This amazing gift for our boys from one of Gabe's grateful patients touched my heart.

Gabe was born to do what he does...help people who are in pain heal so they are able to move on and live their lives. It always amazes me to see him work when I visit the clinic. He talks to patients with compassion and makes a point of getting to know them and who they are, beyond their pain. I never thought much about it until now, but I have a feeling that this is a very important aspect of their recovery. He has been blessed to know some amazing and very interesting people. It's not surprising that there is an immense amount of gratitude from most people when they finally start to heal and begin feeling better. Some people will even give Gabe tokens to show their appreciation, such as home baked goodies, his favorite candy etc. Yesterday a patient who was being dismissed from therapy went a step farther and presented Gabe with this amazing handmade Tin Man for our boys that he had constructed himself. It obviously was a labor of love....as evidenced by the Tin Man's heart proudly displayed on his chest. The fact that this man, whom Gabe knows very well, but is unknown to the rest of us, spent hours working on this as a token of his appreciation for what Gabe had done for him really touched my heart. It not only shows that truly good people really are among us, even when events on the news result in us looking over the shoulder during what were previously mundane trips to the grocery store, but it also reminds me that God chose this career path for Gabe so the he can serve Him by serving people. I am proud of Gabe and what he does every day, and though this tin man may not match our "decor" he will be proudly displayed from now on as a reminder to our children that they.can do anything they choose in life, as long as they allow God will use their talents to serve Him.

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The week from....well, read for yourself and fill in the blank.

So this past week hasn't exactly been what I would call....ideal to say the least.  Not to complain, but to sum it up:
Sunday (a week ago) fell and hurt my ankle...and then had to drive all 3 kids back to Franklin from BG. What fun. Thank goodness no sudden stops were needed. Middle of the night realized it was REALLY hurt.

Monday: No school for the kids...
               Gabe took off work to drive me around and help me hobble on my crutches (LOVE HIM!)
                Carter: dentist. Has an abscessed tooth that needs to come out. On antibiotics for that (oh, and they helped him pull 2 more that were loose while he was there...He is pretty much toothless at this point)
                 Me: Dr. office for exrays of foot, which showed something "odd"
                 Me: off to BG to see dr. from Vandy sports Med, who ordered a "boot" for me. Oh, and the "oddity" would be an extra bone that I apparently have in both feet. Yes, leave it to me. Apparently I tore the tissue holding this little bone to the rest of my foot. For something that shouldn't have been there in the first place, it sure has reeked havoc on my life.

Tuesday:  Stupid boot didn't come in, so I had to baracade baby to family room and sit in a chair pretty much all day. Started feeling like i was coming down with something too. Thank goodness for DEAR friends who helped with the dreaded 3 rounds of carpool.

Wednesday:  UGGHH..threat of snow.  Boot was delievered....to Gabe's office in BG. Which meant yet another day of hobbling on crutches and baracading Xan Man. This also happened to be poor Gabe's birthday. Thank goodness he took care of buying his own present...totally unromantic I know, but had he not, he wouldn't have had anything, b/c let's face it...I was in no shape to shop. Did manage a b-day cake for him. Also managed to load up the kiddos to meet him for bowling with our church in BG..(side note...I stopped at Mcd's to get food for all...and ended up having to wait for our salads for 15 min....at McD's.  I ended up deciding they had forgotten about me. Having all 3 kids, and a bum foot, I wasn't about to go in, so instead i rolled down my window in true redneck style and politely (as possible) got the attention of the chick in the window.SEVERAL minutes later our salads appeared.
Anyway, fast forward to leaving bowling. Gabe and I are in separate cars. I have a screaming baby and a screaming Hayden in my truck with me...lucky me.  Moving slower than usual of course, and searching for a passy (unsuccessfully), I guess Gabe got a head start. can you guess what happened next? No? Well....my battery was dead. I tried waving to Gabe before he got out of the parking lot...but guess he didn't see me.  Thank goodness for cell phones.  I must admit...I was feeling a wee bit frazzled by this point. i ended  my night with desperate pleas with the big guy to send the snow anywhere but here....of course that didn't work. Which leads us to Thurs.

