Busy as a Bee

No two children are alike is a statement that is very evident in our household! Jonah is 18 months old and is nothing like Noah was at the same age. Jonah is into everything. He is like an energizer bunny. He loves taking something he is not supposed to have, giving me a cute naughty grin, and then taking off! He also loves getting into the dryer. He gets a kick out of it. If we go some place new,he is not shy, he will explore his surroundings and get into what he is not supposed to get into. He is crazy, but I love him! Thank goodness he was the second child!

Goodbye to training wheels!!!

So, today Noah made another step in growing up. He rode his bike without training wheels for the very first time!!! His Uncle Shane convinced him to get on and try. He did great he only fell a couple of times and only when he tried to stop. Rick got out there and ran along side ready to grab him if he needed it. Watching him made me realize that he is not my baby anymore. He is growing up! Now don't think he has fully mastered this art because he has not. He has gained the confidence and desire to try again. He got one battle scar from today. As he was showing it to me he said, "mom, it is just life." How big is that?!

Motherhood

I have been given many blessings in my life. I have a great family, a house over my head, and a job to support my family. My two biggest blessings have been my two sons. Noah and Jonah are my world. It is funny how when I was younger I could never picture myself a mother and now that I am, I cannot imagine my life without them. I am in a house full of boys. Sometimes it gets smelly and gross around here but I love them anyway. I am so lucky to have them. They keep me going and make me want to be the best person I can be. There are times that I swear they have been sent to destroy me but then I remember that there will come a time where I won't be the only girl in their life! This world is so crazy nowadays and I hate that. I worry constantly about them. I pray that I can point them in the right direction so that they can be the best men they can.

Mass Desctruction

A couple of weeks ago I had to go do a thirty-one party. These parties usually last about an hour not including drive time and set up/take down. No problem right? When I left, Noah was watching a movie and Jonah was asleep. I come back to Noah still watching a movie and Jonah awake with the living room destroyed. Rick was stilling on the couch bouncing Jonah on his lap patiently waiting for me. Jonah had pulled over his whole shelf on top of him. This was done shortly after I left and I was lucky enough to have it waiting for me to clean up an HOUR later. I would love to figure out why it is so hard formen to multi task!

Funny Face

When Noah was little, I thought for sure he would be the child to test the limits and drive us crazy. Now that we have Jonah, we quickly have realized that is not the case. Noah is growing up so fast and one thing I have realized is that he is really funny. He comes up with some crazy sayings and facial expressions.

He doesn't even realize how funny the things he says really are. Right now he is quoting scenes and songs from movies. The other day it was a line from Avatar that had the word piss in it twice. We were at the breakfast table and he said the line so matter of fact. It was obvious that he did not know piss is not a very nice word. I thought that I was going to spit my food out. It was so funny but we did not want to draw attention to it.

So the next day, Mimi came over and he said it again as he was telling her about the movie. We decided that we better let him know so he would not go to school saying it. He also sings songs from movies. He is really into the Bee Movie right now and sings that "Sugar, Sugar" song. He cracks me up how he will just break into song. When he rides with daddy, he comes in singing the Beatles, Pink Floyd, or CCR. It is soooo funny.

Noah is a camera hound. He loves trying to take pictures and sometimes gets some really good ones. Good luck trying to get a serious picture from him. He will put on a nice smile then right as you go to snap the picture, he changes it into something silly with the pose to go with it. It is so funny and silly. I am enjoying it now because I know soon enough, he will be too old to make silly faces!

Hero

Everyone has a hero in their lives. My hero as been my hero for a long time. My hero is my dad. He is one of the strongest people I know. If you really know me then you know that I am a daddy's girl. I always have been and always will. Now, my dad has not saved anyone from a burning building, discovered a cure for a disease, created the latest fad that has changed lives. My dad simply has survived. He has had Chron's Disease for a big chunk of my life. There were times when my dad could not come out and play or come to family functions because he was having a flare up that made him extremely sick or in pain. I do have memories of him before the Chron's and he loved to shoot hoops with me. Then, when I was in middle/high school, he got a deadly flesh eating bacteria from a business trip to France. He spent weeks in the hospital having surgery daily to clean out the infection. Then he had to have a skin graph to close up the damaged area. He got a break for a little while. He never told us but all during the "good times" his Chron's was getting worse. To look at him you would never know the immense pain he was dealing with. Then came the May flood of 2010. My parents lost their condo. It devastated both of them. They lost their whole downstairs and all the memories. A couple of weeks after that, my dad's health took a turn for the worst. He had to have a colostomy bag done and knew that it could not be reversed. He was fine with that. 3 days later he ended up back in the hospital with pneumonia and an infection that was all in is abdomen and bottom area. He dealt with that for a couple of months. He was on a tons of medications to kill the infection only to find that they were really not making a difference. It was decided that he needed to have his rectum removed since most of the infection was set up in there. I remember getting the call that this was going to happen and being devastated. The doctors did not honestly know if this would work but it had to be done or the infection was going to start shutting down his organs. Saying our goodbyes before surgery was horrible. He was scared and really clung to me. My dad is not am emotional person. He never really shares his feelings and keeps to himself. I am just like him so it was extremely hard to hear him tell me how scared he was. He gave mom and my brother a hug and when it was my turn, he squeezed me so tight and whispered, "Don't worry. I know you won't tell me you are worrying but I know you are." He hit it right on the head. I am a worrier. I may not show my emotions, but rest assured, I am worrying on the inside. He made it through surgery and started the healing process. After an extended stay in the hospital, he finally came home. Mom takes great care of him changing his dressing and cleaning his wound. She has been through just as much and handles it like a champ. I don't know of many people who would stick with someone that requires all this care, but she is amazing too! Now we are dealing with the big C. He is almost done with treatments and the kind he has responds really well to chemo and radiation. My dad is only 120 pounds and looks like a skeleton. I hate seeing him like this because that is not my dad. Don't get me wrong, I am glad that I can still see him but it just is not the same. I don't think that I could ever go through this much. That is why he is my hero! He is a fighter and extremely strong.

Crafty Girl

So I found this really cool website www.frugalgirls.com and it is amazing. It talks about everything from coupons to making laundry soap. I tried my hand at the laundry soap and it was really easy. I spent about $8-10 and got all my supplies at Kroger. It took me about 20 minutes to do because I had to shave the bar of Ivory soap. I have not tried it yet but plan on doing it today. I would love to make my own fabric softner too. I am trying to save money every way I can. I would love to get into the extreme coupon hype but cannot seem to find the time. I tired my hand at it a little yesterday at Kroger and saved $33 with coupons and the Kroger Plus card. I was so happy about that and am keeping the receipt to see what I save next week!