Week at a Glance

You would think that I would go to bed since I am so exhausted. But I have a free moment. When everyone else is in bed and I can actually "think", is really the only time I can blog.

We got to go to the zoo again on Monday. This time we made it all the way around. Ashley was thirsty, so we quickly went through it.

When we got there, the first thing the kids did was get maps.

They all sat down and read their maps. I have no idea if they could actually read it or not, but they sure thought they were.

We did get to see some more animals. Someday, I'll have to go back and enjoy it by myself.

Here are some more pictures of the animals we saw.

I just love this picture of the leopard sleeping on the tree branch. I had only seen that in cartoons.

This is a little "tiny" cave along the path that the kids ducked into so Mommy could take a picture.

And in this picture Ashley is looking at the Alligators. I just thought it was a cute profile shot.

Then on Tuesday I took the kids to Centennial Park. They fed the ducks and geese with goldfish crackers.

I just love orange on my kids. I wouldn't have thought to buy them. But this is one of the hand me downs and I just love them.

Wednesday and Thursday were a blur, I don't even remember what happened. Friday was a BIG day! Greg and I went to the curriculum fair. We got or ordered everything for starting to homeschool in the Fall. I'm actually excited now. Everyone I talk to has such different oppinions on what curriculum you should use. I felt myself defending my decision before I even got it. That is very frustrating! Honestly I just don't know until I'm into it. I feel negatism (is that a word?) all around me. PLEASE, DON'T SAY ANYTHING UNLESS IT IS ENCOURAGING! Unfortunately, I am very affected by what people say and more times than not after talking to someone about homeschooling I feel like I'm going to be a failure. Or I think that that person thinks I'm going to be a failure. Either way it is not a healthy way to look at it. SO encouraging words only please. The kids ask everyday if they can start Kindergarten. They are very excited about me being their teacher.

So today was a BLAST! I went to Scrapin' Memories and had an all day crop. It was really fun. The owner of the plaza, Sophies Bistro, donated appetizers and they were incredible!!! I thought that was pretty smart, because I know now I will go to them. Tammy had lots of door prizes, games, contests and make-n-takes. Everybody got a door prize. I won the first game. It was several words that we needed to unscramble. They were not easy! But I finally got them all with a clue for the one word everyone was stuck on. And I won an 8x8 album.

Tomorrow is going to be a REALLY busy day. I'm not even sure we will get to do everything. Here are the events, but lots of them run into each other: Church, Church picnic, Graduation party, Usborne meeting, Harris Teeter (triple coupons), Greg works with Wes, I take kids to small group, I put kids to bed, love on neglected kitten, go to bed!

So that is my week in a nutshell! Or should I say this is Nut Chelle's week at a glance.

(My attempt at being funny late at night.) Ok so goodnight and God bless!

Mother's Day

Mother's Day was GREAT!

Aussie jumped up first thing Sunday morning and said, "Happy Mother's Day!" He was SO excited about the gift he got me. I think he even slept with it the night before. He told me I would think it was beautiful and that I could put it up in his room on the bookshelf. So he ran and gave it to me. He got me a long ugly Cat statue. He was so excited! I told him he could keep it in his room. And I gave him tons of hugs!

Then Mason got me 3 small stinky candles (ACHOO!) Ok so they are not really stinky- they are just floral scented which I'm allergic to. But he was SO precious! Daddy said he looked at each candle and smelled each one. He picked them out especially for me, which is just priceless! He took them and distributed them around the house. Will I light them? You bet!

The best things were the homemade cards. This is the first year that they really could write all their letters. So they each wrote Happy Mother's Day on their cards and signed their names. I just LOVE them!

Now I need to tell you about one of Ashley's cards that she made for me. She made this the other day. But first a little story. Everytime I see a little baby out in public I go Ga ga over it. Many times I will hold a friend's baby and I tease the kids and say, "Should I take him home?" And they always say, "NO" I say, "Well why not?" And they usually tell me because he doesn't belong to us. Sometimes Aussie will say, "Because WE are your babies". This is a little game that I like to play with them. Anyway, now everytime Ashley sees a baby before me she says, "OH no" And I say "What is it?" And she points at a baby and then says, "Remember my rule! You can't hold or take home any other babies." It totally makes me laugh! Well the other day she told me she was going to make me something she knew I really really wanted. So she drew me a card with lots of babies on it. Isn't that sweet?

I really enjoyed Mother's Day! How about you?

