Ewww, GROSS!

Last night I went to take a pull-up out to the garage where keep our diaper champ. Our garage is semi-attached, in that you have to step out onto our front porch area to get to the garage door, but it's all under cover. Anyway, I went out in my socks because it just takes one step on the mat to get to the garage door and the diaper champ is right inside the door.

On my way back into the house I stepped on something that felt like a grape popping under my left foot, then I felt something slimy and jumped up throwing my sock off of my foot. Rob was right inside the door at the time and said, "It was probably a slug".

"EWWW, EWWW... GROSS, YUCK", I was venting as I was hopping on one foot trying to figure out what just happened. Rob picked up my sock that revealed the perfect out-line of a slug in brownish-red slime. He couldn't find the slug at first which freaked me out as I imagined it getting tangled in my pajama pants in the midst of all the ruckus (I even took them off to make sure once I got upstairs).

Later Rob informed me that he'd found the slug in the corner by the stair outside. I asked him if was dead and Rob said, "He definitely appeared to be resting."

I'm still grossed out by the feeling of the popping underneath my foot. I'm just grateful I wasn't barefoot!

It's a Birthday Kind of Day!

Today I turned 27. Yup, it's my Birthday! I was greeted by my husband with a yummy drink from Starbucks this morning (which is still in my freezer... I thought I'd get some actual breakfast in me first!).

When I logged onto facebook this morning I was also greeted with 20 different Birthday greetings... and it was only 9:40! I tell you what, if you haven't poked around facebook yet, you don't know what you're missing! I confess, part of my lack of posting on my blog lately is due to the fact that I spend too much time on facebook.

Anyway, I should probably make some attempt at getting ready for my day, especially since I have a hair appointment with Jill here before too long. I LOVE getting my hair cut! I'm thinking about re-naming my blog 100 reasons why I love Jill. Have you been sensing that theme lately? :0)

For the record, I'm pretty sure 27 can still be considered mid-twenties can't it? People keep telling me I'm in my late twenties now... but I'm still closer to 25 than 30... at least for another 6 months right?

A Good Day

Today marks a whole week with an illness-free family, and I must admit, I'm feeling more alive and more energetic than I have in what feels like forever! Maybe that has something to do with a few hours of delightful conversation about life and Children's Ministries with my friend Jill at Starbucks... hmmm!

I have felt like I've been walking around in a haze for more than 2 months now. It started with being snowed (and iced) in, then being out-of-commission for the holidays, then lots of sickness, then the death of Rob's mom, then more sickness. Needless to say, I've been without a semi-normal routine for far-too long now! This week I was able to get in some extra time at work (which scarcely makes up for all the work time I missed due to the aforementioned 'issues'), I was able to have dessert with some girlfriends, Starbucks with Jill this morning, and now I'm killing a few minutes before a much anticipated meeting with someone who is going to volunteer on Friday afternoons to do my administrative work! Happy day!

Oh, and I think my daddy may be coming this weekend to do some work on our condo which I'm SO excited about! Progress!

I do have a minor head injury to report though. No ambulance, no E.R., no doctor's visits, but a seriously bruised noggin! Wednesday night Rob and I were watching Bourne Identity and there was a point in the movie that I knew something was going to happen that's scary because I'd seen it before--but I couldn't remember what it was or when it would happen. I was sitting there bracing myself for something but when a man came flying through Bourne's apartment window I jumped and literally hit myself in the forehead with my cell phone that I was clutching. I am such a dork! A serious, true, bonified dork. Yup, that's me. Don't be jealous, it's a calling!

And finally, some pictures!

Today Suzy and the boys came over to play... which is always fun for the whole family! Leeann had received some hair glitter in the mail along with many other Valentine goodies (thanks great-grandma M!), and today seemed like a great day to try it out. After I was done doing Leeann's hair, she asked Aunt Suzy if she wanted her to do her hair next. Suzy graciously agreed and let Leeann put blue glitter in her hair. Leeann LOVED getting to primp her aunt. She's SUCH a girly-girl!

Rob and I have a special Valentine's tradition of not celebrating it! His birthday is at the end of October, then our anniversary is mid-December, then Christmas of course, and a week after Valentine's Day is my birthday so it seems silly to cram in another obligatory gift-giving holiday during that time of year. Besides, it's the one day a year that flowers cost 4x as much as any other time and you can't find a table at a restaurant without a terribly long wait. And finding a babysitter... ha!

