My girlfriend's husband

I know what you're thinking. :O) "Oh no, what has Amy gotten herself into with her girlfriend's husband?" Come on now, y'all. You should know me better than that.
Once again, I am praising God for caring for little old me during this crazy time of refinement. My husband saw his mother for the first time in over 10 years yesterday and he couldn't hug her, he couldn't catch up on lost time, all he could do was stare at her lifeless body. So, obviously yesterday was not an easy day. I longed to be with him, to hold him, to tell him that it will be okay even though I am sure it doesn't seem like it now. I just wanted to be that person. Those people that we are for each other and I couldn't because he was across the country and I was here. Breath. breath.
Amber usually does her grocery shopping Tuesday evenings and had offered to pick me up some groceries from Kroger. It turned out that because her hubby, Tom got a business call, she was not going to be able to go to the store. So, Tom was going to shop for her. That says a lot about him already. Any man willing to tackle the grocery shopping, especially at 9:00 at night is a good man. So here is Tom in Kroger with not only a grocery list for his own family, but a grocery list from a totally separate family. Coupons, lists, sales, tomatoes, o.j., Pillsbury, and on and on and on. He calls, just like Rich would, to make sure he is getting what I want. He knocks on the door at 10:00pm, with what? With a genuine, warm smile on his face and 2 bags full of fresh fruit and veggies and o.j. for breakfast.
All of this to say...My girlfriend and my girlfriend's husband and my girlfriend's family are PRECIOUS to me, precious to my family. I thank you again, Sullivan's for taking care of us. For shedding light during a gloomy time. We love you and thank God for blessing our lives with you. Oh yea, the kid's thank you, Tom, for the special treat of o.j. for breakfast.
Love,
Amy

Survival Update

God's grace is just amazing. As I get a bit more comfortable with the idea that Rich is really gone for almost a week, I am able to draw on this inner strength and peace. We made it to church with out daddy yesterday, which is HUGE for us. There are very few places that I feel okay with taking all of my children alone. Church is not one of them. Just the craziness of getting them all to different rooms and then following up on the babies that are not happy and need me...it can be a lot for one person. I began thinking about the best places for us to spend mama's energy while Rich was gone. Church, the library, and Ms. Amber's were my top 3. All places where there are people surrounding us that truly care for us. Places where people are not judging me (well, not many) because of the raucous/mess we can cause.
We were also able to go to Brentwood's 10th year birthday celebration at Amazement Square last night. I had told the children we would only be able to stay for an hour, but they were all having a super time, so we wound up there for 2 and a half hours. Cheyanne thoroughly enjoyed a very looooooooong ride in the back pack. We made it home by 8:30 and all eyes were closed by 9:00.
I was sitting in my warm and very unusually quiet living room last night after everyone was in bed thinking about how I can under estimate what I am capable of when depending on Christ. He has blessed our home with a divine peace over the past 3 days and I am in awe, once again of his use of unexpected circumstances to force me to grow into a stronger follower and believer of his perfect ways.
Rich should be flying out of Las Vegas Wednesday at 11pm. He will be flying backwards over the time zones so will arrive in NC at 11pm'ish our time. I am not sure whether he will be driving back Wednesday night or grabbing some sleep and then driving back Thursday morning. Goodness, those time zone changes are enough to make you nuts. He called me the other night at midnight, thinking that it was only 9pm. It sure does make you think about time a lot.
Love,
Amy

Real life

You know when things just seem too grown up for you. Even though you are a married adult, with 5 children and grown, life just seems too grown up. Like it is surely something that is not happening to you, because you are not grown up enough to have stuff like this happening in your life. Anyone?
Rich's mom died Thursday afternoon. Although we knew she was not doing well, it was still not expected. This horrible sense of sadness just draped itself over our home. I was not really sure how to feel/react to it all. Rich had told me that he planned on flying out to Arizona for a day or so to deal with those icky things that need dealing withduring icky times. It turns out that there was a lot more dealing with than he originally thought. He left for the airport at 10pm last night (Friday) and will not be returning until sometime Wednesday. UGH!
I mentioned to him that he was not taking into consideration how co-dependent I am on him. He laughed and I cried. It is impossible for me to comfortably say good bye to him.Sometimes he gives me a lot more credit for strength I am pretty sure I don't have. I HATE being away from my husband. My heart is sad. My love is too far away. This is too grown up for me.
Please pray for our family during this rough time. I know God can use this to do huge things in Rich's life and mine. He is a wonderful son and an even better husband and dad. Watching him handle life so confidently brings such peace to me. I feel so safe with him beside me.

