Appointment

My mole removal appointment went well on Tuesday. I was so nervous, I was seriously shaking. I don't know why I was so scared, because the procedure was non-painful. The nurse did have to numb the 3 areas in my stomach 3 times. For some reason, the numbing medications don't work as well on me. I have the same problems when I have dental procedures...a few doses of Novocaine. Anyway, what freaked me out was the cutting of my skin. I have 8 stitches total (2 in each area). I will have another appointment on May 1 for the removal of the stitches, and to find out the results of the biopsy. As I should, I should just pray about it, and give it to God. Easier said than done...I know it will be over a week of worry.
My prayer is that every mole is benign!!
Speaking of appointments, I will have to bring Madelyn into the Dr. this afternoon (again...second week in a row). She has a bad cough, greenish/yellow discharge, high fever, and just looks/feels miserable. Poor little girl! She sounds like she kind of holds her breath, but it is hard to know if it is worse than normal. For some reason Caleb and Maddie like to hold their breath. Anyway, I hope her appointment goes well. Not that I like to medicate my kids, but I hope the Dr. can give her something to get better. I really hope it isn't something like pneumonia. Blah!
Over the last weekend, Caleb and Madelyn went to Grandma's house. Terry and I went to a train show in Menomonie, WI. That is about a 2 hour drive from our house. It was a nice drive and pretty scenery! Unfortunately, we were both up late the night before. I had Ladies Night Out, which was and is always a great time. Terry just stayed up working on paperwork and putting together our new stroller.

I just wanted to share a few adorable pictures Terry took this weekend.

Daddy and Cole. Cole was standing on the seat~ unassisted. He loves to stand.
I think this picture is so adorable! Cole is so excited and happy to be standing there all by himself. We wish we had a full body picture to give you the full effect. (love those ears!)
The sun was very bright, so Cole's eyes are kind of closed. He still is super cute!

Random thoughts and funnies

I am sorry I haven't been blogging my life stories, experiences, situations...fill in the blank.....lately. Life with four children is definitely a lot busier than life with three children~ especially since right now, I have a 3 (almost 4) year old, a newly 2 year old, and a 3 month old. My son, Nathaniel....who is 10 1/2, is very helpful, but he is in school. Plus, he has difficulties, too. He is a great kid, smart, funny, lovable, and sensitive...just a hard age and life changing age right now. We are considering home schooling him next year. He has been in the public school for the last 2 years, after being home schooled for the first 3 years of school. He has experienced what "school" is now, and he is asking to be home educated again. One of the main reasons he wanted to go to "real school," A.K.A. public school, was to ride the bus. Now, that is one of the biggest issues he has right now. He hates the school bus ride. He is very sensitive to swearing and loud yelling/screaming, and he has been in tears over the whole mess. He has also had some issues with this year's teacher. Personally, I just don't think that she really "likes" Nathaniel. As his mom, I really struggle with that. She just doesn't have that warmness and caring presence that his teacher from last year had. Some of the issues I have with her is her lack of spelling tests and some of her reasoning. Nathaniel's biggest struggle is spelling. He has actually gone backwards in his spelling this year. They don't work on it in school, so how can he start getting it? There really aren't enough hours in the day to have him come home to practice/memorize spelling words for 2 hours each day when he gets home just before 4 PM. It is really frustrating. Nathaniel excels in Math, Reading, Language, and Science...he just really struggles with spelling. So, home schooling is probably the direction we need to go. I would love to have him go to a private school, but the cost is way out of our budget. Nathaniel's Dad isn't a big supporter of home education, however, he has seen it to be successful. He knows Nathaniel's grades have decreased this year, and that he has been struggling. Also, I think if Nathaniel shares his feelings with his Dad, he will be more apt to go along with home education. So, we are praying about it. One really great thing we have been doing with Nathaniel lately is having a talk session once a week. Terry and I sit down with him, and he has the floor to say whatever is on his mind. He can tell us if he is mad at us, disagrees with something, is upset about school/bus/friends/siblings, etc.~ all as long as he is respectful. Terry and I don't share our opinions, get mad, or correct him....we just listen. Thankfully, Nathaniel has been very open with us, and he is sharing so much. I see that he is just filled with so much suppressed emotion, and it breaks my heart. He is at such an impressionable age, and I really hope we can understand where he is at and help him overcome some things. I love him so much, and he is so precious to me. I am sure it is a challenge for him to live in one home with certain rules and expectations, visit another home with his Dad, and maybe feels out of sorts. Plus, he is entering pre-teen and that has a whole bunch of feelings/emotions attached. Terry and I are making some changes so Nathaniel can be happier with his home life, and school life. We are working on his own room, more one on one time with him, more time with his Dad, and his own space.


