CCL Convention Day 2:

Last night after all the kids got baths, and while I was still out doing laundry, Gabriel discovered a little hidey hole to play in. The nightstand in between our beds was a perfect little spot for him to hang out with his blankie.
This AM, Joshua and Christina woke up VERY cranky because they didn't go to sleep until after 10PM last night. Hopefully this means they will crash tonight. Breakfast was tasty-- Rebecca loves the "blue raspberry" juice (and yes, it is blue). We dropped off all the kids at their respective places and headed to our first talk.

Dr. Popcak is an expert in Catholic pastoral counseling, especially in the areas of affective disorders (anxiety and depression), marriage and family issues. He is also HILARIOUS. We visited his table during the break, and we decided to buy a couple of his books. I asked David:

"Which 2 books do you want?"

He said, "Any two would be fine."

I jokingly asked Dr. Popcak (as a marriage counselor) why men were so indecisive when their wives ask them a question. Here's what he said:

"I'll tell you which 2 books I think you should get. Any 2 of them would be fine."

(Did everyone catch that?)

So we're laughing our heads off, we buy 2 of his books, and he signs them for us too. Here's his website, you should check it out:

http://www.exceptionalmarriages.com/

*A little side note. We don't clap before, during, or after the presentations. No, we're not rude people. Instead, we use sign language (wave our hands in the air). This way, we don't wake up or startle any sleeping/nursing babies. Isn't that great?

Some of the highlights from Dr. Popcak's Talk: When NFP is Too Hard

A good marriage has 5 levels that couples connect on,

Spiritual, Social, Psychological, Emotional, and Physical

He said the physical level is really the weakest, because it depends on the strength of the other 4 levels to make a good marriage. That's one to think about, isn't it. Especially since secular society places so much emphasis on the physical (the sex has to be good or it's not worth it). He also talked how NFP is a spiritual exercise that promotes the emotional and physical bond within a married couple. NFP helps a couple:

-Facilitate communication and prayer life

-Helps a couple prayerfully discern their family size

-Helps a couple practice and learn self-control over their own urges and desires (instead of each other).

My favorite quotes from his talk--he described chastity in this way:

"Loving a person in the right time, in the right way, and in the right place."

"Periodic abstinence is painful, yet sanctifying. It's hard, and challenging, because that means it's working! Think about it...using NFP is like having growing pains, it hurts, but that's the point. And your marriage is worth it."

So that's what caught my attention the most this AM. Yes, I know it all already, but it's nice when someone tell you again and you can actually put it in your own words, ready to share with another person later on.

After lunch, and another round of dropping off kids, David and I went to different workshops. The first one was by Marilyn Shannon, and she talked about cycle irregularity and infertility, and how nutrition can improve these conditions. She is currently revising her book, Fertility, Cycles, and Nutrition. Women come to me all the time asking for help to improve their cycles, so I wanted to go and see. I came away with many good suggestions to try.

The second workshop was by Tami Kiser, "How to Live Like Martha While Doing our Martha Tasks." I know I am more of a "Martha" than a "Mary," so I was hoping to get some good ideas. I took 3 pages of notes, which is a lot for me-- I'm not a big note taker during talks. I'll give you her main points:

* Identify your own problems and solve them (if you can't find your keys on a regular basis, get a key rack.

* Cleaning and organizing is a continuous battle; you will never win, but don't get discouraged! (Make your house do the housework by staying organized.)

* Less is more! Keep everything to a minimum, toys, books, magazines, memorabilia, etc.

* The dirt will still be there tomorrow.

One other point she emphasized was dinnertime. She said dinnertime should be top priority, because this is a chance for the family to be together. Our number one means of prayer and worship is a meal- when we receive communion. This is hard for us, because we nearly always eat without David (he gets home late most nights). Tami Kiser suggested waiting until husbands get home so we can spend time together, or have the kids sit with Dad when he does get home.

I feel like I have a lot to work on when I get back home!

There is a miniature golf course behind all the buildings here, so after dinner, we all went to play 18 holes. The kids loved it, and the littlest ones just tagged along for the fun. The course is built into a hill, so it had lots of neat twists and turns. Here's a picture of all the putters.

David had driven up to the very top of the ridge earlier this week, and wanted to drive up there again to show the kids the incredible view. Wow, he was right, it wasn't just incredible. When you look out from the top of a mountain like this, you know God exists. Here's what it looked like-I'm sure you'll agree.

And here's a picture of the whole Reisinger clan at the top.

