Not Me! Monday

It's Monday! What happened to the weekend? If someone knows how to slow down life , could you let me know the trick? I feel like we are going at mach speeds. I mean really, Cora is already six weeks old, and Carleigh is turning seven in less than a month!

Anyway, it's Not Me! Monday. Either click on the button on the sidebar, or here to go to the creator of Not Me! and find out how you too can join in on the fun. Just for a quick heads up in case you're new to our blog, Not Me! is a blog carnival in which you confess all the things that happened to you or that you did during the week, kind of like cheap therapy, in the form of "it wasn't me!" So, without further ado...

My husband did not give me the most be-yoo-ti-ful bouquet of roses for Mother's Day!



The kids did not make me the most adorable Mother's Day gifts at school and Grammy and Papa's house.

I did not eat crawfish for Mother's Day and enjoy every minute of it! That chocolate and coconut pie did not find itself on my plate for dessert, and the chocolate one certainly did not find itself on my plate a second time. I didn't even mess with the strawberry dessert!

The man of my dreams did not take me on a fabulous date Friday night to one of the best restaurants around, and I did not thoroughly enjoy myself. The food wasn't so delicious I could have licked the plate. And, we couldn't have been totally childless for the date we didn't go on! That would be too good to be true! :)

Emma did not sleep almost through the night every night last week! (She so did, and it was so nice! Yippee for small miracles!)

I'm not totally cracking up as I write this entry because my precious little six week old doll baby is farting like a full grown man! How could something so big come of something so adorable and small anyhow?

Well, I'm sure there is much more I could tell you about, but I have fewer brain cells these days, so I can't remember as much.

Share a comment with me telling me what you "didn't" do! Have a great Monday!

Memories

Last night we went to the choir pop show for the school at which I taught before Carleigh was born. Not only was it a pop show, it was the twentieth pop show for the head choir director with whom I worked for two years! He is such an awesome director. The new assistant thought it would be a neat idea to invite all of the past swing choir members to come and sing a tribute to Mr. Vaughn. There were about 50 people from past years on the stage at the end of the show singing "In My Life," a song from Mr. Vaughn's favorite group, the Beatles! Even though I didn't go to that high school, I was his very first assistant choir director, so I had the privilege of singing too. It was so much fun seeing all of the students I taught and seeing such a great guy honored by so many. There were some tears shed last night!

Of course, I'm also thinking about Mother's Day today. I can't believe I'm the mother of four children! Holy moly! That's unbelievable!! It's a hard job, probably the hardest one I'll ever do, but it's worth it. We have such sweet kids. They are funny too. Last night I received a text from our sitter during the pop show about how Carleigh was cracking her up. She said, "Carleigh is a like a 20 year old in a 6 year old body!" She had the sitter in stitches the whole night.

Before we left last night I pumped a bottle for Cora. Luke saw the pump and the following ensued...

Luke: is that how you get milk out of your boob?
Me: yes, it is.
Luke: how does it work?
Me: well, you hook these up to the machine, and it has a pump that gets the milk out.
Luke: I want to see!
Me: no.

I hope all you mothers out there have a great day. I realize there are those of you for who Mother's Day is not so happy, or maybe a little bittersweet. I'm thinking of you too and saying a little prayer for you today.

Show Us Where You Live Friday

Okay, it's "Show Us Where You Live Friday" again. Today we're showcasing the living rooms, or den, as I like to call it. My living room has been transformed into a play room, but it's worth it! Here are some pics of our living space. The paint color is really much prettier than it appears in these pictures. I'm sure there's something I could do to my camera to take better pictures, but I don't have time to learn.

This is the view from the front entry way.

I love the bookcase. It's a perfect place to display pictures of our little angles. The recliner is Kelvin's favorite spot. In case you haven't noticed, I love lamps!

Here is our piano. The kids love jamming out on it.

Here is the view of our den from the other side of the room.

This is the TV cabinet. You'll see Luke posing.

This is my favorite love seat and I love our antique mirrors. The kids pose and watch themselves talk in the bottom one.

I like all the stuff on our mantle. The print is a Monet and reminds me of the beach. It's so calming. The figure is a mother and daughter. Kelvin gave it to me when Emma was born. It makes me happy to think of her that way.

My Willow Tree figures are all special. Notice the cool Beethoven lamp. My sister gave it to me years ago...loooove it!



Here are a couple of my favorite things. I love this candelabra. It's fun to change out the candles and dress it up for the holidays. The piece of ironwork on the wall is just what I needed above my couch.

Thankful Thursday

I thought I would take some time today to be thankful...

I'm thankful for my wonderful husband. Without him my whole world would crater. He is such a rock. He has the most generous spirit. And he loves me like no other. I have the best man around. He is kind and gentle but strong and courageous too. He has the best sense of humor and pulls the funniest pranks. He is great with our kids. He loves God and is a strong spiritual leader for our family.

I'm thankful for our beautiful children. They are a gift from God.

I'm thankful for my precious friends. Without whom I would be in sooo much trouble. I love all the different relationships we have, and God has placed each one in our lives for a purpose.

I'm thankful for my sweet church family. They love us so genuinely and take up the slack where we cannot right now.