Thursday:  Things start out pretty normal for once that week! the boot was allowing me to get some things done. No snow flakes in sight and I am thinking the kids are going to make it for a full day.  Little did I know that apparently our phone/internet had gone out so i missed the dismissal call saying that I needed to get Carter at 1:30. Thank goodness for WBKO text alert. I did end up getting the text in time. Needless to say, we didn't dodge the snow bullet...which brings us to Friday.

Friday: SNOW day (and gabe's day off, thankfully).  Determined to get out of the house, we kept appts. to see 2 houses for sale by owner in BG (and talked to the owner of another house..but based on that conversation, deemed her to unstable to deal with...we won't be going to that house.) Came home to drop off the kids with Mallory for a much needed date night. While we were here, Hayden begins to cry and says his toe hurts. OH MY....his poor big toe was so VERY VERY RED and swollen..and streaking. I had no idea what was wrong. Gabe gave him some antibiotics he had left over and some tylenol. Gabe and I ended up cutting our date short. We were supposed to see a movie after dinner, but we were both exhausted and fighting colds, so threw in the towel and came home...to find Hayden had spiked a high fever and was in a lot of pain. It was a long night....he was up for most of it.

FF to Sunday... (Sat. we pretty much cleaned and chilled out ALL day...but Hayden's toe was looking worse) Gabe dropped me off with Hayden at Urgent Care then took the other two to church while we saw the dr. AFter a VERY long wait, we ended up seeing a GREAT doctor who was very good with hayden. For an urgent care place, I was very impressed.  They lanced it and gave us scripts for several medications (the doctor also said he may have strep throat as well and could be on his way to ear infections). Poor guy. No wonder he had been a bit on the grouchy side.
I ended my day by leaving Gabe with the kiddos (along with instructions for helping Carter finish his homework) and went to BG for Small Group.  It's never good to get a text that says "Please tell me you are on your way home."  I think last night gave Gabe a new appreciation for evenings at home with the kids until he arrives.

So that was our week. Go ahead and fill in the blank. At least it's behind us and a new week has dawned. I know it could have been much worse...(my foot could have been totally broken, Hayden's toe could have fallen off...(.   We are so blessed that 99% of the time our lives are pretty much smooth sailing. Weeks like this past one just make us appreciate that fact!


            

what smells like roasted chicken but is sooo NOT?

That would be a feather pillow that gets stuck in the agitator and burns (still not sure how that happened considering it was in water...but trust me it did!) It's been one of those days. Let's just say the house may smell like roasted chicken, but we will be eating papa murphys pizza! Who has time to cook when you are trying to clean feathers out of your washing machine. Not to mention getting them off of all the other clothes that were in there with the busted pillow!

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Cozy & Comfy

Hayden & Xander are loving the newest digital book on the iPad..."There's a monster at the end of this book" Grover narrates this hilarious interactive book himself and it is absolutely hilarious and totally entertaining! Even carter, who originally objected to the "baby book" loves it! If u have young children (or don't buy are a grover fan) its definitely a must have! It was on sale as a featured app yesterday for only .99!

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We've resorted to homeschooling....

So today marked Snow day #3 this week. I have never seen 1 little inch of snow reek such havoc on a school week.  It must be one slick inch of snow....somewhere in the county. Not around my house, but it is a big county with lots of curvy country roads. I haven't ventured farther than a couple of miles from our house, so I wouldn't know for sure. 

 To break it down...our kids have been in school exactly 8 days since December 10.  So, I decided to take matters into my own hands and "homeschool" today.  Now, I must admit that as an educator, I am amazed by the blogs I read about all of these amazing women/mothers/home managers who are able to effectively homeschool their children (while also maintaining interactive blogs that outline all of their other amazing abilities and I'm assuming managing to keep everyone in clean clothes and fed and transported to and from extracurricullar activites...I must be doing something wrong around here...but that's another blog for another day).  I for one, am not ashamed to admit that despite my formal education in the field of education, I am not cut out for full time home schooling (nor would I do it even if I felt I could). But, since mother nature has decided to grace us with these snowy days, I decided to take matters into my own hands today in hopes that my kids don't start falling behind in the absence of formal education.  

