Thursday, March 31, 2011

She's 10 already!!

The other day Kirsten had some clothes given to her and she was so excited, so we started going through them and some were a little more mature looking dresses and I realized that I couldn't come up with a valid excuse not to let her keep them bc she is growing up and wanting to look a little older and not so childish and I started crying. Watching my BABY girl trying on clothes and the smaller sizes not fitting and I just started thinking of when she was a baby and a little girl and she doesn't want to wear the baby doll dresses and bloomers anymore. Glenn was laughing at me but I was crying! We also had to have yet another modesty talk and I assured her that if she gave me a hard time about shirts underneath certain dresses or putting stretch pants/tights under shorter dresses/skirts that I would NOT let her keep them! I was very pleased when she wanted me to help her put them into outfits (I may not have the best fashion since but I know she will be covered!). :) She needs a new swimsuit this year and unless I can find another cute, stylish, MODEST one that is cheaper it looks like we will be spending around $70 for her a new one. The one we bought 2 summers ago is now too small. :( They are very cute and I still have mine. We bought them at swimmodest.com . They are made by a homeschool family. I know some girls might give her a hard time but I want her to be appropriate in what she wears even for swimming. Underwear and anything that looks like it should be isn't anything anyone needs to be seeing you in! She thought it was neat though that the first year she went to church camp, she was the only girl that did not have to cover up her swimsuit to walk to the pool! I want her to be cute but I want people to see her beauty within and Christ shining through her and not be looking at other things! Oh, I just love my baby girl so much and thank God for her everyday!

Monday, March 28, 2011

remodel days (lost count!)

I am behind in writing about our remodeling progress, so here is an update. As the week came to a close the remodel hasn't. They got a lot done but there is still some more to do and as I look at our weeks ahead I wonder when they are going to find the time! Honey doesn't want the cubbies used till they are coated with the clear stuff and that is really hard on the babies, they are so excited! It is cold here today and I am typing this while sitting at the park watching Chris' soccer practice and my fingers keep hitting the wrong keys bc they are soooo cold! lol back to the room, they got almost all the sheetrock up and some plugs in, we bought a door. now they have to get the door in, do all the mudding and painting and they still have to replace the little patch of carpet that got all nasty with the leak. It is looking so great though! I am so proud of the men and all the hard work they have done. I am so grateful to have a daddy that would take a week of his vacation time to work on our house! Now if I can just get the clothes all done and organized and out of my living room! the only person completely done is Kayson! Am I the only one that takes almost 2 weeks to get it all done? I sure hope not! Everytime I try to think of a way to make it go faster and be more organized with the switching of the seasonal clothes it just never seems to work, still takes me awhile! oh well, it is what it is. :)

Thursday, March 24, 2011

remodel days 5 & 6

here I am once again to tell you how are house is progressing, Honey and daddy have finished building the cubbies! 9 of them! They look so excellent! I am so proud of the men! Now they have to paint them and sheetrock the extension of our bedroom which I think I will dub the sitting room. (side note: just heard italian music from a passing car as I sit here at the park for Chris' soccer practice, holding Kayson, typing one-handed, watching Cayden play, all while feeling like crying for a reason I cannot yet disclose) now I am home, dinner has been ate and 3 babies bathed so I sit here typing while waiting for the water to heat back up to get the other ones clean. I had to stop typing bc Kayson got hungry and then Cayden was running (barefoot) on the concrete and tripped, scraped up his toes and knee pretty good! I had to go get the first aid kit and patch him up. I told him to "come here so I can doctor you" to which he said "Mama, you're not a doctor!" lol I had to lay Kayson on a blanket on the grass so I could have both my hands but he was happy and cooing. All the babies are stuffy and coughing a little (allergies and I think all the dust being stirred up at the house)so we have decided to spend the night at my parents tonight, they all got benadryl and will sleep with a vaporizer running so I am hoping everyone will feel better tomorrow. Busy day tomorrow so I better finish getting babies clean and then in bed!

