Grandpa Hands...

Definition: (as told by Jack) What your hands look like after staying in the bathtub for awhile. AKA: raisin or prune hands. :D

It was too cute. Adam and Jack were dressing after their bath the other day and Jack said to Adam, "Look I have grandpa hands".

No offense to grandpa's of course! I am sure his definition will bring a smile to Grandpa Clark's face. :D

Old Fashioned

We made beef stew over our woodburning stove. It was so much fun. It felt like we were living in old times. We all sat by the fire keeping warm while the stew was simmering. It tasted yummy too. Just thought I would share our old fashioned story with you all. It did save us a little bit of money too since we didn't need to use the gas stove in the kitchen and with the rising costs of gas any little bit helps. :D

As promised....

 Updated pictures of my kiddos...

Grace Face

Some recent pictures of Grace who is now 3 months old. The last picture is another "a wink and a smile" shot. You might remember this other "wink and smile". She is getting big!

Grrr.....

That is the new sound that is coming from our little Gracie girlfriend. It is so cute. She has been making all kinds of cooing noises just like she should be at her age and then today I noticed that she is growling too. She will even occasionally growl back when growled at. The rest of us are getting a real kick out of it. Sarah, Adam and Jack have been growling at her all day trying to get her to growl back. What a little darling. She is getting so big now too. I 'll post some new pictures of all my kiddos soon. Grrr...

Strawberry Shortcake

No cheating. If all of the desserts listed below were sitting in front of you, which would you choose? Pick your dessert, and then look to see what psychiatrists think about you! (Sorry you can only pick one.)

a) Angel Food Cake
b) Brownies
c) Lemon Meringue
d) Vanilla Cake with Chocolate Icing
e) Strawberry Short Cake
f) Chocolate on Chocolate
g) Ice Cream
h) Carrot Cake

NOW, you cannot change your mind once you scroll down! So, think carefully what your choice will be! Now that you have made your choice, scroll down to see what research says about you!









ANGEL FOOD CAKE... Sweet, loving, cuddly. You love all warm and fuzzy items. A little nutty at times. Sometimes you need an ice cream cone at the end of the day. Others perceive you as being childlike and immature at times!

BROWNIES... You are adventurous, love new ideas, are a champion of under-dogs and a slayer of dragons. When tempers flare up, you whip out your saber. You are always the oddball with a unique sense of humor and direction. You tend to be very loyal.

LEMON MERINGUE... Smooth, sexy, & articulate with your hands, you are an excellent after-dinner speaker and a good teacher. But don't try to walk and chew gum at the same time. A bit of a diva at times, but you have many friends.

VANILLA CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE ICING... Fun-loving,sassy, humorous. Not very grounded in life; very indecisive and lack motivation. Everyone enjoys being around you, but you are a practical joker.Others should be cautious in making you mad. However,you are a friend for life.

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE... Romantic, warm, loving. You care about other people and can be counted on in a pinch. You tend to melt! You can be overly emotional and annoying at times.

CHOCOLATE ON CHOCOLATE... Sexy; always ready to give and receive. Very creative, adventurous, ambitious,and passionate. You can appear to have a cold exterior but are warm on the inside. Not afraid to take chances. Will not settle for anything average in life. Love to laugh.

ICE CREAM... You like sports, whether it be baseball,football, basketball, or soccer. If you could, you would like to participate, but you enjoy watching sports. You don't like to give up the remote control. You tend to be self-centered and high maintenance.

CARROT CAKE... You are a very fun loving person, who likes to laugh. You are fun to be with. People like to hang out with you. You are a very warm-hearted person and a little quirky at times. You have many loyal friends.

Zits...

Sarah has a sore under her lower lip that kinda looks like a cold sore. I was putting some lotion on it when she asked me what I thought it was. I told her it might be a cold sore but I wasn't completely sure. Then she said, "I think it is one of those things that you and Dad have." I said "What?, Zits!" "Yep" Very embarrassing but funny at the same time.

