Another interesting week in the Andrews house.  Started off at Sunday mass after communion when everyone was back in the pew but Kate.  I looked at Jeff and said "Where's Kate?".  He said "I thought she was with you".  Our pediatrician was also sitting behind us and got the same panicked look on her face that we had.  I ran out to look in the bathrooms and outside.  No Kate.  I go back in to the church to see if Jeff has found her.  She is in the pew smiling nicely.  When I asked him where she was, he said "on the altar".  I gave a questioning look to Dr. Osthaus and she nodded her head "yep".  This was not quite as embarrassing as the time Alec pulled the fire alarm during mass but not one of our finer moments. 

Another fine moment for me happened on Tuesday evening.  My mom had helped me with the kids because I had a dentist appointment that went way longer than expected.  Normally, this is not a problem for her. But there was added craziness of trying to shuttle my dad and the kids to the Memorial Tournament.  So, when I picked them up, I made a quick escape with the kids and took Charlie with me.  Charlie wanted to come back to our house and then when Jen came to pick him up he wanted to stay longer while she ran an errand.  During that long hour, Charlie had a bathroom break in the woods and used his hands to clean up.  Alec informs me of this as I am trying to console Charlie after I found him on the corner of our street sobbing (while at the same time putting his hands in his mouth).  Some girl walking by had found him out there by himself and was trying to help him.  He was probably out of my sight for a minute or two but it was long enough.  I felt horrible!!!  He was sooo tired and upset that he had "forgotten" that he wanted to go with his mom.   "Aunt of the year" is going to be right up there with my award for "Mom of the year"!

Tonight, Connor came running inside from the backyard to tell me that he just saw Grandpa in Tyler's yard.  He said he was floating up with the pine trees in a white robe.  He was most worked up about it.  My only history with people seeing dead people is when my  mom and aunts have seen deceased family members right before someone in our family dies.  So, I was naturally a little freaked out about this.  A couple weeks ago, Kate also went into great detail about how Grandpa came to visit her and gave her a hug.  She described him in pretty accurate detail.  Amazing to me!  I hope it just means that Bob is watching over our kids at all times!

May 14, 2012

What a wonderfully, crazy, hectic day Mother's Day was yesterday.  I had a great start to the day with getting to sleep in and breakfast in bed.  Connor had presents wrapped and breakfast made when Jeff got downstairs.  Despite some behavior challenges we are having lately with him, he is really such a good boy.  I think he is just feeling his oats and we have to stand firm now.  We had a busy day with lacrosse, flag football, and finished it off with a great family cookout at our house.  Pam & Kurt, Boggess family, Tice family, and all the Buckles were here. After all the ladies ended up cleaning the kitchen, we determined that we are going to go out to dinner by ourselves next year :)

Tonight, we had a dramatic finish to our uneventful day.  Kate started us off by singing "I got the moves like Jagger" while putting a stick on earring up her nose.  I don't think she will try this again as she was most upset with me trying to get it out!  Connor & Grace finished us off by marking in their yearbook.  They were putting "X's"  and devil horns on people they didn't think were "awesome".  Why is Jeff never home when this stuff happens?  He tends to be a little calmer than me with things.  By the end of the day, I am typically spent.  I lost my voice yesterday which is very frustrating when you are trying to yell at your kids.  This has happened several times this year and I am starting to think God is trying to tell me something by taking my voice away.  Maybe I need to learn how to use it a little better!  Connor ended up being "ashamed of himself" as he told me.  I tried to explain to them that I don't expect them to like everyone but I do expect them to treat everyone with respect.  When I added that I don't expect them to be perfect, Connor added on that they just discussed this at CCD.  "God only made 2 people perfect, Mary and Jesus, he goes on to tell me.  So, I am not going to be perfect mom".  Glad to see he is paying attention during the religious ed that I frequently complain about the cost of (with other adults and not the kids of course).  I must say that there are times when we are trying to teach our kids these things, that I feel like a hypocrit because I am not good at always doing these things myself.  It really would be great if some fabulous parenting coach would develop an app where we could just go for a quick answer on how to handle different situations with our kids! 

The week of April 30, 2012

My first post. Not sure how often I will actually have time to do this but hoping I might capture some memories for my children to someday treasure. My wonderful mom convinced me to try it as there always seems to be something happening in our house. I am a mom of four wonderful children and married to a great guy who currently happens to travel a lot for work so a lot falls on me during the week. Seeing how I was told I would not be able to have children, I try to remind myself to cherish every little, precious moment. This week seemed particularly crazy. Started off with Coming downstairs Tuesday morning to discover Kate had made herself a cup of coffee in the Keurig! That day became a grumpy one for me as I had been up most of the night with grace. She was in terrible pain from her tonsillectomy. By the end of the day, I knew I had not been a good mommy when my sweet daughter wrote me a note telling me that she was sorry I had such a bad day and she hoped it wasn't her fault. But "tomorrow would be a better day" she told me. This little girl of mine is sooo wise beyond her 7 years. This week I did however, get to spend a day with my hubby just the 2 of us. While the circumstances were not ideal as we were heading to a funeral ( my sister-in-law chris's mom). We haven't had a long car ride without whining, crying, screaming, vomiting, snoring, etc for a long time! While we were gone, my mom had the kids. She had to manage a basketball game that had gotten out of hand with Connor, Alec, and neighbor boys. Kate disappeared on her and gave herself a shower. Abby jumped on the counter and devoured 3 whole bone-IN RAW chicken breasts so there went most of dinner. Needless to say, I think my mom was glad I had arranged for a babysitter to take over at 7:30! I am so blessed to have this amazing mom! I pray everyday that she is with us for a very long time. Not only would I be lost without her but so would my kids. Thursday was a somewhat normal day of PTO meeting, mowing the lawn, laundry, and what was an attempt to trim Kate's hair. God forbid I should spend $10 to take her somewhere! My cut looks amazing compared to the cut she decided to give herself when I left the bathroom for maybe 15 seconds! She is a handful in her terrocious threes but we love her to pieces. When our neighbor came to pick up his kids tonight (we had been watching them) Kate informed him that she sleeps with her mommy and daddy every night. And that she does! We have a midnight visitor every night and know that in 10-15 years we will be begging for those snuggles again! Connor was the same way and even now at 9 I want those "midnight sneaks" back. Today, Jeff bought him his first cup for baseball. He came to me and asked "does this looks like it fits right mom?". I said "that is definitely a Daddy question". He then went on to ask me why his "thing sticks out so far and is hard in these boxer cup briefs". Again, a "daddy question". Despite what he thinks, I canNOT do it all. So, just another blessed week in the Andrews household. Thankfully, my little Alec was quiet and even keel this week! I love his little face!