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

remodel day 4

Today started out with the guys working on the floor, daddy got it all patched up and then they did the ceiling, it's not popcorned or painted but there isn't a hole anymore. We spent a good part of the day trying to decide how to work out our coat cubbies that we wanted, the wall we wanted to move is a support wall so daddy wanted to build the cubbies all the way up to be the support. We had looked for some but all of them were not the dimensions we wanted (too small) and would end up costing us about $500. So I went with Glenn to Lowes to find the right wood for building it. If we bought the precut, prepackaged boards for the walls of them it would cost about $350. Well I found some boards that we had Lowes cut to the right depth for us, had some left over to make the shelves with and it all only cost $250! :) I went through Kirsten's clothes today, took one look at all the keep clothes and decided that we need to go through them again with a fine tooth comb! lol! I had a meeting with some CHEC moms today at Chick Fil A to plan for the used booksale, I am going to make it an fb event and be a floater at the sale. I am so excited, I love books and getting them for cheap! I am planning our curriculum for next year and need to figure out how much $ I need and how much I have left for the sales. Kirsten is also planning on saving $ so she can shop too! :)

Monday, March 21, 2011

Day 3 remodel

After a night of little sleep due to a teething baby, the demolition started this am, They took all the paneling off the walls and the insulation out of the outside walls. When they got into the wall they found more damage then we originally thought and ended up having to take the siding off the outside and replace some of the wallboards. They also found 2 holes in the flooring when they pulled that corner of the carpet up and those will need to be fixed, I think that is on the agenda tomorrow along with patching the ceiling that daddy cut out and pulled down, he had insulation falling all around him. I made cinnamon toast for breakfast and my mama made spam and noodles for lunch and tatertot casserole for dinner. I didn't get as much done on the clothes as I would have liked so my living room is still covered in them. When they started pulling the walls down and were finding bugs and spraying the bug stuff (which smelled up the house) I decided to jump ship and abandoned my house for my mama's! Went back a little later to see about working on the clothes some more and found insulation falling out of the ceiling and Honey and daddy wearing face masks! Decided that I was going back to my mama's house. Kirsten really helped alot today with Kayson, I even got a nap. I made the three older boys spend the morning outside, it was such a beautiful day! Cayden and Keegan got so filthy and nasty that I couldn't let them eat lunch that way, so they got sink baths in my mama's kitchen before they ate and then lunch and after naps! Keegan took a nap with Marmie and Cayden took his with me. All in all I think it has been a wonderful and productive day.

remodel days 1 & 2

so, Glenn and daddy took this week off to redo/remodel the room right off of ours. The roof had a leak and we decided to move the wall over about 2 feet. This will open up our entry area and form a little sitting area as part of our master bedroom! I will try to write each day about our progress. Saturday they fixed the roof leak, took them all morning but they worked hard! Glenn had never worked on a roof before and didn't even think about the sun. :( He has a very red neck! Tomorrow they will start demolition! I got the room all cleaned out yesterday so it is ready to be demolished. I have also started the biannual sorting of the clothes, time to put all the winter clothes away and get out the summer ones. Decisions, decisions, so hard to make sometimes! seems like such a feat to get all of the clothes sorted into get rid of, keep wear now, keep grow into, keep next season piles and then all put away, not to mention trying to get all the dirty clothes clean and sorted too. Our living room is full of clothes everywhere. Such a busy busy week ahead. Sunday was a day of rest! So Glenn and daddy decided that resting meant driving into Tyler to pick up a puppy! She is half german shepherd and half golden retriever. Her name is Dixie! the babies wanted to call her Winn Dixie bc of the movie but my mama and daddy said no, let's just call her Dixie. She is real cute!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Happy Green Day!

A 16-year old British boy was once taken prisoner by invading raiders from another land. He served as a slave for six years and, during that time of captivity, turned to the faith of his father and became a devout follower of Jesus Christ. Eventually, he escaped. Many years later, he returned to the land of his captors to minister to the small Christian population there and to share the Gospel with others. That boy's name was Patrick and his mission work took place in Ireland. Just as Paul connected with his audience in the New Testament in relevant ways to share the Good News, Patrick used Irish customs and symbols to connect his audience with his message. For example, he used the three-leaf shamrock to illustrate the Trinity and superimposed the sun, a dominate Irish symbol, on the cross so that acceptance of this symbol of Christianity would come more naturally. (Today, we know it as the Celtic cross.) I think this is such a neat story! I have always loved the celtic cross and now I know why it is different! pretty cool. spent the day with friends that don't celebrate with pinching which was good bc I forgot all about wearing green today! can you imagine if I gave my boys permission to pinch someone?? well maybe we shouldn't imagine that! too scary! lol, well I have to go get two little uns out of a bath after they get a good scrubbing! :)

