I have photos coming, but both of our computers are going SO slow that I can't get anything done. I think Brandon just has too many photos on his computer, but I feel like it's running on dial up again! (Remember that stuff???) And mine, well, it's a mac (an old one) and I love macs for some things, but if you know a faster way to download photos than iPhoto, PLEASE let me know! I think it took about 30 minutes for only 93 photos last night. That's ridiculous in my opinion!!! That's why I never use my computer to update the blog with photos. I don't have that kind of time and if I did, I wouldn't have any photos to upload b/c it means I wouldn't have any children. So, don't worry, they are coming, I just have to go without sleep to get it done and right now I'm not up for that. Plus, I think I forgot to take my Zyrtec last night and I have felt dizzy all day and just want to lie down. I'll be back later though, just keep checking.

I'm just going to put a link to my friend's post for all my friends who are not from the South to read. It will answer all of your questions you may have about things I mention that you don't understand. Here's the link. She's hilarious!!!!

Ahhhhhh......

I kept meaning to add the photos from the week of storms, but as usual, I got busy and forgot. Here they are. Terrible, but here. Not sure why the camera wouldn't focus, at all, but I put them on here regardless.


Keenan came to hang out with us for a few hours one morning so his mommy could run some errands before they went on their trip the next day. The boys heard the garbage truck coming and ran to watch it out the window. The kids and I were very excited to have his company b/c he is so sweet and was a wonderful and welcome change to the days stuck inside. Yes, Christopher still has on his pj shirt and big boy underwear. Deal.

He finally got dressed and wanted me to turn on Cars. I knew they'd just play and not sit like lumps on a log so I didn't mind. When the music came on they started dancing like crazy! Sophie fell down and Keenan tried to help her get up so he could dance with her. I told you he was sweet!

Here is the flooding in the backyard. I tried to get a better shot, but the screen porch just made everything blurry b/c there was so much water on the screen. Yes, that is a chain link fence in our backyard. Trust me, I hate looking at it as much as you do, but it's our only option with living on base. If I wanted to "fix up" a house I would have bought one, but we have too many loans to play that right now, so we live with yucky old cabinets and a cheap fence.

This is our driveway. It's not this wide. It was completely covered from one end to the other. Usually there is just one big puddle in the middle and dry everywhere else. Not this day.

That night I was so tired of being lazy that I pulled out the Wii and Christopher and I played baseball. He killed me!!! Twice. I never scored, barely got any hits and he had 3 or 4 homeruns and a triple.

Sophie is clapping for us. She had her own remote and acted like she was playing too. It was really cute! Soon enough she'll be beating up on me too.

Sunday Christopher went potty and got a sucker. Brandon had been putting up my new curtains (photo coming later, the lighting is terrible, so I can't get a good shot) and they figured out that if you put the sucker in the drill you can make it spin around while licking it.

Sophie wanted in on the fun too. She actually caught it in her mouth at one point and didn't want to let go. Christopher got to laughing so hard.

not napping. Christopher went down so easy last night b/c he was exhausted from the day.

After Sophie woke up from her nap yesterday they made trails through the house with crushed crackers and I wasn't having that so we spent the next few hours outside. I grabbed a huge bin of clothes Sophie had outgrown, took them outside and folded them, sorted them and put them in a bigger bin. It was kind of fun to see what she's been wearing over the last year. Sad too. I did find a few things that she had to wear last year (b/c she was so chubby) that are the size she's wearing now and that was exciting! She has a *new* skirt, 2 dresses and a few tops.

They played with their rolling backpacks and poor Sophie just couldn't keep up with her big brother, but she tried her hardest. We had to go buy Sophie one b/c she kept dragging Christopher's around the house and he "needed" it for his trucks. It's the cutest thing watching them try to open them and put stuff in them and zip them back up and laugh as they walk all over the place so proud of themselves.

We went inside and took baths and then had supper. Watched some tv, but played more than watched. Sophie got restless so I put her down and Christopher followed not too much later. We read books and talked about Little Christopher (short stories Brandon started where you talk about things Christopher did when he was little, it's pretty fun!) and I told him I had to go do something really quick and I'd be right back. He said ok and I left to finally put my supper in the oven at 8:15 and I never heard a sound from him again. SO, my delima now is, do we just give up naps completely? I'm not quite ready for that yet and when I make him nap he usually sleeps 2-3 hours, even though he claims to not be tired. We'll see. You can be sure I'll keep you posted.

Anyone interested? Christopher can be so cute and make you want to lose your mind all in one breath. Sophie is adorable, but screams really loud. Brandon is on call today and it's only 2:45 and I'm wondering if anyone would notice if I left the kids home alone and I went to go relief some frustration, alone. Is it too early to start drinking? I'm kidding, I'd never do that.

We went to the beach again this morning with our friends and the kids fell asleep on the way home. Sophie slept for an hour and a half, but Christopher woke up when I put him in his bed and never went back down. He did just about everything but spit in my face while we were at the beach. How do you put a kid in time out while on a beautiful beach? It doesn't happen. I tried. Four times! Sophie kept trying to pull everything out of the cooler, throw it in the sand and put it back in the cooler. Thankfully this didn't happen until before we headed home and it was the reason we went home. She screamed so loud that an old couple a very good distance away started staring. Melissa and I just laughed b/c it was pretty funny.

