We have a deadline!

Next fall I am putting Caylee and Natalie in a program called Classical Conversations. It is not a school or a co-op, it is a support program for homeschooling. Well, I have to enroll Macy and Bethany in the Mother's Day out program at the church. (Which is so freakin expensive! I choked internally when the lady told me it was going to be $20 week per child. That would end up being $80/month per child. Jennifer had told me she thought it was $12 and I was thinking that was a lot. The CC program is already costing a bunch, but Asher and I had decided the sacrifice would be worth it. I hope he doesn't get too upset. I guess we will just have to sacrifice a little more. It is always hard to backwards rather than forwards.)

I am getting off track. Well, the lady at the MDO program told me that she wants to put Macy in the 3 year old room because the two year old room is pretty full and the three's have lots of room. The only dilemma is that she has to be potty trained. Ahck! We had a good success yesterday, but today nothing because I have been running errands. But I have a goal now. I have to be more dedicated to the cause. I think she can do it. I just have to get myself more disciplined about it.

MACY GOT AN M&M!

Today I have been much more diligent about putting Macy on the potty. This evening before dinner after I put her on the potty she kept telling me that she had to go sit on the potty but I did not want to stay with her for an indefinite amount of time so I had her sit out in the living room with Asher and the girls and had her watch them play with legos. It did not take her very long to actually go. We were so excited. She was excited because we were excited, but then I gave her an M&M. Her eyes lit up when I told her that every time she goes in the potty she will get another one. I could tell that she could not believe that I was actually giving her candy because she usually only gets candy if she manages to steal it. After she made the connection between the potty and candy she did not get up until dinner time. She sat there about 10 or 15 minutes, which is like an eternity in her world.

I hate to make predictions, but I am really hoping this potty training will go quickly. Then I will only have two in diapers. Yeah!

I have been watching my children very carefully just trying to fully assess their personalities. I want to be able to fully identify their strengths so that I can help to guide them in their lives. This is what I have come up with.

Caylee is extremly hard working. I can just give her a job and I can expect it to be done. She wants to please Asher and I so much. She really enjoys doing her chores because she knows it will make me happy. She actually volunteers to clean her room right when she wakes up. She picks up anything that might be left on the floor and makes everyone's beds. Caylee also seems to have a strong heart for God. Even though we are all born sinners, I believe that some people just seem to have a more natural connection to God. They just seem to be naturally more interested and it seems their relationship is easier. I have known other children like that too. Caylee has been vividly interested in the divine since she could barely talk. She loves God and wants to please Him just like she wants to please her parents. She sometimes tells me not to talk to her because she is going to talk to God. I hope her love only grows deeper as she matures.

Natalie is appropiately nicknamed Sunshine. She just radiates joy when she is happy. She feels her emotions so strongly like her daddy. She is passionate about everything, but she is also dreamy and whimsical. She reminds me of Cinderella in the beginning of the movie when she is singing dreamily as she does her chores. Natalie does that quite often. Natalie also has a very active imagination. She is always imagining things. The other day she told me that she saw God in the sky.


Macy is just out there. I really have to keep an eye on her because it seems like she is always getting into trouble. Stealing food is problably her worst and most common offense. We put cabinet locks on and have moved the food higher, but she still seems to find ways to get around our efforts. Despite her naughty side, she is a sweet girl and everyone who knows her just adores her. She is very outgoing and friendly. She will go up to anyone she knows and ask to be held. And if one of the guys are laying on the floor she will go up and plop right down on top of them.

Bethany is a fiesty girl. She pretty much has to be with Macy as an older sister. She has mastered the evasion technique with anything she is holding. I can already tell that she is going to have a great sense of humor. But it is a little harder to fully know her personality yet because she is so little.

Of course Serenity is too little to known very much. All I know is that right now she is pretty laid back. I am looking forward to seeing who she really is on the inside and see what she is going to add to our family.