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

EGGS

I think eggs are a funny thing, you can do so many things with them and make them taste so many different ways. Everybody has their preferences on how to eat them and just bc you like an egg one way does not mean you will like it a different way. We had eggs for breakfast 3 days last week and everytime it was like a different meal. We all like scrambled eggs but Glenn doesn't like scrambled egg casserole (scrambled eggs with tater tots, cheese, chopped turkey, ham or bacon bits) that much and yet we all love quiche! We all love a good hard boiled egg but Glenn and the babies don't like deviled eggs and I love them! especially with bacos. :) Kirsten says, "you can scramble em, hard boil em, sunnyside up em and then you get egg crazy and then their eggcellent!" lol Mmmm...sunnyside up or over medium eggs! gotta love some runny yolks! :) Glenn likes those with grits, I like them with hashbrowns. Cayden likes ranch on his eggs (all kinds) and Kirsten drenches hers in ketchup! Oh, yes, and we can't forget a good scrambled egg sandwich! soooo good! Eggs for breakfast, eggs for lunch, eggs for dinner, I think maybe we need some chickens! lol all this talk of the versatility off eggs kinda makes me think of potatos and all the things you can do with one of those too! Oh, but maybe that should be a discussion for another time, or maybe you just get the idea! :) lol

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Menus

I plan 2 weeks worth of menus at a time (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and make my grocery list from that. We have a very tight budget and this helps me make sure that we have enough food to last till the next payday. Now none of this is "set in stone" and can be changed as needed but it gives me a good guideline and Kirsten and Chris like to "see what the menu says". One thing that they enjoy is they get to put one thing on the menu each week and I do my best to make sure it gets bought. Chris' favs are pringles (original) and he just recently requested CHOCOLATE ice cream! They look forward to these treats bc we can't afford them all the time. When we first started letting them choose, Kirsten ALWAYS chose grits! I got so tired of grits and I usually love them! lol. Seems like Glenn wants to challenge me, quite often he will request something I have never made before! Another thing I do is if something happens (like mama feeds us!) :) then I put what we didn't eat on the next set of menus bc I have already bought the stuff for it so it just helps with the next checks grocery $. Menus were Glenn's idea and I thought I would hate it but then my OCD took over and I made it more detailed (he was thinking just planning dinner) and now I love it! It is nice when I am having a hard time with brain freezes and can't make decisions and that is one thing that is already decided for me!

Friday, March 11, 2011

randomness

wow, I haven't typed up a blog in awhile. Sorry to all of you who anxiously await my writings, assuming you do. :) ok, so here are a few happenings at the Derr house! Enjoy! So many times I think throughout the day: OH, I should blog that. but then when I sit down to do the actual typing I am usually so tired I just sit there in front of my blank screen with an equally blank mind so I have decided to keep notes on what I think you might enjoy or what I would like to remember and then when I sit down to type all I have to do is check my notes. :) On 3-9-11 Kayson had his first mashed bananas, he seemed to enjoy them. Then I was holding Kayson wrapped in a light blanket and Keegan wanted to know where his "feet go?" and had to move the blanket over to find Kayson's feet. lol so cute! Then Keegan starts waving Kayson's arms, saying, "fly, fly, fly" and Kayson is smiling and laughing!! :D We went to a pizza place in Marshall for the first time (Larry's Pizza) to celebrate Honey being on spring break and really enjoyed it, good pizza, good service, great atmosphere! They even had a loaded baked potato pizza!! I had never eaten a potato pizza before, I loved it! Cayden was practicing his Ii's and other letters and started singing Jingle Bells! Kayson has started saying, "dadadadadadadada" - Kirsten claims it is his first word and of course Glenn concurs! "that's my boy!" he says! Keegan wanted "another cookie" and pouted (complete with stuck out lip) at all gone. Then they were ALL laughing at me bc the boys were in bed and Chris was yelling Keegan who was pulling on and extension cord that was hanging from the top bunk onto the bottom bunk for plugging in various electronics (I have told them numerous times NO cords in bed, it scares me to pieces!) so I climbed halfway up the side (no ladder to keep Keegan off!) to untangle the cord from the top, got that done, took one look down and couldn't move! (yes, scared of heights) Chris had to go get Glenn (who threatened to video and post it) to come help me!! sososososo mean of all of them to laugh at me! ok I will leave you with one last funny, I was letting Kirsten read an FB post and I had wrote =D in it and she says, "what does the equals d mean?" took me a second to get it and then I just had to laugh! I turned the netbook sideways and she saw the smile then. guess it is all in how you look at it! oops that was a lesson wrapped in a funny and I didn't even realize it at first! Sometimes I really need to let God change the way I see things! love to all, sweet dreams, God bless and prayers to Japan!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Identifying your impossible people

