Murphy's Law

Mille needs a new heart!

2010-05-21T21:04:00.000-07:00

Well our baby girl Camile is on the transplant list and is now listed to get a new heart. Please pray she gets one and God guides the surgeons hands and no rejection!!
www.caringbridge.com/visit/camilemurphy

Camile Murphy

2010-04-14T22:29:00.001-07:00

Wow, it has been a really long time since updating this!! Life just gets in the way and there's no way I could find time to update this.
Well that sweet baby sister is here, she was born on 11/14/09 and unfortuntely I'm updating this to say that our 5 month old has been in the hospital for a week and 2 days now. She's at Children's Hospital in Denver in the cardiac ICU. Read about her story and updates on www.caringbridge.com/visit/camilemurphy

Updates on the Murphy's

2009-09-08T20:52:00.001-07:00

Wow, where to start?? Well we did find out that we are having a baby girl...so 2 girls and 2 boys, awesome!! Phoebe is so very excited for her new sister.

In June we took a 2 week excursion to Oklahoma and then to Houston, back to Oklahoma and then all the way back home. We stayed in Oklahoma a few days and saw family and friends then drove to Houston to see Denzil's family. Now we had only lived in Colorado for a year when we took this trip but we thought we were going to die from the hot weather in Oklahoma. When we went to Houston it was so much worse and we really don't know how people live there, or how we lived there for that matter. OH MY GOSH...it was really hot!! Talk about needing a shower at night and in the morning! We stayed in Houston for a few days and then drove back to Oklahoma. Unfortuntely we were involed in an accident in Houston. Some lady rear ended us when we were trying to turn left. It was almost $5000 damage to my van but it has majorly messed up mine and Denzil's backs. Him more than me but some days mines pretty bad. He's had 2 epidural steriod injections in his back in the last 2 months but neither one of them have came with any relief. I thank God that the kids weren't hurt at all but Phoebe still talks about the mean lady in Texas that hit our car. And I pray that when I have this baby that the back pain goes away!! It took Fin a few weeks to stop jumping and screaming and crying at load noises, which was horribly sad but at least he got over it. We had a great time seeing all our family and friends in Oklahoma and Texas!!

Our summer has ended and we had a good one! We went swimming a lot, more than I thought we would, went to the zoo, took a 2 week vacation, played outside a lot, went to parks, had picnics, etc. On to a new chapter and new routine, Phoebe started school in August. She's so adorable and loves school so much. She's doing great. Eliott will start school on his birthday in October because he has to be 3 in order to start but he's also doing great. Talking a lot more but no luck in potty training the stubborn kid. I'm waiting for him to just get it one day and I'm hoping it's before the baby gets here. Fin is getting big and he has such an awesome personality...Happy. We call him smiley a lot because he is just smiling all the time. I can't wait to see how different this one in my belly will be.

Just found out that all three kiddos will have to have surgery on their herniated belly buttons. I thought that at least Eliott's had grown back together but there's still a little hole there. Only 5% of the popluation have herniated belly buttons that don't grow together and all 3 of ours have them! Wow. What's the likliness that our 4th will have it too?? Fin's is so bad, a lot worse than Phoebe or Eliott's ever was, they are going to go ahead and do his. So next Friday we'll be at the hospital at 5:30 am to check in and then surgeries start at 7:30. We'll get all of them knocked out at once. Pray that they go well, the kids do great and the parents will survive too!!

I also failed my 1 hour glucose test to test for gestanational diabetes so I had to go on Saturday for a 3 hour test. They took my blood 4 times in 3 hours, yuck! It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be but drinking that nasty orange stuff just ruined my appetite for the rest of the day and made me feel yuck! Haven't gotten the results yet but should tomorrow.

Well it's bedtime now just wanted to give an update since I haven't blogged in so long.

A Newborn's Conversation with God

2009-06-24T21:40:00.000-07:00

My mom sent this email to me and I loved it so much I had to share...

A baby asked God, "They tell me you are sending me to earth tomorrow, but how am I going to live there being so small and helpless?"
God said, "Your angel will be waiting for you and will take care of you."
The child further inquired, "But tell me, here in heaven I don't have to do anything but sing and smile to be happy."
God said, "Your angel will sing for you and will also smile for you. And you will feel your angel's love and be very happy."
Again the small child asked, "And how am I going to be able to understand when people talk to me if I don't know the language?"
God said, "Your angel will tell you the most beautiful and sweet words you will ever hear, and with much patience and care, your angel will teach you how to speak."
"And what am I going to do when I want to talk to you?"
God said, "Your angel will place your hands together and will teach you how to pray."
"Who will protect me?"
God said, "Your angel will defend you even if it means risking its life."
"But I will always be sad because I will not see you anymore."
God said, "Your angel will always talk to you about Me and will teach you the way to come back to Me, even though I will always be next to you."
At that moment there was much peace in Heaven, but voices from Earth could be heard and the child hurriedly asked, "God, if I am to leave now, please tell me my angel's name."
God said, You will simply call her, "Mom."

I think I will print this out and read it everyday. I'm supposed to be my children's angel...WOW, that's incredible. I'm supposed to be working for/with God to raise these kids but it's hard to do in everyday life and with them not listening, getting frustrated with them, having to clean the house, cook breakfast, lunch, dinner, keep up with laundry, it's hard to remember that and do that in the little things that we do daily. But I pray that He shows me those times that I can teach them about Him and mold them into Godly people. Thank you God for the 3 (almost 4) little gifts Denzil and I have from you and thank you for asigning me the job of their "angel"!!

Been a long time!

2009-05-27T21:11:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's been a long time...since I've posted and since I've been sick with the wonderful morning sickness that I am so lucky to get. I hate it when I meet these women that say..."oh wow, that never happened to me, I never got sick." I just want to scream at them because they have no idea how it feels to throw up all the time...and still take care of 3 kids!!
I'm finally feeling better these days but I really don't want to talk about that because everytime I say that then I throw up again, so let's not get on that subject.
A lot has happened since my last post...piling up laundry, dishes, lots and lots of naps for mom, and school came to an end.
I am now 14 weeks pregnant and my second doctors appt is tomorrow and I'm going with no kids!! YEAH!! I am going to drive all the way there with my radio on...wow, I still have radio in my car and not a DVD playing in my ear that I can't watch!! Their teacher, Ms. Jesse, is going to watch them for me and she has a little 2 year old boy so they should have lots of fun.
Phoebe & Eliott get to go to preschool next year for free and I am so looking forward to that one!! Phoebe will go 4 days a week 8:30 to 12:30 and Eliott will go 3 days a week, same time, just a different class.
In the last 2 weeks we've had Mother's day, Phoebe's 4th birthday, and Fin's 1st birthday. I totally can't believe Phoebe's 4 and Fin's 1...it's crazy!! We had a party for Phoebe and invited 4 little girls that she knows (and a couple of their brothers!) and they had a great time playing outside, eating cake, and then playing with all her new barbies. And all the girls going into Phoebe's room and locking all the "boys" out!! She's actually made a sign to put on her door that has a picture of a boy and says "No boys allowed, except for Daddy!" Of course I had to help her but she told me exactly what to write/draw and where to put it on the paper. Then she got the tape and went and taped it on the outside of her door. Other than that Phoebe's doing great! She is so smart and amazes us all the time with things she says. She's so motherly and such a great big sister. She's so excited about having a baby sister and that makes me kind of nervous...she's going to be very disappointed if it's not a baby sister!! She keeps saying "this is my room and my baby sister's." So let's hope we find out it's a girl in July!
This last Sunday for Memorial day we tried to go to the Denver Zoo but that was a joke...out of all their 5 million parking places, we could not find one, and we drove around for over 45 minutes. So we left there and went to the Aquarium, where we had never been before. That was really cool, we really liked that and I thought it was awesome to see the 2 tigers that they have in there.
Eliott is doing good but he continues to be a challenge. We love him anyway though and he's an awesome boy. His speech thearpist thought he should be evaluated by an occupational thearpist, so she came out and did an evaluation on him and asked him 500 questions and we found out he has problems with his proproceptive input. Which means that why he falls all the time or runs into walls, etc. I just blew that off as a boy thing or just clumsy but it's an actual problem that he has not knowing where his body is at in space...really weird!! So she's coming twice a month to work with him and showing us how to get that input in his joints/bones that he needs...really interesting stuff and she's got some really cool ideas! He has such a temper and has started throwing stuff, hard stuff when he's mad which then creates a total problem, of course so we're trying to figure out which discipline is working best for this 2 year old boy and it's frustrating.
We're still loving Colorado and love this weather...hot during the day and cool at night...Love it!! Our street is filling up and we have some great neighbors on our street and a total of 22 kids on our street of about 15 houses and I think 3 of those houses don't have any kids. Haven't met them all yet, it's been a slow process but the ones that we have met seem great. And Phoebe loves the little girl across the street, Marley!! I'm so glad we moved to a street where there are so many kids for our kids to play with.
Well I know I haven't included a bunch of stuff but thought I would just update to say we're still alive and doing good!
Until next time-

Announcement of #4!!

2009-04-03T07:53:00.000-07:00

Yeah that's right...I can't believe I'm typing this but we're expecting #4. I am only 7 weeks along and due date is November 21, my little brother's birthday!! Here's a pic of the new little baby...

It's a wooping 7 mm big!! I don't see how something so little growing in me makes me feel so bad all day. And let's hope it's a girl because if it's not Phoebe will be a little upset. She keeps saying "it's my baby" and referring to the baby as "my little sister". So in November we'll have Phoebe, 4, Eliott, 3, Fineas, 1, and a brand new baby, four 4 and under!!

Here's some cute new pictures of Fin:

And here's these two ornery boys...they both emptied a whole container of snacks on the floor and were crushing them-

Stayed tuned for more updates and more pictures on the kiddos!!

Phoebe going on 16

2009-03-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

Well last night when I put Phoebe to bed, I was trying to leave her room and here's our conversation...
"Mommy, wait...I have one more question to ask you before I go to bed"
"Okay...what is it?"
"Ummmm....ummmm...tomorrow morning when I wake up...ummm....ummm....do you think I could go to Wal-Mart by myself"
Okay so how in the world am I suppose to react to this one?? I'm kind of in shock and standing there trying to think of something to say and before I think of something she says...
"Like drive your car and go to Wal-Mart by myself"
"Ahhh...no honey, you can't drive mommy's car and it wouldn't be very safe for you to go to Wal-Mart all by yourself."
Wow, my 3 1/2 year old is already asking to drive my car...Bad sign!!

Fin's growing up so fast. He's saying Mama, Dada and he's trying to repeat stuff that Phoebe & Eliott say. He's said Map while the kids are watching Dora and it's so funny! He has successfully skipped baby food and has just went straight to real food. He's only 10 months and eating everything we eat and loves it!

Well I'm so very tired and ready to go to bed...lets hope Fin starts sleeping through the night. Last night was the first night we put him in Eliott's room so now they are officially sharing a room!

Vegas!

2009-03-23T20:04:00.000-07:00

We had lots of fun in Vegas!! It was so nice to get away, just the 2 of us, all by ourselves. While Oma and Opa were here Denzil and I flew to Las Vegas on Friday and we got there about 2:00 pm. We stayed at Ceaser's Palace and it was awesome! We went to see the show called KÀ by Cirque du Soleil, we walked the strip, we rode 3 of the roller coasters there and we went to a piano bar with the people from his work, the trip was paid for by them, got to go in a FAO Swartz store and shop for the kids (which was great fun!) and bought us some shoes while we were there too. We left on Sunday at about 2:00 pm.
Here's some pictures:

The coaster we rode at Nascar Cafe

Our view from our hotel suite

Pictures from walking the strip

In the shops at Caeser's Palace

Another coaster we rode at New York New York

Lots of Pictures...

2009-03-22T20:04:00.000-07:00

Well now almost a month after my last post, here's some pics from when Oma & Opa were here:

Fin fell asleep on Opa

Phoebe wanted to go to the zoo just to see the elephants because last time we went to the Denver Zoo they were cleaning the elephant cage so we told her they were sick...

Wow, there's the elephants, they're not sick anymore!!

Riding on the train at the Denver Zoo

Phoebe & Opa walking hand and hand

At the Zoo - one of the rare times that they are getting along and not hitting each other-WOW!

Riding the carousel

Some other pics from the last few months:

Eliott got into the bottle of syrup, except there were no waffles around...

Fin crawling in the pantry

The first time Fin stood up

The babies taking a bath together!

Oma & Opa

2009-02-25T20:57:00.000-08:00

Well today was the first day that Oma & Opa were here. It was fun going to pick them up at the airport and coming home to show them our house. Phoebe was screaming "come on guys let's go upstairs to see my room..." It was pretty cute! We rested for awhile, took naps, met with Eliott's speech therapist and then we all went to the Children's Museum in Denver which is great fun. Of course I forgot the camera so I don't have any pics to share but hopefully I can take some tomorrow to share.
On Friday Denzil and I are flying (by ourselves...yes with no kids...YEAHHH!!) to Las Vegas on his company. It should be lots of fun and we've never been away from the kids just him and I so I'm kind of nervous that I'm not going to have a clue how to act! Please pray though that the kids do okay with Oma & Opa and that they don't drive them absolutely crazy before we get back on Sunday evening!
Hope you enjoy the 2 emails I shared in my last post-

A couple of cool emails-

2009-02-25T20:41:00.000-08:00

From Mommy To Mom To Mother
Real Mothers don't eat quiche; they don't have time to make it.

Real Mothers know that their kitchen utensils are probably in the sandbox.

Real Mothers often have sticky floors, filthy ovens and happy kids.

Real Mothers know that dried play dough doesn't come out of carpets.

Real Mothers don't want to know what the vacuum just sucked up (or flushed down the toilet!)

Real Mothers sometimes ask 'Why me?' and get their answer when a little voice says, 'Because I love you best.'

Real Mothers know that a child's growth is not measured by height or years or grade...It is marked by the progression of Mommy to Mom to Mother....

4 YEARS OF AGE - My Mommy can do anything!

8 YEARS OF AGE - My Mom knows a lot! A whole lot!

12 YEARS OF AGE - My Mother doesn't really know quite everything.

14 YEARS OF AGE - Naturally, Mother doesn't know that, either.

16 YEARS OF AGE - Mother? She's hopelessly old fashioned.

18 YEARS OF AGE - That old woman? She's way out of date!

25 YEARS OF AGE - Well, she might know a little bit about it.

35 YEARS OF AGE - Before we decide, let's get Mom's opinion.

45 YEARS OF AGE - Wonder what Mom would have thought about it?

65 YEARS OF AGE - Wish I could talk it over with Mom.

The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides. The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mole, but true beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows, and the beauty of a woman with passing years only grows!

Wow, isn't that so true. We start out life depending on and loving our mom and then as time goes on, and we become teenagers we totally take mom for granted and like it says above...she's way out of date! I read this email and think of my mom and I and our relationship has been a lot like that and now that we're somewhere in between the 25 and 35 year old stage and I have 3 kids of my own, I'm like "wow, mom, I'm sorry for everything bad I did and THANK YOU so much for being a great mom and putting up with me!" (How did she do it?) I pray my kids don't go through that but I know unfortuntely they probably will to at least some degree but I look forward to being a Real mother and loving them no matter what (like my mommy did!).

An Interesting Commercial

http://www.catholicvote.com/

Wow, that's a really cool commercial. I guess it's an advertisement that got rejected to play during the Super Bowl this year by NBC.

