Typical Day May 2014 (as typical as it gets)

Hey it's typical day time again. This is for Thursday May 29, 2014. The other day I was telling Brandon that I'm at the point now where I've found my groove and settled into life without him.  I still wish he was here, but I know that it will be an adjustment when he does come back.  Here's what daily life is like with two 3 1/2 year old twins, a 2 year old boy and an 8 month old girl.

5:45 am Veronica wakes up.  I get up and nurse her in her room.

6:00  She goes back to sleep.  I'm fairly awake, and I have a blog post that is almost done. So instead of going back to bed I go into the living room and work on my travel blog.

6:45  I finish my post about my triple stroller.  I think that maybe I'll try to go back to bed, but Veronica cries as soon as I shut my computer.  I go into her room and nurse her again.

7:00  I take Veronica into the living room.  She plays on the floor while I lay on the couch.

7:30  Veronica is poopy.  I change her.  Derrick wakes up as soon as I'm done.  I get him out of his bed while still holding Veronica.  Derrick wants to eat so I give him some cereal and pour some for myself.  I also feed Veronica some multi-grain baby cereal.

7:45  Lydia wakes up, but she doesn't want to eat.

8:00  We are done eating.  Derrick goes into the living room and starts spinning in circles.  He likes to do that when the living room is clean - which it is because we cleaned it before bedtime last night.

It's 10:00 pm in Korea so I check to see if Brandon is online.  He is, but his roommate has already gone to bed so he can't Skype.  We message each other though Google chat.

8:10  Derrick comes to sit in my lap.  He points to a picture of Brandon and says, "Da Da."  I'm really excited.  I ask him to say "Ma Ma" and he says, "Mom."  He said both Mom and Da Da several times.  He also has fun typing coded messages to Brandon.

8:17 Lydia wants to eat.  I get her some cereal. Derrick wants to watch Cars.  We didn't finish it yesterday so I turn it on where we left off.

8:20 Charlotte is awake. But she doesn't want to eat yet.

8:30  Lydia wants to type a note to Daddy.  

8:35  Lydia looses interest in typing.  Charlotte is ready to eat.  Derrick wants more to eat.  I hurry and say goodbye to Brandon.

8:40 Cars is over so I turn on the little short movies on the DVD so the kids will pay attention to those while I get dressed.

9:00 I work on getting the kids dressed.  Charlotte and Lydia just want to run around in their underwear.  Derrick and Veronica let me change them into play clothes.

9:17 I jump back on the computer to check my bank account.  I get all sorts of distracted by Facebook.

9:26 Back to reality. The kids are playing with a balloon and I join in with them.  Charlotte discovers that she fits inside the draw for my new desk.

(By the way, I found this desk on the curb last week and set it up on Wednesday.  I'm all sorts of happy about having a desk that reminds me of the one I used to have back when I worked in an office.)

Charlotte wants to take a picture of her balloon.  This balloon is left over from Derrick's birthday almost two months ago.

9:40 I decide today is a good day to finally clean the toy room.  I go in there and start picking up toys.

10:00 Derrick wants some yogurt. (Yogurt is one of the words he can say.  He says something like "yowgo") I get him a bowl of it and leave the container on the table.  He will usually eat a whole bowl and then get more out of the container.  I got back to the toy room. Charlotte and Lydia want to get dressed as princesses.

10:15 Charlotte goes into the living room and yells, "Derrick's making a big mess with yogurt.  I assume that means he spilled it on the kitchen floor.  I am not prepared to see what he has done to the living room carpet.  From the looks of things it appears he has been throwing handfuls of yogurt all over the floor.

 I start cleaning it up.  Veronica starts crying and it's her nap time so I put her down for a nap.  Derrick gets in the way of cleaning so I put him in his bed.  Lydia and Charlotte help me clean up the yogurt.

10:33 We get most of it up, but I decide today is a good day to finally shampoo my carpet.  I text my neighbor and ask if I can borrow her carpet cleaner.