Hurray, I am finally back on. I think I will be able to blog more during this summer because we are not doing school. Today we are pretty much having a free day. We spent time making stories for the girls' blog, but I cannot get my scanner to work. When Asher loaded everything on this computer I think he forgot the scanner programs so I will have to find it and do it myself.

I am very excited because sometime in August my friend Tegan and I are planning to run in a 5k race. I know that is not very much, but we are starting slow. I am not the best runner by far. I have to stop pretty often because I cramp up. But Tegan is patient with me and just keeps encouraging me to keep going. When she first suggested doing the 5k I honestly looked at her like she was crazy. I am certainly not the athletic type. But after thinking about it I liked the idea. I know Asher would support me and it would give me a goal to work for. I don't want to get out there and poop out on such a little race, so that will inspire me to work harder.

I am finally getting serious about potty training Macy. Caylee and Natalie were fully potty trained by this point and I have seen too many other families that have a lot of children wait too long in my opinion, so I am getting on this thing. By the looks of it Bethany might be trained before Macy. Bethany will already tell me she is poopoo if I ask her. Macy definitely has an interest. She gets on the potty by herself and wipes and flushes, but there is nothing to wipe or flush. Today I decided I would take her every hour. I did that twice with no results, but then later she told me poopoo a bunch of times and peed on the floor. I would have been excited but I was in the middle of scolding her because she had gotten out in the front which is a constant problem. Her older sisters are allowed to play out there so she feels like she should be able to also. She tries to tell on them when they go out there and then gets mad when I don't punish them. So hard to be the little sister.

Does anyone need a new computer? We are selling our old one for $50. Asher decided this week that we needed a new computer basically because a new game came out that he really wanted, but the other computer did not have the capacity to run the game. We would have upgraded but it would have been more expensive because we would have had to buy so many different components. I thought our computer was just fine. If you are going to use if for anything other than games it works just great. It is a little slow when it first starts up, but if you keep the startup programs turned off than even that is very minimal.
I do want to add that we are just selling the tower, a keyboard and mouse, but not all the other accessories like the monitor and printer.

Just let me know if you are interested.

Today I feel so much better! Yesterday I took the day off. The whole day! Of course I still took care of my children, but I really did whatever I wanted to do. I did not get up until 11. Of course I got up and got the children cereal starting at 6:40 and subsequently a little after 7. Caylee and Natalie can get cereal for themselves, but if I leave the cereal anywhere where they can get it Macy can get it also and will steal it to snack on. I have to keep a constant eye after her. Then after being woken up for some silly reason or another what seemed like every few minutes I told the girls they could watch a movie. So, for an hour I got some good solid sleep. I finally really got up at 11 feeling physically refreshed, but still mentally weary. I have a list of things that I want to do that have been neglected for awhile. Blogging is one of the things that I have been wanting to do, so I just spent the day catching up on my blogs and reading the blogs of others. About 2:30 I realized, "Oh, I need to take Caylee to dance in a few minutes!" So I gathered everyone up and we took off for dance class. We even made it on time. I always take the other children to the park to play while Caylee is dancing, so we went and enjoyed the gorgeous weather. For dinner we went to Tegan's like we always do on Monday's so I didn't even have to cook dinner. What a wonderful day!

I was actually feeling mad at myself for being so extremely lazy. I did not clean at all yesterday. I really did not get anything productive done except what I previously mentioned. I was feeling guilty the whole day, but I just felt like I could not deal with my life. Saturday and Sunday I felt like my stress cup was full and I could not take anymore. Everytime something would happen I get super irritated. I didn't really yell at my children I was just annoyed all day and not real pleasant to be around.

It was probably when I was at the park that I noticed that I felt better than I had felt all week. It just occured to me that maybe some down time was what my body and mind needed to process the major life adjustment. I had felt like I was being naughty and I was worried that Asher would be upset at me for shirking most of my duties. It is really not like me to do that. Not because I am worried about Asher getting angry, but because I don't like living in my house when it has been neglected. But I realized that as a mom that I really don't get days off and I needed some rest. What an epiphany! I wish I had realized that sooner because then I could have enjoyed the day without the guilt.

