Counseling, anyone?

Our elementary school, like most in the country has a guidance counselor on staff. Mr. Hughey, or as the kids call him, "The Feelings Teacher" is ours. Every year, Mr. Hughey comes around in the beginning of the year to talk to the kids about their feelings. They color in a little "feeling wheel" (I now have about 14 in my home) to help them identify their feelings. They are also told that at any time, if they have a problem or some bad feelings, they can fill out a slip and talk to Mr. Hughey. Isn't that sweet!

OK, so a few days ago, I am in the car with Trisha,who was contemplating whether or not she should try-out for the community theater showing of Grease. See, when she did a Christmas Carol, there were some 12 year old mean girls who gave her a bit of a hard time. She couldn't really decide what to do, so I suggested that we talk to Mrs. Shannon the director. You know what Trish says???? "That's what Mr. Hughey said I should do." Um, what??

Turns out, Trisha has been filling out lots of little slips lately for Mr. Hughey. One slip said: "I don't know what to do about Grease." There were also slips for: "Maddy is being mean to me", "Maddy and Kaitlyn are fighting and I'm stuck in the middle", and perhaps my personal favorite: "My mom is acting weird." I told Trisha we should probably save those slips for big things, but I guess to her, those are big things. Poor Mr. Hughey. He probably thinks we are one messed up family. Good thing we are adding another!

A lot has changed...

since I was last pregnant 7 years ago. For example, 7 years ago, I ate lunch meat like it was going out of style. Turns out, it actually was going out of style. At least for pregnant ladies. It seems I can catch some strange bacterial illness from lunch meat and it's now banned.

7 years ago, during those transition weeks between regular clothes and maternity clothes, you were stuck using rubber bands and long shirts. NOW, they have these things called Belly Bands that you can use over your old pants. Just leave them unbuttoned, pull up the belly band and voila! no one can even tell your pants are completely undone.

Those were interesting changes, but this one is the most interesting of all: 7 years ago, as your pregnancy progressed, your belly would be begin to expand and stick out. NOW, it appears that back ends are now the part that beings to expand and stick out.

What other changes/surprises are ahead? I can only guess. Maybe in the past 7 years, labor has become less painful!!

Look What I Got

Finally. It's like I'm finally coming into the 2000s! I got some gift cards for Xmas from my boss and this is what I bought. I feel really cool with it, I must admit! So, anyway, I did a shuffle of my songs and here were the first 10:

1. Praise You With the Dance

2. Baby Got Back

3. Everybody Dance Now

4. Now that We Found Love

5. Hey man, Nice Shot

6. Consuming Fire

7. Pump up the Jam

8. Ride Like the Wind

9. Blister in the Sun

10. Everything's Zen

Just a fun, eclectic mix and it's all mine!! :-) Who knows, before long, I might even have a page on MySpace!

Meerkat Manor

Have you seen this show on Animal Planet? It's pretty addictive. I used to make fun of Rob for his watching it all of the time, until I started. It's fascinating. In honor of those adorable little meerkats, I present:

Everything I needed to know about life, I learned from watching Meerkat Manor:

(and these are in no particular order)

1. If your wife has recently given birth to a litter, it's very important that you quickly knock her up again. If this means mating with her while she is nursing her new pups, so be it. You don't get pregnant 15 times in 6 years by just sitting around.

2. Apparently, it's universal among the species that everyone has a crazy uncle with [social problems]. However, it's just not a good idea to have him babysit your children.

3. If food is scarce, it is OK to take food away from your children. If they try to get it back, give them a warning bite. If they still try to get it back, kick them out of your family.

4. If a rival male is roving around looking to mate, trust him on that. He's just looking to mate, not become your dominant male and start a family with you.

5. If your teenage daughter comes home pregnant after meeting the aforementioned roving male, your choice are to a)kick her out of the family b)move the whole family and leave her pups behind c)both. It is not an option to show grace/understanding. Afterall, she might try to take your position in the family.

6. Should someone try to challenge your authority, a good tactic is to pee all over the place. This practice apparently lets people know that you are in charge.

2006 ~ The year of the Fluke

That's what I've decided I am going to call last year...the year of the fluke. Since some really strange and fluke-y things happened. Like in January when Jaden had to have shunt surgery. That wasn't really a fluke, it is something that just happens when you have a kid with Spina Bifida. Sometimes their shunt fails. However, the shunt fell out of the proper placement in the first surgery and they had to do another surgery less than 18 hours later. Apparently, that very rarely happens, maybe less than 1% of the time. Weren't we lucky!! It was just a fluke!

Then in August, Rob was admitted to the hospital for five days. How he got to the hospital is a really great story in a typical male kind of way. Just to give you a clue, I got a call around 6pm, when I would normally be expecting him home, saying that he was in the Emergency Room and could I possible come down. Anyway, turned out to be diverticulitis. Now, some of you do not know my husband, but, he has a diet that makes a squirrel look like he is low on fiber. As it turned out, in all of those feet of colon, he had 2 inches that had diverticula, and those 2 inches were the ones that got infected! So very rare and strange in an otherwise healthy 30-something male. Just a fluke, said the Dr.

And, then in perhaps the biggest fluke of all, we found out on Halloween that we were expecting a baby. I have always wanted another baby. In Spetember, Rob finally said that he could be willing to welcome another child into our home. By the end of October, I was pregnant. Pretty normal for the average woman, but we're not average. We tried two plus years to get the triplets and now I am working on my 5th...craxy, wonderful fluke!~

There were other small things too that I won't bore you with. But, here's the thing. I don't really believe in flukes. I believe that everything happens for a reason. I believe in a Sovereign God who allows and ordains things to come into my life to teach me things and to bring Him glory. Maybe the lesson is as simple as remembering that our bodies will fail us and this world is not my home, or something that I seem to keep needing to be reminded about: that God is in control and His timing is always perfect.

There is something about a new year that I always find a bit scary, I guess. Because that's the thing about life...you never know what is around the next corner. Sometimes it's a wonderful surprise and sometimes it's not so great. Although, I do not know what 2007 will hold for us, I know WHO holds 2007 and I pray that He will bless us and keep us (and you) come what may!