I heart Kindergartners!!!!

Oh I miss working at the school! It's been a blessing to me to get to work this week. I love Kindergartners. They make me so happy and make me laugh.

For instance...

Today I was watching the kids outside during break time when a little boy named Kade came over and asked me a question.

He pointed to the old water well and asked, "Mrs. WIlson, does this go all the way down to Satan?"

Me: "Does it what?"

Kade? "Does this go all the way down to Satan?"

Me: "No Kade. It's just an old water well."

When he went off to play I looked back at the 1st grade teacher and said, "Yes, we have a porthole to hell in the backyard. This is a Christian school you know. You better make sure and do your work when you're told!!!"

Gait Trainer

Monday I had to take Miles to the doctor because he’s not been feeling well at all. While I was waiting for a room another family came in and sat near me. When the man saw us he came over and touched Miles’ legs. He asked me if Miles had cerebral palsy. I said yes. Then he asked me how old Miles was, and I told him 4 years old. Then he told me that his son has cerebral palsy and that he’s five. He sat back down next to his girlfriend. (She was not the mother of the child with cerebral palsy.) Then he told me something incredible. He said, “ The doctors kept saying my son would never walk, but he’s five now and he’s trying to run!” I looked at him and said, “That is so encouraging!” He then told me that his son had a wheelchair and “all that stuff.” He said that his son has had several surgeries. Last year his son began to crawl around using his hands and now he’s walking!!!

That testimony was water to my soul.

Today I took Miles to physical therapy and guess what his therapist decided to do? SHE PUT MILES ON A TREADMILL FOR THE FIRST TIME!!!!! Yes, you heard me right. Miles was on a treadmill for 12 minutes today. JoBeth, his therapist strapped him up in a piece of equipment that suspended him in air over the treadmill then manually moved his feet in a walking motion on top of the treadmill. He loved it.

I’ve never seen Miles up in that position before and moving in a walking motion. If I had been all alone I think I would have let myself surrender and have a good cry. It was welling up in me, but I didn’t allow myself to get emotional. On the outside I was excited and cheering for Miles. On the inside I was interceding and begging God to allow Miles to walk on his own. Inside I was on my knees and weeping for what has never been. On the inside I was hoping for the same testimony as the man I met yesterday.

Miles did so well today on the “Gait Trainer” that his therapist said that she wants to put him in it every session. I looked it up online today and the suspension equipment is $1200 plus I would need a treadmill to have one in my home. Insurance doesn’t usually pay for this equipment. If Miles starts to show progressive movement while on the machine I think I’ll have to sell some blood or something to get him one for the house.

Seeing Miles walk is the stuff my dreams are made of.

This was a joint effort for my girls and boys.


I've decided to call their fun-filled activity creative. :)

I'm so blessed!

The kids are out of school Monday.

My Mom works nights and she's off Tuesday night so she asked me if the kids could spend the night with her Monday. When she gets off in the morning she's going to pick up four of the kids and take them to school the next day. I stayed up late tonight getting their back packs ready for Tuesday, their clothes packed and them dressed for tomorrow so I can SLEEP IN TWO DAYS IN A ROW! Oh my goodness! What a blessing! So, besides taking care of Miles...I'm off until 3:00 on Tuesday. WOW!!!!

I didn't even ask for this amazing time off!

14 kids!!! WOW!

Okay, so I'm totally not into the News realm. (Francesca, you know I don't watch the news. hehe) I don't have the latest scoop on current events. I don't read fan magazines so I don't have opinions on the "Star" drama. That being said, I do have to say that I'm so intrigued by this Nayda Suleman and her 14 kids ages 7 and under.
I've been reading little news clips about her situation. Also, after not watching tv for months I tuned in to watch her on Dateline. The story is so interesting. The lady is single and unemployed. She couldn't have children on her own so she did the in-vitro route. Okay, so she had already done that a few times already and had six children in 5 and a half years. That beats my record. Well, she had some babies still available that were frozen so she decided to give it one last go and get them all implanted in her womb. Six embryos were implanted. They all took, plus two of the embryos split so Ta-Da...EIGHT babies at one time!!!!
Wow, I could totally be a reporter. :)

Let's take just a brief pause and all ponder on how in the world that lady looks so good after just having 8 babies! Enough pondering.

Back to the real stuff. So, anyway, this is all very interesting to me because America is throwing a fit about this lady having so many kids since she is single and even more importantly because she is unemployed. I had all sorts of opinions about the situation until Randy and I started talking and he asked me a simple question. He asked, "What sin is she committing?"

What sin is she committing?

Is it a sin to have 14 children? No way.

Is it a sin to have children without being married? Hey, she's not having pre-marital sex with the father of the babies!

Is it a sin to be poor because you have a lot of children? Nope.

Is it a sin to have more children than you can give individual attention to? No. Life is not fair.

