kisses

Little Hudson now knows how to give his mama kisses.  He grabbed my face a little while ago, climbed onto my head, then proceeded to give me the wettest kiss in the history of the planet.  His triumphant smile was more precious than I can even put into words.  Then, back for seconds and thirds, my nose and forehead got in on the action.  He draws a very thin line between biting my face off and smothering me with slobbery love.  Either way, I'll take it!

He has eight teeth, now!  This pic is from before the others popped thru.

No time, no time...

I wish I had the time to update this blog more often.  With the end of school and four children, I'm seeing more and more how busy life is.  Hopefully over the next few days, I will be able to post here and there about the many things that have happened since last I wrote.

On that note, I will ask for prayers on behalf of my cousins' cousin, Matt.  He lost his eyesight one afternoon with no warning.  He had recently suffered an injury to his face from a feisty cow, but I have not heard whether they think that was the catalyst for his retinas detaching.  He had his second surgery this morning and will be lying face down on a rented massage table for the duration of the recovery due to gravity needing to help in the healing process.  He is being cared for by his mother and girlfriend, but I hope to talk with him soon.  I cannot imagine what he is going through right now.  How incredibly traumatic.

Tomorrow, I will post about my cousin, Cody, and his wedding in Arkansas.  It was a fast but fun trip- just Aaron, Hudson, and myself!  The girls stayed with Aaron's parents.  So nice.  Until then, goodbye!

(L to R) Adam and Heather, Zach, Mom, Dad, Sarah and Iris, Aaron, Sean, Me and Hudson

I wished for home and husband;
the wish was granted me...
My heart and hearth are daily sparked
with masculinity.

I wished for children.
This request was also granted me.
A nimble, five-ringed circus
Performing endlessly!

I'm ready for my third wish now
though squandered it may be...
A few dull moments...
Please, oh please, occasionally!

-Author unknown

Hey, Elizabeth, will you keep an eye on Hudson for a minute?

Anabelle borrowing shoes from Ella and a seat from Hudson.

On the move.

The men all tuckered out.

When it rains...

