Oh yeah...

...and it's UPLOAD DAY at Peek. Duh... It was Scrapper's Choice. I chose Heidi Grace Designs-Pocket Scraps Loving You and Christina Cole.

5 Years

Yesterday when Trent woke up, I told him it was his birthday today. Over the last several days, we had been talking about this day coming up.

"How old are you going to be?" One of us would ask.

"Five pounds!" he'd reply.

"Five years. Trent, you'll be a whole FIVE YEARS OLD!"

"WOW!"

Even though we had been talking about this day, he was still very excited about it now that it was here.

Later in the morning, he asked me, "Am I five now?"


"Yes you are!"

"How about now? I am five now?"

"Honey, you'll be five all day and from now on until next year."

"REALLY? Right now?"

"Yes!"

"I get to open presents?"

"Your party is tomorrow and you can open your presents then."

He seemed a little disappointed. Who could blame him? A little later when we were outside his 5 year old picture, Baby Kat came out with book she wanted me to read. I told her I wasn't going to be reading her a book as we were taking pictures. So, she sat with Trent and posed for a few.

Later when we went inside, wrapping paper was discovered all over the floor. Ooops, Baby Kat opened one of Trent's birthday presents. All this talk about presents got her eager to start tearing into them. Oh, well.

Look at Baby Kat's face. She ALWAYS has something on it. I can wipe it off, but dirt just comes right back on it. I guess that's just part of being 2.

It never gets any easier...

Today I filled the mini van with unplayed toys and outgrown clothes. I had been storing quite a few of these items in the garage, thinking I would have a garage sale. I changed my mind. I realized I didn't like the idea of people digging through my kid's baby clothes and toys all to make a couple of bucks.

I even took the play kitchen. I hate that thing. It's so cheap and the doors don't even close. I have been complaining about it since we put it together. My parents bought the kids a new kitchen this year for Christmas. A much better kitchen. A kitchen where there are drawers and the doors close.

I also took some Little People stuff. The newer versions, not the vintage ones. I did take one vintage barn because somehow we ended up with two of them. I kept the one that still had the door that "moo's" when you open it.

As I was packing up the car, I noticed that one of the bags contained Katrina's 1st Christmas outfit. She had received three "1st Christmas outfits" when she was born and I decided to only keep one. I almost pulled it out of the bag, but I kept it there.

"I have to move this stuff out of here."

" It won't be enjoyed by another family if I stuff it in a box."

"Someone else can use this. I know it."

I kept convincing myself of these things.

I took a picture of the full van because I couldn't believe it when I saw it. It was packed. I was slightly embarrassed by the amount of "stuff" in there and the fact that toys still littered nearly every room of the house.

When Katrina and I made it to the Goodwill, I was doing pretty well until I saw Trent's "Bob the Builder" t-shirt that he wore nearly everyday a couple of summers ago. I could remember when we found it at Walmart and he was so excited! It was now neatly folded in one of the brown paper bags among jean overalls and shorts. I fought off the tears.

It took me several trips to unload the car. The people working at the drop off site were a little surprised to see this much stuff. After the 4th trip, the lady said, "Thank You!". She didn't realize I wasn't done. I kept coming around from the van with more and more bags and boxes. Several other people donating items came and left while I was still unloading the van. Every time I came around with more stuff, the workers would kind of giggle. One of them even asked me what I did for a living.

When I was done, I got back in the van and I was bawling before I left the parking lot. I hate taking stuff to the Goodwill. I have such an attachment to "items". Every time I go to the drop off site, I leave crying. Every time.

I look in the rearview mirror and I see my children's old favorites sitting in the dust and the dirt. The first Christmas outfit, the favorite t-shirt, the stuffed animal Great Grandma gave them are all left behind in boxes and bags.

The items remind me of when they were younger and makes me question myself:

Did I appreciate them enough?

Did I still remember the feel of their tiny hand in my full adult size hand?

Can I remember the smell of their baby breath?

Why didn't I scrapbook the fact that Trent LOVED that Bob the Builder shirt?

I can clearly remember being 18 years old and having a two week old baby. It was the middle of the night or very early morning. I had gotten up to feed Ashley and it was just the two of us. I had just finished feeding her and I held her close and rocked her. I remember saying to myself, "Remember this moment. It will never happen again." And I do. I remember how tiny she was, her smell, her tiny hand in mine, the quiet off the house and her steady breathing.

I just have to keep reminding myself that I'm not dropping off memories, just items that trigger a memory. My memories are mine to keep for as long as I can. I remind myself of these facts every time I leave the Goodwill drop off site. It still doesn't make it any easier.