The Critic - constantly complains (about you) and gives unwanted advice (in the prescence of others)
The Martyr - forever the victim and wracked with self-pity
The Wet Blanket - pessimistic and automatically negative
The Steamroller - blindly insensitive to others (just doesn't care how you feel or how things affect you)
The Gossip - spreads rumors and leaks secrets
The Control Freak - unable to let go and let be (my way or the highway type person)
The Backstabber - irrepressibly two-faced
The Cold Shoulder - disengages and avoids contact
The Green-Eyed Monster - seethes with envy (seethes seems like such a fun word to say)
The Volcano - builds steam and is ready to erupt (my children seem to turn up my heat quite often!)
The Sponge - constantly in need but gives nothing back (heard this said of babies, that they just take take take and yes, babies are a lot of work and they do take alot but I think what they do give back is priceless and worth it all! their love and their trust, their smiles, they are glad to see you no matter what, that is what makes it all worth it!)
The Competitor - keeps track of tit for tat
The Workhorse - always pushes and is never satisfied
The Flirt - Imparts innuendoes, which may border on harassment
The Chameleon - eager to please and avoids conflict
(parenthesis are my words)
from High-Maintenance Relationships by Les Parrott III PH.D.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

The high-maintenance self-test

By answering these questions you can assess whether or not you are in a high-maintenance relationship. Answer each item carefully and honestly.
(questions with stars are my yesses)
Do you feel especially anxious when a particular person has called and left a message for you to return the call?
*Have you recently been dealing with a relationship that drains you of enthusiasm and energy?*
Do you sometimes dread having to see or talk to a particular person at work or in a social situation?
Do you have a relationship in which you give more than you get in return?
*Do you find yourself second-guessing your own performance as a result of an interaction with this person?*
*Do you become more self-critical in the presence of this person?*
*Is your creativity blocked, or is your clarity of mind hampered somewhat, by the lingering discomfort of having to deal with a difficult person?*
*Do you try to calm yourself after being with this person by eating more, biting your nails, or engaging in some other unhealthy habit?*
**Do you ever have imaginary conversations with this person or mental arguments in which you defend yourself or try to explain your side of a conflict?** (I thought I was the only one that did this!)
Have you become more susceptible to colds, stomach problems, or muscle tension since having to deal with this difficult person?
*Do you feel resentful that this person seems to treat other people better than she or he treats you?*
*Do you find yourself wondering why this person singles you out for criticism but rarely acknowledges things you do well?*
Have you thought about quitting your job as a result of having to interact with this difficult person?
*Have you noticed that you are more irritable or impatient with people you care about because of leftover frustrations from your interaction with this difficult person?*
*Are you feeling discouraged that this person has continued to drain you of energy despite your efforts to improve the relationship?*
Scoring: Total the number of yesses(10). 10 or more, you are certainly in a high-maintenance relationship.
Taken from the book "High-Maintenance Relationships" by Les Parrott III PH.D.
sord of makes ya think doesn't it?

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

funnies, take 2!

ok, let me try this once again and see if I can keep from erasing everything I type! still don't know what I did last night! Cayden comes out of his room with his elmo costume (a shirt type costume with an elmo head hood) on and Keegan (the one that has been refusing to start talking) says "melmo!" so then Cayden puts "melmo" on Keegan who promptly walks over to Kayson who starts SCREAMING! As I am wondering why I pick him up and calm him down and then he looks back at "melmo" and starts SCREAMING again! Keegan puts the hood down and Kayson becomes all smiley! lol, a few minutes later I am holding Kayson helping Cayden read a book on the ipad and here comes Keegan with the hood up again and Kayson starts shaking and SCREAMING! He is scared of the Elmo costume!! so the next thing I know is Keegan had left the room and came back and was standing there when all the sudden I see this shooting stream! I look and he has NO diaper on! so I get him cleaned up (elmo now needs laundered so Kayson doesn't have to be scared till then) and a clean diaper on then go in search of his other diaper (I know he had one on bc I had changed him that am!) When I can't find it, Kirsten suggests the trash so I look and guess what?! it is there and wet! He had taken it off and thrown it away! Today we spent the afternoon/evening at my mom's so we were getting ready to leave and Kirsten and Chris had already went out the door and I realize the house is locked! I find them sitting on the porch and Kirsten informs me that she had tried to use her pocket knife to unlock the door! apparently she has seen her daddy do it! My own daughter tried to break into my house! lol

crying

I was almost through typing a post about funnies this am and my finger slipped and hit something and it ALL disappeared! I have no idea what I did or how to get it back and I just want to cry! I can't retype it all bc I need some sleep, so goodnight to all and I hope to retype it for you later, we had a very interesting morning that I would like to have written down to remember. :(