Divine Domestic Goddess

Today I woke up feeling like a Divine Domestic Goddess...actually I looked at the clock, noted it was 8:30 am and felt amazingly lazy and refreshed. It was raining and my house was dim and warm, which must have induced prolonged sleep on my children. Ahhhhh! It was wonderful. I prepared oatmeal, on the stove-no less, at the request of Gavin. After doing a few loads of laundry, Josiah had the fabulous idea to make caramel popcorn. Now, caramel popcorn makes me HAPPY and we can make it since Jesse (courtesy of my mom) gave us a air-popcorn maker for Christmas, so how could I refuse? I bundled up the kiddies, it is a cold 40 degrees with yucky cold rain, and off we trekked to Wal-Mart. It must be my family's favorite local since we're there almost daily. Anyway, off we went gathering ingredients for caramel popcorn and other necessities. I also picked up a bag of lentils (the star of the show later) and hurried back home. We set to work popping corn and mixing a yummy caramel sauce. See what a wonder I am? My boys devoured one bowl of it each...now they don't want anymore and I have a giganto bowl left. Who's gonna have to eat it? Me. I know I'm smiling, but inside I'm crying 'cause that is just pounds added to the caboose...and thighs...and tummy. I have vacuumed, done dishes 3 times, and here's the piece de resistance...I made Lentil Soup for dinner. And it was friggin' awesome!!! Yeah for me! Just crown me now the Domestic Goddess. Yes, I cooked dinner. And following another meal cooked Thursday and a tossed salad yesterday for a friend's birthday dinner. I am Divine! Truly though, it was really yummy. I got a recipe off of http://www.foodnetwork.com/ and tweaked it a little. Even Jos said it was "scrum-de-umptious"...although he took it back when I wouldn't make him a baked potato instead of seconds. Poor Kit, while he's living it up in DC tonight I'm home being divine. All my domestic wonder will be used up before he's home.

My beautifully clean dishes...one of three sets done today.


My attractive laundry...yes, I do it all on my own. Amazing, aren't I!



My "scrum-de-umptious" lentil soup! (Note the giganto bowl of caramel popcorn in the background)What my children were doing while I was toiling in the kitchen...

Bye-Bye Binkie!

Today the Binkies broke. Yes, ALL of them. Josiah and Gavin both couldn't understand how they could just break, but I told them when you get big enough, the binkies break and you're now a Big Boy. It broke Gav's heart. He sobbed, asked me to hold him, then cheered slightly when he told me we could go to the store to buy more. I told him again he was now a big boy and could pick a new big-boy cup out at Wal-mart, but no more binkies. He kept asking "How?" and "Why did the binkies break?" He even asked me to get him a screwdriver and a hammer so he could fix them. The 3 binkie stubs have been his constant companions today. Needless to say, it has been a long and rather emotional day. His cousin Ezra gave up the binkie last month, so Gavin wanted to call and have someone to commiserate with him. Ezra told him "I'm sorry. It's okay." Comforting words from someone who has shared the pain. If the abrupt demise of the binkies seems harsh to you, know it is hard on me, too. I don't want to take his comfort away, but within the last month, he has gotten way too attached. He has gone from a nap/night binkier to an all-day binkier. It had to go!-but not without some tears from Gavin (and me).

Gettin' Crafty

Kit always makes me shake my head with amusement when he tells me I should use all of my fun scrapbook stuff and get crafty. He never seems to understand how a little gettin' crafty can become a momentous and terrifying occasion. First out is the Cricut (the most fab gift from my hubby 2 Christmases ago), then out comes the packs of cardstock, packs of paper, the boxes of do-dads (I don't have a lot, but enough to make a mess), the paper cutter and glue. It takes up the entire surface of my table. I think...I have time. Gunner is sleeping and the boys are outside playing. I need to make a few thank-you cards for Christmas gifts and I'll hurry and just get this done. HeeeeHeeee-my laugh is a little stressed and frantic for I know the timer is now set and running. And sure enough, I get the first card cut and the words formed with the Cricut and in bound my boys. They're finished playing outside, I'm told. They would like to play in their room. Fine. Just play in your room. A couple of minutes later, out they come with a paper towel tube I had given them to play with the day before. Their telescope need to be decorated with my stuff, I'm told. Again fine. I give them paper I really don't need and they go to town with scissors. After a few minutes they lose interest and honestly, I'm frantic to get done 'cause baby is now stirring. Uggh. I think the TV was now baby-sitting my boys. Okay so I start figuring what I'm doing with all the do-dads and etc. with the 1st card and Gunner is officially awake and loudly asking for attention. I stop what I'm doing and hurry to give loves and placate him. I lay him down to play and begin again. Soon everything breaks down. Jos and Gav are fighting and Gunner is bawling (we're talking red-eyes and snot/spit everywhere). I separate the boys-Jos in their room and Gav watching yet another selection of PBS. Gunner is okay as long as he is swinging next to my chair and every few seconds I smile and talk to him. At last! I finish my 3 cards and I look at them. *Sigh* Not too creative. All three look the same, with differing colors. Oh well. They're finished. I look over and see the results of my gettin' crafty. Let this be proof to you, Kit!

Goodbye & Hello

Kit left this morning for another round of training in Yorktown, Virginia. It is always hard to say goodbye, but I remind myself that 3 weeks truly isn't that long. I'm very thankful that he is in the Coast Guard and not in another branch of the military where he would be deployed for months at a time. My boys gave a tearful goodbye (Jos takes it harder, it seems, as he gets older). As Kit walked out the door, Gavin said, "Bye, Mom!", waved and followed his daddy out. I had to remind him he couldn't go too, much to his loud dismay. BUT- we will survive and will be very happy with his return.