Right now, I'm going to Marilyn Shannon's "Dorm Talk. " She is really an expert on fertility and cycle health, so every night, she has an open Q&A session, and it's where you can ask her anything. This is one of my favorite parts of the Convention. Imagine a bunch of women talking about all their "female issues." (There are no husbands here, let me tell you!)

Now I'm off to bed. I did sleep better last night after I put in some earplugs. Sleep is good!

CCl Convention 2008: Day 1

We started out this morning with breakfast, which made all the kids happy since they started asking for food the minute they woke up. I was off to a slow start, because I haven't slept well since our trip started. If I wake up in the middle of the night, it's taking me 1-2 hours to get back to sleep. But thankfully, I'm not feeling really tired. Good thing too, because the conference center is located on a hill, so we are climbing some major inclines to get from one building to another. I hope this means I'm burning off all the calories I've consumed on this trip.

Joshua was assigned to what they call "day camp," the girls are classified as "preschoolers," and Gabriel was in a "baby" room. So we had to drop off kids in 4 different rooms, but the younger 3 were all in the same building, so it wasn't a big deal at all. Joshua's pavilion was at the very top of the hill, so I told David he'd be the one to go get Joshua every day. :-)

Our first presentation was by Andy Alderson, executive director of CCL. He had prerecorded his talk because his wife recently had surgery, so he was not able to be there in person. But he explained where we are with teaching the new method, plans for the future, etc. They are currently working on a program that would allow couples to register and pay for the NFP classes online--which would be a huge (and means we wouldn't have that administrative duty anymore).

Next up was Dr. Katherine Dettwyler (who taught at Texas A&M from 1987-2000). She is a biological anthropologist known for her research, writings and presentations on breastfeeding (BF) and weaning. I really liked her talk--to much detail to go into here, but here are some highlights that struck me because I didn't know that:

- There are cases of mothers who are accused of sexual abuse because they are BF,

(particularly an older child), and the fathers are fighting for custody.

- Also cases where CPS has been called in to investigate a mother whose older child is

BF. I thought this pretty sad since this shows how unfriendly we are as a society towards BF.

Dr. Dettwyler stressed that she wasn't trying to be a bully about BF. Those of you who know me well know I didn't BF Joshua for a number of reasons (I did the other 3 kids). But she did say this, and I want to quote her exactly"

"Every child deserves to be breastfed as long as he/she wants/needs to, and every breastfeeding mother deserves to be supported in breastfeeding the child as long as she wants to."

Later on, Dr. Dettwyler also gave a mini-workshop about promoting BF without promoting the guilt that is often pushed onto mothers who choose to bottlefeed. Again, too much detail to go into here, but in a nutshell, she stated that we are all responsible to give a mother as much information as possible about BF AND bottlefeeding so that whichever she chooses, the decision is an informed choice. Of course, she did emphasize the benefits of breast over bottle, the risks associated with bottlefeeding, etc. I am not here to step on any one's toes however, so I won't say exactly what she did, since it will likely offend someone. To me, whichever works best for the mother is what she should do. I only offer my opinion if someones asks me outright. As a CCL Teacher, I am responsible for promoting BF as a natural means of child spacing in addition to teaching a couple how to chart. I do like to learn more about the BF aspect because women will ask me all kinds of questions in our classes, and I always pray I have the knowledge to give the correctly/informed answer. Obviously the ladies will ask me all the questions about BF, not David :-).

We're about to head down to dinner, then I have to find the local laundromat (no, there is not one here on the conference grounds-- very disappointing), because we are running out of clean clothes to wear! I have 12 dollars in quarters, which better be enough (it wasn't- I had to use 4 more dollars to finish up the drying). But we wore our Texas A&M t-shirts today, and we got lots of compliments. Here's a picture of how awesome we looked.

David decided to have some fun at dinner with all the straws on the table. He put about 6 little straws together to make one really long one. Rebecca thinks her Daddy is so cool. Little does she know Daddy is just a big kid.

And here's a picture I just had to post of the littlest, cutest Aggie!

Don't you just want to eat him up?

More talks and workshops tomorrow. More chatting and catching up with other families. When we went to our first convention 2 years ago, I felt were a "small" family because we had "only" 3 kids. Now that we have 4 kids, we're an average family. Are we destined to be a "large" family? Honestly, I don't think so, but I'm sure not going to tell God-- I know better than that! But to see so many families with lot of kids sure gives one courage (if she can handle 6, 7, 8 kids, then surely I can handle my 4, right?)

Ann Gunlach, one of the executive staff of CCL told me today she gets web alerts when something NFP or CCL relates pops up on the Internet. Apparently, my blog is coming up on her search program. So, does that make me famous? Probably not, but I was tickled :-).

