A Day In the Life

The insanity that occurs when you have children is really quite unimaginable to those without offspring (either biological or adopted). The day started out when I put in a Veggie Tales movie for the kids so I could get an extra 1/2 hour of sleep. After waking up at 5:00, Jonathan melted down by 8:30 while I was trying to feed him breakfast. Jonathan had a well-baby check up this morning and I brought along the whole gang. When the nurse asked me if I had any more children, I told her I might go crazy if I did. The kids bounced off the walls as I tried to recall the questions I wanted to ask. Benjamin didn't get his sticker on the way out of the office because he was disobedient and cried the entire way home. A meltdown ensued when we got home so he went to bed. I had a few moments of peace and quiet until he woke up again. When I asked that he share his snack with his sister and the proceeded to split up the animal crackers, he had a full out tantrum that wouldn't be complete without throwing himself on the floor, screaming at the top of his lungs and spitting out the crackers he had in his mouth all over the carpet. After composing myself, he received a punishment. Then, he was walking with a plastic pipe in his mouth that came with one of his trucks and fell. He scraped up his mouth and it was bleeding. It's just one of those days...

Our Crazy Friday!!

The day did not begin well. We were up all night. Jonathan did not sleep more than an hour at a time. Exhaustion did not begin to describe how I felt when I had to get up. My "To Do" list seemed endless with most of the items on it centering on getting ready to leave for Seattle that evening. Laundry, packing, a somewhat clean house and baths were among the top priority. Baths completed. Check! 2 loads of laundry done. Check! Packing...kind of hard when kids keep throwing unwanted stuff in their suitcases but eventually done. Check! During this whole time the kids kept bickering. He took my toy. She won't share. I want a snack. I want to watch a movie. Jonathan crying most of the time. Let's just say I didn't respond with saintly patience. Instead, it was more of a yelling at the top of my lungs, secretly wondering why on earth we have these crazy children! In desperation I turned on a movie so I could finish up some items on my list and thought I would try to redeem myself after my yelling tirades. I made popcorn for the kids while they were watching their movie. After serving them their popcorn, I went to the dryer to grab the clothes and when I came back, there were multiple piles of popcorn all over the couch, coffee table and floor. Thank heavens I didn't butter it! Again, I failed to respond with saintly patience and instead lost it. Stomping around in a huff, I turned off the movie and proceeded to vacuum the piles of popcorn off the floor. When Matt arrived home, I was ready to run for the hills! Luckily my mom sent the kids a package for Easter so opening that up occupied some time while we were trying to pack the car and get our things together. I failed to remember that I'd left the scissors out in the open after opening the box and Benjamin removed several chunks of hair before I realized what had happened. Ahhhhhhhh! Needless to say we survived the day and the car trip. We arrived safely in Seattle after a harrowing drive over Snoqualmie Pass.

Dear Lord, Thank you for these crazy children who are teaching me so much about how I need to respond to circumstances that are beyond my control. Please give me patience and wisdom.

More Trip Pictures

Trip to Chicago

We had a great time visiting with family March 4-9. My dad's father, Grandpa Wundrum, passed away on March 1. Originally the plan was for just me to come and bring Jonathan but ended up bringing the whole gang. Although the funeral was sad and Grandpa will be missed, it was a wonderful time to reconnect with family. We had a surprise birthday party for Todd who turned 28 on March 18th. I had a wonderful shopping trip on Michigan Avenue. (Ok, so I really mostly window shopped and let my dad buy me 2 pairs of jeans and a shirt because he said he really wanted to.) There are some things I do miss about living in Chicago, 2 of them being restaurants. Portillos and Gino's Pizza need to move to Spokane. Yeah, like that's going to happen in my lifetime. After an eventful trip home (2 cancelled flights and a connection through SFO instead of Denver), we arrived safely in Spokane at 1:30 a.m. We never seem to remember how difficult it is traveling with small children. Our next exploit (keeping fingers crossed) will be a trip to DisneyWorld in October. I'm already getting excited for that!

Welcome!

Life is rushing by and I hope that by blogging, I will be able to put down into words what our family is going through and how the kids are growing!