2017

Well, it's here.  The new year...already nearly a month in!  I write this for you because some of you enjoy it, but I also write it so I can remember life as it is now--everything going so fast!  A couple of MUST REMEMBERS already:

I had another heart surgery on January 10th, to fix some blood flow issues out of my heart and a resulting aneurysm in my left lung.  Everything went fantastically...I wasn't even kept over night!  Heart surgery-outpatient style!!  I can't even believe how far medicine has advanced, even in just my 35 years of experience!

God orchestrated so many things for me and my family those couple weeks before and after.  I am continually left in amazement at the personal-ness of God's graciousness to me.  Things big and small...like for instance, God sent a big snowstorm to the hit the Southeast 3 days before my surgery. This "happened" to be the weekend Josh needed to be in Atlanta for Drill and Drill was called off not even 24 hours before his flight, so he was home with me. God's kindness to me!!  This was one of many examples.

Which leads me to the next item I need to document to remember (also further proof of God's gracious gift of moving Josh's drill away from surgery weekend) is life as it is now:

So this last weekend Josh had his rescheduled Drill.  Pretty much without fail, if Josh is going to be gone, the wheels are going to fall off the bus.  Now I have the kids alone probably 70% of the week as it is, no big deal, but somehow, if Josh leaves the state... WHOA NELLIE.

It starts early this time...Thursday night when Josh gets home from work he tells me that the car was sputtering (the one we've had in the shop twice in December...and spent alot on to get it up to emissions test standards) and he barely made it to the driveway. So to the mechanic it goes bright and early Friday morning. Also, Renae wakes up with red dots all over her legs...I'm internally freaking out.  Bed bugs? No way. Bug in her bed that bit her all night?  Maybe.  She says its from running around the backyard in the grass last night (for 95 seconds) (in January).

We watch the Inauguration and then take Josh to the airport. Friday evening goes relatively uneventfully...other than Renae gets benedryl..."This is soo yummy!  It's my favorite thing to drink!  I wish you all could have to drink this yummy pink medicine!!"

Friday night I get to bed early...good thing, too, because I get a visitor around 2am.  An itchy visitor who gets more benedryl and then sleeps in my bed for the rest of the night.  Then at 6:15 the 4 year old comes to let me know he needs new sheets.  Thankfully, he doesn't...he somehow only drenched himself!  But the night it over.  Very quickly we are all up.

Renae's spots are worse.  She takes a shower, while I interrogate her on did she use any new lotion or eat anything I don't know about....pretty sure it's just hives.  She feels fine, just itchy.

The day goes fairly smoothly. Regular chaos, spills, and minor injuries occur.  A kid stops up the toilet using an entire roll at once.  So that bathroom becomes off limits since we have 2 others.  The rain stopped enough for us to go outside playing in the front yard until about 5 minutes later a stray dog showed up and started unfriendly behavior.  I shooed him off once which bought us about 3 more minutes.  Then he chased Jack and Noah...tears happened...I tried to get his collar to find a phone number he got angry growling at me.  Done.  See ya outside, it's been real.  (Good thing it took at least 20 minutes to get socks, shoes, and coats, and drinks, and bathroom trips done to get outside in the first place HAHA)  I end up calling our insurance Nurse line about Renae, just to see if there is more I should be doing as I'm sure it's hives at this point...there's not.  So more benedryl!

Saturday night...I fully intended an early bedtime, but I got caught up in a book that I started after the dishes and floors were clean which happened after the kids got put to bed.  I was sleeping around 11:30...woken up at 1am by a crying boy with growing pains...tell him to get in bed with me since I'm in a complete fog...after I get kicked about 47 times I'm awake enough to kick him out and get him back down to his own bed.  Only to be awakened 25 minutes later by his roommate who informs me that he is "sleep crying". Go down put her back to bed, put him back in bed with me.  Get kicked for a couple more hours...then a 3 year old makes the rounds "I awake Mommy!".  Put her back in bed.  She goes right back to sleep. I fall sleep.  I wake up to "Noah remember that potty is broken!  Go downstairs! Quick!"  "I need to go really bad!!!"  "Mom, Noah went potty down the stairs and on the floor." What.

!??!

