January 31

Around 4pm today our power came back on in the neighborhood! Yippee! Thanks to the crew from South Carolina! There are electric company bucket trucks and National Guard trucks all over the city - looks like an invasion! We don't have cable or internet, so it may be awhile before I can uplaod some of the pictures onto our computer...

January 30

Wednesday morning we woke up without power (and still don't have it). We had an ice storm that knocked over trees and branches, causing power lines to go out. There were over 200,000 people in the area without power and they are saying it will take 7-10 days before power is restored. Thankfully, Mamaw and Papaw G have power, so we've been bunking up with them. Last night Mamaw and Bapaw got power, so I am at their house on the computer. Hopefully we'll have power back on at home before we have to pack for our trip! Disney World sounds better and better each day (and warmer too)!

January 27

This morning we woke up to a "winter storm". We supposedly got about 4 inches of snow, but our yard looks more like 1 inch. However, we are expecting some ice/sleet later on today. I am really itching to get out of the house, but Clay said that our driveway is really slick and that even if I can get out of the driveway, I won't be able to get back up it later (it's on an incline). So, another day at home! The girls don't seem to mind. In fact, they have been really playing good together. Earlier I heard someone making awful noises, and when I went to check on them, Julia was lying in bed pretending to throw up and Kat was being her Mommy and taking care of her. Silly girls!

Last night we finger painted (I know, I am breaking my New Year's Resolution by putting a naked Julia picture on here, but I don't let her paint in clothes - too messy!)

This morning we played beauty shop. I painted the girls finger and toe nails and curled their hair. Then Julia decided they need tiaras and princess dresses...

Kat is checking herself out...

About a minute later Kat was ready to get out of the dress. Julia was in girly heaven!

Funny Kat Story: Last night in the tub Kat passed gas (alot!). One time she said, "Oops, I burped!" (sort of!)


Kat has to be going through a growth spurt. It is 12:20pm and let me just tell you what this child has eaten today:

Breakfast (7:30am):

• bowl of Lucky Charms
• bagel
• grapes (handful)
• peanuts (handful)

Morning Snack (9:30am):

• handful of goldfish crackers

Lunch (11:30am):

• spaghettios
• corn
• grapes

And she has already asked for another "nacky" (snack)

January 26

This morning we had the carpet cleaned. It looked really good (they even got the white out off the carpet!) - at first. After a few hours I noticed it starting to buckle in large, noticeable areas. Granted, the carpet wasn't in great shape to begin with , but we figure there's no point paying money to replace it when we have small children who spill things, etc. The carpet cleaning company said to give it 72 hours and if it's still buckled, they'll come fix it. Some days I wish things would just go easily: Carpet people come, they clean, carpet looks great, done.

On a positive note, everyone's healthy again!

Little ones sure can trash a place in no time!

Playing Cariboo with Daddy

I had to pull out all the things from the girls room for the carpet to be cleaned, and they managed to make a fun ride out of the under-bed storage.

January 25

Can we say stir-crazy!?! That's how I feel! I haven't left the house since Wednesday night. Last night Julia ran a slight fever (100.6) and Clay started feeling lousy in the middle of the night (although he is so stubborn he refused to throw up - is that even possible?) so we didn't go to church. Everyone is fine right now, but we're going to lay low and make sure this bug is gone... but it feels like such a wasted weekend. *sigh* In less than 2 weeks we'll be in Disney World! It's only going to be in the 30s here this week, but in Orlando, it's in the mid 50s to high 70s and low 80s... I am ready to go NOW!!! I wonder if can change our reservations? :P

Last night we put on some music and the girl danced on their "stage"

January 24

It's now Julia's turn with the stomach bug. She started throwing up at 3:30 this morning. Hopefully she'll be feeling better soon. It didn't last too long with me or Kat. And thankfully none of us have been sick at the same time... or really, thankfully neither of the kids was sick while I was because Clay can't handle when they throw up, so it's my job.

These pictures are from yesterday when Clay and the girls went to celebrate Mamaw G's birthday:

Uncle Joe, Calli, Mamaw, and the girls

Mamaw G opening the card Julia made her

Julia and Princess Bapaw

Mamaw and Kat playing the harmonica

Julia and Papaw G giving a harmonica concert... she's trying to tap her foot, but looks more like a raging bull!

January 23

Happy Birthday Mamaw G!

