April Fools!!!

Yeah, I know it was yesterday. It's been awhile since I actively participated in this evil day or fun and I had forgotten just how much fun it can be. And so it started off as normal as any other day. At work James called me... we need to prank the kids, what can we do?? After tossing around this and that we decided he would yell at them when they got home from school and ground them. Here's the tales told by the kids....

HOPE - Well, dad said, "Hope, why did you get a bad report from music class today?" and I said, "I dunno" and he said, "Hope, what did you do that was so bad in music that the teacher had to send a note home?" and I said, "I dunno" and he said, "Do I need to ground you for a week?" and I said, "I don't know what you're talking about." and he said, "April Fool's!" and I said, "Oooooooooh, I get it now. (hehe) He's funny!" And then at school I said to Cassie, "Cassie, there's a dolphin behind you" and she turned around and I said, "April Fool's!" and then she says, "no there's really a dolphin behind YOU" and so I turned around and she said, "April Fool's!" and then.....

ROMAN - Dad got me goooood! I was really freakin' out!!!

Yup, that was all I got out of Roman, so had to turn to James for the run down of how this one played out. And apparently when Roman got in James met him and immediately began laying into him. "What happened in the lunchroom today??" "Nothing" "Who were you trying to pick a fight with today in the lunchroom?" "No one, I swear!" "Why did Mrs. Dunn have to call me then?" "I didn't do anything, I swear! I sat with my boys today, but we didn't cause any trouble, I swear it!" "And I guess you're gonna tell me that you didn't get moved to the silent table either! I think I'm gonna have to take away Xbox for 2 weeks since you won't fess up to it. I've already spoken to Mrs Dunn, she told me everything." At which point Roman was completely freaking out and on the verge of tears and James couldn't keep it up.... "April Fool's!!!!" He didn't find it as funny as Hope did!

By the time I got home I was greeted at the door and informed I had poisonous spiders on my head, a bear behind me and a goat in the kitchen! All I have to say is those kids better beware of April 1, 2009, cause it's on now!!! To add to the fun of the evening I did fix an April Fool's dinner for them that I think they all loved. When called in for dinner they were greeted with mini cheeseburgers, mashed potatoes and gravy, and peas as well as a big birthday cake for Trooper.... yup, our boy turned 1 yesterday!!! Happy Birthday Trooper!!!.... anyway, as Roman griped about the size of the meal, which was small, he soon came to realize it wasn't all it looked to be. The mini hamburgers were made of cookies and starburst, the mashed potatoes and gravy that they all came in griping about having to eat was really vanilla ice cream and caramel, and much to their shocking surprise, the peas were, well, peas! LOL I told them it was a small dinner cause we had a big cake to eat. Roman (thank you grandaddy!!!) did his well known "Oops" swipe on the icing of the cake and I just wish I had the camera at the ready to capture his face when he realized it wasn't icing, but the real mashed potatoes! hahahaha I had made up a meatloaf over the weekend and baked it in two round cake pans, stacked and iced with mashed potatoes, then decorated with grape tomatoes and topped with a Scooby Doo candle in honor of Trooper's birthday. I even left a jar of cherries on the counter to throw them off, and they had NO IDEA! It was priceless! Of course that was the real dinner, and yes, instead of saving the leftovers, Trooper got to eat the remainder of his "Cake". He was in heaven!!!

I'm loving the kids being old enough to appreciate such things!!! The ideas for next year just keep flowing.....

My awesome girls!

This weekend we bought a full set of crate style furniture off a lady on Craigslist. Roman had baseball practice during the time we set to pick it up, so Jeni came over and road with us to help with lifting as James's back is still not 100%. When we arrived we met the nice lady who I had been corresponding with. Her husband had lined up a few friends to help us load the furniture - totally unexpected! Overall it was the easiest transaction ever. They were a really nice couple with an adorable 8 month old daughter.

So, anyone who knows my girls knows they seldom ever meet a stranger. They are obnoxiously friendly and very outgoing and being that James and I constantly have people hanging out, they are just as accustomed to interacting with adults as they are children. No surprise they took to this lady immediately! By the time the furniture was loaded and I went to round them up to head home, I find Bethany curled up in her lap with Hope sitting as close next to her as possible all singing and talking to the baby. I just shook my head, grinning (who could help it!), apologized explaining they know no strangers and have issues with personal space. Lucky for them they are both adorably cute with bubbly personalities that makes even the most hard hearted of people melt. Apparently she was enjoying every minute of it. This morning when I arrived at work I found an email for her awaiting me. This is what she had to say....

Julie- I hope you didn’t have any trouble getting the furniture moved in and you are happy with it. I also wanted to tell you that your daughters are absolutely precious. Polite, friendly and a joy to be around… I hope Megan is exactly like that when she is older!

What an overwhelmingly awesome compliment! Can you even imagine?? I have been grinning all morning, just so proud of my little ladies! I mean *I* know they're terrific kids, but there's just something so heartwarming when others, particularly complete strangers, go out of their way to acknowledge it! This is a first time mom of a small infant and to hear her make that last comment about hoping her baby turns out like my girls just makes me overflow with pride for them! I love them so much!!!! And when you get a compliment like this, you just have to stop and let that warmth and pride of it wrap around you a bit and hold tight to knowing that you must be doing something right, cause let's face it, parenting is scary stuff! Yes, they can be rotten at times, but overall I really could not be prouder of my kids. All of them! (Roman just wasn't included because he wasn't there!)

Spring Break

I do believe all in all we had a boring, relaxing, easy spring break this year. The kids were happy to be heading back to school today and James and I were happy to send them! They had a lot of late nights, sleeping in till noon, eating a lot of junk, watching movies, playing video games, and playing outdoors. We made it to the park twice, managed a bit of spring cleaning, and had a "date" with our neighbors while James got a much needed break.... since Rich was out of time (convenient being spring break and all!) Tracie invited me and the kids over for movie and popcorn one night. That was nice, something different, and as usual the kids (and I) had a great time! Otherwise it was just hanging out with some much needed downtime!

On the down side there was LOTS of fights and bickering. Tons of dramatic tears, even from Roman, and basically I've decided that my children are doomed to be constant movers and over-achievers. It is quite clear that they have no concept of downtime or how to just relax. hmmm.... I can't imagine where they'd get that from!

Inherited Boo-hoos

I have determined that this MUST skip every other generation.....

For a bit of history let me tell you of my beloved mother! She is an amazing person. Probably the strongest person I know. She is very kind hearted, always thinking of others before herself, especially her children. My mother suffers from a great deal of pain, but rarely will you ever hear about it as she is not one to ever complain! I can not say enough wonderful things about my mom, nor how proud I am to be her called her daughter. And yes if she is reading this she is most likely already beginning to tear up!

See, my mom isn't perfect. What mom is? My mom is often naive and for some reason things just always happen in her presence! I could spend days, weeks, maybe even months writing up tales of her, but for now, that's not what this is about. See, my mom is a crier. She cries at nearly every movie she watches. She boo-hoos through her soaps regularly. Tears stream down while reading a book. And yes, she was the embarrassing one with the white hanky in the front row blowing her nose, wiping her eyes, and waving her hanky at me on stage for every recital, concert, play, speech, basically every moment of life regardless of how big or small! I have teased her unendingly for pretty much the entirety of my life.

Me? No, I'm not much of a crier. True something will hit me every now in then, but I seldom cry. Kari, being a much more emotional person than I, still isn't much of a crier... not like mom! Sure I swell with pride and want to yell out, "Hey, that's my kid!" when I see my 3 in the spotlight, and while I may occasionally wave, never has it been with a hanky in hand.

In my previous mention of hysterical genetics skipping generations I must confess.... my girls have totally inherited the boo-hoo gene from my mother! Hope can not watch a movie without crying. She cries over books and pretty much everything in life. A complete drama queen. Even movies that she has seen 2,000 times she STILL cries over (yup, just like her grandmother!). For instance in High School Musical 2 Troy and Gabriella break up. Hope KNOWS this as she has the movie memorized, but still as soon as Gabriella breaks into the "break up song" she loses it and goes into complete hysterics!

Bethany has always been a stronger, more independent spirit... so we thought. B tends to cry more out of anger than anything, but last night as I lay in bed with my girls watching the movie "Eight Below" and listening to her sob, these heart wrenching painful sobs, literally crying herself to sleep over a dog that gets left behind all by himself, I couldn't help but laugh thinking, "Yup, every other generation and both my girls are doomed to be hanky wavers!!!!" (she was asleep before they confirmed that dog had died, boy was I thankful for that!)

Happy Belated Easter

I completely forgot in my last post to say HAPPY EASTER!!! (even though I know it's 2 days late). We had a great Easter. We got up early Sunday. The kids quickly hunted down all the eggs and found their baskets. Before breaking into them though it was upstairs to get dressed for church. We had to be there by 8:30. They each were allowed a small handful of candy to take with them, but otherwise their new goodies had to wait till we got home.


At church the kids had an Easter egg hunt during Sunday School and scored tons more candy and stuff. It was the first Sunday the band played so far this year. James being laid up with his back and Debbe out fighting breast cancer has kept the band appart since Christmas. Stacey was working, so I was recruited to play bass guitar. Boy was I nervous! I hadn't picked up a guitar in over 10 years and even then I was no actual player, just learned a few songs to humor James! I had practiced hard on 1 of the 3 songs, but the other two I didn't even know about until Sunday morning! Yikes!!! I pulled off an almost convincing show though. Don't know how, must have been a God thing! The kids also played handbells and did a fantastic job as usual. Bethany is so expressive to watch, a true little entertainer.


