It was that time again, the 6 month dental cleaning/ check-up. Our dentist's office sends up reminders in the mail, which is a good thing, because I can't remember everything. The cool part is that I make 1 appointment for all five Wardlings. This time when I called the office and told them my name, she knew exactly who I was and that the appointments would be made for all five children. Not bad customer service. Granted, I wonder how many patients have 5 children in the same family. They don't call us back individually, it's the Ward Family. I like that. This morning, I arranged for them to have the 1st 5 appointments the office had. The only thing that I would have them do differently, is to have each of the kids in their own chairs. We occupied the back 2 chairs and the kids rotated in. Then once their teeth had all been cleaned, then the last 2 stay in the chair and the dentist comes in to do her thing. Good news, no cavities in anyone. I am so proud. All of our nightly and morning battles to get them to brush their teeth have paid off. The older girls do have to go back though. Erin needs to have 1 extraction, a baby tooth that has hung in WAY too long. It's wiggly, but won't come out. I am hoping that Erin can wiggle it our prior to Monday's appointment. Then, she has 6 of her 8 permanent molars and they need sealants. All in all not bad. Libby on the other hand has to be measured for some spacers and bands. She has a small mouth and a bunch of teeth. She has spaces between her front teeth, but I guess that's crunching her back teeth together and still not giving her enough room in her mouth. The other teeth need to be moved forward. She'll need braces. Libby is thrilled to get these spacers. I think, she thinks that they are like braces, of some sort, and to her, it's a status thing. Wahoo! Penny was a trooper. She only bit the hygienist once, but it was hard. The guy yelped. I had to hold back a giggle. I know, I'm sick. I did tell Penny not to bite anymore and that it wasn't very nice to bite. I guess that the hygienist has to expect that out of some children. She didn't break his skin, so really, mission accomplished with her cleaning. Josh was another trooper. He sat and had his bite wings x-rayed and had such a good spirit. That's Josh though. The only bad face he made was to the taste of the fluoride that they put on his teeth at the end. Jacob did cry a bit. He has had some bad dental experiences. He has fillings on his front few teeth, and we've had to go back several times to have them repaired. He didn't like that, and so we have had to use the papoose board a few times. Today he was just upset during the cleaning, but was all smiles for the actual exam. Yeah...no cavities!
We still do not have a name for our newest Wardling, but here are some cute babies with the new puppy. Today has been annoying with the puppy. I have to put her in time out, just for some peace...and I mean that for me. The arguements and high pitched sqeals, are enough to drive anyone insane!
We have been under contract with the brown house since November. We got a call last week saying that all was in order and that we could close on the house Friday. Then, a few seconds later the gal realized that it was President's Day week, so they were 1 work day short in their week, so Monday would be a better bet. I was so excited and yet hesitant at the same time. Then on Wednesday-ish we learn that there was a lien on the house, prior to our sellers. So, our heart sank yet again. Long story short, today, we are officially homeowners. The majority of the i's were dotted and the t's were crossed. We read over our closing papers to learn that they put the wrong name on it...David instead of Clyde. That had to be changed. On the rest of the documents they were correct, so we thought. Our agent called me to say all was good. Then within a few minutes he calls back and says that our earnest money check refund had David's name on it instead of Clyde. Go figure. That was our good news for the week. YYIIPPPPPEEEE!!!! The bad news is that, even though we are month to month and have been for over a year, because we didn't tell them on the 15 of Feb. that we were planning on moving, we now have to pay March and April's rent here. (did I mention that we didn't know that we were closing until last Tuesday, so there wasn't any way we could have told them...again not their fault.) I absolutely hate nickel and dimers. They do not terminate contracts until the last day of the month, so no pro-rating either. This just bites! SO, if we have to pay, I am going to take this whole packing/ moving thing slow. We can move the things that we don't need right now and get them out of the way. They toss everything that we don't need. Things have always been like this, just when we think we are clear and free, we have to pay 2 more month's rent. Go figure.