Is it a sin to have more children than you can afford to take care of by yourself without government assistance?
Here's where it gets sticky doesn't it?
People are talking about how California should go in and seize her kids and adopt them out because she can't afford them. They act as if her kids are furniture that can easily be removed and given away to just anyone with the money to make the monthly payment on them.

We cannot afford to take care of Miles without government assistance. Should he be taken from us and given to a family that can afford his medical bills without the help of Medicaid? Are we irresponsible for having five children and one being disabled?

What are your thoughts about this situation. I really want to know what you're thinking about this.

2nd most expensive date ever!

Today Randy and I had a date planned. Well, sort of a date. Okay, it wasn't a date, but we were calling it a date. I guess that makes it a date.

Anyway!!!

There's been this on going joke between us about how he never takes me to the city dump. He has to go there about once a month to dump his work trailer. He hates going, but he always comes back with the best stories. Most of my kids have gone with him, but I've never gone. Well, Friday night he brought his trailer home and he asked me if I wanted to go with him on Monday morning to dump it. So, all weekend we joked about our upcoming date to the dump.

He picked me up about 9 am and we were off. First we had to stop at the tire shop because he bought a spare tire for his trailer. His trailer was really full. Actually, it was too full. He recently removed a fireplace from a couple's home and he had to haul off all the bricks. His trailer had about 4000 pounds of bricks in it. That's about 2000 pounds too many. His trailer was riding really low and there was a lot of pressure on the tires.

We got one block away from the tire place and a tire popped. He got out to change the tire and a man came over from the business next door and asked him if he needed some help. He went and got his forklift and helped Randy change the tire. That was so awesome! He just came out of no where like an angel.

From there we went back to the tire place to get a new tire and a new rim. Well, again the trailer weighed so dang much that he couldn't get that thing up the driveway. Randy's trailer kept scraping the concrete so the owner started yelling for him to get off it. Randy got out of the truck to see what he needed to do to get up the driveway when one of the workers hopped in the truck with Miles and I and took off with the truck! He decided that he could get the truck up the driveway. It was so funny after I realized he wasn't trying to kidnap Miles and I. Anyway, he just drove real fast, complained about how his boss was a complainer, gave a guy a sarcastic wave for driving too fast and then rocketed the truck and trailer up the driveway. Then he fixed the tires. I was totally cracking up at the whole situation!

After all that we headed out to the dump, but we didn't get too far. We were driving down Treadaway when our trailer and truck started swaying. Randy wasn't speeding, but he was driving too fast for what he was hauling. He tried to stop the swaying, but the whole thing went out of control, we tail-pinned and smacked the back of a parked truck. The thing that holds the tires on the trailer broke. Our truck spun into the middle of the street and bricks went flying.

Well, no one was hurt. That's the #1 thing.

Several people stopped to see if we needed help. One guy stopped by because he owns a big pushing machine (don't know what it's called). He offered to push our trailer out of the street for 50 bucks. Considering there was no way we were going to be able to move the blasted thing...50 bucks was a great deal.

While Randy was taking care of Police business and such, me and two of Randy's helpers shoveled bricks and stuff into the back of his truck. Yep, I got me a shovel and worked too. It was actually so fun working like a man for a little while.

Now Randy is out there manually moving 4000 pounds of bricks into a borrowed trailer so he can take it to the dump...two trips this time. And, again, I'm missing out on getting to go. Some guys from the church found out Randy had to move all those bricks by hand (Because of my most awesome friend Rachel) and they offered to come and help him! How awesome is that? Our pastor is out there with a shovel working his tail off. Love it.

So, that was my exciting morning. Man, Randy's work day is so much more exciting than mine!

You may be wondering why this is the 2nd most expensive date ever. Well, today we had to pay for a couple of tires, no regular work done, additional charges for the dump, a ticket for the wreck, fixing the trailer and paying for the trailer to get pushed. That's pretty expensive.
I was talking to my Mom on the phone and I told her about the whole thing that just happened. Then I mentioned how that was our most expensive date ever. She disagreed. She reminded me of the date Randy and I went on while in Colorado. Oh yeah. She's right. I got pregnant with Melody on that date. That has turned out to be our most expensive date. :)

Of course I have pictures! I totally was going to take pictures of the dump for you!





This is the guy I thought was taking off with Miles and I. He ended up being so friendly!







All the stuff still in this trailer is what is being moved out manually! WOW!

Zoo Day

I've been wanting to take my adorable little nephews to the zoo for awhile. It's one of those ideas that just never seem to happen. Things always get in the way that seem more urgent. Finally I put a picture of the kids on the background of my computer as a reminder to take them to the zoo.

Who wouldn't want to take these sweet faced kids to the zoo? They love their "Aunt Branne" and I wanted to take them out for an afternoon of fun. So, I did. Their names are Zacharia, Jeremiah & Obidaih. No. I'm not kidding. Zacharia & Jeremiah are twins and they're 3 years old. Obi is 2. They are Less than a year a part. For 10 days in May my brother Charlie will have three 3 year olds!