After church, Jeni went with us to Robius Landing park for a picnic dinner. We hid some of the kids plastic eggs and let them search for them. Roman and I threw the baseball around some, practicing his catching. We played on the little dock and went for a hike in the woods. It was a really nice day. Cool, but nice! Afterwards we said bye to Jeni and headed home. Once home, everyone laid down and slept a good 3-4 hours! I think we all needed that very much. Gma came by for a late dinner and we all snuggled down to watch Enchanted before heading back to bed.


Overall it was a nice quiet family day, so very different than the year before. Looking back through it does not appear that I blogged on last Easter. I know, I wasn't a very good blogger at all last year! But a year ago on Easter Sunday 2007, James was baptized. Anyone who knew him prior to this would have said, "Hell would have to freeze over before you get him to church on a regular basis!" Well, apparently there was some truth in that because on Easter Sunday of 2007 we got our only snowfall of the year here in Richmond! LOL It will take him awhile to get past the certainty that hell must have frozen over that day as he handed his life over to Christ! Afterwards we had a last minute party at our house to celebrate. The day before I had 2 people coming over after church. They held band practice that afternoon and James asked if he could invite anyone that didn't already have plans to join us..... no one had plans! LOL We went from a planned meal for 8 to feeding 50+ in less than 24 hours. I just threw on another turkey and added a ham and a few more sides and voila! It was a fantastic day but sooooo opposite this year's Easter. Equally wonderful, just different!

Easter and the Easter Bunny

We have never really talked about the Easter Bunny much in our house. It is the one holiday I try to downplay in the commercialized hype and stick to the real reason we celebrate. Of course we do dye eggs and the Easter Bunny does come and hide the eggs and leave treats in the kids' easter baskets. We don't decorate the house, and if we do it's with flowers, crosses, doves, mostly spring or religious symbols instead of cute little chicks and bunnies. The eggs don't even get dyed until the night before right before bed and pretty much either get eaten or tossed in the trash the next morning after they've found them. Easter baskets are packed full of candy and a few toys or odds and ends. I try to keep it to around 3 non-candy items and we never make a big deal out of the gifts, the candy or the Easter Bunny. To me, Easter is the number 1 most important religious holiday on the calendar and from a spiritual standpoint pales next to Christmas - which I will fully admit, while the birth of Christ is a significant event too, I totally get caught up in the gifts and fellowship, the cookies, the smells and everything about Christmas. Easter is more of a relaxed time of reflection. We don't build the commercialized hype of the holiday and to the kids the biggest preparation of Easter is picking out the perfect dress or shirt AND tie, to dress to the max and go to church on Sunday morning! Even in the years when they were young and we were not attending church, they still got new outfits and dressed up for a nice family dinner. (you'll notice from previous entry.... for Hope, Easter is definitely about the clothes! haha)

Roman and Hope are both at the age of recognition right now and they want answers. "Is that bunny in the mall real?" "Is that the REAL Easter Bunny??" NO, he's a man or lady in a ridiculously big crazy suit making it fun for the kids (my kids have NEVER gone to have their pic taken. Yes, we do do Santa though!) So, in the midst of a walk last night, I found it very interesting to hear their "Tale of the Easter Bunny!" What do kids think who's parents have never really addressed nor fully acknowledged the Easter Bunny. Who's parents admit that there is no big costumed bunny like those in the mall coming to our house. Who's parents don't even comment on the Easter Bunny except to say, "No, I've never seen the Easter Bunny and I'm not sure anyone else ever has either." What assumptions do they come up with once outside stories, fables, and commercialization come into play... especially in a public school setting??

Last night Roman and Hope discussed it with me over a walk. I was a bit surprised at their acceptance and story, but they universally agreed this IS the true story of the Easter Bunny. It's also one I've never heard before and couldn't help laugh at the convenience of it!

According to Roman and Hope, the Easter Bunny is quite small, like and average bunny, who hops around from house to house. But when he gets to a front porch he grows to be huge, the size of a grown up person in order to reach the knob to come in. He's very concerned about kids, so he disguises himself as a parent or familiar adult before entering the house to hide the eggs and deliver the goods. That way if a child wakes up and catches him, he won't be scared of a gigantic bunny, because it will appear to be a familiar face, even though it's really not. Or as Roman puts it, "The Easter Bunny is a small average bunny that hops to your house, then grows and grows big and tall before morphing into you, Mom!"

That sure is one clever E.B. huh!

For the record, I don't think I ever bought into the whole bunny thing, not even as a little kid. I think it's the most ridiculous of all the imaginary fairy tale creatures, but like my younglings I liked the candy, the toys, and even hunting those eggs, so I kept my mouth shut! LOL The toothfairy, Santa, even Roman's most favored - the little Leprechauns, are more believable! And I never understood, still don't, the correlation between a bunny and eggs. If anyone would care to explain that, go right ahead!

Easter Outfits

Hopey, "Mom, I HAVE to have a new outfit for Easter tomorrow!"

umm, sweetie, tomorrow isn't Easter, it's Thursday, Easter's on Sunday. We still have time.

Hopey, "NO, tomorrow is Easter at school. We're having an Easter egg hunt and I HAVE to have a new outfit. I always get a new dress for Easter."

Took some convincing, a few stores that had nothing of major interest - aside from some very impractical mini prom dresses-, and the breakdown of buying her Easter dress for Sunday, but finally she agreed to wear regular clothes to school today. We're in VA, home to lots of red clay and it rained all night. No way was she getting a new dress to destroy at school during her egg hunt! She was cracking us up with her determination though. Where does she come up with this stuff??

H.B. Solicitations

So yesterday at lunch I notice I have a missed call on my cell. It came in at 11:15am from my sister Ronda. Ronda is next to impossible to get in touch with most days and rarely remembers to call for a chat. Her having the same gripe about me and we don't talk nearly as often as we should, or as we used to I should say. NEVER does she call in the middle of the day, at least not since I moved from Florida. So, knowing it was her birthday and curiosity getting the best of me, I called her back, expecting to get voice mail as usual, she answered. We talked briefly for a few moments. She wanted to know what sizes the kids are wearing these days and general chit chat. After a few moments she stopped and says, "Come on, aren't ya gonna say it?" "Say what??" "Come on, starts with an H, second word begins with a B...." "What ARE you talking about?!?" as I try to hold back a laugh. To which she blurts out "It's my birthday! You're supposed to say Happy Birthday!" .... seriously Ron, you're calling just to solicit Happy Birthdays?? hahahaha



As planned, the kids and I called her last night to sing Happy Birthday! As expected, we had to leave it on voice mail! hehe

Leapsters

Gma hasn't seen much of us since she moved out last month. With me being sick over the weekend, James decided to take the kids out to let me rest. They met up with Grandma and spent the day shopping! When they arrived back home the kids were the proud owners of several new Leapster games. Leapster is a hot item in our household. All 3 kids now have their own, but it hasn't curbed the fighting over them. It's inevitable that at least one of them can't find theirs when the others are playing. Not to mention we only have 1 copy of each game. The biggest winner of their games has been "Pet Pals" where they adopt a dog and earn points through different activities and carrying for the pet. They are all obsessed! The fighting has been at a high over this one simple game.



So last night around 9 o'clock I put the kids to bed. I go in and read while James is playing on the computer and listening to music. We talked for a few hours and he finally fell asleep. I was a bit wired still from spending too much time in bed over the weekend and stayed up a bit longer reading. At 11:30 I heard a noise. It was enough to jolt me away from my book, but then as I listened I didn't hear it again. A little bit later I heard another noise. Getting up to inspect the house and make sure everything was okay, then peaking in to check on the kids one last time. I gave Roman a kiss and tucked him back in and as I was leaving his room I heard a noise again. I walked in the girls room and all was quiet. I noticed Bethany wasn't in her bed. That's nothing new, she seldom sleeps in her bed the entire night. So I climbed up to check on Hope and I saw a little light shining through the comforter towards the bottom of Hope's bed. As I pulled back the covers I found Bethany, huddled in a little ball playing her Leapster! By the time I confiscated it and grounded her from it for 2 days, got back to bed and it was after midnight. She was asking for it back first thing this morning. It's gonna be a long 2 days!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Of course, with St. Patrick's Day being on a Monday I completely forgot about it this year! If I hadn't have been too lazy to take out my green earrings still on from Saturday I would have been the target of a lot of pinching. As I walked into work I was greeted by the guard with a cheerful "Top of the Mornin' to ya!" That's when it hit me! Yikes, it's St. Patrick's Day!!! Being of scot-irish heritage myself, this is normally a big deal holiday in our house. I take my green very seriously. As I reached my desk I realized it was too late to call and make sure the kids had on green as they would have been getting on the bus roughly at that moment.

Jump ahead to this evening. I get home from work and am welcomed by the girl, dressed in jeans and a pink and brown shirt while the boy, who's wardrobe is almost half green to begin with, is wearing jeans with a yellow and blue striped shirt. He has a look of exasperation as I ask how their day went.

HOPE - "You didn't tell us it was St. Patrick's Day. Hello! I walked into school without green on and everyone started trying to pinch me. Miss Neal gave me this pin (a green four leaf clover pin) to wear to save me."

That was very nice of her.... so Roman, how was your day?

ROMAN - "I got pinched.... a lot! EVERYONE in my class and nearly everyone in 2nd grade pinched me. I even got pinched by older kids AND younger ones!" as he gave his 'what's up with that' look enhanced by the dramatic extended arms, palms up, shrug of his.

Smiling I asked why Mrs. Gregory didn't give him a pin to wear or something green like Hope's teacher had. To which he replied, "Give me green?? Heck, she was first in line to pinch me!"

