I love having a 7 year old...

I was so tired this morning. I heard the kids stirring around 7:30. I'm usually up around 6-6:30...so I had already gotten an extra hour of sleep but I still wanted more. I burried my head back in my pillow and fell sound asleep--again. I woke up an hour later to complete silence. Knowing this was not the norm, I jumped out of bed to go investigate. As I rounded the corner into the kitchen, this is what I found. Four children sitting at the table, eating their cereal, pancakes, and bananas. Hudson had quieted them all so that he could read them his daily Bible reading from John. I'm not sure what I've ever done to deserve: #1 to sleep in on a Saturday a.m. and #2 to have children that realize when I need a couple extra hours of sleep and are self-sufficient.

Temples and Withdrawal...

My morning began with Piper tapping me on the shoulder saying, "Mommy, you look like you're going to have a baby!" (Note to self....re-enroll in Weight Watchers....NOW!!) She's mesmerized by all of the talk of babies lately. When I told her we're not having any more babies she just says, "Oh, mommy, you're such a kidder."
On to our next stop of the morning, I got to watch Corbin's eye doctor remove Corbin's splints from his eyes. If you've not had the pleasure of watching this procedure, trust me, you don't want to.
We went over to our neighbor's house to bid them farewell--as they're moving to NC. Our neighbor was giving us a "tour" of the house. As the lady and I chit-chatted along, I see her eyes get huge. She sternly said, "No, no that's a temple." "This is where I worship." Sweet little Piper thought this "temple" was a doll house and was swinging open the doors and windows. Truly, it did look like a doll house....an odd, black, spooky doll house. It kinda reminded me of the time when I washed out a bowl of "holy water" when I was in highschool babysitting.
And....now on to my children's behavior. What is it with summer and lousy behavior? They're not always disrespectful. They're usually the best kids ever. But because of their lack of respect, I took away their blankets. To some of you, this may not seem like such a big deal. But to my kids, this is the worst punishment....EVER!! To Corbin especially. He's in withdrawal. He's going on 3 days with no blanket. I kept finding him sobbing, in the fetal postition all day long. I think I may be paying for therapy in a few years for this.

She's here...

My first neice, Eden Michal, was born yesterday morning. I have 4 bruisin' lil' nephews, so it was about time another little girl made it into the family. She'll be spoiled with lots of bows, jewels, dresses, etc. Olivia and Jeremiah, the proud mama and daddy, made we wait for the name, too. They, along with Traci, are teaching me great amounts of patience. They actually changed the name once they got to the hospital. It was a rough delivery for Olivia, but she's recovering and resting peacefully at the the hospital. I haven't seen pictures of Eden yet, but my mom says she has dark curly hair on the back of her head, and lighter hair on the top of her head...mom says she looks like she has hi-lights. So...sweet little girl, welcome to this crazy world. We love you so much already! ***Just got some sweet pics of the happy family***
www.geocities.com/thefralics/Index.html

Gross

My sweet hubby took the kids and I out to eat for lunch the other day. Our waitress came up to the table--wet hair, sloppy demeanor. The entire time she was getting our drink orders I stared at this long, strangly hair sticking to the front of her shirt. All I could think was that I really didn't want that hair in my water or on my salad. I figured once she went back to the kitchen to get our drinks another server would be nice enough to get that hair off of her shirt....But, no. She comes waltzing back to the table with our drinks....and that nasty, yucky, gross, wet strand of hair was still hanging off of her shirt. I couldn't handle it any more. I reached out, grabbed the hair, and threw it on the floor. I said, "I'm sorry. You had a hair on your shirt. I thought you'd want it off." She acted mad, offended, angry. She brought my salad out last--I'm sure that was because she was busy spitting in it and placing random hairs throughout the lettuce leafs. Rick was convinced we were having a "Seinfeld" moment, and I had to agree. So...my question is, what would you have done?

3:30

I was fast asleep, dreaming of getting a full night's rest with no interruption. The kids were all nestled in their beds with visions of cocoa puffs dancing in their heads--apparently. At 3:30 in the a.m. Baylor tapped me on the shoulder. I cracked open my eyes to see who could be interrupting my perfectly wonderful night of sleep. Baylor stood there with a box of Cocoa Puffs. She was popping them into her mouth one at a time. When I asked what she was doing she sweetly said, "I'm saving the world one bite at a time." I laughed myself back to sleep. I have no idea how long she was up eating cereal, or how much she ate. I allowed my 3 year old who was "saving the world" free roam of the house in order to get back to that peaceful rest.

Life

Life is never dull around our household. I guess it'd be too much for me to ask to have healthy kids for say....1 month in a row. We've transitioned nicely from whooping cough to strep throat....all 4 kids. Our doctor's office staff said they're going to start leaving our file on the counter--since we're in there every week.
I'm learning to "love" cleaning up vomit in the middle of the night....learning to not get completely grossed out when I step in a pile of vomit in the dark of night. You know the drill, girls. As disgusting as it is, I've sure had some sweet moments with my children during their illnesses.
One of my dearest childhood friends, Heather Rudy Erickson, lost her 29 year old brother to leukemia this week...what in the world am I complaining about??? I can most definitely deal with strep throat.
Tomorrow is Father's Day. I have Rick's whole family coming over for lunch. Rick was supposed to come home tonight from a trip, but his company had other plans and are keeping him until tomorrow night. So much for the surprise lunch, cake, gifts. Am I complaining again??
On a positive note, I found the greatest company. I bought several items from them, and can't wait to get more. They will custom print verses, sayings, children's names, anything.....you have to see it, it's too hard to explain. http://www.ezwordart.com/ And for my friends' with children...I found a miracle product. It's called Red Erase. You can buy it at Linen's and Things or online at http://www.evergreenlabs.com/ If you get red kool-aid, or anything red on your clothes, and spray this stuff on it takes it out. I haven't found any other products that work this well. There's my 2 cents, spend it wisely.

My little "pony-girl"

Since my beautiful little Piper was 2, she's been telling us she wanted to be a "pony-girl." Not a cowgirl, a ponygirl. She wants to ride every horse, at every fair, carnival, party...that she comes across. We finally let her start taking lessons. Her instuctor's name is Abby--the sweetest 15 year old I've come across in years. Piper's horses name is POKEY. And believe me, when you place your precious 4 year old daughter over to a horse for the first time, you want that horse to be Pokey. She absolutely loves every minute of her lessons. I've tried convincing her just how much fun gymnastics, tennis, swimming, etc. could be, but without a doubt her passion is horses.