Is that a gator in the lake??

First of all, thanks for all the encouraging comments and emails you've sent after my hormonal post yesterday. I know so many of you moms have and are going through the same thing. I like the suggestion of a mom's night out :) I've often said I'm considering a vacation just by myself...it's looking better all the time! Have any of you ever done that? Just taken a weekend away by yourself? If so, where did you go and what did you do? I'll have to wait until I'm not nursing anymore of course, but it does kinda sound fun maybe once a year.

On to the gator:

I received an email with pictures of a gator carrying a big deer across a lake....supposedly Lake Cumberland, near my hometown.

If you've ever received this email, chances are the photos are real, but the location is all wrong. Read about it here:

http://www.snopes.com/photos/animals/gatordeer.asp

Looks like Lake Cumberland is safe once again.....for now....muahhahahahahaha!

It's not that I'm unhappy...

Just really, really overwhelmed. Sleep deprivation, hormonal swings from pregnancy and birth AND the Depo-Provera, and learning to deal with three kids. Really overwhelming to me right now. Terrible mood swings. Totally unmotivated to do much to be productive. Just doing my best to keep my head above water.

Anybody been there? ;)

I know it will pass. I know the challenges will get better and different as I learn to adjust and when I get more sleep and a better routine going. Just trudging on, hanging in there. Trusting that I can do all things (yep, even mothering 3 kids) through Christ who gives me strength.

Zachary's bath

Is that what I think it is?

Ack! No! It's the soap! They're trying to drown me again!














Somehow, I've survived another drowning attempt. And I'm cold.

But, hey! I make this towel look good!

Crazy kiddos

Zachaboo has turned into Zachawail! If he's not sleeping, eating, or being held, he's crying. Well, at least it has been wearing him out during the day enough to take a good afternoon nap while Zoe naps and sleep for longer stretches at night. He's very content to ride along right up next to me in his sling. I have been able to get outside to do a bit of work the past couple of days with him sleeping away in there. But I do have to take him off every once in a while. Then, I just have to let him cry a bit. I hate to, but I do have to have a shower sometimes and take care of 2 other kiddos as well...and my back hurts after a few hours :)

Zoe...well, she's three...what more can I say about her? LOL!

Megan has now began calling little friends from school. Today, a little friend called her for the first time. I think they read their little school readers to each other over the phone. It's so funny and wierd too, seeing my little girl start calling friends...having a social life apart from home. Just strange :)

The bestest surprise

Saturday my husband asked me if I would rather eat out or have him fix a surprise dinner. Now, who would pass up a surprise dinner? I figured we always had eating out as a backup :)

He totally surprised me with his own recipe for stuffed green peppers! They were awesome! Filled up with a mixture of mostly zesty italian sausage, ground beef, brown rice, and topped with some tomato sauce and Italian cheese with some green olives right in the top for garnish. He even shaved some Romano cheese around each pepper.

Needless to say, I was SO impressed! He also has a recipe for stuffed pasta shells that I'm crazy about. I told him if he keeps this up, I'll make him cook all the time! I wish I had thought to take a pic when he plated it on Saturday night. This is a pic of the leftovers, which we'll have tonight--yum!

My baby's a teenager!

Well, if you looked at his face, chest and top of his back, you'd almost think so. The baby acne has hit him quite badly. Megan had a bit, Zoe had a bit more, and Zachary's getting the most of it. I must have had hormones like crazy to give him such a bad case. Luckily, it will clear up on its own with just regular cleaning with water and/or mild baby soap by 4-6 months. Here's a description I read on http://www.drgreene.com/:

Introduction: To many parents' dismay, their beautiful newborn's face breaks out with red bumps. This is called baby acne. It tends to occur at about the same age as the baby's peak gas production and fussiness. (Boy, that IS Zachary to a "T" right now!) How attractive! (This all coincides with parents' maximum sleep deprivation.) Parents are often quite concerned both about how these bumps look and about their significance.