10:45 I get Derrick back out of his crib. I finish up the toy room and vacuum the carpet in there.  I take the garbage out and the kids follow me outside.  They play around in the front yard.  Derrick starts throwing hand fulls of dirt into the house.

10:55  I'm a little done dealing with Derrick.  I think it's time to start Cars again. So I turn the movie back on.  For some reason Charlotte wants me to light a candle on the piano.  So I do that.  I also start a load of laundry.

11:00  I vacuum up the dirt that Derrick threw in the house.  Veronica wakes up.  She usually only sleeps about 30-45 minutes in the morning.  I try to nurse her, but she just wants to watch Cars.

11:05  It's hot so I turn on the air conditioner.  Lydia has been asking me for crackers for at least an hour and I keep telling her I will get them for her in just a second.  I finally have a chance to give them to her. I sit down and read the paper that comes on Thursdays.

11:35  Charlotte wants to take a break.  She lays down and I give her three goldfish crackers.  I sit down and check my computer again.

11:45  Charlotte poops on the potty and needs me to wipe her.  (Oh the joys)

11:50  I start making lunch.  (Don't worry I washed my hands.)  I make macaroni and cheese.  Charlotte helps me mix everything.  Lydia plays peek-a-boo with Veronica to keep her happy while I cook.

12:10 We eat lunch

12:25 Lunch is over and I turn the movie back on.

12:30 Lydia poops on the potty and I help her wipe.  Then I start another load of laundry.

12:45 The kids have all lost interest in the movie and are playing in the playroom.  I go in there and lay on the floor.  I'm glad it's all clean again.

Charlotte and Lydia want me to get the white bear out of the window seat.  They start playing with the "Bear Family."

1:15  Derrick is sleepy and keeps trying to lay on me.  I put him in his bed with his soft pink blanket.  He goes right to sleep.

1:20 The girls and I work on adding pennies to my pressed penny collection picture frame.

I recently rearranged my vacation picture display wall to make room for our seventh anniversary picture.  Now I just need to make it.

1:35 We are done with the picture.  The girls want to go outside to pick some leafs off of a mystery plant we have growing out there. Veronica just plays by herself on the floor.  I sit down at the computer and work on figuring out how much we paid on our car loans in 2010, 2011, 2013, and 2014.

2:20 Veronica is starting to cry a little and is rubbing her eyes.  I put her down in her crib. Charlotte and Lydia have moved on to playing with all the singing toys.

2:37  Veronica plays in her crib, until she gets really sleepy.  Then she starts to cry.  I swaddle her and she goes right to sleep.

2:52  I'm done putting the car loan data onto a spreadsheet that already contained info about the student loans.  I create a chart of all the debt we've paid off in the past 4 1/2 years.

Charlotte and Lydia have been playing together in my room.  Later I find all these toys they lined up.

And this Barbie family shoved into my quilt holder.  I love that they play together so well.

3:00 My early morning has caught up with me.  All I can think about is a nap.  I lay down on the couch.  Lydia curls up next to me.  Charlotte starts out curled up at my feet, but later moves to lay on me.  We all fall asleep.

This picture was taken after I got up and moved Lydia to the floor

4:15 I wake up and a few minutes later I hear Veronica wake up.  I get up and feed her.

4:30 Derrick wakes up and I turn on "Flushed Away."  Because Charlotte had asked to watch "Mouse goes down the drain."  I realize we have a library movie due today. Charlotte and Lydia wake up. I start cleaning up the kitchen.
      
4:50 Maddy comes over.  I keep cleaning the kitchen.

5:30 Maddy takes Veronica to the park.  None of the other kids want to go.  I start making pancakes.  (Breakfast is too crazy for us to eat anything besides cereal and oatmeal.  Instead, we have "breakfast foods" for dinner at least once a week.)

5:50 Pancakes are done. We sit down to eat and Maddy comes back with Veronica.  Maddy eats with us.