Time for bed... I am tired tonight. Please pray that I sleep better!

Reisinger Road Trip Day 4: Hanging out in North Carolina

We left Knoxville Tennessee and drove about 30 miles east of Asheville for a morning hike. We drove through beautiful green mountains and valleys of deciduous forest. I'm sure the colors in the fall are spectacular. At one point, we crossed the Eastern Continental Divide. We explained it this way to the kids: It means all the precipitation that falls to the west of this line drains into the Gulf of Mexico and to the east it drains into the Atlantic Ocean.
Joshua has a set of walkie talkies that we use when we travel. Peter and Stephanie take one and this makes communication on the road very easy. The "boys" have a great time with them; for example David will say, "Houston wagon to Allen wagon, what's the exit we're supposed to take...?" At one point, we saw a dollar store and a sign out front said "Clearance Sale." I couldn't resist calling Peter on the walkie talkie and asking why he didn't stop to check it out. :-)
Most of the hills were really steep; David was actually putting the van in third gear going downhill to avoid riding the brakes-- something you never have to do in Houston. Something else you don't see/use in Houston-- runaway truck ramps. They look like they would stop a big rig-- it would ruin the truck, but I'll bet the truck driver would be grateful because he didn't go over the edge.

There were 2 tunnels along the way, another small thrill for the kids because... that's right, there are no tunnels in Houston. Joshua had to go to the bathroom, so we ended up making a quick pit stop. Of course, everyone decided they had to use the bathroom too.

Since there are 4 adults and 8 kids between us, and the kids range in age from 17 months to 9 years, we cause a mild to moderate commotion wherever we go, especially when we've gone out to dinner. I really love it when people ask me how many of the kids are mine. If my niece Mary didn't have her pretty red hair, I just might be able to get away with saying very proudly, "Yes, they're all mine." My niece and three nephews are so cute, I'd take 'em in a heartbeat. But we'd have to get a passenger van for sure :-)

After the potty break, we turned off Interstate 40 and drove another 6 miles to where our hike started. Honestly, it was only 0.8 miles, so it was hardly a "hike," but it was all uphill because the big "ta-da" at the end was Toms Creek Falls. This time, Gabriel tolerated the backpack carrier, and didn't fuss one bit. (He has been a trooper this entire trip, a real angel baby). Peter found this hike on the web, and it was classified as "easy." I like to hike, but I have to admit our kids are wimps when it comes to walking any distance in the heat. We were dripping wet by the time we got to the waterfall. But it was totally worth it-- check out the pics below. The kids all insisted on getting their picture taken on a rock.








It's amazing what a little hike can do for the appetite-- all the kids were clamoring for lunch. So I took Christina and we went ahead a little bit so I could get a head start on making sandwiches back at the van. We took our time and saw a pretty butterfly, a dragonfly, and a few wild mushrooms. I thought it would be a good time to tell Christina you should never eat wild mushrooms because they could make you sick. Christina said, "Don't worry Mommy, I'm not going to eat them because I don't like mushrooms anyway." I really enjoyed these rare 10 minutes alone with my precious little about-to-turn-4 daughter. She is so cute and so funny, and she doesn't even know it. She is our little monkey, while Rebecca is our social diva wanna be. Pretty soon, everyone else came back, and we ate lunch in the shade on a blanket Stephanie had thoughtfully brought along. We had chocolate chip cookies and she had rice krispies treats, so we made a few trades :-).

After lunch, we drove back west and got to Ridgecrest Conference Center in Asheville around 2 o'clock. David dutifully unloaded the van, then took the kids to mass at 4:00, and I got Gabriel to take a nap (and take advantage of the quiet time to work on this post). The CCL (Couple to Couple League) Convention officially starts tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to the talks, workshops, and socializing with other families. This is the best part about the convention, we can all talk about NFP without feeling out-of-place, and everyone has hordes of kids.

The dining hall was right next door so we got dinner without any trouble. Then Stephanie and I went to a meeting about the childcare procedures while David and Peter got all the kids bathed and ready for bed. David and I sat and talked about what workshops we want to go to tomorrow and then hit the sack ourselves.

We'll tell you more tomorrow about what we've learned!