This past weekend was way busy. Friday night, I had my sewing class with the 3 girls from church. That went very well. Then it was off to movie night with a few pals. I was so tired coming home, that I took a right on a street too soon, and felt way embarrassed. However, to my defense, it was after midnight. I am so glad that I set my alarm on Saturday morning, because I would have slept alot more on Saturday morning. Why set an alarm on Saturday, huh? Well, I agreed to alter a wedding dress for Claire. I had done quite a bit of work on it, but because I don't own a dress form, there was no way that I could hand sew all the sashes and the bustle on it correctly. It wouldn't hang right on the hanger. Sister Dunlap, from church was so nice to let me use a dress form. I had to get up early on Saturday to 1- take some $ over to my sister, for my share of my Mom's birthday present and b- Sister Dunlap's costume shop opened @ 9am, so I wanted to get there as soon as I could do all the work. Sis. Dunlap and I got the dress form, put the dress on it, and I began to sew. I sewed on a sash, and bustled the dress all by hand. The sash goes from the back of her dress, from the zipper, all the way around to the front and then cris-crosses each other and down the front of her dress, to the floor. Thankfully, I did some research on bustling and found a really pretty one called a ballroom bustle. It's different from the American and french bustles, and because of her dress, it only required 4 bustles. A few years ago, I helped a friend with her dress and because her train was a cathedral length train, it required 40 of them. Trust me, 4 is alot less tedious. (I didn't bustle my friend's dress, with the 40 bustles.) It took from about 9:30 a.m. to after 1 to be completely done. I have to give a huge thanks to Clyde for taking all the kids with him to church. He was ref-fing 2 basketball games and so they just went with him. As a rule of thumb, I try not to have all the kids there during those types of events, because they are a bit hard to watch. They all want to go and do different things, so we either have children running like banshees throughout the building or we have pouting, miserable, crying children because they can't run around the church building like banshees. It's a lose-lose situation for me. Clyde handled it beautifully. They pretty much stayed in the nursery and were allowed out a few times to either use the potty or for a drink of aqua.
Sunday, was our 12th wedding anniversary! TWELVE years!! Where does the time go?? This year, we decided that we wouldn't do big gifts, because of buying the house. The house is our anniversary present. :) We wanted to return to the big apple, like we did a few years ago, but we thought that we needed to be the grown-ups and more responsible. Sunday morning was fun. When Clyde and I got up and went downstairs, we had 5 Wardlings looking up at us, and said in close unison, "Happy Anniversary!!" Then they had made directional signs for us to follow, that lead us to the table. There we were given some play money and some menu's. The waitress Erin, took our order. The waiter Josh brought us our drink of choice...me- chocolate milk and apple juice for Clyde. Then the chef, Libby made us our food. I chose waffles, as did Clyde. Clyde wanted some leftovers from dinner the night before, so they were kind enough to reheat them. We had a lovely breakfast. Penny ate the majority of mine, but I didn't have to make anything so I was happy with that. I've never heard of the guests of honor doing their own dishes, but hey- the breakfast was worth the dishes. Saturday night, Clyde and I went to Tyler and Claire's open house/ wedding reception (they are getting married on the 29th). We got a couple of babysitters for the Wardlings. I am looking forward to not having to pay for sitters anymore. We only stayed at the open house for an hour. We saw some good pals and had some yummy appetizers. Since our anniversary was on Sunday, we went out Saturday night instead. We went to Tripps. I haven't been before. I had the salmon and Clyde had a steak. It was delicious and perfectly cooked. We had a great time alone!