6:10 We are done eating. Normally we go to the park after dinner, but we have the movie to return.  And we might as well go grocery shopping tonight since we will be busy with a playdate tomorrow morning.  I hurry and get the kids ready to go to the library and the store.

6:30 I run into the library and return the movie with 30 minutes to spare.

6:45 We go to HEB to go grocery shopping.  I don't usually like to go shopping in evening, but the kids all napped so well that I know they will be good at the store.  Lydia can't find two of her favorite tap shoes so she wears one with a purple jelly shoe.  And she's still dressed like a princess.  Both girls want to wear their Lightning McQueen backpacks.

This is how we all get from the parking lot to the store safely.

7:40 Shopping goes really well.  Lydia gets a complement on her dress.

7:50 On the way home we stop and pick up the carpet cleaner from my neighbor Kelly.

8:00 We get home.  I give the kids Vanilla Wafers to eat while I put the food away. I also turn on Flushed Away so they can finish that.

8:30 Veronica is crying. It's her bedtime.  I feed her in her room and enjoy the fact that I can just sit and relax.

9:00 The movie is over and it's past the kid's bedtime.  Usually I like to have them in bed by 8:00 so it is REALLY past their bedtime and I can feel it.  I grit my teeth and try to be nice as I help them into diapers and pajamas.  I feel bad that we didn't go to the park at all during the day, so I let them jump on my bed to get more energy out.

9:15  Now it's really bedtime. We go in the three older kids' room. I sing a quick hymn, read half a chapter in the Book of Mormon, read a page in the conference edition of the Ensign, write in journals, say the family prayer, and give hugs.  When Veronica participates in bedtime we have a little joke where we pretend that she tells the kids what they will do the next day, but since she is already asleep I just tell them.  They are excited to hear that we will go to Ashley's house the next day - she has really great toys.  I usually sing one more song, but I'm beyond done so I just say I love you and shut the door.

9:30 I get on the computer so I can de-stress.

9:35  Brandon is online.  It's 11:35 in the morning for him.  His lunch break is a little early today.  We talk for a minute, but I still have things to do so I let him go.  He calls up his parents though the phone feature in g-mail and talks to them.

9:45 I pick up the toys in the living room.  Then I vacuum.  Finally I can use the carpet cleaner.  I've wanted to do this for months.  The girls hear the motor running.  They come out of their room and have fun running around on the wet floor.

This was from half the living room

10 :45  I'm done cleaning the carpet and it looks so much better.  I expect the girls to want to stay up, but they must have heard the frustration in my voice when I told them it was time for bed.  They're back in their room before I'm done putting the cleaner away.

I check to see if Brandon is online and we Skype for a second before he has to go back to work.  I take a shower.

11:05  I'm out of the shower and I don't feel like going to bed just yet, I want to do something fun.  So I turn on Fraiser on Netflicks.

11:30 As always, one episode turns into two so I keep watching. The girls are still awake anyway so I tell myself I can't go to sleep yet.

12:00 I'm done with Fraiser and the girls are finally asleep. I put them back in their beds where they will surprisingly sleep all night.  (Usually one of the other of them ends up in bed with me.)

I cover Derrick up with blankets and check on Veronica.  Then I go to bed.

1:30 Veronica wakes up.  I feed her and put her back to bed.

5:30 Veronica wakes up. I feed her and put her back to bed.  If it was after 6:00 I would go work on my blog.  But it's not so I go back to bed.

7:30 Veronica wakes up and I feed her and then bring her into bed with me.  She crawls around on the bed while I relax.


7:45 Lydia wakes up and jumps in bed with us.  Within a few minutes Derrick and Charlotte will also wake up and the whole day will start all over again.






.

Korea 2014: Week 17 - Vera came to visit

Veronica climbed up onto the toy motorcycle all by herself.  She was really excited.  This picture is fitting because this week my Aunt Vera came to visit.  Vera has a motorcycle and she has short hair too.  

