Oh, Ralph!

So here's the latest in the Michels family sick saga.
Eli puked.
He puked a lot.
At 11:30 at night.
Ewwwwwwwww!!!!!!

Why do kids always get sick in the night? What trick of nature makes them do that to us? I know God can't have anything to do with this phenomenon. He has a good sense of humor & all but that would be taking things way to far!
There is just nothing like being wakened from sleep hearing your child cry out "Mommy, I frow up!" The first thing I think is "oh crap!" The next thing I think is "I hope I have a lot of clean towels handy!" Then it's "I wonder if I can get out of cleaning & get Chris to do it?" Yeah that'll happen!
Thankfully in this latest incident I was not asleep yet so I didn't have that frustration to deal with - but it still sucked big-time!
Then there's my man, he runs around hysterically, trying to make me move at super-human speed in these types of situations. Good grief, it's not like we are trying to beat a clock or anything! But such is life...
So we got through is & he has not had any further episodes. Had a bit from the other end...but I don't think you want to hear about that do you? Yeah, me neither...too bad for me!!

I'll end with a (now) funny story from my childhood.

I was about 5 or 6 & woke up sick in the night. I threw up all over my bed & the floor but I didn't wake anyone up cos I wanted to clean it myself. So I made my little way down the hall to the kitchen & got a washcloth to wipe up with. I remember Mom getting up but not much else -she remembers it a smidge differently.
She tells me that she heard me in the hall & got up to see what was going on. She not only found my 5 (or 6) year old self trying to clean up a HUGE mess with a washcloth, but also little puddles of barf going down the hall & into the kitchen. Apparently I wasn't quite finished, sorry Mom! I'm sure she was completely exasperated with me at the time but now it makes her laugh...especially when I call her whining about cleaning up after my kids.

I wish y'all a barfless evening!

The seat and some dishes

Why is it that boys cannot hit the bowl?
I mean, it's not that small a target is it? But every time I forget to check I end up with a wet bum. It's funny when Chris complains about it. "Why do I always have to sit on a wet seat?" he says. HA - you hardly ever have to sit so I don't want to hear it. I either get a wet butt or go ker-Plunk in the night, girrr. Who taught them how to aim anyway...gee could it be their daddy? Oh goody I get to blame him again mwahahahaha!

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Speaking of the man of the house...
While I was sick over the weekend, he assured me that he would do all the dishes. This was, of course, after they had all been piled in the sink & all over the counter. To eat my Campbell's chicken soup (THE ultimate sick food), I had to use a Pyrex measuring bowl.
Anyway, Saturday night he clears them all out & starts a load. Still have dishes everywhere but it's a start. Sunday AM he does another load. Okay we're getting somewhere now...we'll see if he finishes.
Nope! Sunday evening he proudly announces to me "see babe, I got all the dishes done. All that's left are the big pots, I even unloaded the dishwasher for you!" Hold it there buster, all that are left? Wouldn't that mean that you are not, in fact done?
Like the good passive aggressive wife that I am I smiled sweetly and thanked him. Then went into the kitchen to do the rest of his dishes with much loud banging & growling.
This is something that happens every time I'm sick. I'm a perfectionist. It drives me nuts when someone declares a job done when it is not actually done. I know, I need to loosen up & be thankful that he helps me at all but I just haven't been able to get my brain around that yet.
In my heart of hearts I would love to be the wonderful homemaker who just sails through everything with a smile & smothers her husband with respect bla bla bla. But I'm not. I'm the grumpy, say nothing is wrong then seethe & make nasty comments when he's not listening kind of wife. Pray for the poor guy will ya?

Yeah, ummm, okay...

So my vow last time was to get consistant blogging. Famous last words? Ummmm, yeah.

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We are sick. Yes all of us. Again.

Seems like we've been in this situation since before Thanksgiving. I know there's been a week or two when we were all healthy but seriously, someone has been sick with something since November.
Last weekend Chris got a cold, Sam got pink eye & a cough, & Adah & Eli got colds. Chris ended up staying home from work 2 days. Can we afford this??? NO!!! But they guy could hardly get up so what do you do.
Anyway, I got hit with it on Thursday night - on the couch for 2 days with no energy at all, wishing I could take one of those sick days! Now I have some energy but my voice is threatening to leave me - not good with 2 4yo's & a 5 yo in the house! Oh, and I think Sam is getting pink eye in the other one - yay.