So that brings us to Sunday. Lou and Rochelle came up to us pre-sacrament service to tell us that on Lou's morning run, he found an abandoned puppy. The puppy couldn't be more than 4-5 weeks old. We wanted to get a puppy once we bought a house. That gave me some reasoning leverage with Jacob when we would go look @ houses and he'd rather be playing the Star Wars Lego game. "Hey- we can get a puppy once we buy a house. So, let's go check these 1,000 out to see if there is one that is right." (houses, not puppies...) We went last night to Lou and Rochelle's house and checked out the puppy. We are pleased to introduce the newest Wardling...oh- we still don't have a name for her. We are trying to come up with something that sounds pretty cool, especially for the times when we are screaming it in our new neighborhood. We want it to be a Star Wars something. Any suggestions? Clyde likes Jabba the Pup...
A few months ago, we moved our hamsters upstairs to the kiddies' rooms. Since their move, Penny has had to rub a few of them each night before she goes to sleep. She will stand in her crib, grunt and point to the hamsters that are closest. She has begun to use more signing, to communicate, and her little hand is adorable rubbing her tummy, for the word please. The 3 girl hamsters are in the girls' room, while the 2 boy hamsters are in the boys' room.
Here Penny is holding Karate Kid. Yes, she is a girl. Josh named her and the name stuck. Erin calls her Angel. I like Karate Kid. Josh has always come up with interesting names for hamsters. My favorite was Saraka. Saraka was a brown hamster and was the sweetest! She unfortunately died in her sleep, causing much sorrow. Hence the new hamsters, Princess Leia and Hans Solo. And with those two new hamsters, we have had a total of 27 born to our household. Thankfully we have found loving homes for the hamsters that made it. The last litter was very dramatic. Mama Leia had something like 14 babies and only 7 of them made it. We still have one from that litter. His name is Spiderman. Jacob named him. Karate Kid is from the 1st litter, along with our other hamster, Skunk. She is black with a white stripe down her chin. Skunk is the sneaky one that got out and was AWOL for about a week. We caught her on the first day of school. She is a skunky hamster. We have tried to breed her twice actually, one for a school project and the other as a crazy family idea, and nothing. I believe that we have an infertile hamster on our hands. That's a good thing to me.
She is getting another squeeze and sniffs from Princes Leia. The hamsters are all very tame and haven't tried as much as a nibble on Penny. She in return is quite soft and loving. Ahh -hamsters. They are containable, for the most part, and don't require a huge hole to dig when they die.
Today we went to Duke Hospital for a few appointments for Erin's NF. We saw a Neurologist and a Geneticist. The Children's hospital is so bright and cheerful, the lobby anyway. When we walked in there was a huge aquarium of fish. Penny loved that. The actual clinical rooms, were regular 'ole dr.'s office rooms....boring. We were referred to this group @ Duke by our pediatrician. This is a specific group for NF. The other specialists that we saw @ Baptist were excellent, but really didn't work as a cohesive group. Duke coordinates appointments, so that we can see 4 dr.'s in one day,if necessary, or see a few dr.'s before our annual MRI. Really nice for us who don't live down the street from Durham. I really appreciate that. We would end up going to Baptist hospital @ least 4 times a year, and then once to HP for her Neurology appointment. We saw the Geneticist first and when I realized that we were going to be late for our Neurology appointment, the med student arranged for us to have a later time. Really the appt.'s today were merely a meet and greet session. They wanted to make sure that Erin did indeed have NF, and not something else masked as NF. I can understand their concern, but when they have MRI results for the past few years in their widdle hands, it should be known that she has NF. Plus, since we are well versed in NF, we didn't need to hear some of the normal speeches that they give to new patients and their families. Overall, we had an enjoyable time. The hospital was even passing out cake in the lobby to patients and their parents, as we left. Erin and Penny were in heaven. I just wished that we had more time to find Duke and cruise the campus. We are Duke fans, so it would've been cool to see. Oh- that reminds me, outside the front door the the Children's Hospital there is a Coach K mini court, for the kiddies to shoot some hoops. Way cool!!
If you want to learn more about NF, google The Children's Tumor Foundation, and click of NF or Neurofibromatosis.
Waiting in the waiting room.