Football Mania

Wow, as baseball practice began, football started with a vengence! Crazy, huh. Our first meeting went really well. I've decided to head up fundraising and possibly oversee concessions as a subset of that. In the past concessions has brought in little money to the association. I hope to rectify that this coming season. Should be challenging and fun. Bethany and Hope will both be cheering for the flaggers this fall and Roman is all signed up for minors. He is beyond thrilled with that knowing this year he gets to wear the pads and the helmet and hold nothing back. This mama's still a big nervous about that, but he knows the game well, listens, and only does what he's told to do on the field. We have a fantastic coaching staff that will see that my baby boy remains safe and has fun. Today we had a first registration day. With 6 months to go this gives the parents time to budget and make payments on their child's fees. It was thrown together at the last minute, but we went for it all the same. About half a dozen families just hanging out as car after car came by to sign up their child and see what was going on. With 10-15 boys out playing flag football in front of the school on a Saturday morning, people wanted to stop and see what was going on. The result, approximately 35 signups!!!! That is a fantastic start to the season! Our goal this year is 25 kids per each of the four teams. From that plus the verbal confirmations from past players it looks like we already have a full flagger team and 40+ minors! That's right, almost double our team goal in Roman's age division. Coach West is looking into possible 2 teams out of Reams. Roman wants to be on A team bad and has already begun watching what he eats, practicing throws, and tackling everything, just as he did through last season. It's gonna be a loooooooooooooong 6 months till football officially kicks off! As for me, my first assignment is coming up fast. In mid-April we will have our second registration day. This time it will be a community event, "Spirit Day". I have a list of ideas and a dozen calls to place, but if it comes through, it should be a great event, a lot of fun, and hopefully start us off right with fundraising for the year!

What's up with the Trettels

The end of 2007 and start of 2008 has had us run ragged. So, what have we been up too?? We'll start from the youngest and work our way up....

Bethany - In Sept of '07 B became an only child M-F from 8:50-3:50. As Hope headed off to Kindergarten Bethany's world shook. Being the youngest of 3 children less than 4 years apart in age, we expected her to react heavily to this enormous change, but true to her natural born independent streak, she worked it out just fine. Bethany quickly learned that she loved the one on one time and has just thrived over the last several months. Her personality, large as it was, has literally exploded this year. She is still a bit devilish, always up to no good. She loves to sing and dance, must be the center of the universe and quite the entertainer. She is still sucking those fingers and still leaving a trail of hair everywhere she goes (My Little Pony hair for quite sometime now). Recently she cut her own hair (see picture). A large hunk out of the front of her head. While it was not a devastating cut, it did shorten her hair from more than midway down her back to about chin length! As usually her hair is growing like weeds and after barely a months time is about down to her shoulders already! Her favorite place to go right now is Build a Bear Workshop.

Hope - This past Sept our Hopey headed off to Kindergarten! But a stroke of last minute good fortune she was placed with our all time most favorite K teacher, Ms. Neal!!!! We are thrilled to have her back in our lives. Most kids when you ask them, "What happened at school today?" just shrugs and says, "Nothing" or "How was school today?" *shrugs* "Fine" or at least this has always been life with Roman. Not Hope! LOL Day 1 she came home. "Hope, what happened at school today?" "One kid cried ALL DAY LONG! One girl got in trouble already. And I got fussed at during carpet time." "YOU?? What did Ms. Neal have to fuss at you for?" .... fully expecting to hear how she was running her mouth to a new best friend.... "I kept taking my shoes off and apparently that's not appropriate!" Mainly throughout the last 100+ days to date of school, Hope has excelled wonderfully. With this exception of PE... another "shoe thing".... she pulled straight E's on her last report card. She continues to be the sweetest, most kind hearted child ever. Yes, still a bit of blonde in that head of hers, but truly just a heart of gold and a complete joy! When she says, "Mama, I got $10 for my birthday, can you take me to the store to pick out new toys for Roman and Bethany?" how can my heart not melt??

Roman - August of 2007 gave Roman a YES to a question that has plagued me for years now. "Can I pleeeeeeeeeeeease play football!" With his growing interest in the game and knowing that it would be his last year to play flag football, I caved. This is something I have been adamantly against since the day he was born. I did NOT want my child playing football. And now.... I'm stuck for life! The boy is completely addicted. And I must admit, I was in no way prepared for the drastic change in this kid either. And I'm not talking about pounds that seemed to melt off him from 4 day a week 2 hour practices in the hot late summer, early fall temps. I was not prepared for the discipline and structure of football, the pride and team spirit of 5-7 year olds. It was crazy! We have had Roman in team sports since he was 3 years old. He played 7 seasons of soccer and 3 seasons of teeball prior to joining sports. I know about team sports and what to expect of this age group... I did not know about football! It is like a completely different mentality of hard, near military structure. The coaches are gruff, they bark orders.... and the kids LISTEN! They stress healthy living, healthy eating habits, fitness and hold nothing back on the seriousness of the game and how easily someone can get hurt who is not properly prepared and in shape. They preach about respect of parents, coaches, teachers, and community leaders. They demand excellence in and off the field and poor grades and trouble in school will get a child benched. YES, Roman is only in second grade, but in the football world, flag to pro's, they train and learn the game all the same. It was the craziest most all-consuming thing we've ever done as a family. The 5-6 day a week commitment alone is insane. I mean practices start the first week of August in the middle of summer, for 4 hours a day M-F for an entire month before school ever starts. Crazy, I tell you! The coaches, the staff, the parents, the kids have to give 110% of total dedication for 4 solid months. And you know what? My boy THRIVED!!!! His attitude at home improved, his manners improved, and he had the best ever start to school this year (I also attribute that to the fabulous Mrs. Gregory who seems to just know him inside and out!). Roman has always done well in school. He's an E/S student and rarely ever causes any trouble, but even that has IMPROVED. This last report card Roman pulled straight E's with the exception of handwriting... we'll give him slack on that one, it was always my worst subject too! Aside from football, he is totally into SPORTS! LOL I took him too his first hockey game a few weeks ago and we had a fantastic time. Can't wait to take the whole family in the near future. Coming into spring he had a big decision to make... soccer or baseball through RRAA. He chose to go with his school and we look forward to the kick off of baseball season next week, though I am a bit sad that he will not be playing soccer. Outside of sports the big 8 year old things right now are Transformers, still some Star Wars, and Halo, okay, anything Xbox 360, or gameboy, or even Leapster... so video games! LOL Roman is 100% all boy, but he does have a sensitive side. He is very sweet with his sisters, and I have enjoyed watching him evolve into his own person with his own mind who's not afraid to stand up for what he believes in and put his own unique stamp on what has become his style. There is no more baby, or even little kid left of him and I couldn't be prouder of the boy he's become!

James - Well, he's still James! LOL His Star Wars geek status took a bit of a back seat to football season. James enjoyed football every bit as much as Roman and plans to get more involved in RRAA for this coming fall. We actually have a meeting on that this Friday. Just before Christmas, on December 23rd to be exact, we were coming back from a visit in Baltimore and swung off to mom's for a brief visit as Gloria, Ashley, Joel and John were in town. Well, it was rainy outside and the entrance way into mom's apartment is all tile with 3 steps to go down to get to her door. James took a slip on the top step and came down hard landing on the three stairs with his arm wedged into the railing. Took me and 3 guys to get him up and I thought for sure he'd broken something. It's been a long recovery. Took 2 weeks to get him up without 100% assistance. Was able to then transition him to a walker and eventually a cane. He is out and about now. He is driving, but not comfortably enough to do so with just the kids in the car, unless in an emergency. He is even starting to venture around the house some without his cane now. The back spasms are still bothering him often, but overall he is doing awesome right now! That has certainly put a damper on things lately. With the exception of scouts, we have cut out all activities for all of us. Honestly, it's been good for us. Barbara moved out in the midst of it all and we have been working hard at adjusting to life as 5 again, settling into our house, and spending a lot more quality time together as a family!

Trooper is doing well too. He spent way too much time being cooped up in the crate while James was recovering. I think 3 adults in the house all with different rules and commands was more than a little confusing too. After Barbara moved out James and I sat down and worked out a training plan for the boy and he is just thriving on it! What an amazing difference in such a short time. The chewing is a LOT better now, he is 100% housebroken, almost completely leash trained, and after spending a bit to properly dog proof the first floor, he is one happy pup and very much the family dog we had hoped for!

As for me, well, my part of life hasn't been without drama either. LOL Last August was a nightmare, but worthy of it's own post, so you'll have to keep looking for that one! Just before Thanksgiving I was "laid off". There was a helpdesk opening that offered to me in place of termination with a pathetic severance package that would not have gotten us through the end of the year. So, for my family, I begrudgingly accepted it. With a turn of good luck, 2 guys announced they were leaving the week I started on the helpdesk. I applied for the new opening (that otherwise wouldn't have come as we are in a hiring freeze here thanks to the real estate market taking such a hard hit lately) and the day after Christmas was offered and accepted it. It took a stressful month and a half to get me fully transitioned over to the new job. I've been here, working on the server team for about 3 weeks now and I absolutely love it! Funny thing is, this position was open once before, about a year ago and I didn't apply because I was in comfortable misery where I was... meaning I didn't care for my job or the management changes occurring with it, but it was a job, paid well, and I stuck around without motivation to move on. In that way the lay off has been a true blessing as I probably would not have bothered to apply for this one had I not been downgraded to helpdesk! Outside of work I am making a conscious effort to work on ME. I have taken to going to the gym M-F, getting up at 4:45 to hit the gym at 5am. What am I thinking?!?! I feel really good when I make it and don't beat myself up too bad if I don't. I haven't been dieting, but have been watching what I eat and managing proper portion control for everyone at home. Must be doing something right, cause people I don't see everyday are starting to take notice and I've had a few people this week that I do see nearly every day stop and ask what I've been doing to drop the weight. In truth I've only lost about 4 lbs in the last month, but I have dropped a full pants size and things are just shifting I guess, probably due to the exercise. I am feeling great though, loving my new job, and life just seems to be going right for once!

