A Tale from the Shoe

My story tonight is why my blog name is what it is, for tonight we have quite a tale. I guess I should start from the beginning. Bear with me, it's kinda long. Last week Justin was in Kentucky all week for a Together For the Gospel Conference. Usually, by week's end I am at my end, but the week went rather smooth--I completely cleaned out the kids closets and dressers, got totally caught up on laundry--not even a pile to be hung up, which is quite a feat at my house. And I read through and pretty successfully, might I add (at least at the moment), implemented some discipline structure from Growing Kids God's Way. I also... had to take 2 kids to the doctor for regular visits, take dinner to a friend who just moved in our neighborhood, Community Group, a soccer practice, Jed's 1st Grade performance, Bible Study, laundry...Thursday we are leaving to go to soccer practice and Jed's performance when I have Blakley run to the side of our house to get a football that went over the fence. As she's coming back our neighbor challenges her to a race. Blakley cannot say no to a race (just ask her, that is exactly what she told the nurses at the doctor's office)and totally biffs it on the driveway. Her knee and whole right side of her face are completely raw. You would have thought she broke every bone in her body. We FINALLY leave for practice, go to Jed's performance, then to get Frosty's at Wendy's for a treat--by this time we all needed one!

On Friday morning my husband emailed me that he had just been in earthquake. Then Jed was sent home sick by lunchtime. I decided it best if I went ahead and took him in to get a strep test since it was Friday and didn't want to get stuck taking him to a clinic on Saturday. I got him in right after lunch, and asked if they could go ahead and test Judson because they share a room and last time Jed had strep, Judson had it as well. So, they do a flu and strep test. Judson's came back positive for the flu and Jed's came back positive for strep. This was totally wierd because Judson had NO symptoms--we had to stay there for 2 hours because Jed fell asleep twice on the examining table and the doctor was waiting for the Tylenol to take effect before swabbing his throat. He was a pitiful site. We finally get home 2 and a half hours later and Justin finally drives up after us--he was supposed to get in at 8:15 that morning, but an earthquake and mechanical problems on his American Airline flight delayed him.

Saturday, Justin takes Blakley to her game, then came and took snacks to Jed's football game. He then decided to go to Lowe's and buy me my Mother's Day present--screen doors! I want these for a couple of reasons. One, many people come knock on our door, and it will give me a bit more protection to have a locked screen door, and two, when the back door and front door is open a nice breeze goes through the house....well, J gets home with them and they go straight into the garage. He's not sure that he can install them.

So, that leads me to today. Of course, I was stuck home with sick kids, and it was a beautiful day outside, so I put of the baby gates in the front and back doors. We had a nice breeze going through all day. This evening, we are getting ready to go to the grocery store and I walk out of the kitchen and through the corner of my eye I see this ball of grey run under the door of the coat closet from the entry way. I SCREAM, Justin questions if it is a mouse or a giant spider, I assure him whatever it is is BIG. So, my manly husband gives Jed a broom and tells Blakley to start taking stuff out of the coat closet, they start and all of a sudden the mouse runs across Blakley's foot and into a corner behind Jed's backpack. We are all SCREAMING including Judson, Justin runs inside from the garage, I tell him it's behind the backpack and he starts beating the backpack with the broom, the mouse runs down the hall into the girls room....the kids literally tear apart the room (remember I had just cleaned it all up) looking for this mouse. Blakley has the broom ready to punce on it, Jdayn dancing around screaming, and Jed has the dustbuster. I guess he thought he could suck it up! (Davedda, doesn't this remind you of the ONE time we got to stay home while mom and dad were out of town and we thought someone was breking in so we locked ourselves in the bathroom and one of us had the aerosol hairspray and the other had the curling iron cord--we were going to spray his eyes then strangle him....my kids are brave like we were! :) )We can't find him, so we call our Landlord...he offers to come sometime this week (I pray it is tomorrow) and put out some bait and also volunteers to help Justin install the screen doors. We head to the grocery store and get home--(Meanwhile Jed and Blakley start having tummy problems--a sign the dr. told me to look for in case they get the flu too...) I have the kids start cleaning the girls room assuring them the mouse is in the kitchen or Mommy and Daddy's room and no the mouse cannot climb into beds I assure them....please don't comment otherwise. I go into the girls room and see the mouse leap over a toy...I SCREAM again slam the door shut and jump up and down, shouting for Justin to bring me something to put under the door so he could not get out. He just stands there staring at me with a huge grin on his face. He finally gets me a blanket that I cram into the opening as tight as I can make it, HOPING it will stay in that room. The girls are now sleeping on our floor in our room--yes, that mouse better stay in that room and not run all over my girls tonight. The ONE time I have all the laundry done and actually put away, BUT we are not going in there to get anything! Looks like the girls will be having pajama day tomorrow...don't ask me what we are going to do now, I have no idea.
I've said it before there is never a dull moment around the Edgar household! I'll keep you posted on our mouse hunt!

Independence Day

Today Judson has declared his independence....Yes, he said that little, tiny two letter word to me--3 times even--"no, no, NO!" Of course, if you know my son, you know he also said it with a twinkle in his eye and an hornery grin on his face, but never the less, he said it. Where do we go from here? You'd think him being the 4th child I'd know exactly where we go--but I guess I have blocked it out of my memory, which is fine, I'm thoroughly enjoying him and this stage of life.

I love this age. He is so much fun! He has got personality bubbling over. He sings, he dances, he flirts, he giggles, he teases, he says "hut hut" and puts his hands up as to catch a football, he calls me "mimmy" (with a short'i'), and calls J "daa daaa", he thinks every animal is a horsey or a doggy, one of his favorite things to do is sit on top of Blakley's head when she is laying on the floor watching tv, when he wants something he sounds like Curious George talking, he says 'I Love You' which sounds like I-uuuuv-UUUU! (just precious), he loves baths, and getting into the car, he pulls Buster's hair and yesterday brushed Buster's teeth with his own toothbrush, he threw his bottle into the toilette (and yes, it did have a poopy in it--thanks sissy) and he LOVES his big brother--follows him around like a shadow. Jed gives him a controller to the playstation that is not plugged in and they sit there and "play" together, every few minutes Jed will say "good job Judson"--it makes my heart melt!

Someone was talking last night at our Community Group how they questioned if they could love the 2nd child as much as the first, I had those exact same feelings. Let me just say that YES, you can love each child just as much as the first, your capacity to love grows and grows and grows, as does your appreciatin for each stage of life. I am so loving 18 months, I just hope that I will still love and appreciate it tomorrow!

My Yard and Nightstand

It is 8:07 and there is a variety of humming,cutting, and blowing noises going on outside the office window. I love it! This means that my yard will be looking good soon--as soon as the fertilizer kicks in and the sun shines to make the grass green. There is nothing like a manicured lawn to make me ready for summer. Growing up our yard was always meticulous. If Dad didn't have time to do it (my Dad's days start anywhere from 2:30am-4am) we had somebody do it. My husband doesn't have the time or desire to do it, we just like the end result--it's our one vice. We could take 6 months to pay for a good lawnmower, or we could pay someone to do it for 6 months--Justin chose the latter.

On a completely different note, my friend emailed me yesterday wanting to know if I was reading any good books, she was in the mood for a good book. Unfortunately, I couldn't give her anything stimulating. My bedtime reading has been focused on my debate to homeschool my girls next year, so my nightstand consists of "What Every Kindergartner Should Know" (a whole language approach), and "Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons". Stimulating, huh?!? So, for the 5 of you (whom I know of )who read this, what is on your nightstand? Leave a comment of your good reads! I'd love to get a great read to take me away for a little bit each day!