What's Grosser Than Gross?

When your potty training toddler poops on the carpet and at first glance you blame the dog because of the size and volume. But when you see that there is poop on the top of her foot (and her brother's flip flop that she's wearing), you realize that the poop does in fact belong to your potty training toddler.


Oh, but there's more. While cleaning up your potty training toddler, your dog inspects the mess on the carpet and despite your shouts at the dog to "LEAVE IT!", the dog still manages to lick up a piece of the poop that is on the floor. You put the dog outside, dry heaving all the while, until you can get the mess cleaned up.

Once said toddler and the mess on the carpet is cleaned up, you sit down at the computer because this is perfect blog fodder, but neglect to put a diaper back on aforementioned cleaned up toddler because under the pile of poop was a substantial puddle of pee. So she must be flushed out right? Nope. While sitting at the computer, your naked potting training toddler comes in the office to tell you, "make mess". You ask her to show you where she made the mess and she leads you to another puddle on the floor. *Sigh* A well seasoned mother of 3 should know better than to leave a potty training toddler unattended. C'est la vie.

A Lesson In "Eminese"

Emily will be 2 on Friday. Lately she is just talking up a storm! She is talking so much more than either of the boys did at this age. I'm not sure if that is a girl thing or a 3 third child thing or maybe a combo of both ;-). Here are a few of her most common terms with a translation (a lesson in Eminese, if you will):

"go foop ina fotty" go poop in the potty (though she doesn't, she just likes to sit on the potty)
"Bob da beedo, WEE-WAH!" Bob the Builder, yes he can!
"boo-woo-woo goggy" woof-woof doggy
"beety" what she says when she wants some Pirate's Booty
"nah" snack
"ng-ow" milk
"dit dess" get dressed
"weed boo ah me" read a book to me
"wah-woo" this can mean either water or sunglasses
"Yah-yee" Ryan
"Dee-dee" Casey
"Numanuh" Emily
"Nee" Nan (what she calls Tripp's mom)
"him" swim
"bee-bee" baby

Now that you're fluently speaking Eminese, let's move on. These pictures I took while doing a trial run for her 2 year professional pictures. Emily's hair has natural ringlets but on the top of her head, her hair is stick straight. So I bought some sponge rollers to see how they would work to make more uniform curls.

I gave her a toothbrush and she sat there and let me roll up her hair. And amazingly enough, she even left the rollers in!

The rollers did the trick! I didn't style it for the trial run, but I did try on her dress and fancy shoes that she'll wear. She wouldn't let me take the shoes off.

So this was her outfit for the day. She was done with me taking her picture. Can you tell?

My First Bath

Candles and bubbles

A glass of wine

and a book.

A little slice of heaven, if you ask me.

More pictures of our completed bathroom will follow soon, I promise!

We Love Lucy

Lucy Bella is definitely part of our family! We love her!

First Bath

I'm adding a whole load of work to my scrapbooking realm with the pictures we take of this dog! Today, while I bathed her, Ryan snapped some photos and I must say, he has a knack for photography ;-)

Lucy did so well with getting a bath. Initially I had her collar on so I could hold onto her if she tried to run away. But then I took it off because she did so good! She just stood there and let me wash her! She shook the water off a couple times, which is to be expected. But she seemed to like the bath and she dried quickly since it was so warm today.

I just had to add this great picture of Emily that Ryan took!

And after her bath, she did the preverbial "roll around in the grass" thing that freshly bathed dogs always do!

We had not heard Lucy Bella make a peep in the 2 days we'd had her. But I'd heard that this is common. This morning we had 2 guys coming to install our new pool pump. I had the door open in the laundry room with the security screen closed. I was in the kitchen and heard Lucy growl. I went in the laundry room to see what she was growling at and there a man standing at the door. As I approached, she barked! Her first word :-) I praised her and told her what a good dog she is! That is exactly what we want her to do when strangers come to our door. What a good dog!

Lucy Bella

We are the proud new owners of this beautiful Boxer! We rescued her from a great organization called Boxer Luv Rescue. We chose the name "Lucy Bella" because Lucy means "bringer of light" and I like how that reminded me how Jesus is Light. Bella means beautiful. Tripp liked Bella and I liked Lucy, so we combined them.