I have a feeling that Trent's baby swing will be in my garage until I can use it with his children, or even longer.

Breakfast with Santa

This morning, Trent's preschool had "Breakfast with Santa". For the last couple days, we practiced what they were going to ask Santa. We got up early this morning, showered and I dressed the kids in their Christmas gear. Everyone was excited and knew exactly what they were going to ask Santa for.

By the time we got there, walked into the room and saw Santa, things had changed.

"Trent! Go sit on Santa's lap and tell him what you want!"

"Ho ho ho", said Santa

"NO! Baby Kat goes first." I could tell there was some panic in his voice.

Ok, so I picked up Baby Kat. She started crying right away. She knew she was going on that guy's lap. She completely forgot to tell him what she wanted, which by the way was a new baby.

I love the look on Santa's face. He was probably talked into be Santa at the very last minute. He looks a little frustrated. Baby Kat was only his third "customer" and there was a HUGE line behind her.

I really tried to convince Trent to sit on Santa's lap. He wanted nothing to do with that. So, I reminded him of last year when he just held Santa's hand and told him what he wanted. Layout of last year's Santa visit

"Oh, ok", he said. I could tell he suddenly remembered and that it was ok.

I walked him up to Santa and he grabbed Santa's hand.

"Well, what would you like for Christmas this year?" Santa asked.

"I want a SPIDERMAN!" Trent spoke like they were old buddies.

They talked a few seconds more and then it was over.

It must have really worn Trent out because he drank about three full glasses of apple juice without even breathing.

Well, so the Spiderman is a new thing. I thought it was Darth Vadar. I'll have to go out tomorrow and see what is left on the shelves.

Upload Day

Today is upload day for both Down Memory Lane Co and A Peek Into Yesterday.

I picked out one of my favorites from each location to display here. The Christmas one is a picture of me, my sister and my Grandma from 1974.

We are playing Secret Santa at Peek. Today is Day 2. Yesterday I received beautiful clips from the new Studio K line. Today I received 4 sheets of the new matching paper. I think the only person that knew I didn't have ANY of the new Studio K, but ADORED it was Linda. I know Linda's not my SS, but I think she's been helping out my SS. Heeheeeheee, this Secret Santa stuff is just so much fun.

Today I received my super cool Making Memories Tag Maker from Down Memory Lane Co. I ripped that baby out of the box. I can't wait to play with it.

There are nice people, there are mean people

I asked for help today at a popular scrapbooking website about a problem I was having. There is a person visiting my blog that has bad intentions. I made a mistake posting what I did and I'm paying the price for it dearly! I've tried deleting the pictures and the post, but due to a "cached file", my pictures and text still show.

All but one of the comments from the Peas I received were helpful and empathic but one:

I'm as disgusted by this person's behavior as everyone else, but I'm also a little shocked that nobody has said anything about the kind of story (with photos!) you were sharing with the entire world.

This is from one mother to me, another mother. Is this a helpful statement? Was this purposely said to make me feel worse than I already felt? It worked. Thanks for your help, Jessica. You have made me feel like the most absolute worse mother in the world. I openly admitted how upset and sick I was about the mistake I had made. I guess your comment was just to rub salt in my wounds.

Godnjesus

We had to take the van today for what we thought was just going to be an oil change and alignment. We dropped it off about 10:00 this morning and picked it up at 5:00. It had a few other problems. ha

So, it was dark by the time we got back to our neighborhood. The kids were in the backseat oooing and ahhhing over the Christmas lights and decorations. By the time we pulled into our driveway, Trent exclaimed, "I have an idea!!"

"What's that, Trent?"

Pointing up towards the sky, he says, "Let's put Godnjesus up on the roof!"

At first I didn't think I heard him correctly so I asked him again what he said.

"Godnjesus on the roof". Yes, I had heard this correctly. He said "God and Jesus" like it was just one word.

The vision of an extra-large, molded plastic Jesus figure that lights up, maybe even blinks, fills my mind. Where would they sell those? Walmart?

"I don't think they make those, Trent."

"Oh." I could tell he was disappointed.

It wasn't until later on that I realized Trent had made the correct connection. While everyone else had giant Santas, teddy bears, candy canes, and colored blinking lights, Trent's first idea had to do with the real reason for Christmas. I was pretty impressed with the little dude.

Well, here I am...

...nursing, blogging, watching Disney's Princess Christmas movie and finishing up my 3rd glass of wine. I have accepted the fact that I may drink a glass or two or geez, even three glasses of wine several times a week this month. December is a hard, hard month for me. I must find a moment to relax this time of year and if that means drinking some wine to do it, that's what I'm going to do.

