Crazy weeks

I've been meaning to post for a while now, but it's just been so crazy!

1. Marissa said to Arianna the other day, "Arianna, who do I love more than you? Jesus and God." It was the cutest thing ever! She said it in a sweet voice, like she meant the only other people she could possibly love more than Arianna were Jesus and God. I hope they stay this close forever.

2. Marissa had her 5 year check-up on May 4. She weighs 35 lbs 8 oz and is 41.75 inches tall. She was prepared to get some shots, and I was so amazed at how she did. She was so brave, she even wanted to watch, until the nurse told her to look away. She didn't whine even once, but when the nurse gave her the one that "might burn a little" I could see tears forming in her eyes. But she never got upset or cried. The doctor asked her some basic questions and Marissa got every one right. The doctor said she was probably even ready for 1st grade instead of Kingergarten!

3. After we left the pediatrician, I really needed stamps so I could mail my mom her Mother's Day card. So instead of unloading everyone to go to Meijer, I decided I'd go down the road a bit and see if there was a bank drive through that sold stamps. I don't even know if they do that, but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask! It had been raining a little, but wasn't very wet out. I was driving in a 35mph area, and there was a yellow light. First I thought I'd make it through, but then I realized I wouldn't, so I stopped. And we were hit from behind REALLY hard! My head smashed into the back of the seat, and I'm sure both girls' heads did too, since as soon as I could turn around to check on them, I saw them both holding their heads. As soon as it happened, all 3 kids started crying, and I about lost it too. I was trying so hard not to freak out for them though. Once I realized they were all ok (they stopped crying quickly, and Marissa just asked about what happened), I got my phone to call 911. The guy from the small red truck that hit us came to my door to check on us. The girl that was driving the truck thought she broke her foot, so I called 911, then Dan to tell him what happened. The police came quickly, and a lady stopped to come check on us and ended up staying with the other girl, checking her vitals often. The girl and guy both left immediately in the ambulance, while I told the police what happened. After they took a bunch of pictures of the scene, I drove the van to the side of the road, and a tow truck came to get the red truck and clean up the lanes. Our back bumper was bashed in pretty bad, but I guess the hitch saved things from being worse. I declined going to the hospital, and after Dan got there, we finished talking to the police, I filled out a report, and we went back to the doctor to have all the kids checked out just in case. But EVERY SINGLE DOCTOR was out on their lunch break already! So we went home to eat since we were starving by this point. I called after their lunch break was over, and I took the kids in to get checked. The doctor assured me they were all fine, and neither girl was complaining about anything. I asked Marissa repeatedly, but she assured me nothing hurt at all. But my neck was KILLING me, so I scheduled an appointment at our chiropractor for as soon as Dan got home from work. They took x-rays, and everything looked fine, then he adjusted me, the ladies did the e-stim thing, and I got a mini-massage on my neck. I was still sore that night, but it wasn't too bad. But the next day, Thursday, I thought my head was going to fall off my neck! It has never hurt that badly before. I couldn't lift my head unless I used my hands to lift it. I was popping tylenol all day, and I NEVER take stuff for pain or sickness. I've been back to the chiro a few times (I'm going back tonight too), and it's definitely better than that Thursday after, but it's moved down into my back too. Since the girl went to the hospital immediately, we didn't even get their names or if they had insurance. For several days we thought they didn't even have any insurance. But finally the police got back to us, and they had insurance. So they "settled" and sent us a nice check for each child's "misery" and also covered the cost of their pediatrician check-up after the accident. They'll also cover the cost of all my chiro appointments, and as soon as they assess the "level" of my misery, they'll "settle" with me too. They also covered the cost of our van repair - $3200! The van had been having a few rear suspensions issues recently, the back/side bumpers were slightly dented and the back hatch was scratched up a little when we bought it. So obviously they fixed all that too, and now the back looks brand new! It was such a pain (literally!), but ended up working out for the good. They also covered the cost of a rental van for us while they fixed ours, and I was able to put 1000 miles on that instead of our van when I drove to Virginia with Roman for Rach's graduation.

