Evan the Escapee

Evan has recently (as in within the past two days) discovered how to jump out of the crib. It's a tad annoying as I now can no longer keep him out of harms way while cooking dinner or deal with various other household chores.

Tonight I put him to bed after rocking him a little while. He was sleepy but not completely asleep. I should have known better. Before bed I had taken a noisy croaking frog and plastic horse away from him. One I left on his dresser, the other on the t.v. stand. Not ten minutes after I left his room I hear a croaking coming from his room. I go down the hall, open the door only to find he had been sitting behind it, peering underneath to see if he could see anything.

I take the frog from him, leave him with the horse and place him back in the crib. I left his door cracked and put up a safety gate. About twenty minutes later I hear a thud noise. I go to investigate. I check Arabella's room first and discovered she had been out of bed, turned on the dresser night light and knocked some stuff off in the process.

I scold her and leave the room. Instinctually I checked on Evan. I had the hall light on so I could see as I climbed over the safety gate. I peer over the edge of his crib and he's no where to be found. I flip, I start scanning the room and NOTHING. Where the hell is my baby? I jump the fence, run into the master bedroom and tell Adam to get up. One, it was time for him to get up for work and two, I need help finding your son.

He jumps up and says "what?" I said he's not in his crib. I can't find him. Well, now I feel like a dumb ass. I go back into his room, move the pillow in his bed, his blanket and obviously he didn't magically re-appear. Adam shushed me and pointed...

The turkey had climbed up into the glider and rocked himself to sleep. And of course I needed documentation so I can tease him about it when he's older. So Evan, Mommy learned her lesson. I will check the glider from now on before scaring your Daddy wide awake. If you don't mind, could you please keep up your Spiderman antics during daytime hours only? It's so much easier to spot you in the daylight.

Tucked back in, safe and sound.

Children are Messy

I have come to the conclusion that children are just messy. You can clean and clean and clean and two seconds later a tornado hits your home. I swear to everyone that walks through the door that I do truly try to keep my home clean, but lately I'm just about to give up and let the wild things take over.

About a month ago I lost it and took the kids toys away. Every last one of them. I hid them away in the basement. I felt tonight that they'd sort of earned some of them back, and I really needed my basement back, what little space there is.

So I carefully culled through the toys and took out some to pass on, and organized all of them. All the sensory balls in one tub, the stuffed animals in another, the electronic books, the cars, the blocks, the stacking cups, you name it. There were organized appropriately. Yes, I should know better, but I'm OCD like that.

I hauled the toy organizer back up stairs, followed by the kitchen. I did not however bring back the accessories to the kitchen nor the tub full of larger toys. Such as Edison the Alphabet Pal, Shape sorters, Dump trucks, etc.

No sooner did I go back down stairs to turn the lights off and return upstairs to find....The Tornado.

I'm a glutton for punishment I suppose. But I did make them pick everything up before bed, and they actually did it, Arabella did anyways. It's funny that even though I didn't give them toys to play with in the Kitchen, they still managed to shove all of the miniature stuffed animals in the microwave, and sorting shape blocks into the fridge, the bouncy balls in the sink. I guess you don't need pots and pans to have a good time in the kitchen?

Watcha going to do?

McDoughnuts

There have been several funny sayings lately, some of which I can't remember...but yesterday took the cake!

Back story: We rarely get doughnuts. They are reserved as a treat. But when we do, Adam takes B to Lamar's and they get fresh doughnuts. After a recent middle of the night ER trip, we ran by Lamar's at 5:30am. I tell you there is nothing better than a fresh, hot out of the oven doughnut. *wiping drool up*

Now yesterday, we were headed to Sam's for some groceries. On our way there happens to be a doughnut shop. Not a Lamar's, but some other shop. I guess I've never paid much attention other than there's a doughnut on the sign.

Arabella exclaimed from the backseat, as we drove by, "Doughnuts! Dada, can we get some McDoughnuts?" I nearly wet myself. I have no idea why she said it like that or what the correlation is, but now we just have to call them McDoughnuts. :P

Modeling

Arabella is my little model for my side business, Bella's Bows. Most days she enjoys dressing up in whatever tutu or tutu dress I come up with. She loves playing around, switching in and out new hair bows or flower clips. Even though she loves to put on "costumes" we rarely get a good shot of her looking at the camera. Granted she's two, but really I guess I don't see why "look at Mommy" is such a hard command. Anywho...I'm pretty sure at this point if she was allowed to pick up a firearm she'd shoot my camera. LOL.

Today I finished up a Halloween tutu dress and needed her to model it...

And we're done...

Just Another Day

Today came to a crashing halt. During the cooking of dinner I popped in Despicable Me to keep the kids subdued while I cook. It's getting more difficult to do the simple tasks now that Evan thinks everything is worth climbing on.

So I took the liberty of snapping some pictures while they were "watching" their movie.

Following dinner I asked for help cleaning up the living room. Apparently a one and two year old's idea of helping is throwing toys at one another as Mommy picks up everything. After repeatedly not getting any response from either of them, I got fed up. While ferociously picking up the toys I discovered one of my t.v. on DVD boxed sets on the ground among the toys. It had been totally destroyed. I was livid. Yes it may be trivial, but seriously? They can't tear up their own things?

Moving on, at that point Mama-zilla woke up and every last toy was removed from the living room. I frantically scattered and hauled everything off to the basement. As far as Arabella is concerned I threw everything away. To get my blood pressure even higher they both apparently found my maneuver hilarious as now they could run and chase one another all over the place without tripping all over toys. Sigh. After sweating my butt off getting everything down stairs I called it a night. I put Evan to bed without nursing him, put Arabella in bed without reading to her, and I took my own shower. After I got out of the shower, I checked on the kids. Evan was asleep and Arabella, well she's still fighting sleep after being in the dark for two hours.