Ugly dog

Ok so in a previous post I wrote: Doesn't God make things so intricately beautiful?

I wonder what He was thinking when he made Sam- the ugliest dog in the World.

Now for some of you who know Sam was not the winner this year. Sam died. The new winner is just as ugly!

Saturday

For Mother's Day- Greg let me get out Friday night and scrapbook and Saturday and scrapbook. Saturday was wonderful. It was supposed to be a crop with people from POTATO (parents of twins and triplets organization). Three people signed up and two people showed up. It was still really nice. I didn't feel any pressure. I just sat and talked and had fun. Then on my way home I really really wanted pizza. So I met the family at Pizza Hut. And it was delicious!!! I decided instead of picking up something at the grocery store and trying to figure out what to cook in a short amount of time that I would rather go out tonight and fix something on Sunday instead of going out then. I think that was a good decision.

On the way home Ashley rode with me and we went to the grocery store and Greg took the boys to the mall to pick up some Mother's Day presents.

Ashley was so good in the grocerey store. She was so excited to be there! She said this was the first time she had just me and her together at the store. She helped me get ALL the groceries and put them all on the conveyor belt at the check out and she helped me put all of them away when we got home. It was a really special bonding time and a learning experience! I had her count how many potatoes we needed; and then I had her tell me which juice cost more.

I'm REALLY tired. I think I'll blog about Mother's Day tomorrow. I also don't want to forget to tell you about Ashley's rule and one of her mother's day cards.

goodnight for now.

Friday Zoo and Friday night

What a wonderful weekend!

On Friday I met some girls from MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) at the zoo. I love this group of people! It was a big group and my kids had a hard time wanting to stay with them. We tried for awhile but then I gave into their whining. We ended up seeing just a few animals, riding the carousel and then playing the rest of the day on the huge playground.

This picture is of Amy our group leader and Lisa who is in our group.

I'm excited about the animals we did see, because for some reason I would always miss them when we went to the zoo. Now I know why. They are on the opposite side from the rest of the animals. We went there first so that was really cool for me. And if you know me, you know I just LOVE giraffes! And the Zebra is quite pretty too. Doesn't God make things so intricately beautiful?

Before we got to the zoo we stopped by a friend's house who gave us SOME GORGEOUS outfits for the kids. She has GBB triplets a year older than mine, so it is really nice to get her hand me downs. They are all brand names and some haven't even been worn. I am just tickled pink with all the clothing!!! Anyway, on the way to the zoo Ashley HAD to hold some of the clothes. When we got to the zoo, she HAD to change clothes into one of the beautiful dresses. She was embarrassed and afraid someone might see her change in the van. I'm glad she has those morals in her head. She has wanted to wear this dress everyday.

So after seeing the animals they begged to ride the carousel. It was awfully cute. I was a little disapointed that a pre-teen decided to sit in between 2 of my children so that I couldn't have them on the same row. Aussie was adament about riding the Kangaroo. When that gate opened he ran right to it.

And Mason picked this. I don't know what it is, but he liked it. Is it a racoon? And I sat next to Mason on a bear.

We ate lunch in the picnic area and got to see a few more animals. Here are a couple of pictures of the meercats. I like this layed back one. Austin said this was his favorite part of the zoo and the telescope.

They really had a great time seeing the animals, but the playground called their name right from the beginning. And it is SOME playground! I was quite nervous watching them in such a big place.

Check out this HUGE slide they went down. Ashley LOVED it, but she would get nervous when she was at the top. So another little older girl sat her in her lap and came down with her.

The kids played and played and just loved it. We bought a membership to the zoo. So if you want to go with us, call us up and we'll go together.

