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! :)