She is about 2 and a half. It appears that she was probably a "bait dog" in Pit Bull dog fights. The people from Boxer Luv tell us that Boxers are common bait dogs in this completely inhumane business of dog fighting. Boxers are thrown into the ring to rile up the dogs. So our poor Lucy has lots of scars and battle wounds on her. Now, you may be wondering, "doesn't this make her aggressive?" No! She is the most mellow dog with the sweetest disposition! And the people at Boxer Luv work really hard to find dogs that are good matches for a family. They know we have small kids and all of our requests. I'm absolutely sure that they would not introduce us to a dog who could potentially be aggressive.

Lucy is super attached to me already. She rode home sitting at my feet and once we got home, she followed me everywhere. She definitely sniffed out her new digs, but once she was done sniffing, she was my shadow.

As I took a shower that night, she layed here, right at the shower entrance and wouldn't budge. Tripp tried to pull her out of the bathroom but she dug her heels in and wouldn't move.


She doesn't fully trust Tripp yet. She cowers slightly when he reaches to pet her. But when I reach for her head, she lifts it up. She also did this same thing this morning with one of our male neighbors. I'm pretty sure it has to do with her past. It was probably men who threw her in the ring and provided her primary "care", if you can call leaving a dog in a crate most of their life and only bringing her out to be bit and nipped at.

She slept in our room on her doggie bed that we bought her. I let her out at 2:30am to go pee and again at 5:15 she was up and around. I told Tripp it was his turn to let her out, but she wouldn't go out for him. So I had to get up and let her out. Tripp thinks this will work to his advantage - the way she is attached to me! But this is what I wanted. A dog that would be by my side. And that is what kind of dog God provided for us.

We've not even had her for a full day, but I'm praying that she will be a good match for our family. On the way home, in the van, Casey's nose was pretty stuffy. Please pray that his allergies don't flare up because of our dog. And Emily is not very happy about the dog either. Please pray that she warms up quickly and adjusts to our new family member.

Me and power tools don't jive

Do you ever get and idea in your head and you just need to do right then and there and you can't wait? Well that's what I was doing tonight, at 9:45. I had just put Emily to bed, but the boys were still up - hey, it's summer, they can stay up later, right? Does it really matter that they were up until 10pm last night too because of our pool party? Nah! Hopefully they sleep in a bit tomorrow!

Anyway, I bought a curtain for my closet window because just like I didn't like showering in front of a window at night, now I really don't enjoy changing in front of one. I put up sheer curtains to difuse the sunlight during the day, but I wanted something thick to cover the window at night. Here's a picture of my sheer curtains, being help up by a simple tension rod that doesn't need the use of power tools to put up - that's my kind of rod!

My first attempt at hanging the curtain rod, failed miserably! I put it about 4 inches too low!

So I got it right the 2nd time, but that drill is heavy and awkward for me to use! My arms would get tired of holding it up there and the screw kept slipping. I was so frustrated! But here are 2 pictures of what it looks like after I finished:

Please ignore the brown paint on the ceiling. I painted this room and I like to leave my mark.

Now I can actually change in my closet at night and not worry about anyone being able to see in! Mind you, who would really see in? We now have locks on both our gates and this window looks out at an enclosed "garden" (there's just a rubber tree plant in there) in our backyard. But just because of the slim chance that someone would hop our fence, come into the backyard and then figure out how to see into this "garden" area...you just never know. And after what happened 2 and a half weeks ago, I'm overly cautious.

On another note, Emily is proud of her toes because she sat still long enough for me to polish them! She will walk up to people and hold up her foot and say "pretty toe!" We have matching toes:

And on yet another note, tomorrow at 5pm we are picking out our new Boxer! Well, it'll be new to us. We aren't getting a puppy. We're wanting a dog that is 2-3 years old. So I may have pictures of our doggie up tomorrow night!

Another Milestone!