Okay, You know Miles.
Jeremiah is in Red. Zachariah is in Blue. Obi is the one with the most amazing blue eyes!

While we were out and about the kids said some really funny things!




When Zacariah saw the monkeys he scolded one of them. He pointed at a monkey and said, "You're naked. You're gross!"



When they saw the Buffalos , which they called "Buffos" one of them said, "Oh no! He's gonna kill me."


One time in the car I took a sharp turn and Jeremiah looked at me and said, "What the hell are you doing?" I laughed so hard! I know my brother drives much crazier than me so I don't know why he was talking about my driving!



In the car Jeremiah was sitting by me and he leaned over to confide in me. He said in the most serious way, "My brother is weird and my cousin is crazy."


After the snail picture Zacharia ran back over to the snail and gave him a swift kick on his bottom.



When we were feeding the ducks a bird got too close to Jeremiah and he yelled at the bird. He said, " Hey you scared me Butthead!" A little bit later the same boy noticed that I didn't have any cookies so he came over to me with his little hand full of cookies and said, "Here you go My Branne." I swooned.



The kids enjoyed each animal so much that we only saw about a third of the zoo. They weren't in a rush to see everything. They wanted to get to know each animal. I knew we weren't going to have time to see it all so I asked them if they wanted to see the Fish or Snakes. Unamiously they yelled and voted for SNAKES!!! This is the break down of the snake area according to the boys.
Snakes-Cool
Bugs-Gross
Tarantulas-Stinky (who knew?)
When we saw a really big snake one of the boys went over to Miles and patted him and told him that it was going to be okay. I thought that was so sweet!
When we saw another big snake one of them said, "Oh no! This is bad!"
There were a few skulls in the exhibit and Jeremiah kept saying, "They break em."


It was funny when they wanted me to pick them up so they could see better. They would hold their hands up and say, "I wanna go up there."



I love them! They're so sweet and cute! I think we'll have to go again and see the rest of the zoo.

In case you were wondering...

Personal preference here, but honestly, I don’t like pictures where people aren’t smiling.

Don’t take this personal if you think I’m talking about a photo I’ve seen of you OR one that you’ve personally taken.

I’m just sayin’.

For me, if there’s a photo being taken of me, then I want to be smiling.

I don’t want a picture of me looking into the far distance with a glazed look of constipation. I want to look happy and excited about having my picture taken. Maybe I just can’t pull of that serious sexy look. I’m okay with that. I come off more like I’m trying to recount my last four debit transactions so that I don’t overdraw my account. Not sexy.

Even more than my personal self-getting serious photos taken…I dislike my kids getting them taken. Why in the world would I want a photo of my kids gazing into a field while they contemplate their future with a stern face? Did I not give those kids a computer just last week? They better have a smile on their face! They’ve got things to be thankful for. They should be looking into that field thinking about how when they grow up they’re gonna buy their Mama a house. Those are the kind of pictures I like.




See What I mean?

The Good Thing.

Today was one of those days that I chose the “good thing” to do. I could have done several things. I had some everyday things to do. I had an idea to do something that would have been a lot of work, but it would have been fun. Still, I chose the “good thing.”
Miles was sick today. That’s a strange statement because Miles is always sick it seems, but today was different. Today he looked sick, acted sick and had a fever for possibly the first time in his life. His body was having seizures constantly because his body was so out of sorts. I could have just done his usual routine, but today I chose the “good thing.”
I didn’t wash the dishes.
I didn’t fold the laundry.
I didn’t make myself breakfast.
I didn’t hang out on the internet.
I didn’t shower and get dressed up.
I didn’t pick up my nephews for a play date.

I chose the “good thing.”

After I took the kids to school I gave Miles all his medicine to try to calm his body down and then I did the unthinkable.

I took him to my bed, and without any music or entertainment I held him and kissed him and told him how much I love him. I did that until lunch time.

He stayed there beside me with such a content heart. His arms were wrapped around mine and it actually felt like he was begging me not to get up. His body turned cooler and finally quit shaking. As I lay next to him all felt right with the world. I knew there wasn’t anything more important that I could have been doing.

You know, during the day I stay busy all day. There are so many things to do, and I actually enjoy doing them. I, like everyone else have so many directions that I’m pulled at all the time. Today though, it felt so invigorating to leave all those things behind to just hold my little boy that needed to be loved on.

Love Never Fails.

Today-in the car

These are pictures of today. Nothing fancy, no reason to take pictures. We were just in the car & I wanted an "everyday" picture of each of the kids.

Facebook vs. Blogging

I like Facebook. It's easy. I like that you can keep up with a lot of people with little effort, but I don't like it more than blogging. I don't think it's as personal. Maybe I'm just long winded.