Toys, Toys, Toys, and of course more Toys!

Ok first off, sorry for the weird send of this EMPTY post, not sure what happened but moving on!

My dear sweet little girl! Oh I love her! I love her so dang much! Some days it just drives me crazy! As all of you parents out there know, being a parent is the hardest thing in the world! I know that I want Abby to always be happy, healthy, and smiling! She has the best smile and laugh if you have never seen it, I'm sorry but you are truly missing one of God's greatest blessings!

However, that sweet little girl, she is a pistol! (Although I have no clue where in the world she gets it! hehehe, definitely not from me, I'm the sweetest person on the earth!) Partially because of how we are raising her, but also she is just like me she is VERY VERY independent! We are trying to raise her to think about being a open minded, think for yourself, considerate, loving, caring young woman! I want her to think about everyone else and help whoever and whenever she can. I want her to understand, that helping people makes us better people, spiritually, emotionally, and physically! I want her to understand how lucky we as a family are and be willing to open her heart to those that others tend to push aside! I want her to understand, that God created us all equal, and we are ALL acceptable no matter what, race, gender, disability, sexual preference, body shape, the way we look etc.

I am not going to lie, we are tough on her, we are consistent, and do not allow her to do things that other parents allow kids her age to do. Abby must say yes sir yes ma'am, she says please and thank you whenever neccesary. Abby waits (or is supposed to) until she is called on when two other people are talking. If she wants to talk in a group setting she waits to be called on and raises her hand. She has chores and earns money, 1/3 she saves long term, 1/3 she saves for a major purchase, something she really wants, and 1/3 she can spend immediately or save, most of the time she saves it! Abby understands that everyday in life we have to make choices and for those choices there are rewards and/or consequences. Abby gets spankings, and goes to timeout. She recieves warnings and explanations of what thing(s) have happened.

This being said, we have been experiencing a little bit of trouble with the pistol of a daughter that we have. We have continued to be consistent and strong! She will know that certain choices are unacceptable and we tell her that, no butter coating, using big words and talking with her! We have taken away 1 toy her and there and done lots of timeout and spankings which have begun to not work. We had a big talk with Abby on Friday before our company got here about the way we react to things, and we both decided that if a fit was thrown, we both felt that packing up all of Abbys' toys for a few days would be acceptable.

Yesterday, Abby was jumping around the house and on accident landed with her bottom sitting on Tylers head. I told her that I was not upset with her, but this was her warning and that she could have seriously hurt Tyler or herself and I didn't want her jumping around like a crazy person. She acknowledged what I had discussed with her and returned to playing. After a very short 2-3 minutes she jumped again and once again landed on Tyler, I asked Abby to stop what she was doing and told her that I had given her a warning and asked her not to jump around and that she had not listened, she needed to go to timeout for a few minutes. At that mention a fit began brewing and the screaming started, I once again calmly told her that her screaming was unacceptable and she needed to go to timeout! The screaming and jumping up and down got worse. I picked her up and took her to timeout told her to calm down or she would receive a spanking for screaming and acting out. It continued and so she received a spanking, I told her that we had talked about taking toys away for throwing a fit and if she did not stop the screaming we would pack all of her toys up and lock them up. After the few minutes that I had given her to calm her self down and she didn't even try, she was told to go get trashbags and she would help me pack her toys to lock them up. So she did, we packed up every toy in her room and locked them in my closet.

Abby is allowed to earn back her toys for good behavior. Today has been one of the best days we have had in a long time! I am very proud of my little girl. She will have very good strong morals, and understanding that she has to work for everything! Instant gratification is not something that will occur in this house! She will not just receive anything just for in life! I know this maybe harsh, but have you seen some of the kids out there in this world. They act like we owe them something just because. Abby will have everything she needs, and yes she is spoiled and has more than she needs, but she will not act like anybody owes her anything. I want her to understand that hard work pays off and can get you anywhere in the world! I want her to have the respect for herself that so many ( including me sometimes) lack. I don't ever want her to feel like she has to depend on anyone, that she can not do something.

I want her to be so proud of herself that she knows how she got where she is in life! She will make mistakes and I know that she will overcome those. I want her to know that it is okay to make mistakes, but we must learn from those mistakes and change the course of our lives with those results!