Caleb has been in a stage that is, what I would call,~ extremely independent. He has been very testy lately, and saying, "NO!" He is almost 4 years old (end of May). I think he is feeling a lack of attention lately with Maddie and new baby brother, Cole. Terry and I have talked about making sure he has more one on one time with us soon. He has been doing great with his potty training, and keeping his underwear dry during the day. Most nights he has accidents, but he really can't wake himself up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. He has been very observant of his body parts lately, and I find it embarrassing. I know God made him with those parts, but how do you explain it isn't a toy, or something that is of common discussion with just anyone. He says things like, "just playing with my ***," like it is just a game that he is playing. I know it is normal for this age, it just has never been comfortable to work through. Caleb loves wearing shorts so much lately. On Friday, I told him to put on jeans. He got so upset and what throwing them down on the ground. After a few rounds of me telling him he was going to wear them, and him telling me no with throwing them down....he said the funniest thing.
Me: "You will wear those jeans, and you won't tell me no."
Caleb: "I don't like wearing jeans!! I love my mom and dad, but I DO NOT like wearing jeans!" It was very comical.

Madelyn's favorite words right now are, "What?" and "Why?" She is really becoming more vocal and clearer with her words. She struggles a little with her pronunciation, but she is getting better at it. She is very strong willed, and independent. She is loving to dress herself, especially if she has a zipper on anything. She loves to be barefoot no matter where she is. If we are home all day, I don't even bother putting socks on her. She finally moved into a size 4 diaper. We also just moved her from the crib to a toddler bed. Last week, Nathaniel put the whole toddler bed together by himself without directions! We were so proud of him, and you could tell he was happy with himself and the results. I set it up in Caleb's room, moved the changing table, and she loves it! It is quite funny, because she will not get out of bed in the morning or after nap. She calls for Terry or I to come, and she waits for us. It is precious, and I am glad she likes it.

Maddie and Caleb are at Grandma's for the weekend. Caleb and his other boy cousins were peeing outside today by the trees. Madelyn was standing by a tree, and just kept still. Grandma asked her what she was doing, and Maddie said, "I go potty, too!" Then, she tried to go. Poor girl! She is the only girl grandchild with 7 boy grandchildren. I know she will fair well, but it would be nice if there was another girl for her. OH well!

Cole is growing so much these days! He just rolled over from tummy to his back this week on Wednesday, I believe. He is now 3 months old. He is also reaching for toys, and putting them in his mouth~ when he makes it that far. He is such a happy-go-lucky baby! He is a great sleeper, and is great about crying when he needs the necessities: feeding, changing, sleeping. He does bite down on me sometimes, and that isn't very pleasant. He is a great breast feeder, though. I love his smile! He really lights up when he is talking or being talked to. I am totally not rushing him into his stages or milestones. I want to just enjoy his growth, and learning. He may be our last baby, so I just try to relish his moments and cuteness!

Terry has been working with the DNR this whole week. He is a smoke chaser/fire fighter. He loves fighting fire. April and May are the big fire months of the year. His full-time job has been very slow this week (not good) but he has been able to get his fire-fix with the DNR at least. He has been on some great fires this week, too! I love hearing his stories and hearing about what happened with his evening. My house has seen better days than this week, but Terry has been gone most of this week. Tuesday night he was home at 2 AM~ Wed., 9:00 PM on Wed., and 7 PM on Thurs. So, the hours are a lot longer. I was so happy to have the whole day with him today with our drive to Wisconsin for a train show. It was a beautiful day! Tonight we looked for refrigerators. Ours is dying, so we need to get a new one. It was good to go hunting around for prices, but I know that I am not much of a shopper these days.
Tomorrow I have a bridal shower to go to for my future sister-in-law. Terry is going to work with the DNR again, so we will both be busy. I am excited to go because I love showers! The shower is about an hour from my house. After the shower I will be picking up Caleb and Madelyn. I plan to head home after that, but if Terry gets called out to a fire, I may have to drive another 2 hours to pick up Nathaniel, and then an hour and half home. So, I may have a lot of drive time tomorrow. I hope you all are having a great weekend! Thanks for visiting, and reading my blog! I will try to write more about us, and visit you all more soon!