Pictures-

2009-01-15T13:14:00.000-08:00

Here's a lot of pictures that I took a couple months ago to put on my blog so here you go:

This is the entrance into our neighborhood and a pic of our house:

There's a whole bunch of trains here in Denver and lots of coal trains!!

Phoebe got her nails painted bright pink and had some new sexy sandals!

Our Rec Center

Here's the buffalo on the way to Georgetown

I've learned how to knit hats and scarfs on a loom and I love it! It's so awesome and here's a hat that I made for Phoebe. Cait, our neighbor, taught me how to make them and she made the scarf to match this hat.

I've also created a family picture site on shutterfly but still have a lot of work to do on it. The link is on the right. I also have a bunch of our new pics on my facebook account.

Well it's been a long time since I've updated this but I've got to get to bed!!

Finish Strong!

2009-01-12T20:21:00.000-08:00

This is an amazing video:

http://www.maniacworld.com/are-you-going-to-finish-strong.html

I showed it to Phoebe and she wanted to watch it again, it was pretty cute!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2009-01-07T21:09:00.000-08:00

Wow, I so can't believe that it's already 2009!! This is the first New Years Eve we've done something in the last 3 years, since Phoebe was born. I remember New Years Eve Dec 31 of 2005, I took a picture at midnight of Phoebe sleeping on top of Denzil on the sofa!! Jeff and Cait, our awesome friends and great neighbors, invited us over and we ate and had fun at their house until we went home and put the kids to bed and then they came over and we played games until midnight. It was lots of fun!! Thanks guys for having fun with us!!

My Wish for 2009

May peace break into our homes and may thieves come to steal our debts. May the pockets of our jeans become a magnet of $100 bills. May love stick to our faces like Vaseline and may laughter assault our lips! May our clothes smell of success like smoking tyres and may happiness slap us across the face and may our tears be that of joy. May the problems we had forget our home address! In simple words ............
May 2009 be the best year ever!!

Fin is almost fully recovered from his surgery and he did great!! Was a little grumpy while we were in Oklahoma the week after his surgery but that's expected.

I'm finally putting Phoebe in ballet here. She's been asking me for awhile to go to ballet so we'll see how she does. Since she's 3 1/2 she gets to go into the room with all the other little girls by herself, without me so hopefully she'll do a great job!

Eliott is talking a whole bunch more and his newest thing is "it's broke, mommy, it's broke" and he says it over and over. Yes Eliott I know it's broke, thank you for telling me!

We're going to go visit another church this Sunday, so pray we find a great one!!

I have also found another friend here in Colorado, her name is also Rachel and she has 2 kids around the same ages of Phoebe and Eliott and thought you'd enjoy this pic:

Finally Fin had his surgery

2008-12-16T20:44:00.000-08:00

Well little Fin had his surgery yesterday morning and he's doing great so far. He is on 4 different medicines twice a day, some of them more than that, I'm having to change his diaper once an hour and we have to go back to the doctors office on Thursday morning at 7:30 am, which is about 45 minutes away so we'll have to leave at about 6:45 but other than that we're all doing fine. Before today he never crawled or even tried to move but today, the day after surgery he has started crawling and moving all around the living room. It's crazy how good he's doing after what he went through yesterday. I am so very thankful for that!!

Please Read:

2008-11-26T21:30:00.001-08:00

Well I typed up a post that has lots of updates, etc. in it and it posted it under September 29...so scroll down a little and see new pictures and new stories. (I actually started it on September 29 but I just finished typing it on November 24)

Hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving!! I can't wait to eat all this delicious food...some of it I'm making for the first time...yummy!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

Update...

2008-11-19T21:47:00.000-08:00

Well no surgery for Fin today. All day yesterday he was totally fine and ate good and never threw up. Last night when he woke up at about 11:45 he was screaming his head off like something hurt really bad. He just kept screaming for at least 45 minutes, maybe more and there was nothing we could do to make him stop. Finally he started to nurse and then a couple minutes later threw up everywhere. Then did it again when he woke up at 3:15 am. Wow, so not much sleep for me last night and I'm really tired!!
We have gone threw the state of Colorado and are getting a speech thearpist for Eliott. She comes to our house once a week for an hour and works with him and she is so good with Eliott and has gotten him to say soooo much!! It's awesome how much he says now but he still has a long way to go to stop the whining and crying that he does. He'll now say "up" when he wants us to pick him up or when we're sitting down and he wants us to get up while pushing us. He says milk, more, dog, cat, you know all the generic easy things and just said for the first time yesterday Phoebe. It's so cute to finally hear him say her name. Two weeks ago he told Denzil for the first time "I love you" and that awesome to hear him say that. He's been saying "I want that" also. He's doing great. The speech thearpist said he wasn't saying anything because he's a perfectionist and wants to say everything just perfect...WOW-he is just like his father!! But there's absolutely nothing wrong with that!

Fin's surgery

2008-11-18T21:38:00.000-08:00

Well on Sunday Fin got the same bug as Eliott and was throwing up. Projectile, out of his nose and everything...it was nasty. That's one thing I've never had to deal with is a throwing up baby. I took him to the doctor on Monday morning and they just pretty much said the "it's a virus, let it run it's course" talk.
I was afraid he wasn't going to be able to have his surgery tomorrow but turns out he was much better today. So the surgery is a go ahead for tomorrow morning...please pray that the surgery goes great and it's quick and painless.
I'll update tomorrow-

Our trip to Oklahoma

2008-11-16T22:02:00.000-08:00

I've got an ongoing blog that I've not yet posted because it's not done yet but it will come soon...along with pics and everything!!

Last week we all came to Oklahoma and had a good trip for half of the week but it went way down hill. We arrived on Sunday night at 1 am. Denzil worked all week but the kids and I spent Monday with Grammy, my mom and Tuesday we went and spent all day with a really good friend that we haven't seen in almost 2 years. She moved to Texas and every time she came to town some one always ended up sick and then we moved to Denver and she just now moved back to Oklahoma. We were so excited to see each other and had a great time together! On our way over to her house, Eliott threw up in the car. Didn't think much of it, had no idea why he did that?? We had dinner at some other friends house and he was grumpy the whole time and wouldn't eat anything except a few tortilla chips. We went back to the hotel and Eliott threw up again but both times were because he was coughing so hard. Wednesday morning he seemed to be okay and ate breakfast and seemed to be in a good mood. We went and saw a few more friends, ate lunch with my mom and then to Oma & Opa's house to go out to dinner for my birthday. Eliott was in an okay mood but now had the runs. By Thursday morning I woke up and felt bad and Fin started sounded like he was getting stopped up. By Thursday afternoon I was so sick of having 3 kids in a little tiny hotel room, living in a hotel and now having sick kids and me feeling bad I just wanted to go home. So our plans for Thursday were a no go and so I called Denzil and asked if we could go home a day early. So sorry to the people I didn't see when we were there, it was not a very pleasant first trip back to Oklahoma.

I'll have to blog more later-

Lots to tell...

2008-09-29T14:28:00.000-07:00

Well we're still loving Colorado! Still no snow yet and the weather is still pretty nice. We've had our cold days though but it's not steady freezing cold yet.

Living in a new city/state I am very thankful for my GPS in my van...thanks honey for buying it in my van, I know I rolled my eyes when you had to get that option but thank you so much! If it weren't for that thing I think I would just stay at our house and go nowhere because it's such a big huge city with so many highways and it's all so confusing. I'm coming from a place that I grew up so I know all the roads and highways by heart and if there was traffic somewhere or a road closed I knew exactly what other way to go. I depend on that GPS a lot...I wish I could depend on God as much I depend on that GPS. Kind of like the Staples commercials...just hit the easy button, my GPS is my easy button...just push HOME and it tells me exactly how to get there! I am getting to know my way around without it a little bit though. I'm finally recognizing where I am now when I'm somewhere that I've been before and get excited when I can say "oh I know where I'm at now!" I know it doesn't take much to excite me!!

Phoebe

Some funny things Phoebe's done lately:
1. A few weeks ago for a couple of nights she slept on her floor and I really wasn't sure why. She'll make a pallet on the floor and get comfy and sleep there all night. When we questioned her about it she said she just wanted to but then I told Denzil it was probably because her bed still had the toddler rail on it so he took that off and made it into a day bed and now she sleeping it in again and loves it that he took that off.
2. I picked her and Eliott up from school one day last week. Right by their school there is a building being built and as we are driving by it she starts saying "mommy, mommy, they are naughty 'ol boys" and I'm thinking who is she talking about and why are they naughty?? I said "who" and she said "those boys back there, they aren't supposed to have pink, pink is for girls." And I can't figure out what she's talking about for awhile but then I realize that there were big huge bags of insulation laying out and they were in pink bags. Now every time we leave school she says "mommy, I'll tell you if they are still naughty boys" and if those pink bags are still there she says "yep, mommy, they still have pink!"
3. Another day that I picked them up from school...I usually turn off the radio and DVD player and ask her how school was and what they did today and all of a sudden before I had a chance to ask her she says "How was your day mommy, what did you do while we were at school??" She wanted to know every detail, it was so cute!
4. All of a sudden last Saturday we were calling Daddy to the dinner table and Phoebe said "Big Poppa, dinner's ready come on Big Poppa." I of course busted out laughing and I think Denzil liked it because he came to the table with a big smile on his face. So now every time she talks to him she calls him Big Poppa!! It's hilarious!
5. One of the wonderful things about Colorado that I love (again, another thing that excites me easily) is that we get our milk delivered to our doorstep. They also have other stuff besides milk...like oj, coffee, bread, and they have some awesome french onion dip. Tonight we were eating some of the dip and Phoebe said "where did you buy this mommy?" I told her that we got it from the milk man. Right about that time I was pouring me some Gatorade and she says "are you sure we didn't get it from the Gatorade man!!" LOL

Eliott

These two pictures sum this little man up!! Phoebe calls him Tornado Eliott and the first picture you can see how destructive he tries to be. He goes from room to room and just destroys stuff. That's the pool table at Oma & Opa's house and he's trying to rip the pocket off. The second picture is at the game table and looks so ornery. He's such a little ornery man and has been one big handful. He's total opposite of Phoebe...not shy at all. And I'm realizing more every day that not only he looks just like his father but he acts like him too. Denzil never has liked to be places with a lot of people and I just realized last week that Eliott hates it too. He doesn't act shy at all, he just acts like he's unhappy and doesn't want to be there (see pic below with Denzil...we're at the Denver zoo and it was a Free day so there were a ton of people there.)
He's saying so much more these days though and even says "i love you" when you say it to him...it's so adorable!!

Making cookies...trying to eat the flour!
Fineas

Little man Fin is smiling all the time and is so happy...when he's not hungry and not tired that is!! He's almost 7 months now and he's grabbing stuff, putting stuff in his mouth and he'll sit up for a few minutes by himself but then go crashing to the floor.

I know it was 2 months ago but here's pictures from when my mom was here:

Phoebe wanted to watch her put her make up on every morning..

We love it that Grammy's here!!

Fin asleep on Grammy

One of the things we did while my mom was here was go to the Children's Museum of Denver and that's one cool place!! It's a ton of fun for the kids! They have a real fire truck in there that you can get on and here is Denzil and Eliott on it...

In the Construction area- Fin in a wheelbarrow-
And they loved "grocery shopping" with baskets that were just their size. After throwing a whole bunch of groceries in-
They checked out with another little girl playing grocery store-
For Halloween Phoebe was Deedee Doodle from the Doodlebops, Eliott was a fire cheif and Fin was a little monkey. The baby bear in the middle is our next door neighbors baby, Jack.

We went to their school Halloween party and they had lots of fun there-

Then we all made Halloween cookies-

I also celebrated my birthday a couple weeks ago and my wonderful husband bought me an Ipod touch. It's my first Ipod ever, not ever had one and it's soooo cool! I must thank my new neighbor (and friend too) Cait for turning me on to the Ipod. She's also turned me onto coffee and looming. I've made Phoebe and Eliott hats on the loom that Cait taught me how to do and I also made me a scarf and I am currently working on my own hat. It's great fun...thanks Cait!

I'll have to type the rest of my blog some other time about our trip to Oklahoma with my crazy mom...it's a pretty funny story but Fin's crying now and I want to hurry up and get this posted!

Ditto!

2008-09-16T20:31:00.000-07:00

Ditto to my friend Connie Johnson's blog...WOW!
We had a crazy day today. School by 8:30 for Phoebe & Eliott, Fin and I off to The UPS Store to mail 4 packages, Home Depot to return a fan, Lowes to buy Phoebe some curtains, Eliott some curtains, Walgreens to pick up Denzil's film for work then to get the kiddos from school at 11:45. 12:10 dentist appt for Phoebe & Eliott...Phoebe had her teeth cleaned and has 4 cavities, Eliott's teeth look good for now. 2:15 dermatologist appt for Eliott. He's gotten some odd itchy rash/bumps or something on his head and he's miserable and itching, itching, itching. Well they, of course, didn't know what was on my son's head. They scraped it and looked at it under the microscope which ruled out some stuff and so the thing they wanted to do was a biopsy. I had to hold Eliott on the table (while Fin sat in his seat crying for a boob) they stuck a needle in his head to numb the area and then stuck this tool in there to take a big chunk of his skin out of his head...HOLY COW!!! All right in my face...then sewed it up with a couple of stitches. The dermatologist gives me a prescription for the itching and so we leave, go to Walgreens (again) and they don't have the cream that was prescribed....AHHH!
So needless to say I'm really tired...worn out. My house is a mess and I don't really have the energy to get up and clean it up but then again I don't really want to wake up to a disaster of a house. It's a real pull to try to be a great wife, housekeeper, cook, maid, and most importantly of all a MOM. I know and realize that they won't be little forever and so I really need to enjoy these moments and take advantage of them.
I will blog some more tomorrow-Goodnight!

Quote

2008-09-08T21:31:00.000-07:00

"Children are the most wholesome part of the race, the sweetest, for they are the freshest from the Hand of God. Whimsical, ingenious, mischievous, they fill the earth with joy and good humor. We adults live a life of apprehension to what they think of us; a life of defense against their terrifying energy; a life of hard work to live up to their great expectations. We put them to bed with a sense of relief - and greet them in the morning with delight and anticipation. We envy them the freshness of adventure and the discovery of life. In all these ways, children add to the wonder of being alive." Herbert Hoover

School Started!

2008-09-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day of the kids going to "school". They both had a great time and did really well. Eliott is starting to pee pee in his little potty too. I noticed he kept telling me when he peed in his diaper by grabbing it and saying "uh-oh". So yesterday when I changed his diaper he was acting like he was trying to pee so I said do you need to go potty and he shook his head yes. So we went and got on the potty and he went, it was sooo cool!! And he's peed a few times on the potty today...never thought I would be potty training before the kid is talking!!
My mom is here and we've had lots of fun while she's been here. We've went shopping, up to the mountains to see the big horned sheep and to the Childrens Museum of Denver. That place was awesome and the kids loved that place too. I'll post pics soon.

I lied!