Noah is so sweet though, I'm not even in sight and he is already hollering an apology "Mommy I'm sorry I didn't go fast enough, I'm cleaning up my mess, will you forgive me!?"  I get around the corner and he is using his blankie to mop up the flood. I head down to help him carefully avoiding the last stair which is quite damp...I skipped the step and somehow stepped down funny and end up falling. Yep.  Flat on my back in pee.

AND the hives are WORSE still!  I get her in the shower, again and scrub with Jordan's all-free body wash...again. No church for us, since she looks like she has the plague.

So after breakfast I help the kids makes some forts in the living room.  Quite entertaining-- Jack and Noah were "sneaky nature cats"  ?! and Jordan was a puppy.  This is all well and good until I notice Jordan come out of the fort (from the part where I couldn't see her) with a jump rope tied around her neck as her leash.  She was just fine, but that thing was tight!  So I take it off (she was NOT happy with me for taking her toy) and the jump rope goes in the trash. Soon after my adrenaline goes back to normal Noah uses the off limits bathroom and floods it.  Then in an effort to get bathroom privacy from Jordan he shuts the door (which can't be shut due to Josh's pull-up bar) and somehow, the pull-up bar comes off the door frame and lands right on Jordan's head. That sucker is heavy, too.  Lots of crying.  Mopping bathrooms. Time to watch a movie.

We have to miss AWANA due to the hives, and it was going to be backwards night so the kids changed all their clothes to backwards and we had backwards night at our house. ;)  hilarious.  And then Jordan comes up to me..."Momma, Noah got out playdoh..." And there on her finger is a good-sized lump of brown...NOT PLAYDOH.  Nice try, little girl.  Off to hunt for the rest of it... Jack and I sit outside the bathroom door and practice a little of his school work for 25 minutes while Jordan sits on the potty for more "practice".

And then finally it's time to drive to the airport and pick up Josh...who's plane was over a hour late. But still...  Hallelujah!

Sometimes keeping people alive is harder than it should be!

Tell me about....October

In less than a month we will have our first semester's work done!!  WOW!  This school year is flying by!

This girl has become a permanent fixture on our kitchen counter when I'm cooking... which is great except we really have only enough counter space for a cookie sheet...so it takes some finagling!  She loves to "help" cook.

 And to make this face.  HAHAHAHA!

Couple great stories about Jordan...when she's tired she climbs into her crib and just waits for you to find her to put her to bed. And then when she wakes up she immediately starts loudly counting to 20 ending with "Ready or not, here I come!!"

Her new favorite thing to say is "I busy!" but she says it all the time, crying, excited, mad....she has no idea what it means.  What's wrong Jordan?  hysterically crying "I busy!"  She runs after me frantic for me to pick her up "I busy Mommy!!"

We went to our 7th Army 10-Miler.  The morning started out (at 6:15am) rainy and very chilly, but once the sun was up it turned out to be pretty nice!  It was WINDY.  This race is so much fun.  Of course you feel like you're about to burst with patriotism, especially watching all the Wounded Warriors and Amputees running the race.  I just want to hug all of them and tell them how proud I am of them!  And of course our Runner is super speedy, so it's fun watching him compete.  It was really nice living here in the DC area now, we were done at the race and in our house within 30 minutes!

And then this guy turned 4.  In traditional decorate-your-own-cake Barricklow style Noah did not disappoint!  Well, Josh planted this idea of having a giant cookie instead of a cake about 6 weeks ago and mentioned it at least every 3 days...so wouldn't you know it..."can I have a giant cookie instead of a cake?" hahaha.  It was delicious! And very sprinkly.

Cheers to the birthday boy!

Bahahahahaha

Balloon party!

I got the chance to take Jack and Renae to a choir/orchestra concert at church one evening.  A combined choir (our church and one from Texas) 280 members!  It was fabulous.  90 minutes of pure joy for me, and the kids enjoyed it, too!  We were sitting next to an elderly couple (late 70s probably 80s) and Jack had a problem seeing during one song where the audience was standing. The gentleman picked him up and put him on the pew in between him and his wife so he could see. It was so sweet but the only thing I could think was...please don't get hurt--that kid weighs a lot!!

