Our Garden looks very different, Mommy

Words from Poodle about the state of the backyard. Jmk and I were out shoveling mounds of pine and hickory mulch left from the trees that used to be there. (Oh! The tree guys got finished yesterday - took down 8 trees total. Some were torn from the tornado, some had to come down for future safety reasons.)
Anyway, as we were shoveling, Poodle yells that across the yard. She has taken to calling the backyard our "garden". I'm really not sure where that came from, but that's what she keeps saying. "Our garden is messed up". "I miss our big trees. Do you miss our trees, Daddy?" And then today, "Our garden looks very different, doesn't it Mommy?"

I haven't taken pictures yet, because, well - I just haven't. But, yes, it's very different. It's all okay, though. And, in a few weeks, we'll start to adjust to the new views and the extra sun. Plus, there's lots more room to throw a football. Or kick a soccer ball. Or hit a baseball. (Had to get that in there for Phillip. Go 34!) And room to play is always a good thing!

God was so good to us when our damage consisted of tree damage to the yard and only wind damage to the roof. We are blessed, and the extra yard work is good for us. ;-)

Ballet Conditioning Exercise Video

Okay. I got this video probably about a month ago, and have just today been able to make it through the entire thing. It's long'ish and a 4yo and 2yo don't make things very easy. But I did today and want to share what I found!

Let me get the "bad news" part of the critique over with first.
1) It's a tad short on stretching while sitting on the floor, but that's easy to make up.
2) She says dumb things like "let's explore our releves" and stuff like that. It has a yoga'esque feel to it, so you kind of have to ignore the touchy-feely stuff. KD, there is no Miss Jozia coming to poke you in the tushy kind of talk!
3) She does these plies en releve (after a whole bunch of sloooow grand plies) that make you want to come after her with a machete. Really. It hurts. You mean thing, Elise.
4) I realize that #3 is actually a good thing, but really. It hurts.
5) Don't watch the closed captioning. They don't spell most of the ballet terms correctly. ;-)

Now, the good news.
1) It is a fantastic video, and it will kick your tuckus, especially if you are as out of shape as I am. In fact, I wasn't able to do every single step because my thighs were burning and I couldn't catch my breath during the jumps! She does things really slowly which is great for following along. But it also makes it twice as hard.
2) While the music, scenery, and talk has a yoga-esque feel to it, the moves are all ballet. She's a real dancer, and does a great job. I don't love her hands, but other than that, this is a well-done ballet exercise tape. And I don't think you have to have a lot of ballet experience to do it. I do think that someone who has had some ballet training will get more out of it than someone who doesn't know about shoulder placement, alignment, turn-out, etc. But, even a novice is going to get a good, complete workout.
3) Even though she has been a "real" dancer, she doesn't plop her feet into a 180 degree turnout position. I like that. Trying to force a full turnout is the first step to life long knee problems. Trust me.
4) I walked away from this feeling like my legs were absolute spaghetti. I realize I'm completely out of shape, but still..... It works you well!
5) The abs portion will.... oh, fuggedabowdit. I couldn't finish it. It's hard. But it is soooo good for you.

Over all - thumbs up. Definitely worth it. I know I won't be able to do it every day, because life and kids won't let that be possible. But it's a fantastic work out for those days when I can make it work!

Insurance Process Started

We were finally able to get an adjuster to our house yesterday, and got that process started. We'll be getting the trees from the ground removed and finish taking down the broken ones. The roof will get replaced and the swing set will get replaced. It's going to take awhile to get it all handled, and I will admit to being sad to lose the trees. But, like Jmk says, it's a clean slate, and we can have a safe backyard that will be ours. It's all good.



This shot was taken the day after the storm - I think I was standing in the hole where the fence should have been. :-)

That's What I'm saying....

This came to me in an email from my sweet friend Patty just a few days ago:

Oh, something I noticed. I bought some clothes and was shocked to discover that they were the “same size” that I wore before having babies….yeah….sure. I brought them back home and dug out some clothes that were from 8 years ago (yes, I hung on to those relics in some sad pathetic hope). They are all the “same size”, but the clothes from years ago were ALL TWO FULL INCHES smaller in the waist. Every single one. But, I’m still the same size….humph! The clothing industry is happily enabling our fantasies in this Super Sized world. I was so mad, I finally threw the old dusty things into the donate pile.