Eating Glue

You know your child is hungry when he starts to eat his older sister school work project. Sarah made this putty stuff comparable to silly putty out of glue and "this blue stuff"(her words) at school. It was pretty cool and Jack thought it was yummy too. Adam informed me that Jack was chowing down on the glue stuff that was stuck to the stir stick. YUCK! Always Jack eating things he isn't supposed too, like laundry detergent, Imodium, Tums,...all of which required calls to the poison Control Center.

Happy Birthday Jack!

 Today is Jack's 3rd Birthday! Happy birthday little man. 

It's going to be a long winter

It seems like I have been sick a lot lately. Let's see... first I got Bronchitis right before Grace was born, then I got Strep throat and a bladder infection right after she was born which was during Thanksgiving. Then during Christmas I had Mastitis really bad and had to switch antibiotics because the Walk-in-Clinic doctor knowingly wrote me a prescription for a drug that is not safe while nursing so my children's pediatrician had to write me a new script which thankfully worked wonders and was safe for Grace. So now it's the New Year and I have some kind of upper respiratory infection and have almost completely lost my voice. I have had to deal with the reinfestation of lice in Sarah's hair a few weeks ago due to classmates or cousins passing it back and forth, but I think I have finally cured us all from the lice hopefully to never see them again. I ordered a product online that has seemed to really help. And now here I am this morning trying to talk through a squeaky voice and to top it all off Jack has been up since two 0'clock this morning throwing up every 15-25 minutes. I have to give him small amounts of water every 15 minutes to keep him from getting dehydrated. And as you can probably imagine with four kids I have loads of laundry to get to today especially with this mornings vomit sheets piling up. So I must carry on with my motherly duties while following Jack around with a puke bucket. Hopefully he will be feeling better tomorrow because it is his 3rd birthday. Oh yeah and I also had a mole removed from my back a few days ago. This was actually something I was very happy about, although seeing my mole lying on the table next to me after they cut it out turned my stomach, but at least there were no visual abnormalities and so the tests should come back normal. Anyhoo, better get back to my family.... :D

A Meme...

Amie tagged me for this:

Four jobs you have had in your life:
1. Babysitter
2. Secretary/Payroll/Biller for a Psychologist office
3. Answered phones for a Bank
4. Scheduler/Biller for an Orthopedic Center

Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
2. Luther
3. Jane Eyre
4. Any 80's comedy/romance

Four places you have lived:
1. Palmdale, CA
2. Columbia, TN
3. Suttons Bay, MI
4. Traverse City, MI (Beulah, MI too)

Four TV shows you love to watch :
1. Lost
2. Biggest Loser
3. Scrubs
4. King of Queens

Four places you have been on vacation: (all of these were on our 3 wk vacation Out West)
1. Texas
2. New Mexico
3. Arizona
4. California

Four websites you visit daily:
1. Amie's blog
2. Our bank's site
3. A Message Board I am a member of
4. Another Message Board I am am member of

Four of your favorite foods:
1. Seafood
2. Mushrooms
3. Homemade chicken noodle soup
4. Chinese

Four places you would rather be right now:
1. At the beach
2. Sitting down at a restaurant eating good food
3. In California visiting my family
4. On vacation in another country

2005: A Look back through my eyes

Amie tagged me for this reflection of the year 2005.

What did you do in 2005 that you've never done before? Take four kids to the grocery store ;)

Did you keep your New Year's resolutions and will you make more for next year? I did not have a New Years resolutions in 2005. I do however have one this year and intend to keep it.

Did anyone close to you give birth? Absolutely; Amie, Andrea, Kori, Chandra, just to name a few...

Did anyone close to you die? Kinda (he was a family friend)

What countries did you visit? None

What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?
All our debts paid

What date from 2005 will remain etched in your memory and why?
Giving birth. Because I always remember those special memories.

What was your biggest achievement of the year? Making friends with a total stranger (usually I am too shy to do this)

What was your biggest failure? Allowing my daughter to get head lice. (Even though it probably really isn't my fault, I still feel like I failed)

Did you suffer illness or injury? Let's see...Bronchitis, Strep throat, bladder infection, and Mastitis

What was the best thing you bought? My patio furniture

Where did most of your money go? Electric and gas bills

What did you get really, really, really excited about? I agree with Amie here. When my sister got pregnant again after a stressful time.

