Is there anything this cat won't eat?

Yesterday I came into the living room and noticed that the space bar key had been forcibly removed from Isaak's laptop.

Weird, I thought.
But, I figured it was Marvelly since she was the last one I saw sitting by it.
And, well, lets face it...Marvelly breaks things.

No biggie though, I just pop it back into place and its as good as new.

So this afternoon I sit down at my computer to peacefully partake in quiet time, and all of a sudden I hear the sound of what seems to be crunching on hard plastic.

I peek into the living room, and there is my culprit...Chief the cat...caught tearing the keys off Isaak's laptop with his teeth and eating them!



EATING THEM!!

What?!?

What kind of freak of nature is this cat?!

First it was just your typical plastic bags he went for, then he developed a taste for rubberbands, plastic window blinds, quickly everything plastic became off limits, then he moved onto the harder stuff...rubber...where he really got a liking to Polly Pockets, especially the shoes...and now...what...hard keyboard keys.

Geesh, he gets into more trouble than the kids.
I think at this point it would be easier if he were a dog.

The girls first dentist trip

I took the girls to the Dentist this morning.

After being referred, by everyone I know, I took the girls to Dr. Jane Bennett.
She has a very reputable practice, cute farm decor, comfortable, friendly, and a very easy going manner among all the employees. So I caved and brought them in.
We talked to the girls before hand about getting their teeth cleaned and brushed so I wasn't expecting much resistance.
Marvelly was easy breezy.

She just sat there and let the lady brush away while she watched her personal t.v.

Sydaleigh did great, at first.

She is a bit more hesitant when it comes to trying new things, a bit more on the skeptical side.
But in the beginning she sat really well and let the hygienist polish all her teeth while she watched t.v. And then...she was done.
I would have thought she'd put up a fight having to have her teeth polished,
but she put up a fight instead when it came time to floss. Go figure.
But then she took her x-rays no problem. (???)
Silly kid.
Anyhoo.....when the gal gets done polishing and brushing her teeth, she informs me that Sydaleigh's bottom front two teeth or a little wiggly.
I'm sorry...say what?!?
Then, she told me that they would likely fall out before her 5th birthday.
I'm sorry....say what?!?
Uh oh...a little panic starting to set in......
....this mamma is NOT ready to be having her baby's teeth fall out....mkay?!?
What the heck, she's only four years old?!
Then she informed me that children start loosing teeth anywhere from 4-6 yrs old, and even though 4 yrs. old is on the early side... Sydaleigh must just be ahead of the curve.
Well, great.
AND then...as if that wasn't enough bad news for one day, when her x-rays came back the gal told me that her front top two teeth have hardly any roots, likely the result of a trauma (this is Sydaleigh we're talking about, the girl falls down every day...am I suppose to narrow down the fall that may have potentially caused the damage!)
SOOOO, as a result of having minimal roots left her front top two teeth will likely fall out prematurely.
I'm sorry...say what?!?
So her bottom two teeth are already wiggly and are going to fall out before she's 5...and her top two teeth are going to follow suit.
Uh oh...more panic setting in.....
Did I mention I'm not ready for her teeth to start falling out yet...because I'm not even ready for them to be wiggly!

Lent

I am 28 years old. In my 28 years I'm sure that I have participated in the season of Lent before, but thinking back, I can't remember when...only knowing that I'm sure I must have. This struck me as really sad. Knowing that I must have but not remembering when...hmm...well, it must not have been that life altering.

I felt a real stirring in my heart to take part in it this year. No, I'm not Catholic, but Lent is not strictly observed by Catholics, nor should it be. Lent is meant as a time of reflection and sacrifice leading up to Easter. And I felt compelled to participate this year. Since it's always better to suffer with friends :) all the women in my bible study are going along for the ride too. :) What a ride it is.

Many of the gals in my group are doing Lent for the first time, and all of us have committed to giving up something that is truly a test to go without. It's Day 3, it's hard, it's testing, but I can't wait to see the journey the Lord brings us all on these next 37 days.

At first I decided that I would give up sweets because Lord knows I love me some treats. Leading up to my decision I thought about what I should sacrifice and I just couldn't think of anything that would be a struggle for me to go without, except for sugar. So, as I stood in the kitchen preparing dinner, listening to music, thinking about not ingesting sugar for over a month, my eyes fell upon a bag of Honey Nut Cheerios, and I remembered that I couldn't stick my hand in the bag and casually munch on them anymore...so, in my weakness, I grabbed a handful of saltine crackers instead. As I was shamelessly stuffing my mouth full of salt instead, a new song came on the radio I hadn't heard before. It got my attention, but the kitchen was full of chatter so I ran out of the room to go find the name of the song and artist from the station it was on. It was then that the Lord showed me something that would be a greater struggle to go without than sugar. After all, what good was my sacrifice if I was just going to replace it with salt?

