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Friday, November 27, 2009

Thanksgiving 09

We went to my stepdad's family's annual Thanksgiving dinner that hosts so many Walton family members that it has to be held at the church's fellowship hall. No, I am not kidding. 40lbs of turkey, hams and some hens. And lots and lots of other yummy things. Among my favorites were the collard greens (served with 100 year old pitchfork type thing), potato casserole, cabbage casserole, squash casserole, onion casserole...are you noticing a theme here? Truth is, Chris is somewhat anti-casserole so it has become my most favorite holiday food - casserole. But back to where I meant to go when I started...so we went to a big Thanksgiving gathering, about 40 people or so - including my wonderful husband, our 3 beautiful children, my brother and his girlfriend and my parents - and the only pictures I took the whole entire day were of the food. And as I took the pictures of the food, I thought to myself, "Oh yes, I am definitely going to scrapbook these!" (with a giddy smile on my face!)

Saturday, November 21, 2009

Another One Bites the Dust

More correctly, another week of school bites the dust. And I don't know about you, but I was off a day for the whole week - in a negative way...on Wed I thought it was Thurs, on Thurs it felt like Fri. So it really was never ending.

But at the same time, it was a good week. Productive at work. No doctor visits for the children. A night out with two of my most favorite ladies...where we had this conversation...

A: So do you two have any personal days left this year?
Both D and I to this effect: Yeah, why, have something in mind?
A: Yes, actually, I do. I am taking Dec 9 off and I think you should to. I'm going into Tucker to have a mammogram done...
*At this point D and I about fell out of our chairs laughing because it really came out like A was inviting us to her mammogram with her. She really wanted us to go to the appt with her so that we could go out to lunch and to ikea for the rest of the day. It was a moment of perfect comedy though - the timing, the facial expression, and the look of disbelief with the ensuing laughter. The whole evening was really like that though, laughter, honest conversation, advice given and taken, future plans made. And on the way home my heart was bursting and I was a little weepy thinking about how thankful I am to have these women in my life, which led me to think about all of the women that I have been blessed with in my life. I am truly rich in friendships with people I genuinely care about and who care about me. The terrible thing (which is really not so terrible) is that I am a married mother of 3 and therefore my friendships often suffer because I do not have the time (and energy) to spend on my friendships as I would like. Which then made my heart a little sad.

In other news....Q pointed to the box of crackers on the table this week, pointed at them and said, "Crack?" Yes, my 17 month old son asked for crack. And we were extremely proud of him.

At church on Sunday we are supposed to be bringing blankets, but I had that big yard sale this summer and cleaned out the linen closet and got rid of all of our extra blankets. BUT I did already purchase new comforters for the girls as part of their Christmas presents. So we had this conversation at the dinner table last night...

Me: We are supposed to bring blankets to donate at church on Sunday and we don't have any to give, BUT I did buy you new comforters for Christmas and if you would like them early, which would mean one less present to open Christmas morning, then we could donate yours.
Chris: It would be one less present. So we don't want to hear it on Christmas morning.
Chandler: Oh, yes, I would definitely like to donate mine.
Casey: Um, (looking nervous), well, could I see the new one first? What does it look like?

I appreciate the honesty, but not the selfishness. :)

Then, following dinner and some t.v. time purchased with daddy dollars, it was time for the girls to go to bed. Casey came down and said good night. Chan came down about 7 minutes later, crying.

"I think (sob, sob) that I'm sick again (hiccup, sob). I did the diarrhea! (wailing, sobbing, sniffling.)"

Oh. My. Well. Not really sure what to say about that, but thanks for sharing.

Sunday, November 15, 2009

A Week in Review

I am hoping that our schedule lessens in the next few weeks...just in time for the holidays!

On Monday I took Chan to the doc to have a blood test done. I was worried that she may be anemic - super tired, pale, catching everything that is out there this season. But everything came back fine. The supposed explanation is that girls begin puberty at age 8 (which she will be in Feb) and she could be having bursts of hormones and that is what is affecting her. I don't know about you, but I don't want to talk about anything "bursting" in my 7.5 year old. Um, no thanks.

On Tuesday I took Casey to the immediate care because she suddenly had an extreme skin irritation. It was one of the most unpleasant experiences of my life. She had a staph infection and they were 99% sure that it was MRSA. They sent a sample off to the lab, but bacteria has to grow before they can confirm their suspicions and in the mean time I have to apply a topical ointment to the area for 6 weeks. Merry Christmas to me!