What scripture is a theme of 2005? Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink, or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more important than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? Matthew 6:25-27

Compared to this time last year are you:
a. Happier or sadder? Happier
b. Thinner or fatter? Fatter
c. Richer or poorer? About the same

What do you wish you'd done more of? Reading the Bible with the kids

What do you wish you'd done less of? Complaining

How did you spend Christmas? With family

Did you fall in love in 2005? Yes, Grace was born in '05, but I fall more in love with all my family year after year

What was your favorite TV show? Lost

What was the best book you read? Francine Rivers; Mark of the Lion Series

What was your greatest musical discovery of 2005? Huh?

What did you want and get? New comforter for my bedroom

What did you want and not get? A million dollars

What was your favorite film this year? Can't recall

What did you do on your birthday? Went out to dinner and bought maternity clothes

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Taking the kids to Disney World

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005? Simple. Jeans and tee shirts

What kept you sane? My wonderful husband

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? No comment

What political issue stirred you the most? When people blamed President Bush for the Hurricane !?! (retarded)

Who did you miss? My daddy who passed away 6 years ago

Who was the best new person you met? N/A

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005. I learned to treat head lice with Licex (available online), and a vinegar wrap (to loosen the nits). And to check my kids hair everyday.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. You gotta have faith... (even though I don't like this song, it sums up my year.

Words from Adam and Jack

Last week Adam said, "Mom, may I please have some juice in my cup, cause I'm drinky".

The other day while eating dinner and responding to Dan, Jack said, "It's not a Cabby Patty Daddy (Krabby Patty from Spongebob), It's a Sloppy Jones (Sloppy Joe)".

A wink and a smile

A first time for everything

I nursed Grace in an unusual location today. She was hungry and wasn't content with my just holding her so....I sat right down on the floor in the book isle at Meijer and fed her. :D At first I felt kinda awkward, but soon relaxed since this isle is usually empty. Only a few people walked by, but I don't think they noticed a thing. It did work out great that my sister and two nieces were there. I had my cart blocking me on one side while the her girls sat by me on the other side blocking that view. Of course I had a blanket that concealed the whole thing. It was a new experience for me. I have fed my babies while sitting down at a restaurant before, but the whole sitting down on the grocery store floor thing was a whole new ball game, but I figured you gotta do what you gotta do, right? :D Grace was happy!

Lice

Yep, you read right. We had a case of lice in our family. Poor Sarah, she had them crawling all over. It was a horrible experience. Very embarrassing!! I have always thought that lice are only found on dirty children. Well...we are not dirty people. I didn't know anything about lice and so it was very overwhelming and I hadn't even begun to comb out the nits. First we had to shampoo her hair and kill all the live lice, called louse. As soon as the shampoo hit her hair they started falling out, dead. But that was only the beginning. I had to shampoo her hair two more times just to make sure we killed everything. Then came the worst part, combing out the nits. These are all the eggs, some hatched some not(yuck). The mother louse lays her eggs on the hair follicles and applies a glue like substance to attach the eggs. This glue makes it impossible to just comb out. I tried a vinegar mixture, loads of conditioner and several hours of my time trying to get these buggers out. Poor Sarah, she had to sit there for several hours a night while I combed, teased and tried to rip these disgusting things out of her hair. Finally a week later I am almost done getting the nits out. A form letter went home to every student in Sarah's class to check for lice, no one knew it was because of her though, but I was still so embarrassed. The school secretary was very nice and told me there was nothing to be embarrassed about. She said that they find cases of lice almost every winter. I remember last year when Sarah was in kindergarten I received a letter to check for lice because a case was found in the classroom. I was mortified and felt disgusted. I thought, yuck, what dirty kid came to school with lice in their hair. Well, this year it seems that my kid was the "dirty kid" with the lice, but since I know that we are not dirty, I had to rethink the way I felt about other kids with lice. I now know that all kids with lice are NOT dirty. I can totally relate to the embarrassment of thinking that other people think you are dirty. So if there is anyone out there with a case of lice I just want you to know that I know you are not dirty. Hopefully these lice don't decide to reappear and that this never happens to any of our kids ever again.