MM-hmmm. I *totally* know what she means. I have some cute swirly skirts from Tar-gay that are so fun to wear - and are the same size that I wore in high school. Now, before any of you start rolling your eyes and thinking "I hate that girl", let me clarify. I'm inching up on being 30 pounds heavier that I was in high school. I'm not proud of that, and I definitely NEED to do something about it. But, that's reality at the moment. And even with that reality, I still have skirts in the same size that I wore 30 lbs ago?
Yeah. Right. I'm with Patty. The fashion industry indulging our fantasies in this Super Sized world certainly isn't helping my motivation. I'm not blaming them, mind you - but, in the words of the lemur from Madagascar: "oy vey everybody!"

Miss Claire

Meet Claire! Our very sweet speech therapist. She disappointed me greatly last week when she showed up with her wedding ring on. She didn't have it on the first time she came to meet with us, and I had many grand ideas of setting her up with a number of people. (I have an addiction. I really ought to seek out some 12-step program somewhere). Anyway, last week was our first real session and then Tooter had a session yesterday.

As far as his progress goes, he's doing great. In all honesty, a switch was flipped in his head almost the same time that we got this whole process started, and he has continued to improve since then. So, truly, his progress can't really be attributed all to therapy. I think what the therapy sessions are doing most are reminding me to get him to attempt words now that he is wanting to try to imitate us. And, it's nice to have Claire come in and say things like "I see an improvement from last week - he's doing great!" Those kinds of things are nice for Mommy.

In this picture, she has a bag of animal figurines, and she's getting Tooter to tell her the name of the animals and getting him to give her the animal sounds. As you can tell, speech therapy isn't fancy stuff. It's comprised of "everyday" sort of things, but with a specific purpose. And, I have to admit that I enjoy watching Toot's interaction with someone else in authority.

Test

Just a test.

Field Trip to Performing Arts Festival

...That was presented by the Mississippi Puppetry Guild. The kids and I went with the CHEC group last Thursday (the day before the big storm). It was a blast! Our first stop was to a storyteller. There was a whole studio of kids to the left of the picture that I didn't get on camera. But this picture shows WHERE the storyteller was doing his thing. My mom probably recognizes it quite well. This is the studio where Ballet Mississippi holds classes. And, it was the same studio (sans the wonderful marley floor) that was used back when Ballet MS had a professional company. I spent a LOT of time in this room growing up. That winding staircase used to lead to an extra small studio space, but it is used for costume storage now. Sigh.... walking in the door really took my breath away. It felt so good to be in there. To put my hand on the ballet barre. I had a difficult time listening to the storyteller. No, I'll be honest. I wasn't listening. Between occupying Tooter and reminiscing in my mind, I paid very little attention. KD, I bet you can imagine what I was feeling too!






After we left the storyteller, we stopped at Inky the Clown's show as a sort of pit stop in between events.










Tooter, being back outside at that point, had no interest in being terribly still. So he did a lot of jumping around on the steps leading in to the new Art Museum.









Our next stop was to a puppet show. I had never seen a show like this before. It was really neat. And 3 of the CHEC kids ended up on stage with some other young students to participate in part of the show!












The show was "The Fisherman's Wife". I was really impressed with the puppeteers and all their work.







Then, after a "pit stop" at a puppet making station (no pictures from that stop - too hands on), we went to "Dr. Rhythm". Now, THIS fellow was set up in what I know as the alternate rehearsal hall. I have spent quite a few hours in this room also in the olden days of Nutcracker rehearsals. I also spent some time in here when some of us were asked to perform (dancing, NOT singing!) in Aida, the opera. That was YEARS ago. I'm not saying how many. :-)




Now, Dr. Rhythm was pretty groovy. And, he's also a bit "peace, love, and harmony".... but again, I was enjoying being in the room. And I liked watching the kids dance. Tooter got down on the floor in some kind of pseudo break-dance move that I had never seen before. Don't know where that came from. But, we ended up leaving early - actually the whole CHEC group did - because all the kids were hungry and ready to go. And that worked for us because we had a speech therapy session that afternoon at 2:00 anyway.

I would highly recommend this field trip. It was really unique and interesting. Not your usual "trip to the zoo" type of thing. Don't think I'm dis'ing the zoo - I think the zoo is really cool. (And we haven't been in awhile. Hmmm. Time to bring the boy, I think. I digress.) This was an art trip from a unique perspective, and it was really kid friendly. They did a great job. Thanks for arranging this for us Amy!!!

