Some Up's and Down's

I would be lying through my teeth if I told you life has been good lately.  Honestly, it was going pretty smoothly until a few weeks ago when I made the mistake of telling someone who asked how we were doing, that things were actually going really good.  That we were in a good place.   "ERrrr.k..."  Back it up, right there should have been when I stopped.  But as soon as the words spilled out of my mouth, our lives took a 360 degree turn for the worse.  

For starters, Autum is cutting both of her bottom 2-year molars.  This equates to little sleep, LOTS of whining and crying, a drooling deluxe, wanting to be held 24/7, cranky, little chubby wubby.

Then throw on top of that...the stomach virus....AGAIN.  In 1 month.   And this time it came back with a vengeance.  It slowly seeped its way through our family...knocking off one person at a time.  First Blake.  Then me.  Then Leah.  Then Autum.  Then Blake again.  Then Autum again.  And so on...to spare you the details I'll state you the facts.  We have gone through 3, large boxes of diapers in 2 1/2 weeks.  We have cleared out 1, 400 count large box of wipes.  I have literally thrown some outfits away...ones I considered "too far gone."  Our washing machine motor has not cooled down.  I have gone through an entire bottle of mop solution.  Clorox solution.  Wet wipes.  Hand sanitizer.  Hand soap.  

We just cannot shake this thing...I thought we were through it by today.  Everyone woke up with no mess.  I have gotten almost fearful of peeking over the side of the kid's cribs each morning, for fear of what I'll smell and see!  So we loaded up and headed to the Y and to the park afterward.  We made it through the Y...and everyone exploded everywhere at the park.  I mean exploded from all ends.  I threw away another outfit today at the park.  Just to give you an idea.  Then I had to water down the sidewalk with another mom's water jug, just to clear the pathway for kids to be able to walk and play.  

I missed taking Leah into her first day of first grade, because quite honestly I would have needed to wear an adult diaper, to feel safe getting out of my van for that long.  Both babies were wrapped up in towels in their car seats, looking very green around the gills.  So we sat in the driveway of the school, while it poured down rain, as she ran inside.  I sent her off, very disheartened and fearful.  While I was feeling completely helpless and completely exhausted.  Not exactly a picture-perfect, first day of school excitement, kind of day for us.  I did manage to at least snap a picture or two.  This one will be for the memory books, I tell ya!

This has only added stress to the already stressful way of life, for some reason, it has been lately.  Jerad and I are finding it hard to get time together.  Without one of us falling asleep mid-sentence.  We are starting to fall into the trap of 'wishing for the way things were before.'  No kids.  No responsibility.  No stress.  And complete frustration.  It's just tough.  Life is tough with 3 little's.  You are tied down.  It's difficult to find a sitter who wants to take on 3 kids for one bedtime.  Or at all for that matter.  It's expensive to eat out.  It's messy.  It takes a lot of prep.  And a lot of patience.

And to top it all off. I hosted our 5th Annual Triple Threat Youth Triathlon this past weekend.  I begin preparing for this event in the spring.  It takes a lot of my time.  Time I donate.  To provide a service for the community.  Well, it hasn't rained all summer and it poured, and poured, and poured Friday all night, Saturday all day.  So only half the participant's showed up, only half paid, and we were only able to do 2/3 of the events.  So it was a hard pill to swallow after so much work preparing for it.  But we managed with what we had.  We needed the rain worse, I would guess.

Ahhhh, anyway.  Just a post about the reality of life setting in right now.  It's not always roses.  It's not always easy.  But we do it.  We live it.  But God always promises to be with us.  Our saving grace.  Our hope.  Our Savior.

And trust me, He's heard a lot from me lately.  Something to the tune of "Dear Lord, NOT another mess!"

But I won't leave you in complete Debbie Downer mode. 

Here are a few of the funny highlights from this week...or at least what I've overheard..

Leah is wrestling with Jerad in the living room while I am in the kitchen cooking and I overhear this conversation...*Laughing* "Daddy, daddy...stop...stop...timeout!"
      "Leah, there are no timeouts in wrestling..."
"Pleeease, stop!" *giggle, giggle*
      "Okay, what is it?"
"We can keep doing this, dad, but pleeeease, pleeeease don't break my heart...I really need that to work.....(silence) Okay, I'm back in!  Rraaawwrr!"



Autum and Blake are playing in the front room with their toys.  Then I hear this...
"Bobby, Bobby....noooo!  Baad.....baad Bobby!"
*Loud banging as toys are being throws against the wall*  Blake laughing in his best PeeWee Herman sound.
   ...I've heard this on several occasions now and have come to the conclusion that Autum is now referring to Blake as "Bobby!"



Autum goes and gets Jerad's boots for him before work one day...she stands in front of him, sucking on her pacifier, watching him put them on.   Jerad gives her a hug and smiles.
Then Autum says: "Dada...dank ewww Autum?"  (thank you Autum)
So now whenever she does anything she says "dank eeww Autum?"

I guess this picture is what she meant by giving her a headache.. :)

Leah has started first grade now and goes to school all day.  The school day begins at 8 am. So this requires me to wake her earlier than her normal sleep-in time of 7:30 am.  After the 2nd or 3rd day, I hear this on our walk home from school...
"Mom, I need you to know that you are just giving me a headache these days, from waking me up so early!"
--Hmmmm, no idea where she's heard that line before...