Christopher pretty much refuses to sleep. Oh, he finally crashes, but not without putting up a fight. The fights aren't terrible, if you lay on the bed with him until he's out, but if you don't, you're in for more company. I'm praying that I will have this situation nipped in the bud by the time my parents come a the end of the month to watch the kids so Brandon and I can go away for our anniversary. The tough girl is coming out tonight and since Brandon isn't home I figure it's a good time to start trying it. If I'm alone I can get myself psyched up and be tough, but if he's home it's hard b/c he needs to get his sleep and Christopher won't let him do that. I'm hoping that no nap today will help me win.

We've also started the potty training again b/c he asks to go potty quite often. We have decided this is something he has to do when he's ready, we can't make him. Been doing great, but this afternoon, within 3 minutes he pees on the carpet twice. He's telling me while he's doing it too which kills me!!!! He just stares at it while he's going informing me of what's happening.

Actually, come to think of it, I think I'll keep Sophie. She's pretty good now and likes to put things away. She goes to bed without any trouble and thinks that I hung the sun, moon and stars. Maybe I'll just put Christopher on loan until he's potty trained and sleeping again. Maybe a dog trainer is the way to go. Sounds more like house breaking than anything. He is really cute and I know I'd miss him once I caught up on my sleep.

So I decided not to redo the new furniture we got and we just put it in the room anyway. We were desperate for the extra space! It actually looks pretty good and if I could just find some new pulls and knobs I may not have to paint it at all! Problem, the centers of the pulls are 5 1/4" apart! Huge!!! I tried looking online, but these were very difficult to find. Anyone have any suggestions?

Do any of you remember this song from when you were a kid? "Have patience, have patience, don't be in such a hurry..." I sing this to my kids all the time and right now I'm singing it to myself for several reasons:

First, I bought a camera and I look like a child who needs to go potty while his/her mom is in the checkout line. You know, dancing around trying to hold it? I decided on a Canon ELPH and found it online at Walmart for only $199, about $50 cheaper than everywhere else I'd checked. It seems to do everything I want, with the ratings that I demand (had bad experiences with other digital cameras) and the price I could afford. If I used the site to store shipping method it's free, so I went with that. Unfortunately it takes longer than if I had it sent to my house, but the important part is, it's free. It should be here this weekend and I'm about to die to get my hands on it!

Second, rain, raIN, RAIN!!!!!!!! Has anyone heard about how much rain we've been getting in the southern region? Of course you have! Who hasn't??? My kids are dying to go outside and play and as you may have seen in my last post, we just let Christopher go play in the puddles b/c it's cleaner than letting him dig in the mud. We have been to as many friends' houses and fast food playgrounds to get more than our fill of indoor playing. I have actually fixed a meal every night this week b/c I don't lose track of time outside with the kids. To me, that's sad! (But it has been yummier around here.) It's supposed to rain again today and then tomorrow they say it will be sunny. Our friend Melissa is taking her kids to the beach and I think we just might join them. They deserve a fun reward for surviving the storm(s).

Third, Christopher. Though we don't mention the pacifier anymore we are still having a bit of trouble getting Christopher to go to sleep. He doesn't want to take naps anymore. I still have to get him to fall asleep on the couch with me, but sometimes we can just lie in his bed, but he throws a fit doing that. At night he has started talking about monsters in his room and I'm not sure if this is a stalling method or truly a fear. He now knows we are falling for any of the other attempts at staying up late, so this is the newest. He still says he doesn't like his new bed, but it's very comfy, so we don't think that's it. He also has a word that he likes to say and it just grates on my nerves. It's usually said with emphasis, "NO!" I know they say it when they are little, he just didn't say it all that much until now and he usually yells it very firmly and with a little bit of anger behind it. I'm starting to think he gets it from me, but I say it just as he's about to whack or knock over Sophie or get into or onto something that isn't safe. He says this for just about everything I tell him and it's past getting old. Thankfully Brandon is cracking down on him b/c my words just go in one ear and out the other these days. I feel like we are more two these days than ever before, and he's 3. Wouldn't it be nice if the day they turned 3 the rumors of terrible 2s just vanished?

Fourth, poor Sophie is cutting teeth again. Unlike her brother we have had a very nice long break from the last time we cut teeth. Christopher just gave us about a week off before more would come in and that lasted for over a year. Sophie been great, but the last week or two she's been more fussy and last week she would wake up in the middle of the night and had a yucky nose. These two things usually only happen when she's cutting teeth. I couldn't see anything so the other night I held her upside down, the only time she opens her mouth really wide and Brandon saw a molar coming in. Praise the Lord! Hopefully 3 more will follow very quickly.

Last, Brandon is on call Saturday so that means we don't really have a weekend. For anyone who has a husband in residency knows what this feels like. You don't like weekend calls, but if you have to pick, Sunday is the day to do it. You get Saturday to spend together, Sunday to work and they rest on Monday. But Saturday call means they are gone all day/night and then rest on Sunday to be back at work Monday. I just pray that things go smoothly while he's there and will be able to get some rest. His last night on call was awful and it took him almost a whole week to recover, no help to the storms waking Christopher and teeth waking Sophie.

I'm off to go practice what I try very hard to preach. I'm not so sure how well I'm doing, but I'm going to do my very best! After all, we can't expect that from our kids and not do it ourselves, right?