All I Wanted Was a Quick Family Photo

Once again, I informed my family that we would be taking a quick family photo after Church. And once again my news was met with moans and groans.

I staged the family and set up the camera. Dead battery. So I scrambled to find some more. That reminds me. I need to get batteries before Christmas morning. So I staged everyone again and set the timer. Click. I looked at the picture and said, "We may have gotten a great picture the first time! Oh, wait. No, Drew - cooperate."

Take two. "Drew. Mallory. Cooperate!"

Take three. "Drew, don't smile so hard."

Take four. "There we g..., NO! Mallory, please smile."

Take five. "That's as good as it's going to get."

A little editing and there we go. Although I don't like how I look. :(

Christmas photo - 2009

Mary's Lullaby

After an unfortunate accident, my Aunt Cathy called me last night to tell me she wouldn't be at our Christmas service this morning. She asked me if I would take over for her. She had created a beautiful program. She is our choir director, and she was to sing a solo. She's a tiny woman, but she has big shoes to fill!

I had never sung the song she was suppose to sing, so I wasn't very comfortable performing it as a solo. After reading over the program, I had the perfect song in mind. It is one of my favorites. You can hear it here:

http://mixpod.com/play/urezt

The words are beautiful.

A Message From Santa

A found a spectacular (FREE!) website. You take a few minutes to enter a little information about your child, along with a photo, and Santa sends a video message to your child. It's really neat. I was just going to make one for the little kids, but our bigger kids asked me to make one for them too.

And I was cracking up as Mallory watched hers. There is a part where Santa asks if she's been a good girl this year, and under her breath she muttered, "Not to you." She, of course, is talking about a freak-out upon seeing him last week.

Here is the website:

http://portablenorthpole.tv

Have fun!

Come Let Us Adore Him

This is one of my favorite gifts we received when we got married. It is a Fontanini nativity set. It is beautiful. It is also made out of plastic so the kids can play with it without breaking ears off of animals or crowns off of kings. It has been well loved and used by our kids.

One year, when Elizabeth was about two, she was given a tiny homemade baby Jesus about the same size as this one. She left both baby Jesus' in the creche all Christmas season. She said they were twins, and she named the second one Regis. So we had baby Jesus and baby Regis.

As usual, the Nativity set has been getting a lot of play from the kids again this year. I walked past it this morning and noticed an extra visitor. Upon closer inspection...

...I noticed Diego was also worshiping the newborn King. :)

Frankenthumb

Stella is beginning to be one expensive dog!

We decided to put up a smallish fence for her. We've been pricing materials for the last few weeks and had intentions to begin on Friday. We rented a monster of an automatic post hole digger. It's a huge rig that you have to tow behind your vehicle to get to your destination. Big! Anyway, we got about four holes dug when one of the two hoses connecting the engine to the enormous drill bit started spewing hydraulic fluid. It looked just like when you get a small hole in your garden hose. The pink oil was just spraying. Edward grabbed the hose and immediately yelled and let go of the hose. I thought he got a burn, so I booked it to the house to get some ice for him. He yelled for me to come turn off the machine. "Oh yeah!" I thought. "That's a good idea." By that time he'd run into the house and was running his thumb under cold water. I could just see a pretty small flesh wound that was bleeding. His thumb really started to swell.

Basically what happened was the equivalent of Edward holding his thumb over the nozzle of a high powered pressure washer. The liquid (hydraulic fluid) blasted through his glove first (thank goodness) and into his thumb.

Edward mentioned something about possibly going to the ER. I said surely he didn't need to because it didn't look that bad. He asked me to call my sister who is a nurse to get her opinion. After describing the injury, she asked if we wanted her to come take a look, and we did. She asked when was the last time he had a tetanus shot. We told her it was our first semester at Mizzou as newlyweds, 12 years ago. She said it would probably be a good idea to go get one. Our doctor was out for the Thanksgiving holiday, as were all other doctors in town except two. And of course they didn't accept new patients. So off to the ER it was.

Being the good and caring wife that I am, I sent Edward off to the hospital alone so I could finish digging. Actually, we weren't too concerned at that point, considering we were expecting a quick tetanus shot then a trip back home. I called the rental company, and they sent someone over to replace the busted hose. I continued digging holes when Edward called me informing me he was most likely being sent to St. Louis for hand surgery. WHAT?!?!?! The ER doc had a call in to the hand specialist at a St. Louis hospital to get his opinion. While we were waiting, I hitched the post hole digger up to the Jeep and returned. I still hadn't showered that day, so I took a quick shower. As soon as I got out, Edward called back and said he was definitely being sent for surgery that night. I got the kids settled with my mom (This is why we love having family so close!!!!) and joined Edward in the ER. To my happy surprise, they let me be his ambulance to the city.