We picked Vera up at the Killeen Airport on Friday.  She came into town as a vacation for her and for me.  She relaxed by taking care of the kids while I relaxed by taking naps and going places by myself.  I went to a goodbye party for Elder and Sister Coombs, shopping, and I went to see X-Men Days of Future Past.  That movie was absolutely wonderful.  It fixed all the emotional trauma that X-Men The Last Stand inflicted on me.  I could really do a whole post all about how much X-Men means to me, but aside from revealing how much of a geek I am, it would also give away a lot spoilers and Brandon hasn't seen the movie yet.  So I'll hold back - for now.

The kids loved playing with Vera.  She brought her i-pad and i-phone and Charlotte and Lydia played with those a lot.  They used them to watch the movie Ice Age and Lydia kept calling the movie "Ice-pad."

Derrick started talking a lot more while Vera was here.  He also got a lot more daring with all the jumping and running that he does around the house.  I'm certain that he learns best when he is moving.  Vera spent a lot of time saying things like Jump Jump Jump while Derrick jumped off of the furniture.  Then a little bit later he started repeating things that sounded a lot like "Jump."  He also said Wowwa (water) and Ah-pa (apple).  On Saturday night we watched Charlotte's Web and Derrick started repeating animal noises after I said them.  I'd say, "Derrick say Mooo" and he'd say "mmmmmmm."  He also said aaaaa for baa, quic for quank, kkk for oink, and a few more that I can't remember.  It was amazing.  Usually he doesn't repeat anything I say so I was really excited.  And then as if all that wasn't enough he said, uh (up) without prompting as he walked up some stairs on Sunday.  I'm thinking of buying him a little trampoline and seeing if jumping on that leads to any more words.

Veronica was so cute with Vera.  Veronica got to the point where she would wave her hands excitedly whenever she saw Vera.  I loved watching them interact.

On Saturday we took a walk to the tire swing park.  While we were there Lydia stepped on a fire ant nest that was under an innocent looking pile of wood chips.  Poor Lydia was bit by at least 30 ants.  The one positive thing about the whole experience is that she finally had a legitimate excuse to wear lots of band aids.

It started raining on Saturday night and I let the kids play in the rain before bathtime.

The kids have been looking forward to Vera's visit because we've been planning to take her to our favorite zoo, the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco.  This was our third visit.  Here are all the kids excited to be finally going to the zoo.

I've already posted a lot about this zoo before, and I'm planning a whole travel blog post about it, so I wont go into a lot of detail about it in this post.  As always we had a wonderful time.  Here are a few of the high lights.

Derrick got to see giant turtles.  (or maybe it's a torturous.  I don't know - nor do I really care)

Derrick also enjoyed throwing rocks and mud into the water.

We all enjoyed seeing this waterfall.

Charlotte has been asking to see a real buffalo.  I told her we would see some at the zoo.  But the only one we could see was far away.  Char seemed okay with that though.

It started raining during the last half hour of our visit.  It didn't rain hard so it was actually kind of nice and cool.  And the animals were more active.

This elephant was really close to the fence for once.

Usually the lion is a pretty big disappointment.  But this time he was actually walking around.  And then he started roaring - that was really exciting.

I like this picture of Charlotte with the Komodo Dragon.

Derrick walked about half way through the zoo until he got distracted by throwing rocks in the water.  I had to put him in the stroller so that he wouldn't spend the next hour throwing rocks.  Veronica was awake the whole time and loved looking at everything.

I love how curly Lydia's hair gets when the air is humid.

When we were all done we had a little tailgate picnic at the car.  Charlotte had picked out Twinkies (they were really Little Debbie Cloud Cakes) for one of our snacks.

We said goodbye to Vera this morning.  She's off to enjoy the rest of her vacation which includes staying in nice hotels and seeing Dolly Parton in concert in several cities.  We are so happy she included us on her trip.  The girls were sad when we dropped Vera off at the airport, but they cheered up when I told them that we would see Vera when we visit Utah later this summer.

