Meet Nelson

Oh, GEEZ. It happened. I caved and did it. A dog...THE dog...is here. The one that Cody has been relentlessly going on and on and ON about. His name is Nelson.

So, in the matter of one week, we have gone from "petless" (since we thought Stinker was a goner), to pet owners of three. A FISH. A CAT. A DOG. Oh, my. Now, I have never been one of those over-the-top animal lovers, but, at one time in my life, I liked animals and enjoyed having pets. That went ALL out the window after kids....not sure why....but it did. I don't dislike animals, but I'm not TOO crazy about having pets nowadays. Did I mention that I have three?

Back to the topic at hand....Nelson. He was free to a good home. Not sure how GOOD our home will be, but he was free. Overall, he really is a super sweet puppy. Cameron and Mallory like him, but Faith DOES NOT. She will say, "Put him outside! Put him in the pen!" Did you catch that I said OUTSIDE???....meaning that the dog is INSIDE???  That's another thing. I DO NOT DO BIG DOGS IN THE HOUSE....but....somehow here he is beside my bed as I type. This WILL soon come to an end, but I found it in my heart to feel sorry for him.

Oh, boy. I'm not sure what we have gotten ourselves into! Nothing like adding a puppy to the chaos of our house!

On another note, I am hoping for a better week....getting home earlier, no meetings, or stories of Cameron locking Granny B out of the house!!! Wish us luck with all of that!

Last Post for the Weekend (I'm on a roll)!!!

Oh, my. It has already begun. Faith is very much into matching and accessorizing. Today, as we were frantically getting ready for church, I grabbed two bows for Mallory and Faith. Faith noticed the one that I picked for Mallory and decided to take it for hers. Before I could say anything, she takes the yellow gingham bow, places right beside a small, yellow gingham flower on her dress, and says, "See it match. I have yellow." This girl is a TRIP! She is always wanting shoes or bows that "match." 

I mean, look at this sassy girl!!!

We also bought a fish today. Our kitten had been missing for four days so we thought she was pretty much a goner....so....enter new fish. We found Stinker on a golf cart ride later in the evening so now we have two pets....GREAT.  The fish will probably die soon, anyway (hey....it's the truth). Faith decided to name our new goldfish. She named it "Orange." It fits, right?! ;)

I have two more funny notes for the weekend....both being about my going completely batty:

 So, in the craziness of preparing for church (which probably is all my fault since I slept as late as I possibly could....hey....when the kids sleep...I sleep), I was literally throwing on my clothes last minute. When I got back from church, I noticed that my tags were sticking out everywhere....YEAH....shirt inside out. Yay me.

On the way home with the fish, guess who remembered that I threw our old fish food away?...yep. Here we were with a fish and no food. So, I had the bright idea of stopping by the bait shop. It was worth a shot!!! The nice man, who sells fish for bait, actually had some fish food. It was used, but he sold it to us!!! He must have been having a slow day! I really didn't care.

Ahhh....good times in the Patrick house this weekend!!! It's weekends like these that we will look back and laugh about....and one day I will probably wish I could have back...MAYBE ;)

In closing, I have to give a big THANK you to YaYa, who watched the twins while Mallory, Mommy, and Daddy napped! Also many thanks to MeMe and Poppy for bringing special treats for the kiddos this evening. We are SO blessed!

MaDnEsS, I Say!!!

Okay....ignore that last post. You know, the one where I said that I cry my eyeballs out each day because of leaving my kids???!!! Yeah, they have almost killed me....and narrowly escaped injuring themselves today, too. Sooo.....maybe I should reconsider that I-want-to-stay-at-home-kick that I have been on. LOL!!! No. Seriously. I will be crying again on Monday.....BUT....today has been less than pleasant or enjoyable. Faith, Cam, and Mallory are all out of sorts. I'm so stinkin' tired. Cody looked at me in the grocery store and said, "Your eyes are red." WELL. THANKS...and DUH....your children have about EXHAUSTED me today!!! You ask how and why??? Here goes....