After arriving at the ER in St. Louis, we waited and waited some more and explained the situation 87 more times. Once the surgery team arrived they explained to us why they needed to operate. They said that hydraulic fluid would potentially eat up the tissue in his thumb. But even more scary, it had the potential to travel down into his hand, wrist, or even elbow and cause a lot of damage. They were very pleased he came in when he did (thankfully he didn't listen to me when it first happened!). So, he was taken back for surgery at 8:45 p.m. I got a call in the waiting room at 9:00 p.m. that surgery had begun and he was doing well, and by 9:15 the surgeon was in telling me how great it went. He said that the hydraulic fluid was just contained to the end of his thumb. Most likely the glove dissipated a lot of the fluid. He said there are times when they have to go in two or three times to clean out the wound, but he didn't feel like that was necessary this time. He did sew a shunt in the incision for drainage. Ouch!

Edward got to his room at 10:15, and we settled in for a long night. I was worried I would be sleeping in a non-reclining chair but was relieved when an aide delivered a recliner to me at midnight. Edward woke up feeling nothing and doing great, so we were discharged at about 10:30 a.m. We head back in tomorrow for a post-op visit.

He felt great all day yesterday but has felt pretty crumby most of the day. That is mostly due to the oxycodone he is on. His thumb was hurting when he woke up so he took the pain meds. That left him feeling pretty nauseated. He has spent the evening taking it easy. Maybe the doctor can help us figure out something else we can do for the pain.

So, not only are we paying to install a fence for Stella, she is also causing us to hit our astronomical insurance deductible. Edward's about ready to get rid of her at this point.

And, my wonderful father came and manually dug the rest of our post holes while we were gone. He's the best.

Give us a thumbs up, Eddo!
Thrilled that I'm making him pose for pics. :)

Close Encounters of the Furry Kind

Alright, this is a good one.

Let me start off by saying I don't usually get too upset when I see bugs, reptiles, or even small critters. I don't run away screaming. In fact, I get onto Elizabeth if she acts too "girly" around bugs and insects. That's not the kind of women we are.

However, I can see where some women (and, frankly, some men.... You know who you are.) feel a wee bit paniced at the sight of bugs and vermen after two encounters this week.

I LOVE to thrift shop. It's a thrill for me to get something ugly for just a bit of spare change and make it beautiful. I frequent the clean thrift stores frequently. Some of the, shall we say, grosser ones don't get my business as often. I was looking for some cheapy glass ornaments that I could spray paint to make a wreath, so I went to a particular thrift store where I knew I could find some for about $.25 a box. Let's just say this place is a little on the dirty side. After finding what I needed, I flipped through a few clothes racks on my way out. I was flipping through a skirt rack, when out of the corner of my eye I noticed a leaf (or so I thought) on a skirt. Just as I started to slide the hanger over, that "leaf" scurried up the skirt! It was a mouse. A very much alive mouse! Eek. I didn't scream, but boy did I freeze in my tracks. I certainly wasn't expecting THAT! I asked a frozen Mallory if she wanted me to move the skirt so she could see the mouse, and she quite confidently told me she didn't. I then went to check out. When I was finished, I told the saleswoman, "Oh, and you might be interested to know there is a mouse in your skirt display." She didn't seem like she was a lady that liked mice very much. I wished her luck on that one, and headed out to my (clean) van.

Now, on to encounter #2 - the same week! We were met by a welcome committee when we returned home from church today. Who was there to greet us upon arrival, you ask? A. Full. Grown. SQUIRREL. Holy cow!!!!!

Everyone went into the house while I was still in the van piling things in my arms to carry into the house. I heard Ross say, "A squirrell! And it's dead!" Guess what? No it wasn't! It was very much alive indeed, just perched upon my curtain rod. It's head was making those rapid and rigid movements as it checked us out checking it out.

Some will wonder how it got into our house. Let me explain. When we moved in, our house had a wood stove. After much consideration, we felt like with very little children we needed to have it removed for safety reasons. In the living room, I capped the metal piping (what is it called, anyway?) with a plastic lid. I have never climbed onto the roof to cap it off up there. So that poor little thing had to have been so scared when he tried to climb on the roof and fell two stories through my obviously non-squirrell-proofed chimney.