So, we take our kids on special dates instead! Leeann got all dressed up for her special date with daddy. He told her they could go anywhere she wanted to go. Guess where she chose? Starbucks. No joke! She opted for chocolate milk over ice cream! I think it's because she knew it was a special date with daddy, and daddy would enjoy Starbucks. Besides, it's a place they've already had lots of special dates so it probably just made sense to her.

All dressed up and ready for fun! They also shared a brownie... an extra special treat for an extra special day!

I had to snap these pictures since I had my camera with me. This is a little game that we play. We tell Leeann that if she's asleep by the time we get home that daddy will carry her inside. So, inevitably she 'always' falls asleep before we get home so she can get carried in. She's such a good faker too! Seriously, it's hard to get her to crack a smile when she's 'sleeping'.

She enjoys every second of being carried and snuggled and tended too by daddy. She even 'sleep-potties' but will 'fall back asleep' while she's on the toilet so Rob will actually have to carry her to her bed. Then she lets Rob put on her jammies while being a rag doll. It's so cute, she never even makes a peep!

Titus on the other hand, doesn't have a serious bone in his body and couldn't pretend nearly that well for the life of him! He tries though, he really tries! Of course his eyes are usually squeezed incredibly tight (or he's just covering them with his hands) and he's got a HUGE grin on his face. Not to mention the fact that he's usually laughing out-loud too!

Titus chose to go to Cold Stone for his special date with mommy. We splurged and shared a Birthday Cake Remix with a chocolate dipped cone that had sprinkles on it. Titus loved it and made a GIANT mess. I forgot my camera in the van so I opted for some post-date pictures in the car instead. Notice the various facial expressions in short period of time. Can anybody say that a three-year-old (who hadn't taken a nap) isn't effected by ice cream fully loaded with sugar?

And these are a few pictures I took at Mee Maw's service. I couldn't resist taking this one while everyone was still dressed up. These are Janice's parents, my kid's great-grandparents. It was so good to see them again. It had been nearly a year since we had seen them because of the snow during Christmas. I wish we could have gotten more time with the extended family!

And this is Rob's Aunt Barb (Janice's sister). She and her husband flew out from Indiana. We don't get to see them nearly enough, but she sees us nearly every day... you see, she's a faithful blog reader (actually, grandma and grandpa are too which is pretty impressive as octogenarians!).

Why not crawl under a random table to get your picture taken with some of your nephews? It's about time Aunt Barb made it onto the blog!

And this is Rob with one of his long-time best buddies Steve. They always thought it would be fun to have their boys get to wreak havoc together like they did as kids. Lucky for them!

And the fact that we got all four kids in this picture was almost a miracle... who cares if Titus has his tongue out anyway?

And this is Steve's family with his parents Judy and Dick. They are two of the sweetest people in the world. When you are in Judy's presence you somehow feel like you're the only person in the whole world that matters to her!

In honor of Mee Maw we had Diet Dr. Pepper and Cheetos at every table! She had a nightly ritual of these items together and you were liable to get your fingers cut off if you if you came within 10 feet of either of these items. They were off-limits! We all enjoyed getting to partake in these contraband items in her memory. Titus, well, he just enjoyed having free reign with a bag of Cheetos!

And, here's a picture of Titus and Micah playing together. They bonded pretty quickly over toys and Cheetos. They even matched! I think Micah is 8 months or so older than Titus

Well, there ya go, our last week in pictures. I'm still way behind in blogging, as I still haven't gotten around to the pictures of Christmas day. I would just skip it since it's been so long already but I did that last year and I'm so mad at myself! Some day, some way, some how--I promise to get around to it. Not that any of you care what we did on Christmas day, but I do, and I'm sure years from now I'm going to feel an empty void in my life if I can't recall what we did for Christmas in 2008! Until then though, enjoy this small glimpse into our world.

All is well

For those keeping track at home I just wanted to let you know that all is well (health-wise) in Robyn's Nest today. I'm still feeling a complete lack of energy and zero motivation to do ANYTHING, but other than that... all is well!

Honestly, I don't think I have anything else to post about even. Strange.

