Grandparents are God's Hugs

Being a mom is so weird! Things happen that you could never have guessed would happen like even in a million years! I kinda like it....most of the time! 

We went to Virginia a couple weeks ago to be at an award ceremony for my grandfather. He's almost 87 and he spent a large part of his life serving in Canada on the mission field. I don't get to see my  grandpa often, but I cherish the memories I do have and I love when my kids get to spend time with their grandparents as well. They get a taste of my childhood, I feel, when they climb up on the same knees I sat on, and hear the same stories I heard, and smell the same laundry soap on the shoulders that I did. There is something very sacred about it! For just a moment life's worry's, family disputes, and differing views fade away. I believe that a grandparents snuggles are a little piece of what Heaven must be like.

Well you know my kids and that the innocent peaceful and old fashioned picture I am painting right now didn't exist...at least for long. When we met up with my grandparents, one child had a 104 fever, another one ran up to Grandma and joyfully shouted "grandma!" effectively getting the entire rooms attention for the next thing that came out of his mouth. "How did you get so old??" Liam's entire plate of food was mushed into the floor and every one who owned an iphone went home with questionable photos on their devices!

Overall it was an evening more than a few people will likely never forget!

It was a quick weekend, and Sunday we went back to Mom and Dad's before heading home on Monday.

Middle of the night I was woken by a crying Caleb insisting that he was going to throw up. We sat in the bathroom together while he emptied his stomach. He looked up at me with tears in his eyes and said "I'm just homesick for Colorado mommy." Talk about guilt trip!

He went back to bed, but it was apparent that his fever was inching closer to that  gotta-take-him-in stage when he sat up and asked me if the tiger in the corner was real. 

Um I don't think so buddy! He mentioned that he also saw happy and sad in the corner, and I was flipping out! He rolled over and looked up into my frantic face, and said "don't be scared mommy, daddy can hit the tiger with his big hammer right there." Needless to say that was the end of sleep for me!

He lived though, and we drove home where Liam and Kyler decided it was the in thing to have 104 fevers, and we spent the next week popping Motrin like it was candy! Doctor confirmed it was flu, and just to make it interesting a case of pink eye and strep throat and I am hoping that we just decided to get all of our illnesses out at one time!

All in all the Wilson family is still going strong. Its weird to be carving pumpkins in t-shirts and shorts, but I'm sure by March those pictures of snowy Colorado will make us very thankful for our cold front temperatures of 75!

Your all more than welcome to come check those "chilly" temperatures out if you are so inclined! We'll leave the light on for ya!!

Dreams Come True

Its 7:04 am and there is a panicked child standing in my kitchen. His hair is standing on end and his little bare feet are poking out from under his jammie bottoms. "Mommy! The tooth fairy didn't come AGAIN!"

20 minutes later there is another child refusing to get out of bed, a baby feeding his pop tart to the dog and lunches in the wrong backpacks, which is kind of a big deal since the kid whose allergic to peanut butter is holding the lunch with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. 

The dog runs off into the woods. A kid chases him. There are now muddy footprints from the back door through the kitchen. We are dangerously close to lateish for school. I will later realize that the clean underwear that was laid out for the oldest is still sitting on his bed, his body already sitting at school.

Its 9:20 am and my arms are full of groceries. There is a three year old with his pants around his ankles writing his name on the drive way in pee, waving at the poor elderly neighbor lady who looks like she's just seen a ghost. The only emotion I can muster is relief that he is finally not wetting his pants, so I just turn and lug my 5 gallons of milk into the house.

2 hours later I am making lunch. My towheaded toddler is scarfing down cookies and the older one is eating a sucker. I'm questioning why I even need to make lunch at this point. Around his sucker I'm asked if I have a baby in my tummy. "NO!" I exclaim. "Well it looks like it!" he smiles and red sucker drool drips onto my freshly scrubbed floor.

I require them both to eat their hotdogs before they get any more suckers. Caleb proclaims his hot dog is gone. Indeed it is, but there is an entire wiener sticking out of the dachshunds mouth! Oh well, nap time comes after lunch, I let it go. 

My living room is filled with teeny little and overwhelmingly contagious peals of giggles as my one year old tries to escape my tickling fingers. There are blocks everywhere that I will pick up probably another 6 times before the end of the day. I wouldn't trade it for anything!!

Later I will hear the story about the kid who peed his shorts at school and the math test that had almost all 11's for answers, and there will be a belching contest in my mini-van that has goldfish ground into the carpet and the dvd player that works only half the time before we get home. I will proudly display A+ math tests on my fridge, and gently remind that "of" does not have a "v" in it.

There will be countless "I love you's" a few "your the meanest mommy in the world" and at least a dozen, "Somebody wipe me's!!" by the end of my day.

Supper will be one kids favorite meal and another will refuse to eat it. Bath time may or may not happen.Wet towels will probably have mold on them by the time I discover them in a pile at the back of the closet. Hopefully the spiders won't be hiding in it too.

9:30 pm will probably find at least half of my offspring still giggling in their beds, dirty socks on bedroom floors, and a pile of dishes in the sink. I'll be tired, I'll probably feel frustrated, and I will climb in bed knowing that I have everything I have always wanted!!

School Shopping Secrets

I was recently asked what my secrets are to shopping for school for my boys and if I could share a few. Well here is my secret: SURVIVE IT! That's it! A good bottle of wine will definitely help!

It did get me thinking about my strategies and lessons learned and if I even had any! I decided I might have a few tricks up my sleeve that I could regale you all with, though I am sure that half of you are saying, "you didn't already know that??"

Kids clothes are some sort of conspiracy I am convinced! You wear them for two months before they grow out of them IF they last that long, and a pair of jeans for little legs is not that much less than what I pay for mine, though I assure you that there is about 5 times the amount of material on mine as there is on theirs!

My kids have to wear uniforms. There are several places that I have found that carry the specific colors my boys needed and I always sign up for their emails. Every one of them had a 30% family and friends sale, though it usually happened after school started, but if I you sign up for the emails, you will be sure to know when that is happening. You also will usually get coupons emailed to you from them. I am not a fan of credit cards AT ALL, but I must confess that I do have a Kohl's card. This is where I do the bulk of my shopping for clothes. With the card, you get a coupon for 15%, 20%, or 30% off every 6 weeks or so. You can only use the coupon with your card. Here is the secret, however. Take your check book along and after checking out whip that bad boy out and pay off your account. You have to do it with your checkbook though if you want to pay right there at the register. Check out your favorite store for perks of having a card, but make sure its one you don't have to carry a balance on or pay a fee for.