Seven Sevens

Amie tagged me so hear I go...

Seven things I hope to do before I die:
1. Get my house out of the construction/remodeling phase. *smiling*
2. Learn to cook like a chef.
3. Watch my children grow up.
4. Play with my grandchildren.
5. Live on a farm with farm animals.
6. Travel to another country besides Canada.
7. Read the Bible from cover to cover. (this should actually be further up on my list)

Seven things I cannot do:
1. Keep my floors clean for longer than an hour.
2. Keep my bedroom clean for longer than a day.
3. Sing (this is a copy from Amie's. I wish I could sing).
4. Go to long without eating or I'll have a hypoglycemia attack.
5. Anything life threatening like skydiving, etc...
6. Fit into my size 4 jeans (probably never will again)
7. Talk in front of a group of people without blushing. I'm probably turning red just thinking about it. (this one is exactly the same as Amie's)

Seven things that attract me to my spouse:
1. His lips.
2. His sense of humor.
3. The way he talks.
4. The way he loves me and the children.
5. The way he plays with the kids.
6. His strengths, both physical and mental.
7. His consistency.

Seven things I say often: (the first 5 are copies of Amie's) So true!
1. Stop that!
2. Hang on...
3. Is that how we ask?
4. Get out of the fridge!
5. I can only do one thing at a time.
6. Be quiet!
7. You're not really thirsty if you can't drink water.

Seven books or book series I love:
1. Francine Rivers - The Mark of the Lion Series
2. Francine Rivers- The Last Sin Eater
3. Francine Rivers- Redeeming Love
4. Francine Rivers- Leota's Garden
5. Charlotte Bronte- Jane Eyre
6. Little House on the prairie series - Laura Ingalls Wilder
7. Love Comes Softly/ Canadian West Series' - Janette Oak

Seven movies I would watch over and over again:
1. Jane Eyre
2. Luther
3. Peter Pan
4. Phantom of the Opera
5. The Princess Bride
6. Stand by Me
7. Pretty much any 80's comedy/romance

Seven people I want to join in this Seven Sevens meme
I don't know seven people who read my blogs often so, anyone wanting to do it go on ahead :D

Happy Holidays!

Clark's Thanksgiving 2005

Well, we were supposed to have Thanksgiving with extended family like we usually do for every Thanksgiving, and this year was going to be at Dan's aunt's house, but...I got SICK! That's right, just before Thanksgiving. Here's a quick version of the story: Monday I started feeling sick right before I picked Sarah up from the bus stop. My throat was hurting, and my neck and head. I just felt like crap. Then Tuesday was WAY worse. I tried to sleep all day but my whole body just felt horrible. I felt like I was moving around with a bubble for a head. Then Wednesday was the even WORSE. I couldn't even talk. Sarah didn't have school which was wonderful because I could barely get out of bed. Sometime mid-morning I decided to look down my throat and sure enough I saw white blisters all over, then I checked my temperature and found I had a fever, so I decided to go to the doctors where they told me I had Strep-throat. YAY! Thankfully the medicine they put me on starting clearing the infection up just in time for the day after Thanksgiving sales!! Which by the way I went to for the first time ever, and all by myself, and I will NEVER to it again (that is another story). Oh yeah I forgot to mention I had a bladder infection also (which is another story), but the antibiotic for the strep cleared that up as well. I feel pretty good now, but not 100% better. Now Jack is sick with a fever, runny nose, and crusty eyes. Poor guy! I hope this illness clears out before Christmas and doesn't return for a loooonnnggg time. The upside to that story is that we had our own little Thanksgiving, just the six of us with turkey and everything. It was wonderful!

Well, that was how our Thanksgiving went. Hope everyone else had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving all!!