Snuggle Up!

I've found a new favorite thing. They're called Snuggles. I'm sure your think this is some sort of comfy shoe or blanket or pillow....but it's a food. Snuggles are a whole wheat bread product. Think hot dog bun, but without all the puffy air. They're great for housing sausage or hot dogs. Today I had chicken salad in them. he back of the package suggests trying some cream cheese on your favorite lunchmeat wrapped around a pickle inside. I haven't tried that yet, but it sounds good. Anyway, I'm just excited becasue they taste so good! When I was pregers with Tripp I developed an aversion to wheat bread. Since then I have wanted to replace the white sammie bread I usually use with a healthier option, but had yet to find one that tasted good to me. Snuggles fit the bill! They actually add good flavor to my food. Good and good for you (or at least better for you than white bread). I guess the down side is that like any other specialty item they aren't terribly cost effective. I'm use to paying less than a buck for a whole loaf of bread and Snuggles are $2 for 8. I think I'll keep the Snuggles for Mommy and let the kids eat the "cheap" bread!

No Baptizing

Yesterday I watched a friend's boys for about 5 hours. One of them is Paris' age and if you've been around her much you have surely heard about him. She is, afterall, planning to marry this young man. He and his older brother were here yesterday. The kids were having a blast. I got our little pool set up so they could splash around. Right about the time I got everything set up and they really started having fun, Vivian decided she wanted to go inside and have lunch. So, I opened the back windows and gave the big kids a warning that I would be just inside and that I would be able to see them and hear them while I fed Vivie and got Tripp into some dry clothes. (He was cold so he wanted to go in too.) As I'm getting things ready in the house the big kids start to get a little rambunctious. I listen closing and hear the following:

Young D: No, D----!

Paris: Me either, that's scary!

Young D: D----! I said no!

Older D: Who wants to be baptized!?! (as he tries to shove his little brothers head in the water)

Paris: Let him go!

Older D: Who wants to be baptized!?!

And before I know it I hear myself saying..........

"No baptizing in my pool!!"

I'm not sure if that was appropriate or not. It's definitely one of those sentences that made me laught the minute it came out of my mouth. No one grows up thinking "When I grow up one of my rules will be 'No baptizing in my pool.'" I suppose if my little pool was needed for a baptism I would gladly oblige. It would be important, however, that all participants in the process were willing. Yesterday that was clearly not the case.

3F Summer

That's what I'm having this year. It going to be filled with Friendship, Fitness, and Fun! I have 3 girlfriends (Stephanie, Erika, & Kara) who are working with me to create a healthier lifestlye for ourselves and our kids. Our goal is to stay sane, loose a few ( a more than a few) pounds, and have a lot of fun with our children. We will be walking several days a week, having a pool day each week, and going to the movies some. (There's a Summer Movie Clubhouse that show kid movies at 9:30 am for cheap!) More than anything we will hold each other accountable, let each other vent, encourage one another and above all those, love each other as the sisters in Christ we are. I am grateful today for my 3F girlfriends and the plans we have made for the coming months. What ar you doing with your summer?

Update

Just thought I should update. None of the kittens survived. Rufus wouldn't step up and be a mommy and by the time got them to our favorite cousin Karla (the vet) it was really too late. They got to cold and the process of cleaning and warming and feeding them was more than their little systems could handle. Now we're just trying to take care of Rufus - having babies was hard on her body even though it didn't seem to phase her in any other way. Paris says that Driveway, Stroller, Quilt, and Last are all in heaven and God is taking care of them. She also wants to get another cat so it can have kittens and "maybe be a better mommy then Rufus." That's a NO from me and Easy - no more kittens.

Lesson learned - even though I think in principle that it was Easy's job to arrange the surgery to fix the cat (it is, afterall, his cousin that's the vet and he originally told me that Karla was going to come get the cat and take her in for the surgery), in the end my stubbornes cost me, not him. I was the one involved in birthing kittens and tube feeding kittens and making kittens go potty. In hindsight I should have just found a way to handle it myself and get her fixed. I know I will now.

Our Furry Family

Well, things in our "furry family" have been changing quite a bit. About a week and a half ago my good friend Stephanie helped me do a very difficult thing. We took our big dog, Posum, and let her go to sleep. Easy had Posum before we started dating. I always joked and said that she was "just part of the package." And even thought she drove me bonkers with her barking and digging and her "oh-my-goodness" stinky smell, it was really hard. The plan was to just drop her off at our vet clinic and not stay. That's not what happened though. One our Easy's cousins is a vet and Karla saw on the log that I was bringing Posum in. She called and told me to bring her out to Aunt Pat's and that she would do it herself. In some ways this is good because it saved us some $, but it feels wrong to think about $. Anyway, I wound up sitting in the back of Stephanie's truck holding her as she got her sleepy shot. I lost it. The good new is though, she doesn't hurt any more. Paris took the news as well as could be expected. We're still praying for Posum at night, but last night was the first time she acknowledge in prayer that Posum was dead. Easy has been OK. He had one cry. I think he was just releived that he didn't have to do any of it himself. She was, afterall, his dog. And there is something special between men and their dogs.