And this was technically not in October...the day before -- Josh and I got a chance to go to a friends Retirement ceremony.  Some friends from our KC past! Jose and his family really helped me through Josh's 15 month deployment.  It was impressive hearing about Jose's incredible military career, but even more incredible listening to account after account of his compassion, kindness, and character.  I just kept thinking (knowing that Jose loves Jesus) that this is what it looks like to do your work as unto the Lord.  Jose impacted all the people he worked around and for.  It was so encouraging!  Especially seeing the impact of decades of faithfulness! I left the ceremony with a very full heart- it was wonderful!

The fall colors here are creeping toward brilliant...which also makes my heart happy!  Happy Fall Y'all! :)

You Win Some, You Lose Some

We have come out on the better side of some close calls lately.

Josh and I were standing in the freshly cleaned kitchen (which you know means that 4 unattended kids created uninhibited chaos un-freshly cleaned elsewhere HA!) But, as we stood there reveling in our newly mint-condish (empty) sink... water started POURING out of the bottom of our running dishwasher. But you know what?!  We were standing RIGHT THERE so we just pushed "Cancel" and mopped up. :)  #win! (broken dishwasher #lose)

BUT!  Our home owner came right over and fixed it! #win...but I ran it again today and it still floods the house leaks. #lose. And I thought I hit "Cancel" and mopped frantically only to realize I actually DIDN'T push "Cancel" and the water just kept on coming. The kids were breaking land speed records bringing me fresh towels! Maybe not a win. UPDATE: we get a new Dishwasher!! (it was already new...but we get a NEW new one! #win)

Jordan has sailed right thru potty training- she's doing fantastic...until the last few days she has forgotten that #2 goes IN the potty.  Wait, you say....how is this a win??  Well, let's just say that the only time (S) she's remembered to go IN the potty have been diarrhea-like "less solid". #WIN  Let me say that again. #WIN!!

Labor Day weekend was sneaking up on us and there we sat. Zero plans in our new hood. But just when it seemed all was lost, Hurricane Hermine cancelled Dad and Beth's plans for a FL weekend of sand and sun so they came northward!  We got to see the sights, the weather was beautiful!  And we finished off our Labor Day evening BBQing at a friend's house and visiting with our favorite Centurion.  The kids could not believe Mr. Brooks is actually 100!! :) #WIN

Over the weekend I stumbled across some pictures (and video!!) on our TV/Amazon Fire Stick that were suuuuper creepy. For 1.  They were of the kids, and the house. 2 They were all taken from the same vantage point.  3 That vantage point seemed to be from our front window. (YES SERIOUSLY). 4.  I was no where to be found in any of the pictures. 5. I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU EVEN GET PICTURES ONTO A FIRE STICK....So I'm wracking my brain...neither Josh nor I have those pictures on our phones, the laptop is always password protected (after like 30 seconds of non use) and I have no idea how to take pictures with the laptop camera, let alone from that angle.  Then I think...maybe on our tablet?!  So I scour it for how to get to the camera...can't figure it out.  I give it to Beth to look over and she ingeniously asks Renae if there's a way to take pictures on it.  Oh sure!! Renae proceeds to close it, go to the lock screen and find this teeny tiny camera icon that requires no password and wha la.  PHEW.  I was thinking we were going to have to move.  ((The picture/movie taker had sat in the window sill to take them.))  Since I have a Kindle Fire, it would sync automatically to our Fire Stick and presto... scary pictures on our TV.  This could very easily be a loss (there were a lot of pictures!  From multiple dates! That's called great parenting...)...but I'm just very thankful we don't have a creepy stalker! #win

Well, then there's the big NOPES.  Like that time I was having adult conversation time upstairs and Jack dumped AN ENTIRE CONTAINER of gold glitter all over the floor.  I'm still finding it. Every. Where.

Or the time I asked Jack if I could have his towel (he was fresh out of the shower and just a few steps left down the stairs to his bedroom to get dressed) to save me some steps to take it back upstairs.  And then he proceeded to fall down the remaining 4 steps. Nude. (He was completely fine, thankfully!)

Also...our children have reverted back to riding the midnight-parent's room-carousel. They've got the timing down perfectly.  Some nights it's every 60-90 minutes we have a new rider. Some nights it's not quite that torturous bad, but those are the night(S) (YES-NIGHTSSSSSS) where I get bitten by a bug in the bed. I'm not quite sure when the last time both either Josh and I have slept thru the night. The black circles are becoming permanent, people.