8:50

Leeann finally woke up a little after 9 last night and she was hot, and shaking quite a bit. I gave her a little bit of a pedialyte Popsicle and snuggled with her. She slept through the night, but woke up vomiting at 8:50 this morning. I'm surprised my calculations were so far off! I thought for sure she would have thrown up in the middle of the night if my previous experiences are any indication of the 'norm'.

Rob's staying home from work for at least part of the day today because he's still feeling sick too. So, I'm trying to keep Titus remotely quite to let these two rest. Yeah, that's funny--Titus quiet?

Anyway, I just wanted to fill you in case you've been missing my vomit stories!

Picking up where we left off

It is now 9:00 on Wednesday, and we're finally home and settled in after an unexpected week in Washington.

Just in case you were bored this week with lack of illness related stories, let me pick up where we left off before the unexpected trip. Let's see... Monday Suzy and the boys came over and Suzy had woken up not feeling well that morning. By evening time all 4 of them had some nasty cough, runny nose, lack of energy thing going on. Our kids played together at small group Tuesday night and then we all ended up in Washington together on Wednesday evening. By Thursday morning my kids were both coughing and Titus's nose was running.

By the time Friday rolled around I was coughing (or rather, hacking up my lungs regularly) with a stuffy/runny nose that was making me feel awful. I lost my voice for short stints a couple of different times too. I felt terrible through Tuesday which was especially unpleasant since we were trying to make boat loads of service preparations. I'm sure all of the family that was surrounding us were not too excited about all of the germs we were spreading, but since there were 14 of us sharing the same house (many whom were sick) and lots of other family in and out regularly, we couldn't help but share the 'love'.

I woke up today feeling better for the most part, but Leeann didn't finish her breakfast--which should have been the first clue some thing was up. Rob woke up feeling sick with a tummy bug and settled in on Shelly's couch for a mid-morning nap. By the time lunch rolled around Leeann didn't really want much to eat and she looked gaunt. We snuggled her into the car with a plastic bag and headed home.

About half-way here Rob asked if I could drive and he napped most of the rest of the way home. Leeann also slept most of the way home (a 4 hour drive). We pulled in the driveway at about 6:00 and Leeann and Rob both plopped back down on the couches while Titus and I went out for a date at Applebees and to the grocery store. When Titus and I got back at 8:30 they were both in the exact same positions we had left them in!

So yeah, I'm pretty sure Leeann and Rob are both sick. She's been asleep for the better part of 7 hours now! Anyone want to guess what I'm probably going to be doing at about 1:45 this morning?

Ah, but I sure did enjoy a date with Titus. He's a fun little boy and so charming! I don't get very much one-on-one time with him, so it's always a special treat when we get to go out :0)

So, here we are... settling back into life as usual... with a sick kid to boot!

Janice's Slide Show Video

Here's the video we showed at Janice's memorial service today:

It's so weird that she's gone, and now her memorial service is over too. We'll go home tomorrow and go back to life as 'normal'. It's been helpful to have the busyness of being around family and making preparations. I wonder what it will feel like to be home though, without all of the people, plans and commotion...

For now, I fondly remember a woman that I adored. I loved Rob's mom. She was so sweet and so generous and so kind. And she loved me.

I love that she loved me. She loved so many people. She's going to be missed!

For those of you who didn't get to know her I'll sum up her 'world' in a few short words: Crafts, craft shows, sewing, quilting, antiques, people, giving, gifts, husband, kids, grandkids, gingerbread houses, family, travel, Disneyland, Dr. Pepper and Cheetos!

This stinks...

That's pretty much how I feel about this whole loss-of-Mee Maw thing. There are so many thoughts, feelings and emotions I'm trying to process. I don't want to process them though, I want them to go away, and I want her to be here!

We met with the Pastor today to plan the details of her service, but other than that we're just kind of hanging out. We've invaded Rob's sister, Shelly's house. She's so good to accept us (and Suzy and the boys too) on mere hours notice on the day she loses her mom. I swear, only Shelly can do that with such grace! We love you Aunt Shelly!

We have more family coming Sunday, including many people we haven't seen in years so we are all looking forward to that. Leeann and Titus are, of course, loving having so much time with all of their fantastic cousins.

