I Like to Smock, Not Nit

So here's the "are you kidding me?" update. I had a full weeks worth of events occur between the hours of 9 and 12 today.

Merrie Cannon has run a fever off and on this week. She went all day yesterday fever free, so I thought we were done with a nagging virus and she could go to school. Wouldn't you know that when I picked her up to put her shoes on (after getting her up, dressed, and fed all fever free) I noticed her armpits were very warm. I took her temp., and guess what? The fever was back. Since it had been on and off for 4 days I decided to go and take her to the doctor.

I had a meeting at the preschool, so I made an appointment on my way there. I dropped Ben off and sat in the back so MC wouldn't breathe on anyone. While I was in the meeting, my cell phone rang (which is one of my pet peeves, there are times when you should turn the thing off). I quickly muted the ring and checked my message when the meeting was over. It was the school nurse asking me to call her. I quickly returned her call, fully expecting to hear that AB had a fever and I needed to come get her. Not so much. Instead of having a fever...she has lice. So I quickly have them check Ben's head (he was clear) and race to pick her up before the doctors appointment. I get to the doctors office at 10:15 - exactly when our appointment was.

I usually wait a few days before I rush my kids to the doctor. I have paid too many $30 co-pays resulting in the "it's a virus, give them Tylenol." So, 4 days of fever and here we go. Strep test - negative. Blood work - normal. Guess what - "It's a virus. We are seeing these fever viruses and they last about 5 days." Really? One more day and I would have saved 30 bucks.

On my way to get lice shampoo, I return a call from my uncle. My cousin had a baby about 2 months ago. The baby's care is being monitored by Children's Services because she is unable to take care of it. My name was given to the case worker by my cousin as a possible placement for the child until she can get it together. Please pray for us concerning this. We really don't know what to do. We have lots of questions and are really seeking God's will in how we handle the situation.

All that before noon - and I haven't even shampooed a head yet. So, I call Billy and ask him to get Ben from school. MC - clear head and taking a nap, bless her little feverish heart! Abe - clear head. AB is getting shampoo on her head when Billy gets home. Billy - clear head. Me - not clear. I have them. I knew I would. AB and I have been cuddling up every night and reading together. That's what I get for trying to be a good mother.

So, I have been shampooing, and nitting, and washing, and drying and vaccuming. The dishes from this morning are still in the sink, along with the dishes from lunch, and this afternoon and tonight. I went through AB's head again before bed, picking more nits - and MC's, and Ben's, and Abe's, and Billy's - all still clear.

Sure Children's Services, bring us a baby. Watch out, don't step on that dead roach. If you see a live one, there is a fly swatter hanging in the laundry room. The 19 month old loves to swat them, just give it to him. Excuse the nastiness in the kitchen and the toys all over the house, I have been picking bugs out of our hair all day. You may not want to sit on that couch, it hasn't been decontaminated yet. Watch the mold in the kitchen, and one day we are going to get a bed. Welcome to the Ivey's.

Oh yeah, MC's eye is weeping green gooey stuff. Pink eye. Pink eye and lice - which one can we control first?

Have you ever been prophesied to?

My answer to that question was no, until last night. Billy and I were going to a friend's wedding. My babysitter was late, so we missed the wedding, but were going to the reception at the Wynfrey Hotel. We had some blinds we needed to return to JC Penney, so we decided to do that before the reception since the Wynfrey is at the mall. After returning the blinds, we were getting in the car. Billy looked super cute in his bow tie, and I was in my favorite dress. A mother and her two small children were getting out of their car, when the little girl told me she loved my dress. I said thank you and smiled at the mother. The mother proceeded to say "I see you in a wedding dress." Weird but ok. I just laughed and got in the car. Then she said "Have you two ever thought about getting married, I see her in a wedding dress." Billy told her we were married and had 4 kids. She said, no lie, "Have you ever been prophesied to?" No, we replied almost laughing. "It's not from me, it comes from God. You should renew your vows. I see her in a wedding dress." All we could say was thank you. I can now say I have been prophesied to - in the parking lot at JC Penney. More disturbing than that is that she saw me in a wedding dress in her vision...no mention of visions of my husband of 10 years.

