I did it!!

I actually made a blog a day for an entire month! WHOO HOO! I am going to try to keep it up for this coming month as well~

Not much to report today. Nothing out of the ordinary.

Carl went to a screening for a new movie that will be coming out soon.

I did laundry. Oh and by the way, the weather man is full of poopoo. There WAS a chance of rain, and it DID get my clothes wet.

No Rest for the Weary

Well, last night followed the same pattern as the last few nights: no sleep for me.

I got a phone call sometime before 5, (it was early enough I am surprised I made it to the phone). It was Joyce, telling me that she was in labor, or at least that she thought she was... I convinced her that if she was in labor she should call the OB, and get things ready to go to the hospital.

So, I crawl out of bed, somehow make it to the bathroom, brush my teeth, get ready, get the baby in his car seat ready to go, and tell Carl that I am heading to the hospital. By now it is about 4:45 or so.

He groggily responded with "You have to take Canyon with you!"

My response was "Well duh?!" I mean does he think I thought he grew a boob or something?

About 5:15am I got to the hospital, just before Joyce, and we spent the majority of our day there.

No baby.

She wasn't in labor. Her labor was not stalled but wasn't working like it needed to. Since she is still only 36 weeks they decided after about 10 hours, to let her go home and come back if/when it picks up/really starts. I think this was a great decision. Babies need to bake in the oven as long as possible!

Joyce wanted to encourage the labor and walked like 7 miles of stairs and hall, and did what she could, but that little bugger just needs some more time to bake. (Good thing in my opinion). Man are my legs and back KILLING me. I better at least get a toned butt out of this.

So no baby, but great blood pressure, good on-going BH (early practice) contractions, and a great heartbeat!

This little one will be making his or her appearance very soon! Here is her belly right after her first "strip" was taken.


Here are a few more:

No pics today...

BUT I will have some tomorrow. I've been in a mild funk.

No sleep again last night. This time it was all me, and I don't know why.

I have WAY TOO MANY CLOTHES for this family. Anyone want to come thin it out and de-stash for me? Pretty Please?

Blah. Done folding and sorting for tonight.

Hopefully I will be starting Halloween Costumes tomorrow. Wyatt Earp and Davey Crockett.

Pooped.

No sleep last night either. Arden decided it was his turn to stay up all night.

Carl got home this evening.

Maybe now I can sleep?

Freaking the Heck Out!

Ok, so last night at like 1-2am Rory had an accident in bed and came in to sleep with me since I can't change his bed with Arden asleep on the bottom bunk, no biggie. (But him having an accident is V E R Y unusual, especially since he went potty before bed.)

Well at like 3-4am, I hear the TV in our kitchen come on (there is no remote or anything for that TV, the part in the TV that the remote points at broke). It was really loud, so I know I didn't leave it on or anything.

I get out of bed to chase Arden back into his bed, figuring it was him. He has this habit of turning on TVs when he gets up...

It W A S N ' T him!!!!!! I'm freaking the hell out! There isn't anyone in the house, I checked. (And Carl is out of town).

And the SCARY part is what was on TV. It was tuned to the local Christian Channel with a preacher talking about what happened to the Jews just prior to the Holocaust.

Needless to say, I haven't slept.

The conspiracy theorist / paranoid person in me says it is a warning... There is so much similarity between Germany at that time and what is going on here...

It may have been nothing... But there is NO way for it to have turned on, no pets to hit it, no kids out there...

I am freaking the hell out!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ETA: After going in to clean the bed, there was no accident... not sure what happened there.

PaPa Larry Came to Visit...

This morning PaPa Larry came by for a short visit. He was bearing gifts... well bearing gas... which is appreciated much more than toys.

He ran around with us here are there, and has now left, but the boys had a great time with him as always. I hope he stops by again soon. The visits are too far apart.

How far from animals are we?

So exactly what separates us from animals? From acting on basic instincts rather than thinking about our actions? Is it DNA or the fact that our brains are slightly more developed? Or is it that we are fat and happy?

That thin line that is keeping us above the animal kingdom is starting to blur. This gas shortage has people on the edge, ready to dive over the line. People are fighting while waiting in 3-4 hours lines for gasoline, taking baseball bats to each other, stealing gasoline from yards, drilling holes in gas tanks, and threatening to kill fellow humans.

What are we going to do when the real issues start. When there are food shortages, when there is no medical care, when there are no jobs, no money, no water? Because it is coming. This is just practice...

Scary isn't it?

Here are so photos from my drive around town. Most every station was out of gas, those that had gas ran out in hours. Lines were MILES long, and blocked the main lanes of traffic. Even stores were closed b/c of the shortage. I just heard on the news a local college is closed b/c of the shortage.

The Gas Shortage and Spending Crunch...

Most people aren't aware, but here in NC we are out of gas. Just a few stations are open, and the lines are literally hours long!

It make absolutely no sense. Other areas that are fed by the same pipeline are fine. It is just us...

Well, it means tightening the purse strings even more. No more fun trips unless they are to the store for a necessity, no more special treats...