After doing a short phonics lesson and reading a book with Carter, we decided to turn to the internet to do some research on a topic that he has been asking about...and I've had a hard time answering.  Mummies.  So, we read up about Mummies on several kid-friendly sites and he now completely understands that while Mummies are real, they do not walk around with their hands in front of them,despite whatever he may have seen on tv.  We focused on a few key vocab. words, such as preserve, tomb, embalm (gory I know...), Egyptian, pyramids and shroud and talked about what they meant as we read.  He then wrote a sentence and drew a picture about what he had learned. I thought he summed it up pretty well by writing "The Egyptians made mummies to preserve the dead."  He then drew a picture of a pyramid with a mummy inside.  After that I turned to the best learning tool out there in my opinion, the iPad!  I even downloaded a couple of new apps. We played a few rounds of a cute Math BINGO (addition and subtraction).  and he and Hayden took turns creating cars (really cute app called Create a Car). They even got to turn them on and see them run when they were done.  With Carter's "homeschool" session over with, Hayden and I spent some time on the Ipad as well. We are practicing typing his name and naming the letters in his name.  Then we downloaded what could be the VERY best App I have ever seen. It is a digital book of one of my favorite childhood books."There's a Monster at the End of this Book." (starring Grover).  It is absolutely hilarious. Hayden and I played (and laughed) with this app for a long time...and now he is sharing it with Xander...who also loves it! It was on sale for .99 today, and that may be the best .99 I ever spend!  IF (and that's a big IF) they happen to go back tomorrow, it will be the only day until next Tuesday. They were already scheduled to be off on friday and Monday. I am going to have to pull out my creative hat (hmm...do I have one of those?) to pull this off!  

Oh no you didn't....

Okay, so it was bound to happen at some point...I just thought (hoped...) it would be, oh, say 10 years from now.  You know, that moment when your kid is passionate about something and all of a sudden they slip up and say one of those words you really hope never comes out of their mouth....yeah. so it happened a little earlier than I'd hoped.

One of the biggest changes that occurs in the process of growing up from child to adult is that at some point along the way we lose the sense of "awe" that comes from ordinary mundane events. Carter has yet to lose that sense of "awe", and for this I am thankful. I think this is one of the most precious things I get to witness as a parent. SIGHHH....with that said, sometimes it can be hard to muster up the proper level of enthusiasm required to satisfy his level of pride and excitement  in whatever it is he has shared, found, done that to anyone else (at least over the age of around 12 or so) would seem ordinary and mundane.

Which brings us to the scenario above.  A little background....as I was taking down my Christmas decorations (uh..humm...a couple of weeks ago) I took the holiday rug in my kitchen to the patio to shake it.  Now I am not proud to admit it, but apparently I forgot to bring it back in. Therefore, it was still resting at the foot of our back steps.  This is where the story picks up.
As Carter played in the snow yesterday, he "discovered" this rug buried under the inch or so of snow.  He came bounding up the back steps, flew open the door, and called for me like his life depended on it. After I almost broke my neck dodging, jumping and tripping over toys to see what could be wrong, I arrived at the door to see Carter beaming and holding a dripping rug over the kitchen floor. "Look mom, the rug froze!! Can you believe it??"   I hated to point out to him that technically it was melting at this point, so I mustered up all the "enthusiasm" I could to show support for his amazing discovery.  "Wow Carter! That's pretty cool! Wonder why that happened?"  He returned to his play, but later came in and was still talking about the frozen rug. "Mom, it was like really hard! It was stiff too! It really froze out there!" Yes Carter, cool.  (My enthusiasm was starting to ebb...) Fast forward a few hours to dinner. Gabe had been in the garage during Carter's discovery and had missed this amazing story.  As Gabe washed up and I was setting the table, Carter began to relay this story to Gabe. (Now, this is at least the third, maybe fourth) time that I have heard about this rug.  Let's just say I may have not even looked up from what I was doing as he relayed it yet again.  My excuse for not paying much attention at this point was that I had already heard the story several times. Apparently Gabe must not have been giving this story as much attention as Carter would have liked either, because the following nightmare-like slow motion event occured. Carter stands up from the table (he had already sat down, though Gabe and I had not) and exclaims so that all within earshot would be sure to hear him, (in reference to the rug...)"I'm telling you it was sooo DAMN hard!" Picture me standing over the sink and a dish crashing down as time stands still in the rest of the house. (Okay, that didn't really happen, but in a movie, it would have).  The look on Carter's face as soon as it came out of his mouth was one of...Did I really just say that? Now what will happen?  Of course, my respone was, "I KNOW you didn't just say what I think you did!!!!!!"  I went on to give the lecture about how mommy and daddy don't talk that way and that it is not acceptable.  But I think his point was actually that he was trying to get us to pay attention to what he was saying and be excited with him and he knew that would get our attention! I guess we all learned something from this.

