that too up to stress from our move and taking care of two toddlers. I was freezing all the time. (I mean wear two pair of warm socks to bed freezing.) Again, I wrote it off because we were in no air conditioning for 2 years and moved back to air conditioning. I thought my body needed to get used to it again. Depressed.... because of leaving good friends we had met for two years. Foggy thinking..... lack of sleep with the toddlers and poor diet. The list goes on and on.....

I finally saw something online that clued me in, that perhaps it was more than just circumstantial. A week or so later, I finally met with my family physician and asked that he please check my thyroid. The results came back as wayyyy out of range. Normal range for thyroid levels is 0.35 to 5.50 (depending on your lab). My TSH level (thyroid stimulating hormone) came back at 18. Way above the optimal range. I was put on synthroid and began the slow process of getting my thyroid regulated. It took about a year, but my doctor back then and I decided that I operate best around 1.0 on the range.

Fast forward to now. I've been on the same level of medication for several years. So it was time to re-check the thyroid. (Really I should check it on a yearly basis, but with our adoption and 3 trips to Russia, it slipped by). I do try to monitor my symptoms to see if I am experiencing anything that would lead me to believe I might need to adjust my meds. But once again I am amazed at how very good I am at explaining away a symptom. (I really think we busy women are great at doing this.) The stress began for our trip to Russia, and then the adjustment that goes along with adding a new member to the family. I again chalked it up to having a toddler around again, and being an "older mom", therefore not having the energy like I used to. (Nor the patience some days). I've also been too tired to exercise and that just compounds any feelings I have about the amount of weight I have to lose. I had just a small inkling that maybe my meds were out of wack, but nothing really jumped out at me.

Imagine my surprise when the doctor mailed me my lab results (as requested) and my TSH was now a 24.!!! Are you kidding me???? My first thought after feeling stunned, was how could I have missed this?? Am I so out of tune with my body? Has feeling less than well become the normal in my life? I think it has.....

So, my medication has been upped significantly and hopefully it will be a quick process to get into a normal range again. (As in a few months). I really really hope that I can feel good again. I'm not sure what that feels like anymore. I thought I had days where I felt good, but apparently my good can be better.... A LOT Better!

Thyroid disease is a chronic disease of the autoimmune system. And while it is definitely manageable, this is my reminder to stay on top of it. If anyone lurking would like to find out more about hypothyroidism, Mary Shoman has a great website HERE and has also written a wonderful book called, Living Well With Hypothyroidism. She also has a list of symptoms for over and underactive thyroid here.

Jackie

Still Dealing with Sickness

The King Fish is still in bed with the flu. He has been miserable, and as active as he is... he hates to be in bed sick. Unfortunately he has no choice. His fever is down somewhat to 100. something. Much better than the 102 he had ben running. I'm sure he has lost some weight, he's had only 1/2 a banana and a piece of toast yesterday. I'm praying for him!

Small Fry is on the mend. He has a nasty little cough, as does the King Fish. I felt horrible for the little guy last night he was awake coughing in his sleep a lot! Anyone have a natural remedy for a 2 year old to soothe a cough? We need it here.

Tiger Shark is still doing well... he slept in today and continues his sinus treatment.

Jabber Jaw is still sleeping as I type this, so I'm not sure what the day holds with him. I know he has been congested, so he may have my cold. Hopefully that is all!

I am continuing to fight this cold. It's all it is.... a cold. I managed to do another sinus cleanse with the netti-pot and my nose thanked me afterward. Really... I think it did. I wish it would stay as clear after I use that darn thing! Hopefully my cold will be short lived with the use of it!

As mom of the household, I'm managing to take care of everyone with the help of some major morning quiet times. I am so grateful that this is becoming a habit in my mornings! This morning unable to sleep past 5am, all I could hear in my head was Luci Swindoll from the Women of Faith Conference singing this song accapello:

"Nobody knows the trouble I've seen,
Nobody knows but Jesus,
Nobody knows the trouble I've seen,
Glory Hallelujah."

It prompted me to get up and head into my computer room to sit down before the Lord, read His word and pray. I am certain that it is His strength getting me through these last two days.