Baseball season starts next week. The girls were supposed to be playing soccer this spring, but we have pretty much decided to continue on our easy path. They both have dance still anyway, so it's not like they are without or anything. Hopefully the rest of the school year will remain relatively calm, stress free and NORMAL for once!

A Disgusting Night

Recently a good friend of mine began her blog and in reading over it I realized just how much I really do miss this one. I was quite addicted to this thing in the beginning, but with 3 active kids, over time I've just gotten away from it. In reading back through my own words I realize that although I do blog about the crazy antics my kids get into, including some that have lead to the ER amongst other places, that I very rarely post about the bad, the hardships of life. Honestly, it's probably just not in my nature, and Hope will someday shoot me for posting this, but here it is, a horrible night gone completely wrong with the Trettels!

Tuesday night on my way home, it's dreary, misty, overcast and overall miserable. If it hadn't been 60 degrees out I would have sworn we were in for a major snowstorm! However, as usual we weren't even close. I called James to let him know I was going by the store, we addressed dinner. He wanted to go out, I did NOT. I wanted to curl up with the kids, some popcorn, maybe a little pizza and a good movie, okay, one we at least hadn't seen 2 billion times already! So I run into Target.... BINGO! They have a sale, $10 movies for ones like Ratouille (however you spell it) and TMNT (which Roman has been dying to see). So I splurge and buy a few new movies, a big box of microwave Movie Theater Butter popcorn and toss in a box or 2 of candies, sparing nothing here. Ready for a full blown movie night at home!!! Walk outside to head to Little Caesar's for a couple pizzas to finish off my "meal" and it's super sunny, bright and cheerful, no more rain, not a cloud in the sky. I was quite disappointed.

James is on the phone before I can get out of the parking lot. It's kids eat free night at Lonestar, can we pleeeeeeeeeeeeease go tonight Okay, I give in. So I pick up the family and we head to the restaurant. Gma meets us there and has appetizer ready and waiting and everyone is in high spirits. Hope starts handing out her share of the absolute most cheesiest fries ever, which is somewhat out of the ordinary, but not enough to send up flags. By the time we're finishing and soups and salads are arriving, Hope has to go to the bathroom. No big deal, the child has always been infatuated with seeing bathrooms. We go in and she is taking FOREVER! Next thing I know there's a huge potty explosion, or rather, she has major diarrhea. After another 10 minutes she's all better. We go sit down, I scarf down my salad and shes running back to the bathroom. I feel really bad for her now. We get back to the table and everyone's eating and I sit and scarf down my dinner as fast as possible and tell her to come on and we'll go wait in the truck where she can laydown and be a tad more comfortable while the others finish up and pay the bill. So she stands up and proceeds to throw up.... EVERYWHERE! It just kept coming and coming and she couldn't stop. It was projectile vomit everywhere. I'm running for cover. Mom of the year I am not and I do not handle puke at all, not without contributing my own to it at least. Fortunately we were over in a corner away sorta hidden away from others and didn't disturb anyone else's meal. I pawned it off on the waitress while the waitress pawned it off on the poor bus boy and I ran for the door with Hope as fast as I could before I joined her in her puke-fest. She was soooooooooo embarrassed. I felt really bad for her, but honestly I have never seen or smelled anything more disgusting in my entire life!!!!!

We came home, the guys stayed downstairs playing video games while the girls and I laid down upstairs with Hope's new movie, Ella Enchanted, but we decided to forego the popcorn and candy!

The Capital of Russia

This is one of the best Hopey-isms I've heard in months. It's definitely good enough to bring me out of the shadows to post again.

Tonight Hope and Roman and Bethany were one upping each other.

Hope "I can could by 10's!"
Roman "Well, I can count by 5's, 10's, and 20's!"
Bethany "So what, I can count by 1's!"

James, in over hearing this pipes in, "You guys think your sooooo smart tonight, so, who can tell me the the capital of Russia?"

Hopey gets this cocky smirk on her face and grinning from ear to ear proudly announces that SHE knows the capital of Russia. "The capital of Russia is R!"

I Love Up

One of the new shirts Hope bought yesterday during her impromptu shopping spree was a cute little brown shirt trimmed in pink and across the chest has 'I (a pic of a heart) (a pic of an arrow pointing up)' that is supposed to read "I love me". In asking Hope what her shirt says she tells me, "It means I love up! You know, like the sky and the stars, the sun and the moon. Oh and ME! hehe"

How Far will Hope go when Daddy says No to Shopping....

Yesterday James and the kids were in Baltimore to take Buz to the airport. They went up early to beat rush hour traffic through DC. Anyone who's ever driven it before knows why! So to waste some time they went to Arundel Mills. Hope's most favorite thing in the world is SHOPPING! She is a shop-a-holic. Yes, at 5 years old my daughter is an addict! As they were walking around she spotted the Limited Too. <-- a Hopey fav! Daddy quickly said NO as he knows he has a weakness for the Hope-Hope when it comes to feeding her clothing fetish. So as she told me on the phone, "Mom I just got so excited I peed my pants!!!"

Yup, that'll do it! LOL Hope wins! She got her new outfit. LOL Actually it didn't quite happen that way. Hope apparently got really excited when she saw Limited Too and started doing the pee-pee dance. Well the one really bad thing about Arundel Mills is that bathrooms are few and far between. She made it to the bathroom, but had an accident while getting on the potty, part in floor, part in toilet. You get the picture. Enough that a new pair of shorts was necessary. They did not make it back to Limited Too, but instead James discovered Children's Place. Fortunately our closest mall at least does NOT have one of these, and luckily it's summer clearance time at TCP! They didn't get too out of control, but that pair of shorts turned into a skirt, 2 shirts, shoes and flip flops for Hope. Of course Bethany can't be left out so she came back sporting a new purple skort, matching striped shirt, and matching purple flip flops, with an extra pair of flip flops thrown in for good measure. Who can resist $1.50 flip flops?? And wouldn't you know it, TCP had Hawaiian shirts on sale in Roman's size. James and Roman have a huge thing for Hawaiian shirts (gag!), so throw 2 of those in the mix and there you have it....

Cost of peeing your pants 155 miles from home?? PRICELESS!

Thank God for Jelly Bread

Hope's dinner prayer:

God is Great, God is good
Let us thank Him for our food
We fold our hands, we bow our head
Thank you Lord for Jelly Bread!

Congratulations Heather!!!!

A big Congratulations to my cousin Heather on her high school graduation!!!

This past Saturday we headed to the Eastern Shore to celebrate Heather's graduation at her grandparents house, my Aunt Deanie and Uncle Charlie's. I sure hope Heather had a good time, cause I know with out a doubt the Trettel's had a fantastic time! The girls were in heaven. Let's see.... Heather, Leia, Abby, Megan, Rionna, and even baby Emma! Add Hope and Bethany and let me know tell you, that is a LOT of girls! Poor Roman, painfully outnumbered once again.

We had great company, great food - including lots of steamed crabs! Yummy!!! - beautiful weather, and ATV's! What better way to get some testerone back into this party than by pulling out not 1, but TWO 4-wheelers. Uncle Charlie has some great trails marked off through the woods at the back of his property and the kids got their first taste of 4-wheeling. And yes, they're all addicted! The girls screamed, FASTER, FASTER! and Roman got to drive himself once he became familiar with it. It was by far the highlight of the trip. And James is already pricing them out... though my foot is planted on a big fat NO to that.

We left Roman there with Grandma (my mom) with plans of an amazing fun-filled week. He spent yesterday and part of today in DC with my mom getting spoiled, swimming, and going to the movies. They will be heading to Aunt Philly's later today for swimming and a carnival where he gets to ride all the rides with Leia. Then tomorrow afternoon James' dad is picking him up there and he is headed to the lake in PA for the remainder of the week. We plan to join him there on Friday and look forward to bringing not only him, but James' cousin Buz back home too. Buz will be visiting with us next week, so lots going on around here should I not get a chance to check back in.

CBBT

Saturday morning we awoke early after a rough night with Trooper, packed up Roman's bags for the week and hit the road. Our destination: Heather's graduation party in Princess Anne, MD on the Eastern Shore. The kids have never been out that way via VA, only through MD, therefore they got to experience their first trip across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel, or the CBBT. James has horrible memories of the CBBT as he generally despises bridges, and even more so, tunnels, so 24 miles across the Chesapeake Bay is not very thrilling for him. Me, however, I have great memories of driving that route. I LOVE water and it is just a very relaxing, peaceful drive for me, and I always remembered stopping in the middle of the Bay at this little gift shop, restaraunt and the CBBT being so long that you couldn't see land in either direction while stopped there. I told the kids about it the whole way there, and as we're coming out of the 2nd tunnel with no sign of the middle of the Bay stop I remembered, it became evident that you CAN see land in both directions from the middle of the Chesapeake Bay Bride Tunnel. I was a little taken back I'll admit. How is this possible? I clearly remember seeing nothing but water for as far as the eye could see, and even more so, James also remembers the bridge being sooooooooooo long that land could not be seen. He also remembered 3-4 tunnels along this path, and I thought for sure it was right.... nope, there's only 2!

As we sat there pondering how crazy our perceptions as children differ from today and how enormous this bridge complex once looked to us, Roman spoke up from the back seat to clarify everything. "I bet it used to be really really big, huh mom!" "Yes Roman, that's how I remember it". "I bet they shrunk it some since then. You know, took out the other 2 tunnels and made the bridges smaller!" LOL Yeah Roman, cause the Chesapeake Bay has shrunk that much since we were kids! LOL You always hear how the Bay is endangered, apparently by the Trettel standards, it must be in grave danger! LOL

We never did find my restaurant/gift shop/pier in the middle of the Bay, at least not on the way up there. On the way back I realized it's at the 1st tunnel entrance from the mainland, literally just a couple miles off the mainland and the entire coastline was clearly visible as we went inside for dinner. So much for not seeing land! Was I really that blind as a kid??

