Muffins for Mom

Let me just start this by saying that it's not going to include pictures. Which devestates me. But, my camera broke at the Pumpkin Patch. We got the estimate to get it fixed...whoa. Not sure yet what we are going to do.

This morning was "Muffins for Mom" at Tripp's preschool. He was SO excited that I was coming to school with him. He was even more excited that he got to come to my "big" school for a little bit. He was so cute! My students loved getting to see him. All I could think in the back of my head was, "Man, it won't be long." Watching him walk down the halls of my school, my heart broke just a little bit. I know it's silly and he's a long way from being at my school (it starts at 3rd grade), but still. I know how fast the last 3 1/2 years have gone. So, really, it won't be long.

But, anyway, muffins for mom. It was fun. Very simple, but fun. I thought he was going to cry when I had to leave him there because he's not used to me being the one to bring him and drop him off. But, he handled it like a champ. He loves school so much.

I WILL have a camera by Halloween. I will. I don't know how, but I will. Actually, I will have one by next Thursday when Tripp's preschool has a Halloween parade. Yep. (Joey, when you read this, I hope you agree).

Jack Pot

When Tripp was a baby, we had a wonderful next door neighbor with two grandsons that were about 4-5 years older than Tripp. One day, her son-in-law came to our house with a huge garbage bag full of boy clothes. He said that it was mostly bigger stuff because they had already given away their baby clothes. I looked inside and saw the sizes and put the bag in storage as they were way too big for Tripp at the time. In fact, at the time, I couldn't fathom that he would EVER be big enough to wear them. Well, today, I stumbled upon the bag. And, lo and behold, Tripp IS big enough to wear them (sniff, sniff). The whole bag was 4t fall/winter clothes. I was SO excited when I started pulling out all of the clothes. Tripp has been in desperate need of some clothes, but clothing two children is expensive. I've been holding off hoping to somehow make it until Christmas. However, after today, he's in GREAT shape. There were 8 pairs of pants in the bag, 3 sweaters, about 10 button down shirts, and several long sleeved t-shirts. Thank heavens for the hand-me-downs we received 3 years ago!! I'm pretty proud of myself for keeping up with them for this long! :-)

Family of Four

I have a dear, childhood friend named Stephanie. We've been friends for about 15-16 years (wow, that's hard to believe). When we were growing up, Steph always talked about wanting a big family. If I'm remembering correctly, she wanted FOUR kids....and she wanted them all by the time she turned 30. She and her husband, David, got married in 2000....I think (I'm losing brain power these days). So, Steph would have been about 21. She and David enjoyed several years of marriage before trying for a baby. She was pregnant with Maddie when Joey and I got married in 2003. Madison was born in December 2003. They enjoyed her little self for about 18 months before starting to try again. I won't go into all of the details, but God took Steph down a road she didn't expect. Having Baby #2 didn't come easy for them. It was REALLY hard and emotional for them, but Stephanie always relied on her faith and her relationship with Jesus to get her through. As the months, and yes, years went by with no baby, I watched her grow stronger and stronger. I don't get to talk to her nearly as often as I wish I could, but each time I did talk to her, I could here new strength in her voice. I've always admired her faith and I watched it be put to the test and stand firm!
About a year ago, David and Steph decided to adopt a baby. They went with an adoption agency called Bethany. Bethany has a policy that if you are white, and you already have a biological child of your own, you have to adopt either a biracial baby or an african american baby. I could go into a hundred ways in how I find this ironic because of their close knit of friends here in Atlanta, but I won't! It was just a showing of God's goodness and mercy. Anyway, Stephanie turned 30 back in May. The week before her birthday, she called me and said "It's a boy!". A sweet, TINY, baby boy had been born and he was going to get the awesome priviledge of being a Cavin!!! When she called to tell me, I said, "See, God was up there thinking the whole time, you aren't 30 YET!" just as inside joke because of what she had always said.
Yesterday, their adoption became official!! Baby Boy G officially became Tyson Reed Cavin. Can I just say that I think he is one of the cutest babies I have ever seen?! I can't wait to meet and hold him. Congrats David, Steph and Maddie. I know Tyson is the answer to years of prayer. I can't wait to see the man of God that he becomes; he is so lucky to have you to lead and guide him! I love you guys!

Sunday Deal

Pictured above is what I got at Rite Aid today. When it's all said and done (rebates, giftcards, etc), I will have spent about $10 on all of it! Here is the breakdown of what I got:

• 1 huge box of Huggies
• 1 package of pull ups
• Herbal Essences Shampoo and Conditioner
• A man's razor and 5 refills
• Saline nose spray for the kids
• heating pads
• popsicles for kids
• chex mix
• carmex
• throat lozenges

I was able to average about $70/week for the last two weeks. For that, I was able to get food for both weeks, diapers for Mak and pull ups for Tripp, several cleaning products, several drug GM type things and a couple of air fresheners. I plan on doing better and better in the weeks/months ahead. I'm just really starting to get the hang of this whole coupon thing. I'm no where near where I want to be, but I'm way farther than I was just a few short weeks ago. Now, if I could just figure out a way to organize them all! They are coming out of my ears at this point! One thing I have figured out is that sometimes you have to buy things that you normally wouldn't buy. However, it ends up being free and it also helps you get other things for free as well. Several of the things I bought today, I've never used before. But, it didn't cost me anything and it's stuff that I'm willing to try. So, it's a win-win situation. Like I said, I can't wait to learn how to do even better! I don't plan on ever paying for things like toothpaste, body wash or shampoo again. It's silly to pay for it when you really can get it for free!

