gunk

some nasty little cold has been going around our house...it started last week sometime, culminating on friday with elise being diagnosed with an ear infection in both ears and pinkeye to boot. ian, too, has had the cold and ended up with pinkeye. (after the way he slept last night, i'm wondering if he's developed an ear infection!) i've had the ol' cold myself. it began with a sore throat caused by drainage. it wasn't just a little irritated, it was completely "i-can-barely-swallow-without-some-ibuprophen-in-me" sore. that seems to have eased up as the snot begins to pour from my nose....it just keeps coming, and coming, and coming (from where i cannot imagine...) don't worry, the fun continues! i have also developed a cough that is borderline tight/loose. so i have that urge like it will be really productive, and yet i end with a few measley coughs. the urge continues, however, until i feel like i'm going to hurl up my liver if i cough again. and this morning, i woke up with drool all over my cheek from my deep, sick sleep (it was soooooo gross--i could've beat out a st. bernard with what i found this morning) and my eyelids all crusty & gunked all over. so now i have pinkeye! as bad as it is, i just keep reminding myself....at least it's not the stomach bug!

vanilla

just a cute "elise-ism". elise always has to have a white or off-white towel to dry off with after her bath. only she doesn't call them white towels. they are her "vanilla" towels. last night i made the mistake of holding up a navy one for her to use. she was quick to let me know that she would need a vanilla one before she could get out!

a little truth

i took an email quiz that someone sent me this morning. it was something like you had to number 1-11 and write down some numbers and two members of the opposite sexes names and then three friends or family members and lastly write down four songs. hardly any of mine made sense. i had written ian down for one and it turned out to be the person i like but my relationship wouldn't work with. that is very, very true, but twisted. so most of my answers just seemed bizarre to me. one was hilarious to me, though. one of the song titles i had written down was supposed to tell me the most about my mind. you'll never guess what i had written down......."somewhere, out there!"

the strawberry patch

elise, ian & i went to pick strawberries today. it was soooooo much fun. we had the best time. we each got our buckets and began walking down the rows. the strawberries were so juicy and red and ripe. ian was funny with his bucket. he wouldn't let go of it. i offered to help him carry it several times, but each time i got a resounding "no" from him. he did give in at the end when he could no longer lift the bucket off the ground! elise was so cute, too. she wouldn't let us leave until our buckets were all full. as much as i love strawberries, there are only so many that we can eat. i was afraid we wouldn't use them all and so I told the lady there that i only wanted two buckets and she could keep the other one. a sweet little lady sitting there in her rocking chair said, "well, you might have a dear friend you'd like to share the others with." what can you say to that? saying, "i don't have any dear friends" or "i don't like to share" really doesn't come off too well, so i came home with the strawberries. besides i'm a sucker for sweet little old ladies...

in the strawberry patch... 

elise was a great picker. she made sure all our buckets were full. 

ian wouldn't let anyone get their hands on his bucket! he finally had to give it up when it got too full! 

can you guess what elise is? as she told me, she is a kangaroo...and milo is in her pouch! 

our little family at the baptism 

compliments

one of my favorite nephews, dallen, told me saturday after the baptism something that just made me smile. he said, "aunt kristen, you know what my favorite part of the baptism was?" "no" i said, "what was it?" "it was when you played the piano and when victoria was baptized." what makes that so sweet is that when a child tells you something like that, you know it's for real. thanks for making my day, dallen! it's the best compliment i've gotten in a while!

dozens of cousins....(back l-r) kyleigh, ericka, elise (front l-r) emmy, victoria holding charles allen, dallen holding ian, marleigh 

the first baptism

saturday was my oldest niece's baptism. somehow, even though i knew what a significant event this was, i was almost overwhelmed with the emotions i felt that day. i think several things played into those feelings--the great talks by aunt amanda & aunt melissa, dale's sweet confirmation prayer, the music, the ordinance itself...it all played a part. i almost felt like this was the first baptism i've ever attended as a grown up. it's a little like holding your baby for the first time and realizing how your parents felt about you. i felt the sweetness of victoria's spirit and her testimony. i also saw the tenderness dale felt towards his little girl as she took this big step and the love myranda felt as a mother. i was so proud of the example victoria set for my children and love her even more for doing so. it was beautiful to see. i wouldn't have missed that experience for anything in the world.