Trent is obsessed with the Princess Christmas DVD. He'd watch it 5 times a day if I'd let him. It was a gift for Katrina on her birthday, but it's Trent that watches it all the time. Don't even think about trying to talk to him during it, either. You can't. He doesn't hear you. I don't think he even blinks during the length of the movie. The first scene is a Disney version of The 12 Days of Christmas. Both he and his sister sing along to it.

Tonight when we started it, he exclaimed,

"HEY! Snow White's not a GIRL!"

"She's not?" I asked. "What is she then?"

"She's a lady", he said very matter of factly.

Ok. I didn't want to ask anymore about this. He seemed pretty sure of himself so I just took his word for it. I actually find Snow White the most irritating of all the Princesses. She has a really high and squeaky voice that just grates on my nerves.

The rest of the DVD is pretty decent. I love old animation and there is some of that on there. There is some questionable material on it, like what's the deal with the Beauty and the Beast scene???? Everyone who's seen the movie knows that the Beast turns into this hot dude (which btw reminds me of another story that I'll have to add on at the end of this) at the end of the movie. This scene has Beauty hangin' with the Beast in his beastly form. Was this a scene cut from the original? Probably not. Watching this scene however, I'm constantly tormenting myself with this question. Why? Why did Disney go back to the BEAST? Where's the hot dude? Why do I think the guy in the cartoon is hot?


NOTE: So, Snow White just came on the DVD and Trent says, "SEE!!! She's a LADY!!!"


Oh, so about the "hot dude":

Trent is watching tv when all of a sudden, I hear, "Hey! He's a HOT DUDE!!"

I look up to see what he's talking about. "He's HOT?" I asked.

"Yeah!"

I notice it's a commercial for the Fantastic Four DVD that's being released. Oh, well then, yes, I guess that guy on fire is a "hot dude".


Oh, and according to Trent as we've moved onto the next scene in the DVD, "COOKIES CAN'T TALK!!"

Have a nice weekend.

Playing Christmas Tree

From Monday:

I’m in the living room and Trent just asked Kat if she wanted to play “Christmas Tree”.

“Yeah”, she said.

I said to Trent, as he was pulling off ornaments, “Please don’t pull the ornaments off the tree. They’re not toys, they’re decorations.”

“Mom”, he says, “we just do that. We’re silly kids.”

Ok, how could I resist?

He takes ornaments off that are too high for BK, lets her look at them and then puts them back.
He asks her if she remembers them from when she was a little baby. She says, "Yeah."

She always says, “Yeah”.

Trent likes to chat and other stories

Last Friday, I was sitting at the stoplight (in the car, duh) opening mail. I like to multi-task. ;) Anyway, I was flipping through the coupons in the Valu-pak envelope when Trent asks,

"Can I have that one?"

For whatever reason, he wanted the coupon from the top of the stack. It was from Flicko's Video. I knew it was something I wouldn't be using, so I handed it to him from the front seat and thought nothing more of it.

He was still walking around with the coupon when we came home. He stood in front of me and read off the telephone number. I was surprised when he did this and had to take the coupon from his hand and double check it. Yup. He had it right. I congratulated him on his good number recognizing skills and went on about my afternoon.

Soon, I hear him say, "I wanna talk to him."

"Who do you want to talk to?"

"This." he said, waving the coupon back and forth.

I said, "Trent, you just can't call people on the phone because you like the coupon. People are working and they're busy. Do you want to talk to Grandma?" I didn't mean to imply that Grandma isn't busy, but I didn't bother correcting that statement.

"No."

And that was the end of it for a while.

What seems like an hour later, I hear, "Where's the phone? Oh, there it is."

As I walk out to the kitchen where he is, I notice he has found himself a little stool to stand on to reach the phone which is sitting on the counter.

I didn't really think he'd do anything with the phone. He's never done anything with it before.

I walk into the other room and I hear, "7....4....2...." etc.

I sit down on the couch to watch Oprah and much to my dismay I hear,

"Hi! Who's this?"

"No, who's this?"

"Hang on, here's my mom."

He hands the phone to me. I try to compose myself.

"Hello?" I asked. I was just hoping that perhaps one of the Grandmas had called, I didn't hear the ring and Trent answered it.

"Hello?" a unfamiliar male voice replies.

"Did my son call you?"

"Yes, this is Flicko's Video."

I just about died! I was so embarrassed. I apologized and apologized. I told him Trent was obsessed with his coupon from the Valu-Pak envelope and that he had been walking around with it for hours.