Best Idea Santa Ever Had!!

Okay, so our elf, Joseph, tipped Santa off that the Smith boys had a little extra energy from being cooped up indoors. I can imagine his exact words were probably "those kids are bouncing off the walls!" Even though Santa was technically done with his gifts for the boys, he went ahead and put an order in for one last special gift....the indoor trampoline. Hands down the best decision ever! Our boys have jumped and jumped and jumped. Great way to get some exercise.during the long winter months. Even xan man enjoys.bouncing on it! It plays music, makes silly sounds and will even count their jumps! They are wrestling and running around less and our furniture is thanking us. We had planned to put it in their room...but they take turns jumping the whole time they watch tv, so we left it right there in the middle of the family room! If you have kids with energy to spare, this is a small investment that will go a long way toward saving your sanity!!

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Hayden's creative spirit

Hayden is our creative spirit around here. I've been looking for an outlet for him to express himself while supporting his creativity. He's not.so into.drawing or coloring. Baking is his other passion, but not only do I not have time to help him whip together a batch of Cupcake every day, it's counterproductive to my weight loss. But, I Think I've finally found simple solution... playdough. He is literally going on 3 hours of solid playdough play. He played with it at least that long yesterday as well.It took all I had not to urge him to keep the colors separated, but then I realized to do so would be to squelch the very creativity I'm trying to support. He's quite happy with his greyish green flecked with specks of color that he's formed from about 8 different colors. I love watching him create little characters and act scenes out with them. He's a great kid and I'm proud of him for marching to the beat of his own drum. Who knows what amazing things his.future holds! It's fun dream about that as I watch him.

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I have a confession...

I have a confession. In fact, if I had a second blog, it would be called "Confessions of a Crock Pot Queen".  Here it goes....
I have not used my stove/oven since last year.  No, my kids have not been thriving on McD's either. In fact, other than new Years Eve, we have not even eaten out this year!  We've eaten nutritional home cooked meals every night...courtesy of my crockpot.  We've eaten Hoppin John Soup (which lasted 2 days), Tangy Porkchops with pasta, Chicken and Rice Casserole, and a crazy soup I threw together with stuff I had on hand in my pantry and freezer that I ended up calling "Southwestern Chicken Stew." (It was totally yummy by the way...yet another beauty of the crockpot. You can throw about anything into it within reason along with some spices and stock and have a delicious soup at the end of the day.)
Now it's not every day you can say a household appliance changed your life, but that's exactly what I'm going to say today.
It all began last Christmas.  I discovered the miracle of the "Amazon.com wish list"  If you have a husband who hates to shop, you MUST check this out if you haven't already. All you do is make a wish list with everything your little heart desires. Then all he has to do is pull up the list and "buy with one click."  Of course, of all the things I put on it last year (jewelry, shoes, clothes, etc,) Gabe chose to buy the crockpot and crockpot cookbook I had put on the list as an after thought. (If not romantic, at least he's practical)...I got some other great things too though). Anyway, little did he know (or did I know when I put it on the list) that this little appliance, and the cookbook "Fix it and Forget it :The BIG cookbook" would literally change the way our household runs.
Before you judge...hear me out. Yes, I know that I am a stay at home mom, so cooking in the evening should be no big deal, right? Wrong. Throw in ball practices, homework, baths, and 3 kids underfoot, and I'm as busy as anyone else at night, which makes preparing a meal quite difficult at times. (not to mention Gabe gets home just in time to eat...but not to help).
Enter, the crockpot. With a little planning and pantry stocking, you can literally prepare the evening's meal in about 5 min.  Now wouldn't it be worth setting the alarm 5 min. earlier if it meant having dinner ready when you got home at night?  Not only is it quick, it is also healthy and economical.  Most of the meals i prepare can be done for less than $4 or $5 total. (Of course I shop sales and mark-down meat too and that helps...) Not only that, most meals will feed us two nights and often Gabe has enough to take for lunch the next day as well!  I wish someone had let me in on this little secret a long time ago, so I just thought I'd share in hopes of making someone else's life a little easier too!  Happy cooking!