Oh, I almost forgot. Insurance also covered 3 brand new car seats. So we got 2 of the same kind Marissa used to have for both girls, and we got the same kind Arianna used to have for Roman. We decided we could save ourselves some money and instead of buying Roman another infant seat he'd outgrow in 6 months, we'd just move him up to a convertible seat (still rear facing). I love getting new car seats!

4. As if that all wasn't enough, that Friday during the day I kept hearing something weird and I couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Finally I tracked it down to the laundry room, and figured it was something alive in the dryer vent. There was no way I was going to investigate it, so we were going to wait for a friend of ours to use their giant ladder to see in the dryer vent outside. But it started to REEK inside, so there was something alive AND something dead in there. Eventually we got a huge ladder and there was nothing to be seen near the outside of the vent. Our friend Randy from church brought the ladder, but didn't know what he was getting himself into! He ended up checking out the vent from the inside, and he caught the live bird in a box and took it outside. He and Dan brought the inside tubing outside to dump out the dead bird and we spent all weekend cleaning up that mess! It smelled the worst IN the dryer, so we aired the laundry room and dryer out all weekend with fans and lots of vinegar spray. So gross!

5. Friday after lunch Roman and I left in the rental van (satellite radio!) to drive 8 hours to Liberty for my sister's graduation. Roman was awesome, and I only had to stop twice (one long stop for dinner for me, diaper change, bathroom, gas, and feeding him, and one short feeding stop for him) both there and back, and he played with some toys and slept the rest of the way. It was super rainy at graduation, but held off enough that we didn't get soaked. It was lots of fun to see Rach finally graduate and spend time with family. It was so weird to only be responsible for one child - and a super easy one at that! The only time I'd ever left the girls was when I was in the hospital having babies. I missed them so much, but apparently they didn't miss me because Dan kept them so busy! They had a blast, and so did Dan. So I didn't feel too bad about leaving them all for the weekend!

6. The house is a disaster, and I want to get it back to how it was before all this crap happened! I feel like it's been just one thing after another, and I haven't been able to catch my breath since Dan got back from Nicaragua. Hopefully we can have some peaceful weeks for a while to get back in one piece. The main thing I need to catch up on is laundry. I couldn't do any for a while because of the bird, dead bird, then the smell lingering. So I got really behind on washing it all. Then before I left on my trip I wanted to wash a ton of stuff in case the girls or Dan needed something, and I wanted to wash a ton of clothes a friend gave us for Roman so he'd have some of it to wear on our trip. So I washed it all, but never put it away, and now I just need to catch up!

7. I have not nursed Arianna since I've been back. She's asked a few times, but hasn't put up a fuss when I say no. It's kinda sad, and I miss it a little. But I know she's ready to move on...now if only she'd drink a cup of milk! She loves yogurt and cheese and smoothies and milk in cereal, but she will NOT drink milk by itself. In just the 3 short days I was away, I'm shocked at how many new words she picked up! She seems so much older suddenly, and it's amazing. I love her age, and how they seem to discover new things all the time. One new word is "tattoo" because Dan got them Tinkerbell tattoos while I was gone! She also likes to say "self" and "top" to buckle the top of her own seat-belt. She's so funny, I love her!

8. Marissa had her Kindergarten screening last Thursday - it was so weird to just let her go back with the teacher by herself! She said they asked her letters, numbers, colors, shapes, to draw a person, balance on a beam, and her phone number. She said it was really fun and she really wants to ride a bus to that school! So we'll see...we're still not sure what she's going to do in the fall.