So, He very point blank asked me, "would you give up music for me?" (I love those moments when God speaks so clear you just can't deny hearing Him). I really wanted to at that moment.

Music is everything to me. More specifically, worship music is everything to me. I have my music playing in the morning during breakfast, while I'm in the kitchen making lunch, while we're eating lunch, while I'm making dinner, while I'm in the car, while I'm cleaning or doing anything that would be a little easier with some music in the background. Music transports me somewhere else. It helps lift my spirit when I'm down. It excites me further when I'm happy. Music is my ultimate form of worship. I love it. I love listening to the artists sing the most beautiful words that I feel so eloquently describe what I couldn't put into words myself.

So, back to His question..."would you give up music for Me?"

"Ughhhhh" was my first response.

As I stood there, momentarily contemplating whether I could do this or not, He told me why, "I want to hear your words, I want to hear your heart's song...not someone else's."

Well, shoot, this is gonna be harder than I thought. But, I knew, that I wouldn't want it to be easy. I didn't want to sacrifice something that I wasn't going to have to depend on Him to go without. Yeah, it may sound silly to be that attached to music, but I am. Like I said, it's been my ultimate form of worship for close to 10 years. So by taking away my music, God is teaching me to worship Him in a new way. A way less familiar. He is taking me out of my comfort zone and challenging me to connect with Him in a new way.

I can't wait to see where He leads me come Easter. I'm betting I won't be the same....

V-day

To the point....
we got a baby sitter for the first time in four months, went to dinner at Liberty Tavern where Isaak had duck for the first time, enjoyed great conversation, and capped off the evening watching Valentine's Day at the theater, which was so-so. Great night. Nothing monumental or extraordinary, just a regular date night...which I like the best.

Bitter sweet ladies night

Two weekends ago I went out with my favorite gals to celebrate three birthday and one going away. The night was bittersweet. It was joyous to be able to get together and celebrate birthdays...and friendship. But it was very very sad knowing this marked the last time we would ever do this with Holly. (well, at least for a long time, I'm sure God wouldn't let it be "ever", I shudder at the very thought at that kind of separation)

The night happened in what seemed like warp speed and slow motion all at the same time. The hours flew by, but the conversations and laughter happened in slow motion. All the planning, and planning, and planning that went into the night...all the excitement and hype....was too quickly gone. The next morning came quickly, we packed our things, and went back to our lives at home.

But ya know we had fun while it lasted!
We made a pit stop to get pedicures before we set in for a night of walking in heels, complete with cheese and cracker, sparkling cider,

and chocolate covered strawberries, "HEEEY!"


we certainly know how to jazz a place up. :)

after our toes were dry and pretty, we made another pit stop at our hotel to unload our gobs of stuff. It took two mini vans to get it all there, but we're all Moms, so not a one of us knows how to pack light. :)

A quick check in the mirror, a quick check that our microphone was on, "testing, testing" ; )


..and we were off, again....


our snazzy shuttle service took us to Blue


where we dined on mounds of sushi...


and ate and laughed and talked until we were so full that we could barely eat or laugh or talk anymore...




so we hit the streets to pack in some dessert. :)





which brought us to Vivaci...


...where the good times kept rollin'...



..until we were on the brink of exhaustion from stuffing ourselves silly, and walking all over the Old Market in towering heels, we finally made our way back to our hotel for the night,

where we climbed into our pajamas, cozied up on our beds with comforts from home
(that is a fierce blanket Brooke!), or for those who didn't have a bed, a pull out couch, and deflating mattresses...


where we showered each other with gifts (yes Twilight made an appearance)...





we cried, laughed, talked, laughed hysterically some more (until water shot out of our noses,
oh wait, that was just Liz :)....)


until all that was left to do was go to sleep and let the thoughts of the night and all the nights before that dance through our heads...



Amazingly fun, unforgettable, and
Bittersweet.


