Blissful Brew

Last night I made it to costco to buy coffee among my list of other items that we consume too much of too quickly (trash bags, diapers, detergent, PT, TP, etc). Pretty much everything you see on the morning news show segments about things we aren't suppose to consume a lot of for fear that the planet will combust. Now don't get me wrong, I am all for reduce, reuse, and recycle and believe me we make our concerted effort. I have even been known regularly to leave my poor infants in their soggy diapers from the night until right before their morning nap in an effort to save just one diaper. I must admit that my motivation might stem more for making their dent in my wallet smaller than the dent they put in landfills, but the environment runs a close second to our tight budget!

David had class last night so while at costco, we had dinner (me and the two kiddos alone!). Of course, we are eating our hot dogs and pizza and Wyatt needs to pee, so I attempt to pack everyone and everything back in the cart to go to the tiny restrooms that aren't big enough for carts. Just what was I suppose to do with Addie? Leave her in the cart to watch over our recent purchases??? Did Wyatt pee? Of course not...the monstrous flushing noise of public restroom toilets has petrified him and he only pees when in public when he is desperate or bribed! Thus, resulting in many restroom trips before he caves.

We made it home and the kids went down well. On a side note Wyatt has recently been diagnosed with seasonal allergy asthma related problems. We now have a huge regimen of inhaled perscriptions to help us out and keep the wheezing at bay. Many of you remember last year at this time our trip to the ER for the same thing. So given the repeat this year the docs think it is a seasonal issue. Anyway, last night after 24 hours on steroids and inhalers the wheezing wasn't going away, so we ended up having to wake him throughout the night to continue treatments. By midnight I settled in to sleep and at 2 I woke to give another treatment.

And here comes the irony folks...Addie slept through the night! Yippee we all say except for my complete frustration that I had the worst night's sleep in weeks on the second night she was able to sleep through the night. Thus the blissful brew came in real handy! Perhaps there's hope for the near future.

So today we ended up at the doc's to just have his oxygen levels checked once again and all seems to be returning to normal! We went to Target following the appointment to fill another prescription. We had lunch while we waited and yes...it happened again. Yet another hurried trip to the bathroom in the middle of lunch. This time I propped the main bathroom door with the cart so I could view Addie and our purchases while propping a screaming two year old on a public toilet promising endless amounts of cookies!

One final thought...this was a great week for having a sick child to need lots of new prescriptions! Target pharmacy was offering $10 gift cards on all new prescriptions this week with their coupon from the weekly ad. Round total folks...I received $40 in gift cards. Now don't get me wrong...I would rather have a child not in the doc's office three times this week, but at least something good came of it!

Perhaps my title should've read something like: "Mad Moddy Money...how one stay at home mom gets paid!" If you are confused on the word "moddy" scroll down below. Happy Spring to all!

Hiro is my Hero

David and I were discussing what we are looking forward to in the return of "Heroes" this evening and our discussion ended up on the unlikely somewhat goofy character, Hiro. If you watch "Heroes" you know that Hiro's power is to stop time as well as other time related tricks like traveling through time. The only problem is that without the Kensei sword, Hiro had begun to lose his powers. In the last episode that aired a while back, Hiro recovered the Kensei sword and so regained his powers. We have seen tidbits of the sword wearing Hiro in previous episodes and he is totally a different character. Instead of the goofy and almost clumsy time traveler, we anticipate almost a warrior like demeanor. David is especially excited to see this Hiro come to life! As for me, the warrior thing doesn't do it for me, but I sure could go for some time stopping right now. I might even wind up with say seven or eight hours of uninterrupted sleep!

Why go brown?

I think that I must have been longing for my dark, strong and very caffinated coffee when I chose the color palate for the blog this week. This weekend we ran out of regular coffee. We still have decaf, but nothing with the get up and go in it. So, while I am enjoying the taste of my fresh brew each morning, I am literally unable to get motivated to do anything until naptime. Tonight, the only reason I am still awake right now is that Heroes is about to come on in twenty minutes. It will likely be Thursday before I can get the caffinated stuff, so I am already not looking forward to tomorrow morning!

Moddy

In the interest of saving time, the parental unit of the Juelfs' house has become just that...a unit. We are no longer a mommy and a daddy. We are a "moddy." Wyatt has taken to calling us "moddy" when he needs one of us. It seems that his little two year old brain can't keep up. He ends up speaking so quickly that he just merges us into one word. What an efficient little time saver we have on our hands.

What the new camera has captured...

The Highlight of Wednesday...

Brotherly Love

Why did Satan have to be a snake?