Well, Arianna woke up and we're just cuddling now. Marissa is sleeping today - she didn't feel so well this morning. We've all got a little cold. I took Roman into the doctor yesterday because I was worried about his lungs (especially with him being a preemie and having breathing issues in the NICU), but he's fine. I had a massive on fire sore throat over the weekend, and he's been coughing quite a bit (he spit up about a gallon of his 6am feeding in my bed this morning), but he's definitely getting better. Both girls are coughing a little and have runny noses, but hopefully that'll go away soon!

Marissa said something sad to me this morning "Mommy, I'm not good at anything!" She was a little sad because Arianna's been making Roman smile a lot lately, but he hasn't been smiling for Marissa as much. So I took her in my lap and told her a bunch of things she's good at. I'm going to take her on a date soon for a haircut and some ice cream, and soon we'll finally get her ears pierced! I love my big girl. Hard to believe she's going to school in the fall!

Picking back up...

So I've been a terrible blogger recently. Obviously I have a few very good reasons. But I really want to get back into it so I can remember these crazy days. So I'm going to try to start back up and try a FlyLady technique: only 15 minutes! It would probably take me forever to catch up on everything I've missed. So instead, I'll simply write for 15 minutes, and that will be all you get! Today it will probably be interrupted quite a bit since the kids are all up from nap already. But it's still better than nothing, right?!

Friday, Marissa turned 5. I still can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday we were heading to the hospital to get induced on her due date. She has turned into the sweetest, sassiest little girl! Lately when we ask to take her picture, she poses sideways with both hands on her hips. For her birthday, my parents came to visit for the weekend. She got lots of cool things from them, Dan's parents (in the mail), and my Grandma. For her big gift from us, we wrote a note allowing her to get her ears pierced. She's been begging for over a year, and we finally decided it would be ok. She got a huge grin on her face when we read the note to her. But when it came time to go to the mall on Saturday to actually get it done, she changed her mind. I think the weekend was a little crazy for her! But this morning in the car she suddenly wanted to do it "right now" so I think we'll probably do it this weekend.

Last night Arianna was super tired at church, and she had a fever when we got home. This morning both girls were a little sleepy and whiney, and they both had a slight fever. Hopefully it won't turn into anything, and they seem to be fine this afternoon. A few kids from church recently had febrile seizures, so I'm kinda freaking out more than normal. We've been pretty lucky so far though with all 3 kids hardly getting sick at all. I'm sure it's because nobody goes to preschool so I'm sure it will flare up next fall. But it's nice for now!

Last night I had a lot of work to finish since I didn't work all weekend since my parents were here. Dan and I were up til about 11:30, and today we're both exhausted! I was really hoping to catch a short (or long) nap this afternoon, but Arianna and Roman tag-teamed naptime today, so it didn't happen. I think we'll end up going to bed earlier than normal tonight!

Roman is really turning into the cutest happiest baby ever. He slept so great last night when I needed to work, and he was so happy all weekend. He's such an easy baby. He's finally starting to enjoy playing with toys.

Saturday afternoon we went to a playground and then randomly decided to go out to dinner, all 7 of us! It was definitely risky because of a) Arianna in general and b) Roman had last eaten before we left for the playground and that was a while ago and c) Marissa had skipped nap. It turned out to be the nicest dinner out we've had in years. Marissa was fine, although she was ready to be done before anyone else. Arianna was awesome and ate and ate and ate the entire time. She just kept cramming it in! Roman was happy and smiley for a while, then silently fell asleep in his car seat for the rest of our meal! It was a miracle, especially since we were seated in the direct center of the room for all to see, and our waiter was terrible and busy and took forever to do anything with us. It's nice to enjoy special things sometimes when it's not ridiculously full of chaos!

Dan was gone for a week in Nicaragua on a missions trip with our church. He had a great trip, but it was really hard for me to have him gone! Logistically it was fine, taking care of the kids and going places. But mentally I had a hard time with it! I tried to keep busy with friends, and then Rach came to visit for Easter weekend before he got back, so that all helped.

Well, that's 15 minutes, so I'm off to do some sorely neglected dishes left over from the birthday tornado weekend!