Probably more than you wanted to know...

This has been an interested couple of days. My parents took the kids to Huntsville to visit my grandparents yesterday. I thought that meant a couple of free days to get as many things done as I could pack into 2 days. WRONG. I have not felt great the past couple of weeks. Mainly just an upset tummy. (Only people with little kids say Tummy, I think.) Last night, we ate dinner and then sat out on the patio talking for a long time. Then we came in and I said, "My stomach hurts." The next thing I knew, I was DYING in the bathroom. I was rather sick from my southern end. It felt like I was having a baby, to say the least. I never did really go to sleep and about 12:30, the "loose stools" (I am trying to be polite) turned to blood. We went to the ER and after some initial look-overs, they gave me something fantastic in my IV for the pain. I am sure I was flying high. After some tests and a CAT scan, they think I have divertulosis. That means my intestines/colon have some sort of infection that I might battle with my entire life. I am on some pretty awesome pain killers and antibiotics and I am eating a pretty mild diet until I heal up. Then I have to eat more fiber and I can't eat things with small seeds, like popcorn and strawberries. The doctor said that I needed to stay away from things like popcorn and nuts. Under my drugged state, I thought he said popcorn and donuts. I almost freaked out about the donuts. I was so glad I misunderstood! Please don't take away my donuts! We got home from the hospital and I have been asleep for most of the day. I guess I am not going to get as much done as I thought!

Turtle time!

The kids were getting dressed this morning and I was opening the blinds all around the house. I opened Tyler's blinds and looked down into the yard just in time to see the sweetest little turtle creeping through our front yard. Emily was dressed, but Tyler. still in PJ's, ran out to see it. They were so excited. It was a fast little thing and they chased it all over the yard. He finally crawled under a bush to get away from the little squealers. Tyler and Emily think he will decide to live here now.

In one ear...

My life has been INSANE this week. The children's ministry has been especially demanding this week and I am trying to prepare for the first day of school, plus trying to get everything ready for the clothing sale. As if that wasn't enough, the kids have been TERRIBLE this week. We are going through their post-grandparent detox at the moment. Last night, I was telling Brent how they just dump stuff all over the house and move on to the next disaster, all the while begging for snacks. This morning before he left for work, Brent sat the kids down and told them how hard things have been for me and that they could not make any big messes today. They had to pick up their toys before they had any snacks. Then he asked Emily to repeat what he had said. She said, "Every time I get out a toy, I get a snack."

Toys, toys everywhere!

When Tyler was a baby, he had a little wicker basket in his room with ALL of his toys in it. His first Christmas, he got a few more toys. I was overwhelmed by the number of toys he got for his first birthday. It was great, though. He was our only one and he did need things to play with. We got him a toy box right after he turned one. By his second Christmas, I was beginning to feel cramped and put some of the babyish toys in the attic. Fastforward 6 more years. That is 7 Christmases for Tyler (Santa, 2 sets of grandparents, 2 sets of greatgrandparents) and 4 Christmases for Emily. Plus 11 birthdays between the two of them. Plus, every stinking happy meal toy that they cannot bear to get rid of and I have not been able to sneak into the trash. I have had it. Tyler's entire closet is toys, and we have a playroom full. Emily's room has stayed relativly clear of toy clutter, although she does have all her baby doll stuff in there. How do we go from a little wicker basket to an entire top floor of a house???? Then we go to Target and Tyler says, "Mom, can we buy a toy?" My word.