Tornado's path

Hat tip to Jmk for this one.

Four Four Storm

I'm not sure what folks will be calling this storm, but it's what I am sort of calling it in my head. There's "Katrina" and now there's "Four Four". As in April 4th. Bah - what a mess. Our neighborhood was one of the ones that got a direct hit from something; they're not sure if it was a tornado or just straight line winds. They were forcasting winds to be between 60 and 100 mph, so either one could have done the damage.

Doesn't matter - the important news is that no one was hurt (praise God!) and that the house is fine! (praise God!) The kids and I were home when it came thru, and it was pretty frightening for me and Poodle. Tooter, little dude that he is, slept right through it. :-) This first shot is a view of as much of the backyard as I could get. Basically, Four Four took down most of the rest of the trees that Katrina left. Four trees were either brought down or had their tops blown off. Two more will have to be removed for safety's sake, I believe. One of the tree tops was blown two houses down. We have some roof damage and will have a lot of clean up. But we were so blessed. The trees fell down in the perfect position to do the least amount of damage! Our fence sustained damage, and some of our neighbors' fences sustained damage from our trees. And one of the kids' little plastic pools from Walmart is who knows where. I guess it blew to Timbuktu.



This is a shot from outside the back door looking into the backyard. The first tree you see laying on the ground came from the broken tree directly in the middle behind the sago palm. It landed exactly parallel to the deck, not even three inches from it. Extraordinary. Didn't even touch the deck. Now, the top of that tree took out the next door neighbor's fence. But it totally missed our deck. That little plastic playhouse you see sort of behind the tree didn't even move an inch. So weird!




Mean storm totalled the swing set too. You should have seen Tooter's face when he saw it. He looked at it, looked at us, looked back at the swing, looked back at us with this incredulous, confused expression. Poor guy.








But, hey - big downed trees in the yard can be fun for the dog!

All is good. Jesus was with us as we huddled in the hallway. He was with us as we got our power back only 7 or 8 hours later. He will be with us as we get things cleaned up.

We are blessed in this mess! :-)

How does your play-doh grow?

Poodle's Play-Doh flower. Tooter's contribution to the Play-Doh party was to tear the chunks of Doh into little pieces and count them out. That didn't make nearly so cute of a picture. ha!

Chicks Dig Scars

Tooter has suffered his first (of many, I'm sure) shiner. Compliments of his sister, sort of. I mean, she didn't mean to do it. It really was an accident. She was twirling with a yo-yo in her hand. Something Angelina Ballerina does, I think. Anyway, she was twirling, the yo-yo was flying through the air, and Tooter managed to walk right into it. WHAM!

This first picture was taken last Thursday morning, right after we returned from the doctor's office. Thankfully, his actual eye was unharmed, and he didn't need stitches.



This was taken on Friday. His eye is more swollen than the picture indicates, *but* this was the most swelling that he experienced, believe it or not.










This one was from Saturday. As you can see, the swelling has already gone down significantly, and the bruising has hit its peak.











And this one was taken Sunday after lunch, with Audrey, Granny, and Poodle. This gives a decent shot of the boy'ish black eye.

Again, thankfully, his eye wasn't harmed, so it became more humorous than anything. And, poor Poodle really did feel terrible about the accident. As of today, Tuesday, the bruising around his eye has decreased from the dark blue and purple to a lighter blue and green. I would guess that by this time next week, it will be almost gone completely. Ahhhh - to have a child's ability to heal!

And, like Jmk says.... "It's cool. Chicks dig scars." ;-)

Lots of Easter Pictures!

I thought I'd post these before I have to post pictures of poor Tooter. He lost a fight with a flying yo-yo, and is currently in possession of a huge shiner on his right eye. More on that later.

This is pretty much what Toot thought about coloring Easter eggs this year. Big fun!








Poodle, who also had big fun, was much more "cool" for the camera. ;-)



























Okay, see, back in the day, my sibs and I colored our eggs before dying them. So, I'm passing that bit of fun on to the monkeys. That's what Poodle is doing here. Coloring her egg before it hits the dying water. :-)











The finished product! Well, the finished product minus one egg that Poodle was eating at picture time. We're doing two dozen next year. We all had much more fun this year, and I'm already looking forward to next Easter.