We had a busy weekend...

Friday night, I went to the monthly Ladies Night out at our church. This month we did a Christmas-y themed get-together. It was a cookie exchange (which I didn't do, because it wasn't until last minute that we decided I could go...so no time to bake). Plus, it was a $10 white elephant gift exchange. I brought 2 books that I have reviewed previously, to give as gifts. It was such a fun night, and we even had new visitors. Lisa, Jody, and our friend Anna did the planning, organizing and preparations. You ladies did a fantastic job, and I want to say THANK YOU for all your work to make it a great night!
They did a fantastic job! They decorated the ceiling with Christmas bulbs hanging, table clothes on the tables, and we each had name tags. The name tags were fun because they all related to Christmas or winter. I picked the name Vixen because I thought it was fitting to me. ~lol. We each wore a pin with balls hanging on it to play a game. We had to use our "nick names" when we addressed each other, and if you "caught" someone using the person's real name, you could take their balls away. The winner with the most collected balls was given a prize at the end. That was a fun game!
To get our white elephant gift, we played the game where you roll dice to get double numbers to get a prize. Then, once we all had a gift, we opened them, and then did another 10 minutes of rolling dice where we could "exchange" our gift with someone else. I had originally opened up a butter container. It was an OK gift, but my eyes were on the Mikasa martini glasses (set of 4). I did end up getting them, and I was so thankful! Not only do I LOVE Mikasa, Terry and I do enjoy martinis and entertaining. Of coarse, I haven't had a martini in a long time, and they are saved for special occasions, but they are tasty. These beautiful glasses can be used to put dips and desserts in them, too. I was so happy that I got it. The lady I had switched with ended up really needing the butter container, too...so it was a win win.
After the gift exchange, we played games. Lisa had 3 new games that we needed to help her try out. She got the games to review, and it was fun new games to try. The night ended about 1:30'ish this time. I wasn't planning on staying after 1:00 AM, because we were leaving early in the morning, BUT it was Ladies Night Out, and that just happens once a month. I really hope to make it next month. It is right around the time when my baby is due...so we will see.
Saturday morning, we finished up packing, loaded the car and headed on our way to my husband's side family Christmas. On the way, we stopped at a train show. Terry and the boys went to the train show, and Madelyn and I went to the mall for girl time and shopping. We had a few items to pick up, and a few Christmas gifts to purchase. It was fun to have some one on one time with Madelyn, and Terry had a great time with the boys. After that, we stopped for lunch, and went up North. There were a lot of people in Grandma's house! We snacked, opened gifts, and had supper. Then, Terry, our family, his brother and his family, and Terry's Mom went downstairs and did our family Christmas. It was fun to have that time together. Madelyn got a little cell phone with a purse, dress up shoes, and a necklace...then, when it was all on...she wiggled her little booty and said, "Oooo, Look at Me! Look at me!" It was so funny!
Sunday, we went to church, and then watched the kid's Christmas program. It was snowing and blowing like crazy, so we knew we needed to head for home right after church. We did stop at Terry's Grandma & Mom's house to grab a bite to eat and pack up the van. Then, we made our way through the snow and ice. We did get together, part way home, at my friend's house. We had planned on getting together to celebrate our friend's birthday. It was a fun time to get together, eat some great food, and just touch base again. I miss the days that we just went up to Perkins and talked for hours and hours. Now, with marriage and kids, our lives have become so busy. I was thankful for our time together, though.
It was a great weekend, and now it is good to be home. We got snow and ice over the weekend, and I think more snow is in the forecast. I do love snow, just the -40 below wind chills are a bit much.