4 years ago today

Today is Emily's 4th birthday. It's hard to believe something so fresh in my mind happened 4 years ago. I had such high hopes for the day she was to be born. I really enjoyed the day Tyler was born. I felt no pain after the initial 6 centimeters and I just sat in a bed and visited with many friends and family that dropped by. People came and went all day long. I really connected with my nurse, who dropped by the visit even on her off time. Regardless of his stay in NICU, the whole birthing experience was a good memory. I really looked forward to that again. We were to deliver Emily at a different hospital, one designed for many people to visit and leisurely enjoy their stay while we chatted around refreshments in the large seating area and watched TV on the large entertainment unit. Brent's mom came for the big day and we were all looking forward to a great day. I was supposed to be induced on July 22, checking into the hospital at 6:00. I woke at 3:00 a.m. not feeling so great. After asking Brent what time it was every 5 minutes for an hour, we decided to go in a little early and see if they had an opening (Like a hair salon or something). I was dying on the way to the hospital. Then , Emily did some sort of stretching, flip thing and I just about came out of the van. My water broke EVERYWHERE and I just thought I would die. I was laughing so hard at my water breaking and crying so hard because of the pain. I am sure I was a sight. We pulled up to the door of the hospital and didn't even park the van. Brent ran in ahead of me and told the moron at the desk that I was to be induced at 6:00, but my water had broken. This man picked up the phone and said to someone on the other end,"I have a woman that thinks her water has broken." ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I am soaked from the waist down and their is a river from my van to this desk!!! So, they already had my room ready with an XXXXL gown on the bed. I immediately began asking for my IV to be started, knowing I would need 2 bags of fluid before I could get an epidural. They looked at me like I was a wannabe OB nurse. She checked me and said I was at 4 cm. She wasn't out of the room 3 minutes and I made Brent go get her and tell her I had to push. She came in a said, "Oh, honey. That's just your baby moving down. You are fine." Just to humor me, she checked me again and her eyes just about popped out of her head. She ran out and 2 seconds later, 4 or 5 nurses and a dr. came in and a warming bed was pulled in the room. Brent said, "I don't think you are getting an epidural!" I screamed," Can't you just spray something on me?" How stupid. About 10 minutes later, Emily Kate came into the world ready to party. It was really fun calling everyone that was supposed to come up in a few hours to visit and tell them about our morning. My parents got their pretty quickly and we were taken upstairs to our room. I was dreaming about what fabulous breakfast I would send out for and Brent came into the room. He said, "Turn on the TV. All the nurses are gathered around their TV like something is going on." We turned on the TV just in time to hear STRAIGHT LINE WINDS and the power went out. We opened the blinds and the trees were all bent in half. A nurse came in and asked me to go sit in the hall. I had to tell her that I had given birth less than 2 hours before, so they unhooked my bed from all the wires and wheeled me out into the hall. All the babies had to go the "Safe Room", whatever that is. The storm passed and I got to go back to my room. Power was out all over Memphis and no one could get anywhere. It took my mother in law hours to get there. No one could come visit me. We had no power at all for several hours, and then we got it since we were a hospital. We were the only place in Memphis with an A/C. We were lucky, though. Our power at home came on as we were leaving the hospital. Some people were out of power for a month. What a day. Emily has brought us 4 years of joy and laughter. We knew by her entrance, she would take the world by storm!

Strawberry Saturday!

Emily celebrated her 4th birthday yesterday. She had 9 other little girls over for a Strawberry Shortcake party. As the girls arrived, they decorated cake boxes with stickers. They were so engrossed in this, we hardly heard a peep out of them! (I will have 7 of the 10 girls in my class this fall, so I noted to buy lots of stickers.) After we finished the cake boxes, we took strawberry baskets outside to hunt for little candy strawberries hidden all over the yard. (They got all but 3, eaten by the lawn mower last night.) We came back inside and marched around on numbered strawberries and a certain number got a prize when the music stopped. Then, we decorate the horribly bright cakes. Sprinkles and candy went everywhere!!! Emily opened her gifts and we had lunch (Strawberry jelly sandwiches, strawberry fruit snacks, strawberry koolaid) and then ate cupcakes. All girls went home happy and fully sugared up. Emily loved every minute of it. She is such a funny little girl.

Lesson learned

Please, before you think it is a great deal, learn from my mistake. Emily is having a birthday party with 9 4- year old little giggle-pots tomorrow. I always embroider something for the favor, which is just a cheap as a goody bag full of junk for me to do since I do it myself. I have done tote bags and t-shirts and I was in the market for something new. So I embroidered Strawberry Shortcake aprons, which means the girls HAVE to cook something. So, I baked 10 little cakes for the girls to decorate while wearing their cute little aprons. Always looking for ways to save a buck, I found what I thought was the jackpot. The bakery at Sam's sells their icing in HUGE tubs for $10.00. We are talking HUGE. The only color they had that would match the party decor was hot pink. I baked and froze all the cakes earlier in the week and got them all out to ice this morning. I opened the ginormous bucket o' But-R-Cream icing and just about had heart failure. It is horrible. It looks just like hot pink play-doh. Just because it is a good deal, doesn't mean it is good. Lesson for the day. But, I used in anyway.

What? They are coming back?

The kids went to Nashville for the week, which they have never done unless I had something to do that I needed them to go. This was just a summer vacation trip to see Gran and Poppy. It was FABULOUS!

What I did with my week off...

1. Slept as late as my body would allow, which is not as late as it used to be.
2. Watched the Today Show instead of Little Einsteins.
3. Made Emily a dress.
4. Went to Target...a lot.
5. Baked 18 cakes for Emily's party. (I'll explain later)
6. Threw out Happy Meal toys.
7. Cleaned out Tyler's desk drawers.
8. Let CRAP slip back into my vocabulary.
9. Rekindled my long lost relationship with Lucy, the forgotten child.
10. I did actually have to work at church some.
11. Watched Crime shows all day long.
12. Cleaned Tyler's aquarium.
13. Took a nap.
14. Went out to dinner with Tim and Sharon with no booster seats.
15. Ate every meal on the couch.

The kids have to come back tomorrow, but I will be ready.

Meet the Pattersons

Just to get a post on this thing...this is my family. Brent and I have been married for 10 years. He is my best friend. Tyler is our son and he is almost 7. Emily is our baby girl and she will be 4 Sunday. We have a dog named Lucy, but she couldn't go to the beach to get her picture made.

It's about time...

I am starting this blog at the request of my sister-in-law, Jennie, as a way for her to keep up with my kids. I have no idea how I will do with it. I was one of those kids that got a new diary for Christmas every year and vowed to write in it everyday, but gave up by January 12. Maybe I will do better with this.