Cody needed to do some work at the shop. So, it was just me and the three kiddos here. It was great at first. We ate breakfast, we read books, we played. Then, I had the bright idea of cleaning house. That's when these little boogers took FULL advantage of not having my undivided attention. These are the things that occurred:

1. All necklaces and hair bows were utilized.....all over the house and my babies. Cameron even insisted he was a girl and wore earrings.
2.I caught Mallory standing in a chair trying to plug both ends of a phone charger into the wall.
3. All three kids snuck upstairs....twice.
4. Brooms and mops were consistently taken from their appropriate placed and used everywhere but the floor.
5. Three monkeys were found climbing on the bed, jumping on the bed, and hiding under the bed.
6. If the three amigos were not plotting against me, they were plotting against each other, screaming that one or the other were, "Bad, bad, bad," or "Mean, mean, mean."
7. The child proof gate became un-child proof after it was tugged and pulled upon, which ultimately put a hole in the wall.
8. Mallory fell down at least four steps.
9. Milk was leaked on the floor....carpet.
10....and this is the best one yet....I found Faith and Cameron on top of the dining room table eating their lunch (I ran to their room for just a few to pick them out some clothes). It flipped over...yes...with food...MUSTARD onto the floor.

Needless to say. The cleaning of the house halted until Cody got home. The madness continued. At the grocery store....

1. Faith and Cameron insist that they had to potty.
2. Faith announced to the whole entire store, "I have to POOP, daddy!!!!" This was AFTER they had already went potty. OMG!!!
3. Mallory tossed every item that she could possibly outside of the cart. One man in the store was cheering her on. He said, "Do it again!!! Do it again!!!"
4. We lost the Ingles card....but they looked up our number thank goodness.
5. By the end, we had two crying before we walked out the door.

BUT....I will say that this grocery trip was better than the last....Faith busted her nose....yep....best trip ever.

Ahhhhh. I am sure that this will be funny at some point in my life, and I am actually able to laugh about it now. It wasn't quite so funny when it was happening, though! I'm always amazed, however, how these little people can make me go mad in one moment and melt my heart in the next. Before bed, Cameron said that he wanted to thank God for "butterflies." How sweet, innocent, and angelic is that?

Hoping for a better day tomorrow! ;)

Week by Week

It's been quite a ride these last couple of weeks. Many, many emotions.....excitement, nervousness, sadness, etc, etc. At this point, I think that I could sleep forever.

Since last posting, Down South Diesel has officially opened its doors at the new location. HOW EXCITING. HOW ANXIOUS we have been! It's one of those things. It could go well....very well.  It could go bad....very bad. Luckily, so far, it has gone much better than anticipated with a steady flow of customers. I MUST say that we are also truly blessed to have such great people in out lives. People have been so generous as to spread the word and voice their high opinions of DSD. We are definitely taking it week by week and hoping that business continues to be steady and slowly increasing. At the end of the day we are still....EXCITED....and ANXIOUS.   That's a good thing! We could be ANXIOUS and DEPRESSED!!!!   :)

I have also started back to work....sigh....tear. Work itself has not been unpleasant, but the reality of leaving my babies has been. It usually takes me a couple of days before I'm okay with it. However, I am going on week three....and I am NOT OKAY WITH IT. I don't know what's up with me this year!!! I am SO emotional!!! Numerous times I have had to hide and cry!!! I see babies at school crying for their mommas and it makes me think of my babies...and guess what???....I want to cry! A kid gives me a hug, I think of my babies...and.....you guessed it!!!...I want to CRY!!! I really don't know what's up with myself, but I hope it gets easier and better. It has become embarrassing (although I don't think anyone has noticed).

So, our family has basically been a bundle of nerves lately....and everyone knows stress poops anyone out. We're just gonna' keep on keepin' on, though!!!! Please pray for our sanity!!!

I'm gonna' try to play catch-up with my blogging....so more to come soon...MAYBE ;)

Vacation 2012

I am really not in the blogging mood. I am in a lazy, do-nothing, pout-all-day because summer is ending kind of mood. I knew this would happen as soon as our beach vacation ended....once vacation came and went it was all OVER....been pretty bummed out since. Although I really shouldn't have to defend myself for having these feelings, I always feel like I should....soooooo.....yes, I am super grateful that I have a job that gives me extended breaks. Yes, it is extremely rewarding. Yada, yada, yada.....

Anyway, I'm not in the blogging mood....Buhhhh-uuutttt....I can't let my mood or life lead me to forget the many memories that we created (the whole reason why I do this blog). I have to jot at least SOME of them down!!! Here goes....

I do believe that I made a list of lessons learned from our vacation last summer. So, I find it appropriate that I take the same approach, here.