My favorite shot of those that we took Easter morning.












One from the ones that I tried to get inside. None of those turned out all that great, but the one of him smooching on Poodle was cute.











Poodle with some of the kids from church.
:-)













And one of the family at lunch after church. I know the kids aren't exactly looking at the camera, but we are all in a shot together as a family. That doesn't happen very often!









When we got home, Poodle decided it was time to hunt for those eggs we dyed the day before. Tooter, who really didn't understand the whole deal last year, was really into it this year. And, Poodle, of course, was all about finding the eggs. I'd like to point out, also, her fine fashion sense. Well, you can't really see the combo she came up with that well in this picture, but let me assure you - Paris couture has nothing on this girl. ::ahem:: ;-)

I take no responsiblity.

While I make an attempt to get all our Easter pictures together, I thought I might share some time-wasting material with you. I take no responsibility for the addictive'ness of this game. I will admit that I am perfectly horrible at it. Don't know the geography of Europe to save my skin. But it's still fun!

Happy Easter to all

A very happy, blessed, and wonderful Easter to all. I hope everyone's day was beautiful!

First Therapy Session

Tooter had his first speech therapy session this past Thursday. Our therapist's name is Claire, and she is a sweet, cute girl. (Picture Britney Spears, circa 5-7 years ago, but with light brown to auburn hair).

Thursday was really more of an additional evaluation period, so that Claire could have a baseline from which to work. Toot was cooperative for about the first 10 minutes, and then he just.... I don't know. Just didn't want to be good. Poodle was just full of ants in her pants, and just about couldn't stand having to be quiet and sit still so I could answer questions and try to keep Tooter from running off and doing his own thing.

I'll be honest in that I was embarrassed by their behavior, and I hate getting that way. When a child is home all day with a parent, that parent tends to take full responsibility for every single action and reaction that child has. She/he can't "blame" it on anyone else. And can have a hard time remembering that maybe said child was simply just not behaving. That maybe it isn't "all my fault". Sigh.......... Anyway, by the time Claire left, I was feeling somewhat incompetent with my discipline skills. I know I'm too hard on myself, but I get to feeling so inadequate at times.

Anyway, as far as Tooter's issues go - Claire feels that he has no physical or mental issues that are affecting his ability to talk. This is good. His issues stem from sheer stubbornness and a lack of need for verbal communication. (i.e. Mommy just gets him what he wants without encouraging him to ask for it. Poodle does all the talking for him. He just, quite frankly, doesn't have anything he feels like saying). So, the news is good in that his progress won't be hindered by problems beyond our control. I just have to get myself mentally engaged during the day to remember to do things to help him. Claire gave us (Jmk got home early and was able to be there for most of it) some quick ideas to start with and will come next Thursday with more ideas and ways for us to encourage true verbal communication.

There is a big part of me that feels like we are wasting her time with therapy since there isn't a "real" problem. But, like my mom said - this absolutely can't hurt, and it could be valuable in ways we don't expect. Maybe not now, but as a reference for when we are (Lord willing) grandparents. In other words, the value might not become apparent until that far away. At any rate, it keeps Claire in a job. ;-)

We'll continue to have weekly sessions until the time comes that he is at an age appropriate level with his speaking skills. I'm grateful that things seem to be so positive surrounding the situation!

Share The Passion

Even though Christ was not put to death on a Friday, to rise on a Sunday morning (you can not get 3 days and 3 nights out of it no matter what kind of math you use), the remembrance of "Good Friday" is what is on all Christians' minds. I hope that we all use this weekend as a jumpstart to new beginnings in our own lives. I know I have so many things that I need to do to even begin to live a more Christ-centered life.

And one of those things is to be more of a light - to share the Passion that saved every single one of God's children.

The birth of Christ was a precious, world-altering event. But the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is why we have a hope in Heaven. Praise Him!!!

Growing up.

Big boy bed for Tooter!

We finally got his bedding, and pulled the headboard down from the attic - and he is sleeping like a champ in his big bed! The headboard (and the chest of drawers you see next to the bed) were actually Jmk's when he was growing up. We have one side of the bed up against the wall for safety for now. And that odd bump you see on the other side? It's a pool noodle! I saw that suggestion either in Parents magazine or Good Housekeeping - can't remember which - and it is a way to keep from having to put an actual bed gate up. If your child isn't a big flopper, that is. Poodle was definitely a flopper. Tooter doesn't move around a whole lot. So, the noodle is sufficient as a bumper for him.


