Columbia

Little Joe's Trucking is officially Joe's baby. However, while I may not drive a truck, I still work very hard at keeping this business going. Even when the wheels aren't turning there are still legal and clerical issues to be taken care of...that is where I come in. I actually spend more hours per week working for Little Joe's Trucking than I do working at my one-day-a-week-work-outside-the-home job. Today I had to go to Columbia to get some things taken care of. Mom watched the boys for me so that they would not have to sit in a car seat for five hours and so that I would not have to drag all of them around to my various locations.
I despise going to Columbia to deal with truck issues. There is so much needless bureaucracy and it is just a lot of hurry up, fill this out, wait, hurry up, fill this out, wait... It sort of reminds me of the registration process at PCC.
One of my stops today was the DMV. The closest I have ever come to being arrested was inside of a DMV, so I was not looking forward to this stop. However, I managed to get everything accomplished and even left the DMV with a small smile still in place. I think I have learned how to deal with the employees there.

1. You have to know how to do their job so that it requires no thinking on their part.
2. Never ask a question, as it throws off their entire schedule.
3. Bring a good book and snacks because you are going to be there for hours on end.
4. Do everything in the most convoluted way imaginable so as to make sure that you conform to their standards.
5. If at all possible do not make the old lady named Vi-o-let mad.

Boy if only VI-O-LET could see me now! I bet she would not even recognize me as the girl she had escorted out of the DMV and told never to return...at least I hope she wouldn't recognize me!
I was rather proud of myself today and I am excited about some changes that we are planning with our little company. I just hope they do not involve too many more trips to Columbia.

Back To The Basics

I'm sure most of you know that Jonah is my challenge. The poor kid's skin looks like it has been dipped in acid most of the time and he has vomited or had diarrhea every day for all of his nearly 27 months of life. We have seen allergists, dermatologists, and gastroenterologists. He has had skin tests, blood tests, ultrasounds, esophageal studies, an endoscopy, and a colonoscopy. The list of prescription medicines and creams that we have tried are too numerous to list. All of the doctors, tests and medicines really have not given us much help or for that matter even much more information than we had already figured out on our own. We do know that Jonah is very allergic to any form of eggs, has a rare genetic skin condition that no one knows anything about, and has rather severe eczema. I have to say that our pediatrician has been diligent in trying to find something to help Jonah. I am always hopeful when we find something new to try, praying that it will be just what we need, but sadly we have never found much to really help.

After a weekend of bloody diarrhea, Jonah ended up back at the pediatrician's office. He believes that due to Jonah's tendencies toward developing allergies, that there is something obscure that Jonah is ingesting throwing his body off balance. The many allergy tests that Jonah has had only show eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, and shellfish as allergens. We of course avoid all of those items, but there is something else that we have not figured out yet. It could be as simple as a preservative or seasoning that is added to any food that he eats.

That brings us to our new approach. Jonah is on a very limited diet. Since Monday he has only had rice, bananas, apples, bread, milk, and water. Today he had his first "normal" BM!!! We will add in one whole food every few days, making sure that there is no reaction to it. After we get a variety of whole foods re-introduced, we will then begin other things watching closely for any changes that may develop.

I can already tell that his tummy is not hurting as much as it once was, because he is not complaining nearly as much as before. I know that it is going to be a long process, but I also know that it will be well worth the trouble if it helps even a bit.

Birthday Trip

Noah opted for a birthday trip this year instead of a traditional birthday party. We all had so much fun that I think we will have to make it our new tradition. We started off at Grammy and Pa's house for birthday cake. I usually make birthday cakes for the kids, but we were in Wal-Mart and Noah found this cake that he wanted on the should have been sold last week rack clearance rack. I guess for $4.80 I can give up making a cake for one year!

From there we picked up Noah's friend Hunter and drove to Savannah to tour the Roundhouse Railroad Museum.

The kids posed for the obligatory pictures.

They got to go aboard an old rail car once used to haul very important people around. (I should know more about this but instead of listening to the tour guide I was trying to keep the boys from jumping on the antique furniture.)

Of course no trip to Savannah is complete without a trip to the Bass Pro Shop, so we had to stop by and visit the big fish tank.

After the Bass Pro Shop, Grammy and Pa dropped the rest of us off at the Amtrak station in Savannah where the boys got their tickets to ride the Amtrak back to Yemmasse.

Here they are with their matching trains, enjoying the ride. The reclining seats and tray tables were a big hit as well! The forty five minute train ride was just enough time for the kids to have a great experience without getting bored and restless.
As you can tell from Noah's grin in these pictures, the day was a fantastic start to year number six.