Perhaps one of my biggest lessons learned is one concerning those uniform pants; particularly for boys! My boys had to wear the Khaki dress pants, but those knees could only handle so many trips of crawling though the rocks of the playground and the gym floor and over cafeteria tables before they went belly up. I was buying new pants every month on average, for each boy! So I heard from someone that Lands End/Sears will replace the pants for the entire lifetime of the pant! I ordered some for each boy. I ordered during a 30% off sale and ordered enough to get free shipping. My boys went four months before little knobby knees started poking out through the reinforced patches. Sure enough, they replaced them for me free of charge, and they replaced those again 3 more times. They do know my name and we do swap weather reports every time I call, but their customer service is excellent! I am promised that they do this with all of their clothes!!

My number one secret on shopping for clothes has to be shopping at the end of the season! You can get name brand clothes for a fraction of what you would normally pay! Just make sure your not going to be moving across the country to a school where the uniform will change just enough so that you can't use all of the polo shirts you bought last year!

Then come the actual school supplies. School supplies when I was a kid was a package of crayons and some construction paper. Now, though, if your lists were anything like mine, there were the typical crayons and markers and also very specific white board pens and paper towels and enough hand sanitizer to fill a swimming pool! Here in Florida, I found out that there is a tax free weekend on all school supplies! However I researched that, and decided that the $5 I would be saving wasn't worth trying to brave the throng of other school shoppers and risk having the glue sticks run out before I got my own required 48! So I went a few weeks before.

However if you are shopping for a big item such as a computer, this weekend is totally when you want to shop for it!!

I have incredible friends who are very savvy in finding the best deals for their school supplies. I even have a friend who, when all was said and done, was paid $5 for doing all of her school shopping!! So please, if you are one of those people, we all want to hear your secrets!! Comment on this post so we all can join you in your school shopping heaven!

If you can get your school list early on, then you can be watching the circulars for the stores you usually shop at, and can snatch up the items on your lists whenever they go on sale, especially those Clorox wipes and Ziploc baggies! Find out if the store you shop at has a loyalty card. For example in Colorado you wanted to have the King Soopers (Kroger) card if you were shopping there (its free). Target now has a debit card that is linked to your checking account. You save 5% every time you use it, and you get free shipping when you order online. And clip those coupons!!

Amazon is also amazing when you get to those last few days before school and still haven't found illusive Learn-to-Letter notepads! Amazon doesn't charge tax, and if you sign up for an Amazon Prime Membership, you will get free two day shipping. You can also sign up for a trial of this if you know you are going to be buying a bunch of things and want to give it a try.  For those of you with kids in diapers, you can also save a ton on them if you have the Amazon Prime membership (and last time I checked they took coupons for those diapers)!

Backpacks are always a frustration for me. They are expensive! My plan is to always make them reuse their backpacks for a few years, but so far they haven't made them to the end of the year! If you watch Groupon, sometimes you can get good deals, but make sure they are quality backpacks and not ones where the zipper is going to fall out after a week! I tend to love Amazon for backpacks as well, but again you can't "feel" it before you buy it. Amazon, however, has reviews and I love reading what other moms have to say about the product before I incorporate it into my crazy life! Outlet stores are a great place to buy backpacks. I love shopping those outlets stores! Again sign up for the emails from the outlet stores, because you will know of sales and get coupons!

I have to admit that most of what I have learned has been through other moms who have gone before me. True some things you have to learn from experience, like the subtle noise of a diaper filling with a substance that doesn't have a chance of being contained in its thin elastic plastic, and how that noise can wake you from a dead sleep from clear across the room while your husband who is awake never even hears it, but in most "mommy moment" cases, I have learned so much from other moms! We would all love to learn from you who have more secrets so again, please comment below so we can all learn from you!
Check out this link for more tips! http://www.creditcardinsider.com/insider/top-5-ways-to-save-on-back-to-school-shopping/

HAVE ANOTHER GREAT SCHOOL YEAR!!

Girl Power

I love being a mom! I have to admit that I even enjoy the chaos! The crazy shocking things my kids do, the ER memories, even the embarrassing moments. I love being a mom!! I have always wanted to be a mom. I know people think I'm crazy for having as many kids as I do, and insane for wanting more, but every kid is so incredible and unique and adds so much to our family! People comment on how busy and hard it must be to go anywhere or do anything with all 4 of my boys, but I don't really think its that big of a deal. Sure I have my moments that I want to scream and shake a child until his brains rattle. Shopping with just one is faster, and having to get all four out just to mail a package sometimes gets annoying, but as far as I can tell from my mommy friends of one or two, this is true even for them!

I have been struggling lately with guilt. Pressure from other people to do, think, or believe something just because they do. Pressure from people to not want anymore children, because that's "stupid". Pressure to home school, because not to is "unchristian". Pressure to bake with all natural and no sugar and only vegetables, because not to is "unhealthy". Pressure to read a certain number of hours from the Bible to my children, pressure to shop at certain stores, pressure to have certain traditions, pressure to read certain books, pressure to speak a certain "language", pressure pressure pressure.

When I announced my pregnancy with Liam, someone actually told me, that they didn't know why anyone would have more than two children. In fact I was made fun of regularly, and the butt of many jokes because I was having a 4th child. I did not realize that there was a rule on how many kids a family should have before they were considered "idiots". I have had so many people freely share their opinion that I should not consider having anymore, even if I do want a little girl. Why? 

Why is "different" bad? When did we stop rejoicing in our diversity and differences and instead "shoot to kill" if someone has a different belief, different lifestyle, different view than our own?  The woman that chooses to have two children because that is all she can handle is an incredibly wise and generous woman! The woman who chooses to have 6 children because that's how many she can handle and delights in being a mom is an incredibly wise and generous woman. Why do we think that one is right and one is wrong?Why do we think it is our job to inform them that we are right and they are wrong?

Is it because we are worried that somehow we got it wrong? Is it because to gain some of the confidence that was shattered and lost along our life road, we have to have everyone doing the same thing we are, to somehow prove that we are in fact doing ok? Do we have to shatter the beautiful confidence of another woman to make ourselves feel less broken? 