We as a country really need to think about our daily habits. We drive and "go" too much. We consume too much. We teach our children to want too much. It is just too much.

We need to make serious changes... It isn't about more regulations from the government, it is about less government regulations, less dependency and more conscious decisions.

Kleptos, Car Rides, and Contusions...

Yup, that summarizes our day.

My Father-in-law decided to pick today to become a klepto. He up and stole Carl's wallet. Seriously.


Ok, so he isn't really a kleptomaniac, my husband left his wallet on the table and it is remarkably similar to DadDad's wallet, so he grabbed the wrong one and headed over to work. Needless to say he was quite disappointed at the amount of cash (or lack there of) in the wallet!

We left the house in a rush to get on the road and get the wallet. Carl had to catch an airplane in Charlotte in the AM, so time was of the utmost importance.

Well, Canyon had other ideas. After the first few hours, he decided that the car ride was not going to be comfortable for anyone. We stopped at every single exit for a good portion of Virginia. At one rest area, there was an unexpected turn of events...

Arden decided that walking wasn't enough fun, so he began to run down a handicap ramp towards the lower sidewalk. As you can imagine (and guess from the title) that this didn't go so well for him... These were taken after the dent popped back out.




We got to the Erwin Walmart as it closed and got 5 containers for gasoline. WNC is out of gas so bad that I had to get Carl and some friends enough gas to get them to and from work tomorrow. I drove from our house to Hendersonville to take Joyce and Mario some much needed gasoline at 5am this morning.

On our drive home, cops (or "the law" as another passer-by called them) were lined up at the few gas stations who had gas, it looked like martial law was in effect in Asheville.

We did finally end our trip about 12.5 hours after it began... not bad for a normally 6 hour trek eh?

Needless to say, I'm sticking around the house for a few weeks.

The Land of Fairies and Chicken Sharks...

Does anyone else live there? No? Well Grammy and Dad Dad do! We went to Grammy's and DadDad's house on the way home from the festival.

They live in a land adorned with fairies...



Of course we did some fishing in the land of fairies...


And while we were fishing, we came across the amazing "chicken sharks"... Now what are chicken sharks you may ask... well, they are sharks that eat Grammy's chicken for dinner...

Ok, and now that you are totally confused... here is our bait:


And here are the sharks:



We had a great time!




We also went to the play ground!



After a day of enchanted fish and fairies, the children decided when and where to go to sleep...

American Whitewater's Gauley River Festival

We made it up to the G-Fest for the weekend and as usual, it did not fail to impress!

Boats, boats, gear, and more boats! The funny thing is that Arden cannot pass by a boat without stopping to touch it and sit in it. (As you can imagine, it makes for a long walk at the festival!)

We stopped and saw Paul and MK at the PS booth...



We were lucky enough to hang out at the Jackson Kayaks area and meet EJ and his family. Congratulations to the newest member of their family, and I can say for sure, the smallest visitor to the festival! K.C. is beautiful! The are a blessed family for sure.

Rory and Arden (and Canyon) played most of the day on the kayaks and with Dane as I made burgers to feed the masses.

Thank you to the Jackson Family for the hospitality and for the tee shirts!

On the road again...

We headed up to the Gauley Festival for the weekend. As usual we stopped to see Granny Eva while we were in town. The boys love their Granny. She is one of the sweetest women alive, I wish we got to stop and see her more often. I'm hoping to stop by Monday on our way home too.


Someday, (I hope) this will be my homestead, all of the land is ours (ours being my mom's and our family's) I want to build my home in the the back right corner, by the woods.

Painting/finishing foamies...

We are leaving for G-Fest in the morning. Long weekend ahead! Hope to blog each night though!

I love my MIL

This is my new toy she got me :)

It is official.

My kid is a bully.

Arden pinches, hits, pulls hair, bites, pushes, etc. He even picks the smaller kids to do it to. He also does it to his big brother. What can I do?

Sorry Joyce :o( I know that Jax has done it in the past to my kids, but I feel bad that the table turned.

Diarrhea in the Potty Training Toddler.

Need I say more? My day has been a non-stop journey of cleaning poo.

Learning About Life...

I sometimes forget that even the most simple moments are learning experiences... For example, finding a box turtle in the yard:

We went to the fair last night!

It was a blast. I have to download the photos. Joyce and Mario brought their little guy Jax and met up with us. I'll get more tonight or in the AM.

I love babies...

My friend and I were due at the same time with Arden and E.

The this year we were due on the same day with J and Canyon. (The girl had to show me up and have J before I had Canyon).

But because of crazy life circumstances, we haven't gotten to hang out much any more. She did get to come out today with J and E, such cutie pies! I took a few photos for her, I have some more, but this was all I have gotten edited:

Fall is arriving...

It is hard to believe, but the summer is coming to a close, and the signs are all around us.

The fog is hovering longer and longer, today at noon, this was still lingering:




And the temperatures are dropping. The boys can now wear their wool pants:





The seasons change so fast... almost as fast as children... where did the summer go?