Writer's Block

Can you even have writer's block when you are not a writer? All I do here is relate our day to day happenings, yet I haven't even been able to do that recently! I have a lot of catching up to do from the past week or so and as I sit here to do it I feel like I am writing my Christmas letter all over again! We have been so busy that I am not sure I will be able to even remember all of the things that have happened, but here goes nothing...

Micah

Teeth are popping up all over the place. Micah has four bottom teeth and two top teeth. He is cutting two more top teeth that should be in soon. Micah spent a night with Pappy and Linny while the rest of us went on Noah's birthday trip. (I survived, but was ready to go get him at daybreak the next morning.) He has gotten really good at crawling but is not even attempting to walk yet. He still is not sleeping through the night. If you need proof of this, just check out the bags under my eyes. He is also showing no signs of being ready to wean. If you need proof of this, just check out...well, never mind.

Jonah

Our little "helper" has started two fires in the past few weeks. I did not relate it on here because I nearly have heart failure every time I think about it. We went back to see Jonah's allergist, which is something else I did not relate on here. When I calm down and can say something nice about the doctor, then I will have something to say. Until then, I prefer to say nothing at all. We have begun getting rid of Jonah's sippy cup and so far he has done well with transitioning to a "big boy" cup. As soon as we get that accomplished, we will start working on the "big boy" underwear!!

Noah

Noah turned six! (I cheated and posted his birthday post tonight but dated it on the 9th.) He wanted a different kind of birthday this year and I was happy to oblige. I nearly killed myself with his last party and was not thrilled about doing it again. Noah, his friend Hunter, myself, Joe, Jonah, Grammy, and Pa all went to Savannah to a train museum and then Grammy and Pa drove the car back home while the rest of us rode the Amtrak back to Yemassee. Noah had a blast and the rest of us had a pretty good day as well.

Joe

Joe has stayed busy both at work and at home. He is constantly out splitting more fat lighted, especially since Jonah has a tendency to load the fireplace with it when no one is looking. Joe had to fix our frozen pipes. He stayed home on our official snow day. School was cancelled and the weathermen were proclaiming the blizzard of the century. I happen to think that day was one of the nicest we have had all year. We never did get to see a snowflake!

Denise

I have decided that I have a little touch of ADD. The night before we were to go to Savannah for Noah's birthday, I wanted to treat myself to a nice long bubble bath. I put Micah in bed and turned on my bath water. While the tub was filling up, I went to the laundry room to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer. Since I was already in there, I went ahead and put another load on to wash. (Laundry and caught up are not words that are used together often in my house.) On my way back through the kitchen I realized that I had not packed any snacks for our trip the next day. While I was packing the snacks, I wondered if we would be allowed to bring our snacks into the museum. I went online to check and decided that I may as well go ahead and put the finishing touches on our itinerary. As I was getting done, I heard the dryer cut off. I went into the laundry room and folded the clothes that had been in the dryer. When I finished folding, I continued the cycle by moving more clothes from the washer to the dryer. I noticed that the clothes were really cold, probably because they were wet... wet... wet... water... water... tub... NOOOOO!!! Needless to say, after I cleaned up the three inches of water off the bathroom floor, I really did not feel like taking that bubble bath. This has happened before in my bathroom, but this time no one wet their pants!

So there you have it, our past week. I hope we are all caught up now! Speaking of being caught up, I just caught up on my blog reading and read a great post from one of my college friends about supporting our soldiers. She made me cry and think of my brother and his wife. Check out her post here, and let her know you visited. I'm sure she likes comments as much as I do!

Happy Birthday Noah!

Happy Birthday six year old!!

I look at you and don't know where the time has gone. I remember holding you in my arms and knowing that you were the most beautiful baby that I had ever seen. As much joy as you brought to me on the day you were born, I never imagined all the joy that you would continue to bring into my life. There is not a day that goes by that you do not make me smile.

This has been a big year for both you and me. You started Kindergarten and I had to give you up for part of the day. I miss you those hours that you are at school each day, but I see how much you are learning and I know that you are having a blast.

You have become so much more independent this year and I see every day that you need me less and less. It is such a bittersweet feeling to watch you as you grow. You no longer use training wheels on your bike, you take care of your animals all by yourself, and you are even helping out Daddy at the shop. You are a great big brother and a big help to me. Most importantly this year you have begun asking serious questions about salvation and I pray that your heart remains tender to God's prompting.

So Happy Birthday to My Noah. Mommy loves you!