I am so amazed lately at the epidemic I see among women, especially Christian women. Its like we have some how adopted the belief that a woman who holds any confidence or beauty or uniqueness or talent is a threat, an obstacle in our search for self worth and she must be annihilated at all costs. There are so many hurting and broken women who have been devoured by their own kind! Any time I hear a woman, even "jokingly" putting another woman or another type of woman down, I can't help but view her as insecure and weak. And that is exactly what we are when we choose to tear another precious female companion down.

What if we delighted in our differences. Instead of being threatened that she has more children, what if I recognize her strength in mothering and use her to learn more about becoming a better mom myself? Instead of being threatened that she has nicer clothes and cuter hair, what if I used her to teach me about style? What if instead of hating her for keeping a better house than mine, I used her to learn some secrets in improving in that area myself. Chances are huge that there is an area that she might eventually come to me on recognizing that I am stronger than her in that area.

Can you imagine a world in which every single woman was different and cheered on in her differences? Some worked out of the home, some stayed at home, some home-schooled, some didn't, some cooked, some didn't, some had 10 kids, some had 1 and we all started delighting in and encouraging each other on what we were doing well. Can you imagine the strength we would have together? Can you imagine how powerful we would be as a community of women knowing we were building up other women, and that there were dozens of other strong confident women building us up? The resources we would have because other women were growing in areas we had weaknesses in?

The other day I noticed a woman in line waiting to order her food. She was a little older and overweight, but she had this bright colorful dress on and I liked it. I mentioned to her that I liked her dress, and she stared at me for a few seconds with distrust all over her face. I smiled at her, and she tentatively said thank you to me and walked to her table. Several times through my meal she caught my eye and every time she did her smile got wider until it nearly stretched off of her face. I left wanting to cry that she wasn't celebrated every day for her unique beauty. The only reason for the strong emotion I felt was that God has been speaking to my own tattered heart about this so strongly lately.

As women we have such incredibly potent power. Power to build something strong and beautiful with surprisingly little effort, and power to completely demolish it. Why in the world would we choose not to build something of incredible lasting value?

I saw this on someones Facebook the other day. "Don't compare your life to others and don't judge them. You have no idea what their journey is all about."

School Daze

Well it is that time of year again. Back to school!! I have read some really inspirational blogs on school shopping, and helping your kids get ready to go back to the classroom, and how to have a good attitude while looking for illusive school supplies and emptying your bank account on them. I do love those blogs and will continue to read them! However my school shopping experience was sorely disappointing in the inspiration departement.

Every year I dream of making school shopping an exciting and bonding adventure for the child getting ready to head to the classroom. I picture happy skipping children trying on uniform pants which are on sale of course, and new crayons going in the cart with looks of rapture on innocent faces. I picture browsing through stores and finding deals on new backpacks that leave me feeling proud of my good stewardship, and ice cream cones after finding every item on the school supply list, telling stories of my own school days to captivated little boys.

WHY DOES THIS NEVER HAPPEN??

My babysitter couldn't watch the two little ones, so all four boys accompanied me on our school shopping trip. I had school supply lists that, rolled out, could have wound their way through the store and out the front door! I had a baby who had green snot crusted all over his face and kept trying to climb out of the cart. I had a three year old that ate the first package of washable markers that I put in the cart. A fist fight broke out over a backpack. A argument started over who got the blue scissors, and an entire bin of glue ended up on the floor!

Each child required 3 packages of 500 count computer paper! If there are 25 kids in a classroom that's 37,500 pieces of paper!! Per classroom!! If Al Gore is looking for someone to blame for environmental issues, call the schools, not the SUV owners! What in the world are they going to do with all of that paper??

Of course they didn't have every item on the list. No way that would be way too easy and stress free! I find myself every single year missing a handful of items from the list. I hate that feeling when walking out after having been in the store for well over an hour, kids with black eyes, other kids crying, bank account in the negative, pushing three carts and knowing your not finished yet!

Every year I do the same thing too. I walk through the aisle that has all of the notebooks, hoping that the learn to letter one will be there this time. So what if it wasn't there the last 35 times you looked, so what if the manager has assured you that yes he did check in the back every time you asked and they really didn't get any in the 5 minutes since then. They have to have one somewhere right??

So we bought the crayons and the glue and the paper towels. We didn't have ice cream, we didn't swap stories, because even Mama was under a no talking order by the time we left the store.

Thank God for Amazon! I ordered the few items, and felt relieved that I was finally done; until I realilzed I had them shipped to my old house in Colorado.

And then Kevin called. I couldn't really understand his hysterical voice, but I got the impression that he had looked at the bank account and was sure my bank card had been stolen. I assured him that I had been school shopping. He insisted that that wasn't school shopping, it was a student loan payment for college! He grumbled about not needing ziploc baggies or kleenex when he went to school for the next several days. He insisted that the only reason any child needed 24 glue sticks, was because they were going to be eating half of them. I kept the wall of computer paper hidden in the back of my closet. I don't think I even want to know his opinion on that!

Meetups and Kitchen Tables

It might come as a shock to some, but I am a very outgoing person and I will use any excuse as a reason to get a bunch of people together! 

In Colorado, the fact that there was going to be a 2 hour window where it wasn't snowing in May was definitely call for a backyard barbecue! A good grade from one of my boys warranted a play date, and if anyone wanted to borrow a cup of sugar from me, they only did if they had time to spend the afternoon hanging out in my kitchen with me swapping recipes! I love loud chaotic bonding times perfect for creating memories!!

My dear husband would fall into bed exhausted after a birthday party where I invited every one I knew within a 100 mile radius. I on the other hand, had so much energy I cleaned the house from top to bottom afterwards!

And then we moved to Florida where I knew no one, and it never snowed, therefore every night was barbecue worthy!! I started to go a little stir crazy after about 45 minutes. 

Two weeks after we got here, Kevin and I went into a furniture store to buy a kitchen table. The young salesman who helped us seemed about our age. I found out he had a wife and two young kids. He seemed perfect! 

Kevin and I sat at a table in a corner and had a whispered conversation something like this.

"Lets ask him if he and his wife want to go to dinner!"

"Shelly, I promise I will never go out in public again with you, if you do."

"Why??"

"You don't ask your salesman that you have known for 5 minutes out on a date! That's weird!"

"Why is it weird? You have to meet people somehow."

"Well you don't pick up your furniture salesguy! I'm pretty sure its not in their job description! Oh hi, yes we are ready to check out. My wife just has to go to the bathroom. NOW!"

After we got in the car, I proudly held up the business card I swiped on the way out and threatened to call him later. Kevin told me if I did, I would have to find the other half of my double date, because he wouldn't be it!