sweet baby girl

elise was so sweet yesterday. i had been in the kitchen doing dishes when she ran into the room. "Mama!", she said, "Come see what i did to your bedroom! you are going to be sooooo surprised! you are not even going to believe what i have done!" i followed her into the bedroom and saw that she had made the bed as best she could (which was surprisingly good considering she's a 3 year old and she was tackling a king sized bed), stacking the pillows at the top, and had placed two of her teddy bears on them. i, of course, bragged on her to no end and she was pleased as punch. those moments, when she has done something so selfless to try and make me happy, when she wants nothing more than to hear what a great girl she is and how much i love her, make my heart want to burst. i feel overwhelmed, or maybe it's overflowing, to be her mother!

so i'm not emeril...

i think that i'm a fairly good cook. i'm not going to have my own cooking show, i won't own my own restaurant, but for my little world--i'm a good cook. there isn't much chance, however, of my getting a big head about the whole ordeal. in my own house, no matter how delicious i, or cory or anyone else, would think my meal is my kids keep my reality in check. for example, last night i fixed rotini noodles and diced tomatoes in a spicy, garlic alfredo sauce with a side of steamed, seasoned broccoli. i thoroughly enjoyed every bite. this is how elise received the meal.
me: "here's your plate, elise."
elise: "i hate--well, not actually hate--i really, really, really don't like broccoli like that. i only like chinese broccoli. this broccoli is not my favorite!"
cory: "why don't you put some chinese sauce on the broccoli?"
----at this point, she proceeds to drown her broccoli in soy sauce, followed close behind by ian.--
elise: "i don't like those red things. you know i don't like tomatoes. how could you make them for me?"
me: "just pick out the tomatoes and eat the noodles."
elise: "i don't like these noodles. i only like spaghetti & macaroni and cheese. not these noodles."
cory: "this is a lot like macaroni and cheese. that sauce is cheese--just like on macaroni."
elise: "no! macaroni is orange! this is a different kind!"
-----during this time cory helps her pick out the tomatoes from the noodles.----
elise: "when i have broccoli i like rice. like chinese broccoli. this kind is so disgustin'!"
-----by the end of the meal she had eaten one noodle and one bite of broccoli and then brought her plate over to me at the dishwasher.----

i have to say that elise is actually a really good eater. she's like cory in that she prefers veggies to fruits & always has. she will eat broccoli (obviously the "chinese "kind or in a stir fry) as well as lettuce, corn, potatoes, peas....lots of things. but when it comes to meals, she's not into all that! just give it to her straight & plain...or dipped in ketchup! no doubt ian will have similar tastes. and it keeps me humble! but's it's okay--there's hope yet--i was once a picky eater, too!

who knew that's what a collander was for! 

bottoms up! 

the puking thing

thankfully, the puking seems to be over for ian. lucky for both of us! i'm still undecided as to what made him sick. it's possible it was just your run of the mill stomach bug...it's also possible it was something he ate. normally i wouldn't think this, but this might be the exception. a couple of days ago i let ian eat some blueberry yogurt outside on the deck. more than eating it, he mainly just smeared it all over his body and the deck. the next day there were still traces of the yogurt on the deck. before i could get to him he had gotten down and licked that sticky, nasty yogurt baked onto the deck. we may never know what exactly caused ian to be sick, but i'd say it's a toss up!

the joys *sigh* of motherhood

one of my least favorite tasks as a mother occured today--ian threw up--mulitple times! he's been a little grouchy the last few days, but with no fever, no other symptoms or whatnot, i chalked that up to teething or a phase or something. well, this afternoon, he awoke from his nap gagging. that's fun. he proceed to gag/heave/cough/vomit at least four more times. so the last 3 hours have sucked for both of us. i can handle fevers, coughs, snot, poop (even really gross ones), sore throats--pretty much anything....except puke. can't wait for this bout to end!

a short review

it's been a few days since my last post, so i thought i'd do a little catching up...
we had a good weekend. cory went with the scouts to a camporee--leaving friday afternoon and getting in late, late saturday. he had a good time, only getting a little sunburned in the process. the kids and i just relaxed around the house, doing some cleaning and organizing that needed doing and trying to get caught up. we had a to make a walmart run for like the third time in as many days since i kept forgetting to get deodorant. (ian smeared mine all over the toy chest and a footstool) i finally remembered it on this trip! anyway, after church on sunday we headed down to no man's land...just kidding. we went down to visit with cory's parents & had a great time. lots of the cousins were there and others and we visited until pretty late (especially with a 1 1/2 hour drive back home!) but it was nice. so it seemed like we were here, there, and everywhere all weekend. this week doesn't look much better, but we'll see....