2008-08-28T09:57:00.000-07:00

Well poop!! I just thought there was going to be school today. It turns out that at 10:30 last night Phoebe was in her room crying with a really stuffy nose, sneezing and just didn't feel good. Daddy brought his little princess into our bed. At 2:30 am Eliott woke up feeling like crap too. They started yesterday sneezing and a little runny nose but I was hoping it was just allergies. So none of us got much sleep, except Fin and the dog, they slept right through everything! This morning I could tell they both felt horrible and I didn't want their first day of school to be miserable so no school today...darn!!
I called the doc's office at 8 and they said to give them 1 1/2 tsp of benedryl and I did and now their runny noses aren't so runny anymore and I can tell they feel a little better, so it is probably allergies.
Trying to teach the 16 week old puppy, Roxie, who's Alpha because she's not listening to me at all. I pick her up lay her on her back, get in her face and star into her eyes until she looks away. It's worked pretty good so far giving her a reality check!!

YEAH-School starts tomorrow!

2008-08-27T19:35:00.000-07:00

Well I went to 3 of the preschools that had openings close to our house, when I say close I mean 20 to 30 minutes away, and one of them we all really liked. The first one was a Montessori preschool, which is really big here and so I thought I'd go check it out. Phoebe and Eliott hid behind me the whole time, never talked to the teacher, never smiled or interacted with any of the kids there. The director walked me through it and it was in a 50 year old house so it was kind of separated into 5 different areas. I didn't like it at all. It just seemed to me like they were teaching these kids to be to independent to early in life, i just really didn't like it and Phoebe and Eliott obviously didn't either. So we went on to the second one that is a gymnastics place that also has an Enrichment program. So in the time that they are there they also have 45 minutes of gymnastics time, which I know they both love!! We got there a little early and went ahead and went in but the director we were meeting with was not there yet. So the teacher, Ms. Jessie, invited us into the gymnastics part where the other kids were playing and she asked Pheobe and Eliott to take their shoes off and they both sat down, took their shoes off and followed her. Wow, they just met her but they are following..hmmm. They went to the gymnastics part and followed what the other kids were doing. Then a little girl walked up to Ms. Jessie and said "I want to play duck, duck, duck". (She really meant duck, duck, goose) So they all sat down in a circle, Phoebe joined in the circle and a little boy started walking behind all the kids and patting their heads saying duck, duck, duck, duck and then he got to Phoebe's head and said Goose. I thought "Holy cow, she has no idea what to do please don't freeze" I know if it were me when I was little I would have froze and ran away. She turned around looked at me for guidance on what to do and I said "go run after him." Ms Jesse was telling her to run after him before he sits back down and she did but he sat down before she caught him. So them she started right where she was supposed to and started patting their heads saying duck, duck, duck and then goosed a little girl. Ms. Jesse again told her what to do and it was awesome to see her interacting with kids and the teacher that she just met. So I knew that this was the place to put them and this was the only place that Eliott could go to too. So tomorrow is their first day and I can't wait. I know they went in Oklahoma to mothers day out but I think I might cry.
I still can't believe we moved and are living in Denver. There were so many times that Denzil was looking for other jobs throughout the years and would say it's in Texas or Missouri or another state and I finally told him just to stop looking because we were not moving away from Oklahoma. But it was so meant to be for us to be here, I know this is where God wants us to be. And it will be so awesome tomorrow morning, 2 months after we moved here to actually get into a routine. The house is cleaned up, vacuumed, dusted, everything hung on the walls, everything put in the cabinets and now tomorrow we will start to get back into a routine and I think it will be a little emotional. Tues/Thurs will be school from 8:45 to 11:45, then on Tuesday Phoebe will start soccer on Tues/Thurs at 5:30 pm for a month and I have enrolled in a MOPS group here and they meet on the first Friday of every month, can't wait for that!! Then when soccer is over, she will start another class at our rec center, Mini Cheer....oh my goodness, how adorable!! In high school I didn't much care for the cheerleaders and never really got along with them but a 3 year old cheerleader, that's adorable!! We asked her if she wanted to play soccer and Denzil went in the backyard to play with her and she loved it...she asks him and our neighbor, Jeff, to play soccer with her quit often. We'll see how she does, I can't wait.
I must say God gave us some great neighbors!! I love them!!

Well here's my list of what I thank God for:
Thank you so much God for....
1. sending us to Denver.
2. giving us awesome neighbors/friends...thank you for friends!!
3. Denzil, for working so hard for us, and I'm glad I'm spending the rest of my life with him!
4. Phoebe, Eliott, Fin and Roxy, they all are so great to watch grow up and grow up together.
5. Phoebe not being allergic to the mosquitos here in Denver...really when she gets bit here, the bites do not swell up the size of a baseball like they did in Oklahoma.
6. For Grammy, my mom, coming to visit us for almost a week.
7. For my "little" brother who is now going to OSU as a freshman this year, wow!!
8. For all the blessings that you have given us and just help us continue to follow You!
And finally, thank you for Starbucks!! Yes, I've got on the Starbucks band wagon and although Denzil now thinks I'm a yuppy, I love getting treats from Starbucks!!

Loving Colorado!

2008-08-22T23:59:00.000-07:00

Wow, we are loving Colorado!! I love the summer's here...hot during the day and down to 60 at night, absolutely love it! We'll just see if I still love it during the winter, LOL!
We've got everything hung up on the walls that we have, now it's just trying to find other stuff to fill the empty spaces. We also want to paint the walls but not in a hurry to do that yet.
I've been searching for a preschool/mother's day out for Phoebe and I've found a few that don't have waiting lists and I will be meeting with them on Monday. Our neighborhood also has a rec center that offers classes, so we may be taking gymnastics, mini cheer or pee-wee soccer but I need to figure out what days she'll be in preschool first.
Eliott got some weird rash all over his body last week and fever which was some kind of virus but the doc said he had fluid behind one of his ear tubes. So we went through 10 days of antibiotics and went back Friday for the follow up and it still has fluid and the tube is kinked. So off to an ENT here. He's on another 10 days of antibiotics that's more powerful but instead of going back to the peditician I said we're just going to go straight to the ENT. So hopefully they can open the tube and get the fluid out.
Fin's doing great these days. Eating, pooping and growing like a weed. He is all smiles and just started laughing this week. He's very ticklish like his brother.
Grammy, my mom, is coming this Saturday to stay for almost a week. That should be lots of fun and I know we will totally wear her out!
Life here for me is kind of crazy...it feels like I'm doing the same thing every day and I keep telling myself that if I just get it all done tonight then I'll be caught up and can scrapbook tomorrow but tomorrow never comes (I think thats a song isn't it?). I just continually clean up toys, dishes, huge messes that Eliott makes (i.e. pouring a whole thing of garlic salt all over the table, which went through the crack in the table so it's all over the floor too, poured bacon bits all over the table...and you ask yourself where in the world is the supervision here...well we were all out in the backyard talking to the neighbors and he went back inside by himself, climbed on the table and did this on 2 different occasions). The kids have been doing great these days with getting into a routine and Phoebe loves our neighbors and talks to them several times a day.
Oh...and we did something to make us a little crazier...we got a puppy. I know we're crazy but we thought it would make the transition easier, we wanted them to all grow up together and we really wanted one too. She's an american bulldog and she's doing pretty good. She's 1 week older than Fin so she's 3 1/2 months old. This is a pic of her when we first got her, she's gained about 20 lbs since then.

Lots has happened since my last post!!

2008-07-01T22:10:00.001-07:00

Well lets see...Fineas Nathaniel Murphy was born on May 13, 2008 and weighed 8 lbs 1 oz. The poor little guy had a broken collar bone and they say it's when babies get above 8 lbs it's more common. So he was in pain for the first 2 weeks of his life but it has healed. He's doing great now and he's already 7 weeks old!

Denzil went to Denver for the safety audits when Fin was less than a week old and also found us a house and made an offer on it. He looked at about 32 houses and we ended up buying a brand new house and it's really awesome. He did a great job on picking out our house!! I didn't really like the fact that we bought a house without me ever seeing it but we had looked at enough houses in Tulsa together that I knew we liked the same things in a house. And he took lots of pictures and sent them to me each night and we talked about them over the phone. So I did have a say so and I really am the one who picked the house out but only by looking at pictures of it compared to other ones and the floor plans of them too. When we get stuff hung on the walls, I'll start posting pictures of it! They will come soon.

While I was on bed rest, after Fin was born and while Denzil was in Denver I had so much help from people. Thank you SOOOO much everyone and especially Connie and Keri...all the meals helped soo much and we appreciate them so much!! And thank you Christina for watching Phoebe & Eliott so much!! I'm really glad they had somewhere to go and fit right in and act like part of the family..fighting and everything!

So we didn't get to list our house until the 2nd week in June so I had to go through meeting the 3 appraisers then the termite inspection then the roof inspection and then meeting the realtors that we had to choose from. Anheuser Busch payed for all the moving expenses and had an awesome relocation package so they are the ones who ordered all that stuff because if we don't sell our house in 90 days they guarantee to buy it and they don't want to buy it if it's a dump. So after all those meetings, we picked a realtor and finally put a sign in our yard! It didn't take long but within 2 weeks of it being on the market we had 4 bids on it and now have a closing date of July 17, yeah!!

Denzil flew to Denver on June 8th to start his new job on the 9th and then my crazy week started!! We actually had no where to go on Monday but I did need to clean up the house and start getting our suitcases out to pack. On Tuesday a guy came out to our house to fix the arm of our sofa, I had to pack all our stuff that we didn't want on the moving truck, take pictures off the walls and have everything ready for the movers. On Wednesday morning I woke Phoebe up at 7:15 and had her pack a little box of toys to take in the car with us. It was pretty funny because she's never went through a move or seen boxes of peoples stuff but when she was done putting stuff in the box she told me she'd be right back. She went out to the desk, got a marker...not a pen, a marker...and came back in her room and said "I've got to write my name on this box." I thought...holy cow, how does she know to do that??? Of course she doesn't know how to write her name so it was just a bunch of scribbles but I thought that was pretty cool! Then I had to wake Eliott up, get them both dressed, got their drinks and breakfast and loaded them all in the car. As I was leaving the moving van was pulling onto our street, so right in time! I took them over to Christina's house (Phoebe & Eliott's mom's day out teacher that we've grown to LOVE!) and they stayed with her all day. They had a blast and I am so blessed to have somewhere they can go and they are both comfortable to be there and have other kids to play with, she's got 4 of her own. So back to the house with Fin to have a fun filled day of packers packing all our stuff and then loading it all into their huge moving truck. They packed the whole house by noon and then loaded everything by 5:30. Our house was totally empty and Christina came and dropped the kids off so they got see the house totally empty and even got to get on the huge truck to see where all our stuff was. That was pretty cool! I vacuumed the whole house before they put the vacuum in the moving truck and then they left. We went to my mom's house and ate dinner and stayed the night there. For some reason we had to deal with Eliott being deathly afraid of my mom's dog, Noah. He's a pretty big dog, 100 lb weimeriner but he's seen him before and didn't have a problem with him and likes other dogs so I have no idea what his issue was but he'd glue himself to my leg and scream and cry in fear everytime Noah would move. We also found out that Phoebe is allergic to cats. She started saying that her eyes hurt and was rubbing them.

On Thursday I had my 6 week checkup (at 4 weeks) with my doctor. There was no way I really wanted to bring all the kids in the exam room with me so my stepmom came and got Phoebe & Eliott and went to McDonald's and got them lunch. After that we went to a friends house and hung out with her and her kids for awhile and had fun over there. While over at my friends house Denzil called me and the big ordeal started!! We bank with Bank of America and all our money is there. We figured since it's Bank of "America" we would have no problem finding one in Denver. On Friday, the next day, Denzil was closing on our new house in Denver and he had just gotten the amount of the check that we needed to bring to closing. He realized Thursday at 3:00 there was no Bank of America in the state of Colorado. We couldn't withdraw that much money from an ATM, he didn't have a check, a wire would take 2-3 days...what in the world do we do??? Finally the only option seemed to be me going to a Western Union and sending him the money that way. All the places I went though was cash only and the banks here were already closed. We both tried calling Western Union and getting it by putting it on a credit card and sending it to Denzil that way but after being on the phone with them for over 45 minutes and answering a ton of questions, they wouldn't let us do it and wouldn't tell us why. By this time it's 6:30 Central time and I'm like just give up until tomorrow morning when the bank opens and I'll go withdraw all the money from the bank and then go to a Western Union. So we go to my mom's house and meet my brother and his girlfriend there and eat pizza. We visit with him for awhile and then put the kiddos to bed...still hearing Eliott scream everytime Noah moves and Phoebe saying "my eyes itch mommy."

On Friday we got up, got everyone dressed and went to a Bank of America branch over by my mom's house. We had to withdraw a whole lot of money and so I was pretty scared leaving there and having to put all the kids in the car before safely getting in the car and locking the doors. I even looked in my rear view mirror several times on the way to Western Union making sure there was no one following me. So I get to this check cashing place that does Western Union and the first thing the women tells me is that it would be better to wire it to the business rather than an individual and would be much cheapier. I start filling out the paperwork and notice it says there is a $5000 minimum and point that out to her and she says "oh, nevermind." Then we realize I got enough cash out to send to him but the fee to send it was like $400 and I didn't have that cash. So I had to load the kids back in the car...oops Eliott has a poopy diaper...had to stop and change it, then go to an ATM and withdraw $400 more, go back to the place, get everyone back out and in the stroller and go back in. Oh great, there's another customer, I have to wait for him to get done and then she started on mine again. All this time Denzil calling me from Denver saying...okay where's the money, I'm at the Western Union waiting for it? Because closing was supposed to be at 11:00 Mountain time. So finally after waiting with 2 antsy kids running around the place and the other kid hungry, so I'm standing up nursing him she says they went through but she had to do it in 2 different transactions...I don't care, as long as Denzil gets the money. He did get the money and did make it to closing. The devil really worked on that one but he didn't win!

After that I brought the kids back over to Christina's house to play one last time and Fin and I went to Lowe's to get some stuff to fix the house. Then we met my mom at our old house about 4:30 and I painted a window sill, hung a mirror, put some light covers on and then got all the stuff out of the refrigerator and freezer and loaded it in my mom's car to put in her fridge. Then we had to drive to my mom's and the kids were passed out in the car so I ran in and got all our stuff...suitcases, toys, diapers, etc and then we headed over to my dad & stepmom's house ate dinner, celebrated Father's Day and said goodbye. At 9:00 we went to the airport and picked Denzil up and started to driving to Colorado. We stopped once at a rest stop and Phoebe & Eliott sat in Denzil's lap and Fin layed on my chest and we slept for about 2 hours. Denzil had slept between closing on the house and flying here so he was good on sleep. At about 7 am we got to Colby, KS and got breakfast and found a big outside playground that the kids loved playing on. It was just what they needed! We finally made it to our new house about noon.

We stayed in our empty house and slept on air matresses until our stuff got here on Tuesday. Then the unpackers came on Wednesday and unpacked everything. It's been a crazy couple of weeks but we're finally getting to some kind of normal. We still haven't hung stuff on the walls and we have 5 ceiling fans we need to put up but it will get done eventually. With some of the extra money we got we bought some toys for the kids and still have to put those together too. Will have to take pics of all those too.

Here's some other pictures to enjoy until then:

This is the funniest picture I've ever taken of Eliott...he looks just like his father!!

I'm ready to take a drive mom!