Leeann cried for a good five minutes when we told her that Mee Maw had died, but other than that she seems to accept the facts and be dealing with it well. Titus, well, he's 3. He keeps asking where she lives now though, since we informed him that she now lives in heaven with Jesus. I'm not dealing with it very well and Rob... well, I'm just not sure how he's dealing with it yet. I think we're all pretty numb in a lot of ways.

So, that's the story of what's going on around this place. Just thought you might like to know...

In Loving Memory of Mee Maw

Rob's mom, Janice (or beloved 'Mee Maw' as our kiddos refer to her) passed away yesterday. Rob and I had received word around noon that she probably only had days or maybe weeks to live, but we were all hopeful she'd receive a liver transplant that would allow her body to heal.

We packed up and headed to Washington as soon as we could, but were told that she was slipping away and probably wouldn't make it until we got there. By the time we had reached Portland we got the news that neither of us were prepared to hear. She had passed away.

It still seems so unreal. She's everywhere. Things that she made, gifts that she gave, grandkids that she adored. Yet, she's not here, and she won't be here again. Our world's have changed in an instant. But thankfully, so has hers. She's in heaven with Jesus and her body is healed--her pain is gone. Selfishly I want her here with us so badly, but she was ready to go.

She'll be missed terribly. We have so many great memories with her, and she was such a great grandmother to our kids. I will always cherish so much about her and her life... I just wish we'd had more time with her!

We are enjoying time with family as we make preparations for her memorial service. It will be on Tuesday, feel free to email me or leave a comment if you want more info on that.

Please keep our family in your prayers, especially Carmin (Heempaw as he's referred to in our house). It's heart-wrenching to lose a parent, but I can't imagine how much more difficult it is to lose a spouse.

We love you Heempaw, and thank you for being so good to Mee Maw, you've been wonderful husband, care-taker and friend to her.

Mee Maw, I'm pretty sure there isn't internet access in heaven, but just in case there is, please know that you are missed and loved dearly by so many people, especially those inside Robyn's Nest. We love you!

A few little updates

Titus is doing well with his glasses for the most part, but he's also taken them off several times and left them in random places. Anyone want to take bets on how long it will be until they're broken or lost?

He woke up with a runny nose today and saying "What? What?" a lot. I don't really want to pay a $25 co-pay to find out if he has another ear infection, but I also don't want it to get out of control either. I wonder if the doctor will teach me how to identify them myself?

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I think I forgot to update you about adoption stuff after I posted that we had been referred to another case worker. Long story short: that didn't work out. We're now just kind of taking it slow. We're not actively looking for anyone else just yet, but we haven't all together turned away from the possibility either. We'll see what God has in store for us.

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Rob's mom has an appointment this Tuesday with the transplant doctor. The hope is that she'll end up at the top of the list right after this appointment, so we're still praying for a transplant SOON. We'd appreciate your prayers also.

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Anybody want to but a condo in Albany? Please?

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We went to St. Helens last weekend, which is always enjoyable. My brother's girlfriend had a baby shower. They are expecting my nephew in early March. I love being an auntie... the more the merrier! Other than that, I think I'm fresh out of news.

The Glasses!

And, again... AHAHHHHHH!!!!!

You'll be happy to know that Leeann didn't throw up anymore after church on Sunday. Rob and I got to go out and celebrate a new job with some good friends by eating out at a super little Italian restaurant in downtown Albany called Clemenza's (on first street... I highly recommend it for you locals). It was so good that I could still feel the garlic seeping out my pores when I woke up in the morning!

This almost didn't happen because who wants to babysit a sick kid? How about a really good friend who was also stuck at home with a sick kid? THANK YOU BRENNA!!! Suzy took Titus and he cried and cried all of the way home because he didn't want to leave Aunt Suzy's house. It's so great to have family in town! Anyway, we had a great night and Leeann didn't throw up on Brenna, so that was good.

Last night, just as we were shutting off a movie I heard Leeann heaving from upstairs 36 HOURS LATER! So I picked up her pillow and blanket and scooped the chunks of vomit off of them before I stuck them in the washing machine. I suddenly found myself grateful that I didn't add corn to the soup we ate for dinner. She got into the shower to get the nastiness out of her hair and I set off to make her a towel covered bed on my floor. (Side note, it was the 2nd shower she'd taken all by herself yesterday. She's getting so big!)

This morning the kids and I all slept in until 10:15, so that was good. I cannot even begin to define the level of stir-crazy that I'm experiencing right now. They are currently watching the first of many, many movies they will likely see today.

