The kids were getting used to warm weather and the beach and wading pools because we live in Florida and that’s how it should be.  It’s all a lie though because it’s rainy and in the 60’s and it’s been depressingly dreary for days and when did we move to Seattle?

Despite the fact that it hadn’t stopped raining at all yesterday, Sam asked me if he could please play in the wading pool anyway and I said sure and then I brought one of them into the house because I’m awesome like that.

I was smart and filled it with warm water and I put soap in it too so it doubled as a bath for some multi-purpose entertainment.

Then I realized I hadn’t thought through how I was going to empty it but that’s pretty much how I roll most of the time lately.

So, I spent a couple minutes emptying it out with pitchers until it was no longer heavy.  Then, Joe, Kait, and I lifted it up to dump the rest in the sink and that was a tiny huge mistake and so then it tripled as a floor cleaner.

I know.  I’m a freaking genius, people.

It took about 10 minutes of my time, cost me a total of approximately zero dollars, and apparently I’m the best mom ever now.
Well done, me.  Well done.

I had to buy a new planter for Joe’s tree. He was given the tree by a neighbor years ago when it was just a seedling.  It had started growing in the neighbor’s grass and he yanked it out and asked if Joe wanted it.  I never thought it would live but it did and now we’re trying to avoid planting it in the ground until we live in a more permanent location so we’ve been increasing the size of the planter yearly to keep it portable.

We usually just keep it hidden away in the backyard because I’ve never counted it as a pretty tree, but when the leaves started coming back a couple months ago it was so bushy and big that I decided not to dislike it anymore and moved it to the front porch and planted it in a nice big red vase style planter and created a pretty little porch-scape.  

But before I could complete the transfer Kait hijacked the pot and pretended to be a tree for a moment.

This is my grown, adult, 18 year old child, people.
This is what I have accomplished with my life.

We’re so proud.

Hey, Lucy, you wanna wear these boxes on our heads?

Yes, Lucy did, quite enthusiastically even.

Lucy didn’t say anything about her square head at all. She just walked around with it on her head in a very serious manner because wearing a box on your head leaves no room for silliness apparently.

You know how your kid gets sick or hurt on the weekend and you’re not sure if you should wait it out or have them seen so you take them to the E.R. just to make sure they don’t have Ebola or a broken leg or something and while you’re in the exam room your child takes a sudden turn for the better and is just fine?

Yeah.  That’s what Lucy did to us Saturday morning.  She had twisted her leg funny when she tripped on the front porch on Friday night and by Saturday morning she wouldn’t walk on her leg at all, crying hard and visibly shaking when she tried.  Then, as right on schedule, she magically got better while we waited at the E.R.

She ended up with an ace bandage, a sticker, and absolutely nothing of concern on her x-ray.  I am definitely glad she’s fine but good grief – I really don’t like taking my kids to the doctor.

When Matthew was 4 he broke his tib/fib bones right above the ankle.  There was no doubt it was broken as I could see the bones protruding, trying to break through the skin.  The decision to rush Matthew to the E.R. was a no brainer.

But since then we’ve had a possible wrist break, a possible foot break, a possible concussion, etc…  All of which took us to the E.R. for no reason at all because they were all fine.

And I’m sure this isn’t the last time something like this will happen.  Glad we have good health coverage.

Spring is here (FINALLY!) and that means gardening, and washing the cars just to have a reason to stay outside, and figuring out what I want to do with my front porch because right now my kids think it’s the perfect place for them to keep all of their broken shells and Nerf guns and odd, sharp, rusty, metal trinkets they find at the beach or in the dirt.  I don’t know how they haven’t gotten Tetanus yet.  Seriously.

My dad gave me the rope hammock we had hanging up in our backyard when I was a kid.  I didn’t much appreciate hammocks back then but we had a good place to put one here in our side garden so I searched out a cheap hammock stand on eBay and Matthew helped me put it together and I’m quite pleased with it.  

Although there are moments where all the kids are arguing over whose turn it is to sit in the hammock, it’s Lucy who has really taken to it.  She wants to sit in it all the time, lay in it, try to sleep in it…

We went to the USO for dinner tonight because it’s free and I have a lot of kids and you don’t just turn down a free meatloaf and potatoes Au Gratin dinner WITH DESSERT.

We just walked on in and stood there because we didn’t really know what to do and then a volunteer lady told us we should grab a salad so we did and then I sat the kids down and then went to get everybody dinner where a woman told me that I looked very young for having an adult daughter.  I like that sweet person.

After we were finished eating we went to get our dessert and the sweet little 10 year old girl  behind the table said we could only get one if we had a ticket so Joe went and asked somebody where to get tickets and nobody knew until finally somebody said that you get them at the front desk when you sign in only we didn’t sign in.  Turns out that we weren’t supposed to get any food at all without a ticket and a lot of sweet volunteers got into some trouble for not asking for our tickets.  It was odd that so many of them had no idea what the tickets even were.

