Monday Madness!

Today was a day of days! I planned a day of nothing as I was thinking tomorrow was my Echo and Holter test. I called to confirm the appointment times at 9 am and was told my appointment was actually today at 9:30am. I live 30 minutes from base and knowing I wouldn't have time to get myself or the boys ready, I simply canceled. Since I started taking an iron supplement 3 times a day I haven't been having the dizzy spells like I was before. I still get light headed, but that's just due to my low blood pressure. So, I'm okay with the missed appointments and don't think I'll be rescheduling.

So, the boys and I stayed home the entire morning and I did some organizing. The boys played in the playroom and with random items we found throughout my cleaning spree. Gotta love nesting, right?!?



Here's the result of my organiing and the boys left to their own devices to play...

Apparently playing solo wasn't tiring enough. The boys wouldn't go down for naps, instead they thought it was time better spent to rip their curtains and the rods completely out of the wall! Ugh, just when the bus was scheduled to come this all happened and I missed MJ's bus drop off. Thankfully I have a good relationship with the driver and she swung back around to bring me my girl!


Here's the sweet innocent face that she left me with.... Unfortunately she's not so innocent. She's still pinching and squeezing on her friends at school. I called and spoke with the principal to see if she had any suggestions and she's going to have the school behavior therapist come sit in on MJs room to see if she can offer any solutions. We were trying to hold out through the end of the year to make any IEP changes, but this kid's not gonna have any friends if she keeps up her naughty behaviors.

A day of days, I tell you! I am thankful for my children and my wonderful husband but those kiddos sure wore me out today. Tomorrow we're heading out to feed the ducks and hit up the library. Bradley has big plans to rehang a curtain rod at some point this week! ;0)

New church try-outs

I've mentioned before that Bradley isn't usually up for going to church with us. He sees it as an extra day to sleep in a lay low. Neither one of us are very social people so braving the world and interacting with others on his day off isn't exactly an ideal day for him. Last week I asked him to go along with us for Mother's Day and he obliged. It was such a nice day together. All 3 littles went to the nursery and he and I took part in the service. We both enjoyed the time together and getting into the Word. This week, he mentioned trying another church. I was floored and said OK! Well, we drove to the church we had planned on going to and did a little "drive by" to see what we thought. It was a big ole' Baptist church, very traditional attire from the looks of the people coming and going. I mentioned I'd heard of a coffee shop church in town (thinking he'd never go for it since small churches have never been appealing to him). Who knew, telling him there was a church that served coffee during the service and he was interested. We went to Java Journey this morning for an 11 service. First impressions, it was nice. It was a very small group, making it easier to network with others and not feel like just another number (an issue I have with the church I've been going to). The kids area is in a large back room of the shop which serves as a reading and play area during the week while the coffee shop is running business hours. I was a little unsure of that set up as the areas were partitioned with curtains. My first thought, was our littles would be running rampant in no time to the front of the shop, but that didn't happen in the slightest. The people there were friendly, but not overly invasive. I was actually surprised to see a couple familiar faces from here & there in the community that I know. One being a mom from MJ's school and another mom from an old therapy place we used to go to. It's always nice going somewhere new and recognizing a familiar face, especially a new church. I wasn't a huge fan of the music portion. I'm big on music and worship. Although the music selection was good, no one was standing to sing along. The songs selected were upbeat enough to provide a little bit of sway and arm raisin' but since no one was standing, I wasn't going to be the one standing solo swaying about. BUT, I did really like the message. The pastor spoke honestly and from the heart. He didn't merely preach, but he referenced a variety of Biblical passages throughout the sermon. (I have a hard time going to a church where the Bible is barely touched upon). Anyway, he spoke about Pentecost and spiritual gifts. He even referenced a website to take a quiz to find out what your spiritual gifts are. Bradley and I will be doing that later tonight. :-) My biggest complaint was the service doesn't start until 11. Our littles wake up around 6:30 every morning so by 11 they are looking and acting rough. They did great today, but I'm thinking the novelty of the environment improved the odds of them behaving the entire service. Overall the church was nice, we both agreed we wouldn't mind going back there. They also offer a 6pm Saturday night service, which we talked about trying. We'll see. There are a couple other area churches I wouldn't mind checking out and Bradley agreed to keep searching with me. I'm just thankful and feeling blessed that Bradley is willing to go along with me and help keep the littles in check!

