Because there can never be too many pictures of my monkeys...

DANG, I make cute kids...




Ever the princess, charming for the camera.


I can't get her to take a serious picture. Ever.


My not so little monkey boy...

My first baby is 10 today!

I can't believe she's 10 already. Where is the baby that was all cuddled up in my arms, sound asleep and smiling, just a few days ago? She's a...a....





TWEEN!!!! Now is when the fun really starts, isn't it?





And in other Bethany news, last week when she was baking cupcakes she came outside to tell me that they were ready to go in the oven, and the wind caught the front door as she was coming out and slammed her finger. A lot of blood, screaming, and six stitches later...




The entire nail had to be removed, and the entire fingertip, from halfway between the top knuckle and the cuticle all the way up is just shattered. The doctor put the nail back on to stabilize the healing, but it will fall off when the stitches come off next week.




She's doing really well now, and only takes the Lortab Elixir at night, and gets herself some ibuprofen if it starts hurting during the day. She doesn't want to be taking a lot of medicine, she says, so she only takes it when it REALLY hurts.

Um...OW....

A dream came true this past Friday, May 25. We could call it a day late anniversary gift, if it didn't cause so much freakin' pain.


I had a breast reduction.

I have always been well loaded in the front, since jr. high. Kids and gaining weight didn't help the matter. I have gone from a 44 J to a 44 C (theoretically, still waiting for them to get to the right size & shape). I will now be able to exercise without excruciating back pain, and will finally be able to lose all this weight.

But right now, all I can think through my Lortab haze is




OW.

TWELVE EYES!!!

All three of my monkeys have glasses now. And it only improves on their cuteness!! Now if I can just teach them to STOP squishing their glasses up on the lenses we'll be set.




Oh, and I cut Catey's hair all by myself. I'm getting my hands on Bethany's mop tomorrow.

Catey rockin' her new glasses!!

I love these on her, they SOOOOO fit her personality!!!


And I'll give you TWO guesses as to who else is getting glasses. Geez, we've dropped a pretty penny on eye care this week.

Help name our new cat!

His current name is Poopycat, thanks to his previous owners. I'm not too fond of the name. He's a huge tuxedo cat, probably close to 15 lbs. We brought him home this afternoon and he's still hiding under my bed. Hopefully he'll relax enough to come out soon!


Names up for contention are currently:
Frank Sinatra
James Bond
Pussy Galore (for a boy?)
Armani
Giorgio
Moondoggie (Moonkitty?) since we already have a Gidget


Any more suggestions?

I can't wait fo rJune 7th!!!

Since the girls and Kerrie were all born in June I'm taking them to see Wicked for their birthdays. It's the day after Catey & Kerrie's birthdays. They have no idea, only Kerrie knows that she needs to take that day off.

I got our tickets in the mail, and they're tucked away safely. I had planned on getting balcony seats, MUCH cheaper, but the only seats left in any of the shows were orchestra seats. The only seats left together were the ones I got for our show. I am GIDDY with excitement! Orchestra seating, row H, seats 107-110, RIGHT SMACK IN THE MIDDLE. And since it's a 1:30 show, we'll have plenty of time for the girls to hopefully be able to meet the cast, and we'll head out for dinner afterward. They're probably going to know every single song, we listen to the soundtrack in the van all.the.time. ;)

I thought about taking Matthew as well, but I don't think he'd enjoy it as much as the girls will. I'll have a friend watch him that day and he'll have fun playing with her little girl.
I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!

April 19, 1995, 9:02 AM

Oklahoma City was changed forever.

I can see the downtown skyline from my neighborhood. As I was outside with Matt this afternoon I looked out over the skyline and pictured the smoke rising in the clear blue sky. It was chilling, to say the least. My heart aches for the families who were robbed of their loved ones. 168 people died that day, 19 were children.

The Oklahoma City National Memorial

Bethany's turn

I need to figure out how to do the color without messing with pixelation. Her eyes look kind of grainy to me. I still love it, though.

I've been playing

This is the photo we used to model Catey's new teeth. I played with it this evening and I love how it turned out.

Bricks are not for eating.

So we spent a lovely 6+ hours in not one, but TWO ER's on Easter Sunday.

My friend Shannon & her daughter had arrived at our house and all four kids were roughhousing in the living room. They got too close to the fireplace and next thing I hear "THWAP!" (yep, just like that) and Caitlin started screaming.

I ran to her and saw that she was holding her mouth. With blood pouring from between her fingers.

Brian got her into the bathroom and spitting blood into the sink, and I glimpsed her teeth in the mirror. My poor baby's front teeth were broken.