Then later that night, Greg watched the kids while I went scrapbooking with some of these same ladies. It would have been wonderful if it hadn't downpoured. On the way there I hit a huge puddle and it came up on my car and I hydroplaned into the other lane. All I could do was pray. I was so scared! Thankfully no one was in the other lane. Since I was closer to the crop than to home I continued on. When I got there I couldn't find my friends. I circled the church. I saw where they parked but couldn't quite figure out which room they were in. So I had to get out the car and look. I found them, but I was drenched. I MEAN SOAKING DRENCHED. I can not even believe that I continued to bring my stuff in and scrapbook. I wanted to be there so bad, but I was cold, wet, tense and that just put me in a mood. One of them lent me her jacket, which worked for awhile until it became soaked too. Then I was cold all over again. And then I began to smell. I was so embarrassed. I stayed there and luckily no one said anything about my body odor. I wasn't too close to anyway thankfully. Then on the way home I thought about what a bad attitude I had and I just hate it when I'm negative. And then I got pulled over for speeding. I was so emotionally spent that I just sat there. This is the FIRST time I have gotten pulled over!! I was going 46 in a 40MPH zone and about 30 feet from a 50MPH sign. The police man came up to the car several minutes after pulling me over. (What do they do during that time?) I rolled down my window and he asked me if I was coming home from work. I said, "no I was just playing." He said, "playing huh?" I said, "Well yeah, actually scrapbooking". He looked at my liscense and then said alright go home and slow down. I was so relieved he didn't give me a ticket. I got home, put on a nice DRY winter nightgown and crawled into bed. Tomorrow will be a better day....AND it WAS!

BFS Assignment #26 "Sharing in Miracles"

For this week's assignment we are to share “personal miracles” that have happened... or a serious answer to prayer.

Well this is long, but how about I share my testimony. It is certainly a huge answer to prayer.

I’ve always known what I wanted to be when I grew up, ever since I was a little girl. I toyed with the idea of being the “best” computer consultant, even better than my Dad for awhile. But deep down my heart’s desire was to be a Mom. Each year growing up, my Mom would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up. She had a little school book that had a few of the typecast roles printed in it like nurse, teacher, secretary and then it had a space for other. Every year I would say, “I want to be a Mom”. And my Mom would write that in the ‘other’ slot.

When I was dating my “now husband” he said that he never wanted to have kids. I just looked him straight in the face and said, “Well then…I don’t want to date you.” I knew what I wanted. And obviously he did too, since he changed his mind real quick. We had planned to wait 5 years after we were married to have children. The 5 year mark was coming up and I was starting to get anxious. I finally had his consent. The 5 year mark passed, the 6 year mark passed, and the 7th year and even the 8th year passed. I was hurt. I was angry. I was downright devastated. All of our friends were having their 4th and even 5th babies. Why couldn’t I get pregnant? We are good faithful Christians, responsible, loving…Why not us? Oh and when I heard stories of people getting pregnant and not even wanting the child it would just throw me into a deep depression. I prayed and prayed. I had our church pray for me. We went to the elder’s meeting and had them pray over us. Our parent’s churches and friends prayed for us. If we visited another church, I would even write a prayer request card for them to pray for us. Week after week, year after year and I just couldn’t understand why God wouldn’t bless us with a child.

It got to be so hard that even going to church was difficult. Well actually church was the hardest place to be. Everyone in my Sunday school class were having babies left and right. And everyone knew we wanted to have children. I really wanted to be happy for them. And I was happy for them, except I was so jealous and hurt that I just couldn’t show it. Many times when a pregnancy was announced I had to leave the room. Unfortunately, I wear my feelings on my sleeve and I couldn’t control myself from not crying. No one seemed to really understand, except for those few who had been there. The comments people gave were well meaning, but just hurt even more. On New Arrival’s Day and Mother’s Day…I couldn’t even go to church. I was at the absolute lowest point in my life.

One day at Wednesday night church, I asked my class to pray for me. I started out saying, my birthday is on Sunday and I know that 30 is not old. At that point I got lots of laughter, which then made me break down and say, it’s going to be a really hard day for me, because I thought by this time in my life I would already have children. My class prayed with me and it was not long after that, that we decided to go through in vitro fertilization.

In Vitro is very difficult! Not only is it physically and mentally hard and painful and VERY expensive but, also many hard decisions have to be made within a matter of days. You have to know spiritually what you believe in. WHEN is a child conceived? What will you do if you have embryos left over? Is it killing a child or is it even a child at that point? How many embryos should we put in? If I should die or have an emergency hysterectomy and we have embryos leftover, what do we do with those embryos? If you believe that each embryo is a child then how will you feel if someone else is a surrogate for your children? The list goes on and on.