Hello baby food! Gunner tasted his first bowl of baby cereal today and LOVED it. Hooray! This will make things a little easier on me in finding a babysitter while I'm in class in the evening. He also played in his activity saucer for the first time today. It was a wonderful hit with his big brothers, too. *Sigh*

Quite the frightened look, I know!

Content after having consumed his 1st bowl of cereal.

Notice the activities of his brothers. Yes, Gavin is trying to balance a toy cow on Gunner's head. I think my baby is cute (even with his bald head and kind-of big nose)!

Best Friends

Today has been a much better day despite being a busy laundry, childcare, clean-the-house day. Just as a side-note, the man claims he just said he threw the kids over, but really had someone watching them. The police haven't found them yet, but here's hoping that is the truth.

I just had to write today, because there was a wonderful Mommy Moment that happened. Gavin came and sat beside me today (I was sitting on the floor folding laundry) and gave me a big hug. I hugged him back and smiled at him. Very seriously, grabbing my cheeks so I would look right at him, he said, "Mama you're my bess fwen." I'm his best friend! It made me smile and thank the Lord, again, that I am able to be a mom. *Click* I want that image in my memory for life.

I much prefer being called a best friend over being called a mean mama (Gavin's choice mean name) or a pooh-head (Josiah's choice mean name).

The No Good, Very Bad Day

Yesterday was seriously a rotten day! I woke up around seven and it went downhill from there. My purse was stolen back in May and after a few attempts to withdraw money and an ill-gotten pizza I thought we were done with the thievery. Not so. On Christmas Eve I noticed an automatic withdrawal I didn't recognize on my account statement from AT&T. Not too alarmed, I called them and left a message. Another withdrawal appeared on the 26th, then again on the 28th. Getting more confused, I left a couple more messages. On Monday, still haven't received a call from them I called again and kept pushing zero until I got a person on the line. Come to find out, someone had given our bank account and routing number to them and were buying minutes for a "go" phone. I canceled that and had to call my bank to close our account and give us a new one, but was told it couldn't be done right away and would hopefully be completed by the end of the day or sometime in the next. Anyway, so yesterday I get online to see if our funds have been transferred to a new account and notice that the loser theives had struck again! After calling At&T and the bank it was late morning. I hurry to finish getting ready and get my brush tightly tangled in my wet hair. Don't ask me how I did it, but I did. And it hurt. And I had to rip out a bundle of hair to get it out. Ugggh! Then I bundle my kids in the car and head to the ghetto-where I go to school-to figure out what else I need to do to claim my Pell Grant for school. I get there and there is a line from here to Timbukto...seriously. The number they gave me was 203 and the number they called next was 39. No joke!! I sit there for an hour with a fussy Gunner, noisy Jos and Gavin who persists in running away down the hall from me (much to the amusement of those around me). I give up and herd my children back home to a dirty house-having left as quickly as I could. Blahh! Kit ends up working late, the boys are bouncing off of the walls, I can't access our money due to our new account (a day late!) without our new debit cards/checks (coming in the mail) and Gavin throws his dinner across the room...simply awful. Then Kit comes home to tell me he's had a bad day. When he got to the office in the morning it was all a-buzz about a search mission going on. A man threw his children-a 3 yr. old, a 2 yr. old and his little infant off of the Dauphin Island bridge to get back at his wife. And they couldn't find them. It makes me sick. It was seriously the low-point of the day. I get as much food as I can into the boys then get them ready to go with Kit to Young Men's so I can go to class. Then it is off to class I run. Finally getting home about 8:30 we get the boys in bed, I start to straighten the house and then fall into bed. It was a no good, very bad day!

Sand, Oysters and New Years

Hi everyone! We are back from our week in the beach house. Mom and Dad Applegate and Kit's sister Sydnee and her husband, Dale, paid for a week in a beach house on Dauphin Island. It was fun to be in a house that accommodated all of us comfortably. We spent the days relaxing, tourist-ing Mobile and Pensacola, Florida and eating out (Applegate tradition!). The house had enough rooms for all of us and plenty of sand for the kiddies to play. Jos and Gav were in seventh heaven having playmates (their cousins Parker and Ellee) and spent a great amount of the time out on the beach. They loved it and toughed it out despite our chilly weather (it got to the 40s in day and teens one night Brrrr!). Both Parker and Ellee were enamored with little Gunner, who in turn loved the attention. He was spreading smiles every-which-way!

New Year's Eve we relaxed and feasted on a variety of snacks. We enjoyed eating Jan's jambalaya on New Year's Day, another long-standing Applegate tradition. Later in the week Kit prepared a lowland boil and delicious gumbo so our family could get a taste of the coastline south. He toiled over it all day and everyone chipped in to help. We ate out at our favorites: Lambert's (Home of Throwed Rolls) (I know it's Alabama'n speak, but throwed is what it is called) and McGuire's - a fabulous Irish pub with the most amazing burgers. Our family got to revel in fresh seafood and tasted the wonder of a shrimp po'boy. I was adventurous and tried an oyster. They're not bad when steamed and topped with yummy cheese. I still cringe when faced with a raw one; they look like a pile of slimy snot. Ewww!

Our in-laws got to experience their first Mardi Gras parade..."Give me your beads, please!" It started late and the baby next to us was thrown 5 stuffed animals while we only got one...but it was still fun. Our little family is slightly jaded since we've been to better parades, but it was fun to see the others experience it. It was made up of a lot of noise, moon pies and beads!

It was so fun to all spend time together, chatting, laughing, playing games ( I play a mean Old Maid) and of course eating! I will have to say, however, that even though we miss our family, it is nice to curl up in our own sand-free bed at night!

Parker giving Gunner loves

Sand Play

Parade Fun