...in the room. Yesterday, being President's Day, Clyde had the day off. With all the new adjustments, we really wanted to spend some time together, as a family. We still sent the kids to school, but we checked them out @ 11:30, the time that they are counted present for the day. We, along with Clyde's folks, went to Wendy's for lunch and then we said our final goodbye's to the Ward's @ the park. We had a fun afternoon playing with one another, something that we really needed.
Josh was goofin off and sat in the infant/ toddler swing. He got stuck!! He was able to wiggle and jiggle himself out a few minutes later.
Josh whizzed by on the monkey bars and Jacob wanted to learn how to do them. Clyde was right there showing him how to move his body and arms. We wanted to see how long he could hold himself up. He hung on for awhile. I think we have another monkey in the making!
There was a mom and her two children @ the park. Penny followed this baby around the entire time they were there. Their mom was really nice and let Penny hold her daughter. I did ask for permission to take the photo. We think that she is in a bit of withdrawl from Madi and Zoey not being here.
What a goof! We thought that it was going to rain...look @ the sky. It wasn't that dark when we got there.
Here the whole gang is...
Libby and Blaklee were so cute swinging together on the swing. Libby is a super helper!
Penny is telling Clyde a story here. The mom that we met at the park gave Penny a frisbee, so I think that she is telling him how it works.
So, this is what our lunch table looked like yesterday. Yep, 8 children, under the age of 11. We usually have 6 on these snow days/ teacher workdays, but 8 was alot yesterday. I was so grateful for naptime. I was able to fold the 8 loads of laundry without little hands wanting to help out. They can help me today, by putting the laundry on the stairs for the big kids to put away when they come home from school. It's sad to say, but I still have another load to wash, dry, and fold. Laundry is never-ending here.
During the nap time, the older kids went in the back yard to play. Erin made this big snowball and was very proud of it. I didn't get Josh in this shot, but he had climbed on the fence and was hanging out, 6 feet in the air to Erin's right. He is such a monkey!!
This is how the snowball was broken. Libby saw it and ran outside for Erin to break it on her back. Look- Libby is outside in her bare feet and without a coat. Thankfully the weather had warmed up a bit. Libby is our little Pocahantas, country girl.
Clyde still had to work today, even though our schools were cancelled. His county's schools were on a two hour delay. We were scheduled for an early release day, so I can understand why we didn't have school. I mean really. they would get the kids to school, shove lunch down them and then put them back on the buses to go home.
A group picture. Madi and Zoey both have little colds, so they hung out inside. My kids loved the snow!!
the girls...
As we were outside playing in the Valentine's Day snow, Josh ran inside and prepared himself for battle. He found Clyde's paintball mask and wore it until we went inside. The kids are back outside now and he is wearing it. I have to give him credit for wanting to protect his face and glasses from a flying snowball, or one that ends up smashed in your face.
Here little man Josh is, after he got a snowball to the face.
Libby is being goofy here, jiggling the tree, to get a snowfall again. I like the expression on her face. They were so excited to see snow!
Look @ Erin in the background...
Yippee!!! No school!
Penny wasn't quite sure how to take the snow. It's cold and wet. She liked it, but until she got used to it, she preferred to be held.
Cold Hands...since we do not have snow often, we are not equipped for days like these. I remember as a kid wearing socks on my hands when it snowed.
Not snow in the face!! Thanks Dad!!
Snow angels....well, actually dirt angels. Josh and Erin had to choose the mulchy area to drop down and make a snow angel. What goofs... :)Today Madi was a bit of a screaming grump, so after her being in TO 2-3 times by 9:30am, I thought that she needed more of a break, so I put her in her crib to scream it out. She fell asleep and slept until noon. She woke up, just as I was putting the other 4 children down for their naps. Madi came downstairs with me and hung out. She played and played and besides the tapping, she was fun to play with. After about an hour of playing, I heard Penny crying upstairs. We ran up and got her. The two little girls played together, taunted each other, and then it happened. Madi said my favorite thing that she says, "AAHH Stuck!" I looked over and she had a pair of Zoey's panties over her head & arms. It was pretty funny. She was upset, as you can kinda see in the first photo, but then once I told her to say cheese, she perked right up. Madi loves to have her picture taken. I just thought this was a cute happening today amongst the screaming and the poop.