However when we were going through this whole ordeal, our church of 2000 people were praying for us. My husband worked with approximately 180 4th thru 6th graders at church. And those children learned what in vitro meant and all those kids prayed fervently for us to have 3 or less. I had never seen a church come together like this and bring people closer to each other than I had seen 5 years ago. On New Year’s Eve 2001, I found out I was pregnant. It wasn’t that much longer until I found out we were having triplets. We told our preacher on Sunday morning and we had no idea he was going to do this but he announced it in the church service. I was only 7 weeks pregnant and he announced it. However, my prayers had been answered. OUR whole church’s prayers had been answered. They took very good care of us after the children were born. We had meals for 5 months, we had people come in shifts and help us feed and care for the babies for several months. We were given money. Someone gave us a diaper drive; we had diapers for a year. Two classes pulled funds together to buy a triplet stroller for us. We were given a gift of someone cleaning our house for 1 ½ years. I was given a day a week to run errands or sleep, while a family watched the kids for 1 ½ years. A friend of mine, who was a night owl, came every Wednesday night for 6 months and fed the kids at night, washed dishes and laundry and let me sleep all night long. It was truly amazing and a huge blessing how everyone chipped in to help.
I really don’t know why God took so long to answer our prayers, but I suspect that part of it was to bring our church together and let them be able to see their answered prayer. I am blessed with my heart’s desire and I thank God every night for them!!!

Graduation

Good grief they are growing up fast. The first 3 years were L O N G!! This 4 year old age is fun , but the pace is picking up.

Tonight my kids graduated from preschool. They are SO cute in their caps and gowns. The lighting was terrible but I got a few cute shots. They totally cracked me up.

Before we left the house I had Ashley's hair fixed SO darling. She complained about it, but I thought I convinced her to keep the bow in. A few minutes later she comes upstairs with the bow and ponytail out of her hair saying, "Ms. Sheila said we can't wear piggytails because we are going to wear a hat." Errrrrr....but I understand why.

On the way there Mason went over all the rules. We are NOT allowed to wave we are just supposed to smile.

So on the way down the aisle both Ashley and Austin wave and Mason comes down with the biggest smile across his face.

Then they get up on stage. Ashley was very serious. She knew not to wave up there, but without saying anything outloud she REALLY PRONOUNCED...I LOVE YOU over and over again to us.

Then Austin was very cool and proud. He lifted up his hand and gave us the I love you sign. Doesn't he look like a scholar?

And then there was Mason. He was SUCH a ham. He had all the people around us laughing. He had the biggest smile and he kept looking at us and winking. Then his tassle would get in his face and he would shake it around and blow it off his face.

They all sang for us the songs they learned throughout the year and then they went across the stage to get their certificate and Bible (with their names on them). They were so excited and it was really fun to watch them be that excited.

The Kitten has FOUND a home

Yes it is true!

The 2 adult cat scrooges (me and Greg) have decided to adopt the kitten. We have decided to name her Kiki Xio Mao.

We will call her Kiki.

Xio Mao is Chinese for cat.

She is so stinkin' cute! She just loves me. She cuddles right up under my neck or lays on my breasts and falls asleep. I MUST remember to take my Allegra tomorrow...ACHOO! I don't know how this cat did it, but she has captured my heart. She just looks up at me and tells me she loves me with her eyes. She even layed calmly on my chest while I clipped her nails.

I was writing an email yesterday and Austin was sitting on my lap. I have a signature line on my emails that have a picture of the family. Austin said, "you can put her (Kiki) next to me." So I updated my signature line. hmmm...I can't get this picture any bigger. I guess if you really want to see it you'll have to click on the image to make it larger.

I saw Austin doing this and I ran for my camera. Isn't this precious? He is so smitten with this kitten!

Free Kitten to loving home

Does anyone want a kitten? Anyone?

Is it possible to become a cat lover if you've never liked cats before?

Does a kitten know if you are afraid of it?

On our way home from seeing

Mama Mia (excellent show by the way), Greg saw this kitten lying in the middle of the street. We had to rescue it. It's so cute, but I have no clue how to handle it. It sure is a fiesty little thing. That's what Greg wants to call it...."Fiesty". I don't know. The kids haven't seen it yet.

What are we supposed to do with a kitten?

Greg just went out to WalMart to see if he could get some kitten's milk and a litter box.

We are not sure if we are keeping it. Actually, we WANT to give it away to a good home.

Right now she is in our garage. !Ay Caramba! What will we do?

Nature Speaks Assignment #25

The joy of the Lord will give me strength. (Again, I need to say that this is something I participated in on my other blog.)

Have you ever noticed God talking to you through nature? I have.

Several years ago I was really down on myself and felt ugly. When I went for a walk on a beautiful Spring day I had a God breeze. What is a God breeze? It is my way of talking about those times when you feel God right beside you.