So Shannon stayed with the kids and the roasting turkey, and off we went to the nearest ER. Brian sat in the back with Catey and I managed to drive without speeding.

Got to the first ER and by then the bleeding had stopped. They checked to be sure she didn't need any stitches (punctured her lip, thankfully, not a big cut) and gave her some Motrin for the pain, and sent us up to Children's Hospital where there's an on-call dentist. Trip to the first ER, just over an hour and a half.

We had been told that they'd have the on-call dentist there & waiting for us when we got there. Riiiiiiiiiiiiight. Nothing is ever that easy when it comes to ER's. We had to do the whole check-in/triage thing, and they sent in a regular pediatrician. FINALLY, they CALL the dentist, who must live over an hour away. After waiting for two hours she finally arrived. I swear she was about 16 years old.

She did a lot of tapping & poking to make sure no other teeth were damaged, then finally put some white composite filling on the two teeth that were broken. The third tooth that was damaged was only knocked looser and was a baby tooth, so we're just going to let that one fall out.

We went to a follow-up dentist on Monday, and they did x-rays. The two teeth that were broken were permanent teeth, so we were pretty concerned. PRAISE GOD!!! There's no additional damage to the roots of her teeth, and the roots are still forming so they should keep on keeping on. YAY!!! Just because my child was BORN in Oklahoma doesn't mean she needs to look like a gap-toothed Oklahoman. She'll still need braces later on down the line, but we knew that before all of this happened.

We were so blessed and lucky in ALL of this. Her permanent teeth were only half grown in. If they had been completely grown in it's likely that they would have been broken all the way up into the gums. The baby tooth was already loose, so there shouldn't be any damage to the permanent tooth that's forming behind it.

The part that I had (and still have nightmares about) the hardest time with is the "couldabeens" in the whole situation. If she had hit her head instead of her teeth she could have cracked her skull, or worse. If she had hit her chin and forced her head back she could have broken her neck. If she had been just a few inches over to the left and hit her eye she could have been blinded. Teeth are easily fixable. Her life is irreplaceable. It was so hard to NOT lose it in front of her when the reality of what COULD have happened hit me.

Needless to say, at bedtime that night I brought the girls into the living room and sat them down by the hearth to make it clear what COULD have happened (hopefully without scaring them TOO much) and try to get through to them, yet again, why it's so dangerous to play rough right next to the fireplace. Hopefully it worked.








The hearth where she whacked herself. You can see how close she was to the corner.
Those white spots aren't just part of the brick. It's pulverized tooth.

The left was completely a powder, not even a grit. The right was a chip. The rest of the pulverized teeth ended up in the sink.

All warm & fuzzy!

If this doesn't make you all gooey and lovey then there's something wrong with you. You must have a heart of stiblah.

Parenting is the most heartbreaking job on earth.

Catey is my more emotional child out of the three. This morning, about 10 minutes after all the kids left for school she came running back in the house just SOBBING. It took me a few minutes and a lot of questioning, but I finally got her to tell me what was wrong.

I was worried that the big girls were picking on her the way to school. No. She misses her grandpa & great-grandma. She's re-written the events of the weekend in her mind and has fabricated this story that grandpa did all sorts of great things with her over the weekend. (Far from it, the lazy ass. He hardly spoke to the kids.) Her great grandma helped her with her chores, so she did get a kick out of that. But she's also decided that they left in the middle of the night without saying goodbye to her. UM, NO. They DROVE her to school on Monday morning and dropped her off.

So I got her settled down and drove her to school, and got a phone call from the school secretary half an hour later saying that Catey was in there just sobbing and she wanted to talk to me. It was the grandparents thing again. So I told her I'd come to the school and give her a big hug, but it was her job to go to school and learn and I needed her to do that.

Got to the school and she wasn't crying anymore, until I started talking to her while I was hugging on her. Then she started in on the whole missing grandma & grandpa thing again. Got her settled down again & walked her to class, & she was hanging onto my arm for dear life all the way down to her class.

I went in to talk to her teacher and Amy (the teacher) said that Catey's not been acting like herself for a week to a week and a half now. She told me some of the things she's been doing and the stories that Catey has fabricated. I explained to her the situation of the weekend, and that Catey's grandparents have split up but that they don't want us talking to the kids about it (yeah, that's out the door, we're having a big talk tonight). I also told her that Brian is deploying soon for several months and that he recently told Catey about it. *ding*ding*ding* Her acting up started when he told her that he's deploying.