I joined a mommy group I found online. It was a group specifically designed for mom's of boys and encouraged boys to be as energetic as boys are. I was thrilled, it sounded perfect!

It turned out this mom felt that telling her child no in any shape or form was developmentally harmful and detracted from the beauty of the immense energy contained in a boys body!

The 8 year old kept taking his clothes off, The 4 year old broke 3 separate toys in under 10 minutes, all over other children's head, and the mother was glowing! "Isn't it great that we can let our boys be boys together!!"

Liam climbed under the kitchen table soon after we got there and refused to come out! Micah hid behind me whispering in my ear that he would do all of the laundry if we would just leave immediately, and Kyler found it to be the greatest  joy in the world that the mother of these boys opened several boxes of cookies and encouraged him to continue eating them even after he had already consumed a whopping 10! This mom was also a fan of "boys' appetites". 

We decided not to do the online dating for friends anymore.

I have been banned from Kevin,s workplace, because I go around asking people if they have wives and kids and if they want to come over for dinner.

Thankfully, my amazing Colorado friends have used some of their new found free time upon my leaving the state to call and chat with me for an allotted amount of time ;-) I love getting the texts and Facebook messages letting me know I'm not forgotten! 

Here's hoping the mailman got my little invitation to dinner I stuck in the mailbox. Who knows, he could be our next lifelong friend!!

10 Years!

10 years ago today two tiny little kids got married. Despite my dad saying "absolutely not" the first time Kevin asked to marry his little girl, Kevin said I do and gave me his name. Despite his mother not approving of how I treated her baby boy, and wishing her son would marry anyone else in the world, I said I do and gave Kevin my forever.

On that day I stood at the alter in my white dress, makeup done and hair piled in curls with a little tiara, and felt immensely excited at the fairy tale I was living. I had my own tiny apartment waiting to be decorated, a honeymoon in Florida waiting to be experienced, and happily ever after wrapped with dozens of other gifts in the lobby. I was completely and totally in love!

 A few months later we argued about whose family we would spent 4th of July with, and then we argued over which house to buy, and then we argued over which family to be with at Christmas, and then we argued over which families advice to take or ignore, and then we got pregnant before we planned, and then we realized our already small income got smaller when half of it was used to buy diapers, and that tires didn't last forever. We realized Friday nights would now be spent watching Barney instead of going to the movies.

We watched a few incredibly hard years go by, and at the end of every one we were pleasantly surprised that we had lasted through! Our friends lost bets on when it would end, and the neighbors braced for another year.

Then one day we woke up and realized that forever was here even if it didn't hold tiaras and happily ever after every day. Even if we had more poopy diapers than money and some raised eyebrows at our unconventional life.

 Dear Kevin in a tux standing at the alter 10 years ago: joking about PMS is not funny after 3500 jokes. Yes, different shoes for every outfit is absolutely necessary. Buying tampons is most certainly part of your job description.Christmas music in July is not weird. A 5 hour shopping trip where nothing but socks was purchased, is indeed a successful trip! If she says nothings wrong, you have totally screwed something up! Drinking the apple pie instead of eating it when it wouldn't thicken and then complimenting her, is exactly why she married you! Holding her hand while she cried because even your pants wouldn't fit over her pregnant belly, is one of the most honorable things you will do. Laughing until tears run down your face with her is going to be one of her favorite memories. Listening to the things that get on her nerves even though you don't have the slightest idea why such silly things even matter, makes you prince charming. Sticking through the hardest years of your life by her side is the best form of commitment you could have. Being yours is what she wants to be the more than anything else!

 Dear Shelly in a white dress and tiara: It doesn't matter what anyone thinks about you! If you keep trying to be what everyone wants you to be, you will most definitely go crazy, and he married you for who you are, so be that! Fishing is a serious thing and asking him to go home an hour before planned is like leaving before the kissing part of the chick flick! Jokes about the record setting losses by the Colorado Rockies is not even close to funny. He will never ever shut the closet door! He really will always figure out the percentage of milk left, the percentage of the road trip left, and the percentage of diapers he's changed. If he says nothings wrong, nothings actually wrong. He loves you with his whole heart, and even if he didn't hold your hand in the car today, it doesn't mean he loves you any less. No matter what you will face in life, he will face it with you! If you laugh at the frustrating inconveniences of life, he'll laugh with you and you'll have a memory instead of a fight. He's proud to call you his!

 Life doesn't look anything like I imagined it would ten years ago at the alter. I couldn't have imagined this kind of adventure and love and loyalty! I couldn't have imagined how incredibly hard the hard days would be and how they would shape us into an even better couple than I had originally planned. I couldn't imagine the surprises along the way, or the change in plans being the best things to ever happen, but they are.

I can only imagine where the next 10 years will take us, and I am sure I will look back at this day and laugh about how little I knew of what all we would become. I can't wait!

On the Road Again

People ask us all the time how we make so many road trips with all 4 of our kids. Well we recently decided to move to Florida, America's vacation destination, and live in a house big enough fo company; apparently we aren't as fond of the road trips as we appear to be.

Yesterday we were driving back from visiting my family in NC. It was a great weekend and we are so thankful for the 8 hour trip after driving 24+ hours one way over the last 7 years to see my family.

Everyone must have been suffering from PMS, because there was a lot of grouchy little faces in that van!

We made a pee stop because Caleb couldn't hold it a second longer. We got back on the interstate and literally 5 minutes down the road he was crying that he had to go number 2 now! (From the tears squeezing out his eyes and his panicked expression, we knew this was not a drill)

Someone, not going to name names here as that would just be rude, (NOT ME) suggested just putting him in a pull-up in the interest of saving a little time. We were hoping to stop in the next hour or so for supper and  it didn't seem economical to stop before that just use the bathroom AGAIN.

I helped him into a pull-up and settled back in my seat pleading with my oldest to stop asking me questions about how many planets there were, and what quantum physics was, and
how many presidents there were.