This was supposed to be a picture with all the kids, but the older three weren't interested.

The kids played in the rain when we got home from the airport. It was all fun and games until Charlotte got a little hurt.

It was so wonderful to have a little break from reality while Vera was here.  I feel so relaxed after having had a lot of time to myself.  And I don't have to go back to reality quite yet.  In a few days my sister Lindsey is bringing our brother Billy up for a visit.  Yay for family! 

Korea 2014: Week 16 - Presents in the Present

This post is a little late.  I've been so busy with posts about the past that I've kind of neglected the things we've been doing here in the present.  But better late than never.  So here are pics from the past week and a half.

Last Monday Elder and Sister Coombs planned a Family Home Evening Dinner for all the families of deployed soldiers in the ward.  It was so much fun to participate.  I loved that I didn't have to cook dinner.  And that I could sit down and talk to the other moms.  Usually we are all so busy with our kids that we only have time to smile at each other in mutual support as we pass each other in the hall way at church.

 Oakley and Veronica are both babies that haven't seen their Daddy's for a long time.  Oakley's dad left for his deployment when she was 2 weeks old.  He will be home soon.  It's kind of funny to hang out with Army Wives.  We can say things like, "my husband deployed when my baby was 2 weeks old."  And everyone just kind of nods their heads as if to say, "yeah that's tough, but normal."  Whereas if you said that around civilians they would gasp in horror.

 The kids were all able to frost cupcakes for dessert.  The activity was really fun and I hope it continues.

 I love this picture of Derrick and Veronica playing together.  Sometimes Derrick gets made when Veronica touches his toys, but usually he is pretty good about sharing them with her.  He still calls her, "OOOOOOHHH" and likes to smack her on the top of her head to show her he loves her.

 Lydia fell asleep at the dinner table the other day.  You can see that she is dressed in her Little Mermaid princess dress.  When she is "in character" she makes me call her by her princess name and she calls me "Miss Valerie."  She spent half the week pretending to be Dumbo.  It was hilarious to hear her proudly yell, "I'm Dumbo."

In case you haven't been paying attention to my other posts, the big event of this week was our 7th Wedding Anniversary.  It was sad that Brandon and I had to be apart from each other again, but at least we were able to Skype with each other this year.  (Last year he was at JRTC in Louisiana.)  Because of the time difference we were able to celebrate our anniversary for 14 hours longer than usual. 

Here is our anniversary picture on Brandon's Saturday morning and my Friday night.  

 Brandon celebrated our anniversary by picking up a handmade custom suit that he'd been measured for the week before.  If you ever find yourself in Korea go buy a suit.  This beautiful 3 piece suit only cost $140.

Then he spent his evening Skypeing with me.  It was my morning.  Here is our anniversary picture of that.

 The kids and I ate breakfast with computer Daddy.

 Here's his view of breakfast.

Brandon e-mailed me this present that he made for me.  He's so sweet.

Then it was time for him to go to bed and for me to take the kids to our anniversary celebration.  We went to The City of Copperas Cove's annual Rabbitfest.  Which oddly enough doesn't have any rabbits involved anymore.  Instead its a big fair.  We went because the girls have wanted to ride a Ferris Wheel ever since they saw one in the live action version of Charlotte's Web.  

The ride ended up being expensive.  $4 a person!  But it was my anniversary so I figured it was worth it.  The girls were really excited to finally ride on a Ferris Wheel.  Derrick wasn't so happy.  He was freaking out. Luckily I've learned a way to calm him down when he starts to get out of control.  His speech therapist told me about Joint Compression Therapy.  I do a few reps of those and he calms right down. It is like magic.   

 Elder and Sister Coombs came along for the fun.  Elder Coombs stayed off the ride with Veronica and Sister Coombs rode next to Lydia.

 The ride had two benches facing each other so we were all in the same car.