What is it?: The bumps of baby acne are quickly fleeting evidence of the connection between a mother’s body and her baby’s. During the final moments of pregnancy, her hormones cross the placenta into her child. Among other things (such as maturing the lungs), this stimulates the oil glands on the skin, eventually giving rise to the baby acne.

Oh well...

I'm the chairperson for the nursery commitee at our church. Tonight is a committee work night. I thought I should try to be there to see if anything is needed. I made the decision to stay home this time. Zachary is really fussy today--not sure if it's colic, gas, overtired or what, but he's barely slept today and wants to nurse more frequently. Could be one of those growth spurts that babies have--the first one usually hits around this time, at 6 weeks.

So, I'm not there, but feeling guilty nonetheless. Telling myself though to give myself some slack and know that I'll have more freedom for doing things outside the home soon enough, without so much planning around baby's schedule and moods.

In the news

*Edit: After this previous rant, I felt led to pray for the women and children in this situation. I pray that God will show them His truth, His REAL truth, that they will see that salvation comes not from a "prophet" or a lifestyle, but from Jesus Christ alone. I pray that they will see that they can live a life of freedom in Christ, that these chains of oppression will be broken by Him and they can truly experience a fruitful, joyous life through our Savior.

Have any of you been keeping up with the FDLS (Fundamentalist Latter Day Saints) compound raid in Texas? They have taken 416 children and some of their mothers to a shelter while they work on possible prosecutions for men marrying young girls and practicing polygamy.

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I have many feelings about this situation. On the one hand, I'm sad and sympathetic for the children that have been separated from their mothers and the only homes they've ever known. On the other hand, I'm angry that people have even been allowed to live in these large, polygamy-oriented compounds in the first place if it's already against the law. Only now the government steps in and NOW they have to deal with the possible placement of 416 children into foster care--a foster care system that is already struggling at best.

The most angering aspect of this to me....the complete absence of the men in the situation. Any interviews or footage I've seen has only involved the completely brainwashed, "sweet-talking" women of the compound. The husbands and fathers are conspicuously missing, not present to defend their families or supposedly "righteous" lifestyle.

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Why? Because these disgusting men know in their hearts that the lifestyle that they are living is wrong! They're scared of prosecution for their behavior and they know that it is morally wrong as well. They know it's wrong to marry 14 year old girls and to take on many wives, raising up their daughters just to give them away to some older man, expecting them to produce as many babies as they can.

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You know how they make enough money to keep these huge families going? They force their young children to work on their farms, and in this particular compound, a dairy farm and concrete factory. The "wives" also apply as UNWED mothers for government aid. Essentially, we're paying for their lifestyle.

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They also have a habit of expelling adolescent boys from the group, on the premise of their "bad behavior", yet hardly any girls are kicked out, ensuring there's plenty of girls to go around for the men to have at least 3 wives. They have brainwashed the women and children that the rest of the world (the "outsiders") are evil and sinful and that their sinful behavior is righteous and the key to salvation. See this link: http://www.slate.com/id/2189181/

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I normally don't like to sound judgmental about people's lifestyles, but when s*xual sins are "justified" by crazy fundamentalist religious teachings, that's just too much for me. And how these men have kept getting away with this for so long is beyond me.

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We "outsiders" just have to just sin away or live like hypocrites, but that's a whole other rant :)

I'll save you from that one.

Days of our lives

Our "makeover day" last week was a hit with Meg. Sponge rollers the night before produced our "Curly Sue".

Zoe, the half-naked cowgirl. This is definitely a blackmail pic here!

*shouting to Zoe's boyfriend*: "Hey, come look at some cute pictures of Zoe when she was little!" :)

Zachary's newest trick. He's really getting good at holding his head up, smiling more, and cooing a bit. Mostly, he's still all about the milk ;)

Where you at?

That's what people are saying, probably. I woudn't know since I haven't seen or talked to anyone for any length of time for quite a while :)

We've been to church a couple times since Zachary was born, but I've only been there for Sunday school. We've been on one trip to see our family and one nice date night (with Zachary of course), but that's about it.