Finally we got off at the supper exit. We decided on Taco Bell. We pulled up to the drive thru order microphone and after arguing and changing minds and realizing we needed to also order Liam food, we placed our order. The lady came on and informed us that they were out of cheese, tomatoes and flat bread. Well at Taco Bell that pretty much limits your options to, well, a drink! We sat there for another 20 minutes discussing everything that had tomatoes and cheese in it, explaining that Taco Bell didn't make corn dogs, saying no to requests of 30 orders of cinnamon twists, ordering and reordering before I realized when I looked back at Caleb, that his seat was full of what he had filled his diaper with. I started gagging and reminded Kevin one more time to ask them to keep the re-fried beans OFF my burrito.
After we got our food we pulled into a parking spot to try and clean up the horrendous mess in the backseat with half of a package of wet wipes. We did rock paper scissors to decide who got the seat and who got Caleb, glared at each other as the stress level rose with the smell, and then got out of the van. We were viciously attacked by loud buzzing weird fly things, dive bombing at our heads!
Of course we were parked in a spot smack in front of the wall of windows of the restaurant and in front of a very busy street!
I started screaming and swatting at the flies. I lost my balance and to regain it without pummeling into the hard asphalt, I started taking awkward hops across the parking lot. I am terrified that a fuzzy cell phone video staring me and my little dance could surface on youtube! My older boys stared horrified at their screaming momma, ducking in their seats hoping that no one would see them. I don't think Kevin knew whether to hide too or throw poopy wipes at me, and poor stark naked Caleb started wailing that the flies were going to get him next. We were pretty impossible to miss in that moment.
It took a little while but eventually we were all in our seats again, nasty, cold, fast food handed out and headed down the interstate.
I took a huge bite of my burrito and started gagging. I had beans and orange sauce dripping onto my white T-shirt. I started motioning to Kevin to unlock the windows so I could roll mine down! he was very sympathetic, "No! No! Not on the van!!"
70 miles cruising through Georgia hanging out the window, I might surface on youtube yet again only this time I was trying to rid my body of every single bit of re-fried mush that had the same consistency and color of the mess I had just cleaned up!!
It was deathly quiet in the van for a little while, each of us traumatized by all that we had witnessed. I was eating my third little bag of fruit snacks that was now my supper, when I was suddenly struck with how crazy I must have looked flapping all over that parking lot with flies swarming me and I started laughing so hard we had to make another pee stop!
And that s how we do road trips! Anyone wanna come along???

Inspiration

So many times I will be facing a hard situation or an especially trying day and I will feel discouraged and frustrated. Its not always easy to remember how thankful I am for my life. I have gone through intensely trying times, and coming through them and looking back, I can say in all honesty that I am thankful for those time; that had it not been for those times, I wouldn't be who or where I am today.

I have been privileged to live life by some amazing and inspiring women who have given me a glimpse of how incredible hardship can be turned into one of the best things that ever happened!

My friend Kristen found out that her fourth baby was growing inside of her without legs or one of his arms. She could have done what a lot of people have done and decided to end her pregnancy and try again for a fourth family member, but she courageously chose to welcome her little blessing into her life fully trusting on God to provide and use this situation. Dylan just turned one, and you can't help but smile when you see his precious face. He is an incredible addition to this earth, and his mother and the rest of his family are amazing people for accepting the honor of being called his!

Check out their blog:
http://courageouslyenabled.blogspot.com

 A woman recently wrote to me about her story and asked if I would be willing to share about an incredible experience and probably the hardest thing any mother could face. Heather was diagnosed with cancer when her little girl was only 3 months old and she was given only 15 months to live. 

Her incredible perseverance and positivity saved her life, and gave her little girl her mommy back!

Her story is a testament to the power mom's have within themselves, and she is definitely an inspiration!

Check out her website!

http://www.mesothelioma.com/heather

My friend Carrie has been a friend of mine since high school. She got married around the same time I did and had kids around the same time I did. Her daughter proudly announces that she will be marrying Caleb some day! Carrie and her family are very very dear to us! At the beginning of the year her sweet baby Jackson, who she had been carrying for only 15 short weeks, went to be with Jesus. She was able to hold her baby weighing only ounces and see the incredible miraculous formation of a tiny human and has used that experience to share with the world no matter how tiny a human, a life is still a life. She has shared her story with men's groups, teenagers and singles and is excited about being used to share how incredibly precious life is.

Her family is participating this week in the Walk for Life, and if you want to sponsor them you can here!

http://www.ministrysync.com/event/website/?m=1336869

I love being inspired to be all I can be by watching other people be all they can be! I hope you were inspired as well!!

We Are Still Alive!

We are now residents of Florida! I gotta admit, we are loving it! We are learning lots of new things! Things like, we should probably make sure each kid has a bathing suit that fits if we plan on spending any time at the beach!

Things like, we gotta stop screaming swear words when we see these suckers, because exposing little ears that are learning how to talk to these words 10-15 times a day is going to end up embarrassing!

Things like, always look up when walking in the door!

And of course we are learning the best spots for relaxing after dinner are only a few minutes away!!

May 10th found us loading up our stuff until late at night. We ended up having to rent a trailer to haul a wall of boxes full of Kevin's entire kindergarten art work collection, his 4th grade baseball collection, and some questionably purchased CD's from decades ago so that we could drag this stuff over endless miles and then throw them away in a Florida dumpster. Kevin tends to keep everything, not excluding his pocket lint from his first day of 7th grade, and I tend to chuck anything not nailed down. As we were packing, Kevin was asking me where certain items were. "Hey Shell, where's the remote to the TV?" "Um I thought it was broken, and I threw it away." "Hey Shell, have you seen a bag of cords?" "Yeah, I didn't know what they went to so I threw them out!" "Hey Shell, I can't find my car keys!" "Oh I thought those were to the car you had five cars ago. I threw them in the trash."

Kevin discovered on the trip that took three very long and grueling and many pee stop filled days, that a woman doesn't need to be sitting in your passenger seat to help you drive!

I drove behind him in my mini-van, with a teething baby, a dog in heat, and lots of teeny tiny little bladders, and he led the way with the monster truck and no backseat fist fights. I would notice that his tire had crossed the little white line on the side of the road and freak out. Grabbing my cell phone I hit re-dial from when I had called him 1.3 minutes earlier.

"What's wrong??" "Nothing! Why?" "Your all over the road!!" "No I'm not! You try driving this big of a truck while looking at Facebook and see if you don't go over the line a few times!"

It was a rather.....bonding experience!

The second night, Kevin decided we needed to get through Atlanta before stopping. I was exhausted and it was dark and I had listened to the same Backyardigans movie 34 times through! 8 lanes of traffic full of cars going at least 20 miles per hour over the speed limit, my limited knowledge of the fine city of Atlanta from what I had seen on "Cops", and being flipped off 3 times, and a steady rain of bugs obstructing my view through my windshield, finally broke me. I called Kevin sobbing and begging for a hotel room. NOW!

But we finally reached the Florida line!! 