I'm sitting here crying because my heart is hurting so badly for her. She's afraid that Brian is going to leave without saying goodbye and not ever come back. She doesn't know how to deal with that so she's projecting it onto her grandparents.

Amy said that she'd have lunch with Caitlin once a week from now until the end of the school year, just to give her some special one on one time. And I'm going to have Brian do some special one on one things with the kids, too. I'm going to find a Build a Bear workshop so they can go make a special Daddy animal that they can love on when they're missing him. I'm already planning lots of stuff to keep us busy through the summer, and I believe Cindy is planning on coming down sometime this summer as well.

Good lord this is killing me. Why does parenthood have to break your heart so much?

And this, my friends, is why Alanis is a genius.

I took these last week and played with b/w yesterday. I'm getting them printed out in 8x10, matted & framed for the living room.

Some good friends have been encouraging me to take my photography to some shows. I think I'm going to look into it. I'd love to be able to do this as a supplemental income.

Sometime this week or next I'm going to be doing maternity photos of another friend. I told her I'd do it for free as long as I get to use her images in a portfolio.

And hey, any excuse to get the new Photoshop! :D

Why I am up at 2:52AM when I have to be up at 6

When we went to bed last night Brian kept hopping out of bed, swearing that it sounded like somebody was trying to break into the house. I pointed out that 1) the dryer was running and 2) the house alarm was ON so if somebody were to actually break in we'd definitely know about it so he finally relaxed enough and went to sleep.

But since he opened his big mouth I kept hearing things. At 2 I heard one of the dogs crying so I got up to let her out. The cat slipped out with her, so I had to go chase him all over the back yard. Did I mention it rained a LOT yesterday, and I was in bare feet? Niiiiiice. Came back in and realized that Gidget wasn't in her normal sleeping place. So I hunted all over the house for her. No dog.

Looked in the garage. No dog.

But I heard her crying, and realized that it was HER crying that woke me up.

The dork had gotten closed into the pantry. With the trash can. I hope she enjoyed herself, because she's certainly not going to enjoy the shits she'll have tomorrow.

And now my moron cat is doing gymnastics all over the living room.

And now I can't go back to bed, because I'll lay there anticipating either a dog crying to go back outside or Bubzilla crawling into bed with me to burrow on me.


In exciting news, however, I'm enrolling Matthew in pre-kindergarten tomorrow!!! YAAAAAAAAAY for school!!!!

A story for Gina.

Since we love Spring Chickens & all...

My best friend was over, yet again, not long before Christmas. She was sitting on the love seat in my living room with her leg tucked under her. I was a few feet away, sitting on the sofa. In the midst of random chat, she said, "My leg is asleep and it's REALLY bugging me."

Being the kind, wonderful best friend that I am, I decided to do her a favor. I was going to wake up her leg. By yelling "WAKE UP!" at her leg. So I leaned down, face to knee, and yelled, "WAKE UP!!!"

Only the English language as a whole sometimes manages to defeat me.

So instead, I yelled, "B-GOK!"

Yes, I clucked at my best friend's knee.

Brian got me a round kitchen clock for Christmas. It has a rooster on it. He labeled it, "To Meagan, Love: The English Language."

Kerrie sends me text messages.

B GOK


They're so mean to me. I should trade them in.

Babies and holes in my head.

Somebody, anybody, in my life needs to have a baby for me. I will not be having any more babies, but I'm craving some baby right now. And I have been for a long while. It's a physical craving. Which pretty much makes sense, because after I had Bethany I got pregnant again with Catey when she was 2. I got pregnant with Matt when Catey was 3. Matt is 3 now, and no more babies. I need to cuddle a little bundle of sweetness, to be able to kiss a sweet smelling head. I'll draw the line at breastfeeding somebody else's kid, though, even though I miss that, too.

Unfortunately, all of my pregnant girlfriends aren't due until late spring/early summer. I'd go volunteer to rock babies in the NICU, but I've got Matt here and can't take him with me.

Neeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed BABY-LOVE!!!!


I got some new holes yesterday. :D Brian still doesn't know, I'm not going to tell him. I got my nose pierced and my tongue re-pierced. (It was pierced way back in '01, but I had to take it out for a dental appointment on September 10. Was going to go get it put back in the next day, but, well, we all know what happened on the 11th.) The nose piercing was suprisingly NOT painful, and still doesn't hurt at all. I felt the needle go in, but it didn't hurt. It was wierd feeling it go through my nostril and into the cork I had stuck up my nose, though. I didn't even feel the needle go through when I got my tongue done. It's a little sore now, because, well, you put a 14 guage post through a major muscle and tell me if you're not sore. It's healing fast, though. I was talking to Kerrie on the phone last night and told her that I had gotten it done, and she said that I didn't sound at all like I had just gotten pierced. Yeah, that's cause I'm a PRO!