Back to the story. My very strong and brave husband (who would NOT have been so had it been a snake!) got a broom and told me to do the same. We opened all the doors in the house and made our way to our visitor. That sucker took a flying leap from the curtain and landed a good ten feet away on my couch. Let me tell you, THAT'S WHERE I WAS STANDING, and I let out a holler like a woman giving birth to a ten pounder! Okay ladies. Now I can kind of see where you spaz out when you see sweat bees and ants. I'm beggining to relate.

About this time, Elizabeth is hiding behind Mallory, using her as a human shield. Ross and Drew are running around with excitement, Edward is taking charge, and I'm beginning to laugh like a crazy woman. So about this time, I'm thinking, "BLOG. Gotta get some pictures." Out comes the trusty camera. I also pulled out the video camera because I'm thinking this little buggar just might win us $10,000!" So, I make Edward stop every few seconds so I can get just the right shot. I know! Pretty smart of me!

Anyway, Mr. Squirrell jumps from one room to the next. Then where does he go? Upstairs! That's where our bedrooms are! Luckily, all the doors were shut, so he comes right back down. He was like a pinball, pinging from room to room, under couches and tables, up on curtain rods, behind the furniture. Finally, I saw him run away, and we think he ran out the back door. After much searching, we never found him. But, we did find my cell phone that has been lost for two weeks! Hooray! Something good DID come out of this craziness.

Now, like I said, we are pretty sure he ran out the back door. No one actually saw him do it, but we couldn't find him any where. Wouldn't it be something if he's just been hiding all this time and comes to snuggle up in bed with us tonight?

And, while all of this was going on, Drew kept saying, "THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!"
And Ross suggested that we mount it. He said we could let Stella (our puppy) take care of the squirrell. Then we could chop it's head off, put it on a board, and hang it on the wall.

Oh, only at our house!

A First Visit From The Tooth Fairy

Mr. Drew has just experienced his first loose tooth. Being the cautious boy that he is, I pictured his tooth would have to get so loose that it fell out in his sleep. I imagined he wouldn't let anyone touch it. I was wrong! He worked on it for about two weeks. He came home from school yesterday, and he had it super loose. He let me wrap string around it. One tiny yank, and it was out. He was very pleased that it didn't hurt at all.

He cracked me up when he said, "I can drink with my teeth together now." and "This is the first time I ever tasted my lip." What a funny guy. And all night he would say things like, "This is the first time I ever took a bath with a missing tooth." or "This is the first time I watched TV with a missing tooth."

And the Tooth Fairy barely remembered to do her job. She cruised in here about 10 minutes before it was time to wake up. Whew! That was a close one!

She's a Big Girl Now

This probably falls under the category of TMI, but this news is worth celebrating! I think (hoping I'm not jinxing myself!) this girl is 99% potty trained! Wahoo! After abandoning ship earlier this summer, we attempted round two last week, and she has done great! I even let her sleep in her undies last night, and all was good this morning. The first few days we had a lot of accidents, but that comes with the territory. By day four I was venturing out to run errands. She is doing so, so great! We are thrilled. Congratulations, Mallory!

Boo Crew

Halloween 2009

Ross, the shark eaten boy
While perusing the Internet for costume ideas, Ross found a similar, store bought costume with a price tag of a mere $60. Knowing that this mom usually makes the costumes, he said, "I'll be that." I'm glad he has confidence in my abilities. I had NO idea how I would pull it off, but I think it turned out pretty well. The gray fabric is so cool! It feels really rubbery. The best part is I got it on sale for 50% off at Hancocks! I think I paid $8 for two yards. The hardest part for Ross was only being able to use one arm, as the shark got the other one.


Madame Fortune Teller

Elizabeth came up with the idea of being a fortune teller. I thought it was pretty creative. We later found the same idea in FamilyFun magazine. We had all the jewelry and the scarf and skirt. I picked up the lovely shirts at a thrift store for a couple bucks. The hardest thing to come up with was a crystal ball. All of the clear sphere shapes I found were made of glass. Then it struck me. A hampster ball! $8 spent at the pet store and we were set!

Elizabeth was so funny. She got ticked off any time someone said she was a gypsy! The nerve!

Mr. Roboto

Drew decided on a robot this year. I knew we could easily pull this off with things around the house. We had the shiny silver lemay pants in the dress-up box. I covered the cardboard boxes with fabric (again 50% off!) and then gadgets from the garage. I just had to spend $6 on dryer vent tubes (what are those things called, anyway?).