I talked to Asher about it when we got home and I asked him if he noticed if that I had not been quite myself recently. His reaction indicated to me in the definite affirmitive that, yes, he had noticed. He was being kind and had not said anything to me.

I feel so good now. I feel so normal. This is absolutely wonderful. I just hope that it lasts.

Last night we had movie night with some of the folks from the bible study. It was super fun. We had started out doing kind of a potluck idea, but that did not last long because nobody seems to want to be bothered with having to cook something every single week. Especially the single guys who live in the dorms and normally eat at the chow hall. It is funny though, the guys like to cook way more than the girls do. Except Tegan. So now what seems to happen is Asher and I provide the food and we all cook it together. Last night Clayton (sitting to the right of Asher on the couch), Joe our authentic italian chef (left of Asher on the floor) and Jake (bottom of picture) just came in and took over the cooking of the spaghetti and sides. It was wonderful. I stayed in the kitchen to help, but mostly to show them where everything was. The spaghetti turned out delicious. Much better than if I made it. They made sure that the pasta was al dente, not "mushy." They also added stuff to the sauce to make it taste better. We really had a wonderful time the whole evening. I love that these people do not care that our house is tiny and not spotless.

BABY SERENITY IS BORN!
I finally had the baby last week. I am sorry that I did not make any sooner announcements. Up until now I just did not feel like I had the time to sit down and write a lengthy post. I wanted to share my birth story with you ladies because I had this one naturally and I know a lot of you have done the same thing.
Serenity was born on Saturday, February 24 at 3:30 am. She was 7 lbs 11 oz, 22 1/2 inches, which is the biggest of all my other babies. She is about an inch to and inch and a half longer than the rest.
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The night I gave birth was really crazy. We have bible study at our house on Fridays so everybody came over as usual. I did not want to cancel it because I was not sure that I was in actual labor until everybody was already at my house. So, here I was trying to make final preperations while trying to not be too distracting to the teaching going on in the living room. Everybody stayed until about 11:00 and I didn't mind because they were helping to keep my mind off of what was going on. But after they left I really started having the hard contractions. So I called Joncia and Cathy. They got there at 12, and that is when my contractions were really turning into something I had to breathe through and concentrate on. They had me lay down on the birthing ball and applied heat to lower back. Wow, that made so much of a difference. I remember Cathy telling me a few times to breathe through the contraction because I was busy talking, but I really didn't need to with the hot compresses. I was so relaxed and in such a good space. My mom, who was there to watch the children, was getting really worried that I was going to have a baby in my living room because quick labor runs in our family. Joncia had told me ahead of time that she would not give me any medical advice and that includes when I should go to the hospital. I didn't move too quickly because everything was going so well. It just didn't seem like it was time yet. Finally, my mom's urgings became more serious and I realized she was right. I am so glad she was there.
When we got to the hospital, as soon as we got into the room I hit transition. That was so hard. Joncia and Cathy still used the compresses and the ball, which helped for a little while, but then the pain got so intense that it didn't seem to matter anymore.
There was a little tension with the doctor that was on call. The way it works at Rennassaince Physicians is that Dr. Martin and another doctor trade off doing the deliveries. So I knew that it would be pretty much a 50/50 chance that I would get my doctor for the birth. I also knew that the other doctor that works with Dr. Martin does not have the same philosophies as she does. Well, this other doctor was not too excited about my birth plan and gave me a hard time about it. In the end though she got on board and ended up actually being really great about it.
I did not quite expect transition to be that hard. I am not sure what I was expecting, but wow. That was hard. I ended up demanding pain meds even though I knew that there was no way I was going to get them. The anesthesiologist was on call so it would have taken 20 minutes for him to get there if he hurried. I knew that Stadol was not what I was looking for either. I just needed to have some hope to focus my mind on. Dealing with the pain in that moment was just too much. The nurse told me afterwards that she was able to determine that the baby was getting ready to come because I was asking for medicine.
Well, I made it through and Serenity was beautiful. Right after the birth I told Cathy that it was a good experience, but I would never, ever do that again. Now that I have had a week to get some perspective I am not so sure about that. It doesn't really matter because I am done having children, but I think I would go natural again given the opportunity. I felt better after the birth because I did not have pitocin which