Last Saturday we got to go to a family amusement park called Heritage Square and is at the foothills of the mountains. Eliott and I unfortuntely got altitude sickness from it and caused Eliott to throw up 4 times (in my van-YUCK!) and get a really high fever. At 11:45 that night he was laying in our bed with 104 fever and we had just got off the phone with the nurse line asking if we should take him to an urgent care and Denzil went downstairs to get him some juice when all of a sudden he appeared to be asleep and he screamed like he was having a bad dream and his arms flew out to his sides, his back arched and his eyes started rolling back in the back of his head. I started screaming "He's having a seizure Denzil, what do I do?" I've read about them in Parents magazine several times but when it actually happens to your own kid you forget everything. It's so scary to watch them, so helpless! Denzil dialed 911 and flew up the stairs in I think 2 steps. The 911 operator said they are common when little kids get high fevers like this. The ambulance came and Denzil and Eliott got to take a ride in it to Children's Hospital. He's fine and there's no effects or anything from it, just a little scary. Here's some pictures from the amusement park:

Daddy and Phoebe on the Ferris Wheel

On the carousel

Scared on the ferris wheel!

Phoebe's first roller coaster and she loved it!!

Eliott's first roller coaster and hated it!

Phoebe's second roller coaster and she loved this one too!

Can't wait till tomorrow!

2008-05-12T20:05:00.000-07:00

Well in about 12 hours I will probably be in the pushing stage soon to meet the newest member of our family...WOW!! I can't believe it! It's such an amazing thing God does in our bodies by creating life, thank you God!!
So on Tuesday we'll have Fin, Wednesday we'll come home from the hospital, Friday is Phoebe's birthday and her and Eliott's checkups with the peditrician to get shots. Then on Saturday is Phoebe's birthday party at BounceU...I'm so glad we decided to pay the ridiculous amount of money to not have anything to worry about! That should be lots of fun for the kids. Then on Monday, Denzil has to go to Denver for their safety audits...so Fin will be less than a week old and I will be left with 3 kids...holy cow!! God please be with me! Denzil's official start date in Denver is June 9th but I'm not sure we'll be down there then. I think it just depends on the closing date on a new house, etc.
Hopefully while Denzil is in Denver he'll have some time to look at some houses and it would be really nice if he could find one and start the buying process but not sure if he'll even have time to look. But if he doesn't then probably over the Memorial Day weekend we'll be driving to Denver to look at houses and yes..with our 3 kids. There's no way we can leave 2 here with family and take Fin with us...we think that would just be bad on Phoebe & Eliott.
I had a great Mother's Day yesterday! It was busy but it was good. My mom came to church with us then we stopped and got something to eat and went to the zoo, hoping all the walking would put me in labor but nothing...darn! At about 4:30 we were in the children's petting zoo and Eliott was petting a goat when it decided Eliott's hand smelt good and turned around, put his whole hand in it's mouth and just started chewing on it, not nibbling, chewing and chewing. Eliott tried to pull it out but he couldn't and was screaming his head off. We thought it was just because it scared him so I handed him to Denzil, who was outside of the gate and got Phoebe and we walked out of the petting zoo part. When I got over there his finger was bleeding pretty good and all I had was hand sanitizer so I rubbed it all over it and we started for the front of the zoo. We went to the first aid place and we cleaned his finger off, put neosporin on it and a bandaid and called the peditrician office. They said that whenever a bite breaks the skin they want to see them. So we had to go to the Children's urgent care at St Francis on Mother's Day. We were in and out in 25 minutes and of course was no big deal but they wanted to make sure. And then we still made it to dinner with my dad & stepmom. So overall it was a good day. I'm still worn out from all the walking though.
The next time I post I will have a brand new baby!!!

It's Official!

2008-05-08T20:59:00.000-07:00

Well went to the doctor today and I'm still 5cm dialated, no more progress. I've been off bed rest and walking around now for a week and nothing. So my doc scheduled my induction for Tuesday, May 13 at 7:30 am. Please pray that I go into labor before that!

And we have some new news that not everyone knows about just yet but has become official this week. Within the next month or so we will be moving to Denver, Colorado!! It's a definte big change for us and so much to deal with all at once with Fineas being delivered in the next 5 days, Phoebe's birthday on the 16th and her birthday party at Bounce U on the 17th and now a move 700 miles away. Away from all my family and the great friends I have here but it's not like we won't be back to visit everyone. Denzil has been offered a job with the same company, Anheuser-Busch and it's a great opportunity. We are very excited and looking forward to it. We told my Dad & stepmom tonight and they were really happy for us and seemed just as excited as we were. Wasn't really expecting that...we were more expecting them to be sad but they were both really happy and the first thing my Dad said was "Cool!" So that made me feel really good. I told my Mom yesterday at lunch and that on the other hand didn't go so well but hopefully she'll come around to accepting it and be happy for us. Denzil has a start date of June 9th but we're not sure if the kids and I will stay here until we close on a house there so we won't have to move to temporary housing and then to another house or what? We haven't heard from the relocation specialists yet so we can't put our house on the market or any of that yet. And obviously since I'm still pregnant and could go into labor anytime we can't go to Denver to look at houses like a normal couple could!
Well it's way past bedtime so this will be it for today-

Status

2008-04-30T19:34:00.001-07:00

Well went to my doctor's appt today and she said I was still at 5 cm but my bag of water is protruding threw that. Technically I'm not 36 weeks until Friday so she said stay on bed rest and keep taking the meds until at least Friday. She said she's going out of town this weekend to see her dad and he's an hour away so if I go into labor she may not make it to deliver him. So she said I could take the meds through Saturday or Sunday if I wanted just to make sure she's in town but who's to say I'll even make it to the hospital when she is in town...haha...since I'm already at a 5, halfway there!!
What's really funny is that my Grandpa's birthday is on Monday, he'll be 89 and when we told him months and months ago that I was pregnant and the due date was May 30 he said "oh you can have it on my birthday." And everytime I've talked to him since he says "how's the one that's going to come on my birthday" or "and you're going to have another one on my birthday, right?" We've all just thought he was crazy and said "there's no way he'll come that early" but I just keep agreeing with him. That would be great if he comes on Monday. I told Denzil a few weeks ago that if he's born on Monday then his name will be Fineas William Murphy instead of Fineas Nathaniel Murphy and we'll call him Fin!
So we'll see when his birthday is. I'm anxious to meet him and stop feeling so run down!! Hopefully my next post will be announcing him!

Bed Rest

2008-04-24T10:39:00.001-07:00

Well I just made it home from my doctor's appointment and I have been prescribed bed rest. My blood pressure is fine, 100/60, but I am only 35 weeks and I am 5 cm dialated. So I am supposed to be on bed rest until I go see her on Wednesday. Wow, this is crazy!! She said if I go into labor it's no big deal but the baby would be taken to the ICU for at least 24 hours to be monitored so I've got to make it to 36 weeks.
So I've got to get to bed! Please pray that the baby is fine and when he decides to come he will be ready to meet us!!

He is there, all you have to do is reach for him!

2008-04-23T19:34:00.000-07:00

Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of
Passage?

His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him
alone. He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the
blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry
out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN.

He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad
must come into manhood on his own. The boy is naturally terrified. He can
hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe
even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and
shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It
would be the only way he could become a man!

Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his
blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump
next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from
harm. We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, God is watching
over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to
do is reach out to Him.

Moral of the story:

Just because you can't see God, doesn't mean He is not there. 'For
we walk by faith, not by sight.'

Pnemonia, Surgery and 5 weeks to go!

2008-04-01T20:28:00.000-07:00

(I wrote this post last week sometime but never posted it...oops!) Well we've had more sickness here in the Murphy household this last week. Last Tuesday Phoebe's teacher called from mother's day out and said she was running a low fever and just didn't feel good and I should come pick her up. By the time I got there to pick her up their thermometer was reading her temp to be 106.7, she was burning up and starting to shake. It totally freaked me out so I drove straight home since we are pretty close and the peditrician's office is closed for lunch from 12:30 to 1:30, gave her a dose of tylenol and our thermometer read 105. By that time is was 1:30 and I started calling the ped's office. They said they could see her at 2:10 so I changed Eliott's diaper and changed Phoebe's clothes to something much cooler and started for the door. Thankfully the phone rang and it was Eliott's teacher, Christina, from mother's day out offering to watch him while I took Phoebe to the doc. Oh WOW-what a blessing! He would have totally worn me out if I had to bring him too. Luckily she lives in our neighborhood and so I loaded them in the car, dropped him off and Phoebe felt so bad she was screaming and crying about everything. I don't even remember what it was on the way to Christina's house but then all the way to the doctor she just screamed and cried that she wanted Bubba..."I want Bubba...go back and get Bubba...pick Bubba up right now!" Poor girl! So after a strep test and x-rays the doc said she had pnemonia. Gave us a prescription for antibiotics and sent us on our way. Of course she hates the way the antibiotics taste so I'm having to hide them in yogurt, pudding, ice cream but hey whatever works, right? She had a 105 temp on Wed and Thursday too but finally went away on Friday. Friday morning she woke up and was a totally different person, she felt a whole lot better!

On Friday morning our little man had tubes put in his ears and his adnoids out. Surgery went well but going back there and seeing him in recovery was the hardest!! He was just screaming and crying and didn't want to be held, he kept arching his back and finally pulled his iv out and blood went squirting all over me. We sat there in recovery for probably 45-55 minutes and he screamed and cried the whole time. He refused to take a drink, eat a popsicle or calm down. There were other parents in there with their kids and they weren't screaming like this so of course they were looking at me and who knows what they were thinking. But when we were walking out of recovery, which finally calmed him down, I noticed that their kids were a little older and their parents could explain stuff and they could talk to their parents and say what hurt, etc. They put us in a room and I was able to rock him to sleep, thankfully!! They took his vitals two more times and then we were released. He was awake the whole time on the way home and drank his Pedilyte almost the whole way. When we got home he acted totally fine. He got down and started playing with his blocks that Phoebe & Dad had gotten out to play with while we were gone. He only took an hour nap that afternoon and seemed fine all the way up until Monday. He started being cranky and waking up at 3 in the morning and I guess it was the adnoids healing. Two days he woke up from his nap just screaming and crying and pointing in his mouth and at his throat. Poor dude!

Well I will be 33 weeks on Tuesday, the 8th so that means only 4 weeks until I'm full term and 5 weeks until I'm 38 weeks, which is when I had both Phoebe & Eliott. I really want to have this baby so my back pain will go away, I will feel back to normal and not have a huge belly but then again I'm kind of afraid of what I will do with 3-YEAHHHH!!

Well I've got to get to my bible study--

Poem

2008-02-27T19:03:00.000-08:00

I got this poem today in an email from a friend. Wow, it's pretty powerful!! Here it goes...

I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven's door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp--
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.

Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.

I nudged Jesus, "What's the deal?
I would love to hear Your take.
How'd all these sinners get up here?
God must've made a mistake.

"And why's everyone so quiet,
So somber - give me a clue."
"Hush, child," He said, "they're all in shock.
No one thought they'd be seeing you."
JUDGE NOT.

Wow!! Yes it's true each of us sin every day but that's the love of Jesus Christ, he forgives us each and every day...You are an awesome God!!

I got this saying from another email....
Remember.....Just going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.

Hmmmm...how true that is!! I think too many people think that going to church gives them a pass into Heaven but that's so not true. Don't get me wrong we are called by God to go to church every Sunday to hear His word and fellowship with other believers but He wants so much more than that for each of us. He wants us to live for Him and do His work on a daily basis. Not only look at His word on Sunday but to open it and read it every day, study it, live by it and raise our children by it.
I am currently doing a bible study of Priscilla Shirer and there is a part in there that I am going to quote: she says " John 3:16 clearly states that God sent His Son to die for those who needed saving but that salvation only comes to those who "believe on Him." Our walk with Christ began when we removed the confidence we had in our ability to save ourselves and decided to trust Him instead. Our ability to live victoriously while here on earth depends on our willingness to put our confidence in Him."
Here's another part that she talks about having a relationship with God...
"A relationship with God begins by admitting we are not perfect and continue to fall short of God's standards. Romans 3:23 says "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." The price for these wrongdoings is separation from God. But God provided a way to get rid of that separation by coming down to earth in the form of Jesus. When Jesus was crucified on the cross He provided a way to allow our sins to be forgiven and restore our relationship with God. God doesn't ask us to clean up our lives before we come to Him. He wants us to come as we are, receiving Him as Savior and Lord.
Forgiveness begins when we admit our sin to God. When we do, He will forgive us and restore our relationship with Him. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9)
This love gift and relationship with God is not just for a special few but for everyone. "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" (Rom. 10:13)."
I really love the study and recommend it.."He Speaks to Me: Preparing to hear from God."

Tubes

2008-02-25T18:58:00.001-08:00

Took Eliott to the doc today to check out his ears because he got the same "cold" I've had and is now pulling at his ears. "They don't look good" we heard from the doc. He's 16 months old and his vocabulary consists of mama, dada, ball and sometimes you can make out dog, so she's worried that the fluid is causing his speech delay so we're off to the ENT next week to talk about tubes.
We're all lonely this week without Denzil. He went on a business trip to California and I know it's just my messed up pregnancy hormones but I feel so lonely and kind of sad. I know it will fly by and he'll be home before I know it but it's still so weird not having him coming home at night. The kids have done pretty good. They've been talking to him on the phone. Phoebe tells him all about her day and what we're going to do tomorrow and Eliott listens to him and then blows him kisses, it's really cute! Surprisely Phoebe's been great and hasn't thrown that many fits at all, WOW! But usually by the time he comes back it takes her a day or two to warm back up to him and he absolutely hates that! But maybe it won't happen this time.
Well gotta go bake muffins for bible study tomorrow-

Female or Male?

2008-02-25T18:49:00.001-08:00

No I'm not referring to the baby in my belly, we already know he's a boy!
Back in December when we went to the Anheuser-Busch party at the OSU campus I had a very interesting conversation with one of the wives of the guys Denzil works with. Her name is Vicky and she's so wild and crazy. She started telling me that there was a difference between pine cones...there are male ones and female ones. I thought this women was absolutely crazy and it was after a few hours of being there so I thought maybe she had had a little too much to drink. So I was intrigued and asked what she was talking about. She said that she had done research years and years ago for one of her daughters school papers and how God is one amazing God because he even made pine cones male and female. I sat there and listened and just thought she was blowing smoke but....sure enough I searched for it on the internet and it is true....

The cone is the reproductive structure of a conifer.
Its form is that of a very short branch with many small, rounded, leaf-like structures (scales) attached to a central stem.
A female cone lives and grows for several years, becoming much larger than a male cone.
An ovule develops on each scale of a female cone. Inside the ovule, an egg cell is produced. If fertilization occurs, an embryo grows inside the ovule. The ovule hardens, becoming a seed.
Eventually the scales spread, allowing the seeds to fall. If conditions are favorable where it falls, the embryo inside the pine seed will grow into a new tree.
Male cones live only a few weeks. On each tiny scale of a male cone, a pollen sac develops, inside which pollen grains are formed. Each pollen grain is a protective container for a sperm cell.
When mature pollen is released, the male cones die and fall apart.
Pollen is carried by the wind, and some of the pollen grains land between the scales of female cones, resulting in fertilization.

Okay...the words sperm, fertilization, ovule, embryo...those are words I never expected to use talking about pine cones. But there you go folks...you learn something new everyday don't you?

Is it the flu?