Character Backpacks and Sheets

Abe's 1st Day of School
Yes, his hair is sticking up. He got a bath before dinner last night and then dumped his macaroni and cheese on his head, so we washed his hair right before bed.

When it became evident to us that we were going to have to make the big move, I was concerned about space. We moved from about 2200 square feet into almost 1400 - and remember there are 6 of us. When put into perspective of all we have compared to others, we are blessed and the size of the house didn't really concern me. What did concern me was figuring out how to cram all the stuff we had in a much smaller space. Here was the biggest challenge:

Who shares a room with who? We had 3 bedrooms and a HUGE bonus in the old house. Ben had a room, Abe had a room, and the girls shared the bonus. Here we have 3 bedrooms, period. After much thinking and praying here was the solution. AB would get her own room. She is 5 years older than MC and has moved from toys to gadgets which don't take up much space. We would take the larger of the secondary bedrooms and put the "babies" in the master, where there is lots of room for toys. MC was not real happy with the idea, because she did not want to be in a "boy" room. So what does any mom exercising authority and demanding respect do...Bribe her. She was promised Hello Kitty sheets. On the trip to Target, she abandoned Hello Kitty and decided to get Ariele instead. I couldn't say no to Ben when he asked for the Transformer ones. So we came home with 2 sets of character sheets. I am more of the Pottery Barn Kids type, so this was a huge step for me. Besides the fact that they are tacky (just my opinion, and you can throw a nice comforter over them anyway) have you ever actually slept on them? They are soooo uncomfortable. I think they have a thread count of about 4. The kids were excited, and then Ben crawled in. "Momma, did you wash these sheets?" he asked. "Because I feel wike there are cwumbs in them." Yes, I did wash the sheets...they are just that bad. I offered to change them, which is huge because he sleeps on the top bunk and changing his sheets is no fun, but he refused and has slept on them every night since.

Backpacks. Oh, backpacks. I love getting the kids cute backpacks with their names monogrammed on them, and they already have these precious lunchboxes. I didn't even think about the younger kids needing them until meet the teacher last Wednesday. I had been so concerned getting AB ready, that I forgot backpacks for the middle two. So, we took a trip to the mall to find backpacks. Lo and behold the dadgum Disney store had theirs displayed perfectly for little eyes. With a pit in my stomach, we picked out Tinkerbell (surprising given our obsession with Ariel) and Power Rangers (who I personally don't like, but it seems Cars and Buzz Lightyear are for babies). The matching lunchboxes were free. I actually spent less on 2 backpacks and lunchboxes than I would have on one cute, precious one and I am the only one sad. At least AB wasn't there. The Hannah Montana get-up was HORRENDOUS!

Today was MC and Ben's first day of preschool. Ben got up, got dressed and was ready to go. Merrie Cannon and I had a small battle over clothes. She wanted to wear her ballerina outfit that she is wearing in the last picture(not exactly good attire when a 3 year old needs to potty). We compromised and she wore her ballerina skirt over her sweet dress.When I picked them up, MC would not stop talking about all that she had done. Ben was more reserved, but had a good day. As of late, Ben's response to my attempts to have discussion with him is a food. Something like this...

Me: Ben did you have a good day today?
Ben: Yes.
Me: Did you make any new friends?
Ben: Yes.
Me: Do you remember their names?
Ben: Chicken Nuggets. (sly grin)
Me: Really Ben, what were their names?
Ben: Pineapple. (laughter)

Boys!

Anna Beth loves school, but still dislikes homework. Afternoons are a challenge trying to get her to stay focused and get it done so she can play before dinner.

The roaches are getting under control. I am still seeing them, but I don't fear they are going to band together and carry away my fine china anymore. We have had a few more surprises. Every week we discover some new "thing" going on with the house.

Week 1) Roaches
Week 2) Toilets were stopping up a lot (a good plunger took care of it)
Week3) I noticed the wallpaper under the window in the kitchen was bubbling. Peeled it back...know that whoever put the horrendous wallpaper in the kitchen didn't prime the walls, so its almost impossible to remove without tearing up the drywall, so just the mere fact that I could peel it back easily made me cringe at what I was to find. Water damage and....mold. Great. We have to tackle that project and just pray it is only the small area we see.
Week4) Today I go to open the door for our neighbors little girl to come in, and guess what? THE DOORKNOB CAME OFF IN MY HAND!