A Woman's Prayer

Every marriage has its ups and downs. Anyone who believes otherwise is lying to themselves. Hopefully there will be many more ups than downs, but inevitably there will be times when two married people (no matter how in love they are) will have differing opinions on important topics.
If and when my husband and I have a disagreement, I try very hard to keep it between the two of us and not spread it to the world. I know that eventually things will be better between the two of us, and it is enough work just to make sure that we forgive each other for our transgressions without adding to that making sure that we retract all the things we may have said to other people about something that really wasn't even their business to begin with.

That being said, let me share with you my prayer for the past few days...

Lord, I pray for wisdom to understand my husband, love to forgive him, and patience for his moods. Because if I pray for strength, I will beat him to death!

Joe and I had quite an argument Saturday afternoon and I was so upset that until today, I had not even spoken to him. (This was probably not as much of a punishment for him as I was hoping for.) Monday during nap time I was checking my e-mail, when I saw that my friend Marsha had left a **comment on one of my blog posts. Her comment said, "Good thing he didn't give up chasing you!" I had no idea what the comment referred to since it was in response to an old post, so I went back and re-read this Thanksgiving post.

**Side note here: Thank you to all of you who leave comments. I love to read them. For those of you who have never left one, it is really easy. You just click on the link that says comments directly under the post that you would like to comment on and follow the instructions. Try it out, PLEASE!

Man, talk about being convicted by your own words! As I read the words that I had written less than two months ago, I was reminded of all the things I love about my husband and now I actually can't remember why I was so upset for the past few days. After lengthy apologies from both sides tonight, (yes it took that long even after being given a swift kick by my own words) things are now back on track.
Although it feels good for everything to be okay again, I think I will keep the prayer and print out my Thanksgiving post to read every day or so. I'm sure there will be a time when I will need both of them again!

Christmas Recap

I have a confession. Since Noah's birthday is just two weeks after Christmas, I used to gather up some of his Christmas presents and re-wrap them for his birthday. Go ahead and judge me. I don't mind. If Noah was still young enough for me to get away with it I would be doing it this year as well.

Joe and I tried to give our kids a Christmas focused on celebrating Christ, not toys. Obviously we failed to get the memo out to everyone else because my kids ended up with more toys than should ever be allowed. My uncle built them a toy box that is literally the size of my couch and gave it to them on Christmas eve. My first thought (after wondering where I was going to put such a monstrosity) was that my kids would never fill it up....ummm, think again! I knew that Uncle Tj and Aunt Holly had been working tirelessly for months with Toys 4 Tots, I just did not know that it was obviously for my children only!!!

The kids got so many toys that I have no idea who gave what or which child even owns what toy. They got toys of every shape, color and size. We have multiples of several toys, which is great. That way they do not fight over who is playing with what. They got fun toys, educational toys, loud toys, soft toys, and yes irritating toys.

I feel really bad about complaining that my children were blessed with so many toys. However, I do have to complain about one specific toy. I despise the Air Hogs UFO type thingy that Noah got from his Uncle Michael and Aunt Robyn. It is a remote controlled flying saucer that flies with the assistance of a tiny propeller. Seems innocent enough until you are standing at the stove cooking dinner and it hits you in the back of the head, its tiny propeller spinning furiously as it buries itself deep into your hair. As if my hair was not thin enough already, I now have a bald spot right in the back where Joe had to cut out the UFO. The boys (Joe included) thought it was hilarious. Me? Not so much! Michael, if you are reading this...I will get you back!

Thanks to all who gave to our family at Christmas. We have spent this week having nerf gun wars, flying saucers, racing hot wheels cars, playing memory, building towers, throwing balls, trying on new clothes, and reading books. My children are blessed to not only have gotten great gifts but to have spent time with great people who love them. Thanks again for a very Merry Christmas!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone! I usually do not make new year's resolutions, simply because I don't tend to stick to them. However, this year I am making an exception. This year I resolve to keep my family on a budget. Joe and I sat down this morning and made our budget for 2010 and I plan to stick to it. I also hope not to drive my family insane in the process.
Let me say here that I L.O.V.E. love budgeting. I guess it is the accountant in me, but I make budgets up for everything...sometimes to a fault. When we go on vacation I even take my little portfolio with me than has all of our itineraries and budgets in it. My favorite part of our last vacation was sitting down at the end of the day to see if we had come in "under budget" for the day and see how much money we had saved. Needless to say, this drives Joe crazy!
I am so excited about this year's budget that I can barely sit still! I cut my grocery budget way under what I think is reasonable and it is going to be a great challenge. So if you happen to see me out and about in town shifting money from one envelope to the other with calculator in hand, don't worry...I'm not destitute, I'm just having a good time!
Do you make new year's resolutions? If so, what are they and do you plan on enjoying them?