I want my little girl to be so many things that I am not, and have struggled with for so many years! I want her to know that she can come to me for anything, and know that I may not agree with her decision but I will support her no matter what! Abby Kate my dear, I love you so very much! One day I hope that you are able to look back and thank us, I know all to well, how much I hated my parents for the way they raised me, but I am so much better of a person because of it and I truly appreciate them making me do the things they did, and not letting me fall in with everyone else!

I am Terrified of

Storms! Oh my goodness, I am so scared of storms! I know that it is the wind, but the thought os wind scares me to death! This past Saturday we had HORRID storms! I'm talking about tornados (not here but I will explain) and yes here at my house 74 mph winds! I was ready to have a panic attack! Thank goodness the Gospodareks were here! Yes they love storms, I mean like would be standing at the door watching a tornado, okay maybe not that daring, but would love to see one in the distance!

Brad and our Army buddy Glenn were driving back from Hattiesburg MS yesterday, right through the middle of where all the warnings were. (anxiety attack #1 just from the thought of them having to drive through the bad weather) Brad sends me a text message, stopping for tornado will call soon. Immediately I start to get even more worried, and of course we had just gotten back in the car to make the 3 minute drive home, when I look over toward our house and it is BLACK! We make it home literally in time to get the kids in the house and close the door before a torrential down pour begins. After about 10 minutes of heavy heavy rain, the wind starts. The wind was so bad the rain was sideways, and looking outside literally looked like you were sitting in an automatic car wash. At that point I was ready to freak out, i'm talking about a panic attack was starting to come on. Poor Katie just laughed at me and said its just wind. Thats the point that I thought my house was going to blow away, at the least all the windows were breaking! Luckily it only lasted about 20 minutes but that was way too long for me! After the storm was over, we found out that the wind was over 74 mph from the weather station, and several tornado warnings were being issued in the surrounding counties.

The sun came out, and all was done or so I thought! I called Brad back to check on them and make sure they were okay. He then told me that they had been sandwiched between two tornados and out run one. While talking to him to see where he was I could here the sirens going off over the phone where they had just issued a warning in Selmer, but once again they were going to outrun the storm!

45 minutes later I was meeting my very very missed Husband at the gas station in the clearest sky I have seen in quite a while! I mean not a cloud anywhere and the beautiful sunshine shining down! Poor Glenn however had to drive following the storm for another 2.5 hours before making it home! I made him (because of the worry wart that I am) call us as soon as he got home. He told Brad that the last leg of the trip was the worst part of the drive the whole day.

I'm so very happy and thankful that both Brad and Glenn made it home safely! Brad and Abby are snuggled up on the couch watching a movie and Tyler is walking back and forth trying to play with Brad and myself!

Life could not get any better than this!

Hodge-podge!

So we all know how UNBELIEVABLY crazy I am! These last two weeks have really tested my faith/sanity/patience/ability/ well to be honest, down right everything about me! So I haven't said anything about it but Brad was gone the last two weeks for WLC (warrior leaders course) for the Army. Not like to Nashville, but Hattiesburg Mississippi hours and hours and hours away, okay maybe only 7 hours but still that doesn't make it any easier. I have been able to talk to him several times a day, but that does NOT make anything easier, it may actually make it more difficult, I haven't decided yet.

So I love my daughter very very very much and would do anything for her, however she has driven me absolutely crazy! She is just I guess being a four year old. She will admit to you that "she listens to daddy better than mommy" in a very matter of fact voice. Needless to say she and I have been butting heads for the last two weeks. In a way I think okay maybe she just has ADD or ADHA, it runs in our family, both my brother and I were diagnosed as children, I still have issues with it at times. Its like things don't connect in her little brain. She can tell you what I have told her to do or not to do, but somewhere between doing what she is not supposed to do, and my telling her not to do said action beforehand does not connect. She has also taken to going to another room or place that I can not see her to do what she has previously been told not to do. We have spent lots and LOTS of time in timeout and getting spankings. Yes I am a firm believer in spankings when needed!

I think the thing that bugs me most is not that she is not listening but, when she gets caught and I tell her to go to timeout after her alloted warnings, is the fit thrown about being told to go to timeout! Not even when she is in timeout. It happens at the "Abby, I have asked you not to do that and have given you warnings, go to timeout." Thats where the fit occurs. I can't stand the jumping up and down screaming! Not at all! And most importantly it is not acceptable and that is the action being punished! I'm so very tired of screaming and jumping that at one point I had to send her to her nannies so that we could each have a break form each other!