Update: After a nap this afternoon I feel back to myself. I even got off the couch to clean up a little (it's amazing how just 1 day of lying around and my house looks like a pig sty) and do some laundry. Clay brought me Chinese food for dinner - good man! He and the girls went over to Mamaw and Bapaw's to celebrate Mamaw G's birthday (82!). I didn't want to expose them to my cooties so I stayed home, ate my yummy Chinese, and watched Gilmore Girls. It was nice and relaxing!

After watching the inauguration, Julia now realizes that Barack Obama is someone important. Every time she sees him on TV (which unfortunately seems like all the time) she tries to say his name - and she totally butchers it. Even 4 year-olds have picked up on his celebrity!


Original Post: Well, the good news is that Kat is well again. The bad news is that I got her stomach bug last night. I am feeling okay this morning. I haven't thrown up for awhile, although I feel like I ran a marathon last night- my back and thighs are sore. This stomach bug hit quick, but was gone quick too. Hopefully nobody else gets it, although I don't see how.

January 22

Update:
Kat hasn't thrown up since 6:45 this morning. She has kept some food down (pretzels, plain bagel, applesauce) and appears to be feeling better. She took a four hour nap (and Julia and I took three hour naps!). Hopefully she's on the mend and Julia doesn't get it. Our brains are mush after watching movie after movie (4 movies!) this morning (trying to keep Kat lying down resting).

Original Post:
At about 2:45am Julia woke us up telling us that Kat had thrown up (they share a room). We got up and gave Kat a bath and washed her bedding (and her doggy, who got covered). She and I slept out on the couch. She threw up several more times throughout the night. She just had some food for the first time a little bit ago, so we'll see if it stays down. Here's to hoping we get lots of rest today!

January 21

This morning we met Natalie at the mall and hung out (PS - Macy's/Dillard's is giving away free cosmetics due to a class action lawsuit, so if you live near one, go get some free perfume, etc). The girls were very whiny and Julia was very argumentative this morning. We all took nice long naps this afternoon (but they still woke up whiny!) ...

Julia has to memorize a verse and a motto for AWANA each week.

January 20

Last night we went out to eat and then went over to visit with Mamaw and Papaw G for awhile. Papaw got out the harmonicas so he and the girls could play. Julia was really into it. She would announce the "song" she was playing, and when she was done, she would take a bow and then tap her harmonica against her leg (because Papaw does this) to shake the "water" out.



This morning I cleaned the house and now we are waiting on the furnace man to come finish the job (he temporarily fixed it Friday) and for the carpet cleaners to come by and give us an estimate. Tonight Scottie is babysitting so Clay and I can go see Wicked!

Well, I am not a fan of Barack Obama, but since today is a historic day, with our country swearing in the first black President, I feel that something should be said. I think it's great that our country is moving forward and crossing some of the racial barriers that have plagued it. I am worried about some of the legislation that he plans to enact (the Freedom of Choice Act, for one). But all I can do is pray about it. God will hold everyone accountable for our decisions, even Barack Obama. It was neat to share the Inaugural experience with the girls, who sat still on my lap through most of it.

January 19

Because today is a holiday (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day), Clay didn't have to go to work. We woke up with about an inch or two of snow, and since it might be our only chance to play in the snow this winter, we loaded the kids up in all their snow gear and played outside for a little while (we spent about as much time getting them ready to go outside as we did playing outside).

Ready to go!

Kat ate the snow, of course!

Julia and Clay sledding

Snow Angel

January 18

This morning we went to church and then came home and worked on the girls AWANA "homework". Julia has to memorize some scripture each week and the Cubbie Bear motto. Afterwards, the girls (and I) took naps while Daddy ran a 5K. Tonight I took Kat to the grocery store. She got her own little cart (this was the first time they've had them at the store), and followed along behind me shopping. She did great!

She loves to brush her teeth

Working on her "homework"

Leave it to Kat to find a new way to sit in a chair

Mommy's Little Helper

Cute Kat Story: Apparently Kat has decided that we're latino now because she calls me "Mama" instead of Mommy or Mom.

January 17

This morning Clay got up with the girls and I got to sleep in until 8am (Ha! 10 years ago, this was not sleeping in). Mamaw Pat and Bapaw watched the girls this afternoon so Clay and I could go out for lunch and to see the movie Slumdog Millionaire (very good).

The girls are so glad that Daddy is back home

January 16

Update: Does anyone else think that God has a sense of humor? Supposedly He doesn't give you more than you can handle, but sometimes I think God thinks I can handle more than I think I can! This afternoon was hectic.