Part of the reason Drew wanted the big robot head was so he could more easily hide his face anytime he saw a scary trick-or-treater. The poor boy is terrified of Halloween.

By the way, he won a costume contest. He was pretty happy about that.

Miss Mermaid

Mallory was adamant on being a mermaid this year. It worked out well because I had saved a cute mermaid idea from FamilyFun. I found a large green/metallic robe at a thrift store. Not sure what it was. Maybe a Statue of Liberty costume? Anyway, for $2 I knew I could transform it into a mermaid costume way cheaper than by just buying fabric. I added a little purple tule underneath for a little more girliness. And Elizabeth had the purple shells from a Build-A-Bear costume. They fit Mallory perfectly. The funny thing, though, is that they annoyed her so she ended up pushing them down to her waist like a belt.

Bird Attack

And I can't let the kids have all the fun. I have to get in on the action as well. This was a last minute thrown-together idea. That teasing was really fun to get out of my hair later that night. Edward and I wanted to be Dora and Diego for the church party, but Elizabeth was on the verge of tears at that idea. We decided against tormenting her... this time.

For the church party Edward threw on an outback hat and wrapped a large snake around his neck. I didn't get a picture because, well, I have four children to keep up with.

The kids are already planning what they want to wear next year.

JDRF Walk To Cure Diabetes

Our Walk To Cure Diabetes turned out to be a fantastic experience.

On October 10th we travelled to Kansas City, MO to participate and do our part to raise funds for JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). It was C-C-C-FREEZING!!!! It was 37 degrees the morning of the Walk. It was so hard to feel warm for the rest of the day.

We had a total of 31 walkers on our team, Ross's Gator Crusaders. We felt truly humbled and grateful to everyone that travelled far to join us in supporting Ross.

I am not an emotional person, but I couldn't keep it together that day. It was very inspiring to see so many people (thousands) there to support the same cause that is so close to our hearts.

Back at the end of August, our family set a goal to raise $1000 to donate to JDRF on Ross's behalf. As of today, we've donated $4,448.31. Out of the 385 teams in attendance, only 17 raised more money than Ross's Gator Crusaders. We are more than grateful. Words can't express the humility and gratitude we feel. We are almost finished with our huge list of Thank-You notes!

Edward is ready to start our fundraising efforts for next year. He wants to double what we did this year. Whew! Me? I need a little break. This has consumed me and my time over the last two months, but it has been absolutely worth every second.

Watch Out For Flying Snakes!

Yesterday while at my parents' for our weekly Sunday dinner, we had a humorous situation arise. I was in the house trying to get Mallory to nap, while the big kids were outside playing. Elizabeth came into the room and was spazing out. As I threatened her to get out to keep from disturbing her sister, er, I mean calmly asked what was wrong, she told me, "MOM! IT'S AN EMERGENCY!" I asked what wrong. She relayed the following story:

She saw the puppy rolling around in something and went to investigate. It was a snake. A smallish, dead snake. She screamed and Ross came to the rescue. She told Ross to get a stick and flip it over the fence. He got a stick and picked it up. He flung it as hard as he could over the fence, and it landed IN THE NEIGHBORS WINDOWSILL! Oh my goodness, I laughed when I heard this.

I asked if they got it off, and they replied the couldn't reach it because the window was too high.

I chuckled and said I would take care of it when I finished with Mallory.

About an hour later (after I woke up from my accidental nap), I found Edward outside playing with the kids. I asked him if he heard the funny story, and he had. I asked him if he removed the snake, and he replied, "NO WAY! You know I hate snakes!" So this time it was Mom to the rescue. Just call me Stephanie Erwin.

As we told my dad the story, he said, "You should have left it at the neighbors!" Ross replied, "That's what I wanted to do!" I'm sure the neighbors would have loved opening their window to find a dead snake on the ledge.

Are we the only ones that these wacky things keep happening to?

Lizzy's New Glasses

Elizabeth has been telling me for a while that she thinks she needs her eyes checked. Being the attentive mother that I am, I just basically brushed her off. She came home from school a few weeks ago and told me how the third grade class had vision screenings. She told me she got to take hers twice and a second school nurse was called in especially for her. Uh-oh. I checked her backpack for a note from our beloved school nurse but didn't find one. I reasoned that if she did indeed need glasses, I would have received a note from school. Two days later I got one in the mail. Oops! She tested at 20/50 in both eyes! Yikes!