Ryan hit another childhood milestone! Remember this one, not too long ago? Ryan has now lost his first tooth. He mentioned it was loose sometime around mid-May. Knowing my son as I do, I left it alone and would only ask occasionally, "How's your tooth? Is it still loose?" He'd say, "I think so."

Yesterday morning, he's watching cartoons right after he woke up and he says, "Oh my goodness, Mama!"

Me: "What, Ryan?" (not sure what he's so excited about)

Ryan: "My tooth is just hanging by a thread!"

Me: "Let me see!"

Ryan pulls his lip down to show me and I instantly get the "heeby-jeebies".

Me: "Can I pull it out for you?" (knowing the answer before I even ask it)

Ryan: "No!"

So for the rest of the day, he is talking funny and really playing with it with his tongue. In the afternoon, the kids were having their snack (chocolate chip granola bar) and Ryan goes into the bathroom because he says he's got something stuck in his tooth. I followed him in there and opens his mouth to look in the mirror and his tooth is gone! I gasped and said, "where's your tooth?" Thinking he had pulled it out and was holding it.

He shrugs. "What do you mean you don't know?!" I asked him. "Did you eat it with your granola bar?" "I think so," Ryan says. I was so bummed! He ate his tooth! His first tooth! I won't be able to tape it into his scrapbook or have a picture of him holding his precious little baby tooth. Dang it! But I did get these pictures:

I called my friend who has a son who's lost several teeth already and asked her, (since Ryan was listening) "How will the toothfairy know that Ryan lost his tooth if he ate it?" She had a great idea: have Ryan write the toothfairy a letter and draw a picture of his tooth. Perfect! A little lesson in letter writing and a great solution to our problem. So Ryan wrote a letter.

We put the letter by his pillow so the toothfairy would see it. The next morning, Ryan woke up to find 2 gold coin dollars. He was pretty excited. The tooth beside the one that just fell out is already loose. So he's working on that one now!

It's getting better

So it's been a week since our home invasion. I feel like it's getting better. I'm less jumpy at every noise I hear. I'm less motivated to buy a gun. I still want us to put up a security screen on our driveway door and I will feel better when we get a more secure front door (at least one without an oval glass window in it). Our home security system is being installed on Tuesday. My dad insisted we do this and offered to pay for it. So we took him up on his offer. I still feel like a dog is a good idea, even though it will be a lot of work. Tripp even found one on the Humane Society's website that we keep looking at. His name is Samson. I'd like to bring him home. I tried to post a picture of him, but it didn't work. So if you want to see Samson, go here. Samson will be on the last page.

On Wednesday, one of our pastors, a couple of our church elders, my dear friend Susan with her husband, Ted, and Tripp's parents came and prayed at our house. They prayed over our home and declared it for the Lord. They prayed so specifically for our fears. It was amazing. We consecrated our home to God by anointing it with oil (which means the devoting or setting apart of something to the worship or service of God).

I don't think the kids know that anything is up. If they do, they aren't asking questions about it. I'm so thankful for that. Ryan, especially, would have a really hard time knowing that this happened.

Tripp and I have really bonded through this experience as well. We've been praying together before bed every night. I love doing this. It's such a great form of spiritual intimacy.

So, thank you for your prayers. They have been felt, big time!

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On a totally unrelated note, Tripp tells me this morning that some of the guys on the fire department are participating in "Summer 'Stache '09". What exactly is this event? It's where some of the guys decide to try to grow a mustache. And then Tripp proudly shows me his upper lip which now has 3 days worth of stubble. Eew! I'm sorry, but a mustache on a guy in his early 30s is "ick". He's going to look like a child molester! No offense to any guys out there with a mustache. I think there are a lot of men who can pull it off and look dignified and handsome. I just prefer to have a hairless upper lip on my husband. So I have declared that I will not shave my legs until he shaves his upper lip. So there.

Violated - Part 3

Unfortunately, the police did not catch him. But even if they had, they could only charge him with criminal trespassing. Big deal. The police questioned both of us. And did a sweep of our house and yard. They weren't there very long, maybe a half hour. Thankfully, the kids slept through the entire thing. Praise God! They still don't have a clue that any of this happened, so please don't tell your own children if they have contact with mine! I don't think Ryan would be able to sleep at night, knowing that this happened.