a wonderful husband

i just have to take an opportunity to say how great cory is. last night two other girls & i gave a baby shower for one of our friends. baby showers don't just happen in one night. there are invitations to be sent out, presents to be bought, games planned, supplies gotten, food fixed and much more. so this week we've been wrapped up in baby shower land, on top of our other duties, responsibilites, and assignments. (as a side note, just keeping ian out of mascara, preventing him from throwing books in the toilet and just generally keeping his destruction at bay is, itself, a full time job.) so in saying this, i'm rationalizing and justifying why my housekeeping skills fell by the wayside. seriously, they were at a bare minimum. by last night when i left for the shower the house was in total disarray. there were a few bright spots, but the kitchen was a disaster. i'm a disaster in the kitchen when i cook as far as organization is concerned. the food tastes good, but it always looks like our pantry exploded in the process. so after food preparation for the shower, it was total chaos. the other really bad area was the bedroom. laundry had been on a back burner, so basically there were several piles of clean and/or dirtly laundry all around. this does not include all the little messes that ian made throughout the day that had to be fixed and repaired. this was the state of the house when i left at about 5:30 or 6:00. when i got home at 11:00 the house was spotless! i mean that literally...the kitchen was in perfect order (three dishwasher loads later), the laundry was all washed folded and put away (with only one load left in the dryer), everything was off the floor, off the counters--everything. it was amazing--near miraculous! just when i think he's the greatest thing ever, he surprises me again! it was the greatest feeling to walk into the house like that and then get up this morning to a house in perfect order. it was awesome. he never ceases to amaze me! he might get a big head from this, but i'll risk it if he's willing to get my house looking like that! so ups to you cory...you're one in a million!

doesn't he look spiffy? 

freshly groomed milo 

we've gone to the dogs

it's just occured to me that we have officially gone "to the dogs". i've suspected it several times before, but now it's official! it started a few days ago when we began letting milo sleep in our room. up until this point, he's been in the laundry room at night, snug as a bug in a rug. then last weekend at mama's and daddy's we let him sleep with us. (this was out of respect for the jarrell's who i'm sure didn't appreciate milo barking and whining whenever anyone walked by the bathroom where he was at. this happened quite a bit b/c the boys stayed up late and daddy got up so early. either way, milo was disturbing someone who was asleep!) so we got back home and milo went back to the laundry room...only now he was hooked. he no longer wanted to sleep in the laundry room. and we gave in. milo got a nice cozy spot in our bedroom floor. but that wasn't good enough for milo. last night milo woke me up in the middle of the night whining by my side of the bed. i tried ignoring him, i told him no....the whole drill. but my dedication to these principles wears thin at 2 am and before i knew it milo was sleeping on our bed! at the foot of our bed, but on our bed nonetheless. by next week he'll be sleeping on the pillow and i'll be on the floor! anyway, to top it all off, milo got groomed yesterday! yes, he got trimmed from head to toe and he looked spiffy! this experience made me realize just how attached i had become to the little guy, because i was really sad to leave him. it was a very similar feeling (not exactly the same thing, but similar) to leaving my kids for the first time. he was overjoyed to see me when i went to pick him up,(i hardly recognized him, especially with the two blue bows tied to his ears) and he just loved all over me. so it's official...i've become what i used to think of as over the top or obsessive or too attached. it's like i always say--whenever you say, "i would never...." or "can you believe some people..." or "how can they do..." it always, always comes back to you!

entertainment

daddy was down overnight to help cory at work. he left these squishy rubber ball things that would light up when you squeezed them to give to elise and ian in a pinch. you could throw them as a ball or clip them to a necklace and wear. yesterday was such busy day and after running errands all day we came in only to have ian go on a destroying-let-me-trash-you-house-rampage. so i gave them these balls, which they loved! it really is the simple things....

 

 

the vulgarity of it stuns me

yesterday was a crazy day, part of which included the kids and i going to cory's office for lunch. after eating, elise needed to use the bathroom, so since cory was on the phone & daddy was busy at the computer i went and took ian with me. while elise was in there (and was taking a long time) i decided that i needed to go as well. this situation arises from time to time where i have to go and so ian comes in with me. he will usually just stand on the floor and hang out or occasionally in a really nasty place, i will hold ian on my lap (which is real fun for the both of us). this bathroom was not unusually nasty, so i let ian down. well doesn't he plop down on the floor and crawl around for a second (as i try desperately to get him back up while remaining on the toilet). before i can get to a position to grab him he has gotten up & licked both hands! i cringe even as i write it! honestly, what would make him do that?! and who knows what disguting, vulgar germs he picked up from there. but we should know in a few days! =)

wreath

i may have mentioned before that there are a group of us girls down here who craft once a month (or every other month, depending on how our schedules are...) the wreath in this picture was our project for this month. doesn't it look great?