Lazy

This post will go down in history as being the laziest post of the century. But, I'm just plain tired. However, I do want to document the weekend. So, here goes!

We converted Makinley to a toddler bed today. Getting her to sleep in it is going to be interesting. When I'm not so tired (maybe tomorrow?), I'll tell you about our first night tonight. It was hilarious. However, she is asleep in there right now. So, here's hoping to a peaceful night.

We also took the kids to the pumpkin patch today. I was able to get a few pictures before my camera completely quit working. We will be visiting a Nikon store tomorrow to see what's going on with it. The kids had a blast doing all of the farm activities.

Now, for the lazy part. (like the lack of details above isn't lazy enough). Click here to see the pictures from the day. I'm too tired to upload them to blogger tonight (well, except for the two in the posts below that I just couldn't resist).

Who's Big?!?!

Just One

Part Werewolf

I really don't know if I spelled werewolf right. I should consult my trusty Twilight series books, but I don't have time right now.

The point of this post is that I think my daughter is part werewolf. Not really, but she does have one huge characteristic. The full moon sends her into a tizzy. For the last several months, I began to notice a pattern with Mak's sleeping habits. She would sleep good most of the month. But, each month for about a week she would start becoming restless during the night and wake up once or twice crying. Then, one night out of that week, she would be awake for up to an hour. Now, I noticed during those nights when I had to make a trip to her room multiple times throughout how bright it was during the night. So, I knew the moon was full. I told Joey that I thought the moon being so bright was keeping her from being able to sleep and that we needed to get black out shades for her windows.

However, last Friday night trumped all previous nights. She was awake from 11-3:30. I don't mean just awake. I mean WIDE awake and having a party. She wanted to play. She wanted to eat. She wanted to drink. She wanted to watch "D-D-Do" (Dora). When I would tell her she needed to go night-night, she would say "I not how night-night, Mommy, I not how". I didn't know what to do with her. Finally, she crashed at 3:30 and was up again at 6:30 for the day. She only took a one hour nap that day. I couldn't figure it out. Well, I had a shower to go to on Saturday and I briefly mentioned my lack of sleep. The mom of the mom-to-be said, "Stacey, you know last night was the Harvest Moon and it can sometimes have a huge effect on people". Well, apparently, the Harvest Moon happens every October. It's when the moon is the fullest and brightest that it is any other time of the year. It's also when it has the greatest gravitational pull on the ocean, etc. Well, I came home and did some research. Turns out, the full moon (and especially the Harvest Moon) can cause excitability and anxiousness and lack of sleep in some people. They don't even really NEED the sleep during the full moon time (which explains why she was okay with getting up at 6:30 and only taking a one hour nap). I'm not sure black out shades would even matter because I'm not sure it's the brightness that is the problem.

So, I'll be doing an experiment in November to see if my theory holds true and if she wakes up during the full moon. She should only wake up for about an hour since we already had the Harvest Moon. However, I want to do the experiment from a hotel room and leave Joey here to take care of her! :-)

Tripp's Wall

Since Tripp started PreK 3, I've learned what the mom's of my students have felt like over the years. He comes home with the cutest stuff every single day. I've had to start weaning out the "busy work" from the truly great things. I've begun a collection of the things that I have loved and I decided it was time to start doing something with them. I went through my house and found a ton of different frames. They are all random and don't really all go together (in fact, some of them were my grandmothers). I was able to fit about 6 of his things into these frames. Some of it will have to be custom framed because it is odd sizes. I framed it and hung it on the landing of our stairs going into our bonus room. It was a perfect place to display his things. Over the years, I will add to it, change it out, etc. Eventually, Makinley will have things up there too. Enjoy!

Here is a shot coming from our bonus room down the stairs. The two things on the farthest to the right are a birthday cake he made and then a questionaire that he had to fill in. Some of his answers are HILARIOUS, so I had to keep it!

A fingerpainted flower.

My absolute favorite thing he has done so far! Isn't this beautiful?!?! (Sorry for the camera's flash on it!)

I just thought this was precious because he described his house and put his address on it. Oh, and the small thing on the bottoms is his first ever incentive chart from school. He was so excited when he filled it with stickers and was able to to get a treat from the treat box!

$5

Gotta love what $5 can buy when you use sales, coupons, and rebates combined!!!