Lord, Help Us...We Have A 3 Year Old In The House!

As I type this, the clock strikes midnight and Camden is officially 3 years & 1 day old. Happy Birthday, my sweet (most of the time) big boy! He's been talking about his birthday for a month now. This year he gets it...the whole birthday thing...cake, candles, presents. Somewhere up in his little head, he decided he wanted a "baseball birfday." A baseball birthday is what he got!

So what's he up to these days? He is obsessed with sports...baseball, basketball, football. He knows all the Duke players (courtesy of my husband!). He doesn't know a stranger...just like his daddy! He has 1 shirt he wants to wear everyday! Needless to say, getting him dressed in the morning is a challenge when his favorite shirt is dirty! He's, for the most part, potty trained (thank goodness!). He rarely eats a good dinner, but chows at breakfast and lunch.

I just got done reading this sweet gal's birth story of her little guy who is turning 1 tomorrow. It made me think back to Camden's birthday. It was a Monday morning and we arrived to the hospital at 6 am to be induced. Things didn't really rock and roll until about 9 am, when the nurse started the Pitocin. Needless to say, the next 45 minutes were interesting. Contractions started hard right off the bat. Dr. Weaver came in to check on me and told the nurse to get the epidural guy in there right away...she knows me well. I went from 3 cm to 6 cm dilated within a matter of minutes. By this point, I was screaming...literally. The epidural guy did come, cleaned my back with that yellow soap and all of a sudden I felt the urge to push. He basically said, "screw the epidural...I'll be right back with a spinal." He never made it back. From there, things went into fast forward. I was still sitting up on the bed waiting for the epidural guy to get back and had a death grip on my nurse so she began yelling for help. She told Brandon to go get help. Dr. Weaver said she had just walked in the door to her office when she got the call. She ran back to the hospital in a matter of minutes. When she got back, I begged and pleaded for pain medication. She said, "Girl, it's too late." So, instead of pushing, I screamed...and screamed...and screamed. Dr. Weaver got in my face and said, "Give me 1 minute...the baby will be out in 1 minute...push!" So that's what I did and she was right...1 minute and he was here. At 9:44 am Camden was born. It wasn't the birth that I had envisioned and I didn't think I would ever be able to laugh about it...but now that I look back, it cracks me up.

Long Overdue Update

I've not been a very good blogger lately, so there is lots to update you on.
Jordyn tried out for 7th grade girls basketball and made the team. I think she likes it, but she doesn't appreciate all of the running they do in practice. They only have had one game so far and they won that. She got in the game and played fine. We are looking forward to watching her skills grow during this basketball season.

Kye and Camden have become partners in crime. Kye sometimes forgets he is 11 now and not 2 and Camden forgets that he is 2 and not 11. Kye has been a good big brother and lets Camden pal around with him when he goes outside to play. That is actually what they are doing now, as I type this post.

Durham will be 5 months old this month. He is such a good baby. He has been waking up in the middle of the night lately, so I'm not sure what is up with that since he had been sleeping all night long consistently for quite awhile now. Last week, we had a little scare with him. He was laying on the floor taking a cat nap and it appeared to me that he would stop breathing, startle himself, and then resume breathing. This went on for a few minutes. We had him checked out by the doctor and the doctor is confident that he was experiencing something called periodic breathing. It sounds like it is quite normal for babies to experience this, but it still hasn't eased my mind very much. I haven't seen him do it again, so hopefully the scare is behind us.

I had to share this picture. The other night, Brandon and I were sitting here watching TV and he was holding Durham. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Durham peeking over to see what I was doing. He'd give me a big smile each time.

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On a side note...