makes me hemmorage. If I did do it again I would have Joncia and Cathy there. They were so great. I could not have made it through without them. They knew just what to do to help me and they were right there for everything little thing that I needed.
Serenity is doing great now. For the first few days she was so fussy, even after my milk came in. But about Thursday she just seemed to relax and calm down. Now she is sleeping better and seems to be fitting in so well to our family. The girls adore her. Caylee is excited about learning to change her diapers. Natalie is constantly asking when she can hold baby Serenity. Macy calls her Sery because Serenity is an awfully big word for her to be able to say clearly. Bethany is learning to stroke her head nicely instead of digging her fingers into the baby's face. Asher is really great with her too. He and Serenity already have a special daddy/daughter bond. Last night she actually slept through the night. I was not expecting that. At first I was worried that she would not get enough to eat, but my older sister started sleeping through the night when she was just a couple of day old and I did at a couple of weeks old and we never had any problems with weight gain. Of course we have our doctor's appt. coming up real soon so I will be able to keep a close eye on her

Caylee Lost Her First Tooth!

Last week, on Friday, Caylee lost her first tooth. Her tooth next to it has been loose for several months and we all thought for sure that it would come out first. But a few days before it came out Caylee was eating a plum and the other tooth suddenly became the main competitor. Caylee said that she heard a crack and all of a sudden it was loose. She was so excited! Especially after we told her about the tooth fairy!

But that is another story. Friday night is bible study night and Asher always stays up late playing video games on Fridays because guys stay over and play and he can play with Mike Warren and Mike's bible study guys over the internet. It is his favorite night of the week. Well, I was waiting for Asher to get done with playing video games so that we could do the tooth fairy thing, but I was extremely tired that night and I fell asleep on the couch. When Asher woke me up to go to bed with him, that was the last thing on my mind. So the tooth fairy did not come that night. I had to think of some reason, so I told Caylee that the tooth fairy could not come in when the window was locked. The next night was our date night so we did not put the children to bed. It was Ginger. She doesn't do the tooth fairy thing so she told Caylee that she needed to worry about that another night. She told me that it was so cute because Caylee and Natalie were still excited about the tooth fairy and Natalie looked out the window and said, "Look, I see the tooth fairy! She's beautiful!"

Well, the next night I think Caylee had figured out that the whole tooth fairy thing was a bit bogus and did not put the tooth under her pillow. That night Asher did put a dollar under her pillow and we thought everything was made right. But, unfortunately Caylee knew where she left the tooth and found it still there. I tried to convince her that there really was such thing as a tooth fairy, but during her lunchtime prayer she told God all about how Mommy thought the tooth fairy was real, but it was really Daddy that had put the money under her pillow. I thought it was funny, but I was a little sad because I believed in the tooth fairy as a child and I want her to have that experience also. She did crack a bit when I told her that we would go to the library to learn more about the tooth fairy. You know that saying, if it is written in ink it has to be true. I guess that applies to six year olds as well.

Wow, it really has been a really, really long time. I have missed blogging so much. It is just really for me to justify blogging when I have so much else to do. Also, it seems like when I have free time and Asher is not particularly wanting me to use it to spend time with him, he is playing video games and the computer is not available. I really do need to get back into documenting our life.

There is so much to write about. I guess the biggest thing going on with me is that I am about to deliver Serenity. I am getting very excited about it. Yes, I realize that it is going to be a huge addition to my work load, but I can't wait to have a new member of our family. Each new little person brings in a unique personality and adds a totally new dimension to family dynamics. I really do feel so blessed to have such a large (I personally don't condsider it large) family.