Weekend update

It was a great weekend away with Terry! It was super having time together and away~

We left early Friday morning...6:00 AM. We stopped for fuel and breakfast. I am pretty sure that was our only stop until we were in Waukesha, WI. We had a tour of Kalmbach Publishing Company. They are the publishers of several magazines of hobbies, particularly we were interested in Model Railroader. It was fun to tour their company, and see the great layout. Terry was really excited about all this because he has seen so many of the sections of layout the company uses in their stories that are in the monthly magazines. We were there for about an hour, and then we were on our way to Walthers in Milwaukee, WI. Before we got there, we stopped and had a light lunch at Taco Bell.
Terry and I are dealers with Walthers for most of our ordering trains and accessories for our store. It was interesting to see the location of the warehouse and their hobby shop. It was interesting to see how our orders are assembled and shipped. Then, we went to our hotel for check in. We stayed at the Country Inn and Suites in Brookfield, WI. What a great hotel to stay in! It was probably my most favored of hotel stays in my life. I have stayed in quite a few hotels, so that is something to say! The hotel was very clean, had a super hot tub and pool, a great room~we even had a living room space in our room!, a very comfortable bed with great pillows, and a HOT continental breakfast! The breakfast was eggs, bacon/sausage, biscuits and gravy, toast/english muffins, oatmeal, waffles, fresh fruit, yogurt, juice, milk, coffee and water. What a great spread, and it was super! We got Train Fest ticket prices, since we were there for the train show. So, we got a great deal on our hotel price, free tickets for both days of the show, and breakfast was included! Talk about a great deal! We will stay there for sure next year!
Friday night, we ate at the Champps Restaurant attached to the hotel. It was great food. That night, we went swimming and sat in the hot tub! It was grand! I am in my third trimester, and I have heard from several Dr.'s that it is OK to be in a hot tub in the third trimester~ I just have to know when I am getting hot. If that happens, just get out. Plus, the water wasn't that hot~ it was just like a warm bath. Then, we went back to the room and we ordered a movie from the TV. We watched Baby Mama....what a great movie! I laughed so much! You should see it!



The next day, we were up...had breakfast, (had to make a trip to Walmart~forgot to pack something...) then, went to the show. There were over 50 train layouts, a ton of vendors, and fun things for kids to do! We didn't even see it all on Saturday. It was a lot of walking around, looking, and admiring. I had to sit down a few times throughout the day. I saw some great layouts, though. In the evening, we had dinner at Outback Steakhouse, which was attached to the hotel, too. It was great tasting food. I had a seafood pasta. It was tasty! Then, we went back to our room and got ready to sit in the hot tub! What a great way to unwind from the day! Then, that night we ordered the movie, Hancock~ with Will Smith. That was a great movie, too, and really took us off guard with the twist the movie gave! There is some rough language (name calling) but I think overall it was a pretty good movie.



We slept great both nights. Sunday morning, we got up and got ready. Terry brought some things down to the vehicle, and he noticed that the battery was dead! OH Great! After 2 different people helping and trying to jump the battery, a worker of the hotel graciously brought Terry to Walmart to buy a new battery! That was above and beyond customer service! We made it to the show after another HOT breakfast. We stayed at the show for about 2-3 hours. I have to admit, I was "trained" out by this time. I didn't want to rush Terry, but he was ready to go around noonish, too. I can say that most everyone at the show had to "look" at my preggo belly. I am now 31 weeks pregnant. Here is a photo:

Seriously, if people didn't know how obvious their looks were, they were out of it. I had some really interesting comments, but the one that really struck me and Terry was this one....
"So, was it worth the night of passion?"
Can you believe that someone would say that? I wanted to say something like, "What are you talking about?" OR, "Which time?" OR. "What are you implying?" Some people asked when I am due, (without asking if I was preggo...what if I wasn't?)~~ then, I told them the beginning of January. Here are some of the comments to my due date:
"OH, honey, you won't make it until then!"
"Were all your babies big?"
"Wow, you got a ways to go yet!"
"You look like you dropped!"
I don't know why, but to some comments I felt like I needed them to know that this was my 4th baby, and fifth pregnancy. Some of them I just wanted to smack them! Seriously, some people have no tack.
We stopped for lunch, fuel and a quick supper on our drive home. It was great to get home and see the kids. They had a great time with Grandma over the weekend. Grandma tried potty-working with Caleb. Caleb wasn't really working with it too much. He did have a successful pee on the potty when we got home, and after much praise, Grandma treated him to DQ (and us) with a potty-party! Today, Caleb wasn't interested in the potty chair. I am not a fan of letting him run in his underwear and cleaning up mess after mess either. But, we are trying to encourage him to sit on the chair, and work on him knowing what "wet" means, etc. Wish us luck~
It is good to be home.