Blackberries

Bethany overheard a conversation James and I were having last Friday about the new blackberry I was just issued at work...

James: Where's your blackberry I want to check it out.

Julie: Oh, I left it at work sitting on the charger. Didn't think about it.

This is where Bethany butts in...

"Ohhhhhhhhh, that's not good"

Julie: Bethany, what are you talking about.

"You left blackberry at work, that's just not right!"

Julie: Why?

"Cause it'll probably be bad by the time you get back to work. That's just wrong. I love blackberries, we should have eaten them, now you'll just have to throw them out!"

Hope Update - 5 1/2 years old

Hope Elizabeth turned 5 this past January. She is gearing up to start Kindergarten in the fall and is very very excited about it. She is our little book worm. She spends at least part of everyday practicing writing and drawing. She is also infatuated with learning Roman's math facts flash cards we've been working on this summer and she is beginning to read. I know she will fly through Kindergarten with no problems. In March we took her to see a pediactric opthamologist after she failed the eye exam for her Kindergarten physical. Turns out she's already near-sighted. She does look adorable in her new glass though! She has been busy this year playing soccer and she began dance classes, ballet and tap. In May she had her 1st recital and so just so beautiful on stage!!! Her big passion right now is music. She LOVES music. High School Musical is her fav movie of all time and she can recite it word for word songs and all. It is too cute. She too has made a lot of friends this past year. Her best friend right now is probably Evangelina. Other friends include Madison, Cole, Quinn, Rebecca, and Ella. She is still the sweetest child ever. Still oh so dramatic at times, the ultimate Drama Queen. And still 120% GIRL. It's all about the pink and the flowers and the purses and the clothes. She is a bit of a shopaholic and we're having to keep that in check these days. Oh, and she refuses to clean, it is beneath her, so she has been paying her brother to do it for her. "I just don't clean, it's gross and it's not me." Her big ambitions in life has upgraded (I think) from her former desire to be a cashier at Food Lion. She nows dreams of owning her own business.... an ice cream truck to drive around the neighborhoods selling ice cream to kids!

Roman Update - 7 1/2 years old

Roman has just completed 1st grade. His teacher was Mrs. Powers. He did fantastic in school, his reading has really taken off. School studies still are coming easily for him. Sometimes a little too easy making him hard to keep motivated. He has gotten so big this year it's not even funny. Amazing what a difference a year makes! His best friend in the whole world is still Josh Sammon, whom we did get to visit with last month (but that's a whole other post of it's own!). He has made lots of other friends this past year as well and is becoming quite social. His friends list today include Elijah, Josiah, David, Truman, Quinn, Cole, Matthew H., Matthew J., Ian, Kyle, Zach, Steven, and Chloe. Notice the girl side of his list this year took a dramatic plumet. Roman spent this past year active in soccer and Cub Scouts as well as church - a great change for our entire family. He is gearing up to play football for Reams this fall and quite excited about that, though torn about missing fall soccer. I haven't paid for either quite yet, so we'll see where that leads us. His biggest interests still revolve around sports, cars, Star Wars, and Pirates. And his future ambitions still are pointing towards a career in the military, though the branch has shifted, right now his heart is set on the Army (but last year was all about the Navy). Roman is stubborn and a tad hard headed. He's an observer and the quietest of the family. He is very kind and loving, especially to his sisters. He is reserved and tends to keep things bottled up inside a little too much at times. He is 110% boy. Last night there was a dead fly on the floor in the den and he was determined to examine it. When I fussed as he picked it up he tells me, "It's okay mom, I'm a boy. This is just what we do!"

Been far too long

The kids are growing like weeds and I'm been too busy and too exhausted trying to keep up with them to keep this place up and running. Sooooooooooo many wonderful times and great memories have been missed and a few already forgotten I'm sure. AS life starts to settle back in I'm going to try to get this place back up and running.

A quick update on the last 6 months....

Barbara's house finally sold in March. We are busily trying to get the final touches completed on the Redbridge house to get her moved in early July. Looking forward to getting my house in order once and for all, as well as a few projects I want completed.

Last October we began going to Trinity Church of the Nazarene and have become very involved with out church. It is a small church and very family oriented which is just perfect for us. James has joined the band for the contemporary service and is loving it. We've made a lot of really great friends through our church. On Easter Sunday this past April, the unimaginable happened, James was baptized! Yup, it really truly did snow that morning! LOL

In May we took a trip to Florida to visit the Sammons and then to South Carolina on the way back up for Joey's graduation.... I'll post a full post on this as it was just too big a moment and needs to be captured all on it's own!

Earlier this month we adopted a puppy. He looks like a purebred beagle, but is suspected to be some sort of hound/beagle/basset mix. His name is Trooper and he is too cute for words, and for his own good for that matter. He is a biter and we're having a few issues with that, but otherwise he really is a perfect dog for our family and fits in so well! He travels well, he's obnoxiously friendly (like his big sisters!), and most of the time quite sweet. The kids have so far been doing a wonderful job with him!

Yes there was, of course a lot more to my time away, but those the main things to note for now. I'm sure I'll think of something else later.

Another Year of Farting Deer

It is that time again when the obnoxious "farting deer" return and the even more obnoxious farting deer song is sung nearly every second of the day. We have 9 farting deer, same as last year. Roman desperately wants to add 3 more this Christmas for an even dozen, but I don't think that's going to be in the budget right now. Our neighbors have quite a few in their yard too and you can imagine the looks on their faces when the kids told them just how great their house looks with all those farting deer!

Time Lapse

There has been an insanely large gap in postings here. We've had quite a busy year and, well, 2006 has just been downright INSANE! The first 4 months were relatively normal. We did do spring soccer at the Y again and that was a lot of fun, though we won't be going back their after some policy changes, a few concerning issues, and an increase in cost. But anyway, we managed to end the season on yet another high note! In May we joined the pool at Shenandoah. Roman went from not swimming at all, literally freaking out if water got in his face to jumping off the high dive and swimming in the 12 ft well unassisted in TWO WEEKS! He was AMAZING!!!! He is quite the little fish and hoping to join the swim team in 2007. Hope and Bethany also made huge strides in swimming before the end of summer. Both can swim under water well and above water with floaties. I think they'll be ditching the floaties by 4th of July this year. It's insane watching little Bethany swim around. She is a complete fish and probably one of the strongest most natural little swimmers I've ever seen. But that's B, she still can not be outdone by anyway, especially her big sister!

One big highlight of our summer was spending a week in Hatteras. We went up Saturday morning on June 24th with mom and Barbara in tow. Then on Monday Jason, Angie, Josh, and Madison joined us. Overall we had a GREAT, relaxing, enjoyable vacation. It's always iffy on how vacations will go with friends and family for that matter. But I can honestly say we would not hestitate to vacation with the Sammon's again! The kids were just in heaven, and it was a beautiful week. We got back on July 1st and Hopey went on home with mom for a few days from there. We are still hearing stories about her time there "when I (Hope) lived with mommy's grandma". She was able to attend the family 4th of July party at Aunt Philly and Uncle Dave's and had a blast from what we've heard. I went back to work on the 3rd then off on the 4th. The 4th this year was INSANE! WE spent almost the entire day at the pool for the community 4th of July party. We did join in on the dinner, but headed to Jon and Alicia's instead for Garrett's 3rd birthday party. Then the Sammon's joined us there later for fireworks. Normally I love doing 4th of July fireworks on the Jones's lake, BUT after spending ALL DAY in the sun with NO naps, the kids were just unbearable and we (as well as Angie and Jason) had to bail early to get 5 little cranky monsters into bed. Aside from the rough ending we really did have a wonderful 4th this year.

We also spent a great deal of summer remodeling Barbara's house and packing our own. That is STILL a work in progress. LOL Her house has been on the market for 5 months and still no offers. It is getting hard not to stress about it, but what else can we do?? We practically gutted the place and inside it is like new. The yard needs work, but at the price of the house it's not worth the investment, so we're stuck in limbo waiting for someone to fall in love with the place and take it off our hands forever! Barbara has been living with us since mid-August. We still have work to do on our old house before she will move in there, but two weeks after we began moving into our new house - which we LOVE btw!! - my company move began. It was 6 weeks of long hours and weekend work, and quite frankly by the time October arrived I was just plum worn out!

Roman started school right after Labor Day. He is 1st grade now and has Mrs. Powers for his teacher. He is lazy when it comes to reading and is seeing a reading specialist right now. Not because he is behind, but really because he is having a hard time moving to the next level. As it was last year, the first few months of school were a rough and emotionally draining time for him. One thing we did not do this fall was play soccer. With so many other things going on we just couldn't make time for it. We did, however, let Roman join Cub Scouts. James and I are sharing the den parent responsibilities and overall thoroughly enjoying it! Needless to say life has flown by with barely a moments rest since school began.

Before I knew it, Bethany's birthday was here! She had a Curious George theme this year and it was fantastic. She had a great time! Roman helped me with the decorations and it was really just a lot of fun. I didn't stress at all about it and everything went off without a hitch. The kids played and played and after the bulk of them left, we ended up keeping Megan and Abby overnight - their first sleep over with us! - and Ilana spent the night with Sebastian and Sabrina. To put things into prospective...that would be 1 20mo, 3 3yo, 2 4yo, and 1 6yo. Yup, SEVEN kids 6 and under, AND, we had every single one of them in bed asleep before 9:30! It was a miracle, but a lot of fun too.