Seriously, it's tough being a mom. I don't feel like a very good mom right now. I've been getting frustrated far to easily with my kiddos lately. They are whiny as can be because we've all been couped up at home, and frankly, I've been whiny too! Rob hasn't felt real well either and he's been trying to adjust to his new schedule at work since he's preaching on Sunday mornings now which makes me feel more stuck than normal because it's not exactly like I can ask him to come home and then just leave and go for a really, really, really long drive! Though we are supposed to be in St. Helens this weekend and he asked me this morning what we would do if the kids were still sick. At first I said we'd stay home. Then I said maybe I'd just take which ever kid isn't sick. Then I decided, hey... I'll just go :0) Really, I'd love to! We'll see.

I gave Leeann a sippy cup with water in it just before I sat down to post. I told her just to drink a little bit of it at a time. Turns out there was a good reason for my suggestion... it all came up again, but at least it made it into her bowl.

Anyway, I just wanted to update you just in case anyone else out there is laughing with me about my insane illness-prone children over these last couple of weeks. I'm trying to figure out how I haven't gotten sick yet. Sometimes I wish I would get sick so I'd at least have an excuse to hole myself up in my room, shut the door and sleep all day. My luck is that Rob would be sick too and I'd just have to fight through it though :0)

Yup, Again...

This time it's Leeann... and it happened at church. She made it straight into the garbage can though, she has quite the aim!

I hadn't put her in her classroom because she was teetering back and forth about whether or not she felt sick. She said she didn't want any crackers in her class, so we were pretty sure that she might potentially not be feeling well. For Leeann to refuse food means something!

So, she's watching a movie on Daddy's computer and I'm blogging while Rob's preaching and Titus is playing in his Sunday School class. I honestly am beginning to wonder what on earth is going on.

To recap: In the last three weeks we've had 4 separate instances of throwing up (some more than once per instance), pink eyes, a nasty cold, ring worm (which come to find out isn't a worm but a fungus) and one grouchy mommy. Go figure!

How Big is Jesus?

Yesterday Leeann asked me, "How big is Jesus mommy?" I said, well, I don't know. Maybe as big as daddy, or maybe as big as Pastor Joel (who's considerably taller).

She thought for a minute and said, "Then how does he have the whole world in his hands?"

So, how would you have answered that question? Like a really good mommy I said, let's ask daddy!

Please tell me this is just a dream

On this the eve of a historically monumental Inauguration Day, just 5.5 hours away from swearing in the nation's first black president, I find myself pondering the greater things of life, history, politics and vomit. Yes folks, that's right, vomit. Why else would I be awake at 3:30 in the morning? We've talked about how much I like my sleep and this definitely interferes with my sleep!


Of course, when this is the face that walks into your room some time in the awful 2 o'clock hour you can't help but want to sacrifice your sleep to care for this little guy. After all, some one has to get the chunks of vomit off of his face and out of his hair right? Some one has to get the vomit off his new jammies, and someone as to bathe the poor kid. Isn't that what God made mother's for?

And this morning, Rob found out that apparently daddy's are made for stripping beds of the nastiness before they can go down to the couch to sleep as to not be woken up during round 2.

Round 2 is never as bad though. The bulk of dinner usually ends making it's appearance during round one. You bathe them, get their bedding into the washer, lovingly dress them and rub their backs telling them how sorry you are that they are sick.

Then you lay them down on top of towels armed with several bowls and strict instructions to vomit in the bowl next time. Then you do what any blogging mom would do and you go downstairs to grab the camera, because every one prefers pictures with my wordy posts. You and I both know that there's typically a round 2 and quite possibly a round 3 before anyone is going to get some real sleep... so you pull out the lap top, crawl back in bed and write a public on-line journal entry about vomit, because we all know it's every one's favorite subject to read about!

When round 2 comes you make a mental note to keep the baby wipes handy for immediate clean up purposes, and also make a mental note to remind the sick child not to wipe their face on their shirt once they've finished vomiting. You change the towel out from underneath them, since they attempted to obey they strict throw-up-in-the-bowl instructions, but didn't quite fully hit the mark. Hey, he's only 3.