And the most entertaining toy is....

An old cellphone. Yup, you read that right. Rich and I wound up with new cellphones about a month or so ago. We gave our old ones to Dante and Elijah. I will tell you what. Elijah has used that phone more than I did in the 3 years I owned it. He LOVES taking pictures of EVERYTHING and also plays with the ring tones nonstop. Fun Stuff.

Nesting Woes and towel hooks

I guess the more times you are pregnant the early the nesting starts each time? It sure seems that way for me. I go through this feeling of "I NEED to get all of this in order before baby comes, because once baby comes, I will not be able to do ANYTHING for the next year." That has almost been true with Cheyanne, so I guess there is some basis for my thinking.
My nesting focuses right now are, obviously, rearranging my children's rooms so that I have everyone in the best possible spot. I feel a need to move Cheyanne out of my room in order to have her be a bit more independent once baby comes along. Cheyanne still nurses 2-3 times each night and will cry herself back to sleep (after about 15-20 minutes) at least once if not, twice a week. Goodness, that little peanut is a handful. I came up with what I thought was this great and inexpensive way to store all of the kids so that we could work on Cheyanne's nighttime Independence and not totally throw everyone else into chaos. (see previous post)
Rich and I were talking last night about our concern of moving 5 year old Elijah downstairs with 10 year old Dante. They are like 2 peas in a pod, but there are times when Dante just exhausts Eli. Eli works so hard at keeping up with Dante and Dante fails to recognize (like any normal 10 year old would) that Eli is still so young. We kind of feel like it is good for Elijah to have his own 5 year old spot of refuge, even it if is just a top bunk in a room with a 3 year old. :O) So, our new plan, is to temporarily move Izzie into the boys' room onto the toddler bed. Once Cheyanne is sleeping through the night (11pmish-4amish) we will move Isabella back into her sweet little princess room.
Second concern with a super easy cheap solution. As you can imagine, the mounds of laundry that form around this house are insurmountable to say the least. I do approximately 15-20 loads of laundry a week on a normal week and that is when I am being diligent about making sure the kids are not tossing clothes that have only been wore for 3 seconds into the hamper, or snowy days, or rainy days, or sprinkler days, or garden days, or forest days...you get my drift. I have been brainstorming on ways to cut back the amount of time, water, and soap I am using each day on LAUNDRY.
It dawned on me that we go through about 4-6 bath towels at least every 2 days. One person uses a towel and leaves it on the basement floor or under a bed and the next person grabs a fresh towel, leaves it on the floor and then it gets stepped on with a pair of dirty sneakers and the cycle is vicious. Rich is not using a snotty, dirty towel first thing in the morning, so he grabs a fresh towel and washcloth. It is like a Days Inn with the fresh towel syndrome. I have come up with a we all share one bathroom and a few towel hooks solution.
My mom has made each of my children, the cutest hooded towels. Each child has been assigned a towel that comes along with it's own individual hook. They will use that towel for the entire week. They are after all just drying off clean bodies. Towels will be washed on Mondays. Loads of towels is reduced from 16-24 towels a week down to 7. YAY, again for an easy, cheap solution. Check out the towel hook I got for less than 10 bucks at Lowes. It is totally metal and there are enough hooks for all 6 children. I was able to get it hung last night and I am loving it already.

Number Reconfiguration

I forget that a friend had told me about a year ago that she was stashing her girls old bunk beds for me whenever I wanted them. Is that awesome, or what?
So, you can subtract $200 from my final tally. WOOHOO. Cheap rearranging ROCKS!