"Aahh Stuck!"
Cheese!!
One day last week, I was checking e-mail and I looked over and found Jacob laying on our ottoman, playing with a deflatted balloon. We had gone to a Kids night @ Golden Coral and a pirate was walking around making balloon animals for the kids. Jacob was playing with Zoey's deflated poodle. He would put one end of the balloon between his toes and stretch his legs apart as far as they would go. Then he would strom it, like he was playing a guitar. He would laugh and laugh, epecially when the balloon would fling out from between one of his toes and slap my yarn bin. He was really funny! Heplayed like this for half an hour. He was such a ham that day!!
Our weekends seem to be busier than ever. Before basketball started @ the Stake and before we got the new little girls, our weekends were on our terms. We could sleep in a bit, do our chores, run to Costco, etc. Now we barely see each other on Saturday's. I'm looking forward to a break. This Saturday was no different. Dwyuler, Zoey and Madi's other grandma, called me earlier in the week to ask if I would watch Kerstin for her. Sam apparently had to work, and he had made arrangements with her. Her other daughter had a volleyball thing at the Sportsplex here in town and is somewhat competing for scholarships. Scouts from different colleges were there to see her play and so Dwyuler said that when the scouts approach her she gives her a resume of sorts for her daughter. Since she was busy with her daughter, she really couldn't keep a watchful eye on Kerstin. So she asked if Kerstin could come play with us. I picked Kerstin up around 8:45 Saturday morning. I had a few errands to run and then we came home. Clyde made a yummy breakfast. We had enough time to eat together, before he needed to leave. Josh and Jacob went to play with some friends, so Clyde dropped them off on the way to church. All girls here! Zoey and Madi were excited to see their sister. Kerstin talked about her sisters the whole time we were in the car together. As soon as she came in, she got into her past role as mother and father and started to take over with the girls. I told her that was my job and that she could go play and I'd do the rest. Kerstin was upset that the girls called me mom mom. After explaining to her that that was my name here, everybody calls me mom, I think that she kinda understood. She called me Miss Ashley and I didn't like that. I am just Ashley or she could call me Auntie Ashley, but not Miss Ashley. Is it silly to be bothered by that? We had a fun day of playing together. Erin and Libby loved playing with the little girls. They played with their hair, polished their nails, got out Barbies, played with sidewalk chalk, and just had fun with them. They were good helpers throughout the day. I was really nervous about Kerstin coming actually, because of her sister's reaction to her leaving. This is why I haven't encouraged Sam or Ed and Becki to visit. They girls would feel abandoned all over again and to be honest, I don't have the energy to start all over with everything that we have worked on. We already have weekly issues and adding more stress to it, isn't my idea of a good time. I was pleasantly surprised to how they reacted. I let them stay up way past their nap times to see their sister. Madi couldn't hang in any longer and had to sleep around 2:30. Zoey hung in until after we took Kerstin back to the Sportsplex Center @ 3pm. The only time Zoey asked about Kerstin, was during bath time that evening. I told her that she went home with Nana and that was all she needed. Madi on the other hand seemed ok, but had nightmares of sorts throughout the night. When I cam home from Claire's bridal shower, she was really upset. I reset her at least 3 times, as did Clyde. My in-laws are supposed to come this week and get the girls, all 3 of them. Sam is losing his apt. and so after the 17th won't have a place to live. He isn't my concern and has never been, in this matter. He is an adult & has been making th worst possible choices. He isn't innocent in this craziness and caudling him isn't the answer. It is the girls that have my concern. We'll have to see what happens. This is just such a mess. I have to say that I have learned alot on how NOT to parent our children.