I don't know when, if, or how they will earn their toys back, but for now Mommy just needs a break.

Uncle Cliff

As I ended my last post mysteriously...on the ride home from Omaha, 9:26pm, my cell phone rings and it's my mother. My heart sank. I knew exactly why she was calling. Prior to our trip, as in the night we were supposed to be packing to leave as early as possible the next morning; I was at the hospital with my Uncle Cliff. I felt it my heart I needed to see him should something happen before I got back to Missouri. I'm glad I followed my gut because I didn't make it back in time to see him again.

Thankfully he was able to go home and was surrounded by family and loved ones in his own home when he passed. The next evening I got a call from my dad and my Aunt Terry wanted me to put together a slide show memorial for the visitation and dinner following the funeral. I packed up everything I would need and headed back home to assist in any way I was needed. We spend five plus hours scanning photos from old photo albums. I spent the next twelve plus hours touching up the old photographs and building the slide show DVD.

I took the disc to my aunt's home. My cousin was there, along with my parents and the preacher. They were discussing what she would like to happen for the ceremony. Amidst that, my cousin put the DVD in the player to make sure it was going to play and my aunt stopped mid-sentence and asked him to turn it off. It was just too much for her. Not so good timing on our part.

After a bit longer we headed out and shortly after we left they sat down and watched it. The next day at the visitation she told me how much she loved the DVD and that made me smile from ear to ear. To know I could provide a sliver of comfort during such a difficult time.

The next day I took off for home by myself to attend the funeral. My aunt had asked me to take as many pictures as possible for my uncle's celebration of life. It was strange as I'd never done anything quite like it. Nor had I seen such a celebration before. My uncle was a war veteran and twenty-one year fireman for Wood Heights Fire Protection District.

He received full military honors as well as a fireman's last call. It was heart wrenching, gorgeous, and absolutely amazing to see the love shared by his fellow firemen. I found it particularly difficult to capture photographs during the 21 gun salute, taps, and the last call ceremony. I'm even finding it hard to write this at this very moment.

My uncle was well loved, he lived life well and it showed.

Being carried to Wood Heights Fire Protection District Pumper One.

Protection and escort provided by the patriot guard as well as five plus fire districts.

Being taken to his final resting place by his youngest son (red tie) and nephew (policeman).

Presentation of the American flag and gratitude from the United States Army.

The Last Alarm Ceremony

"The Last Alarm"

The men and women of today’s fire service are confronted with a more dangerous work environment than ever before.  We are forced to continually change our strategies and tactics to accomplish our tasks. 

Our methods may change, but our goals remain the same as they were in the past, to save lives and to protect property, sometimes at a terrible cost.  This is what we do, this is our chosen profession, this is the tradition of the fire fighter. 

The fire service of today is ever changing, but is steeped in traditions 200 years old.  One such tradition is the sound of the bell.

In the past as firefighters began their tour of duty, it was the bell that signaled the beginning of that day’s shift.  Throughout the day and night, each alarm was sounded by a bell, which summoned these brave souls to fight fires and to place their lives in jeopardy for the good of their fellow citizen.  And when the fire was out and the alarm had come to and end, it was the bell that signaled to all the completion of that call.  When a fire fighter had died in the line of duty, paying the supreme sacrifice, it was the mournful toll of the bell that solemnly announced a comrade’s passing. 

We utilize these traditions as symbols, which reflect honor and respect on those who have given so much and who served so well.  To symbolize the devotion that these brave souls had for their duty, a special signal of five rings, three times each, represents the end of our comrades’ duties and that they will be returning to quarters.  And now, Clifford Phillips, Jr. has completed his tasks.  His duties well done, he has given his best.  For our fallen brother, his last alarm.  He has gone home.

The central dispatch read a last call for Clifford W. Phillips Jr. at this time over the air waves for all local departments to hear.

The bell is struck solemnly five times for three cycles; pausing in between strikes and cycles.

~This is something I cannot get out of my head.

Missed, but not forgotten.

Thank you for letting me share this journey. It has been therapeutic and the loss of my uncle is going to take a lot of time for the family.

Omaha *LOTS OF PICS*

At the end of August we took a family mini vacation to Omaha. We went to the Zoo, Broncos, La Casa, and the Omaha Children's Museum. It was a lot of fun packed into two days. Hang on, here come the pictures... and there are a ton, mainly because I haven't been to bed yet and I want to share as many as possible. :)

Daddy stopped at QT and bought powdered doughnuts for breakfast...hmmm, not sure how good of an idea that was?

And we finally made it to the zoo...an hour an a half later than we should have been there. Thank God for flood water.

Daddy pointing out the animals.

In the butterfly garden.

Checking out the penguins.

Under the shark tank.

Feeding the koi.

The end of day one.

DAY TWO

Listening to Hello & Goodbye in a lot of different languages.

These two would not sit still for anything...but can you blame them? This place was made to be explored.

Mommy's little homemaker.

We paid extra to see the dinosaur exhibit...I personally don't feel it was worth the extra money, but the kids thought it was fun.

Trying to lift the weight of a mammoth's tooth.

Back at the zoo

This guy was a beggar. Arabella kept asking if she could tickle him or "he come with us?" Silly kid.

This guy has showmanship. He loves banging on the windows and scaring people.

Meanwhile, back in the walk through aquarium.

My favorite exhibit.

The end of two very long days...

She chose a polar bear puppet from the gift shop. Funny enough she didn't get to see the polar bear because he was asleep in his cave.

Bubba picked out a turtle puppet from the gift shop. Now if only we could get him to quit making out with it. ;)

It was fun for everyone. Unfortunately the ride home wasn't quite what I'd hoped as I received a call you never want to get. But I'll save that for my next post.