It's a "Plan D" kinda day...

They Don't Call 'Em Skinny Jeans for Nothing...

Gabe and I are looking forward to our first night away (New Years Eve) since Baby Boy # 3 was born last December. As a nursing baby, and a major momma's boy, it just hasn't worked out for us to get away overnight until now. We aren't going far, just down to N'ville to go out to eat (PF Changs...our fav) and to a concert at the Ryman Auditorium.Our hotel is within walking distance of the concert, but with rain in the forecast we may end up looking like drowned rats. Anyway, this little event is turning out to cause big drama for me. Since I have decided to stay at home, shopping trips "for the heck of it" which had always been frequent for me, are now an extremely rare treat, so when my husband said, let's get new outfits for New Years Eve, I was very excited at the prospect of getting to shop! 


Well, my first mistake was tagging along with him on a quick trip (as in on his lunch break) to khol's, where he walked right in, picked out a shirt, tried it on, (it fit him perfectly and looked amazing of course) and he then picked up a pair of jeans (without trying them on mind you) and was off to the checkout. When I asked him how he knew the jeans would fit...he said simply, "Because they are my size." Now I ask you...why the heck can't shopping for women's jeans be that easy? Between different designers, styles, cuts, and stores, it is impossible for me to walk in a store and say "That's my size, I'll take them." The entire ordeal may have taken a whopping 30 minutes for him. Well, if it was that easy for him, surely it would be for me...right? WRONG. With the big boys away visiting grandparents, the baby and I set off on a quest for me to find something for me to wear for our big night out. After turning up with nothing at TJ Maxx, I reluctantly hit the mall. I don't know when the last time I bought something for myself at the mall was. Oh yes I do....maternity clothes at motherhood over a year ago. Fashions have evolved since my last non maternity shopping...and now include... dumm ta da dummmm.... THE SKINNY JEAN. Now I have seen these things worn by LOTS of my friends, young, old and in between and they look GREAT in them. Why not me? So I walk in to a store and pick out a pair "in my size..." (they actually had a petite pair...I'm only 5'0 mind you) and proceed to the dressing room. The first thing that strikes me is that I had to put them on like panty hose. Now mind you, I stopped wearing panty hose, oh, at least 15 years ago, for a reason. They are totally tight and constricting and confining. I'm noticing some similarities here. After I finally worked them up and got them buttoned, I realized that once again, you can't trust a label. With regular jeans that are too long (even petite jeans are typically about 3 inches too long), they just go over my feet and I end up walking on them. Since these things were suctioned around my ankles the extra material just bunched and balled up in places I didn't even know I had.I swear I think the baby was even laughing. I couldn't peel the dang things off fast enough. Of course the very nice sales chick is on the other side of the door saying "How'd those work for ya?" Umm...not even sure how to respond to that. Needless to say, I have a new found respect for all of my friends who pull off the skinny jean with style, because I looked down right ridiculous in them. I'm back off to the mall today in search of a nice pair of wide leg trouser jeans.Do they still make those? I think those will suit me much better. I will also be returning the top I bought after regretting it when I returned home. In other words, our 6 hour shopping trip was for nothing. Well, not really. I enjoyed being out of the house and "free" from being on a time table. That was nice! Oh, and on the upside, just heard on the Today Show that the "new look" for 2011 is going to be the "Pajama Look." No Joke! Now that's more my style!

Excuse me!? Do you see the golden arches over the door?