This week, Megan is back at school after spring break--a few wonderful days of sleeping in that week....ahhh! Now, I'm trying to get back into some sort of working routine. Working around a three year old and a fussy baby is not easy. When he's not napping, Zachary is demanding to be held or fed, so I've got little spurts of time during the day to get stuff done.

You know that great advice, "Sleep when the baby sleeps"? Well, that ain't happening with a 3 year old in the house. If I'm lucky enough to get them both asleep at the same time, well then we'll try it. Bryan and I actually got all 3 of them sleeping for a good long nap on Saturday. It was wonderful! But doesn't always happen, so I'll have to learn to deal with some sleep deprivation for a while longer. Might as well wash some towels or something, eh?

A nice spring break day

Last night we picked up the girls from visiting our family and got home around 9pm. Zoe slept her first night in the bunk bed. It took a while for them to finally stop giggling and hopping around to go to sleep. This morning, Zoe got up at 5:45 and she and Meg both had to use the bathroom. They giggled and carried on until almost 7, when I threatened them with dire consequences if they didn't go back to sleep :) So then a listing of our day so far, just because I want to do it that way....

*slept in (Zachary right by me to get a little extra shut-eye) until 9:00.
*Got up, mixed up pancake batter, fed Zachary.
*Actually had to wake the girls up at 9:45.
*Cooked pancakes and thouroughly enjoyed them--Megan had 6, I think!
*Went outside to play with new chalk toy, swing, etc before the rain comes. Zachary woke up in his stroller, so I fed him outside.
*Went back in to clean up little dirty hands and change dirty pants, put Zachary in the crib for a nap.
*Cut up an apple, poured some pretzels and cheese puffs in a bowl for snacks and poured some Sierra Mist.
*Sat in the dining room for snacks and a few rounds of Uno.
*And now, we're taking a TV/computer break before we get into Crazy Eights :)

We'll be tired tonight, but it's fun anyway.

One month ago...

Well, yesterday, that is...Zachary was born one month ago yesterday. These first 4 weeks have just flown by. He's such a sweet baby. I'm so glad we decided to go for a third :) I feel so very blessed to have had our three healthy, beautiful children. They are truly a gift from God and I thank Him for them every day.

Tonight, our two oldest "gifts" come back home from some time at their grandparents over spring break. I've really enjoyed the quiet break here at home with Zachary. But I'm looking forward to doing some fun things with the girls here since we can't take a family trip just yet. I'm thinking makeovers, a movie with a popcorn and pizza "campout" in the living room, pancakes for breakfast and some games. Should be interesting!

Here it is!!

The new bunkbed that my husband built for our girls! Isn't it awesome!! Thanks to lots of help from our neighbor Harold and his woodshop and many hours of labor that Bryan put into cutting, sanding, staining, and polishing, it's ready for them to move in together. This is by far the nicest piece of furniture in our house at the moment. I'm so proud of him--not even a carpenter, mind you. He's never built anything so complex like this before.

Megan's first night in it! She was excited. We will wait until next week on spring break to introduce Zoe to it. She's a little hesitant to give up her crib, but I think she'll like it.

Yay! A new header for spring!

I love making headers. It takes me a good couple hours or so to finally get it how I want it, but using Photoshop is so fun. Meg and I picked a whole bunch of daffodils from our neighbor's field yesterday afternoon when I got her off the bus. We put them in a big vase on our table, and that inspired me to make a new header. Hope you like the new spring changes!

This morning

Bryan is off today so we can take the girls to the dentist this afternoon. I'm letting my two favorite men sleep in. After Zachary's last feeding, he was fussy, so here's where he ended up. Awwww.

A few pics

Zachary in the sling I've borrowed from Stacey

He really likes it so far. Sleeps very well all tucked in next to me. It's proving to be more comfy than the front carrier and much less bulky than the old sling I used for a while with Megan. It comes from Zolowear. Check them out if you're interested in baby slings.

Playing with the Black/White setting. I have done so little with the functions on my camera. I'm usually a point/click girl. I like the black/white pics. They seem to capture the true personality of the subject better or something.