We are getting settled in and discovering scenic routes to get home from the store, and wiping a few tears at night when we miss our friends in Colorado. Overall I have nothing but gratitude for how well things are going. Adjustment has been smooth, though I am sure we are not even near done adjusting. As mom's we are always adjusting though right? I am definitely excited to see what this new chapter has in store for us, and I hope you all know that I am more than serious when I ask you to come visit!! We would love to share our little piece of paradise with you!!

Real Doubts; Real Proof

So I am writing yet another blog that may raise eyebrows and make some question my theology, but its whats happening in me right now.

This year, God has been really trying to get my attention! At the beginning of the year, I experienced his love in a way that I never had. It was incredible and really life changing for me. See the blog on my DR trip. Yes I admit that I have struggled with holding onto the enormity and realness of it sometimes, but I will be going about my day when all of a sudden I realize He is leaning down and whispering "I love you just because your you" in my ear, and I will be overwhelmed all over again by it!

After my incredible trip to the DR where I was knocked over with the knowledge of this incredible love, I came home, and though I probably wouldn't have said this, I felt like I would never ever let anything convince me that this incredible freedom in knowing I was loved wasn't all I had found it to be. All the time. No matter what I did or didn't do. No matter who said I was or wasn't. I was loved! 

It wasn't even a week before I found myself part of a conversation with someone who tried to convince me that I was not hearing God like she did nor did I even come close to being as accepted by Him like she was. I was left hurting and yelling defenses and ready to walk away from everything writing it off as yet another time I got it all wrong. But God gently reminded me that with this knowledge of his incredible love that could not be earned, people who had gotten a hold of that revelation stopped working themselves to death to gain an acceptance and love that they already had, and it kept them free enough to experience what God was wanting for them all along. Evil knew this better than we did, and would do anything to keep us from this awesome powerful freedom!

Like I mentioned before, there is sometimes a struggle to remember that I no longer have to work at finding his acceptance. I no longer have to perform. I no longer have to hate who I am. But every time I find that incredible place again, and I am floating from the enormous freedom, I get a tiny taste of Heaven and I resolve to spend more and more time in this place!

I have struggled with rejection and feeling unloved my whole life and now God is changing that. But he hasn't stopped there, and I must admit part of me feels a need to hurry up and learn it all so I don't have to be "taught" through my circumstances anymore. =)

All my life I have been taught to pray, because that is what Christians do. All my life I have struggled with prayer! I have such a long list of things I have prayed for that have either gotten worse, or not changed that I must admit I feel like its a pretty futile thing. Maybe just one more way to keep us busy or gauge how we are really measuring up as a Christian. One more guilt trip for other Christians to use to get us to do what they need in their ministries.Doesn't God already have everything planned out? So whats the point??

These last three weeks without my husband here make me wonder if maybe this isn't God's next lesson for me. 

A few days of these three weeks have been really hard. Those days, Kevin has mentioned frustration that those are the days he has spent extra time praying for me. My response in my heart has been, just stop praying because its making it worse!

Today something happened that caught me by total surprise. And here is where you will find out how simple I really am. =) I went to take Kyler to school. We hopped in, Caleb and Kyler were fighting, Liam hit me in the head with a shoe and I was so ready for school and nap time that I couldn't wait to  get out of the driveway.

I turned the key and nothing happened. I realized a light had been left on in the van and the battery was dead. I laid my head on the steering wheel. I didn't really pray. I just whispered something like "come on".

I started running through the options in my head. I could start knocking on neighbors doors to see if someone could jump start me, but I was facing into the garage and the other side was full of packed boxes. My husbands crooked, "I told you so look" filled my head and I defiantly turned the key again. It started. I grinned.

All the way to school I was bombarded with thoughts about things that have happened since Kevin left. The grandpa at Kyler's birthday party that caught the toddler falling down the steps and looked at my leaking kitchen facet. The babysitter who was already scheduled to babysit the whole day after I hurt my back so bad I couldn't pick up Liam. The furnace guy who patiently offered to change my filters for me, even though that was not part of his job. The vice principal who helped me get my kids in the car after school. The bag boy at the grocery store who took my boys over to ride the mechanical horse while I finished checking out. The doctor who took time to show me what to look for in appendicitis and give me a hug reassuring me that my son would make it.

These may seem inconsequential, but to a mom who is feeling hopelessly inadequate and enormously overwhelmed, they mean the world!

I realized that of course I'm going to feel more on the days my husband is praying for me, because just like with the power that comes from the freedom of knowing you are loved no matter what, having Kevin beating up demons and covering me in prayer makes me "untouchable"! That aint cool in Evil's mind!

I still don't understand prayer. I still wrestle with it. I know I still have a lot to learn about it, but I know one thing for certain, there is some pretty freaky power in having your spouse pray for you, and I don't doubt that for a minute. 

Thank you God for giving me a husband who will pray for me!!!

(The first time my husband prayed for me as his wife)

Sweet Reminders

My husband moved to Florida....without me. He left me with 4 boys, A bio unit with a dissection of a fetal pig, which is sitting plastic wrapped in my garage, and makes me shudder every time I walk by it, finals in three classes, two teacher luncheons, two end of school programs, a high maintenance home buyer, and a whole house to pack up. Isn't he romantic???

Yesterday I got up to a house that looked like Liam had free range of the fridge, toilet paper, and laundry basket....which he did, but at least my assignments were submited only 1 day late the night before. I was picking what I think was dried cheese out of the carpet when the phone rang.

Let me insert here, my awe at little kids. Do you know what all they can accomplish in just an hour, never mind a day??? Liam can redecorate the floor with Lucky Charms, fill the washing machine with mega blocks, clean the bathroom floor with chocolate milk, assist his older brother in sharing his stuffed animals, and throw an entire bags worth of dog food out the doggie door and onto the garage steps just in case our dog might get hungry if she ever decides to actually start going out to pee instead of doing it inside, and he isn't half as tired as I am just watching him!! Fast and efficient doesn't even begin to describe him! Thats youthful and incredibly impressive energy right there!!

The person on the other end of the phone was the realtor for our charming and organized home buyer. She wanted to come take measurements of her soon to be new home that she won't be moving into for another month and a half, but needed to measure today and no later, and could I please have children and dog and self vacated in two hours? Just how opposed is she to sour milk on the kitchen floor and over flowing garbage cans in the bathrooms while she measures??