Reisinger Road Trip Day 3: Cave tour, dairy tour, and a non-existent Shoney's

We left Chattanooga and drove about 15 minutes to Raccoon Mountain, where you can pan for gems, buy geodes, or take a tour of Raccoon Cave. We brought light jackets, as it was about 64 degrees inside-- a nice change from the heat and humidity. We tried putting Gabriel in a back carrier, but he cried his head off, so I put him in my baby sling instead. It worked out better, since the ceilings were really low in a couple of spots, and Gabriel would have had a whopping headache otherwise. He did try wiggle out of the sling, but after a while resigned himself to his fate and didn't fuss to much after the first 15 minutes.

The tour lasted about 45 minutes, and many of the formations inside the cave were impressive--the kids hadn't ever taken a cave tour before. Here are some pics from "the center of the earth" (that's what Rebecca thought anyway).

We ate lunch just outside the cave (sure wish we could have eaten inside the cave and enjoyed the cool air for a while longer), then headed east to Athens to visit Mayfield Dairy. This is a large, commercial dairy that produces milk, ice cream, and other dairy products. They process milk from about 150 dairy farmers in the region. The kids had to get a picture of the really big cow out front and the bronze cow in the courtyard-- perfect for sitting on.

The little girl holding Gabriel is my niece Mary. We
love her, especially her red hair :-)
We had to wear these fabulous RED hairnets during the tour, so of course I had to get a picture of that too. Even Gabriel had to wear one.
The kids all behaved themselves during the tour because we'd promised them ice cream at the end. I think that's why Christina is frowning in the picture because she is like her momma and couldn't wait to get her dessert. So all the kids (and grownups too) got ice cream, the scoops were HUGE, and they were only $1.50 each. Joshua got a sour ice pop, and that was just 50 cents. Everyone was pretty happy after their treat. Gabriel was glad to have a place he could walk around. He amused himself (and a group of grandmas rocking on the porch outside the gift shop) by walking up and down a little ramp for a good 30 minutes.

We then drove to Knoxville to spend the night. The kids were tired, so we decided to nix a swim in the pool and just go get dinner. Peter and Stephanie started looking at the tourist guide and the internet to see what our choices were.

I have explain a little bit about my brother-in-law Peter. If you don't know him really well, you'd think he was cheap (and he is), but really he just loves the mental challenge of trying to find the best deal for just about everything. For example, I thought I did really well getting Pringles chips on sale at Kroger for 88 cents a can, but Peter found his at Walgreens for 75 cents. Yes, he does a lot of the grocery shopping too. Peter finds the Shoney's website, and coupons for "buy one adult entree, get a kids meal free." The hotel doesn't have a printer, so Peter heads to the nearest Office Max to print out the coupons. We wait until he gets back before we all head out to eat. Earlier, we'd thought about going to Red Lobster (since we had a gift card), but Peter wanted someplace less expensive. Well, we drive a bit, and can't find the Shoney's. We finally figure out it was shut down. Peter had driven by a Chili's, so we ended up eating there. I told him I was going to make fun of him on my blog because it was ironic-- he had a gift card to Chili's. Hmmm... sounds like a conspiracy to me! But you know, you gotta admire his tenacity. And he really is good at finding things for next to nothing. Plus, their kids are nearly exactly our kids' ages, so it's really wonderful to travel together.

It's getting late, and we'll finally get to Asheville tomorrow. I can't wait to check out this conference center. Check back tomorrow to see what we're up to!

Reisinger Road Trip Day 2: 20 minutes in Georgia & itty bitty trains

Hit the road today around 8:45 so we could make it to Mass in Birmingham, Alabama. We went to the 11AM Mass at St. Paul's Cathedral in downtown Birmingham. A baby girl was baptized so we didn't get out of church until 12:20. St. Paul's was small by cathedral standards, but beautiful, with the usual flying buttresses, marble and iron work, and many stained glass windows. It was nice to see the tabernacle front and center behind the alter.

The kids were famished by the time we got out of Mass, so I made sandwiches in the back like a crazy woman. We ran out of bread, so poor Mom and Dad had to stop at a Krystal for lunch.

Now, neither one of us had ever eaten there before, David says it's kind of cultish," so I figured hey, why not try something new, since the only other place close by was Whataburger. So we got burgers, a chicken sandwich, and a very good key lime pie milkshake (yum).

We had to cross the very northwestern corner of Georgia to get to Chattanooga, Tennessee. At one point, we were up on a high ridge, and the view was awesome-- Joshua's exact words were, "Wow, what a spectacular view!" Our kids have been deprived until now because Houston is perfectly flat, and the view is not impressive unless you've been to the top of the Chase tower downtown.

I wish we could have taken a long detour and driven down to Augusta GA, were I was born, but it's just too far out of the way, so some day we'll have to go back. David did indulge me when we crossed the state line, and took one picture of me under this sign (thanks honey!)