Elizabeth was VERY upset that she failed her vision test. Being the bright young lady that she is, she's never failed a test before. We had to repeatedly explain that she couldn't control failing this kind of test.

We made an appointment at the eye doctor. She was nervous for days about having to take that test again. Luckily, her anxiety lessened as she saw all the cute and trendy glasses on the wall. She was thrilled at the prospect of being able to choose her own glasses. We went to America's Best Eyeglasses where she was able to get two pair for only $70! She chose this cute pair and a fun, whimsical purple pair.
She loves her new glasses and looks darling in them. I had to laugh because she kept saying, "I can see!" and "The floor looks so close now!"

Right before Ross's diabetes diagnosis, he, too, kept telling me he thought he needed his eyes checked. And again, I just brushed him off. Turns out, that was a symptom of type 1 as well. Hmm. How about that? *Insert nervous laughter* So, if Drew or Mallory ever tell me they need their eyes checked, I guess I should pay attention!

Nothing A Little Paint Can't Fix

I've been inspire lately by some of my favorite crafty blogs (Be Different...Act Normal, Make It And Love It, A Soft Place To Land, Crap I've Made, and Mod Podge Rocks just to name a few!). I see the cute things they make or repurpose for next to nothing, and I think, "I can do that!" After 12 years of using some of the same decorations, I think I'm ready for a change.

I love to visit my local thrift shops and usually do so at least once a week. One man's trash is another man's treasure! You never know what you'll find! I found each of these pieces last week. Each one was $.25 to $1.00. All I did was use a little spray paint, and viola!

Every thrift store will have some cheesy pumpkins like these at this time of year. They all had these lovely faces, so I spray painted them entirely with the intention of using the solid sides.

L-O-V-E how they turned out! The cream colored paint pulls each mismatched piece together. 100% improvement!

I'm please with the festive, simple fall display for my entertainment center!

Check out these golden lovelies! The mirror was actually more hideous in person, if that's possible. While I was standing in line to purchase it, an older gentleman commented on the beautiful mirror that I was getting for a steal. Yep!

Ahh, much better.

For about $2.00 they finished off the spaces on my wall quite nicely!

Finally! A Proper Place For My China!

I love Craigslist. I found this beauty on it for $50! My dear, wonderful, handsome, frugal husband is not quite as fond of our wedding china as I am. I wants to hawk those puppies. Therefore, he has been unwilling to humor me all these years by buying me a beautiful piece of furniture to house and display my beautiful china. So, when I found this treasure on Craigslist with a lovely price tag, I knew the itty bitty amount of money in my ebay account just found a new home in some woman's pocket.

This hand-me-down painted bookcase previously housed my china. And for about ten years before that, my china sat in the same boxes that I lovingly packed it up in after our wedding. It stayed in those boxes through four moves.

So here's to you, Gorgeous China. You finally have a lovely home to house all your loveliness!

Family Visit

We were recently able to travel to visit family for a special occasion.

Our nephew, Edward, was baptized! He wraps up the four cousins that turned 8 and were baptized this year.

Some of the crew

As evidenced, there was a lot of fun with cousins the entire weekend.

This bunch found a playhouse in the dog house!

Sunday before church, we were able to visit one of our church's historical sites. This group of kids were troopers during the tour.

Oh, No! It's Kanye!

Check this out! It's hilarious!!!

http://kanyelicious.appspot.com/www.felkerfamily.blogspot.com

You can do it too by going here.

Let's Keep Politics Out Of This

Drew likes to play with our puppy, Stella. And because she is a puppy, she can get pretty rowdy. She's getting really big (25 pounds) and STRONG! Last night they were being especially rowdy together. Drew had had enough of Stella, so he called her a name - an ugly, rotten name. He usually says, "Stella, you're an idiot!" when she accidentally hurts him. This time he said, "Stella, you're a democrat!"

I was howling!

Isn't It Lovely?

No, I'm Not Turning Into A Hoarder....

We've moved all of the contents of our kitchen into our dining room because I'm finally getting a new kitchen!! Hooray! I've hated these ugly, outdated things since I first saw them. But since they were still functional, we kept them and spent the money on other things that were more necessary (such as a new hot water heater, patching a leaky roof, replacing toilets. You know, the important stuff). We refinanced a few months ago, and I asked my sweetie if we could get a little more to update the kitchen. To my delight, he agreed!

I didn't take any before pictures, but here is what those old, yucky things looked like.

Here is what my new kitchen looks like... for now. I hope to post the finished product by this weekend!