2008-02-21T20:08:00.001-08:00

Well the last couple ballet classes Phoebe has actually danced the whole time. My theory about the candy in my previous post was right. I told her no candy if she didn't dance and I didn't sit at the back of the room for her to sit in my lap. I stood right next to her on her sticker and slowly eased myself at least against the wall. Now she turns around and says "mommy, sit down." She's finally gotten comfortable and it doing all her moves. It's the most adorable thing and she loves it so much. She comes home and shows Daddy all her moves and then sings for him what she learned in music class at school on Tuesday and Thursday. She's so totally girl! She loves singing, dancing, and loves artsy crafty stuff. She loves to paint, cut with her scissors, and glue. I think she could spend hours doing it.
Denzil and I have had some kind of flu like sickness this whole week. Actually Denzil got it last Wednesday and I got it on Sunday. I have a very stuffy nose, headache, a really bad cough that hurts my ribs, lungs and back every time I cough, body aching all over and a 101 fever. I went to bed on Saturday night feeling absolutely fine and Sunday morning I woke up and felt horrible. I haven't been able to sleep because of the fever, not being able to breath and being freezing one minute and sweating the next. I went to my doc on Tuesday and he said it sounded just like the flu but before he could give me Tamiflu he'd have to test me to see if that's for sure what it was or not otherwise that would'nt do anything. Well Wed morning he called and said it was negative. I am very glad it's not the flu but I think I was hoping he said it was positive so I could go pick something up at the pharmacy, take it and get some kind of relief. Now since it's not the flu I just have to wait it out. I'm so sick of coughing so hard my whole body just hurts really bad or I throw up, which has happened a couple of times. I finally slept good last night because I took some Tylenol night severe cold medicine and it really helped me sleep, thankfully! It's so hard to be sick and still be the one responsible to clean the house, do laundry, feed everyone, etc. and be expected to get better.
Well it's getting late and I'm going to bed-

Kicks!

2008-01-23T20:10:00.000-08:00

Wow-I will be 22 weeks tomorrow and today is the first time that I've actually felt with my hand on the outside of my belly the baby kicking. It's the most awesome feeling in the world and that's one of the things I absolutely love about being pregnant! Denzil and I were laying in bed this morning feeling him kick and it was soooo cool! It's a relief too because the first 21 weeks when you don't feel him you just wonder if he's okay because you pretty much don't know what's going on in there. But now every couple hours I feel him doing flips and kicking everywhere. I have another doctors appt tomorrow so we'll get to see him again too. Hopefully I don't have to get my blood taken again-YUCK!
Today was the 3rd week of ballet and Phoebe still sat there the whole class and did nothing. So at the end I told her that she couldn't have any candy from the teacher since she didn't dance. Of course this was not okay with her and she started whining that she didn't want to leave because she wanted "candy". So we walked over to the teacher and Ms. Casey told her that if she did a couple ballet moves for her right then and dance next time, she'd give her a piece of candy. So it took a few "come on Phoebe, you do them at home all the time" to get her to do a couple moves but she finally did them and then got her candy. So I've really got to be talking about it every day this next week that she's going to dance otherwise no candy and I think she'll do okay. And I'm not going to sit at the back of the classroom like all the other mom's, I guess I stand up with her on her sticker, as much as I don't want to but I think that will help her.
I went to my chiropractor last Thursday and he adjusted me and then adjusted my neck too and WOW that was amazing!! My back pain is gone and has been since then and I didn't know I could move my neck this far. At the time he did my neck it felt like and sounded like he broke my neck but it feels amazing now!
Well it's getting late and I need to go to bed-

It's 2008!

2008-01-13T20:01:00.000-08:00

Wow, it's 2008 and I'm finally catching up with blogging. I can't believe it's already 2008, I remember just yesterday they were talking about how much trouble it was going to be when it changed to 2000...Y2K! It's crazy how time flies. I gave up a long time ago on making new years resolutions because they never last. I always have good intentions but never lasts. I do have many many things that I'm trying to work on though to become a better person, wife, mother, and role model but I think that will continue throughout my whole life. I did come up with a new cleaning schedule and a "routine" for the kids every day and I've done pretty good following it this last week so I hope I can keep it up and it will work because I've got to get a good routine down before this baby boy gets here.

It was a good weekend...we finally a few things done that had needed to be done. Got my first oil change in my van and then Denzil took the nasty car seats out of the van so he could disassemble them to wash the covers. They eat and drink in them, Phoebe's had a few accidents in hers and smelled of urine and Eliott spit up in his last week and smelled of spit up. So they were pretty discusting and I am so glad they are washed and put back together. But they are still in the living room and not yet back in the van so I guess we're not going anywhere tomorrow!! As I sit here and type this I can say all my dishes are done, my last load of laundry is drying in the dryer and all the toys are picked up. Wow! But I know it will be a totally different story tomorrow! I did a lot of laundry this weekend because Eliott kept spitting up (he's been spitting up ever since being on the antibiotics that he's on) and when we picked Phoebe up from Sunday school she had peed in her panties. So Denzil carried her to the bathroom, which got his jacket and shirt all wet and then had to drive home with a naked daughter. That's right when we got to the car she wanted to take her dress off. I had already taken her panties and tights off in the bathroom but when we got to the car she didn't want to sit on her wet dress so she took it off and strapped herself into her seat buck naked! It was pretty funny! She's actually been doing pretty well pottying in the toilet but there were new people in her class at church and one of them was a man and she warms up quicker to women than men so that's probably why she didn't say she had to go but they never asked either.

I am looking forward to this week as on Tuesday at bible study we start a new study and I can't wait to do that and then we'll probably go out to dinner that night for our anniversary which will be fun. I'm really hoping to go to the chiropractor on Thursday too but not sure yet. Speaking of that I've got to go do my prenantel Yoga-

December 2007

2008-01-09T20:43:00.001-08:00

In December I also took the kids to the Picture People in the mall to get their pictures taken together and get our pictures taken with Santa. Santa went well although neither one is smiling they both are sitting on his lap and looking at the camera! But the adventure to the Picture People was rather interesting. Eliott didn't want to sit down or be in one spot for longer than 2 seconds and Phoebe didn't like the girl taking the pictures so she was hiding from her and would start throwing a fit when I would pick her up and carry her over to where the photographer said to put her. They do everything digital now so they took more pictures than usual and they did get a good one of each of them...

but I just wanted one good one of them together and here's the best it got...

It's a great pic of Phoebe but Eliott had a day where his tongue would not stay in his mouth so in almost all the pictures he has his tongue out!

Christmas was good but we did way to much on Christmas day. I realized that next year we're going to have to tone it way down. We did Christmas here in the morning then went over to my dad & stepmoms at 11:30, did gifts, ate lunch then went home to give the kids a nap and I made Christmas dinner for my mom and brother...stuffed brisket, green bean casserole, sweet potato casserole, rolls and my mom brought the deserts. So it was way to much for us to do in one day, we're going to have to split it up this year and maybe we can stay home all day!! I've never been able to do that but that sure would be nice. All the years growing up we'd pretty much do Christmas 3 times on the same day...our family in the morning at home, then my dad's side then my mom's side. Of course as a kid that was great but I'm sure it was really wearing on my parents. I think we'll be changing that tradition really quick!

You know I've been thinking alot about how stressed out these Phoebe fits are making me and how I just don't have any energy to clean the house or anything and it was like a baseball bat hit me upside the head...I thought to myself, you know when these kids are grown and out of the house I can have a clean house everyday for the rest of my life (except for when grandkids come, of course) and I know these fits aren't going to last forever with Phoebe. I just have to be patient and show her the best way to deal with "life" and how unfair it is...even when I don't want her to draw all over her baby doll with an ink pen. So instead of getting frustrated I need to just calm down and try to enjoy her fit in a way since they won't always be here, you know. Boy I think I'm going a little crazy, LOL!! But I really need to put a lot of effort into raising these kids since a lot of parents aren't very concerned with it, they are just concerned about their own lives. I mean I defintely need to keep God as my #1 because without him there would be no way we could raise these kids right and Denzil has to be #2 because when the kids are gone he'll still be here and I want to be able to say we raised the kids together and still have a great marriage...that is my prayer!!

Tuesday will be our 8th wedding anniversary and being together for 13 years! WOW!! I can't believe it's been that long. Great news....we haven't had a fight since....since well Dale left. I guess the stress level is way down and it's been so much better and I am very thankful for that!

Three months worth of blogging!!

2008-01-08T19:57:00.000-08:00

Wow-has it really been 3 months since my last blog! Can't believe that. A lot has happened in the last 3 months.

I had about 13 weeks of morning sickness that was all day sickness and threw up every day, ususally more than once or twice. So all that time my house was a wreck and all my energy that I had went to taking care of Phoebe & Eliott and occasionally cooking dinner. I'm feeling better these days but still extrememly tired with taking care of two toddlers that keep me on my feet! I am 19 weeks now, due date is May 30 (exactly 2 weeks after Phoebe's birthday) and it is officially a boy!! Wow! Now the name searching begins. It's really nerving to pick out a person's name that they will have their whole lives, you know. I don't want them to be ashamed of or not like their name so there has to be a lot of thought that goes into it...and research too!

Well lets see what else has happened...we were all 4 sick on Halloween so we did nothing! We all felt so bad we didn't even put the kids in their costumes. Then my birthday came and went and we went to Los Cabos and had what I had been craving...spinach enchiladas YUMMY! And got a gorgeous pair of diamond earrings from my wonderful husband!! Thanksgiving was great. I felt halfway decent that day and so I did eat the Thanksgiving feast. I made the green bean casserole and sweet potato casserole (with brown sugar and pecans on top...no marshmellows!) and we went to my dad & stepmom's house at 1 and then went to my mom's house at around 6.

We bought a brand new pre-lit Christmas tree this year and put it up the day after Thanksgiving and had fun putting it up and the kids helping me put ornaments on it (and take them off!).

At the beginning of December Phoebe was in her first Christmas play at church and it was the cutiest thing ever!! She's so adorable!!

Then the second weekend in Dec Denzil and I got to go on a little get away for the night. We dropped the kids off at my dad & stepmom's house and drove to Stillwater. His work had a little holiday thing there on the OSU campus and the Artherton hotel. We went to the wrestling hall of fame which couldn't have ended soon enough...I am so not even interested in wrestling and that was on the bottom of my list to do in my life. Although at dinner I found out that it was one of the guys biggest dreams to go to that before he died, so I guess he got something out of it! Then we went back to our rooms where I tried to take a nap because I was not feeling good at all but the wild ones in our party were right next door and way to loud so the nap didn't happen at all. We then went to dinner where Denzil and I ordered I think it was a 32 oz steak. It was supposed to be a steak for 2. The other 2 couples at our table ordered it also we thought why not. Well it turns out when you order a 32 oz steak it takes about 3 hours (ok I'm exaggerating a little but not much) to cook the thing to medium. So when we all cut into our steaks we have blood all over our plates. Okay that is soooo not cool! So we send them back and back again and when they come back it's still too red but by this time is 9:45 at night and the last thing I want to do is eat this really red steak so I just ate the outside and left it. So dinner wasn't so wonderful. But we had a great time enjoying ourselves with no kids and a lot of adult conversation. The next morning we had breakfast and the ice storm of 2007 had begun. Denzil being the safety manager was having to deal with the weather and the trucks, the roads, the conditions, etc. so I was up to date the whole time. They cut it short since the roads were so bad in Stillwater and all started to drive back to Tulsa. We made it back to our children, picked them up went home went to sleep that night only to wake up to no power. Denzil got up at 4 am, hence the road conditions and all of his trucks on the road and was out the door at 5. When I woke up at around 6 there was no power. So when Eliott woke up around 7:30 I got bundled up and bundled him up and well ate cereal for breakfast since there was no making oatmeal. It was getting way too cold in the house so we called my dad & stepmom, Great they have power, we're on our way over. So we go to their house with our bags packed with a few days clothes, they were already packed for the kids from the night before and my stepmom had washed all their clothes while being there so they were already all clean! Well about 3:30 pm their power went out. But they have 2 fireplaces with plenty of wood to heat the house, whereas our fireplace does not work because some man of the household tired to be nice and save a bird and ruined the flu pipe instead..OOOPS! So we decided to just stay over there and our neighbors were staying home so they would call on my cell phone if the power came back on. Well by Tuesday night still no power and freezing our butts off (make that our dirty butts LOL! since we had no way of taking a warm shower) we needed something else to do. We could tell we and probably our kids were driving my dad & stepmom crazy with all our stuff and fits, etc. On Tuesday night about 2 am Phoebe woke up screaming because she had a fever of 102 and felt horrible but luckily got her calmed down and back to sleep before she woke Eliott up. Wed morning went to the doc and then went to a friends house that had just gotten power on to give the kids a bath. Wow, finally clean kids!! Denzil found us a hotel room in Owasso, the only one he could find and so we said we'd go there. We didn't have the money for a hotel room at all but I guess that's what we have to do. Talk about some stress!! It was so stressful not knowing when you could go back home to your own bed. So after the bath and some chatting at a friends the kids and I drove to our house. Now the driving part was pretty scary. It really looked like a war zone here. Looked like a tornado hit but left all the houses alone and just demolished trees. They were everywhere and all over the streets. You had to drive slowly and especially in the dark with limbs sticking out or down you could run straight into them. So I went in while our neighbor stayed in the car with Phoebe & Eliott and got us some more clothes and some other toys, etc. Walking through your pitch dark freezing cold house was so eerie!! So we're off to Owasso to meet Denzil and this hotel. By this time it's 7:00 and we still hadn't officially eaten dinner...snacked but no dinner. So we were going to get to Owasso get food and then go to the hotel. The kids are worn out, tired, hungry, thirsty, wanting out of their seats so I start saying I know we just want to go home don't we...Phoebe we need to just pray and ask God to turn our power back on so we can go home and go to sleep in our own beds and have a warm house. So we both start saying "Please God just turn our power back on, we really need our power, we are very thankful for our power and we would really like to go home and not to a hotel." Well 30 minutes later we get the the first exit of Owasso, 76th St North and my cell phone rings pick it up and it's my next door neighbor and he says "it's back on" and I yelled in his ear "yeahhhhh are you serious!!" He probably thought I was crazy but we were just talking to God here and I ask Phoebe to pray with me and poof he answers her prayers...Wow, I'll remember the next time I really want something, just ask a 2 year old to pray for it!! So we exit turn around and another 30 minutes later we are in the Taco Bell drive through get food go home eat it and we all go to bed. AHHHHHH...our own warm comfortable bed!! Yeah! It really makes you stop and think how thankful you should be for the things we never think about...our electricity, heat, hot water, lights, your warm bed, etc.

The week before all this ice storm stuff we got rid of our big headache!! Yes we got rid of another dog but it was for the good of our family. Glory was a great dog but 2 months ago she started climbing our fence and getting out of the backyard. So I finally buy a stake and leash attached to it to put her on while we're gone at least. That lasted for two weeks until she had yanked on it so much it came out of the ground and she jumped over the fence with it on her neck. So then she gets stuck to a tree because she's wrapped the thing around it so many times. I was very thankful that we didn't come home to a dog that had hung herself! Then during all this she was eating all the kids food, off the table, out of their hands and she would knock them over to get it. Whenever we would start playing with her she would get so wild that she'd just run right over the kids and make both of them cry on a daily basis and I knew that if she was doing that to them there was no way I could trust her with a baby around. So I called the Tulsa Boxer Rescue and asked them to find her another home and they did. I really miss her but it was for the best and we will not be getting a dog for a very long time!