Frugal changes for a stuffy situation

Yes, there are going to be 8 of us living in a pretty small house very soon. Also, there is an almost 9 month old still sleeping in my bedroom.
We have talked about adding an additional room into our basement so that all of the boys could sleep downstairs and the girls could each have their own room upstairs. But, because of the shakiness of the economy and Rich's job, we hesitate to make an major financial investments right now. So, we have come up with a way to make immediate changes for relatively inexpensive. Here's the plan.
Dante and Elijah are totally thrilled to become roomies. We are moving the one set of bunk beds into the room downstairs and those 2 will share that room. There is already enough dresser space for them both. Easy transition.
We will paint the blue and yellow car room a more neutral color and buy a second set of bunk beds. Since Isabella is sleeping in a big girl bed, her and Justus are going to bunk together in that room. A very crazy, loud room to say the least. There is also enough dresser/closet space for the 2 of them in there.
Cheyanne will completely and unwillingly relocate into the smaller bedroom where there are already 2 cribs and enough dresser space for Cheyanne's clothes and baby #6's clothes.
There, that was easy, wasn't it?
I told Rich I could do it for less than $500.
So, let's break it down.
1. bunk beds with mattresses-$200 on Craig's list
2. gallon of Valspar primer $20ish
3. gallon of Valspar paint $25.00ish
4. painting supplies $10
5. new curtains for Izzie and Justus's room $30ish
6. new girly comforter and sheets for Izzie's bed $30ish
7. incidentals, like a cute poster or maybe an area rug for Izzie and Justus's room $50
That totals only $365 and I am over pricing quite a few of the items I need
IMO, totally worth the freeing up of my overly crowded bedroom
I will post pictures along the way. Rich is headed to Appomattox this evening to check out a set of bunk beds.

Last minute Valentine's Day treats

Dante and I decided at the last minute to whip up some sugar cookies for Valentine's day. Despite using the wrong measures, they turned out pretty good. It is fun to have him work along side me in the kitchen.

My man is...

perfect for me.

I am in awe of how much I can still truly love this man. I get butterflies when he kisses me. I am sad when I have to be away from him for more than an hour. The safest place in all of the world is wrapped in his arms. The best meals are the ones shared with him. My favorite phone calls are the ones ID'ed as "My Honey." Weekends are awesome because he does not have to work. It seems God really does know what he is doing...not that I ever doubted. :O)
Almost forgot to mention. He never ever ever forgets that I LOVE being surprised with flowers.
Love,
A wife to a really super great man named Rich.

Donut Attack

Rich photographed Cheyanne attacking her first Bill's Pastry donut last weekend. These are by far the BEST donuts ever. Unfortunately, they just opened a second shop about 2 miles from here. TOO MUCH TEMPTATION. I would hate to see a nutritional printout. Anyway, the pictures turned out so cute that I wanted to share.

Little monkey

Well, our little monkey has managed to work her way into a big girl bed. She has mastered the art of monkeying out of her crib to make her presence known each morning and after naps. She "did it by myself." Isabella is tickled pink with her new big girl bed. She slept through the night last night and was awake at the sweet hour of 6:30 this morning with a bright smile.

Date night fun

We have been alternating a date night with close friends of ours for like 2 years now...WOW, it does not seem like it has been that long. Anyway, Rich and I truly cherish this time together as a couple. We have the opportunity every other month to go out together as husband and wife (and usually a little nursling) and have a dinner out and run errands and just hang out. It was definitely Tom and Amber's turn to head out last evening. Amber and I are sure the kids probably look forward to date night more than the adults.
We try and do something special and just allow the children to play and eat and watch movies and eat and play and eat and eat and ....They just have a wonderful time together playing Legos and board games and cuddling.
Rich went and rented a movie last night and made popcorn. Did I mention that my husband rocks?
I couldn't resist snapping a not so wonderful picture of them all snuggled together watching their movie while munching on popcorn. It is just fascinating watching the dynamics of the group change as the kids are growing. There are more brains and babies and hormones and hair and the kids just seem to take it all in stride. Isabella has turned into the real life baby doll that loves to be carried around by the big girls. Anyway, the kids had a super time last night as I hope Tom and Amber did, too. We enjoyed having them all together stuffed inside because of the weather.

Super Duper Super Bowl

We had a great time watching the Pittsburgh Steelers taking home their 6th Super Bowl victory. We made nachos and pizza rolls and sat around like a bunch of football junkies hollering and screaming for 4 hours each time the Steelers did something fabulous.
Our local dollar store passed out these 3D glasses to use during a small segment of commercials. Although the really didn't work, it was fun just watching the kids wear them.
Love,
Amy

What you do NOT want to hear your 2 year old saying...

Isabella is pretty sure she is the biggest girly ever. So, she heads to the bathroom on her own, takes off her pants, and monkies her way right up onto the big girl potty. I knew she was in there and was okay with that until about 10minutes later she says, "MOMMY! IT'S CHOCOLATE." Uuuum, can you say, "YIKES?" Straight from the potty to the tub, oh yes.
Love,
Amy