I mean come on, can we not go 1 week without anything happening. Home ownership is soooo overrated!

***I forgot to mention that somewhere between week 1 and 2, our bed broke while trying to move it from one wall to another. We are currently sleeping on mattresses on the floor.

Just a random update.

All day things happen that I want to blog about, and everytime I sit down at the computer my mind goes blank. Here's the short of whats going on...

So, I am still getting unpacked. The roaches are dying and I am seeing fewer and fewer Praise the Lord! The weather has been incredible the past few days. It seems that everytime we move, the weather does crazy things. Last summer when we went to Nashville, we experienced the 100+ degree heat wave. We come to Birmingham and have highs in the 80s and next to no humidity (very, very unusual for August here). We'll take the latter over the former anyday!

Anna Beth is LOVING school - which is such a blessing. I miss having her to help out at home during the day and doing the fun stuff with us, but she is completely enjoying being at school.

Ben, MC, Abe and I are enjoying the outside and neighborhood park while the weather is nice. They are also enduring the countless trips to Wal-Mart and Home Depot to get things for the house.

The house is great. I was not looking forward to downsizing 800 square feet, but it has been good. I think I like a smaller house better. The kids don't know the difference, and it is forcing us (parents) to be more involved as a family. Since there is no playroom, the only TV is in the den. We are doing more together since I can't just send them to the playroom anymore.

I went to our old church on Sunday and it was great. I absolutely love, love, love our pastor's preaching style and was so looking forward to hearing him. Wouldn't you know he was out of town.

One of my pet peeves is people at church not being welcoming and nice. I realize we are human and have bad days, but it seems to happen to me all the time. We were looking for a Sunday school class at our church in Nashville and had decided to visit one. The class was small and everyone looked at us like we were lost when we walked in. So here I am at our old church, excited to be there, and not knowing where I was going because they have redone the whole darn thing. I got the kids (I only had 2 of them with me and Billy was out of town) settled and go searching for the sanctuary. There were signs but I didn't see one pointing in that direction. I try to follow the music and end up down a hallway and realize the music is getting softer and I don't know where I am, so I ask someone for help. She looks at me like I have a big booger and says "up the stairs" almost with a roll of the eyes. Are you kidding me? I have been treated better asking where the Gap is at the mall. It's a good thing I wasn't a first time visitor - what kind of impression would I have of the church if I was?

I was also caught in a bind when I had to sign the attendance book. There is a place for visitors and a place for members. Although I haven't been at the church in 2 1/2 years, we have never moved our membership elsewhere. We haven't stayed anywhere long enough to join a church, so I pondered a while and signed in as a member, because technically I still am (even though I did park in visitor parking - just thought of that).

We go meet the 3 younger kids teachers Wednesday. I am a little apprehensive about where they are going to Pre-school/MDO just because I know nothing about it - they just had space for all 3 this late in the summer and Ben didn't have to go 5 days a week.

Feeling like home...

So, we moved back into our old house, which is weird. The kids have adjusted fine. AB is back to being BFF with the girl next door, and has added a new friend that lives down the street. Guess what? All three are in the same 3rd grade class! How about that for an easy transition for the 8 year old. We went to meet the teacher today and it was nice to walk into a familiar place and see familiar faces. Old friends were excited to see us and glad we were back.

We have had more "Ivey luck" since moving in...I'll post on that later. In case you are wondering about the uninvited guests that are inhabiting our home, the exterminator came today. The only thing worse than having roaches is having dying roaches. They are coming out of the woodwork!!! Is it OK to ask you to pray that the roaches will all die soon?

We are here...

and we have roaches. Not outside as expected but inside. The little bitty gross ones that hang out in your cabinets. I can't unpack my kitchen stuff until the exterminator gets here, and he thinks they are german roaches which are really difficult to get under control.

I never had a roach problem in TN...just saying.