• on the way home from All About Kids, Anna threw up in the car
  
• the girls didn't take naps today (and I really wanted one for myself!), but I let them stay up because Clay was supposed to be home early
  
• Clay's US Air flight was supposed to get in at 3ish from Charlotte (same airline as the plane that emergency landed in the Hudson River yesterday - the one that was going to Charlotte!), but the plane was having mechanical problems, so they transferred him to another flight and lost his luggage (and he was 2 hours late, but at least he is safe!).
• About 4:30 I noticed that our house was cold. The furnace wasn't working, so poor Clay was greeted with that when he finally got home!

The good news: the girls went to bed a little after 7pm tonight, Clay's on his way back to the airport now to pick up his luggage, and the furnace man just left (and we have a comfortable house again). I am going to bed early tonight!


Original Post:

This morning we met Jill, Brody, and Mollie at All About Kids. It was our first time going, and it was more fun than anything we've done in awhile. If you live in the area, take your kids and let them burn off some energy - it's great!

Taking a rest

Part of the facility

Julia loved doing the trapeze (?)... she did it at least 10-15 times.


For the past few days (and the past 15 minutes) Kat has been repeatedly getting out of her bed at naptime to play in her room. She gets snacks taken away, spanked, and put back in bed multiple times... discipline doesn't seem to work with her!!!!

January 15

Update: Here are a couple of pictures of the girls with Brady and Caleb last night...

Watching a movie (they look like they are on a double date)

Little monkeys in the bed

Original Post:
12345678901zzzzasdfghjkl;aaasjulia (Julia playing on the keyboard)

This morning I had Mom's Group at church. While I was in that, the girls were in Bible Buddies. They made Jacob and Essau characters.

We are getting ready to go babysit for Scottie's kids so she and Phil can go on a date. It is freezing cold today!!!

January 14

This morning Clay left for Virginia Beach for work for a couple of days (yeah, I know, poor guy). I had a doctor's appointment. Yes, that doctor. You know what is more fun than your annual exam? Having your annual exam with a 2 yr-old and 4 yr-old in the room. You should try it sometime. Not! I learned a lesson too: Take the kids to the bathroom before you get stripped down into the hospital gown so you don't have to get redressed, take them to the bathroom, and then get undressed again. The girls were really well-behaved though (not like yesterday, thankfully!).

Lately I have been trying to do Jazzercise (aerobic dancing) to get into shape. Julia loves it. She gets into her leotard to do it... enjoy!


Tonight we have AWANA at church. Last time Kat cried and we had to leave, but hopefully she'll do better this time. We've been going to a new church for a couple of months now, and it was hard on her at first. She enjoys it now, so lets hope she enjoys her 2nd time in AWANA!

January 13

The question of the day is: How were the daily beatings!?!

It is now 1:20opm and the girls are in their beds (at least they'd better be). I started off the morning reading my Bible, exercising, cleaning the house, and doing laundry. I spent quite a bit of my time interrupted so that I could spank Kat. I tried timeouts at first, but they weren't working, spankings didn't seem to work either, so then I went into full-on bad Mommy screaming mode. It didn't help either, but it burnt off some of my frustration. Kat has been getting into drawers, climbing onto her dresser and onto the kitchen counter, etc. All things she know she's not supposed to do, and she has done them repeatedly today. Perhaps the 1 incident that pushed me over the edge was when I came upstairs from doing laundry and Julia had painted her left hand, bottom of her right foot, and her entire right thigh with Whiteout (and got some in her hair). She claims Kat got into the drawer and got it (and a few other things) out. After spanking them and bathing them (the Whiteout is still not 100% gone), I went back into the family room to cool off. That's when I noticed the permanent marker on the walls (which Kat confessed to) and the white out on the carpet!!!

I was tempted to take a picture of Julia with the Whiteout all over her, but I didn't want to encourage the behavior again. So no new pictures for today... hopefully the girls will live through the rest of this day and I can post some pictures of them tomorrow.

January 12

This morning Julia had her 4 yr-old well-child exam. She is 39 inches tall (40th %) and 34 pounds (45th%). She also had her hearing tested, got her finger pricked, and got 4 shots! I thought nothing could be worse than having your baby get shots... but no, a 4 yr-old is by far worse! They had to call an extra nurse into the room to help hold her down! When it was all over, we went to Dairy Queen for ice cream - anytime you can find an excuse for ice cream at 10am, I say go for it! When we got home, Julia got a bath to soak her legs in the tub. Hopefully she doesn't have any effects from the shots. She had some of these same shots at 1 and they caused her to have a 102-103 degree fever for 7 days!