It was kind of one of those days, where you are faced with the sad and honest reality that you are only one little tiny woman who most certainly does not possess super human qualities to create 4 male angels in the store, be at two appointments at once, or ever have a clean vehicle.

When I tucked my boys into bed, having threatened to break bones if anyone got up, lectured about the unwise decisions to hide homework, and bribed on-time morning promises from them, I looked at their little faces mostly clean from their showers, and said. "Sorry I've been kinda grouchy today".

They looked at me with these looks on their faces like, hah! kinda? today?? my oldest sweetly says, "Its because you miss daddy."

How is it that daddy can make everything better? I mean the kid is right, I am grouchy because my husband isnt here, but really what's changed since he left?

I still get everyone up in the morning. I still make lunches and facilitate homework and dress and change diapers for tiny little bodies. I still call teachers and get the groceries and wipe the boogies and make the supper; all stuff I still do when he's here.

But we do miss him and I am grouchy because I miss him and my 7 year old is one of the wisest little kids I know. So I told them, how about you remind mommy that she's being a little grouchy when I'm getting that way.

Today, was better.... until about noon! Then I had a baby covered in snot, wailing and super glued to my leg, a realtor wanting extra papers that I don't think even existed, a kid who had appendicitis like symptoms, and a half baked batch of cookies.

So I did what any I-wanna-be-supermom-but-I-can't-even-do-regular-mom-right-now woman would do. I ignored the realtors calls, I ate the rest of the cookie dough, I broke all speed limits getting to the doctor right before they closed and fed my kids takeout yet again. Thankfully the appendix seems to be ok living a while longer in its spot in my son's body. On the way home, Caleb and Liam were doing a pretty impressive rendition of the Veggie Tales theme song completly in spit, but it kept hitting the back of my neck and I wasn't really in the mood anyways.

I snapped at them to cut it out and for a blessed scond everyone was silent! Then a tiny Kyler voice says, "your kind being grouchy mommy."

I have to admit, it totally made my day! I laughed and said you are so right! So I let the kids eat several cookies, and didn't do the dishes in the sink, or pick up the toys on the floor, but we all snuggled and I felt happy knowing that I was my little kids' imperfect mommy, and I was totally loved and accepted by them!! And of course after daddy called, everyone felt better!!!!

And I know she's going to want to come tomorrow to look at replacing all door handles with the way my house looks. I don't know how, but she totally knows those nights I don't do supermom!!



Family

I think most of my blogs start out with, "I should be doing homework, but...." And so shall this one.

In my procrastination, I decided to take a shot at a blog that I knew I had to write as soon as I knew we were leaving Colorado. It is very dear to my heart, and I will probably be sobbing by the end, but here goes.

When I was 12 my parents invited a newly wedded couple to our house. We had supper and I spent the rest of the night in my room consoling a friend who had just broken up with her "true love". Maybe I should write a blog on all of the things I would go back and tell my sweetly stupid self, especially about true love, especially at 12! Whew that would be a long blog!

Anyway, shortly after that dinner, this couple took me and my sister to a concert. We sat out in the summer breeze, eating subs and listening to amplified songs, and my sister and I totally fell in love them! We went to several more concerts, had a few more dinners, and then they had a baby. This baby became our live doll! This kid was dressed up as a girl and drug to piano lessons, and ate a bowl of whoopie pie frosting and watched Veggie Tales ALL THE TIME!

Larry and Beverly O'Connell became Uncle Larry and Aunt Bev. They let us stay up late giggling in their basement and watching movies, Larry taught us how to drive his massive truck, and they were always gracious enough to look at cuts and bruises and answer late night medical questions. 

We did a lot of camping and fishing with them. I hated hiking! We would be climbing some ridiculous mountain that Larry said was only a mile tops. 5 miles in, he would tell us, "its just around that corner" 18 corner later, we all crashed on the ground by a little stream where we caught 2 fish and headed back the same grueling way we came in.

The first guy that ever showed interest in me, never called me back after he met my family. It was not my dad he was most afraid of, it was my Uncle Larry!

One camping trip, Larry let me drive his truck down a little mountain road. He was sandwiched between me and my sister. A song came on that we liked and we turned it all the way up and started dancing. Poor Larry got headbutted until he turned purple!

Bev and my sister and I liked to watch movies. One day we all filed into the theater with our candy and popcorn and settled in. This movie was horrible! Everyone died!!! Shortly after my sister and I spent the night at Bev's house and we watched another movie. After the main character died, we decided that our new activity would be shopping!!

Soon I met a guy that stuck around for a little bit. Uncle Larry wasn't real fond of him, but he kept coming back anyway.

I knew I liked him when he got along so well with my #1 man, Colt!!

He joined in our ski trips, and camping trips and holiday celebrations, so I married him!

Skiing in Breckenridge

Camping over Fathers Day

4th of July

When I got pregnant, Larry, who is an OB/GYN, threatened to move to Antarctica if I didn't stop calling him in the middle of the night asking if that feeling was normal!

The best part of the pregnancy was that Bev was also pregnant!!

And the even better part was that the two little boys are the best of friends!!!

Bev and Larry and their three kids couldn't be more family to us!! They have been there through incredibly difficult time. They have been there through amazingly happy times, and when no one else was there, they were!! They taught us how to play Hand and Foot, They taught us that rain is NOT a good excuse to cancel a fishing trip. They taught us that how to ski, and ride a horse and drive a Dodge pickup. They taught us what family truly is!! We have so many memories with them, and I have no idea how we will be able to say goodbye!!

Its hard to believe that my little "baby doll" is now playing with my kids that used to be his age!!

O'Connell's you are and will always be our family, and there is no way we could ever tell you how thankful we are for you!!!We are all going to miss you!!!!

March 2nd 2013

March 2nd was hardly like any other day. I got up indecently early, ran through security and hopped on a plane to decide if we should uproot our family and move across the country.     

I hate flying! It makes me nervous and anxious, and Kevin would argue that calling what I am when I fly nervous, is like calling a  hippo a little on the large side.

Anyways. We flew to Houston and landed in a lot of bumpy wind. I got off the plane shaking and wondering how in the world I would get back on another one in a couple of hours. 

I did, however, and I forgot to pee before boarding.  A younger guy sat by me. He had earrings and pants that showed off his boxers, because lets face it why would you spend money on something no one can see?? He was very pleasant though and I was glad.

We had some delays getting off the ground. Normally I pray that we won't become airborne miles and miles above solid ground in a big heavy hunk of metal flown by an unseen man who may or may not have had his annual eye exam recently. However, my bladder was setting records on how large it could stretch out, and I was praying for that cruising altitude of gazillion miles from land.