From there, honestly I have NO IDEA what happened to November. Where did it go?!? I hosted Thanksgiving this year and I have no idea how I did it because it's all just a blur. I don't remember ever really preparing for it. We had 20 people total and it was a whole lot of fun. Huh?? That just doesn't sound like me! LOL I was plum exhausted on Thursday night, but it was one of the smoothest, stressfree parties I've ever done! Friday morning instead of going out to do my traditional Black Friday shopping I instead got us all packed up and headed out the door. We went up to Baltimore for Dan and Erin's baby shower. It was fun, nice to see everyone, but darn it, why did Dan have to go buy a Wii?? Now that's all James and Roman can think about. LOL We drove home that night as Barbara had surgery to repair a hernia on Tuesday and we didn't want to leave her alone for too long. Was a blessing too as Sat and Sun were in the mid to upper 60's and we put a big dent in our outdoor decorating for Christmas!

So that about brings this blog to current date. Hopefully life will return to some form of normality soon and I will have time and energy to keep up with this blog. I've missed it these past 6 months or so and am a bit saddened at all the hysterical and emotional pandemonium missed for 2006. So hard to believe we on the verge of a whole new year already!

Make-up Dance

Last Friday we were completely disorganized, James was out in left field somewhere and we both managed to completely forget about it being Friday. I was on the phone with James around 10:30 when it dawned on me... "Why aren't you guys at dance practice??" From 10:15-11:15 every Friday Hope Elizabeth has dance class. We signed her up in September for both ballet and tap and she absolutely adores it! She is quite good too. So anyway, I called over to Jessica Morgan's School of Dance and asked what the deal was with make-up classes. They told me there was 4-5 year old ballet/tap class with her teacher, Miss Breanne, on Saturday morning at 9:30. PERFECT! I had never gotten to take her to dance class before and I would finally get to really check the place out. So as I'm shuffling the kids up to bed for the night I explained to Hope that although it was Friday (and normally could stay up a little late) she really needed to go to sleep because she had her make-up class for dance the next morning. Upon reaching the top of the stairs Hope turned around to face me, and with an oh-so-innocent look with troubled expression she asks: "Mom, do you think the boys will be wearing makeup tomorrow too??" LOL Not THAT kind of makeup dance!!!

So Saturday morning we wake up and I get Hope ready for dance, breakfast fed, and out the door on time - which is a rarity for me! On the way there she starts chatting about all the kids in her class, though I did explain they would not be there today, and she tells me about Benjamin. Benjamin is the only little boy in her dance class and apparently he is quite smitten with my little Hope-Hope. She tells me, "Mom, he really truly has a crush on me. I just know it." So once we get in to the studio we see Miss Breanne and Hope gives her a big hug and Miss Breanne tells her how much she was missed the day before and how everyone, 'especially Benjamin' were asking about her. Hope turns to me and says, "See mom, I told ya he has a crush on me." After her dance class on the way home she brings it up AGAIN. "Mom, you know, I guess you could say Benjamin and I have crushes on each other. I'm just a little shy about him. Mom, I really just don't know what to do about Benjamin!" Okay, heard ENOUGH, time to change this subject. She is FOUR! I'm not ready for this!!!

Wow! Where have the last 2 months gone??

It has been so long since I last updated here that I'm not completely sure of where to begin. I have missed so much of the day to day pandemonium by not blogging more regularly, but there is a great excuse for the lapse. The Trettel's are MOVING! There has been a lot of insanity involved with this move. Barbara's house is being sold and she is moving into our house on Redbridge Rd and we are moving 2 miles away in Shenandoah subdivision. We are buying are good friend's, the Sammon's, house, as we're devastated to say they are moving to Utah. We close on the house on August 1st, Barbara's house is officially on the market after many ups and downs and open for showing and we are all living in the now much too small house on Redbridge. In reality I have not posted on this blog since May 1st, as we have truly just been THAT busy. In an attempt to organize my thoughts over the last 10 1/2 weeks I am going to go back and retro-date notable occurances of the true pandemonium at the Trettel house, though I am positive I will not due justice the true insanity of all that has gone on in our lives during this time!

Memorial Weekend

We had a nice Memorial weekend, staying close to home as we continue to clear out Barbara's house of 25 years of clutter, and most notable, we joined Shenandoah's community pool and had a wonderful time there this weekend. The kids are skeptical of the water still, but this is the first year we've joined a pool and the first major access to a pool since we left Florida. Hoping this is THE year for the kids. The water has always been a big part of life for me and James, so our kids refusing to learn to swim has been a bit disheartening. We haven't had the best start either, but hopefully as they get more and more comfortable and confident in and around the water things will change. We plan on spending a lot of time at the pool this summer!

We've Lost Our Minds!

In a move of true insanity, we have halted the remodeling project of our home. Why? Because we're gutting and remolding Barbara's instead. Why? Because we're selling it. Why? Because she's moving into our house and we are about to go to contract on a new house! Our friends Jason and Angie recently announced that he is being relocated to UTAH. We are all a bit devastated by the news, but hey, we know better than most that you gotta do what's best for you and your family, and this is a great opportunity for them. So, they made a good deal on their house, which is in our same school district and one of two neighborhoods we have been watching closely, and quite frankly James, especially, LOVES this house. It will be a great house for the kids to grow up and we will finally have some true stability in our lives, and well, we already know we love the neighbors! But, the madness of what all has to be done to get through this summer is truly overwhelming. One day at a time from here on!

Heaven Sure is Cold

Most cemetaries in WV sit way up on top of a mountain. The locals way back when believed this helped them reach heaven faster as they left this earth as close to heaven as possible. I was explaining this to James and the kids as we were bouncing around along a "goat trail" up the side of a mountain to a family cemetary only reachable with 4x4. Makes you wonder how they get them up there to bury them, huh! Anyway we of course talked a little about God and heaven and how beautiful the mountains are. We even had a baby deer run right across us up the side of themountain. When we arrived at the "dead yard" as Roman had named it, we all hoped out to put flowers on the graves of ancestors and listen as uncle Dave told stories about some of the folks buried there. Well, it was quite windy up on that mountain and as we entered the cemetary Roman tugged on my shirt and whispered, "Mom, heaven sure is cold!"

West Virginia

This past weekend we were in West Virginia with Aunt Philly, Uncle Dave, Steven, Vickie, Leia, Riona, Kari, Kermit, Abby, and Megan. Growing up we would also go up to WV over Memorial Weekend to pay respects to our ancestors and visit with distant relatives and listen to stories of life long ago. I took James many years ago, but this was a first for the kids. We stayed in a log cabin with nice views of the river, and although the cabin wasn't up to everyone's standards, we did have a great time. We visited the cemetaries, threw rocks in the river, hiked 1.5 miles up and back to the observation tower at Seneca Rocks - boy was I impressed with my babies! Roman and Hope both walked with next to 0 complaints all the way up and all the way down. Bethany Nicole walked her little 2 yr old legs off as she hiked all the way to the top on her own and then James and I switched back and forth carrying her down. They all loved it, as did James and I! We also had a great bonfire and let the kids cook their dinner (hotdogs) and dessert (s'mores) over the open fire. And we ended the trip with a tour of Smoke Hole Caverns. It was a really nice weekend and everyone had a great time!

The Broken Recliner

What insanity one little broken recliner can cause! Last week the recliner basically went caput. It's been dieing, leaning to one side and not reclining right for awhile, but last week it began to recline the back all the way backwards as soon as you sat in it, reclined or not. So James and I decided it was time for new furniture! We went out on Thursday evening to look at our options and both fell in love with a dark navy, arguably off black, leather sofa with 2 recliners built in and matching recliner chair. It is soooooooooooooooo comfortable! We went ahead and bought it on the spot and it will be delivered on later this week. Well, that brings us to our next dilema, the walls in the living room are tan, and will not look good with the navy furniture, so I went and picked out paint, a cool "fog" color that's either grey or light blue depending on your perception at any given moment. WEll, that brings us to our next dilema! The floor is nasty, dirty tan berber that we have hated since day 1, and especially with navy furniture and blue/grey walls, so we have shopped around and found a great deal on laminate flooring. The plan now is to paint the walls, pull up the yucky carpet and lay light beech laminate flooring. Originally we going to do carpet in just the living room and hallway, but for less than that cost we are doing the laminate in the living room, hallway, kitchen, and utility room. It should be gorgeous when we're done! All this because one little recliner broke!

I Want My Teeth!

Yesterday evening Roman was sitting on my lap eating an apple when he started to choke, then gag. I got him to the sink and he was able to spit it out and threw up a little bit. This is the 3rd time this has happened recently and it's scary. So out of frustration I ask, to no one in particular, "Why does this keep happening? Why does he keep choking all a sudden?!" to which Roman yells, "Because I can't chew, I don't have any teeth!" Then he sort of went hysterical and started bawling, crying over and over, "I just want my teeth back!" It was really pitiful, but I had to leave the room from laughing so hard!

Come Back and Visit Tomorrow

A miracle happened this weekend. Some sucker (sorry Angie! hehe) willingly volunteered to take ALL THREE of my kids for a sleep over! She was gluten for punishment for sure! Angie had asked it they could come over Saturday evening and they ended up staying the night - ALL of them. This has NEVER happened for us and the kids were thrilled! Of course we called half a dozen times, but tried to refrain from driving her too insane. We missed the little monsters like mad, but knew they were excellent hands. The house was way too quiet, but we did actually accomplish a lot on a huge remodling project we've recently started. At about midnight I sat up and said, "Oh no! Bethany doesn't have a baby to sleep with!" Funny how things just pop into your head like that. Bethany apparently did great without her baby doll and did not sleep with one last night either, though she was asking for it. Angie also worked on potty training her, so I was worried James would never let me pick her back up! LOL Anyway, we finally went to get them around 3 yesterday afternoon after nearly 24 hours. Can you believe it? There was one minor incident where Bethany fell off the steps and conked her head, but we're used to those types of accidents with that child and she was fine.