 Derrick cried when we started moving, but he didn't flip out.  I think he enjoyed the ride even though he was scared.  I kind of freaked out when we started swaying, but for the most part I was okay.  Charlotte liked the ride.  Lydia made it all worth it.  She kept yelling, "THIS IS AWESOME!"

 When the ride was over we walked around the rest of the fair.  We'd paid $5 for parking so I wanted to get our money's worth.  We looked at all the little craft booths.  Lydia and Charlotte were both collecting rocks.  A nice lady at one of the booths gave them each a paper bag to put their rocks in.  The fact that they had so much fun with their rocks kind of made me regret spending $16 for a 5 minute ride, but oh well.

 Derrick also had a good time with rocks.  He had some chips and he kept putting them down so he could pick up rocks.

 We brought a picnic lunch so we ate that in the wonderfully cool shade.

Veronica hung out on the table and ate little pieces of bread.  

Lydia ate and then she went down to the water to contemplate life.  

 Derrick spent over half an hour throwing rocks into the water.

 Charlotte would fill up her bag with rocks and then dump them in the water. Note to self: Just buy $16 worth of gravel next year and the kids will be happy.

A few minutes after we came home, some one knocked on our door.  They were delivering flowers from Brandon.  I loved the flowers! And I love him!

 Then we just hung out the rest of the day.  In the evening we watered the tree and I sprayed all the kids with the hose.  It was really fun.  Then we went inside and the kids all took a bath together.  Earlier in the day I'd realized that Brandon and I spent 3.5 years without kids and now we'd spent 3.5 years with kids.

 Anyway, it was a great day and I think we avoided too much sadness over the fact that Brandon and I were apart.

On Sunday we finally made it to all three meetings of church.  Not only that, but we were ON TIME and the kids were all wearing shoes and the girls' hair was done.  I was glad to know I still had it in me.  We spent Sunday evening over at my friend Camie's house because Sunday afternoons can be killer on our own.  The time went by super fast with other adults to talk to.

On Monday night I was really excited for Family Home Evening.  We made shapes out of gum drops and tooth pics.  I showed the girls how to make this pyramid.  Then Lydia sat down and made two all by herself.  She's got Brandon's hands on learning skills.  (Forgive the after bath hair.)

Charlotte takes after me and really struggled with making any shapes.  I finally got her to put this sun together. 

 Speaking of Lydia doing things all by herself, recently she's started writing letters.  She's always loved to scribble in notebooks and she's always loved watching me draw letters for her.  Lately she's been "writing my name" over and over again.  She spells her name LHVAiiii.  She can also write R O  Q F E B S M X and W.  I asked her if she wanted me to teach her any letters and she said, "No I want to do it my-SELF!"  The pink wagon in the bottom of the picture is full of paper that she has written on.  She likes to put hot dog buns in the wagon and pretend that they are her lunch for school.  I was a little worried about her spending so much time writing, but then I realized that that's what she sees me do all afternoon so it makes sense that she would want to write too.

 I saw this little barn at Texas Thrift for $1,98 and I just had to buy it.  Charlotte loves it and carried it everywhere - even the park.  We need to get some farm animals for her.

 These next few pictures kind of uploaded wrong, but hopefully you can still tell what they are.  The Armed Services YMCA in Killeen has a program called Operation Kid Comfort.  Where they make picture quilts for children whose parents are deployed.  Sister Coombs volunteers to help sew the quilts.  All I had to do was select 9 pictures of the kids and Brandon for each quilt.  It was hard to pick out all 36 pictures.  It took me several months to get the application e-mail sent.  But it was so worth it. I love the end result.

Here is Veronica's quilt.  

 And Derrick's

 And Lydia's

 And Charlotte's

We picked the quilts up today.  The kids loved the quilts, but they liked the coffee table full of legos in the lobby even more.   

Well that's us lately.  My aunt Vera is coming to visit this weekend and we are super excited.  Charlotte keeps telling me things like, "I want to show Vera this." or "Is it time for Vera yet?"

See ya all later.