  This past week has proven to be somewhat of a challenge to my mood.  First, the washing machine started to act a little crazy.  It was not responding to it's keypad properly, stopped completing cycles, and would not unlock the door without my repeated attempts at tricking it's computer.  Then, the drier went on the fritz.  Apparently, at some point, two wires were arcing and finally shorted out, causing one of the wires to completely melt in half.  This isn't the first time we've had a wire issue with the drier, so we should have known better.  However, instead of remembering the previous problem, we spent hours disassembling it and taking pieces to be tested for soundness.  Everything seemed to be in working order, so further investigation led to the discovery of the black melted mess that were once my wires.  Aaron, along with the help of some neighbors, cut the old wiring away, spliced on some new, and replaced the connectors.  I'm not allowed to run the drier when away from home or sleeping anymore in case of further issues.  Yuck.  The fun does not stop there, though.  The washing machine finally decided to give out on me and I was left with an unwashed, completely soaked load of whites with no place to dry them.  The load of clothes literally had about three inches of standing water.  Stagnant, gross, standing water.  It's almost hot where we live, and it does not take long to turn a dirty, wet load of clothes into a nasty and smelly mess.  Major appliance number two, down for the count...but, bad things come in threes, right?  On to the refrigerator.  Aaron and I both noticed that the ice seemed wet and appeared to be slightly melted when we went to get some for our drinks.  Then, I saw that the baby food I had made last week had a thick coating of frost all over, and it was not frozen completely solid.  We checked all of the seals around the freezer, making a guess that one of the girls must have left the door ajar, and decided to recheck it a little later to see if everything was back as cold as it should be.  A while later, I was retrieving something from the fridge half and could not find the source of a very pungent banana smell.  I looked and looked but there was not a banana to be had.  Probably and hour after that, Aaron suggested that I check the freezer half to determine if everything was re-frozen.  Ahhh.  Therein lies the source of the smell.  At this point, everything, including about sixteen overripe, black bananas had completely defrosted.  The bananas were leaking their sticky brown juices all over anything and everything below them.  The ice was floating in it's own water and pouring out of the front of the ice dispenser.  I checked the fridge side and realized that, by now, it was not as cool as it should be, either.  Aaron made the executive decision to get the kids in bed first and deal with the refrigerator later, but we started pulling items out to transfer them to our garage fridge, and ended up completely emptying the entire appliance.  Almost all contents of the freezer were lost.  I salvaged what I could and then moved on to the fridge half.  We checked dates on everything and cleaned out a major portion of our condiments.  It is truly amazing what can get "lost" in such a small space in the back of the top shelf.  I cleaned it out to the best of my ability and proceeded to get the kiddos in bed.  Aaron, in the meantime, was working on emptying the massive amount of expired bottles and jars so that we could set them out for the recyclers to come pick up the next morning.  I went to put the baby in bed and plopped back down on the couch to finish the last little part of my show, only to hear a grunt of frustration from Aaron in the kitchen.  "What is wrong?" I asked.  Fateful last words.  He motioned to the kitchen floor and said, "The sink is backed up again."  Again meaning, this is not the first time this wonderful event has happened.  He had poured one too many items down the disposal and it clogged the main line, causing the nasty food filled water to regurgitate out of the washing machine drain hole in the laundry room.  It was so bad this time, though, that it flooded the entire laundry area, doused the dirty laundry cart, went under the dog's kennel, and reached out to the living room.  I grabbed what towels I could reach and cleanup somewhat began.  Fortunately, it did not back up into the dishwasher, but that was our only consolation prize.  There was just too much water to tackle without the help of a wet-vac.  We decided that I would be the lucky one to run by our friend's house to pick up a plumber's snake, drop by the in-laws for another plumbing tool, and then to WalMart to purchase a shop vac, carpet cleaner, paper towels, and lemons.  Lemons?  Well, I need them for the blueberry pie I now have to make since the freezer went out!  Aaron called me while I was in the store to inform me that the baby was awake and screaming his tiny little head off and could I come home post haste.  I then grabbed the nearest shop vac, ran to the register, and raced to the car.  The last thing we needed was for Anabelle to get woken up by Hudson.  Oh boy.  I was almost home when Aaron called again and told me the baby had settled down and all was quiet on the home front.  I pulled up in the driveway and started carrying everything in.  Aaron immediately began unpacking the shop vac when I glanced at the disgusting, now orange-brown floor.  "Where did all of the water go?"  He looked at me dumbfounded and I immediately dove for the carpet.  Wet.  Soaked, actually.  So now, our already less that desirable carpeting was sitting atop of a rotten condiment soaked sponge that was once a carpet pad.  Bon apetit, dust mites!  We were then able to trek into the garage in an attempt to retrieve more paper towels and found that the water had poured out there as well, run down the walls, soaked my rug, and generally continued the mayhem that is our lady luck.
  Now, here we are today.  I am researching carpeting, as there is no bringing that guy back.  Aaron called in sick because there was no way I was dealing with all of this myself.  We have to go borrow a longer plumber's snake from a family friend because, unfortunately, the one we attempted to use last night was not long enough.  I have to head to a laundromat to do some seriously gross loads of food soaked clothes and towels.  And, somewhere in all of this, I need to find a way to be sweet so that my children don't suffer from something completely out of their (and my) control.  Like I said, this week is really not being very kind to my disposition!

Chinese Laundry

Would you like to see what it looks like when a family of six with no outdoor clothesline, not enough quarters for the laundromat, a week's worth of dirty clothes, and a broken dryer looks like?

Well, folks, feast your eyes.  And, no, I did not take photos of the neighborhood rummage sale or the local children's secondhand clothing store racks...

I still have another load in the washer waiting it's turn on the racks...

Note the sheer ingenuity I had here- who knew a card table and chairs could be used for things other than forts and sitting upon!  Or, shall we call it...desperation? 

And, while my back was turned, look what the girls decided to do to poor Hudson:

Oh well, at least they didn't put makeup on him!

Kids

The girls are so sweet with little Hudson.  I caught a few pics of cuddle time.  Enjoy.

I helped host a baby shower for some dear friends this past weekend.  Soooo fun.  I love having grown-up time!  La Madeleine was perfect and didn't seem to mind when we brought in our own cake and treats.  I think everyone had a great time and the girls got a lot of good stuff for their precious new additions.  Erin and Jocelyn- I love ya!