I must say, the best and worst feeling of all is coming to pick up your children and hearing "Oh no, they're hear, HIDE!" LOL It's great because at that moment you KNOW they had a great time and were well taken care of. There is no doubt what-so-ever. It sad because, we'll it would be a little nice if they were excited to see us! LOL We hung out and let them play a little longer and when it was finally time to go Hope started whining, "but we haven't had enough time to play, it's not fair!" Okay, 24 hours is just not enough time to play with the Sammons. Hmm, wonder if they'll still be that excited to be around each other come July 1st after a week together at the beach! So finally get Roman and Hope heading out the door and Bethany goes running up to hide in their swingset. So, I try the usual, 'we're leaving without you' bit and say, "Okay Bethany we're leaving, bye!" and instead of being greeted with the normal squeal and "No WAIT!" as she runs as fast as she can to catch up, I am instead greeted with "Okay mommy, come back and visit tomorrow!"

Hope and Alex

Last fall there was a little boy named Alex on Hope's soccer team. This year he moved up to Roman's division and his father is coaching his team. Well, on Saturday Roman's team played Alex's team. Hope was soooooooooo excited to see him. They were too cute together. In the middle of the game Alex decided it would be best if he and Hope went to the playground instead of playing/watching the game. Of course I said no, as did his mom, so Alex says, "Come on Hope, you can sit with me then." He then takes her hand and they walk off hand in hand. They looked like a pair teenagers snuggled together lovingly holding hands as they watched the game. Everytime they'd get up they had to hold hands while walking together. It was too sweet, and we definitely have to keep an eye on that kid with our daughter! LOL They did eventually make it to the playground for a few minutes at least.

Belated Easter Update

Okay, my last post for now, but wanted to update on our Easter this year since I've been slacking on here lately. On Friday (4/14) the girls and I headed out to Powhatan to color Easter eggs with Steven and Garrett. Jon was out of town fishing, so James stayed home. We were joined by their neighbor Eric and his two boys. We ate and colored eggs and overall everyone had fun. Last year, you may remember, Garrett - my cutie-pie Godson - ate one of the color tabs during our egg dying party. This year, he tried to eat my kids instead! Garrett is going through a biting phase and bit Steven, then Roman, then finally honked down on Bethany's arm really hard! There is actually still a light mark from it and it's been nearly 2 weeks. That one got him sent to bed early, poor little guy. He's just having trouble getting things out and bites when he gets frustrated. We're all hoping this phase passes soon, especially Bethany!

On Sunday we awoke to a sneaky Easter Bunny who hid all the eggs and baskets. The kids scored with lots of fun goodies, like jump ropes, magna doodles, bubble guns, new crazyons, sunglasses, goggles and of course, candy! Bethany was hysterical with the jump rope. She's hold onto the handles like a pro then turn into a Mexican jumping bean and boing around as fast as she could dragging the rope behind her. She was so incredibly proud of herself and James and I couldn't stop laughing at her!

After they settled down, we all got dressed in our Easter outfits and headed to DC. We picked up mom and Aunt Bonnie and went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History. Roman was in awe of everything, especially the dinosaurs. What a great age he's at right now! Bethany became very territorial over mom's chair which she let B ride around with her on. And Hope was happy as can be attempting to say hello to every person in Washington, DC! That's my little social butterfly. :) Mom had forgotten to charge her chair, which died towards the end of our visit and I had to push her back out, across two streets, and back to the car, with Bethany still riding along, of course. It was fun, and I'm sure really funny to watch us. On the way back home we stopped at the pond to feed the fish and one lone goose. The kids had a ball with that. Finally back to mom's house for Easter dinner before heading home. It was a lot of fun and we all enjoyed the wonderful day!

Re-addressing Concepts of Time and Age

I have posted in the past of Roman's concept of time and what is old. Well today is my 30th birthday, which means James just turned 35 three days ago. On James's birthday we went out to dinner at Ghenghis Kahn and Roman and I were discussing age.

How old is daddy? -- 35, he's old and no matter what, he will always be a lot older than mommy.

Well, how old is mommy? -- 29 and I'll be 30 in a few days.

That's not very old, you're still young mommy. You don't even have any grey hair, just all nice and brown! -- (does he know how to suck up or what?)

So, how old does that make grandma? -- She'll be 60 this year, that's twice as old as mommy.

OH man, she's ANCIENT!

Do You Understand Me?

There comes a time in every girls life when they stop and say, "Wow, I sound just like my mother!" For Bethany Nicole this revelation has already hit. Yes at just 2 1/2 years old, my beloved baby girl has already begun sounding just like her mother.

As we were settling in for storytime before bed the other night all the kids crowded around me on the couch. Hope sat just to my right and Roman on the left with Bethany butted up against him trying to see the book. Roman started pushing her away and telling her to move, she was squishing him and he didn't like it. So Bethany says, "Mommy said I could sit here, do you understand me?" Roman just huffed and Bethany says, "Oh no, you look at me when I'm talking to you, do you understand me! Roman? I said, do you understand me! I am not moving!"

Yes I about fell off the couch laughing. I have been using the "do you understand me" and "look at me when I'm talking to you" cards with Bethany frequently these days as she is getting old enough to know better with some of her behaviors, and you have to fully gain her attention to make sure your point is getting across. It was about as revelationational to the "children are like sponges absorbing everything around them" theory as the time Roman, at roughly her age, decided he wanted a drink of my coke and upon telling him no, he defiantly says, "And you said we're a sharing family!" LOL Hope had been just a baby and so the concepts of what it means to be a big brother and sharing were being instilled in him at the time. All three like to play that card even still today, and the ironic part is, the first time I told that to Roman was my "Wow, I sound just like my mother!" moment!

Hope's 4 year Stats

Hope finally had her 4 year check-up on April 17th. She too has grown signicantly and chunked up over the last year. Hope now weighs 39 lbs (75%) and is 40 1/2 inches tall (50%). The check-up went pretty smooth, no issues to report, she looks PERFECT! Then I brought up her speech issue. Hope still has trouble pronouncing certain letters and in a lot of ways Bethany is beginning to speek more clearly than Hope. We will keep an eye on her this summer and have the school evaluate her in the fall - though I'm going to talk to the school today to see what the process is for this and may move sooner on it. At first the doctor was surprised when I brought this up saying she had understood Hope perfectly through the whole meeting. Famous last words! I'm not sure she understood another word out her mouth the rest of the visit! We both agreed it's best to get this resolved or on it's way to being resolved before she starts Kindergarten.

Another Trip to the ER

I can not believe it's been nearly a month since I last updated. That just goes to show how insanely busy I've been this month. The kids are doing well overall. This past Saturday while James and i were working on spring cleaning the kitchen the kids got this brilliant idea! Underneath the girls' bunkbed would make the perfect fort. Once we noticed all was more than a little too quiet, we stopped and started the hunt for where the kids were and what they were doing. We discovered them in their "fort", where they had removed one of the drawers (they have 3 drawers under their bed, but because it's a full size bottom bunk, half of the bed behind the drawers is all open space) and crawled back behind the other drawers. Roman had snagged James droplight and rigged it up so they could see under there and all we heard to tip us off of this secret hide out was tons of giggles. They were so cute and proud of themselves. Roman came out to talk to us, then Bethany while Hope remained "inside". We laughed, told them they were crazy and that it was time to get out now. Of course this in Bethany speech translated to 'get back under there where they can't reach me as fast as I can!' When she did, she cut her wrist on the metal support glider bar that the dresser drawer rests on. It was a big gash about 2 1/2 inches long which is HUGE on a tiny 2 year old. We feared it may need stitches, put a basic bandage on it and told her to keep it up in the air - which she did and was just too adorable, such a little trooper! And off to the ER we headed. She was seen very quickly and Dr. Sang laughed at the fact that this was her 2nd trip in just over a month saying, "With a kid like her, we expect to be on a first name basis with you!" GREAT! Just what I wanted to hear. LOL He said in an older kid he probably would have stitched the deepest part, but in one her age the emotional damage would outway the benefit of the stitches, just not worth it. So he put butterfly closures on it and sent us on our way. They told us that the closures were waterproof and next to impossible to pull off, that they would fall off on their own in about a week. We just needed to keep the area clean and bandaged. On the way home we stopped by WalMart to pick up some gauze and tape and really big bandaids that would help cover the area - after all she IS only 2 and a total dirt magnet and we definitely don't want it to get infected. I also picked up 2 boxes of butterfly closures. Why? They assured us they wouldn't come off for a week. Well, by now anyone reading this blog should understand just how extremely stubborn and strong willed this daughter of mine is. And yes, before bed that same day she had two of them pulled off and by morning she had all but one from the hospital's pulled off. We have been through one of the two boxes replacing pulled off butterfly closures so far!

Oh, and she gained THREE pounds in the month between ER visits according to their scales! I have to remember to check her weight at home. How on earth could my little scrawny girl with the buddha belly full of fluff go from the 25th percentile to the 82nd percentile in 6 months?!?

The Thunder Cake

So, Monday night we headed to Don Jose's after Hope's soccer practice for dinner. During out time there it began to thunder, lightening, pour down rain, hail and all. James volunteered to go get the car and pull it up to the door for us, but I had just recently read an online post about running through the rain and how cleansing, satisfying and refreshing it can be and how all people should take a few seconds to just run through the rain. As adults we forget that simple little joy we all faced as kids. So, the 5 of us held hands, Daddy, Roman, Bethany, Hope, and Mommy, and took off through the pouring rain giggling and hooting the whole way to the car. It was awesome!