Kat found an interesting (and messy!!!) way to eat her cone

January 11

This morning we went to church and then out to eat (for the umpteenth time this week). After dinner I went to the grocery store, so we finally have some food in the house!

Not-so-Funny Kat Story: Several times lately, Kat has informed us that "I eat my boogers Mom" (as in, I just ate some boogers Mom). She's an eater all right - and apparently not a picky one!

Ready for church

Inspired by a Princess movie, Julia asked Clay (her prince) to dance with her

It's a good thing the Health Inspectors don't make house calls! Doesn't this make you want to come over and eat?

January 10

Today (Saturday) Kat woke us up at 6:15am asking for breakfast. I am not sure how to make her understand that she's supposed to sleep in on Saturdays, but I take comfort in the fact that I will get revenge on her when she's a teenager by waking her up early on Saturdays! After the girls naps we went rollerskating with Scott, Lana, and the kids. Julia liked it and by the time we left she was skating without holding onto anything or anyone, although she wanted to be held and carried around the rink each time she fell . Kat didn't care for it much at all. She spent alot of her time in the concession stand eating. Julia says she'll go back when she gets bigger.


Kat crying because she wants to be carried and Julia crying because she doesn't want to go home. Julia got so worked up when it was time to leave she even said (sobbed), "I can't calm down!"

Both girls were worn out tonight. After baths they asked to be laid down (at 7:15pm) an hour earlier than their normal bedtime!

January 9

This morning, Julia participated in a toy study through Personal Opinions so we dropped Kat off at Lana's daycare for awhile. For the toys study, they showed Julia pictures of four different toys on the computer and the kids were asked to pick the one that they would like to bring home if they could. Then they ran through a series of toy commercials and showed the kids all the pictures of toys again to see what they would choose. I was secretly proud that the commercials had no effect on Julia. She stuck with what she had originally chosen. I think she gets that honestly. Both Clay and I are pretty strong-willed and when we know what we want it's hard to change our minds! After we were done with the toy study, we went back to the daycare to get Kat. She got to play with Camryn for about an hour and a half (thanks Lana!) and had a fun time.

What a mess! Spaghetti without a bib (or shirt!)

January 8

This morning I had to be up at the buttcrack-of-dawn (5:40am) to let Anna in the house. This is the first time for that, but it's going to happen once a week for the remainder of the school year. I didn't think it would be too bad. My plan was to let her in the house and then she and I would go back to sleep until the girls wake up. Well, the girls woke up at 6:01am! After I got done grumbling and growling, I put on a movie so we (mostly me) could rest a little longer. It seems like Julia and Kat have some sort of internal radar that lets them know when I am up - and they wake up too!

Later this morning we paid a visit to Mamaw and Papaw G. Papaw taught them how to play combs (you wrap wax paper over a comb and hum into it) and then they had a parade around the house playing their combs. This is something he did when he was little. The girls enjoyed it.

Sleeping Beauty, Belle, and Tinkerbell

Learning how to play combs

Kat getting comforted by Mamaw G after I spanked her

Here they are playing "Jesus Loves Me" on their combs...

January 7

Happy 4th Birthday Julia and 24th Birthday Uncle Joe!

This morning we went to the library for story time. For dinner we took Anna and met Clay at Chuck-E-Cheese's to celebrate Julia's birthday. Hard to believe she's 4 already! When I told her that she was 4 years old now, she said, "Are you kidding Mommy?" She says this anytime I am being silly or sarcastic with her. She asked me this 3 times before she believed me that she's really 4 now.

Funny Kat Story: Kat has been calling me Mom lately instead of Mommy. I am not ready for this - it makes her seem too grown up (Julia still calls me Mommy - of course, it's because I told her to). I told Kat to call me Mommy too. I asked Kat what my name is and she said, "Amy Mom", so now this is her new name for me, "Amy Mom".

Anna, Julia, and Kat bombarding Chuck-E-Cheese

Thanks Grandpa Tim and Lulu!

Yeah, this Princess thing isn't going to her head at all!

Kat modeling Julia's new "ring ears" (earrings)

Julia's Four Year-Old Pictures:

January 6

Today was Anna's first day back since Christmas break. The girls really missed each other and had a lot of fun playing together. This morning we went to Natalie's house and hung out for a little while. Then we went to the mall for Club Mom. Today's entertainment was a puppet show.

Giving Winston a treat

Julia (hot pink shirt) and Anna (on Julia's right) watching the puppet show

Julia getting to dance with a marionette