I'm thankful for our family. They are our backbone.

I'm thankful for our house. May laughter always abound and love conquer all. May all who enter as guests leave as friends.

I'm thankful for our cars, even though they are getting smaller by the day. :)

I'm thankful for the wonderful food God has supplied the past several months.

I'm thankful for furniture and comfy beds.

I'm thankful for beautiful flowers and cool mornings and evenings.

I'm thankful for rest and relaxation and pray we see more of it in the coming days.

I'm thankful for pretty things.

I'm thankful for music. Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. ~Berthold Auerbach.


What are you thankful for? Leave me a comment and let me know. Have a great day.

Wordless Wednesday

Numb

I'm just kind of numb lately. I'm not sure if it's because I'm tired or because I'm tired, did I say I'm tired already? Anyway, I feel like I'm in a fog. I can't really think straight. I get kind of weepy over the weirdest things. If you've been here before, you might remember Not Me Monday. So, I'll just put in a little not me right here to explain what I mean by "weepy over the weirdest things."

I did not get teary-eyed when I watched High School Musical 3 with my big kids the other morning before school. Not me! That would be totally ridiculous. I didn't repeat the behavior when we finished the movie after Carleigh returned home from school. How insane is that? And who lets their kids watch a movie before school anyway? Not me!

Anyway, if you're interested in learning more about Not Me Monday, click here to go to McMama's site and laugh your booty off!

So back to the numb thing. I really don't know how to explain what I'm feeling. I'm just sad. I am grieving the loss of my third child before she is physically gone, because this evil, mind-stealing disease has taken over my child. She is still precious, and I still treasure each moment with her, even though she is not the same. And, I still love the way her head nuzzles in the crook of my neck when I hold her against me. I still love the way she snuggles in bed with us and calms when she's been crying. I still love the way my beautiful brown-eyed girl looks like she is looking right at me even though I know she can't see me. The more Emma's disease progresses, the harder it is for me to be happy, because she seems so sad. Maybe that's the reason for my numbness or fog or whatever it is I'm feeling...

Man, did we ever have a busy weekend! I finally got some yummy crawfish thanks to Uncle Gene! That was some good stuff. And who knew Emma would love Cajun music? But really, what's not to love? And why should I be surprised? She loves every other kind of music she's ever heard? That's my girl! So, I'll be downloading some Cajun tunes onto my ipod for her listening pleasure!

I went to the last MOPS meeting of the year for our group today. I can't believe it's already May! We got some great ideas for summer fun for the kiddos, and we don't even have to leave our little metropolis for a lot of them. We're gonna be havin' us tons 'o summer fun around this joint! From swimming lessons to VBS, my kids are hardly going to have a chance to even mutter the words, "I'm bored."

Well, all the little creatures around our place are sawing logs, so I better get smart and join them.

Likes the Bottle and other fun stuff...

Cora likes the bottle! Yippee! This is very good news, because Luke and Emma would have nothing to do with it. Makes it a little difficult to go somewhere without the baby for more than a couple of hours. I am otherwise known as Elsie, the milk cow, so I have several (like 20 or so) bags of milk stored in the freezer for her! I'm so excited!! Cora will probably be like her big sister, Carleigh. Carleigh didn't care where her food source came from, she just wanted to eat...all of the time! She was a chunky monkey. I have a feeling Cora is going to follow the same pattern.

If you've never hopped over to Angie's site, Bring the Rain, you should take the time to read some of her latest posts about her trip to India through Compassion International...very inspiring. Our family began sponsoring a little boy named Carlos during a campaign at our church at Christmas time. Carleigh was sitting by me and picked up the brochure and said, "we need to sponsor him, Mommy." How do you say no to that? So, we didn't say no. I'm glad we didn't. The other day Carleigh was so excited to receive a letter and colored picture from our little guy. She immediately sat down and wrote him a letter and colored him a picture. It was so sweet.

Looking forward to a good weekend. I'm totally psyched about a crawfish boil Kelvin just informed me we were invited to tomorrow evening. YUM-O! Carleigh has a swimming birthday party invitation for tomorrow as well. Can you believe we're already swimming? CUH-RAZY!! Sunday the big kids will receive AWANA awards. I'm so proud of their hard work and their teachers' dedication to helping them succeed. AWANA is a program that teaches them scripture memory. I'm so thankful there are people helping me instill Godly principles in our children.

One of my favorite blogs is Kelly's Korner. She's doing a new thing on her blog where she is encouraging everyone to show each other what our houses look like. Today is the kitchen...

So here are some pictures of mine. Keep in mind, it's a work in progress. In fact we just got a bid for granite countertops. Hee Hee! I can't wait. I have big (well, not that big...more like little plans that make a big difference) plans for our kitchen. I'll be sure to post more updated pictures in the future. But until then, here is our kitchen...

Where the kids always eat...

One of my favorite things (even though they don't have herbs in them, I think they're so cute!)

It's your turn! Please share some pictures of where you live and let me know so I can hop over to your site and check them out. I don't know how to do the Mr. Linky thingy yet, but when I learn, it'll be fun! Have a great weekend!