But, that's not really what this post is about. LOL See, once in the car on our drive home Roman starts carrying on and on about how we need to go home and bake a thunder cake. A thunder cake? So, I offer up a lightning cake. I can handle cutting a cake into a bolt of lightning and icing it yellow. NO, a THUNDER CAKE. Okay, so what's a thunder cake?

A thunder cake is a really yummy cake you make during thunder storms. You need flour, eggs, milk, and tomatoes. (yes, you read that right). And still, he goes on.... Some icing, any flavor really, lemon would probably be best, and the cake flavor could really be anything, chocolate, vanilla, lemon, strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, or tomatoe. "Tomatoe would be best!"

So, stiffling hysterics, James and I inquire further. "Are you SURE you mean tomatoe? Like the round red vegetable that your sisters fight over all the time?" YUP, tomatoes! You squish them up and pour in some tomatoe juice and that makes a really super yummy Thunder Cake!

James volunteered to help him make it one day... I am not that brave! LOL

Spring Soccer 2006

This year, James is once again coaching Roman and Hope's teams this year. Roman in on the purple Panthers team, and Hope is on the blue Dolphins. Roman's team has had a bit of a rough start with a low turnout at Meet the Coach Day and a rained out first practice, then being thrown into a game having never met each other, and some never having played soccer before, and put up against a team that has played together for 2 seasons now. They struggled with a 0-4 loss, but we see alot of potential with this team and look forward to really getting this season off right at Tuesday's practice. Hope's team, in contrast, is a mighty powerhouse! We had a great turn out of 11 out of 12 players at meet and greet, an amazing 1st practice that had parents from other teams stopping to gawk, and it all came together at their first game as they ran circles around the other team. The team overall is ready to move into team play and scoring practice which is almost unheard of for 3 & 4 year olds this early in the season! We look forward to a lot of fun with both teams!

Bethany on the Phone

Yesterday in the van, Bethany was playing with a toy phone and just blabbing on and on. She was overheard saying, "Hello ME, I'm talking to YOU!" LOL

Bethany's Arm

Wow was this a crazy saga. It's probably a good thing that I was too busy to update during the actual events! Here's the full, as short as possible, unabridged version:

On the morning of Friday, March 17th - St. Patrick's Day, James took the girls to the mall playground after seeing Roman off to school. They played there for awhile. (note: Bethany is very rambunctious, likes to jump off of things and tumble everywhere when at this playground). Afterwards they went to Strictly Soccer to pick up some things for the season which started the following day. Bethany is bad about running around this particular store and usually there's just us in there anyway, but with a major tournament that weekend the place was crowded, so James held her hand tightly so she wouldn't take off. Well, she jerked back to get away while he still had her hand and she immediately dropped the floor hysterical. He snatched her up and loaded the girls in the car as Bethany screamed the worse imaginable scream and he called me in a panick of what to do. They came by the office and I took a quick look at it and she screamed anytime you touched it and wouldn't use it at all. So that afternoon I took her to the pediatrician. I did call Kari in between and she diagnosed her as "Nurse Maid's Elbow" as Abby also has it. It is essentially a dislocated elbow. (in hindsite, guess we should'a just packed up and headed to Aunt Kari's!) Kari had told me what to do to fix it and I tried and it would not pop, not at all, so off to the ped's we went. Dr. Saunders thought the same as Kari but couldn't be 100% positive. She tried to pop it back in place and only got a small little pop and was unconvinced that was the problem or that that fixed the problem. We took her home for 40 minutes of evaluation and she fell asleep, so we let her nap as long as she needed. When she awoke she still wasn't using her left arm. I lifted it up and she again screamed, but this time it popped, and popped, and popped, 6 times at the wrist and elbow, so Barbara came over to watch the girls while James and I took Bethany to the ER. We believe it was dislocated at both the wrist and elbow, because after her wrist popped she began to move her fingers and bend at her wrist whereas before she was not. In the ER she was an absolute doll and everyone fell in love with her. The nurses kept bringing stuff by to try to get her to use that arm.... lights, tongue depressors, stuffed animals, even a popcicle. She wouldn't even attempt to use her left arm, not for all the temptation in the world. She called it her "boo-boo arm" and told everyone how Daddy held her hand and made her arm hurt. Talk about laying on the guilt! They took x-rays and we were finally told she had a hairline fracture just above her elbow and they put a splint cast on, with sling, and referred us to Dr. Kim, a pediactric orthopaedic specialist. Since it was nearing midnight by then, we had to wait until Monday morning to call. Bethany HATED the sling and quickly discovered how to remove it and hid it every time we turned around. A constant battle. She also learned to unravell the ace bandages holding the cast in place and on Monday I came home at lunch to find her napping with both ace bandages completely removed! Boy did that hurt her when mommy had to rewrap her arm up. I had also called Dr. Kim's office and scheduled her appointment for Wednesday morning... another 2 full days of this! We were completely frazzled and ready to beg him for a full hard cast by the time Wednesday arrived. So, we get there, the nurse unwraps her arm while the Doc looks over her xrays. He comes in, says, nope, it's not broken afterall, just... Nurse Maid's Elbow! He took 30 seconds moved her arm in the same manner everyone else had, only this time it worked and she was instantaneously cured! I mean high fiving, hugging, and shaking hands all the way out the door. Unbelievable!!

Hope blew a hole in the floor!

Tonight for some unknown reason Hope Elizabeth was battling some major MAJOR gas. I've never seen a child fart so much in my life. At one point she farted so loud she had my guys cracking up and James says, "Hopey, I think you just blew a hole in the floor." Poor Hope got this momentary panick look on her face and quickly lifted up to peak under her just to make sure that floor was still there!

Trettel Family Update

I can't believe it's been nearly a month since I last posted. That should at least give some testimony to just how insanely busy we've been here. Over all everything is going well. I personally have been stressed and exhausted which is probably the biggest reason why I haven't posted much lately. School, work, kids, just everything snowballing at once. Bethany has been very trying and bring both James and I to the brink of our very last nerve frequently these days. She is worse than a young puppy and chews up EVERYTHING. This is nothing that child won't eat, rip, tear, shred, or chew and spit back out. We are having to re-examine the house for baby proofing and are running out of space to move things up higher and higher on shelves and in cabinets. She is testing every ounce of our patience and it has just been a very tiring battle. The child also doesn't go to sleep anymore without a long, drawn out battle of wills. Just last night she was up till midnight fighting us tooth and nail. Any "normal" kid would have slept in late after that battle, but not B, she was up at 7 ready to go, and grumpy as all get-out all morning long. We didn't battle the "terrible 2's" with Roman or Hope where age 3 seemed to be the hardest, but even that was NOWHERE near as difficult as Bethany at 2! Hope is doing fantastic! We couldn't be more proud of her. She is learning so many new things, writing, drawing, talking up a storm with near 100% clarity now. Literally overnight this child has blossomed and we are doing our best to nurture it. James has started a preschool homeschooling study program for her and Bethany and Hope is just thriving with it. Roman too is doing great! He lost his 5th tooth last month, the never ending tooth that remained wiggly and creating a huge gap in his mouth over the course of an entire month! It FINALLY came out and now he is a snaggle-tooth and cute as a button. His 2nd 9-week report card came back. He did slightly better than last month making straight E's in everything but art and music (which we're convinced only hands out S's). For the most part he is still loving school, though a lot of the excitment of it seems to be wearing off. Guess after day 100 it's all downhill, huh? LOL Everyone is gearing up for soccer season which begins in 2 weeks. James is very excited to be coaching both Roman and Hope's teams again this season.

Like I said at the start of this, life is just busy right now, but we're all doing just fine! :)

Visiting "The Dead People Place"

On the way home from Emily's birthday party today we swung through Leesburg. We haven't been up there in much too long. For those of you who don't know James and I lost our first born. Taylor Marie was stillborn in June of '98. Then between Roman and Hope we lost 2 more little babies to m/c, one of which was confirmed to be a baby girl. Today we stopped by the cemetary to visit Taylor's grave. The kids were interested and this time Roman, of course, asked many questions that James and I answered as honestly as we could. We have mentioned to him in the past that he is not truly the "oldest" as Taylor would have been 18 months older than him, but he never really "got it". James and I were saddened to see so many new graves near our little Taylor. Hers used to stand out as it more or less stood all alone and is now surrounded by many other little babies sent straight to heaven. In explaining who Taylor was to Roman he just sort of soaked it all in. He asked if he had anymore sisters he didn't know about, and James and I both looked at each other before saying "yes". He wanted to know their names and we told him about Isabel who we lost in the second trimester, and that there had been one other that died so young we didn't have a chance to name her (it was an early m/c), so he decided we would just name her "Angel", before taking in a head count and realizing he really has 5 sisters! Then as we were getting back in the truck he says in the saddest little voice, "I miss my big sister. I'm sorry she died and wish I could know her and play with her. I miss all 3 of my other sisters." It was hard not to bust out crying right then and there, but James and I both just smiled and told him how much we missed them too, especially Taylor, and also wished she could be there. It was a very beautiful moment that I will never forget.

True to form with my kids though, the reverence of the moment did not last long. Shortly after that Roman was on the phone with G-ma and so innocently says, "Hey G-ma, we went to the dead people place to visit my big sister. Did you know I have FIVE sisters?" The innocence, the excitment and tone of his voice, and his chosen words for 'cemetary' had James and I laughing so hard I thought I was going to pee my pants!

H-o-p-e

In the car today James was being silly and singing a little Hopey jingle to the tune of Bingo:

H O P E Y
H O P E Y
H O P E Y
and Hopey was her name-o

And Hope tells me through gritted teeth, "He's saying it all wrong, that's just not right! My name is H-o-p-e, there's no Y, he's just saying it all wrong and making me so mad!"