I've never been big on New Year's Resolutions, however, thanks to a statement made by our oldest this morning, our family as a whole now has one. It all started bright and early this morning as I attempted to pour myself a cup of coffee. Now, just so you know, having my cup of coffee is a requirement that must be met before I am capable of meeting the needs of anyone else in the a.m. (Maybe if Xander ever decides to wake up less than, oh say, 4 times a night, this need will go away...for now though it is a must.) So as I am pouring a cup of coffee...and my first one at that...Carter begins asking...scratch that...pretty much demanding... a PB & J sandwich. Mind you, it is only 7 a.m. at this point. It is not as though he has been sitting around all morning without eating and is starving...it is very early. I tell him that after I finish my coffee, and when he as asked nicely, including please, I'll make it for him. He then says,(hope you're sitting down...) "But mom, you have to give your customers what they want!" When the breath that had been knocked out of me returned, I replied, "Uh-Humm....EXCUSE me? Do you SEE Golden Arches over that door?" Did he really just take our mother/son relationship and compare it to that of a waiter and a customer??? After telling him where we keep the bread, PB and jelly, (and of course reminding him that I am his mother not his waiter) I sat down with my cup of Joe and began to realize that in my quest to keep my household running as smoothly & efficiently (and neatly) as possible, I am slowly robbing some of the boys (and maybe Gabe's too for that matter) independence. Rather than appreciating what I do, they are coming to expect it. Rather than doing things for themselves, they ask me to do it. Or better yet, they don't even ask, I just jump in and do things for them to save time...or a mess. For example, not 2 minutes ago, as I typed this, Hayden brought a granola bar to me and asked me to open it. As I started to do it for him, I stopped and asked him if he had even tried to do it himself. I handed it to him, and he opened it with no problem. In the mornings I still help Hayden get dressed. Not because he can't do it, but because it's faster if I do! Back to the PB and J....Carter is 6 after all, and has made his own sandwich on several occasions. Of course I don't mind doing it most of the time, but as he gets older, it is time for him to realize that he is capable of doing some things (within reason of course) for himself. A few minutes after I left him with the ingredients, he proudly brought his completed PB and J to me and said "Look mom, I even toasted it!" I realize that some of my reluctance to give up the control and let them do more for themselves is because it forces me to realize that my "little" boys are quickly turning into big boys. So thanks to this epiphany, brought on by Carter's rather rude comment this morning, our Family's resolution is to do more for ourselves and take on more responsibilities and to appreciate the things that are done for us rather than expecting them.Oh, and I even made one for Xander....to sleep all night! Happy New Year! May 2011 bring many blessings and much laughter.

Sorry Mr. Officer....

Well...you can't say I didn't try. (Of course if I had tried several months ago..I wouldn't be in this situation, but that's water under the bridge at this point.)


While Gabe and I were in N'ville, I was faced with the dilemma of where to stash my phone, $$, ID, lip gloss etc since, of course, my outfit didn't include pockets. And since I own diaper bags and not purses (and since for once I didn't need a diaper bag), I began handing it over to Gabe so he could stuff his pockets with all of my junk. (In case you were wondering, yes, he was grumbling a bit about his bulging pockets and why in the world women's dress slacks don't have pockets of their own. "It's just ridiculous. Men's pants always have pockets." Yes Gabe, and you can walk in and buy them off the rack without trying them on. Must be nice to be a guy.....but let's not beat that dead horse.) Anyway, as I handed him my drivers license, I happened to look at it. Now ironically, even though I am always whipping it out to show cashiers, I must never actually look at it myself, because if I had, surely I would've noticed at some point that it expired in back in..gulp gulp... August. Yup...the carpool queen who hauls kids to and from school not once, or even twice, but THREE times a day has a license that expired in August. 
So first thing this morning Xander and I head to the court house. (That's a blog in itself...) The first thing that strikes me is that I am the only one in there. The second thing that I noticed was that there were windows that were about 5 windows neatly labeled with everything from Court fees to Drivers License. So I stood in front of the window I needed watching the people on the other side get coffee etc. Several people told me they would be right with me (which apparently meant once they were done getting their coffee and pastry, they'd see what I needed.) Of course, mind you, I am standing in front of the window labeled drivers license. Anyway, several minutes passed, and a lady opened the window and asked if she could help me. I almost told her I'd like to order a Tall Latte with Skim Milk and a Bagel with Cream Cheese, but I told her why I was there (leaving out the part where I should've been there about 5 mths ago.) She then went on to explain that she was sooo sorry, but their drivers license machine is not working. "When do you think it will be up and running," I asked. Her response, "Well, I'm not sure. Maybe you should just call back every day to save yourself a wasted trip." She even jotted down the phone number for me on a scratch piece of paper. As I drove home (very slowly, stopping completely at all stop signs...) I began to wonder if there would be any possible way an officer would buy this excuse if I tried it. I doubt it...especially since I should've done it quite sometime ago. Nope, this one's all me. Guess I'll give them a call tomorrow, though I'm not going to hold my breath. Until then....don't get behind me if you're in a hurry...b/c I'm not going anywhere fast!