Well, maybe these are not the things that you would do, but they are the things that I would do. And, well, it's my blog and it's nearing 4 o'clock in the morning, so I get to tell these fun little vomit stories any way I want to. It's my prerogative! (That just looks funny, but that's how spell-check says it's spelled... I probably shouldn't argue with spell-check at this hour, it's usually right)

Nai Nai

After the Christmas program, Leeann's birth mom, Kyndall, came to lunch with us then ventured over to our house for a little gift exchange.

This a picture of Leeann wearing her beautiful new bath robe from Kyndall. She calls her Nai-Nai, which is Tegalog for mom. Kyndall is 1/2 Filipino.


Leeann and Titus opened up there 24 packs of Play-Doh compliments of Kyndall and her dad. We call him Grampy.

Leeann chose a lotion and body wash set from Bath and Body Works for Kyndall. Leeann proudly picked out the gifts all by herself and was quite proud of them. She even wrapped them by herself too!

I tried to get these two to pose for a nice Christmas picture since they were dressed up so beautifully... but they were both quite hyper and I didn't exactly get the picture-perfect photo I'd hoped for. Oh well, you still get the gist. They were adorable!This is just a fun picture showing Titus and Leeann engaging in one of their favorite activities--wrestling daddy!

The Christmas Program

I wrote about this earlier, but here are the pictures from our church's Christmas Program.

Leeann was as cute, and sweet and angelic as can be!
As was Titus for the most part--during the first service.

During the second service (after having some Christmas cookies for a snack) he discovered that the things on his back were wings.

Logan was a cow... and a cute one if you ask me!

Oh yeah, back to the wings. You know--the things that make you fly?

I think in this picture he was simply plotting his next move.

Like, trying to tie his shoe. Why not? I'm sure he can figure it out on his own.

Or, how about I flop around behind some of these kids like a mad man?

Maybe I'll do some flying. And some dancing. And some sliding across the stage? Maybe I'll run back and forth so fast that mom can't figure out how to grab me and take me off the stage. Yeah, that's it! That's what I'll do. Every body's laughing. I think they're laughing at me. They must like what I'm doing, and I should certainly do some more of it!

Why isn't mom taking pictures of my cute stunts? Everybody else seems to like it. She should be catching this... this is great blogging material! Mom, why'd you put your camera down?

Oh no, that's mom. She's coming up here. Is she laughing or crying? That's a tough one. Am I in trouble? Mommy, I'm just making good use of my wings... I can fly!

And this one is a better shot of Logan the cow.

Storybook Land

We enjoyed a night at Storybook land with the kids just a few days before Christmas. Storybook land is a big building filled with displays off characters from beloved storybooks and movies. There is a large train set that had multiple trains going around tracks (click on the collage to see more details in the pictures above). You should have seen Titus go crazy when he saw Thomas the train!

We ran into our friends Toby, Kajsa and Kamden too. Toby was kind enough to take a fun family picture for us. Thanks Toby!

Santa was waiting at the end of Storybook land, and our kids weren't really sure what to do with him. In our quest not to lie to our kids we've told them that Santa is just pretend, but that some kids think he's real. They haven't really asked a lot of questions about it, they just take it for what it is. So when Santa asked them to sit on his lap the kids got a little freaked out. That is, until they saw he was offering candy canes... then all of the sudden Santa wasn't so bad!

When we walked outside just before it closed we were greeted with giant flakes of falling snow. We played around in it for a few minutes, trying to catch flakes with our tongues. It really was a picture-perfect beautiful ending to yet another wonderful family memory.

Snow Day

Yup, I'm still playing catch up. These are pictures from December 15th (our 7 year anniversary by the way). Rob got the day off of work because of snow! We treked over to Suzy's to play in the snow with the boys. It was cold! We had fun playing around in the snow and enjoyed some hot chocolate to warm us up after the adventures.

Click on the photo above to see fun pictures, like snow angels, wrestling and Logan and Titus licking the snow, then being upset because their faces were cold! You also need to check out Weston's hat hair in the hot cocoa picture!

Later that night Rob and Titus and I went to Applebees, since our intended anniversary dinner was supposed to be out-of-town and Leeann went out to dinner with some of her birth family members. Just as dinner finished we got a frantic phone call from Suzy about Landon being burned (he's doing well now, in case you are wondering) so we headed very slowly to the E.R. through the snow.

It was a fun day and I was super glad to get to spend it with my fantastic family!