Then the week before the ice storm Dale drove to Houston for a job interview, got the job, drove back up here got his stuff and moved back to Houston. He's doing good, working 12-14 hours a day as a Service Manager and going to NA meetings.

So with all this stress of Dale leaving, Glory leaving, staying at Oma & Opa's house for a night and then the whole ice storm stress sent Phoebe over the edge. She's been throwing fits like crazy. She had 3 night terrors 3 mornings in a row after we got home from the power outage and I had no idea what they were at the time. She would cry like she was awake so I'd go in there to get her and she would all of a sudden start kicking and hitting, arms and legs flying with a limp body. Her eyes were usually open but she was just screaming and crying. I had no idea what to do or what was wrong with her so I just held her while she threw this what I thought was a huge fit. I even told Denzil that it was like she was asleep and had no idea what was happening. Well after those 3 wonderful mornings I got our monthly email from babycenter.com about our 2 year old, 31 month old and one of the things they talked about was night terrors. I read about them and sure enough it was called a night terror and there is absolutely nothing you can do about them and should either hold them or just leave them alone. It's like a really bad dream but once they wake up they will never remember it, thankfully! But after I read that she didn't have another one of those but the daily sometimes hourly fits kept on coming. Over little stuff, stupid stuff and I'm sure some of it was 2 year old stuff but it was way tooooooooo stressful to deal with. Every day the last 2 weeks, ever since we got out of the routine of going to school for Christmas break, we've dealt with fits at naptime and bedtime. Screaming fits. And they have stressed me out so much I don't know what to do. But today was the first day back to school and yes, even a fit this morning when she woke up. Just screaming and crying not telling me what was wrong or anything but I was not going to give in and not bring her to school. So I got her dressed and finally got out the door with her and took her to school. THANK YOU SO MUCH GOD, we got our daughter back today (Tuesday). She was a totally different kid when I picked her up from school. Ms. Eliza said she talked the whole time, sang, danced...not her usual shy self! And no fit throwing for naptime or bedtime...WOW!! What am I going to do when school gets out for the summer!! And plus we'll have a new baby. Hopefully by then she'll be 3 and "acting" better.

Well I think this blog is long enough...I'll finish another time.

How can something so joyful be so PAINFUL?

2007-10-13T19:37:00.000-07:00

Well it's official...I'm suffering from morning sickness! I have been for the last week and a half. It stinks...it really does. I'm happy that I'm pregnant again and kind of nervous that I'm going to have three 3 and under (I'm still waiting on your survival tips Connie).

I haven't been throwing up nearly as much as I did with Phoebe and Eliott but I'm not so sure that's a good thing. I just feel really really nauseated ALL the time. I have thrown up a few times but I think it would just be better if I did throw up every time I was nauseated. The doc called in two meds for me to take but one of them is for cancer patients going through chemo to take the nausea away so the insurance company will over cover 12...and I'm suppose to be taking them every 6 hours. So I'm just taking those for times I need to feel good.

Like today...I needed to feel good today. Today was Eliott's first birthday!! Wow, he's 1! I can't believe it and oh sooooo cute! We had lots of fun giving him his cake...he was so reserved about it. He was just like "why are you giving me this whole cake, there's no way I'm going to eat it all!" This is his serious face...."what do you expect me to do here?"

Wow, it's been a crazy year but a great one! I totally love my little man. It's sooooo different from having a little girl, they are so opposite! It's really cool to be able to see the big differences. How he's born to know how to take a matchbox car or a truck and wheel it all over the house or how balls are so fascinating but then there's my little princess who loves to just sit and draw, paint, play with playdough or play with her dollhouse. Wow! I am so thankful for both of them!!

I have my first official doctor's appointment on Monday but I think I'm about 8 weeks so due date will be about May, around Phoebe's birthday but hopefully not on Phoebe's birthday!

Well gotta go get my sleep so the morning sickness won't be so bad. I've already begged Denzil to get up with Eliott at his 7 am waking!!

Second words!

2007-09-28T19:28:00.000-07:00

It's official....Eliott's second word is officially Dale. Yes, you read that right, he says DADA and Dale. Oh my, my feelings are so hurt that his second word isn't momma but I totally understand since we say Dale all the time and Denzil or Dale don't call me momma so why would he say something he nevers hears.
Dale's doing really good at his job. He's been there going on 3 weeks now and really likes it. He bought an 1988 Chevy S10 on Thursday also. It's pretty much all in pieces, doesn't run and needs a whole bunch of work but he thinks he can get it running in a week to 2 weeks. It's cool though to be able to watch him work on it and bring it from nothing to something. The main reason he wanted it soooo much is because it has air bags on it. I know I don't understand it either but he's really into to that kind of stuff.
Eliott has been doing pretty good at mom's day out, which I'm very thankful for!! I've been just running around though when they are both at school and I think this Thursday I'm going to just relax!
Well gotta go do the dishes before I go read some of my bible study book-
Rachel

Be Joyful Always!!

2007-09-09T20:20:00.001-07:00

On Friday night my mom came over and I put Eliott in bed and her and Phoebe stayed up and watched movies while Denzil and I went on a date. It's been a long while since we've actually had a "date" night and it was even Denzil's idea! So he took me to Ted's to eat dinner and I even drank a huge Pina Colada, YUMMY!! That was good! I haven't had any alcoholic drink in 3 years. Not that I ever did drink a lot but I love pina colada's! It was good to get out and have some adult talk. I think it's been so hard since we used to spend alone time together after the kids went to bed, about 2-2 1/2 hours. Now since Dale's here we spend the time as all 3 of us and play games, etc. so Denzil and I don't really ever get alone time without Dale here.

Update on Dale...he did get a job at Kwik Kar as a mechanic and he starts tomorrow morning. We had to go buy him lots of mechanic tools yesterday at Sears so I think he's excited to be starting a new job. I pray he likes it and it's a good fit for him!

I have our bible verse of the week on our board as 1 Thessalonians 1:16-18 "Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." A friend told me to memorize that to be more positive and I have caught myself several times saying something negative or getting mad about something and saying to myself "be joyful always...in all circumstances!!" I loved the sermon last week when Greg was preaching on "Jump, then ask how high. Live Dangerously" from 1 Samuel 14:6-9. He said that the center of God's will is a dangerous place to be. Sometimes it may look like we're losing the battle but according to "the Book" we win. It's not easy being a Christian because the instance you become a Chrstian you are at war with satan. Wow, never thought of it that way before...at constant war with satan but we are and I need to pray every day that He gives me the wisdom I need to fight him off!

I think I'll close with the qualities of a good wife/mom from Proverbs 31:
1. Trustworthy/denpendable
2. Encourager
3. Hard working-does whatever it takes to provide.
4. Caring
5. Wise
6. Compassionate
7. Prepared
8. Attitude
9. Reputable-she looks good and makes the family look good
10. Optomistic
11. Plesant-teaching kindness & faithfulness
12. Godly-fear the Lord. When we praise God's creation, we honor God

Please God make me a good wife/mom, and as a women that is like a grandma to me said...being a wife should always come first because in 18 years your husband will still be there and you don't want to look at him and not know who he is.

I am so excited, I get to go to bible study on Tuesday and we're starting a new study, Can't wait!! And it will also be Eliott's first day at mom's day out (since he missed his first day on Thursday because of his ears and not feeling good) so hopefully he's happy there and they won't have to call me!!

The devil is well at work!

2007-08-31T20:45:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's defintely been awhile!! I find it hard to blog when Denzil and I are fighting and we can't seem to make up. The devil has been working on our relationship or maybe it's just because we have the 7 year problem, LOL! We've been married 7 1/2 years and they say that most couples get divorced in their 7th year. At times like this I don't see how couples are married for 50 or 60 years. We've been fighting so much lately and it's getting really old. Please pray that we stop the fighting and start working together.

We did have a fun weekend last weekend though. We got in our new van...yes I said new van. I had a CRV and whenever all of us went somewhere (including Denzil's brother) I would have to sit in between the two car seats in the back and it was way too tight and I hated it. So Denzil went out and bought me a brand spankin' new Honda Odyssey. It's sooo awesome. I'll have to take some pics and post them but that's at a later date. Anyways, we got in my new van and drove to San Antonio on Saturday night when Dale got off work. We got there at 4 am, got in our hotel room and went back to sleep until 7:30 am. We got up and we all went to Sea World. It was great fun!! And then we met up with my Aunt Sylvia and had dinner with her.

On Monday on our way home we stopped in Austin to get Dale's driver's license reinstated so he could get an OK dl and ate lunch there. That was the main point of our drive, was to get his dl reinstated, we just thought we'd make a little vacation out of it. Now that we're home though we brought some sickness with us. Phoebe had it first, a fever, runny nose and then my throat started hurting really bad and now Eliott's got it. Poor little guy...he sneezes and snot goes all over his face!!

Then we got home at midnight on Monday night and Tuesday morning Denzil dropped Dale off at work and they let him go. NEVER GO TO MEINEKE for your car needs!! The guy lied to him from the beginning. First it was that he was going to fire the assistant manager and Dale would take his position. When he started they said they decided not to fire him, they would put him over the mechanic side and Dale over the lube side. So whatever, no biggie. Then he said he would be salary and ended up only paying him hourly and left a whole day off of his check. Then when Dale called him (Him being the general manager of Meineke) he told Dale to "Go to hell," and hung up on him. WHAT!! I thinks he's got another job lined up though we're just waiting to hear from them.

Phoebe also went and got in my powder while I was in the kitchen last week. Here she is...Is this what she thinks I look like when I put my makeup on?!?

And here's my two beautiful babies in the bath tub...loving bath time!! I love them so much and it's amazing how much Phoebe says everyday. It's almost scary but soooo cute!

Amazed!!

2007-07-31T11:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, this is the last week of ballet for Phoebe and she stood on her sticker today and did all of her ballet moves. I was so shocked I think I was smiling bigger than I had ever smiled before-PROUD MOMMY MOMENT!!! All weekend I was having her do certain ballet moves and she would do them and she showed Daddy and then on Saturday when we were at Grammy's house she showed her her ballet moves. So I had been working with her a lot and telling her "this is the last week for ballet and you're going to dance for Miss Tonya, right?" And she'd say yes. So she did all the moves but then there's one part that the 4 other little girls go up to Miss Tonya and hold hands and walk around in a circle. She would always refuse to do that and would just come lay in my lap and say no. So today when they did it I said go up there Phoebe and dance with your friends and she got up and kind of hesitated but followed the other little girls and went up there and held their hands. OH MY GOSH, I was totally beside myself I couldn't believe it. My little shy girl is actually doing it, wow!! It was totally great!! It was pretty funny though because while she was walking up there she had her hand in her mouth, something she does I guess her way of fidgeting, and when she took her hand out and reached for the little girls hand next to her, the little girl threw her hand down and said Yuck, it's wet. And me, her mom and dad busted out laughing. Miss Tonya just said Ok, well you can just hold her wrist and puts her hand around Phoebe's wrist. Then in the middle of going around in a circle they all let go of each others hands to dance and the little girl goes on the other side of Phoebe so she doesn't have to hold her "wet" hand again, it was hilarious!! I was so proud of her!!

I never realized how much I say "can't" until Phoebe started repeating it and saying "I can't" do this or that. I guess that's another negative part of me coming out. But we'll be driving down the road and she'll say "get my phone, please mom" and I'll stop myself from saying I can't because I don't want her saying that. So I am trying to find other words to use besides I can't and now when she says that I make her try it and tell her she can do anything. It's hard to just totally get a word out of your vocabulary but when it comes to my daughter saying it, I will stop saying it!!

And Eliott's continuing to grow up so fast. He has such a funny little personality. He crawls everywhere and is even starting to do the "monkey crawl" with one foot on the ground like walking and the other leg with his knee on the ground crawling. He crawl over to something and stand up and let go he just hasn't taken that first step yet. It's so cute. Here he is pulling up on Glory and standing next to her. Here's another funny pic of him loving on her- AHHHH, how cute!!

What we've been up to-

2007-07-24T06:59:00.000-07:00

Wow, things are busy around here but we've been doing great! Eliott's trying to walk and says "dada" now, he's so cute!

This is dad and Eliott at the Safari Sanctuary in BA. He loves being on his daddy's shoulders!

Phoebe's in ballet and a music class and both of them are fun! She's a little shy in the ballet class, actually I don't know if it's shy or just bored because she'll do all the moves the first 5-10 minutes of class but then stop and just sit there or lay in my lap. She's saying full sentences now. Four weeks ago she would say "I drew shirt" and just in the last week she now says "I drew on my shirt." It's so cute to hear her actually say all the words that go in the sentence!! And as she told me this morning about Glory, "This is her paw!" This is Phoebe giving Glory hugs in Phoebe's bed.

Here's a picture of her petting the kangaroo at the Safari Santuary.

Dale is doing great also! He's gotten one of his classes that he needed to do done and he's working on all his community service. He's been so great with the kids and helping out around here! Here's just a few pics of him...

Here he is powerwashing our fence, wow look at the difference!! Anyone interested in him doing it to your fence??Here he is on our back porch with Phoebe. We found out he is an artist and he drew this monkey off of her "Five little monkeys jumping on the bed" book. She was so excited to watch him draw it!!And here he is with Eliott at the Safari Sanctuary.

Phoebe & her ballet teacher, Ms. Tonya

2007-07-24T06:49:00.000-07:00

Our little ballerina!!

2007-07-12T13:22:00.000-07:00

What a week!!