It feels like we cause trouble everywhere we go. And as a bonus we left a giant mess under the table for those sweet heavily scolded volunteers because we hadn’t done enough to skew their evening.

It’s what we do I guess.

Boys can be kind of gross.  They tend to lean towards things like mud and spiders and they forget to brush their teeth and don’t fully understand how the toilet functions.  I like having six boys though because there are a ton of benefits.  Like I never have to take out the trash or clean up doggy doo from the backyard and there is always somebody to open my door for me and do the heavy lifting.  Having many sons does have its perks.

Today my oldest son turned 15.  He’s driving age now and I don’t know how that happened but he’s still into creeping things only his interest has grown from small buggy critters to a 3 foot long lizard he keeps in his room.

I don’t have a picture of Joe with his lizard on this computer but I’ll get one tomorrow and post it here.

Joe applied for his first job today now that he’s 15 and old enough to work.  I had nothing to do with this.  One of his friends told him of the opening and Joe jumped at the opportunity.  Who knows if he’ll get the summer job but I’m so proud of him for making the effort to get working and earning a paycheck.

It’s late and I have been trying to write this post in between taking care of a very tired Lucy and going through all the videos we’ve been taking that I haven’t been posting on YouTube because I have been a morning sickness mess so I’m going to have to cut this short and put her to bed. But first I just want to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my baby boy who’s seriously not a baby anymore.

I love you, Joe, and I’m so proud of you, of who you are, and of who you are becoming.
Love, Mom. 

Every Valentine’s Day Rabbit buys all of his girls flowers.  Usually that consists of myself and Kait, but this year he decided to include Lucy as well.

And she promptly ripped them up and spread them around the kitchen floor.

I managed to rescue most of them and put them in a vase safely out of Lucy’s reach.

I’m beginning to think she’s more of a chocolate and jewelry girl.
Good luck, Future Husband.

We decided to tell the kids we were having another baby on Valentines day and I thought it would be fun to take a picture of them and instead of saying cheese!, I would have them say I’m going to be a big brother again!

Kait already knew.  Also, I’m not sure what the balloon has to do with anything.

This was the initial reaction.  Nobody got it.

Everybody said I’m going to be a big brother again!, but it just didn’t register in their brains. So I told them the picture was messed up and that I needed to take it again.

Joe finally got it.

I tried again.

Now Joe can’t believe that nobody else is getting it.  Kait was pretty much cracking up at the whole thing.

Gabe’s getting it now.  You can see Matthew’s face in the above picture, it’s just dawned on him.

And finally, they’re all getting it.  I’m not sure Lucy actually understands what all the joy is about, but she’s just happy to be alive so it works.

Now, to answer some common questions.

• I’m due somewhere close after October 9th.  We do not have an October baby yet so that’s pretty cool.
• I think it’s a boy.  I’m wrong about 80% of the time.  I still think it’s a boy.
• I am pretty sure his name will be Lincoln James.
• I really want twins.
• If all goes well and I remain low risk as usual, I’ll have the baby at home or at the birth center with the same midwife team as Lucy. We live in base housing now so having a baby at home might be tricky.  I’ve read mixed stories.
• I have morning sickness but not nearly as bad as Lucy.
• Rabbit will be home for the baby’s birth.  Most likely.  Hopefully.  We’re 99% sure. Or maybe 85%.  Probably more like 50/50.  Can you tell I’m not very trusting of the Navy at the moment?

If you have any other questions just ask.

This is a picture I took of Rabbit flying over the house on Thursday as he left for a second deployment in 8 months.

It’s hard, yeah, but we’re getting through it.  He’s so close to retirement and I’m doing my best to look forward to the day our lives are no longer scheduled around the Navy’s whims. 

He’ll be back in the summer and by next Spring his sea going days will be behind us forever and he’ll be on shore duty until he retires.  But for now we’ll just email a lot and do our best to keep things busy and as normal as possible for the kids. 
Like school, friends, a stomach bug… 

The day before Rabbit left I got this really weird morning sickness that, as it turned out, wasn’t morning sickness at all but a stomach virus of some sort.  It’s mild, and not everybody has been physically sick, and I’m not sure I can actually call it a virus, but the first night Rabbit was gone Sam, who is 5, had a bad dream and woke me up to tell me about it and then promptly threw up all over my bed so that was fun.  I did not take a picture.

Over the last few days I’ve gotten a couple of complaints of stomach issues from other kids.  I’m just happy it’s not one of those throw-up-every-thirty-minutes kind of deals. 

Poor Rabbit.  He seems to be missing out on everything.