1. Bring a potty seat. So, our car was rather loaded down. It was SO loaded down that we had to remove one of the back seats to make more room. When you're taking half the house, even the largest cars do not have enough room. Therefore, I was a bit torn between whether or not to bring one of the potty seats. After all, the kids can sit on big potties AND there would be two in our room (in case of those we-both-have-to-go-NOW situations). Why would we need the potty seat and why should we take up more room packing it? Well, Cody was the wise one and insisted that we pack it....THANK GOODNESS. Why? Well, it wasn't too far into our trip that we needed a potty break. We stopped at a clean service station...no potty seat needed. It wasn't fifteen minutes later that another break was needed....oh, geez! Cameron has the whole potty outside thing down. Faith, however, not so much. Potty seat to the rescue. Yep....right there in a parking lot.....and I'm sure she will LOVE me for posting this one once she is all grown up!

2. Weigh your options: Screaming kids or millions of potty breaks. Okay. So I will admit. The two potty breaks in the amount of fifteen minutes was likely my fault...entirely. I gave them juice...a lot of it....BUT...in my defense, Mallory was screaming her head off!!! Juice makes all things better!!! Of course, when you offer it to one you must provide for all...hence the need to potty....frequently. To me, I will stop all day if it means the kids are happy. Screaming in the car is not enjoyable...at all. Did I mention that Cody was threatening to put a kid on the roof less than two hours in?.....hilarious!

3. Take an extra car seat...and put it in a different car ;). Yep. Pat and YaYa took an extra car seat...thank you Lord. When we got enough of the screaming child (aka...Mallory), we passed her own to Pat and YaYa. It was NICE.

4. Navigation doesn't impress everyone. Although I don't go too many places in which I don't know where I am going, I have been SUPER excited about using my navigation system several times in the last couple of months. What did we ever do without the thing? Maps????.....who needs them???!!! However, not everyone is as impressed as I am. Cameron specifically. I got SO tickled at this kid. Any time the navigation lady came on to prompt us (interrupting Cam's movie), he would yell, "Too loud. HUSH!!!" This kid cracks me up.

5. Not everyone is cut out for the beach....and you can't make them. I'm a beach bum. I can't understand WHY anyone would not be. I mean, who wouldn't want sand stuck to them as they burn and sweat in the sun???!!! Anyway, Faith LOVE, LOVED it. She liked the sand...and I think she even like the ocean...although the big water can be scary! Cameron and Mallory, on the other hand...well....they were less enthusiastic. Cameron didn't want to touch the sand. Mallory didn't want to be five feet near the sand. We kept trying each day....but...OH WELL. There's always next year! ;)

6. Expect the unexpected. Yep. I packed the first-aid kit and the children's Advil, but I didn't really think that I would NEED either....BUT....what do you know? Mallory had a fever on day two (and I felt super bad about it because I pretty much think that she had it LONG before we discovered it). I prefer Tylenol for fevers (we usually do the 8 hour Advil for all night teething issues)....did I pack that???....uhhhh....NO. Next time, I will be packing all medications in the medicine cabinet.


7. Meal-time will either be bearable or disastrous....never pleasurable. Well. This is really not a lesson learned. This is just a given around here. Even if the kids are good, the work of keeping them happy or making sure that they are well taken care of can make me a nervous wreck. So...that would be bearable. Then, there are the dinners that are a disaster. Let's see....I think it was the meal at Bubba Gump's? YEP...who could forget? Before our dinner came out, I had already switched seats with Cody to TRY and pacify Mallory, we had each been outside with her, AND Cameron had gotten choked and melted down. At the end of the meal, only three of us were left at the table (out of a party of  12), and I was craving an alcoholic beverage. Needless to say, that was our last night out....

8. Order in. Yep. The next night, we ordered in. It was great. We still were able to eat a good meal, we didn't have the wait, we had time to do something afterwards, AND the kids were HAPPY!!! WOOHOO!!!

9. Spend some one-on-one time. I NEVER have one-on-one time with my individual kids. One afternoon, Cameron was not interested in going down to the beach (imagine that) and Mallory was napping. So, I took little Faith with me, and we had some alone time. It was great (and seemed super easy!!!)!!! I am making a note to try this more often (with each one of the kiddos).

...and FINALLY....

10. It just keeps getting better. Although there were SOME difficult times during the trip, I thought that my kids did SUPER well. For the most part, they were well-behaved and as sweet as pie. This is our third beach trip since having children, and I think that it was by far the smoothest and most pleasurable. It keeps me looking forward to more trips to come. Oh, how I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE these babies!!!