I think many of you are going to be a bit surprised to find out that I am planning on having a natural birth. I did not particularly have a good experience having an epidural with Bethany. The anesthesiaologist took quite a long time to get to the hospital because it was on Saturday. By the time I got drugged up and all taken care of it was not too much longer until Bethany came. The anesthesiaologist did not make sure that my head was up and the medicine went to my head, making me feel ucky. I also started to get real itchy. Then when Bethany was born I had to wait a long time before the medicine wore off before I could even move. It just made the recovery much slower. I remember thinking at the time that I had wished I had not had an induced labor with an epidural. I think that even with the pitocin I could have made it without the epidural.

So this time I am hiring a doula. I was talking to my friend Cathy one day on the phone about my labor plans and she was telling me about how wonderful it was to have Joncia assist at her last birth. I realized that if I am going to have a natural birth I should probably have someone there who can show me how to do it. I want to move around this time and be able to do things to help myself manage the pain. I realized when I was talking to her that I really don't know too much about the pain management because I have had an epidural 3 out of 4 deliveries. With Caylee I had Stadol and I was strapped to the bed so there was not much that I could do besides breath.

I am so excited because I am actually getting two doulas for the price of one. Cathy just happens to be want to train to be a doula, so she is going to assist Joncia at my birth. I guess she was going to ask me anyway if she could come and assist at my birth, but it just made it so much easier for her when I hired Joncia.

Joncia and Cathy went with me yesterday to my OB appt. It went great! Joncia had never met Dr. Martin and was preparing for her to show fangs at the sign of a doula. But Dr. Martin is actually a big advocate of doulas, because they relieve the overworked nurses. She was great about my birth plan and is going to release me from being a patient (I can still stay in the room) just four hours after the delivery. Hurray! I cannot STAND when they come in every two hours to take my blood pressure at night time. I need to sleep. Having a baby is hard work. After I had Bethany I was so tired when I got home from the hospital. I just came home and went right to sleep.

Today Joncia and Cathy came over to show me labor positions. Let's just say there was massage and much pampering. Joncia even gave me a foot scrub and painted my toenails. I was so relaxed when they left. I really do think I can manage the pain with their help.

Asher and I are so excited about cleaning out our garage. We did this for the Bible study because we needed more room for the kids to play since it is getting too cold outside. But now Asher and I have been shaking our heads and asking ourselves why we did not do this sooner. We had talked about it a long time ago, but we were still burnt out from the bathroom and did not want to take on anymore projects. But, man, if only we knew how easy it would be compared to the benefits of having more living space. This is great. I now have my laundry organized so even if it is not folded it is out of the way and does not look so horribly messy. And now we actually have room for the kid's toys. Before they were put away in not easily accessible places for the kids to get them out very often. It is sad, but it was kind of a treat for them to actually be able to play with their toys.

 

Sunday some of the ladies in the bible study had a cooking class/luncheon. Tegan, the girl on the phone, showed us how to make her famous enchiladas. Then we got to eat them with some sides and desert. Caylee tagged along for some Mommy/daughter time. I think it is fun for her to come and relate to ladies with no other children around. Personally, I think it is important for a child's development to be able to do that every once in a while.

We all had a great time. After we ate, we played a board game then we met up with more girls and guys and all went to the Audio A and Mercy Me concert together. We were actually all able to fit in our van. Asher drove and that was not boring. I likened it to Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, a ride at Disneyland. He is not a bad driver, it is just a big adjustment to have a few hundred more pounds added.


 

Here are some more pictures of Polly a couple of days after we got her. By the way, we looked up how to to tell the sex of a leopard gecko and after using the information we decided that we should probably go with Polly rather than Hannibal (my choice). Actually the information we found said that most leopard geckos sold in pet stores are female for some reason.