So after going to Nannies she came home in a better mood, for about a day and then it started all over again. Patience has been tried A LOT!!!!!! But I made it, Brad comes home tomorrow!

So last week, my dear sweet brother in law came and mowed the lawn for me! I felt so bad about it, it was tall! I had mowed the front and side, but Brad had raised deck so that it would not clog up every other minute. Lets just say it was really long by the time he got here. The back yard oh my! I have a dachshund that you could not see, it was so tall! We have a little over a 2 acre lot, we only mow about 1 acre of it, but that is a lot. Usually we use a riding mower to mow, but we have to tweak it every year to get it to start! Poor mower has been ready to die for years. We were unable to tweak the mower before Brad left so I push mowed the front and side, maybe 1/3 of an acre, that maybe pushing it. Took me maybe an hour and I am GIMP! Anyway, last week I was ready to have an anxiety attack about my yard, it looked horrible!

Toby came over and mowed the lawn for us. He spent probably an hour and a half fixing the riding mower before he used it, but he did get it started and mowed the front lawn with it. When he headed to mow the side of the yard the riding mower bit the dust for good. Now Toby is a good ol(e) Christian southern gentleman and I do mean gentleman! He is the most well mannered man I have ever met! I love him to death, he goes completely out of his way to help with anything! Poor Toby was so upset about the mower, I tried to explain to him that it was no big deal, it was old and ready to hit the dust anyway! But he was really upset about it. I was more upset or mortified that he would have to push mow the back yard. ( I had originally asked him to come watch the kids so I could mow but he would not have it!) Poor Toby pushed mowed the back yard, he had to do it in very small sections, and every time he would make some progress the mower would clog up and he would have to clean it out and start again! But it looks so much better than it did!

He won't have to do it again though, thank goodness.

This weekend is going to be a load of fun! Our good friends are coming down for the weekend! I am super excited. I love the Gospos. The great thing about them is that I don't have to entertain for them. They just come hang out, their kids and ours play together and its great. Good food, good company, and good drinks! Always a fun time! I will write more about this weekend next week.

I think I have rambled enough so we will call it a day! Have a great weekend!

Brad got in a fight!

THIS IS NOT FOR THE SQUEEMISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brad had to play army this last week and he sent me a text that said I busted my head open, headed to the hospital I'm okay and will call you later and proceeded to send me these pictures!

After seeing these pictures he called me and explained to me what happened and of course the first thing Brad said was "I got in a fight with the washer!"

I said what, and he told me that he was doing laundry and one of the three machines they have was overflowing. He said I immediately tried to be the hero and fix it and didn't realize that there was a shelf nor that I hit it until someone said "dude you okay?" Then I felt my forehead and there was blood everywhere. After getting band-aids calling someone to take me to the ER, I looked at the shelf and it was MESSED UP!!!!!!

All that I could do was laugh! See, years ago, I sort of did almost the same thing, Only involving my nose! I was tying my shoe on a shelf under the counter and it broke, I fell and hit my nose on the edge o f the counter and ended up with 3 stitches right between my eyes. And to make matters worse, I worked in an icecream shop and had to wear a band aid, which was bright blue with spongebob!

I will try to find a picture in the near future and post it!

We were made for each other! `

Yesterday

Yesterday, oh yesterday! Started off rough! I had physical therapy bright and early in the morning, I mean like 8 am! So I got up got in the shower, shaved my legs, and proceeded to cut this huge hole in the back of my leg. Let me also state that I need a new blade, yeah I know I'm BRILLIANT! After getting myself ready, I had to help Brad get the kiddos ready since Abby had school and after therapy I was going to take Tyler to his 12 month well baby so he can get shots next week!

Tyler's appt. went well, he is a big boy, 25.6 lbs, and 32.5" long, which is a BIG boy for his age. But other than that, he is right on track or a little a head for his ripe ole age of 1! He and his little "Buddha" belly are so dang cute, I just want to eat it up all the dang time!

So after his appt. we took a prescription that we always have to the pharmacy and 2 things happen, 1 our insurance denies it, (because as usual when Brad gets new orders, for some reason they don't seem to get submitted, until we call and complain and then it is fixed that day and everything is still covered, but its kind of a pain in the butt to have to keep calling after being told we have no insurance to get it fixed.) and 2. the prescription was not filled out correctly, so I had to turn around and drive the 25 minutes each way to go get a new prescription. (Everything is kosher now and we have everything we need, and taken care of, my hubby he is just that darn good!)