Speaking of sleep...Jordan is in the prime age (2.5) for naps that make a HUGE difference in attitude.  Girl needs her beauty sleep!  Well, I'm doing some school work with the big two downstairs (kind of under her room). About 45 minutes into her nap she starts crying (after it took her 45 minutes to fall asleep).  I make the kids be quiet silent as the grave for the next 20 minutes hoping she'll go back to sleep. Nope...moaning, tears, silence, crying, silence, wailing, screaming....ahh!  So I go up to try to calm her down.  She's standing up in her crib in the dark pointing across the room.  "Mommmmy'ssss phhhhhhooooonnnne.........."  What?  Yep, there it was.  I had recieved a phone call with a voicemail, 2 texts, and I have a reminder alarm that goes off every afternoon at 3pm...and it had snoozed twice. C'mon Mom! Yea she didn't go back to sleep.

But really, football has started (whoohoo!!).  The heat is on it's last hurrah this week. Mornings are cooler. Noah is certain he sees leaves changing. BSF starts next week. School is in full swing...we've had our first real dose of school-time DC traffic.....WOW.

Life is good. :)

Hey Life, Top THIS!

We had a beyond fabulous weekend!  ((I'll keep it real in the parenthesis--I wouldn't want anyone to think that life with four kids ages 6, 5, 3, and 2 is sunshine and roses all the time.  **Sidenote: who ARE those people who are so quick to destroy JOY shared on social media because it doesn't accurately show *reality*??  My reality- life is hard, and I still have a lot of joy! Sorry...moving on**)) We had a really great weekend!! I have to share:

Friday soon after Josh got home from work our homeowner stopped by with presents for the kids.  He is the sweetest guy.  Josh knows his story better than I do, but he is from Vietnam, basically became an apprentice for a handyman (starting in TX maybe?) and 20 years later with a wife and kids works here in DC.  Anyway- he LOVES the kids.  His English is a little rough, but he and Noah have been talking about baseball the few times he's been here fixing things around the house.  Check this out:

Bats, helmets and baseballs for each kid. :)  So generous!  The kids have been practicing and practicing ;)  And of course they were WAY too excited to hold still for a picture, but the blur just adds to the picture IMO. ;)

Saturday morning Josh finally got a bike!  So all 6 of us went on a bike ride...2+ miles. ((the + was too much for Noah...it took almost as long as the 2 miles to coax him the last bit home)).  It was a beautiful morning, and I had Jordan on my back so it was also a great workout!  My Dad also gave us a tip on how to fix Jack's bike, so the chain didn't fall off even once!  ((But I scraped my knee going too close to a tree, and one of the kids rode over the largest animal poo I've ever seen UGH)).

After our bike ride we went to Sam's and Walmart and got some groceries and returns done with ((kids fighting and screaming)). I introduced Josh to the "Waze" app...a necessity in this area! ;)  Slowly but surely we might be catching up with technology ((who am I kidding)).

I made a delicious salad for lunch--I know what you're thinking--Me, Salad...it is a miracle.  It was so good!  The kids even liked it! 

Then it was lawn mowing time.  The kids played with their new baseball stuff and Josh did the weed eating, and I mowed.  My favorite way to finish up mowing is in a downpour.  Well, my favorite way to finish up mowing is to actually finish up!  But, it's a close second :)  We got rained out mowing about an hour in...and stayed out about another hour and let the kids play in the rain.  It started with running around playing tag and ended with all of us sitting on the driveway enjoying a perfect summer rain!  The kids played in puddles, Josh and I sat and enjoyed.  It rained pretty hard for about 25 minutes, but the rest of the time was just light rain.  Beautiful, peaceful, and relaxing!  ((Immediate laundry and bath needs, trails of grass clippings thru the house, and digging dirt out of ears))

Saturday night we spent watching the Olympics with the kids.  Of course they've never seen anything like it before--by the end of the night each kid had a new favorite sport.  Volleyball, Beach volleyball, Cycling, and Gymnastics.  :)

