Retreat

Dan and I woke up on Thursday morning, looked at each other and said, "Let's get out of this house." So we took our no longer infected family out of our infected house and headed to Columbus for two nights. We went on priceline.com and got a room at a very nice hotel for $50 a night. What a deal! So we left Thursday afternoon and headed away with the girls.

Before we left town, we stopped at Starbucks and Dan went inside to get me a peppermint hot chocolate. My new addiction! While he was inside, I attempted to take a picture of me and the girls in the car. There was a guy sitting in the car beside us laughing at me while I was doing this.

Here is my first attempt...you can see Mya in the background.



Here is my next attempt...oops, no kids in this picture.



And here is my final attempt...if you look close you can see all three of us in the picture.



Our time away was wonderful. I have never NOT wanted Dan to go back to work this bad before. We have really bonded as a family this week. And with all the time that we spent together this week, we didn't drive each other nuts. I am really going to miss him come Monday when he goes to work. And boy are the girls going to miss him too. Dan is a wonderful father and husband and I feel so grateful for our time together this week. I am amazed at the kind of father that he is. He adores his little girls.

Here are some more pictures of our fun trip together.

Broken Movie

If you read my previous post you might think this is kind of funny. After deciding to take Mya to the movie, we got there and found out that the specific movie we wanted was broken. Only that happens in the Ashland theater. Not to mention the fact that if the heat was on, it was most likely set at 50 degrees. Okay, that is an exaggeration, but I am kind of glad that we didn't have to sit through a movie with the kids in the cold theater.

"Oh... the Guilt!"

All I can say tonight is, "Oh...the guilt!" I feel so much guilt. Poor Mya and poor me. I took Mya to the dentist today for her first tooth cleaning. Everything was going so smooth. She let the hygienist pick at all of her teeth and scrape the plaque off. This went on for a good five minutes. Then it came time for the spinny toothbrush. Oh boy....she flat out refused this, which I was not prepared for. She uses my rotating toothbrush at home and she used to have one of her own. It was never an issue. But even the bubble gum toothpaste at the dentist wasn't enticing enough. So as the frustration grew for both of us, I resorted to bribery. This is the number one thing that I promised I would not do with my kids. I thought that parents who used bribery were just plain lazy. Well, I was one of those parents today and it wasn't because I was lazy. It was because I needed leverage...and fast. So I used going to a movie tonight as leverage. I told her that if she wanted to go to the movie then she needed to let the lady brush her teeth. Well, that did not work. I continued to push the issue thinking she would just give in. That didn't work. Then I attempted to hold her in the chair and that didn't work. Then....I attempted to hold her head and force the toothbrushing thinking that if she could just feel it once she would like it. But quickly I regretted that and felt so much guilt. Forcing a child to do something is never good. And it is another thing that I said I would never do as a parent. Ugh! So we left with no tooth cleaning and the promise of trying it again at the next visit. And after Dan and I talked about things when I got home we decided to go ahead and take her to the movie. Mostly because I didn't feel right taking something away from Mya when the situation was about fear and not negative behavior. So I gave in instead of following through with the consequence that I said I was going to enforce (not going to the movie). Another thing that I said I would never do. Especially from my background as a behavior specialist I know that when you say something...you better follow through with it. Luckily we can reason with Mya and weigh the pros and cons and learn as we go. Once we were home I told her how much I love her no matter whether her teeth were brushed or not. That is what I realy wanted to communicate to her. Bottom line....I have to forgive myself for making mistakes today and just learn from them. I wrote a thank you note to the dental staff thanking them for their patience with my daughter and with the mother. The other bottom line...every situation is different and it is okay to bend the rules and try new things with our daughters. I think that making sure they know that we love them and giving them hugs and kisses no matter what the circumstance is going to help all of us heal from the mistakes that we have made and will make as parents.

My Butt Is Making Noises

To add some comedy to our unfortunate situation last night, I have to post a comment that Mya made. At about 4 AM, Mya woke up with a very bad case of diarrhea. I mean...it was bad. But as she was sitting on the potty doing her thing, she looked up at me with smiles and said, "Mommy, my butt is making noises." Then she laughed. She thought it was so funny. I had to laugh in the midst of all that was happening. And then to top things off, I woke up at 6 AM with the same thing. Ugh!

Vacation

Well, here we all are with the flu. Yipee! And Dan is on vacation. What a vacation! Dan and Sara got sick on Sunday and Mya got sick last night. I have held off but now am feeling some nausea. This morning I cleaned the house from top to bottom in hopes that I would escape the sickness. We shall see. We planned on taking all of these fun trips with the kids this week so I hope that we are on the mend by tomorrow. We all need to get out of the house! Please pray for healing for our family.

Personality Test

The Animal In You - You're an Otter!

Thanks for taking the Animal In You personality test! We've determined that your personality best matches the Otter, but you might also be a Sheep or a Beaver. Click here to take the test and find out more about over forty other animal types!

Dress Up

I guess when you watch evening cartoons it is very important to wear a princess hat and sunglasses!

Family Day

Boy was it a great day yesterday (Saturday)! Dan had to work in the morning so the girls and I stayed home. I cleaned the windows in the house while the girls followed me around with the paper towels and Windex. They also helped me clean the breezeway. I know...I know...all of this will be filthy again as the snow continues to melt. But, it felt so good to clean some things that were really dirty.

At noon, Dan and I took the girls to the hair saloon to get their hair cut. They think they are so special sitting in the chair getting their hair cut. It is adorable.

After the girls took their nap, we went to the YMCA to swim with the girls. We lasted about 20 minutes because the water was cold. Brrrr! Both girls clung to us so tight, but they did have fun. So we packed them up, thankfully they have a family locker room so Dan could help me with the kids, and stopped by the pizza shop to get a $5 pizza. The best meal on a budget! We went home, ate the pizza, gave the girls a bath, and watched a new Dora movie. I love family days. I forgot to take the camera to the pool so I took pictures of the kids in the bathtub instead.

Sara Sue Sue

Snow Day

Bad Blogger

Oh....I have become such a bad blogger. I have good intentions and by the end of the day I am ready to crash instead of blog. But I do miss it. So here I go again trying to keep up with it.

So what is new with us? Well...Dan is busy with work and trying to beat his latest video game. I love when he tries to beat games because he plays at night and I sit beside him reading these Amish novels that I am really into. It is fun hanging out together. And then when I have a silly show on like "Desperate Housewives" or something like that, he watches it with me. And because we have PVR or DVR (can't remember which one it is), we get the best of both worlds. He can play games while I read, and then we can watch the taped show later in the evening. Love it! I am busy with typing a book that my mom is going to publish and sell, organizing MOPS stuff, and chasing after the kids. I also will be doing some workshops in the spring for parents. I will be teaming up with my friend Kate to present on teaching literacy skills with a focus on special needs. The biggest thing that Dan and I are praying about right now is whether or not to have another child. We have had some letdowns with our medical insurance, which has caused us to question whether or not we should get pregnant again. Of course there is always the consideration of my blood clotting disorder. I don't want to risk my health for another child, yet I would like to have one more. We go back and forth on it. Please help us pray in this area. We aren't getting pregnant and haven't since the miscarriage in September. I think it is interesting that we aren't getting pregnant when I was so fertile with the first two kids. It is like God is giving us time to really submit to Him in this area.

On a lighter note, in addition to growing my hair out, I recently died it a darker color. Well, I mean my sister-in-law did it for me. I am still getting used to it, but Mya took my picture this morning so we could put it on the computer. She was pretty excited to take Mommy's picture.