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We are getting more snow & it's beautiful here! I so wish I had a digital camera so I could post pics, I love snow!
I was raised in the Seattle area & snow was a huge event that shut everything down. Lots of wrecks, school canceled at the drop of a hat, that kind of thing.
But we live in the 'Inland Northwest' now & get snow every year. I just love it! On the first snow of the year I always turn into a 5 year old.
Right now we have about 8 inches & that's from the last 24 hours. I just heard that a nearby town lost power & lots of Churches in Spokane just didn't have services this morning.
Chris might have to take the truck to get to work tomorrow, not good cos that thing sucks up the gas, but what can you do? I'm glad I don't have to go anywere today. But I might have to take Sam in to the Dr tomorrow & that's a 25 mile trip. Should be interesting.

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Don't have much else to say so I'll give you a little story about one of my kids mis-adventures ...Sam would have been 3.5 & the twins just a couple of months past 2. Enjoy!

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Honey bear
November 30 2005

This was a day for the record, the morning was uneventful, just the usual fights & temper tantrums. The afternoon & evening was something else though.
It was about the time I needed to start making my biscuits, we had no other bread in the house & we were going to have leftover soup that the kids won’t touch with a 10-foot pole. I was leaving as soon as Chris got home from work as this was also my bible study night and had a limited time frame to work with.
After naptime, I was playing with Adah in the living room. She was being so cute, just talking away & having a great time. I realized that the boys were being quiet, not a big deal for Sam but Eli…he’s another story.
So, I looked around for them. I didn’t see Sam but as stated previously I was not worried about him. Eli was sitting in the kitchen, his back to me. I saw that he had some shoes scattered around him and thought “how cute, he’s trying to put the laces in the holes” so I watched him for a minute.
That’s when I realized that what he had in his hands was not a shoe at all but the honey bear. Yes, he had that honey bear opened & upside down, honey everywhere. Only one of the shoes had some on it but the floor, his pants & his tummy were well covered. So there I was, scooping honey off the floor with a spatula (it was surprisingly easy to clean up!) & giving everyone a bath. In our house, you can’t just give one a bath; you would be facing mutiny in a big way.
I got Eli cleaned up & they were all playing in the tub & having a good time. Then Eli decided to pull the plug. Normally I would put it back in but I was not interested in a long bathing session so I just let it drain. Fine with Adah & Eli but Sam was another story. He had a royal fit, crying, screaming the whole bit…how nice. Finally, I manage to get him out of the tub & calmed down. So then, I start on the diapers.
Get Adah done & was just finishing up with Eli when Sam comes to the end of the couch & says sweetly “I go pee pee on the floor mommy.” Oh thanks Sam, I haven’t had enough to clean up today & I so appreciate this opportunity to clean up another mess.
Then I look at the clock & realize that there is no way I am making biscuits or anything similar for dinner. Terrific. I clean up Sam’s nice little puddle on the carpet & go check out the situation in the kitchen.
Thank the Lord there are some hamburger buns I can use as toast for the kids at dinner, whew! While I am getting dinner heated up & put together the kids are having a pushing fight between me & the kitchen counter, another of my favorite things. I am about to blow my stack when Chris walks through the door, takes one look at my face & says “go.” No problem, I almost create a tornado in my wake I’m moving so fast!
I get to my bible study & it’s great as always, I entertain my pals with my honey story & they laugh. One of them has an even better one, her daughter & a 5-gallon bucket of honey; yup she ended up standing in it, wow!
So I get home & Chris entertains me with the tale of Eli (it’s always Eli) putting his toasted bun in his soup & then deciding it would make a great hat. Hey, at least it wasn’t only me who got to clean up the messes today!

Working on it

Hey, nice to see you again,

It's been a long time.

So how are you?

Glad to hear it.

Oh, we're doing pretty good.





Ok so I'm working on my blog.

Yeah, I know I said that before but this time I mean it. No, really!



I've been reading a lot of blogs lately...there are so many great bloggy-mammas out there & I've been busy spying on them...ummm, I mean reading their blogs. :)
Actually I've been inspired to work on writing & figuring this whole thing out. Please be patient with me though, I haven't a clue what I'm doing! I mean, I can type & I've been told I can write but this HTML bla bla bla? Yeah right!! It's kind of like the teacher in Peanuts talking. "Mwah m-mwah mwah." When I read how to do this or that the language just turns to Greek right in front of my eyes.