Sunday we went to church and heard an incredible message, watched more Olympics, then finished up mowing the yard. Made and ate waaaay too much French Toast for supper. Josh took the kids on a walk while I cleaned up, and then we watched Olympic swimming until bedtime. :)  ((And then Josh and I continued watching the Olympics while listen to Jordan *loudly protest* bedtime for over an hour))  ((And then Josh and I stayed up past midnight and I'm not sure there's much to prevent that from happening for the rest of the Olympics))

And I forgot to share this story, but last week Jordan had been telling me for a couple days that she had an apple up her nose.  She would show me her play-food apple, point to her nose and tell me she had an apple up her nose.  Since her most repeated phrase is "that's so funny, Mommy" I thought she was just being silly.  ((Actually she had been digging around in her nose quite a bit, but that's not abnormal for a 2 year old)).  Finally on the 3rd day, after MULTIPLE nose-blows to try to get her to stop picking her nose, she comes over and hands me a slimy chuck of apple about the size of the two-bump lego. WHAT?!?  "Apple not in my nose, Mommy.  Here."  0_o

And here's a couple pictures of our family outing to the Smithsonian a couple weeks ago.  We even had lunch at a food truck! :)

AUGUST!!!

Well, our next adventure has begun!  We've been in Springfield, VA nearly a month!  It's been a pretty good transition- the kids and I have only had 2 things on our schedule the WHOLE MONTH.  So we've done library trips, park excursions, and lots of down time. Which makes my heart happy after going 1,000 miles an hour for months!

Josh is really liking his new job at the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences (The Military's Med School) in Bethesda.  He is in charge of Protocol for the University, if you want more info on what that entails you'll have to ask him :)

The kids have been extra funny lately.  Also extra grumpy.  We're at extremes here with all the change, but I've saved some good stories for you so hold on to your hat!

Renae- 6 1/2 (WHAT?!!)

We're gearing up for 1st grade!  I can't even believe it.  Renae has such a cheerful heart, she's really the only one who understands what moving really means.  She misses her friends, she really misses Miss Terri (her dance teacher), and she misses church!  But, she's got a great attitude about it and trusts that God's got great plans for us here, too!   We've watched her performance at Dance Camp this summer quite a few times over the past weeks, and I realized that I hadn't shared it! The theme was about being Jewels--Renae was a Ruby (wearing red)--about how we are Priceless to God and about shining for His glory!   ENJOY!! (click ENJOY to watch! hahaha) She does the Charleston all day long :)

Also, this girl is STRONG!! She did not inherit her Mom's muscles, that's for sure.  She helped me move furniture, assemble furniture, and move boxes around :)

Renae and Jack discovered the live lobsters at the grocery store.  They like to count how many of them have different color rubber bands on their claws.  They say the rubber bands keep them from "cripping"?!?  "You don't want them to CRIP you Mom!"

Jack - 5

Kindergarten! WOW!  He is more than ready and excited!  While Jack still keeps us on our toes, he seems to have mellowed out a little more.  He is definitely not a crowds or attention guy, he will often times be off by himself in large groups, rarely talks to strangers, and will not do anything on command.  He's very particular...wonder where he gets that from?? HA! :)  This kid is hilarious.  Here's a bit of a conversation I overheard:

"Daddy, am I still going to have hair when I'm a parent?"
-"I don't know, only God knows that."
"I hope so, I want to keep my hair!"

Every night ends with "Mom, what are we going to do tomorrow?" And he has a very sweet side.  He wants more hugs or kisses than any of the other kids.  He LOVES babies.  He will spend time playing/talking to them more than the other kids as well. :)

Last week  Jack somehow located and acquired silly string and used the whole can trying to kill a cricket in our basement bath tub.  He was laughing so hard--that is one of my favorite things about him.  He laughs so easily.

Noah 3 1/2

Noah is still smack dab in the hilarious/adorable part of the end of toddlerhood.  He is so imaginative.  Just yesterday he told me that he was going into the TV screen to help a squirrel.  He was going to break the TV....go into the screen...fix it up behind him so the bad guys couldn't get back out...and then help his friend squirrel.  Uhhhh, let's not try that.

Also hilarious is that Noah barely can stand to be outside for very long...he complains about the HEAT!  "I'm too Hot, Mommy. I don't like to be HOT!" Son, you've lived in GA for 3.5 years and never mentioned it...?!