He is really loving the bed - and is doing very well. Again, I will say that all bets are off when he learns how to work a doorknob. Obviously, I'm in zero hurry to encourage self-sufficiency in that department. :-)


This was actually this first time that the crib has been disassembled since it was first put together when I was pregnant with Poodle. We left it up when she moved to a big bed, because I was pregnant with Toot at the time, and there was no point in taking it apart. So seeing it taken down was tough - thankfully, my mom happened to call in the middle of the whole disassembly/assembly process, and she was able to commiserate with me. There may be reason for a crib in the future, and there may not be. We haven't really come to that bridge yet. But for the time being, it needed to be put away, and that was hard.

But, like I told Jmk, we are blessed to be taking the crib apart because our little boy was growing up. Not because of any other (God forbid it) reason.
We are blessed, and we probably don't fully realize even how much!
(Thank you, Father, for all you give us every single day and night.)

However, I still haven't taken down any of the other "nursery" things on the wall. (You can still see the blanket that my friend Eli made and gave to Toot when he was born still hanging on the wall. The A/B/C and 1/2/3 blocks are also still up). I'll take them down. Eventually. Later. Not yet. :-)

My Gold Medal Husband!

I am completely convinced that I have the best husband in the world.

Let me just tell you....

Okay. Poodle has had a Spring Party planned for today at a friend's house with some of the other CHEC kids for a couple of weeks now. She has been excited and so looking forward to it. (Tooter had the same party, but let's face it - he didn't really know that he had the party. So his missing it wasn't a deal at all).
Anyway, when I woke up yesterday morning feeling a little off, I was hoping that it was just allergies. Pollen is high - allergies can make one feel pretty poopy. I didn't want to believe that I had the cold that had made its way thru the house.

Woke up this morning feeling worse. Throat was bad and I was running fever. I'm not *that* bad, as colds go. But no matter how hard I tried to justify it, Jmk was right. I didn't need to go to this event and get all the other kids and mommies sick. I wouldn't have appreciated someone else doing that, so I didn't need to do it either.

But Poodle was SO looking forward to it! It would have disappointed her so very much to hear that she couldn't go because I was feeling bad. Both grandmothers were at work. It was way too late of notice to get another babysitter-type person. I even considered asking a dear church friend (you almost got called Sis. Karen!) if she would be a "surrogate mommy" for Poodle. But the idea of doing a drop-and-run just didn't feel right for some reason.

And, it didn't matter anyway. Because last night, Jmk started the grueling process of trying to get me to come to my senses about not going myself and letting him take time off from work to take her himself.

Let me set the picture. This was group of about 8 other mommies and about 18 other kids. In the middle of the day. The oldest child was probably 11. They did crafts and played games and had cupcakes and pizza. And Jmk took off 3 hours from a busy day (after having been out sick for part of last week himself) to do this - just so Poodle wouldn't miss this party.

Just so Poodle wouldn't miss the party.

Jmk - thank you so much. You are absolutely the best daddy a little poodle could ever hope for. You make jokes about "having married up". But let's face it - baby, I'm the one who married way, WAY up!!! I love you honey - THANK YOU!

Quick Blog

I'm just going to share some pictures really quickly from Granny's party and the weekend at large. Toot and Jmk have been sick with a cold and I've been a bit occupied with Toot the past few days. Didn't want you to think we'd disappeared completely!

This is one of Granny's cakes. (She had five). It's a picture of the old Beulah church where Grandaddy preached.





Granny and Grandaddy's Model T Ford. Their first car.

Cars were a part of a lot of stories in the family. In fact, that's what Granny said when I showed her the cake. "That's what I went and got married in".








Granny and Poodle on Sunday morning after the big event. This was during the song service Sunday morning. A little, um, crass of me to be taking pictures, but I did anyway.













Granny and moi at lunch after church on the same Sunday.









I should get back to things around here, but had to share one thought. One of the things that Toot likes/needs when he's sick is to literally lie on top of me on the couch during the day. I "had" to do that all day on Wednesday. (Or was it Tuesday? I don't remember). I found myself thinking about the day when he wouldn't need that from me any more. It makes me snuggle him even tighter while he restlessly sleeps with his precious head on my heart!