I am hoping that what Q is going through these days is part of the terrible two's. He is very stubborn and is becoming a champion temper tantrum thrower. I was "that lady" in Target last weekend. You know the one - the one with the screaming child who is throwing things repeatedly out of the buggy, and the woman looks like she could have a break down in aisle 9 at any moment...and you wonder to yourself "Why doesn't she just take that child home?" and she is ruining everyone else's quiet moments at Target...yeah, that was me. So, the other night while talking on the phone to my father I said...

Me: Is Ger (my stepmom) around? I have some discipline questions that I want to talk to her about.
Dad: What, you don't think that I am good enough to talk to about those things?
Me: Ok....

So I go into a lengthy explanation of my situation - he is nonverbal, the guilt I have with disciplining him, I am so unsure of how to handle a boy like this, the girls were so different...and on....

Dad: Yeah, um, hold on, let me get Ger for you.

So I talked to Ger for a while. She is one of the kindest, most helpful people on the planet. Truly. And I love her. Afterwards, Dad got back on the phone.

Me: Thanks for letting me talk to Ger. So that wasn't the kind of discipline question that were expecting? Were you looking for more of a 'to spank or not to spank' kind of discussion?
Dad: Right.
Me: I already know that your answer to that would be....
Dad: Always air on the side of brutality.

Excellent advice, Dad. Really. Outstanding.

Saturday, November 7, 2009

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

If we get a new dog....

At dinner last night, Q was determined to yank his bib off...

Chris: Son, you can pull on it all you want, I am not going to take the bib off. You can decapitate yourself for all I care.
Chandler: Um, if Quinn does that, can we get a dog?

We all turned and stared at her. Did she really just say that? Yes, yes she did.

Monday, November 2, 2009

She's Givin Me a Whoopin

Last night we had a fight to end all fights in our house. The girls were told to go upstairs to pick up the blankets, pillows and stuffed animals left in the middle of the floor in their room from the Saturday night slumber party. Simple task, right? Apparently not. The argument began over a pillow - was it Casey's, was it Chandler's, did it belong on the spare bed??? Mind boggling. A question that could absolutely start a seven year war. They fought over the pillow. Casey threw the pillow down and jumped on Chandler. Offense #1. Then Casey took her shoes off on Chan's side of the room. Offense #2. So, Chandler did the most logical thing - she threw the shoes onto Casey's side of the room. Offense #3. Casey was ticked that Chan threw the shoes, so she ran to the other side of the room and spanked Chandler's rear. Offense #4. When Casey went back on her side of the room, Chandler did another very logical thing - she picked a remote up off the floor and launched it at her sister's head. She hit her target. Offense #5. At this point, Casey began wailing. Sobbing. Screaming.

Chris and I were both down stairs and did not know the proceeding events. We thought someone was seriously injured. Chris bolted for the stairs, calling out, "Girls! Are you okay?" To which Chandler responded, "She's givin me a whoopin!" Chris demanded that both parties return to the first floor. Casey carried on as though the end of the world had arrived. Chandler was irate that she was about to get in trouble and just kept repeating, "She gave me a whoopin! She gave me a whoopin!"

Ugh. They each had their turn to tell us the story. Surprisingly, there were a lot of similarities between them this time. The punishment last night was dinner, bath and straight to bed. They cannot buy wii or tv time this week with their daddy dollars. I offered to move the coffee table out of the front room and let them finish the fight downstairs...no one wanted to take me up on it...they were afraid of getting hurt.

Sunday, November 1, 2009

Rainy Halloween...not a problem for the Pendley's!


In spite of the rain, it was a pretty successful Halloween. Casey was a poodle girl, Chan was a flapper girl and Q (who was absent for this picture), was a dinosaur. We also had 3 of Wylie's and Savannah join us. We started out earlier, in what we thought was the end of the rain, got about 6 houses in and started being pelted with windy, cold rain. We decided to go forth with plan b...an Easter egg style candy hunt in the house for all of the kids. Success! The Wylies spent the night (I can't tell you how much I love these children!), and then we all headed into Athens for church this morning. The time change really sucks when you have children. Extra hour of sleep? Bah! Not in our house! The children are napping and then its back into Athens for children's choir practice.