2007-07-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

Wow, we've had an interesting week! Monday, July 9th was Denzil's 30th birthday and I wanted to do something special for him. He already told me that he defintely did not want a surprise birthday party so I thought that I would call his mom and ask her to come up here and either offer to pay for the plane ticket or gas. She lives in Bon Wier, TX, which is on the LA line. We haven't seen her since Denzil's graduation in January of 2005, so she still hadn't met Phoebe or Eliott. She just couldn't ever get off work and we tried going down there but they are in the process of building a house of 55 acres and is just staying in a little trailor right now so there was no room for us. And there were no hotels around because they live in the middle of no where!! So anyways she said she would come up and so last week I was going crazy since I couldn't tell Denzil and I was being so sneaky. Plus I had to clean the house daily and make sure it was totally clean. And I had to get sheets, pillows and a matress pad for the sofa bed. So on Friday his mom and step dad drove up here and it totally shocked Denzil. He was very surprised and so we went out to dinner to celebrate his birthday. That was fun to get to see them and Phoebe & Eliott meet them. They left on Saturday and then on Sunday Denzil, Phoebe & Eliott and I got in the car and drove to Houston. Yeah, wow!! An 8 1/2 hour drive but we found out that the kids do great on road trips. We were really surprised how good they were, especially Eliott. Since he's still turned around in his seat and can't see us I figured he'd get grumpy fast but he did awesome! Then we drove back up here on Monday, so we weren't even in Houston for 24 hours. We drove for 17 hours between Sunday at 11 to Monday night at 2:00 am. The reason for all this was because Denzil's brother has gotten himself into some trouble and so we decided to go down there and offer some help. It turns out that he does want to turn his life around and so we offered him to come up here and stay with us until he can get back on his feet. So on Monday when we drove back I had to sit in between the 2 car seats and oh my gosh that was so uncomfortable and I'm still feeling it! So he's got to find a job but before he does that he's got to take some classes and do some community service. If you know of anywhere he could do community service, let me know. We're trying to find places now. But he's been a lot of help since he's been here. Denzil's had him do some stuff around the house..spray bug spray, change spark plugs, etc. Then Phoebe started ballet class and OH MY!!! How adorable!! But Uncle Dale watched Eliott in a little play room that they have so that was a huge help!! It's been cool having him here so far and it's so worth it to see him turning his life around. Denzil made a document in Word about 1 week, 2 week, 30 day, 90 day, 1 year, 5 year and 10 goals and gave it to him to fill out. He's been working on it. So just please pray that we give him the support he needs. Of course he'll be coming to church with us on Sunday and Denzil's been talking a little about the Saving Grace of Jesus.
Well got to go for now, just wanted to update everyone-
Rachel

Here's our Glory--

2007-07-06T12:30:00.000-07:00

The Fern and the Bamboo

2007-06-27T20:27:00.000-07:00

I got this story in an email and I loved it so I thought I would share it on my blog:

One day I decided to quit --- I quit my job, my relationship, my spirituality. I wanted to quit my life. I went to the woods to have one last talk with God.
"God," I said, "can you give me one good reason not to quit?"
His answer surprised me. Look around," He said. "Do you see the fern and the bamboo?"
"Yes," I replied.
"When I planted the fern and the bamboo seeds, I took very good care of them. I gave them light. I gave them water. The fern quickly grew from the earth. Its brilliant green covered the floor. Yet, nothing came from the bamboo seed, but I did not quit on the bamboo.
In the second year the Fern grew more vibrant and plentiful, and again, nothing came from the bamboo seed, but I did not quit on the bamboo.
In the third year, there was still nothing from the bamboo seed, but I would not quit. In the fourth year, again, there was nothing from the
bamboo seed, but I still would not quit.
Then in the fifth year a tiny sprout emerged from the earth. Compared to the fern it was seemingly small and insignificant, but just 6 months later, the bamboo rose to over 100 feet tall. It had spent the five years growing roots. Those roots made it strong and gave it what it needed to survive. God said, "I would not give any of my creations a challenge it could not handle."
He then said to me. "Did you know, my child, that all this time you have been struggling, you have actually been growing roots. I would not quit on the bamboo; I will never quit on you. Don't compare yourself to others."
He continued, "The bamboo has a different purpose than the fern, yet they both make the forest beautiful. Your time will come. You will rise high!"
"How high should I rise?" I asked.
"How high will the bamboo rise?" He asked in return.
"As high as it can?" I questioned.
"Yes." He said. "Give me glory by rising as high as you can."
I left the forest and brought back this story. I hope these words can help you see that God will never give up on you.
Never regret a day in your life.
Good days give you Happiness.
Bad days give you Experiences.
Both are essential to life. Keep going.
Happiness keeps you Sweet.
Trials keep you Strong.
Sorrows keep you Human.
Failures keep you Humble.
Success keeps You Glowing.
But Only God keeps You Going!
God is so big He can cover the whole world with his Love and so small He can curl up inside your heart. The Son is shining!!

Wow, that's a great story! I love to think that in the beginning of our Christian walk we begin on the inside by creating our "roots" in Him! And changing the stuff inside of us that needs to be changed.
I also love it that it states that we are to rise as high as each of us can, not compared to your neighbor. We are all called to do different things and be different, we should not compare ourselves to others!!

Didn't work out!

2007-06-26T10:39:00.000-07:00

Well yeah you read it right, it didn't work out. We had Jaycie for 4 days and she snapped at Phoebe. Right when she did it I said, Oh my we've got to give her back. And then I felt bad and thought we can't do that, it was just a fluke we'll keep her. The more I thought about it and then telling Denzil about it we called the Tulsa Boxer Rescue and said she snapped at Phoebe and the women asked no questions, she just said Ok, I'll call the foster home back and they'll come pick her up tonight. It's cool though because they have a 2 week trial period where if it just doesn't work out, you can try another if you want to. So we got on the website and found Glory. She's a beautiful white boxer with black spots and it said she was good with kids and is playful. Jaycie did not have a playful bone in her body, she was just laid back and relaxed and so the kids became an annoyance to her and she hadn't ever been around kids. So we told them that we would try Glory out and see how she'd do. So on Saturday my mom, Phoebe and Eliott and I drove up to Oklahoma City (her foster home was in OKC) and got her and then drove back here. OH MY! What a change from Jaycie. One thing I noticed early on but didn't really think anything about was that Jaycie would get in between Phoebe and I or in between Denzil and I. I guess maybe it was an early sign of jealously and she wanted to be the center. So I am truly glad she showed her "real" self before the 2 weeks was up!! But Glory is just like have a great playful puppy but also the joys of having an older dog (ie: not having to potty train her, not jumping up, not biting with those little sharp teeth, etc.). And she is really great with the kids. I think we found a winner this time. We're taking her to the vet tomorrow morning to get her shots, heartworm test and to look at some scratches on her but it's all on the Tulsa Boxer Rescue because they just hadn't had time to do any of that yet and her shots aren't due till August anyway. So it's nice of them to pay for them.
Well I've got to get to cleaning while the kiddos are asleep-

Thank You!

2007-06-19T19:56:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to say Thank You to those of you who helped us through our surgery! Connie brought us dinner the first night and then my mom, dad & stepmom brought us dinner through the weekend. During the week we had Sarah C and Sandy bring us dinner and Connie brought us dinner again yesterday. THANK YOU SOOOOO MUCH for that! We really appreciate it and it helped us out so much knowing that we didn't have to make dinner. And thank you for calling and checking on me to make sure everything went ok, that means a lot!!
I think Denzil is going back to work tomorrow so finally we'll be back to normal, whatever normal is! He stayed home Monday for my drs appt and he was going to take this whole week off but I feel much better today and I know he's got work piling up since no one covers for him while he's gone.
Well that's all for now-

Our new family member!!!

2007-06-17T21:34:00.001-07:00

Well we also got a new dog this week!! Her name is Jaycie and she's such a sweet girl!! We've been wanting another dog for awhile now but haven't found the right one and did not want a puppy. Before kids our two "kids" were our dogs, a beagle named Lady and a weimaraner named Noah. We loved those dogs and they were truly our spoiled "kids". Right when we brought Phoebe home from the hospital Lady was acting really weird and would lay on the sofa and shake and then jump up and run to the other side of the living room and hunch over and shake. We went to the vet and they said she had bloody diarrhea and to give her some pills and special food for a week. Two weeks later she was no better and so we brought her back to the vet. After many tests and a lot of money afterwards we ended up having to put her to sleep because she had a tumor in her stomach that was causing liver failure. That was sooooo sad and a horrible experience. Well then Noah was okay with Phoebe as a baby and was okay with her crawling but once she got walking and then running he couldn't get away from her and she got on his nerves. He snapped at her one morning when we were all laying in bed so we knew we had to get rid of him. He just was never around kids and his breed is known for not being good with small kids so we gave him to my mom. And they love each other and both are happy together!! We knew we didn't want to get a puppy because they are just way too hyper and I don't have the time to potty train. So Jaycie is 18 months old, potty trained, not hyper and spazzed out like a puppy and is a great dog. Phoebe & Eliott have both already pulled on her and Phoebe hugs and kisses her all the time and says "I love you" and Jaycie is fine with all of it. We got her from Tulsaboxerrescue.net and we can tell she's been hit before because she'll cower down sometimes but she's such a sweet girl. They said that she had been left tied up in a backyard for 2 weeks and the homeowners left. OH MY, how can people be so cruel??
Anyway, just wanted you to meet our new family member, Jaycie!

F's Day, Garage sales and struggling!

2007-06-17T21:14:00.001-07:00

Well surgery went well and I'm feeling much better than I did last week but my belly is still sore. We didn't really realize or I guess stop to think how Phoebe would react to me being gone for 5 hours and then coming home drugged up and dazed out just to go to bed and not spend the day with me at all. Thank God for the plastic door locks that you put over the door handles so kids can't open them!!! She screamed and cried when I went to bed after I got home. She just didn't understand that she couldn't lay in there on the bed with me and jump on it and have fun. I felt really bad for her and it made it pretty hard on Denzil but he managed and made it through this week. He's taking tomorrow off too though because my doctors appt is tomorrow. He said he could take another week off and after today I may ask him too. I was feeling really good and I thought back to 100%. So today I wore normal clothes (My incision is right under my belly button where most of my pants button) and that was a big mistake. It started hurting half way through church and so I'm obviously not back to 100% yet.
We had a good Father's Day. It was a good sermon about what Wives can do to be better wives and then came home fed the kiddos and then left hoping that they would both take their afternoon naps in the car before we went to a late lunch with my Dad, Grandpa and Aunt & Uncle at 3. Eliott slept the whole time but Phoebe fell asleep at 2:55! Of course, that's the way she does it!! So she only got about a 10 min nap but she was ok, surprisingly.
We also had a neighborhood garage sale on Saturday that my mom came over and helped me out with. Denzil went and played paintball for the first time with people from work and had a blast! We made $90 though and may have made $200 more with our tv. A couple said they'd buy it if we still had it on Monday when he got paid but we'll see.
Man oh man, I'm really struggling with this thing of being negative. Not necessarily out loud but more of the thinking and thoughts in my head. I've really got to work on being more positive and it's something I've got to start praying about daily. I pray about it but only when I had a bad day. If anyone has any suggestions on books I could read to be more of a Godly positive person I would appreciate the suggestions. I read The Positive Wife but I've got to focus more on being a woman of God before I focus on being a positive wife. I mean it helped and maybe it would be good if I read it again but it talks about that you've got to have God as your #1 and not your husband and I think I struggle with that. It also talks about if you look to your husband for your happiness than God's not your #1 and that's where I do fail. If Denzil and I are fighting than I am really down and down with God too.
Well I also have some good news but it deserves it's own post...

Prayers answered

2007-06-02T20:41:00.000-07:00

Well we've made it through the first 2 weeks of summer break. Phoebe's been out of school for two weeks already. I thought I'd miss my time with just Eliott and I running around town shopping but it's been fun having her home, although I'm trying not to let Phoebe outside very much and defintely not in the evening, but we've been painting, drawing, playing with play-dou, playing with her new kitchen and dollhouse, etc. She's only 2 and she knows all her colors too!! She just keeps getting bug bites, they swell up the size of Texas and get infected all in less than 24 hrs. Very frustrating! And all this is happening with OFF on. I guess the bacteria that infected the first bite that put us in the hospital has collonized on her skin and we've got to get rid of it. So I'm washing her with Hibiclens and putting 1 TBS of bleach in her bath water. Yeah, you read that right-bleach. OH MY! But if it works, I'll do it. I just pray that they go away and those bugs leave my daughter alone!
It was a pretty good week. I actually had a prayer answered this week and He was so quick about it too. On Monday night I layed in bed praying and noticed (or heard) that Denzil was already asleep. So I prayed that we would do better as a family to be more like His Son, read our bibles, pray at night together and that He would help our marriage as we have been fighting a lot lately. On Wednesday afternoon I checked my email and there was an email from Denzil and the subject was "Your surgery and US". Hmmmm...so I opened it and wow, I started crying. I'm going to be having hernia surgery this Friday, the 8th and I'm kind of nervous about it. I've never had any kind of surgery before or never been knocked out or never had anesthesia before (yes I've had two kids but both natural with no drugs!). Denzil's going to be taking a week off work to take care of us and I've been thinking that we would probably fight the whole time because he's just not up to being "Mr. Mom". But the email was very sweet and he was just letting me know that he is here for me and there is nothing he'd rather do than to take care of us on his vacation. Ahhh! And then he said we needed to sit down and talk tonight, no tv or PS3 tonight, WOW! And one of the things he said we needed to talk about was how to be more like Christ. Wow, right when I read that I thought about my prayer on Monday night and thought God had really put it on his heart that we needed to talk. That's awesome! He does answer our prayers and most of the time I don't see it instantly so that was pretty cool!! So pray my surgery goes well. Denzil is going to watch the kids while my mom takes me to my surgery.

Eliott's first 2 teeth

2007-05-24T11:42:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a week it's been! Saturday we had Phoebe's birthday party and she got lots of great stuff! Sunday Eliott had his 2 front bottom teeth come through his gums and then on Monday he started crawling. Not actually up on all fours yet but he's mobile and scooting everywhere, it's great!
Well that's all for today-

Our stay in the hospital

2007-05-17T19:48:00.000-07:00

On Sat morning Phoebe woke up and had a huge insect bite on her arm. I'm not sure if she got it on Friday while we were outside or what but by 5:00 it was swollen really big and red and she had 104 temp. So we had to take her to the after hrs clinic at St Francis. They said it was infected and had cellulitis, gave her 2 shots of antibiotics, which made her not be able to walk for a few hours because they put them in her legs, and a prescription and said to come back on Sunday for them to check it again. So Phoebe and I went back on Sunday morning thinking they'd just say ok, looks good and go home. But instead the doc said since it hadn't changed and was still swollen he said he was going to have to admit Phoebe to give her iv antibiotics. Since the bite was so close to her joint (elbow) then they don't mess around with that anymore. If the staph infection gets into her joints it's a whole other ball game and would be a lot worse. Wow, wasn't expecting that at all! Here I am with my daughter on Mother's Day getting admitted into the hospital to stay the night, and according to the after hrs clinic doctor we would be staying 2 nights. Denzil is at home with Eliott who is only breastfed with no pumped milk at home...OH MY GOODNESS! I was pretty much freaking out inside but I knew I had to keep my cool for Phoebe's sake. While they got our room ready upstairs we sat in the exam room and I entertained her with a tennis ball and she loved that! Then 2 nurses came in the room and one of them got her arm and was looking at her hand, the other got a blanket and wrapped her up in it with her other arm so she couldn't fight them. They stuck the needle in her hand and my baby girl just started screaming. It was not something that I wanted or ever want to hear on Mother's day. After they got the blood out of it they put the iv tube on it and taped it into place and wrapped it up with tape. I thought to myself..."how in the world will she keep this in?" I felt so bad for her, she was just screaming and crying because it hurt and I picked her up and just held her while she cried and cried. At one point I just started crying because there was absolutely nothing I could do to stop her from hurting. I felt so bad! About 2 hours later we were upstairs in our room talking to another nurse. Luckily she was great with kids and talked Phoebe through what she was doing and had Nemo on her stethoscope. Since I had Eliott's car seat my mom came up to the hospital and was able to stay with Phoebe while I ran home to pack some bags and get Denzil and Eliott. We all stayed at the hospital that night and Denzil and I were soooo sore the next morning from sleeping in those nasty beds! But by Monday morning the bite was not hot to touch, red or swollen anymore and it looked a whole lot better! The doc said we could go home!!! YEAH! I was so thankful that we didn't have to stay in there another night. I think Phoebe kind of enjoyed it though because she had our undivided attention (no housework to do or anything to distract us) and they had a huge playroom with lots of different toys. She did so good with the iv in her arm and she didn't really ever mess with it. There were a few times that she pointed to it and said "tube hurts" but we were able to distract her enough. Then I thought that it would be cool if we could get another one of the little "cast" things that was over her iv and put it on Elmo's arm and that made it a whole lot better! The pic is of her with the "cast" thing on her arm. It was an experience and I am so glad that Phoebe is better now. We go tomorrow for a recheck but it's pretty much all healed up!!