After the police left, I put my face in my hands and cried into Tripp's chest. I hadn't cried yet. He just hugged me and kept saying he was so sorry.

We figured out that he hopped the fence by our RV gate. There is a two foot raised planter box right there, that would give easy leverage to hop the fence. He then removed the clips on the gate and opened it so he would have an easy escape.

We sat down and talked. I said, "what in the world was he after? He knows we're awake, all these lights are on, he isn't armed. What was he doing in our house?" Tripp said, "Honey, if he followed you home, he probably wanted to see if you were alone. He was after you."

I don't know why I hadn't thought of this until Tripp said it. My stomach did a flip flop and my whole perspective changed. Being violated like that is one of my worst nightmares. It's right up there with someone taking my kids. We continued to rehash the night's events and then I remembered the squeaky sound I'd heard just before he came into our house. That sound was him opening the RV gate!

Tripp and searched for scripture to ease our fears. We also called friends who could pray for us. We knew we wouldn't be getting much sleep this night. When we finally did head for bed (we were inseparable the whole time, even while Tripp showered, I sat just outside the bathroom, on the phone with my friend), it was about 1:30am. We prayed and left lights on. We cuddled together, I needed to be touching him at all times. Tripp eventually fell asleep but I layed there, wide awake, most of the night. I may have drifted off for a few minutes here and there.

I couldn't wait for the sun to come up. When it finally began to light up the sky, around 5am, I finally felt a tad bit better.

We spent the next few days together as a family. We were apart very little. Tripp was able to take work off on Saturday, which I was so thankful for.

We went to Home Depot to price out security screen doors and a new front door. We got locks for our gates and extra locks for our sliding door. We went to Cabella's to price tasers but the salesperson discouraged those as protection because if the probe you shoot misses, you're out of luck. You have to reload a new cartridge every time it's used. She reccomended a hand gun. I don't know how I feel about having a gun. I've always been against it. But there is a place here that offers free shooting for women so we will go so I can try it out.

We also talked about getting a dog. And tomorrow, we have someone coming to talk to us about installing a home security system. Along with taking measures to physically secure our home, we are having people from our church come and pray over our home for spiritual security.

I don't know when I will be able to sleep alone in my house without Tripp. The thought of it makes my stomach do a flip flop. He's working today, but the kids and I are having a sleep over at my in-laws' house. Not sure what we'll do on Friday when Tripp is supposed to work again.

So if you are a person who believes in the power of prayer, please pray for us! Pray that my fears would subside and that I could feel safe and secure in my own home again. Pray what my friend Carrie's husband prayed for us, that this man would forget that he was ever in our neighborhood. That he would never try to seek it out again. That his mind would be wiped clean of the memory of where I live. Also, pray that because his plans were thwarted, that maybe he'd let God get in and change his heart. That he would realize that he has a problem and needs help.

Like I said in the beginning, Satan meant this event for evil, but I will do everything I can to give God all the glory in this situation. There will be good to come out of this.

June 1st

June 1st will always be a day that I will remember. June 1, 1980 is when my mom and dad got married (I was almost 3 at the time). They told me that they chose this date so that it would be easy to remember their anniversary. I'm not sure why June 1st would be easy to remember. You don't see it on the calendar until you actually flip the page from May to June. Most people don't usually flip the calendar until a day or so into the next month! I actually remember a time when I was in high school and one of my best friends, Carrie, called and said, "tell your parents happy anniversary for me!" I ran out to tell my dad, "did you remember that it's you and mom's anniversary today?" He looked at me and said, "Oh! Well, #%&@, call the florist!" They had both forgotten, so no harm done :-)

Unfortunately, their marriage ended several years later and June 1st would no longer be a significant day. That is, until 2007.

June 1, 2007 is the day that my mom went home to be with Jesus. So today, I miss her imensely. But I celebrate her home coming! I hope that she is celebrating this day too, up in heaven! I love you mom. I miss you.

This is the last picture I ever took with my mom. It was my babyshower for Emily, May 19, 2007.