So anyway, I'm back for better or worse. I'm just hoping I can stay consistant, we shall see.

On a side note, I saw this on a blog today...we'll see if I can get it right.

What Alane Means

You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow.You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily.Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people.You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts.You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone.You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together.At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together.

What's" Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Hey, it worked - yippeeeeeee!

Michels family news

This is an e-mail I sent out to just about everyone I know this evening.



Hi there friends & family!

It's with an elated but heavy heart that I share with you our latest news. We accepted an offer on our house over the weekend, yippeeeee!!! God is just so amazing, I was a teachers helper & worship leader last week for my church's VBS. When I had signed up to help I told them I could do it but depending on the moving thing. Well, we got our offer in the last hour of the last day of VBS, how cool is that! I guess God wanted me there, I had a great (and exausting) time & we had 8 kids come to Christ during the week.

So we are very excited but it's going to be hard to leave all our friends & church family here in Kittitas County. I have loved living here, both in Cle Elum & in Kittitas. Both great towns with nice folks in a beautiful area, this has been our home in every sense of the word for the past 5+ years. It's going to hurt to pull out the roots planted here, transplanting is always hard. But I know God has something great in store for us in our new home, & we will flourish before long.

If you are a believer in Christ, we covet your prayers - that everything will go as God wills it. Specifically, the inspection is Friday Aug 24 @ 10am Pacific time - pray that they don't find any problems & that what they want done is VERY INEXPENSIVE, we don't have any extra $$ right now! Also pray that we can find a house in Spokane asap so we won't be homeless for long :-) How about this, if we come to your mind in any way - pray!
If everything goes as planned, our closing date will be Sept 17

Love & blessings to you,
Alane, Chris & kids

So there you go, now the packing begins...as Bill the cat would say,aaarrrrrrrgggghhhhhh!

Dumb de dumb dumb

So today something happened that made me feel like a complete idiot/looser/bad mom...and on and on.

It was a very busy day.

So normally I have to get up in time to get the kids fed/dressed & Sam off to preschool. Well this week I'm on the worship team & a class helper for VBS at our church which is 30 minutes from Sam's school. Let me add that as of last month, I stayed in bed as long as possible & usually only got up in response to something drastic the kids were doing/getting into. So 5:30 is a major stretch for me! Anyway, we got out the door on time & everyone in their proper places etc. VBS was a blast, can't wait to see my class tomorrow & the twins had fum in their class too. Got Sam picked up & went home to chill out until Sam's occupational therapy appt in mid-afternoon.

The kids were less than thrilled at having to leave the house again. Adah & Eli are not used to this sort of thing, plus they missed nap time today. Not a good plan but nothing I could do about it.

I had some errands to run so I took the time Sam was in working with the therapist to do them. They were quick, run to the dollar store for a couple of things & on to the grocery for 5 more things. It's a small town so everything is close by.

Now, 3 weeks ago when Sam had his first appt, there was a family in the waiting room with us. Their child got called back & the mom said "see you in an hour." Then the family left the office. I thought that was pretty cool, maybe I'll do the same sometime.

So I'm at the checkout counter at the last store (which I debated going to, not sure I'd get back in time), dealing with the twins trying to grab every candy bar in sight when my cell rang. Yes, it was the office, telling me that Sam was done - whoops!!!

So we high-tailed our butts over there (as high-tailed as you can be with 2 almost 4 yo's in tow) to get Sam.

I then got a very nice lecture from the Shellie the therapist that I really can't leave the office, they work with elderly people & it wouldn't be very good if they had an emergency, bla bla bla. Now I don't mean nice in a sarcastic way, she is nice & was nice about it but I could tell she way annoyed with me. I apologised, explained about the family at our first visit, everything was fine & we went on our merry way.

But...

I HATE situations like that! I feel so dumb, & I can't stop playing the conversation over in my mind. Why do I let things bother me like that? It really wasn't that big of a deal, no harm done etc, but I feel like such an idiot & won't feel totally comfortable with her again. I'll always have this in the back of my mind & will wonder what she really thinks of me. Why do I do this to myself? I'd really love to know! I just live in fear (bondage, I know it) that I will come off looking like a fool. Why do I care so much? Everyone does dumb things sometimes. Everyone has moments of stupidity & everyone looks like an idiot sometimes. But it just eats away at me and I can't let it go. Maybe it goes back to when I was a kid & all the 'cool' kids made fun of me. I don't know but I wish I could get past it!