As I walked the track a few times I prayed to God about how I felt and he answered me through birds. You might think this is silly, but I knew God meant for me to hear this that day. The birds sang out as I passed them..."You're purty purty purty purty, You're purty purty purty purty" I felt like God was telling me I was pretty. It put a smile on my face and helped me face the day with a better attitude.

My assignment for this week is for me to take a walk outside and listen to what God tells me. It could be through a weed my child hands me smiling from ear to ear, or how some bit of nature reminds me of a poem. I've got a busy week, but I need to remember to listen.

Have you had a God breeze you would like to share?

Secret Sisters

I am signed up for the Homeschool Moms Secret Sister Session #2!

I did this last time and it was a lot of fun, although I posted my thank yous on my other blog. But since, I do not use that blog anymore you will see postings on this blog about it. If you are a homeschooling mom and would like to participate you can go here to sign up.

Dinosaur World

Ok I think that this might be the last post for today.

Yesterday we went to Dinosaur World in Kentucky. The boys had a good time. Ashley seemed to enjoy it at first, but she became quite naughty not too long into it and made it quite stressful for me and not so enjoyable. I wanted it to be a "homeschooling" event, but the kids wouldn't stay at each site even long enough to read the name of each dinosaur. They just ran from one to the next. They each got to bring home a toy. Austin was so excited to bring home a warning sign that says dinosaur crossing. Mason got a little container of dinosaurs and Ashley got 3 eggs with tiny dinosaurs in them. It was quite a stressful day, but I'm glad we went anyway.

Also, since I don't know where to post this picture I thought I would put it at the end of this one. WHAT in the WORLD? She even dressed up her Teddy bear but I didn't get a picture of that.

Razor

So have you seen this recharger before? Do you know what it goes to? Some of you are saying, "oh yah that's a ..." But for some of you, you may be as clueless as I was.

Sunday afternoon Mom and I went to Radio Shack to buy a phone recharger for her car. We went in and she asked the guy to help her. She asked for a recharger that can have an adapter for when they switch phones. The guy brought out the adapter and Mom said she thought she had one of those in the car. So I went out to get it and bring it in. The guy told us that it wouldn't work on her phone. We knew the recharger belonged to my Dad, but Mom couldn't remember the last time he even drove her car. So I said, "I wonder what this charger is for?" And the guy said, "Oh that is for a razor." Mom and I started laughing. She said he must have taken it on their trip to Florida. Me being quite confused said, "You mean he hasn't shaved since then?" And the guy just smiled and said, "No not that kind of razor, the Razr phone". Mom said, that's what happens when you send a woman to do a man's job. We've been laughing quite a bit over this!

rough housing

So are you ready for more? (3rd post for today)

Alrighty! After church we were talking in the lobby and the kids were running around playing. Ashley started crying, she had bumped into Austin. Greg was talking to her and said that is what happens when you are rough housing. And then Austin pipes up and says, "We are not rough housing, we are rough churching."

Hey---She's eating.

Oh real quick, here is a picture that I took after church on Sunday. This just got under Gramma's skin. I thought it was cute. Hmmm...I should have gotten a picture of my Mom with her wrinkled up face. She already thinks I don't discipline enough, what will she think when I scrapbook this?

New Arrivals Day

Oh SO MANY things...Let's start with Sunday.

Greg and I did a reading at church from Psalm 88. This day at church is a very special day for me. This is the day our church recognizes and blesses all the children born in the year before. We call it New Arrivals Day. For many years this was a very hard day for me because we were not able to get pregnant on our own and seeing those children...well it just hurt! So now that I have been blessed with my heart's desire, this day helps me to really focus on our answered prayers.

Our congregational reading was about suffering and asking God if he even hears our prayers. Anyway, Greg and I read this during all three services at church. So for the first 15 minutes of the first service we put the kids in the nursery (since there are no classes during 1st). There was a TV in there where the workers could watch the service. When we read...our kids stopped playing and watched us intently. Greg got back to the nursery first and Austin asked him what 'bewildered' meant(which was one of the words I had said). Greg told him and when I got to the the room, Austin said to me, "If I lose you I will be in the dark, all alone, bewildered and lost and scared."

Talk about making my heart melt. These are the exact words I said, "There is no light in this place of deep dark, I am alone, bewildered and lost."

He just blows me away. Well I don't have anymore time to blog right now, I have to run out the door, but I have lots more to share. I will be blogging later today.