Wednesday was her 2nd birthday and we had a great day! We went to gymnastics, which they sang happy birthday to her, then came home and opened presents then left and drove to the OKC zoo. That was lots of fun, then ate dinner at Shorty Smalls, which has awesome food if you're ever in OKC! And they sang happy birthday to her too. She really liked that, surprisly, and she clapped right along with them as they sang. Then we drove home. It was a fun day and made up for our hospital stay. Saturday we are having a little party for her with family and a few friends so I'm sure she'll like that too.

Fretting

2007-05-08T21:40:00.000-07:00

Well I was reading an article in the Parents magazine and it's titled "What matters most." It is just one mom's account of looking back on being a mother of young ones. One of the things she said that really hit me was this paragraph:
"The pity, when I look back on years of being a mother to my young children, is that I see, among the many happy and wonderful images, an overtired and sometimes burned-out woman, often too stressed by fretting over details to enjoy the great gift of simply being their mother."
I am really feeling like that overtired person right now. I know in the blink of an eye Phoebe and Eliott are going to be grown and graduating from high school, getting married and moving out. I really want to be able to give them an awesome childhood and I want to have those wonderful memories but she's so right, I don't want to stress and frett over little details that will just work themselves out. I love being their mother and I love watching them grow every day. I am so very blessed to see them, watch them, spend loads of time with them everyday...I love them sooooo much and I love being their mother!

Hurry up and....RELAX

2007-04-29T20:56:00.000-07:00

Wow, that's how I feel in the last few weeks. I've had time to myself lately since Phoebe's now taking 2 to 2 1/2 hour naps and Eliott is sleeping when she sleeps but I feel like there's so much I want to do in that time...read my bible, read all the other books that I want to read but haven't ever finished, finish Eliott's cross stitch I started for him, scrapbook, and of course the never ending list of housework...laundry, dishes, cleaning up toys, etc. I'm trying to get the housework stuff done while the kiddos are awake now so I can enjoy the time to myself but I know that's not what they want to be doing, ya know?
We had Eliott's baby dedication today at church and that was great! My mom, dad & stepmom and my long time best friend and her husband came and then we all went out to lunch. Wow...my parents were actually civilized enough to sit at the same table and eat, it really was amazing. I didn't feel any tension and it felt great! I'm so glad they can get along now with the 2 grandkids, yeah! After Phoebe took a nap, we went to the park. She went to bed saying "PARK, PARK" and the second I went into her room when she woke up she said "PARK, PARK". That girl loves the park. We went to Jackson Park and that was pretty fun.
Well I better get to bed so I can be well rested-

My baby girl!

2007-04-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a week of fevers it's been! Phoebe has had a fever all week, on and off. I think the highest it got was like 103.7 so I knew it couldn't be because of teething. On Sunday night I noticed a rash on her and so on Monday we went to the doc and she had hand, foot, mouth disease and she got that from a friend's kid that came over last week that had it but his mom had no idea he had it yet. So she was fine, just a little rash. Well starting on Tuesday morning she woke up really really grumpy and irritable and had a fever. So I gave her tylenol and 2 hours later she still had the fever so I gave her motrin and that got it down. Then she had a fever again that afternoon so I gave her some motrin and it went away. Wed morning she woke up and seemed fine so I went ahead and brought her to gymnastics. Then the fever came back again that afternoon, OH MY GOODNESS!! And whenever her temp got high then she would just get really cranky, like her whole mood would just change. So on Thursday morning when she woke up with a 102 fever I called the nurse at the doctor's office and she said to give her one more day, maybe she just picked up another virus somewhere but to go ahead and come in if she still felt bad on Friday. So she was okay on Friday morning but then all of a sudden about 10 am it came back, gave her some tylenol it went away and we ate lunch and I put her to bed. When she woke up she had another fever so I called the doc and they said they could see us in 30 minutes. It turned out that through a blood test and urine test, the doc thinks she has a bladder infection. POOR GIRL! Now I understand what all the fits and whining and crying was about. I'm glad I kept my patience with her all week and never got on to her for anything and I'm so glad they figured it out. So now she's on antibiotics, which she loves to take and asks for more when she's sucked it all down, and we're on the way to recovery. Yeah!

On Wednesday night when she felt really bad she kept yelling that she wanted to go the park and the "sides" (meaning slides) but we could tell she so didn't feel good and would just daze out so we told her not tonight, we'll go tomorrow and she just kept saying it over and over. Even when she feels bad, she still wants to do the fun stuff. Maybe she thought it would make her feel better. Who knows.

Yesterday when she was getting ready to take a nap she requested to "see Grammy", which is my mom. So I told her she had to take a nap first and then maybe we'll go see Grammy. So when she woke up and I went in there she sat up in her bed smiles and says "see Grammy." It was so cute, that's the first time that she requested to see my mom. So after we went to the doc we went to see Grammy and Phoebe loved to see her!

He's deceiving!

2007-04-18T11:38:00.000-07:00

You know it's so amazing to me how I can so be in to reading my bible daily and setting aside that time for God every day and then all of a sudden satan takes over and you can't find that time any more. He's so good at deceiving you, he is so much alive and you can see him everywhere! I am so behind on my bible study it's crazy and then when I do get to sit down and start it either one of the kids wake up or satan tells me that I'm so behind what's the point. I know I have to work daily to defeat him and I'm going to try to until the day I die but man is he fighting back.

On a good note, I brought Phoebe to gymnastics class this morning and it was a lot of fun! We got there 15 minutes early because I knew she'd need time to warm up being in a new place with a lot of people and I'm so glad I did that. She sat there on my lap for about 10 minutes saying she didn't want to go play or do anything and she wouldn't take her shoes off like the kids were suppose to. I finally got her shoes off with a little crying and then brought her over to some of the mats and when the class started she was liking it a little more. It was fun! And I'm so glad I'm doing it. It's for the next 6 weeks so I think she'll really get into it by the last week, lol!! She was so busy watching the other kids do the stuff that she really wasn't getting into herself but that's okay. She did great!

Eliott is starting to do nose dives from sitting up and trying to figure out how to crawl so it will be really soon. It's pretty hilarious to watch him fall on his face and then pick his head up and determined to get whatever he's going for. But then he gets really frustrated because he can't get to it.

Well this is a great time to start catching up on my bible study so gotta go-

Pictures of Eliott sitting up!

2007-04-14T20:03:00.000-07:00

Well here's two pictures of my little man sitting up. The soccer ball was one of his Easter presents, of course Phoebe will play it before he can but that's okay!

It's been a good week!

2007-04-12T19:18:00.000-07:00

Wow, this was a great week! We've had our bad days but this was a great week. Easter was really good and Phoebe actually hunted for eggs at my brother and sister in law's house. We didn't think she would move from her daddy's leg but man she ran and put those eggs in her basket, it was soooo cute!

I think Monday was the first day that I have actually been happy that I had Phoebe and Eliott so close together. She's really latched on to Eliott in the last 2 weeks and she kisses and hugs him, tries to pick him up and talks to him when I'm not in the room. I left them both in her room on Monday to go in the kitchen and get Phoebe some milk and I came back and she was standing in front of him saying "Bubba, Mama get milk" and just saying some other stuff that sounded like chinese but it was so cute to see her just talking to him and him looking up at her laughing! That was a great mommy moment. On Tuesday when we went and got in the car to take Phoebe to school I had a flat tire. But it turned out to be a very easy fix. We drove really slow up to the tire place by our house and they fixed it pretty quick and it was only $10 to take a screw out of my tire and patch it. The kids were great in there too. I had to take Eliott out of his seat and nurse him in there but Phoebe was very good and just sat in the seat next to me. So she was 45 minutes late to school and I missed bible study but I was glad that it wasn't a big deal.

Oh and my little man is 6 months old tomorrow!! Wow, I can't believe it and he's growing so fast. He started sitting up on his own about 2 1/2 weeks ago and is great at it now. I would put a picture on here of him sitting up but it's interfering with D's PS3 so I won't try it again. He's playing online and when I do picture downloads it makes his connection a lot slower, OOPS! He's great to entertain now too, just give him something to grab and it will occupy him for awhile, at least a few minutes.

Well I'm very thankful that God showed me how much fun we're going to have in raising these 2 kiddos this week. I can't wait until it gets warm again so we can start going to parks and on walks again!

Busy Days

2007-03-29T19:58:00.000-07:00

Wow, we had a busy day today. Phoebe went to mother's day out, "cool" and she calls it for school and when we got there I realized it was picture day, OH MY!! I had totally forgot. She wasn't dressed for a picture and had nothing in her hair, no barret or hair tie and I forgot the order form and check. So I dropped her off and had to run back home, get her a dress, sandals, hair barrett and the order form and check and run back up there. It was a crazy morning but I am so very thankful for mother's day out!!! I love spending the time alone with Eliott shopping or just at home together. It's a much needed break and I'm so thankful we can afford it. She's learning a lot there also and she does great there. She's talking so much but when other people come around she doesn't say a word.
After mom's day out we went to see a friend that moved to Port Arthur, TX in December and she came back up here to visit. Her son is 7 weeks younger than Phoebe and her daughter is 9 weeks younger than Eliott. So she has hers 17 months apart too. She thought I was soooo crazy when I told her I was pregnant with Eliott and thought I was having them too close together and then a couple weeks later she told me she was pregnant, it was GREAT! It was really good seeing her and seeing the kids play together, it was great fun!!
I am thankful for my babies, Phoebe and Eliott and for my husband that's laying in the living room playing PS3. I'm thankful he's at home with me and not somewhere else!! I'm thankful for our carpet being back to normal and everything being okay. It was about a $400 ordeal but hey, it could've been a lot worse, right? I'm thankful for my sink full of dishes because that means we've had food to eat (WOW, that's a hard one to be thankful for because I really despise dishes). I really struggle with being a negative person. I sooooo want to be a positive person and look on the positive side of everything but it's hereditary for the women in my family to be negative and it's so hard to turn that around. I'm not making excuses at all but it's so engraned in me. I pray about it but I need all the prayers I can get!
Well I've got to go to that sink full of dishes-

Jesus sitting next to me!!

2007-03-25T12:03:00.000-07:00

This morning in church our pastor, Greg Pittman, had everyone close their eyes and imagine Jesus walking out on our stage. As he looks through the crowd you recognize it's Him from the crown of thorns around His head and the holes in His wrists and ankles. He keeps looking around the crowd and He's looking for you. When he finally sees you he walks down the steps and comes and sits right next to you and looks you in your face. Wow! Can you imagine. I was sitting their with my eyes closed imaging this and realized "wow, He really died for me...little 'ol me!" Isn't that amazing to think that He died just for you! Imagining Him coming to sit by me I wanted to kneel at His feet and just pour my heart out to Him but then I realized...He's always here and I can ALWAYS do that...pour my heart out to Him. Thank you so much Jesus for loving me and dying that horrible death for my sins! I love you Jesus-

Not off to a good start!

2007-03-23T21:05:00.000-07:00

Well I just got my blog started and already I had to take a week off. On Monday night I put Phoebe to bed (she's in a big girl bed now by the way), Eliott and I went into the dining room to check e-mail and I sat down at the computer and started opening my email. I noticed my sock was getting a little wet so I just figured Phoebe had spilt some juice there. I start to soak it up but the sock just keeps getting wetter. So I stand up to see what's going on and my foot was soaking wet! Then I step again on my way into the kitchen and it was even wetter. OH MY GOSH I thought!! So I called Denzil, he was working late, obviously, it was like 8:30. I said we have a problem and he says he's on his way home, what's wrong. He says "Call your dad!" So I called my dad and he told me to go out to the heater/hot water heater closet in the garage and open it and tell him what I see. Well after cleaning out everything in front of the door, there was water pouring out of the drain. It was black water and had chopped up spaghetti noodles in it (what I put down the garbage disposal earlier). So I went to turn off the washing machine and the dishwasher and then realized the water had gone all the way into the living room too. Above is the picture of just the dining room and how wet it got. Luckily we were able to wait until Tuesday morning to call a plumber and it was only $80 for him to come out to fix the clogged drain but then we had the soaking wet carpet to deal with. So we ripped up the carpet pad and rented some carpet fans to dry the carpet. Then on Thursday we got the carpet pad replaced, carpet restretched and cleaned. OH MY, it's been a great spring break! This would have been so much easier to deal with if Phoebe had gone to school this week but it had to happen on an off week. Ugh!

Other than that, I missed bible study on Tuesday, which I absoltely did not like but there was no way I could go. Luckily Denzil did take off work to help me deal with this problem but we were right in the middle of cleaning it up at bible study time. Our insurance guy did see my Beloved Disciple book by Beth Moore and got all excited that I was learning more about God and thought it was excellent! That was pretty cool/weird that our insurance man said that?? I am up on my daily reading though and have loved this week! One thing that really stuck out to me yesterday...she's talking about unheathly hearts and she says.."We don't have to be raised in severely dysfunctional homes to develop unhealthy hearts. All we have to do is expose ourselves to life. Life can be heartless and mean. Purely and simply, LIFE HURTS!! However, we can't check ourselves out of life. Instead, God hopes that we'll turn to Him to heal us from the ravages of natural life and make us healthy ambassadors of abundant life in an unhealthy world." She goes on to say that God can heal all of our hearts, no matter what got it in such a condition. It's amazing to me how forgiving God really is. He is a great God and I am so grateful that I found him and am able to have a relationship with Him through His Son, Jesus Christ!! Thank you Christ-

Going through the stages?!?

2007-03-14T20:41:00.000-07:00

Wow, what a busy day! We went to MOPS this morning and had fun talking to everyone and getting to know my new group of friends more. We did a craft there and it was pretty cool, although I have no idea what I am going to do with it?!? Then we came home, ate lunch and that is normally nap time. BUT Phoebe is starting it again, fighting naps and bedtime. I know it's just a stage but it's so stressful going through these different stages. She stood in her crib for 2 hours just yelling "mama, potty, dada, bubba, juice, milk, door..open..please..." just anything she could think of so I would come in there. Needless to say she never fell asleep but luckily Eliott was asleep that whole time, I'm not sure how since she was yelling the whole time. So I did get some time to myself but it wasn't relaxing at all since I could hear her yelling the whole time. She's also been giving us problems going to bed at night so I thought I'd just go in there and get her and if she doesn't take a nap then she wouldn't fight bedtime because she would be nice and tired and go straight to sleep. HAHA, YEAH RIGHT...She still tried all of her delay tactics and did not want to get in bed. She screamed for about 25 minutes then finally layed down and went to sleep. We're not sure what happened, that's just been the last 2 nights. So I just pray this "stage" doesn't last that long!!
I LOVE the stage Eliott is going through though. Laughing, cooing, drooling...he's such a good little man! He's so ticklish, I love to tickle him!! Today when I went to pick him up after MOPS, Keri's little boy, Bo, was trying to use Eliott's car seat (Eliott was in it) as a prop to pull up and then was knocking Eliott in the head with some plastic keys. It was pretty hilarious to see! He probably thought "my sister is not around and I'm still getting beat up."

New to this

2007-03-11T19:29:00.000-07:00

Hello all,
Well I just created this blog. I've never known how to get a blog for free until I read some new friends blogs. I've met some new friends from Cedar Ridge Christian church in the last month or so. Connie Johnson and Keri Lyon. We've been going to church there for 7 years now but I just now got into a bible study that meets on Tuesdays and met them through that. It's an awesome bible study with lots of moms in it. I just pray that it continues to go well, I am able to do my daily readings and the friendships that I have found will grow into great ones!