Anyway, I'm just frustrated with myself & the situation right now. I wish I could go back & do it over again! I was just trying to save myself some time & trouble & look what happens - girrr!!

Thankfully we don't have anything in the afternoons for the rest of the week - less opportunities to embarrass myself.

Good intentions

Well my intention was to post nearly every day...yeah, my last post was more than a month ago. Whoops!!

Things are ok in our household. Chris is still working far away. Our house is still on the market - just found out that the average # of days a house is on the market right now is 108 - very depressing!! (But I shall try to have a glass half full & look on the bright side.) Life is still a struggle between my selfishness, my kids & my depression. So life as usual right?

Sam started preschool last week, so that's something new. He loves it! We are trying to get him ready to enter Kindergarten but I'm not so sure he's going to be ready. I have not had the chance - no I'm going to be honest here!! - I have not worked with Sam on learning to write etc. I have tried from time to time but I get frustrated easily & he does not like trying out new skills. So the times I have worked with him, he does not want to try, I get mad, he resists harder, I get madder...you can see where I'm going with this right? The other thing that makes it hard is that I can only work with one of them individually if the other 2 are out of the house or asleep. They just all want in on the action & it becomes a free for all. We were planning on homeschooling but I've decided that my psyche & their behinds wouldn't be able to take it! So off to school we go yo-ho yo-ho.

We do, of course, have a conflict with the school thing. Chris & I are not seeing eye to eye on the subject. He has always wanted to homeschool and is having a hard time giving up on that idea. He hates the thought of preschool - and I agree with him to a point on this- and thinks it's useless. I think I'm seeing the reality that most kids these days go to preschool of some kind and this has changed what kids are expected to know upon entering kindergarten. And that's upped the ante on what they have to learn in that first year of school to move on to 1st grade. Chris (and again, I agree with him on the principle of this) believes that wether or not kids are taught in preschool that the test scores even out by like 3rd grade or so. My issue is that I was labeled the slow kid in school. I was ALWAYS behind & it hurt - bad. I was laughed at & picked on - school was not a plesant experience for me. I want to give my kids a better experience & I don't want to send Sam to school already behind! Chris is more worried about 'holding' Adah & Eli back a year. Which we are not really doing, all the kids are close to the cut off date & could go either way as far as when they start. What I would like to do is put Sam into the headstart program which is a subsidized preschool program in WA for a year & then into Kindergarden. Then we would do the same with the twins so that Sam's younger siblings are not in the same grade as he is.

Pray for us!!

Chris & I have agreed to start counseling after we move. We need to get on the same page on issues such as this & we just can't work it out ourselves. We are both completely pig-headed & stick to our guns so our 'discussions' about school & discipline tend to go in circles & nowhere else. We both agree that we are not in control in our home anymore. Don't know when or how we lost it but it's gone & the kids rule the roost - not good! We both want to get back on track but cannot agree on how to go about it & where to start - so to counseling we will go. Chris was a bit reluctant but I convinced him I'm going to loose my mind soon if we don't get this worked out - they outnumber me & I'm tired of loosing! I think it was Bill Cosby who said "I've seen the enemy and they are small!"

On another note - I lost my mind recently. I'm finding that about once a month (not cycle related) I just can't take it anymore & I completely fly off the handle. It usually consists of a day of yelling at the kids so much that I scare them. Then remorse & a lot of crying. Chris is sooooo good to me during these times! He is there for me, listens to me without judging me or getting mad, and lets me cry & spend a day in our room away from the kids. I usually get pretty mad at God for a few hours. This last time I threw something at the ceiling (hit the wall, bad shot!) I was so mad at Him! That always freaks out Chris - he thinks I'm blaming God for my problems but that't not the case. I'm just mad at everything & because I know that God could 'fix' things He ends up being the ultimate target. When I am in my right mind I know that there is a reason that I'm going through this situation & that God has my best interest at heart. I also know that He can take my little tantrums & He loves me no matter what! Anyway, I'm over it now so life should be sane for the next 2 or 3 weeks.

Thanks for reading!
Alane