It was kind of funny when I went in to the studio to get it done. I was talking to the piercer about my tat, about how I want to eventually get it touched up so the fairy girl isn't quite so sexual. (It's supposed to be a child.) His co-worker came in and he told the co-worker about my tat, and that I had gotten it in Okinawa. He told the co-worker that I was getting pierced, and the co-worker said, "You getting your nipples done?"

HUH?

I told him, no, not today, but I've thought about it. I'm too much of a wuss though. And he said to me, "You look like a mom that would like her nipples pierced."

HUH?

What exactly makes me look like a mom that would like her nipples pierced? Not to say that I wouldn't, because someday I might. But what about me says "yeah, I like poking needles through random body parts!" Apparently I give off the vibe that I'm REALLY comfortable with my body. Which I guess is a good thing.

I guess I started to black out, too. A good 5 minutes AFTER the needlework was done, and everything was in, the piercer was going over after care and reached over to grab my shoulders and make me lay down. I guess I got reeeaally pale, really fast. All I remember is getting crazy hot pretty suddenly, and finding myself laying down in a heavy sweat. Yeah, apparently I'm a wuss...

Almost as good as the movie.

Yeah. SWWWWEEEET just doesn't cover it. ;)

I know I locked the doors!!

After I got the kids settled in to bed tonight, I decided to take a shower. I locked all the doors, set the alarm, and stepped into hot, steamy, clean bliss. I took a niiiiiiiice long shower, since that's the only time I ever get to take a niiiiiiiice long shower. I got out of the shower and dried off. I put on my robe. I combed my hair. (You enjoy reading my routine, don't you? Good, I thought you would.)

So when I was all squeaky clean & dry, I came back out in the living room.

Now, from the living room you can look directly into Matthew's room.

He wasn't in his bed. So I figured he was in my bed and I just missed him.


He wasn't in my bed.

He wasn't in Bethany's bed. Or Catey's. I couldn't find the child anywhere in the house, and the alarm had never gone off so I didn't THINK he had made it out the door. So I checked the girls' rooms again.

He was asleep on the floor in Bethany's room, not viewable from the door. *whew* Apparently he had been crying while I was in the shower (gee, how's that for a guilt trip?) and Bethany made up a little bed for him with blankets on the floor next to her bed, and told him to come sleep in her room. AAAAAAAAAWWWWW, she can be such a sweet big sister when she wants to be.

Now I have to try to get him back in to his bed, so he's not waking up at 6 AM with her. Fun.

How many times...

Will I set off the alarm before I learn my lessons?

We're getting the house alarm activated today. Brian's Jeep was broken into on the 1st, and there have been a LOT of home robberies over the last month. Our builder agreed to pay for a year of security, we just hadn't bothered getting it set up until now.

We'll see... the alarm guy is here right now.

The world is about to end.

That whole, "I'm quitting caffeine" thing? Yeah, didn't work. I've started drinking coffee again. Only not Air-Force-Grade-Sludge like Brian makes. It's GOOD I-Grew-Up-In-the-Coffee-Snob-Capitol-And-I'm-Not-Ashamed-to-Admit-It coffee. MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM........coffee....




But I'm out of coffee.

The kids are asleep.

It's after midnight and I'm just now realizing I'm out of coffee.

We have to get up early to go to the doctor.

I'm out of COFFEEEEEE....


Yep. The world is gonna end.

It just figures.

Bethany got sick with the nasty cough/cold that's been going around, right before Christmas. She's just now getting over it. She kindly passed it on to Matthew, and he's within a few days of being over it. Catey was next in line, and is at the peak. She took a THREE hour nap this afternoon. Brian got it too, he's on probably day five of it. And now I'm getting it. Fever, chills, burning raw throat, and soon I'll have the sinus drainage that tears up the throat and leaves you coughing nonstop.

Yeah, families get sick together all the time. But WE manage to get sick right when Daddy is leaving for six weeks. YAY! (*sniff sniff* Smell that? It's sarcasm.) Brian left for NCO Academy today.

I hate having to deal with sick kids when I'm sick myself, and nobody is home to give me a break. I'm always afraid something is going to happen and I'm not going to be able to deal with it. Which, in our home, is inevitable. I've got my best friend just around the corner from us, but she's working 70 hours a week.

Ugh. This is going to suuuuuuuuuuck. Brian had better get that Levitow and make all this worth it. ;)