Noah also wants to tell bedtimes stories every night.  Usually they are very dramatically told starting with "Once a spon a time..." there's usually a ghost or a pirate, and most especially a golden treasure.  One time the story ended with "and then we all had glass teeth. Then End."  I started recording them after that one came out.

Also hilarious: Noah came over and climbed on my lap.  "Please lick my head Mommy, I'm Simba".  He told me it was his bath and that Mommy lions lick their babies clean.  When I gave my best pretend lick (I was actually really impressed with my sound effects) he turned around furious...the phrase "looking daggers at me" wouldn't even adequately explain this..."I'm serious, MOM.  Lick my hair!!!"  When I tried to negotiate into any scenario where I would not have to actually LICK HIS HAIR...he just got more and more upset.  I felt bad, but it was really funny.  Finally Renae piped in "I'll lick your hair, Noah!" To which I said, "Who wants to watch the Lion King?!".  Crisis averted.

Jordan- 2

Cutest 2 yr old ever. EVER.  One of our friends up here has rightly nicknamed her "Bouncy".  She is the kid you see running and you are always cringing, just waiting for her to trip and fall.  She rarely does though..she's just very bouncy.  And she answers to it, too!  She thinks it's so funny.  Actually, that is probably her most repeated phrase right now, "That's so funny, Mommy, its so funny."

She is continually around me asking to be picked up all day long, so when she came over a few nights ago while I was cooking and started leaning on my legs I didn't even turn around.  Next thing I knew, two tiny hands were hiking up my shorts...."There you go, Mommy, all better." Uhhhh.  Apparently saggy shorts and on her list of pet peeves because she will help you out if she sees the need. :)  hahaha!!  I didn't even know she was tall enough to do that!  Maybe I'm already shrinking in my old age :)

She continues to have several dare devil moments.  Mostly because she so badly wants to play like the big kids.  I rescued her from hanging from one arm off a swing, watched her go down a 6 foot playground ladder hands only.  Like the double fireman's pole with no legs...maybe she'll be in the Navy-that's definitely a ship skill!

A couple days ago I walked in on Jordan playing with shaving cream that she somehow reached.  The only place she put it....on her head!  #balddadproblems  hahaha ;)

She will still ask me before bed if "we rock a minute?" YEP. ;)

Lots going on here!  If you want our new address, let me know and I'll get it to you! :)

From then to Now!

Terminal Leave...check

Schools Out...check

Disney Trip....check

ETS date...passed

New civilian IDS...check

Get a new job...check

Celebrate a 5 year old!...check

1st weekend of Army Reserves Duty...in progress

Move to VA....the countdown is on!

We have entered crazyville!

WOWZERS!!

Well, life is crazy here.  :)  Who's surprised?  I've been saving some real treats for y'all....

-Josh's last active-duty, uniform-wearing, day of work is rapidly approaching!  (He still has many non-uniform wearing, workless days of leave on active duty remaining...HA!)  Job applications all around the country.  New opportunities every which direction!  WHEW!  ((Fair warning...extreme overuse of exclamation points in progress)) 

-Renae only has 4 weeks of Kindergarten left!  And Jack is about 1/3 of the way thru learning how to read!  Now, while he constantly sometimes complains about sitting still enough to learn how to read (he is definitely an auditory learner at this stage) he will do almost anything if I will let him sit on my lap and tickle him and tell him jokes.  To which I say...OF COURSE!!  Now if only there was a way to read without looking directly AT any letters....he would be all for it.

-Today when we got home from church Renae says "Man, all that churchin' sure made me tired today!".  I am forever grateful for having 4 little Georgia kids...and all the grammar that comes with it!  

-And lastly, I have two more events to add to our Outdoor Bathroom Memorable Moments list.  A couple weeks ago we had to text a neighbor an apology after our son urinated whizzed 'went' very nearby their air conditioning unit alongside their house!! Fabulous, make yourself at home. And our most recent OBMM came while Josh was watching kids R, J, and N at the park. Josh is talking with kids R, and J on the swings and he looks over to see kid N finishing up a #2.  In a very small, very public, park DOWN THE STREET from our house!!!!  So Josh walked home to clean him up and grab a bag to take care of the issue. HAHAHA!!!!! Sick.

Life here is very, very funny. :)