(three men down-Brandi, Kara, and Brooke skipped out on us at first light :)

Favorite moments from the night....
Brooke's squeeky mattress,
the ghetto drag queens inside Blue on their way to the "adult prom",
Becky putting in her hair flowers like Princess Leia,
Brooke having to have her skin tight jean legs forcefully pulled down after her pedicure,
looking over and seeing Liz checking to see if I was still awake,
realizing Holly made me a book, with the exact same pictures and layouts that I made in her book,
laughing till we cried when I innocently said, "I'm ready.." when I hopped into bed,
Liz shooting water out of her nose,
everybody pretending to sleep when no one was really sleeping at all,
the weird red lit bathroom in Blue with Chinese newspapers as wallpaper,
reminiscing with Holly as she journey through her Chiquititas book,
and last but not least,
looking up and seeing that Kara's mattress was slowly losing air, and knowing that she would slowly sink, like slow quick sand, right along with it during the night!

Stuck...

...in.the.middle.of.a.car wash.

Uh huh.

Of course that would happen to me.

It's always been a fear of mine, a minor fear, but a fear none the less....that every time I go through a car wash, there is going to be a malfunction and I will be stuck inside the car unable to get out...surrounded by machinery that could crush me, or scald me to death if I tried to open the door and make a run for it because I was getting too claustrophobic to stay inside anymore.

Dramatic, yes, but what can I say, that's where my mind goes when we're slowly being pulled through, okay!?

And, today that happened.

Not the whole getting crushed or scalded to death....just the getting stuck part, but still.

We just got done getting soaped up...about to be forcefully sucked into the brushes when everything just, shut down.

The car wash completely.shut.down while we were inside.

I mean, for real!?! I almost couldn't believe it!

I was looking around, my eyeballs darting back and forth, thinking to myself, "ughhh, what just happened? I know I did not just get stuck inside a car wash! Is this for real? Seriously? ...nooooooooooooo!!.....don't let them see you panic....pretend to be mad so it disguises you freaking out....."

Surely it's one thing to have paranoid unrational fears...but for those paranoid unrational fears to actually become real, well that's just crazy!

Every time I've gone through a car wash and thought about how terrible it would be to get stuck inside, my better reasoning always convinced me that it was completely improbable that that would actually happen.

So despite the fact that this was a real fear of mine...I was still completely dumbfounded when it actually happened!

Thankfully I wasn't alone...if I had been I may have just made a run for it...left the car and ran...ya know...before the machinery could come to life and crush me to bits (I'm such a freak sometimes! I don't know why I envisioned the machinery falling apart around me. Now I know that when you get stuck inside a car wash, nothing crashes into the car, you just get stuck. The machinery doesn't go berserk, nothing's falling from the rafters or anything. I'm thinking I saw one too many horror movies growing up?)

Anyways, we made it out alive. No harm done.

(but I'm still praying to God that that never happens to me again-I don't want to push my luck!)

Random reason why I love Isaak...

...every time he goes to a function, he brings me home a plate of dessert.
The man knows how much I like sweets, and he never fails to bring me home some.
It's never anything I've ever asked, just something he's always done.
Very random, very little, but very thoughtful, and very big.

Little Sickling

My little Marvelly is sick.
Of course I had no idea.
Marvelly almost always has a little bit of phlegm rattling around in her throat which triggers a little nagging cough on most days.
Typically she's not sick, she just can't seem to get rid of this phlegmy annoyance.
So, she's been coughing for about a week, but this time the cough was getting deeper, and louder, and since this is a big weekend coming up I figured I better take her in just to make sure it wasn't turning into something else.
We head to the Urgent Care because getting an appointment on base is impossible unless you aren't sick.
I found out that she has croup, is wheezing and has a fever of 102 degrees.
Really?
I had no idea.
I wasn't even aware that she was running a fever.
Talk about feeling like the lousiest mom alive.
Geesh.
So know I'm having to give her breathing treatments every 4 hours because she's gotten a little bit worse and her breathing is way more labored.
Plus a steroid every day.
Plus and antibiotic every day.
Ibuprofen every six hours to keep her fever down.
But despite all her ailings, she's flouncing about the house as usual.
Trying to scale the arm of the couch and jump off, wrestling with Sydaleigh, nothing that would indicate she's sick except for the fact that it sounds like she's going to cough up a lung at any moment.
Apparently running a fever and not being able to breathe aren't enough to slow this kid down.
Really hoping she gets on the mend soon, I hate it when the girls are sick.

Don't let the happy stunt lovin' dancing face fool you...she really is sick...I promise.

Big Shindig

I've been busy planning a big shindig for this Saturday night.

A shindig to celebrate three birthdays and one going away.

I am crazy excited, except for the fact that we're celebrating the 'going away' part.

But, I'm doing my best to suppress it as much as possible so that I don't ugly cry the whole night,

which would surely put a damper on the festivities. :)

So, I'm busy planning.

Saturday is going to be the first night that I have EVER slept away from my family! EVER!

It is going to be fun!!!!!!!!