On another furry note, I am becoming an expert at birthing kittens! Our garage cat Rufus went into labor. This morning when I went to load the kids in the burb I found what I thought was a kitten that didn't make it in the middle of our driveway! I went and checked on Rufus - she was obviously still in labor so I just loaded up the kids and took them to school. I came back home ready to get Rufus some clean water and food, a box with a towel in it and to "take care" of the kitten in the driveway. When I got home she was having #2 in one of our old strollers. Thank goodnes it's one we don't use and weren't planning to pass on because it's so worn out! I got started preparing things for her and when she heard me get the food she just got up and came looking for me - with a kitten hanging out! As she was walking around she finished birthing it and it just fell on the floor and she walked away. She never even looked at it! So, I grabbed another towel, picked up the poor little thing, rubbed it down with the towel, put it in the box and put Rufus in their with it trying to get her to be a mommy. She would stay until I walked off and then she just got up and left it. I got her back in the box and went out to the driveway to tend to the other kitten only to discover that it was mewing and crawling around! So, I sccoped it up and rubbed it off and brought it in to the box - which Rufus had abandoned again. I put her back in and made her lay down and tried to get the kittens close enought they could latch on and ran for the phone. Yea! Cousin Karla was available at the clinic and told me what I needed to do. I have now removed the placenta from both kittens (that's right folks - I REMOVED THE PLACENTAS!) and brought them all into the utility room. I had to sit there and make Rufus stay in the box until they latched on. I took a while, but she is now staying in the box by herself and letting them nurse. Praise God! I was not interested in tube feeding kittens! I have no idea if there are any more coming or not. She's a very young cat so she just may have the two. I'm currently calling them driveway and stroller. We'll see how the rest of the day goes.....................

A quick update, Rufus had #3 a little while ago, I'm calling it Quilt because she got out of the box and on my quilt that was waiting to be washed to have it. She did better with this one, washing the kitten itself, but I still had to do the removal of the placenta. She wouldn't stay in the box with the kittens until I had done that. I guess she thinks it's gross....I know I do!

Let's add one more, I'm calling it Last. Let's pray that it is.

Irritation

Gas prices are going up. That stinks, but I don't really care. I try to be efficient in my gas use anyway, so I just don't look when I fill up and then focus on making my trips around town as efficient as possible. Bottom line is that it takes gas to make my burb move so no matter how much it costs, I'm gonna have to put gas in the car. Here's the irritation. I drive a big vehicle. It has a big gas tank. Gas prices are rising. The last two times I filled up the gas pump cut off at $100. Please note, the pump cut off on it's own - my tank was not full. I realize that is a shocking amount of $ on gas to some of you, but the burb has a 40 gallon tank. It takes a lot of gas. The closer gas prices get to $3/gallon, the less likely I am to be able to fill up my car if all the pumps are set to cut off at $100. I guess I'll just have to start filling up when it gets down to 1/4 tank or something. I'm just thinking that if youre going to raise gas prices, you need to adjust your pump govenors to let people with BIG cars and BIG tanks actually fill them up!

Titles, Shoes, and Scorpions

Titles.........I'm getting a new one. As I type this my big brother and his wife are in labor. I'll be Aunt Sarah tonight. Technically I'm already Aunt Sarah, but that's by marriage only. This time it's blood and I'm excited! Henry David will be making his appearance soon. I can't wait to see him and get to know him. He's blessed with some amazing parents, grandparents, cousins, and I hope a pretty good Aunt as well. I'm thinking I want a cool name though. Aunt Sarah sounds old and stuffy to me. I think I want to be Tia. I think that's Spanish for Aunt. Any other suggestions that are cute and make sense in some way are welcome.

Shoes........the ugly shoes have won. Let me explain, no, let me sum up. (movie reference there.....whoe can name it?) Crocs and croc-like shoes are ugly. I don't care how many people wear them out in public, they are still ugly. Everyone says, just try them on and you'll understand. So I did. And then I bought them and swore they would be only for the house and the yard. (By the way, I bought Airwalks at Payless because I'm WAY to cheap to spend money on the name itself!) Then this weird thing happened. I forgot I had them on.....and I went to the gorcery store. And then I forgot I had them on and I went over to a friends house, and then to church, and then to another friends house, and then to the ER (that story is next). Then this morning when I got out of my burb at the church building to work the nursery for Ladies' Class there they were, like they've just grown on at the end of my legs. That's when I gave up. It really wasn't intentional at any point. I'm sure Stacy and Clinton would really be disappointed in me, but I surrender. It's true. They're so stinking comfortable that at this point, I don't care that they're ugly. Besides, mine are pink and everything is cuter when it's pink.

Scorpions.........grrrrrrrr. As some of you may recall, not too long after moving into our new home I had to kill a scorpion in my house. Since then my bravery has increased. I've killed several others on our property, two in the house the rest outside. I had to kill another one yesterday. It was the biggest one I've killed so far. Guess how I found it........IT STUNG MY BABY!!!! Poor, sweet little Vivie was minding her own business crawling around and got a nice sting thanks to a rude and uninvited arachnid. No one asked him to come crawl around on my carpet (which happens to be the same collor he is). Certainly no one told him it would be fine for him to take his nasty little tail and sink into my baby's skin. Yet, he did it anyway. How rude. So, I freaked out. Vivie let out this blood curdling scream and when I came around the corner she was just sitting there screaming and the little ---beeep--- was crawling away from her. I picked her up and smashed him with my shoe several times. I told Paris to go in the bathroom and stay with Tripp (he was on the potty). I must have looked like a crazy woman because she didn't ask any questions. She just went in the bathroom, shut the door, and stayed there for like 20 minutes while I called the nurse-line and started trying to find where V got stung. In the end the nurse told me to bag the bug and head to the ER just to be safe. Easy got home during the phone call, so I was off to the ER. $100, and a Benedryl-Motrin cocktail later Vivie was fine. Apparently unless you have an allergic reaction to them, the scorpions in Texas aren't too toxic - they just hurt like heck. Needless to say I called the Fabulous Don Hancock this morning and he was here at 2:00 pm to treat our house. Death to arachnids everywhere. That't my motto and I'm sticking to it.