our craft night project.... 

freaky friday

just one more crazy afternoon in our life occurred last friday. cory was at work and i was trying to do laundry and pack our bags for our trip to mt. airy for the weekend. this alone was quite a process, but then cory called. he was on the way to an appointment out in the boonies and needed help with directions. so i looked them up and began helping him find the way. as i was doing this, ian "cleared the deck" of my folded laundry. then he and elise dumped a whole box of captain crunch with crunch berries all over the floor. i mean from front door, to kitchen, to living room, to bedroom--over carpet, tile, linoleum--they didn't miss a spot. milo immediately began eating captain crunch with crunch berries as hard as he could go, only to make himself sick and vomit on elise's bedspread laying in the floor. ian also had a poopy that stunk to high heaven, so i just had no idea where to began. this could have been an even worse problem because our vacuum cleaner broke a few weeks ago (no doubt from something i did...i feel like a VC should pick up anything and everything in its tracks--this includes strings, bobby pins, small pits of paper--everything! that's it's job--to pick up things. if it won't do it, why have one?) anyway, i was lucky enough to have borrowed one of mama's and daddy's, so the cereal clean up was much easier. now, i have to say, if you looked at the vacuum cleaner you would never know that it was such a good piece of equipment. it looks like it was easily from back in the seventies--it's the long, compact, heavy "body" that you have to haul around and the long, long hose at the end. but all that said, it works surprisingly well. i mean, it is bulky, and heavy and somewhat unhandy to use, but boy, it sucked those crunch berries right on up without the slightest problem. thank goodness for small miracles!

our week in review

sorry for the lack of posts last week. i can explain...it all started out on monday with my idea to separate elise & ian into separate rooms. elise would be moving to the "new" room, so i would need to paint it. i began by buying just your basic, very slightly off-white ("country white") paint and putting two coats on the room by myself, during the day with two kids playing around. then i decided to paint stripes on the wall. you can imagine how much work it was to measure, tape off, and then paint three sets of stripes (two coats each) on the wall and to top it off the border of flowers along the top that i pretty much free-handed--all with the same two kids playing around, not to mention a frisky puppy. and then, when i stood back to admire my handiwork....i hated it! the colors felt all wrong, the stripes were not quite how i had pictured them....it just didn't look right. so i hauled all my mess back to the store, picked out a dark, rosy color and put a good solid two coats on the room again! so i literally have painted all week long! it's been unreal. and finally, in the end, i love it! it's perfect & just the look i was going for. but boy! did it take a long time to get there!

drinks

we had spaghetti for supper tonight, a favorite for all of us. ian, after eating a huge helping, finished the rest of his plate off by adding noodles and sauce to his water. and yes, he did drink some of it afterwards! (although he did make a face after some noodles got left on his tongue!)

thirsty anyone? 

yes, that used to be a glass of water... 

its in the genes

its amazing the power that our families have to influence us, even in subtle, sometimes unnoticeable ways. sometimes we emulate our relatives to a tee without even knowing it & other times we rebel against them and create our own trends. here are some i noticed over the weekend.
1. ethan eats like daddy--some of his latest concoctions are broccoli and eggs and an avocado & broccoli sandwich with the top piece a slice of bread & the bottom an opened hot dog bun.
2. daddy is very similar to grandma j--he cooks like her in that he sometimes takes the road less traveled. this weekend he wanted to put a can of drained fruit cocktail into a coconut cake mix. it reminded me of the time grandma j was making an apple pie but realized she didn't have enough apples so she used peaches for the rest. not that either one is a cooking atrocity, just a little left of center. i also see her in his passion for bread, jellies, and gardens.
3. i'm like mama--sometimes when i talk to the kids, word for word, it is my mom. it's like when it happens i just hear it and can't decide if i just said that or if i was hearing my mom say it to me.
4. elise is like me--ian "occasionally" gets into something and elise goes, "ian dean barnett! what have you done?" all the cadences are a dead on impersonation!
5. could i make this list without mentioning adam being like dadddy?--he's AC, after all--"adrian clone". of course there are differences, but there are moments when i hear him talk--and it isn't just his voice, it's the topic of conversation as well--and i know that if i look over i will see my daddy. he'll say something that i know the only other person in the world who would have said that would be my dad!
6. logan is like many of the jarrell clan when it comes to animals--a cat was hiding out under our car this weekend & the first (and only) one out there is logan trying to rescue it. although various ones of us love animals, logan got his animal genes from grandma jarrell and crew, b/c he takes it to a whole new level.