Friday night I began another round of sewing classes. This time we are making another skirt, but the girls wanted to learn how to install a zipper. I was so excited to go to Jo-Ann's. It isn't as if I go every week, but I could go every week and not be bored with it. It just sparks creativity and I love it. My class and I went, armed with coupons to find great fabric of a skirt. We picked out our patterns, ones that I already owned, and went into the store. The first place I took them, was the clearance wall. Sewing to me, only makes sense if you save money. If you spend much more than $20 on making a skirt, you might as well buy one. I did require the girls to buy 2 yards of muslin, so that we could get the proper fit. Some patterns don't fit right, or you have to alter them to get them to fit right. The pattern makers make these skirts to go to your natural waistine, which is ribcage high. So, the majority of the patterns have to be altered to where we now wear them...@ our hips. To save the more expensive fabric, we make our first skirt out of muslin, to see where the adjustments have to be made. I don't feel bad messing up $4 worth of muslin, but I would be crushed to mess up way more expensive fabric. We had a fun time looking at the different types of fabric, denim, tweed, lined, embroidered, non embroidered, suede like fabric, silks, cottons, polyester (yuck), courderoy and it's wales, and eyelets. The girls each chose great fabric and only one bought from the floor and not the clearance wall. However, it was 30% off, so we were happy. The next class will be spent cutting out our skirt and hopefully sewing part of it. The best part of this, is that instead of payment, I am hoping that the girls are willing to barter babysitting hours. I need to have babysitters and it would be too great to have 3 of them who are willing to come and that I wouldn't have to pay.
Yesterday was no different busy-ness wise. I had sharing time. I think it went well. I'm glad that it is only once a month!! :) After church Maylee wanted to come over for us to meet her new friend who isn't her boyfriend, but a 'special friend.' We had to talk to the kids and prep them for the new friend's arrival. I think that they took it ok. Mark is a native Alaskan, who ended up in Charlotte for work, after his mission to Italy. Go Maylee!! We had a nice evening with them. (Oh yeah- he knits and crochets. He has 6 brothers and his Mom taught them all to knit. I guess I would too, if I had all boys. Not only that, he is also working on a quilt, hand sewing it, no less. He has my vote.) Raegen also stopped by for awhile to visit. After the visitors left, I ran to the Yow's house to borrow a crinolin for Claire's wedding dress. I am altering it for her, and it needs to be poofier. Once I was home, I did finish up Claire and Tyler's dishcloth. I usually make a monogrammed set for newlyweds. I didn't have much time to finish it before her shower. I just have to knit one more. I am hoping that I'll find some time soon to finish the other one. The dishcloths are going to be our wedding gift instead. Busy, busy...
This morning, after our bath and breakfast routine, we played our music to clean too. Jacob's favorite Primary song is "I'll Follow Him in Faith." We listened to that song probably 5 times. Today's goal was vacuuming. I have to set little goals, because otherwise at the end of the day I don't feel as though I have accomplished very much if I don't. Once I get the vacuum out, Madi goes crazy, but not in a good way. She begins to scream and cry. I tell her to go sit on the couch, so that I can vacuum. My other children have all done this but, it was my fault. I told them, when they were younger, that if they didn't pick up the toys, then the vacuum would suck them up and they would go away. They thought that this would mean them too, if the vacuum got too close, so they would all run away and jump on the couch for protection. This also got them to pick up their toys with lightening speed. I just laugh. I know, I'm sick that way. Today Penny decided that she was going to help out. We got the hose out and vacuumed the downstairs, paying particular attention under the table and furniture. I got a bit ambitious and decided to vacuum under the couch cushions. Penny again helped as you can see above. She loved using the wand. She played with it. She also vacuumed a part of our hallway. Jacob wanted to get in on the action too, playing that is. It will be nice when all of the children learn how to use the vacuum!!