On this particular the weather was a bit chilly and I noticed that Polly seemed a bit pale and was not moving very much. I mentioned to Asher that she might be cold, so he went and got her and tried to snuggle with her for awhile to help her get warm. He is so sweet. My plan was to just turn up the thermostat, but he wanted Polly to feel better right away. Well, lizards don't snuggle too well, so Polly ended up on his head. But I thought is was a endearing moment and I took some pictures.

In this picture you can really see just how pale she was. She is normally a bright orange and black, not ashy looking at all.
 

We finally got a pet! I have been wanting one for years now. Actually since Caylee was a baby. We tried it once before with a cat, but unfortunately got the cat from hell. That little guy was very pretty, but man, he was spoiled! He would not leave us alone. He was constantly on my lap, when I laid down he would jump on my face, if we closed our bedroom he would throw himself against the door in a fit of rage. I could really go on and on about that cat. The worst thing though was him pooping diarhea behind the furniture. After that Asher did not want to deal with another animal. Fortunately, Star, the neighbor cat has adopted our family and has chosen our porch as her home. That has worked out well. We get to pet her and they get to feed her.

But now we have our own pet. I have to admit that I am pretty excited. I think this little fellow will be a good thing. We started out possibly wanting a frog because Chrysinda said they make a good pet. We definitely had an open mind though, not being too familiar with reptiles. The guy at the pet store pointed out that a lizard might be a better pet because they get to where they actually enjoy being handled, whereas frogs generally sit nicely but if you jostle them too much they will jump off and you have to fight to get them back on and sit still. So we ended up getting a lepeord gecko. The guy said that they are very hardy and docile. They make excellent pets.

Now we just need to work on a name. Asher wants to name him Oober and Caylee wants to name him Polly, like Pollyana. We realized that we forgot to ask if it was a girl or boy, so I guess either name would work. Does anyone know how to tell on a reptile?


 

Yesterday I took the girls to Martin Nature Park because Cindy and I are looking for pretty looking places to shoot professional looking pictures. We were asked by the homeschool group awhile ago and we decided that fall would be such a pretty time to do it. So now we are on the hunt for good backgrounds. We have decided to do it free of charge because neither feel it would be right to charge a fee since we are only amateurs.

I didn't prep at all for this shoot because it was only for practice, to get an idea of what the backgrounds would look like. The girls were uncooperative for the most part in posing, but I didn't mind because it was only a practice. That stuff is boring to them and they would rather go explore when we are at a park like this. But I think that a couple of the shots came out alright. I like the picture of Natalie and the one of both girls sitting on the steps.

Cindy and I are going to another park later this week, so I am sure I will be posting more of these soon.


 

This one is a huge trantula. I saw one of those in CA also while camping. It made the mistake of walking into our campsite one day. It probably was not going to hurt anyone, but the adults wanted be sure of it.

 

Here is another cheese face.


Asher is helping Natalie look at the black widow. She was a little disappointed because she could not see the red hourglass shape on its back.

 

Next, we went to the Agtropolis building. This is our favorite place to go at the fair. At the chicky incubators they had a 4H girl that was holding a chicky for the children. She said they didn't mind because they were used to it, but I felt sorry for it when Macy got there. She tries to be gentle.

This was at the Farmer's Market. The girls went through a series of steps where they helped the farmer plant a seed and water it, then they picked apples, gathered eggs, dug for potatoes and pumpkins. Then they took it to the market and sold it for fake money.

After we did that we walked towards the back of the building to see the cows and bugs. The insects are Asher's favorite part of the Agtropolis building. I was interested to see the fiddleback spider. Last year the specimens they had were very tiny and I had expected them to be bigger. But when I looked this year, they had increased in size. I guess the ones they had last year were babies. Natalie has been asking me about spiders lately, especially the black widow. She was excited to see an actual spider. In California those things were all over the place, but I haven't seen any while here in Oklahoma. The picture that is hard to see is the Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches. Asher loves to tease me every year whith those because he know how much I despise roaches. Yuck, just imagine those crawling on your bed at night.