While at filling said prescriptions, we went out to the truck to go home and eat dinner, and I opened the trunk so that I could put the few groceries that I had in there, and I turned around to grab bags out of the cart and the tailgate fell on my FACE, oh yes my face! Nothing serious, but I do have a swollen eyebrow bone, and was lucky that I had sunglasses on! Yes those broken sunglasses, that Tyler has taken upon himself to fix, or aid in my achieving a new pair either way you would like to look at it, they kept that tailgate out of my eyeball! It did water for quite a while but that is okay, its not black and blue thank goodness!

So after yesterday I was more than ready for bed, with a headache and swollen eye, and cranky kids. Oh yeah Abby forgot about being a big girl yesterday and decided that she was not going to follow instructions (a new common occurrence) and get sent to the "trunchables office!" (she loves matilda and no matter how much we tell her it is principals office she says that she got sent to the trunchables office! Its kind of hard to be upset with her when she puts it that way, but she did get in trouble and a stern talking to about how we are supposed to behave!

Any who at bed time, I just couldn't thank it enough for arriving! And then Brad goes and gets an ear infection and is up ALL night! I mean I feel bad for him but the time he is laying in bed he is moaning and keeping both myself and Tyler awake, who at this point thinks it is time to play! After an hour Tyler finally fell asleep upside down, feet in my face and head using my leg as a pillow! Let me tell you how very comfortable this is! NOT!!!! But he is asleep, and then at 3:30 Brad decides that he is going to take himself to the ER because he can't stand it, sorry Brad but honestly at 3:30 in the morning, I was ready to go back to sleep and not really able nor willing to take care of you! But he went and came back an hour later with meds and a pretty close to exploding ear drum! But I finally made it to sleep about 5-530 am since of course he had to tell me about the visit. Upon getting up this morning about 740, Brad told me he now understands why the kiddos are up screaming all night when they have an ear infection, and I just laughed and (of course in the most smart-alecky way I can, muster) "you think?"

But thats okay, Brad made me (okay Abby pop-tarts which she didn't finish) cinnamon pop-tarts, my fave and even better HOT CHOCOLATE!!!!!!!! Then proceeded to kick me out of the house to go pay a bill and run some other errands!

Atleast he worked with Abby on her letters while reading the news! Thats just how we roll!

Easter weekend/Tyler's 1st birthday party

So this weekend was amazing! We got to spend the whole weekend with family between Tyler's party and Easter. It was absolutely perfect!

Saturday we had most of our family over to celebrates Tyler's birthday! If I say so myself, the Warren family knows how to party! We had burgers and hot dogs, chips, cake and of course MaggieMoo's Ice Cream (Thanks! It was a huge success!) The kids played for hours, both inside and out since the weather was ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL! I could not of asked for better weather, not too hot or too cold! just amazing.

My little ham he was so funny with the cake. He was scared of it at first and just kind of picked at it, but by the end was so covered that I was amazed he hadn't eaten his hands (or them come off when flinging cake across my kitchen!)

Needless to say, he is just the cutest little birthday boy EVER! I may be a little partial though, but then again, no he just is the cutest little birthday boy ever! Go ahead, Just accept this and move on with your day!

Then Sunday was Easter which started off rather interesting. We got up and left for church where we would have brunch and then an easter egg hunt, however we didn't make it. We drive down country roads and a car had flipped over so the road was blocked and we could neither turn around or pass. Luckily (and thankfully) no one was hurt, but we obviously didn't make it in time for either event.

After Church we went over to Brad's aunt, Aunt Waddy's who I absolutely love! She has a heart of gold and is just funny as can be! When we get all of them together there is no telling what is going to be said. I feel very much at home with them and love them to death! We ate lunch which was simple but AMAZING! Thanks Aunt Waddy, (I'm not really sure why they call her that, its either because she says what (In a very southern country way) a lot or I think she said that when she started walking she waddled and her older siblings called her waddy, but like I said I'm not sure, nor do I care, I just know that I LOVE HER!)

We then had an Easter egg hunt for all the kiddos, and that was fun! They have a decent plot of land covered with trees and gardens, perfect for hiding eggs for 3-4 yr olds! Unfortunately for you, you will have to go to my facebook page to see these, there are only like 150 something, pictures of my crazy family, and I have so many cute ones that I can't pic just one, and frankly today am too lazy to try to add 5 or 6 pictures of all the kiddos. So just go look and enjoy the happiness of small children! Enjoy!