My friend, Becky, and I have been following a lot of money saving blogs recently. She started this experiment about a month ago and I had my first taste of it this morning. WalGreens has this thing called "register rewards." Basically, you buy certain items and when you check out, the register will spit out a coupon for $$ off of your next purchase. In turn, you can get LOTS of things for free once you initially get started. So....today was my initial purchase. I bought 2 packages of diapers, conditioner, Chapstick, a toothbrush, some lotion, and a razor. I used a couple of manufacture coupons. My total spent was $44 dollars. I got $22.50 in register rewards. That's $22.50 in FREE stuff. So now, the trick is to use those register rewards to purchase other items that will spit out a register reward. Follow me?? In turn, you can get stuff FREE or ALMOST FREE...after your initial purchase. What a rush!

Follow these 2 money saving blogs because these ladies do the homework...trying to figure out how to get stuff free! Money Saving Madness and My Frugal Adventures (Click on the blog name to take you to the site.)

Teacher "Garage" Sale

A few weeks ago, my sister-in-law's mother had a teacher retirement garage sale. I have never seen anything quite like it so I thought I should share! I am sure I'll get some of the specifics wrong...but I think Linda taught for 20+ years...teaching kindergarten, 2nd & 5th grades. She was selling ALL of her teacher things. Carrie gave me a sneak peek at Linda's garage sale the day before and I ended up browsing for almost 2 hours and got some really great things. Linda had SO much stuff that she had to rent the Gridley Community Building. Like I said, I had never seen anything quite like it...

So much stuff! The place was packed full of teacher things!
I came across these great deals...Dixie cups, White-Out...never used!, white lunch bags, and a block of Post-It notes! All for like $2.00!

I picked up the Chart Tablet. I had never seen anything quite like it, but Carrie convinced me I'd get good use out of it!

Teacher books...what can I say. I'm a sucker. These were only a few that I bought.

I think this was the steal of the night...50 cents for a BRAND new bottle of soap! Since my new classroom has a sink, it was perfect! Too bad I didn't make those kiddos wash their hands better. I'm blaming them for my sinus infection turned to pneumonia!

Foam letters...endless possibilities!

Haircut or No Haircut??

Seriously, isn't Durham one of the cutest babies you have ever seen? Can you tell I'm a bit biased?

So here's a conversation Brandon and I had the other day...

Brandon: Durham needs a haircut.

Me: No way! I'm never getting this kid's hair cut!

Brandon: He's starting to get a mullet.

So what do you think...get him a haircut or let it go for a while longer?

Been A Rough Week...On The Mend Now

I was looking so forward to Labor Day weekend. Spending time with family and relaxing were on the agenda. Little did I know, the little sinus bug I had for the week prior had other plans for me. I woke up Saturday morning and really didn't know what hit me. Needless to say, Saturday night was spent in the emergency room. After 5 hours there and several tests later, it was determined I had pneumonia. This week was spent mainly in bed...resting. I am thankful to have a husband that kept the show running around here and for a mother who came and filled in when we needed her the most.

I am feeling better. Not 100% yet...maybe 75%. On Friday, my doctor told me that the radiologist who looked at my x-ray said my heart was enlarged. Mom and I then got to take a little road trip to Bromenn for an ECHO. I haven't heard the results of that test yet, but am pretty sure if it was anything serious, I would have heard something by now. I am off of work for another week...a time I plan on resting and reading all of the tabloids my friend dropped off to me. I also plan on catching up with the big kids and snuggling the little boys.

Oldest...Youngest

Tonight I was going through pictures on my memory card and came across this picture. I took it the other day, put my camera in my case and didn't give it much thought...because life is kind of crazy right now. When I was pulling pictures up on my computer, this one made me smile...big. From the day we brought Durham home, Jordyn has loved, hugged, kissed, and doted on Durham. She just loves him so much. I could go on and on about how much she loves him, but look at the expression on her face...it speaks a thousand words...and since life's a bit nuts right now, I'll let the picture do the talking.

Taking An Unintentional Blogging Break

Life has been a little on the hectic side. Will get back to blogging soon! I've got a few posts I can't wait to write about. Will be back soon...don't miss me while I'm gone!