Hey Bloggers

Just wanted to tell you all I'm very thankful to know you in RL and/or through your blogs. I've been reading your posts through Bloglines since Zachary has been here. Though I haven't posted much, I just wanted you to know I'm still reading and loving each of your insightful, fun, spiritual, real posts. They really speak to me as I read them, in these days of being a stay at home shut-in, um...mom, I mean :) Thanks for being you and I'm looking forward to getting more interactive and branching out to other blogs and new friends as time goes on. Love you all!

Oh Happy Day!

I forgot to mention my 2nd birthday was this past Saturday. March 29, 1989, I was born again into Christ when I was 12. Bryan and I got the chance to go out on our first date that night too. We left the girls with some friends and took Zachary along to Olive Garden. I fed him in the car while Bryan got us a table and got our food ordered. The food had just arrived when I got inside. After the meal, some ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery. A great 2nd birthday celebration!

Today, I am totally doing happy dances all around. My student loans are finally paid off, my friends!! Nearly 10 years after I graduated college, mind you :) Woohoo!! We've also been able to pay off some other debts too from our tax return and hubby's bonus. Of course, now we still have the septic tank to fix, but at least it's some burdens relieved. Yay!! I'm all kinds of excited.

Zachary is 3 weeks old now. Can you believe it? He's growing up too fast already. He's still a newborn right now, eating, sleeping, pooping. He's starting to smile more and coo a bit and I'm just eating it up. Lovin it!

Imagine this

"It was approximately 5:15 am. In Opelousas, La. I had stayed with a friend there and was on my way to work. I stopped at the Exxon/Blimpie Pie station to get gas. I got $10 gas and a Diet Coke. I took into the store two $5 bills and one $1 bill (just enough to get my stuff).

As I pulled away from the store, a man approached my truck from the back side of the store (an unlit area) He was an 'approachable-looking' man (clean cut, clean shaven, dressed well, etc.) He walked up to my window and knocked.

Since I'm very paranoid and 'always looking for the rapist or killer,' I didn't open the window. I just asked what he wanted. He raised a $5 bill to my window and said, 'You dropped this.' Since I knew I had gone into the store with a certain amount of money, I knew I didn't drop it.

When Itold him it wasn't mine, he began hitting the window and door, screaming at me to open my door, and insisting that I had dropped the money! At that point, Ijust drove away as fast as I could."

Have you ever gotten this e-mail? These often emerge from real events, like a serial killer on the loose in Louisiana a few years back. Fear sparked many stories such as these, that continue to be circulated, even though the killer has been caught.

Though rumors are annoying, ones like these can serve a purpose other than increasing our paranoia. They can remind us to be aware of our surroundings at all times, especially when alone, and recognize unusual behavior. Also, I like how in one version the target asks an employee to escort her out. If in doubt, have someone walk you out! Good advice, even from e-mail rumors!

Read the rest of the story here: http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/batonrouge.asp

Here it goes

Yesterday, I began my first day alone as full time mama to all three kids. Bryan went back to work. As terrified as I was, it was ok. Everyone survived.

This morning, Bryan had to leave extra early for an out of town day trip, so I had to get Meg ready for school. Bryan had been doing it for the last couple weeks. I was lucky enough to get Zachary fed and back to sleep before she got up. Then, Zoe slept late as well, so I was able to lie down for another hour before Zachary woke up again.

Not exactly caught up on my sleep mind you, but every little bit helps.

Praying for God to help me balance my days and get everyone used to a new family member, to be really forgiving of myself and not worry about the house being a wreck. To be patient in developing a productive daily schedule while I recover from childbirth and adjust to new sleep patterns. To be sensitive to the needs of my family and be more grace-filled, more gentle and loving towards them, even when fatigue makes me super cranky. And most of all, to be thankful and content with what I have every day, to complain less and praise more.

"Thank you God, for giving me more strength than I thought possible, more patience than I can produce on my own, and enough love in my heart for my husband and all our kids, and thank You especially for the grace and love you show me. Amen"