Clothing Swap

A local neighborhood church hosts a kids clothing swap once a month. It's actually the church I've been frequenting a local church since we moved to town with a couple visits to other churches here & there, but I always wind up back at Lifepoint. At any rate, they have this great outreach called the Kid's Clothing Swap. People bring in basically anything for kids: clothing, shoes, maternity wear, toys, bedding, etc. All clothing is given a 1 point value and other items are given points according to their perceived value anywhere from 2-20 points. The points given to items are fairly subjective, but they keep the points fairly low so that anyone will be able to "shop" at the swap whether or not they have existing points or not. The swap is great as it reaches a variety of individuals and families. Whether you have items to donate in exchange for points or are a family in need, the swap is the perfect place. Does your church offer anything like this in your area?

Friday Family Fun

Bradley's unit had a mandatory family fun day today. We headed out for the event and parking was CRAZY. Then I realized as we were walking that I'd left my camera in the car. That means ZERO pictures of our fun day in the sun. I forced the Bradley and the kids to go back into the sand for this one shot though. haha!! We sure did wear the kiddos out though. BL will only ever fall asleep in his bed, so passing out on his couch means he had a big ole' day of fun! 33 weeks! Off to cheer practice and since she did amazing at practice we picked up some ice cream cones at Publix. I love the new mini cones, perfect size cone for little ones! The littles feel asleep quick tonight...I'm headed there now myself. :0)

Field Trip Fun Day!!

There was another field trip with MJs class today. We went to the Florida Gulfarium and had a BLAST!! The boys went to daycare for the afternoon and Bradley had a golf tournament, so it was just me and Little Miss. She did great and listened pretty well throughout the adventure. Now, she loved the dolphin and sea lion show, but she wouldn't stop asking to see the sea horses. Thankfully, the Gulfarium has a HUGE aquarium and she quickly found her prized conquest! Not sure what it was about the sea horses, but she was just taken with them! Even though the boys were away most of the day, we finished the night with Digornos Pizza and a pretend birthday party. There are nights when no one will touch there food and there's plenty of wandering throughout dinner. Tonight, I think they were all so tired and missed hanging out together, they just sat nicely, ate their pizza, and played with each other throughout the "party". Absolutely, truly blessed indeed!!

Time Out

Marissa came home with an "ok" school report. She did okay at school, but started out pulling a kiddos shirt on the bus. Behaviors on the bus. I think those are out of pure boredom. She is always fidgeting and I think the bus drive is just too boring so she finds things to keep her idle hands busy. I'm considering getting something written into her IEP to allow her something to hang onto during the bus drive. As for school, she's been having a rough month or so. It started when I went out of town for a weekend and then it was followed by Bradley going into the field for a couple of weeks. Every time there's change in MJs life, she has regression with her potty skills. So in addition to an increased amount of accidents, she started being nasty to friends at school or being defiant towards her teacher. So I've started implementing timeout and taking her computer away depending upon what happens throughout the day. Today, she was bad on the bus, but good at school so she had a 5 minute timeout when she got home. After her timeout, she put Barney in timeout. She told him "no pinching, no scratching". She gets that she is being bad, but she keeps doing it. What to do, what to do?

Tuesday Tales

Morning PT with Daddy! Speech therapy, feeding the ducks, splash pad at the park, then to the library where they discovered books and vending machines! MJ had a busy day too. After school she had a 5 minute time out for pinching her friends at school. :-( Her day was not lost though as Bradley took a half day and while the boys were napping we took her swimming. She did lose computer privileges for the day and went to bed early as she was complaining saying "I don't feel good mama". She fell asleep quick! I hope that's the makings of a good day tomorrow!!