I didn't believe him when he said he would call. Next time I'll be more careful.

****************************************************

In other news, we got the tree up today. It seems so early to me. I'd prefer to have it up around the 15th. It takes up so much room. I guess I'm just a "bah-humbug" when it comes to Christmas. If I didn't have kids, I wouldn't put the darn thing up at all.

I didn't take any pictures because a piece of my tripod is missing. The kids like to play with it and pretend to take pictures. Someone unscrewed a piece and now my camera cannot be locked into the base. I don't even know what the piece looks like that I'm looking for.

It may be easier to just buy a new one. The piece has been missing for months.

*****************************************************

Zoe seems to be feeling a little better. She gets her anti-biotics every 8 hours. She still stinks though. I still owe her a bath. I guess I'll have to wash her bedding, too.

Darth Vader

While Christmas shopping today, Trent said to me:

"When I grow up, I want to be Darth Vader."

Yucky Smell

The last few days I've noticed that the dogs have been stinking like something really, really bad. It reminded me of the smell Tori had when she had the tumor in her mouth. It's just a bad, rotten & decaying odor. I told my mother today that I would rather change a million poopy diapers than have to smell that odor again.

Anyway, a couple of days ago when I started smelling it, I decided it was Gigi that was the stinky one. I put on my yellow rubber gloves and dumped her in the tub. I scrubbed and scrubbed and rinsed her for twenty minutes until the water ran clear. Katrina sat with me at the side of the tub and helped me rinse her off. A couple times she wanted to jump in with the dog, but I wouldn't let her. The whole family used towels to dry her down. I think she really loved the extra attention. I wanted to dry her completely so she wouldn't smell like wet dog so I drug out the hairdryer. She hated that, but it worked. No smelly, stinky, wet dog smell.

The next day, I could still smell that nasty smell. I checked Gigi's ears and they seemed fine. Maybe the smell had just permeated the carpet or something. I sprayed a bunch of Pet Febreeze all over the dog beds and the carpet around it.

On the third day, today, I could still smell it. Zoe and Erik were in my scrappy room and I heard Erik make a comment about how stinky Zoe was. I walked in there and YUCK! the smell was there. It was Zoe that was stinky. It was decided she would be getting her bath today, and SOON.

As I was putting the dogs outside, Zoe started shaking her head. It was then I thought maybe she had an ear infection and that was causing the smell. If you've ever had a dog with that kind of infection, you know how stinky that can be. Anyway, I was looking at her ears and as she was wiggling away I noticed her neck was wet. Goopy wet.

I said, "Oh my God", when I saw the mess on her neck.

Trent was right there to correct me. "No Mommy. It's 'Oh My GOSH'".

I checked her collars, they weren't tight at all. I could easily slip my fingers in between the collar and her neck. The ZAPPER collar! That had to be what it was. I took that off and set it down. I then took off her other collar. It was soaked with goopy stuff.

I immediately called the vet and made an appointment. My poor, poor baby dog. I felt so bad.

We use the zapper collar for her jumping. She's been and graduated two Petsmart dog training classes, but we couldn't figure out how to keep her from jumping on the sliding glass door window.

During dinner, Baby Kat would constantly be sneaking her table food and Zoe would be putting her feet up on the highchair tray. It was just a constant battle with those two, so we decided Zoe needed to go outside while we ate. She didn't like that! She wanted in and in the worst way, too. She started out by just simply jumping on the glass door. When that didn't work, she would back up and taking running jumps. She was always scolded through the window for that. When we were done eating dinner, we would always make her sit before we opened the door. We wanted to let her know that only calm, still and sitting behavior would allow her inside.

Well, she still wanted in and would then back up to the end of the yard, start running and jump on the sliding glass door and then sit. **sigh** The door and the walls around the door would shake.

I started researching zappers that I could control with a remote control. We picked one out and purchased it. We found out later that we should have let her wear it without batteries for two weeks or so before zapping her for bad behavior. Because we put the collar on her and then started zapping her right away, she figured out that the new collar makes the warning noise and then the actual zap. So, everytime we took the collar off, the bad behavior would start up again.

After we got Gigi, her behavior toned down a bit and we didn't use the collar for a long time. Zoe just needed someone her size to hang with while we ate, I guess.

It was a few weeks ago when I noticed our back fence was breaking. The dang dog was jumping up on that fence "just for fun". I put the collar back on her and the behavior soon stopped. I never took the collar off and now the poor little thing has a horrible infection from it.

The vet took a look at her and said she has a staph infection from the collar. Zoe is on antibiotics that I have to give her every 8 hours.

I threw away that stupid collar.