It was bumpy! No it was horrific! The cool guy with the boxers and earrings began uttering the Lord's name and I am pretty sure that he wasn't using it the same way they do in Sunday School!

By now I have a cut in my arm from my own finger nail, and poor Kevin is slouching in his seat hoping no one knows we are together. I think we was hoping with the way the other guy was acting that it would look like I was his wife. I am joining in my other seat mates cries, only I am pleading with God to either make the end come quickly or save us please!!! I don't know which one to pray about, the bone jarring 1000 foot drops, or the full bladder that stays up there at that 1000 feet higher without me!!

Finally the seat belt sign goes off and I rocket out of my seat. We pretty much bounced around the rest of the flight to Orlando. Once we start our initial descent, we are told that there are unusually high winds in the Orlando area, and that we should expect some bumps coming in.

What they should have sad was, hold on to you butts and tuck your head between your legs, because landing in this stuff is not going to be easy, in fact we might at times be flying sideways and there is no way the overhead luggage is going to remain in its current spots!!!!!!

I have never thanked God so abundantly for his green wonderful earth as I did once those wheels touched down!

We taxied and taxied and taxied, so I turned my phone on and saw that I had a text from my sister. It was weird. It just said to call her. Because it was taking forever to get to the gate I called her from my seat. 

What she told me pretty much changed my life!!

I'M GONNA BE AN AUNT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then my darling sister told me not to tell anyone. Are you kidding me?? Its kinda like someone winning the lottery, being taken to a shoe store and told not to spend anything for a while! Anyone who knows me knows that I am the worlds worst secret keeper!! My good friend who is an OB/GYN, commented yesterday that the world knew I was pregnant before my husband even did because of the nationwide shortage on pregnancy tests! He may or may not be accurate. Well can I tell strangers?? Yes I could, so I informed the entire plane that my sister was knocked up and thanked the pilot for keeping me alive long enough to find out that I was going to be an aunt. 

The people in the elevator smiled politely as I shared the good news with them and the guy at the rental car place congratulated me hesitantly. My husband's new boss looked at me funny when he asked me how I was liking Florida and I gushed that I was going to have a niece or nephew by Christmas.

When we got home I played charades with a friend, somewhat letting the cat out of the bag, because that's different than telling right????

We went shopping in Daytona, and I found the cutest little outfits!!

Kevin told me "NO" in no uncertain terms. He said, "Shelly, we will wait until we find out what it is then we can buy clothes, but I think we should buy this one." He was holding a little shirt that said " I love my Uncle" but I didn't take a picture because it wasn't near as cute as the ones I had picked out!

I am sooooo excited!! I cannot wait to meet my little niece or nephew, and if it is a niece she will be outfitted until she's 13 the week I find out!!!

Laundry Day

When Caleb was born, he was as easy as they come! By a month old he was sleeping 13 hours through the night. When he got his first tooth I didn't even know he was teething until it had been in for a little while! He ate great, he smiled all the time and he played by himself really well! Dream baby!! (Watch out for those dream babies; they are lulling you into a false sense of "I totally got this"!!!)

One night, though he wouldn't sleep. He cried and just wanted to be held. He was only a few weeks old and I was still recovering from a C-section, and I still really needed sleep, so I took my shirt that I had worn that day and laid it on his bed and laid him on it. He slept the rest of the night without a peep!

The next night when he started to fuss, I once again broke out that shirt that I had worn and gave to him. Again, instantly he was quiet and slept peacefully the whole night. I don't know when it happened, but it became standard that every night I would take off my shirt and tuck it into bed with my baby. Gross I know, but when you have three boys, a husband who works two jobs, and your going to school, you totally do what works!

Well Caleb turned one. We were in North Carolina on a family trip with my parents, and we drove 4 hours to a beach house. It was so much fun! I also happened to be pregnant again. An hour into the trip, Caleb is screaming for my shirt. I had forgotten to leave one out of the suitcase and we were driving my dad's pickup, so the luggage was tucked into the bed. 

Kevin is pleading with me to make it stop, and Micah and Kyler are plugging their ears. Finally Kevin turns to me and says in desperation, "Just take your shirt off and give it to him!"

we are driving down the interstate with lots of people on either side of us, my family is following in a long line of cars behind us and you want me to strip?!? They already think I'm the crazy one in the family! Micah took his shirt off and gave it to him. Caleb chucked it to the front of the truck and screamed louder. 

Desperation, people, makes you do things you aren't necessarily proud of. Once he had that shirt, he slept like a rock for the rest of the trip. Thankfully we stopped shortly after that and I was quickly given a shirt from the suitcase in the back. 

We were at some peoples house once and this lady had a shirt on that was exactly like one I had. Caleb started tugging on her shirt and whining, "shirt". It was one of his first words and I am not even joking!

When we first started leaving a dirty shirt with out babysitter, we got weird looks. It only took us forgetting it once and they would always ask, where is the shirt?? When my mom came to stay with the three boys while I had Liam, she agreed to it on one condition, that I leave at least three dirty shirts with her! 

As he got older, Kevin complained that it was weird having a little boy dragging around women's clothing in public, so we tried getting him to take a blanket. He would waddle into my room, dump my hamper and choose his favorite shirt, leaving the blanket like....well like anyone else would have left a dirty shirt . I would find my clothing stashed in weird places all over the house. Laundry day was devastating for this kid! It was kind of awkward.

So I sat him down around the time he turned two and told him he could pick one shirt. That would become his shirt and he would have to leave all of my other shirts alone. It took him a little while to leave my other shirts alone, but after spritzing perfume on it a few times, Caleb finally attached to the one shirt. This poor shirt is torn and falling apart, but its the most important thing in the world to him! 

I actually had another shirt just like it, and so now every once in a while, Caleb and I will get in an argument over whose shirt is whose. I honestly never thought that scenario would happen until I had teenage daughters!

Today I did laundry and both shirts got thrown in the laundry. While I was folding this load, Caleb found both shirts. He lifted them both up, buried his face in them and said, "This one smells like mine!" I asked him what his smelled like. He said, "It smells like black!" (Both shirts are black) I said well what does mine sell like? "It doesn't smell like black, like mine does." and he danced away as happy as can be!

So I hope this blog could put to rest any questions you all may have had. Yes we are officially the weirdest family in America! Go home tonight and hug your family close thanking God for them!!