A while back I believe I posted with the title "And so" referring to Wyatt's favorite new phrase that we weren't entirely sure about it's origins. Well, I think I found it. Last night while reading Wyatt his bible, I noticed that as a bit of a page turner this particular bible uses the phrase "and so" as it is about to lead into a new part of the story. It just so happens that this is every other page or so. Wyatt is always so interested in this bible that he must have picked up the phrase.

He has also picked up on another detail I am not really let's just say proud of. I guess proud isn't the right word. It's just that of all the things he could have been excited about in the bible, oh let's say, Christ's birth, death, and his resurrection, our place in this redemptive story...he has chosen to be most excited about Satan. What else would a two year old boy like but snakes of course! This particular bible has big illustrations, hence the title, "The Big Picture Story Bible." It tells of the actual big picture of God's redemptive plan rather than focusing on little short stories found in most children's bibles. The short stories are there but always pointing to the bigger story of redemption. It is really cool how it uses this "big picture" metaphor and includes dramatic and very large illustrations to go along with it.

So naturally the snake (Satan) is a huge snake. Wyatt loves it! He always wants to conclude the evening bible reading with a good long glance at the snake page. I suppose for now that is fine and my hopes for his love of say other more important parts of the bible, for example God redeeming His people, will come in due time.

Rainy Day Activities

Mom is trying out the new digital camera while Wyatt runs wild through the house! We are just having a lazy rainy day morning! The camera lady needs some improvement. I will hopefully get the hang of this more as I use it.

Boys' Fashion

So, if you read the previous post, you'll understand my desire to make an entire post on Wyatt's new kicks! Wyatt recently has grown out of almost every pair of shoes we own for him. So for the summer he just got a new pair of crocs and for next fall I decided to keep my eyes open for some tennies I could by a little large and save for later. I stumbled upon these just the other day and given that they were on sale and incredibly stylish, I decided to pick them up. I think they are a real improvement on your average white tennis shoe! Don't you? So, perhaps I need to change my previous position and give boys' fashion some credit where credit is due. Boys' fashion can be stylish and appealing as well!

Happy Easter!

So, for those who might be thinking I'm a horrible mother who only takes pictures of her daughter and not her son, I promise I am not. I admit that sometimes I prefer to take a picture of Addie because she has cute clothes on whereas I am less likely to take a picture of Wyatt because his outfit is "cute." I would, but boys clothes just aren't as cute most of the time.

However, this wasn't one of those moments. I woke up on Sunday with all good intentions of taking a picture of Wyatt and Addie together. I had been planning it for a week...well, the fact that they were going to match a little on Easter was a bit of a reason to plan ahead to see that it would happen. But, as you can see, it didn't. Again, not out of a lack of love for capturing my sweet little boy's smile, but as anyone who knows Wyatt understands that in his opinion clothes just aren't as necessary as one might think.

We actually made it into the Easter outfit for church with little struggle and Addie was dressed early too. But then, mom as usual is rushing to get clothes on in order to arrive in a timely fashion for church. Sure, we could have brought the camera to church considering Memorial would have made a wonderful backdrop for photos, but our camera is the size of an elephant so that didn't happen either. And it wouldn't have been a holiday celebration without a few colds and cranky kids. So to our dismay, we left church as soon as it was over to get the kids in bed for naps. Wyatt went down in his church clothes (shocker of all things since he loves those jammies!), but when he awoke he requested that he put jammies on. So daddy changed him to avoid the post groggy nap temper tantrum and there went my picture...down the tubes because of those blasted jammies!

So what is left is a sweet picture of Addie in her hand made outfit crafted by a little old lady in Italy that Grammo and Popee bought her with no brother to hold her. She looks sweet though. In an effort to conserve my energy and your time, I will spare you yet another picture of Wyatt in his long sleeved dinasour and truck pajamas.

P.S. If you must see one, just look at every other picture of him on this blog and you'll see which ones I am talking about.

We hope your Easter celebration was a wonderful rejoicing in the resurrection of our Lord. For in Him we have great hope! Happy Easter.

The Promised Picture

Here is our little sweetie on the day of her baptism. This dress has been passed down through three generations! It's been around the block from Catholic baptism/christenings to protestant baby dedications and finally made it into a protestant baptism. Funny to think of the places it has been!

Addie will be five months tomorrow. She is up to regular five month old things, trying to sit up, eating cereal, rolling around, etc. Last night, save your applause, she slept for twelve hours with no waking. You heard me right...twelve hours without eating in the middle of the night! Now as excited as I am, I am trying not to have expectations for this to happen again! Maybe I will be unexpectedly surprised tonight!