Finally Fin had his surgery

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:

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...

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

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

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...

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!

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

"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!

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!

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!

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!

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!!

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!

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!

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

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

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!

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!

(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

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

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?

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?

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!

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!

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

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!!

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.