I'm going to go off on a tangent about Georgia. Yes, I love Texas, I've lived here for 17 years now, 11 of them in Houston. I can even slip some Texas twang in my non-existent southern accent if I'm around my red-neck family in Bryan long enough. But I miss Georgia somethin' fierce (see, it's already starting). Ya'll know I've lived in many different places being an Army brat, but no where else do people greet you by saying, "Hey!" Not, "Hi," or "Hello," or "Howdy," but it's always, "Hey...whatcha up to honey/sugar/darlin'/sweetheart." And anyone older than you is allowed to call you by any one of these endearments. And you'd likely answer with a "Yes ma'am/no ma'am/yes sir/no sir." It's just a Georgia thing (I think). Now you know why I have that song, "Georgia on My Mind" on my playlist. Sweet memories of Georgia, and it's not just the peaches either. Sigh...okay, enough reminiscing.
We got to our hotel--it's a Holiday Inn, but the official name is the Holiday Inn Chattanooga Choo-Choo. No, I'm not kidding-- here's a picture to prove it. I know you can't read the sign on the very top of the building, you'll just have to trust me. Now, you can stay in a regular hotel room, or you can get a reservation and sleep in an actual passenger car that they've converted into a hotel room for guests. Really neat, but likely too cramped for us and our 4 kids. After we checked in, we met up with Peter (David's younger brother), my sister-in-law Stephanie, and their four kids and went to the model train display which is on the hotel grounds. It's a huge set-up of model trains, and it's really neat. Here are some of the pics I took.

This was Joshua's favorite, the Toy Story Train.

And here's a couple more pics.

Tomorrow we'll do some sightseeing and go explore a cave, so stay tuned! It is way past my bedtime, since we're on Eastern Standard time now-- good night!

Reisinger Road Trip Day 1: Mommy, how do you spell "Mississippi?"

We left Houston bright and early this morning (around 6:45AM) and pulled into Meridian Mississippi (are you checking to see if I spelled that right?) about 3:30 this afternoon, so we made pretty good time. We did hit intermittent thunderstorms here and there, but otherwise, nothing really slowed us down.

Our family tradition is to stop at Chick-fil-A for breakfast, since the kids LOVE the chicken minis. I hope we aren't doing this every morning though.
At the visitor's center at the state line, just before we crossed into Louisiana, Joshua left his own calling card by using the public computer to log onto "Cartoon Network. " What a nut.
The funniest sign we passed said, "Baptist Pumpkin Center." I really have to wonder what that means. Saw it just after we crossed the border into Louisiana. I'll have to ask my friend Laura, she's from "Lou-see-ana " (lol).

Crossing the "mighty Mississippi," (see, I can spell it!) was neat for the kids because the bridge was MASSIVE, and they've never seen anything quite like that before.
We stopped in Baton Rouge for a stretch and the restroom, and then piled back into the van for lunch. David didn't want to stop to eat, so I told him last night he was in charge of feeding everyone. My amazing husband made sandwiches for everyone sitting on the floor of the van and using the cooler as his counter top. That takes talent-- too stressful for me, I have to admit. The kids ate like elephants, and settled in for another movie while Gabriel took his nap. (By the way, he was an angel. He never cried or fussed, despite being in the car seat for nearly 8 hours today, only getting out to get his diaper changed).
The miracle of today was none of the kids asked that classic question, "Are we there yet?" Bet we'll hear it all day tomorrow!
I bought Joshua a magnet book that contained magnets of all 50 state license plates, plus a few of the Canadian provinces. He enjoyed it, but Mom and Dad found more states than he did. We were diligent about checking every car and truck that passed us-- probably because we knew it was a lost cause once we started up the DVD player :-)
We saw a lot of piney forest just after entering Mississippi. It must still be recovering from Hurricane Katrina-- many trees we either dead, stripped of their limbs, or missing tops, so they looked like bare toothpicks. As we drove further north/northeast, the damage was less.
Stopped for dinner at an Applebee's and it was so cold in there-- I know restaurants are chilly, but this place was FRIGID. The kids were just miserable, and it was a quick meal, let me tell you!
Hopefully, I'll be able to post every couple of days. David was tired, so he's upstairs with the kids and I'm in the hotel lobby typing away. Time for me to turn in too-- good night!

St. Rita and Obedience

Obedience is a virtue that isn't getting the attention it deserves. As wives, we sometimes think being obedient means being less of a person. Perhaps we think it's a virtue meant primarily for our children to learn. But read Fr. John's thoughts about the virtue-- his link is on my list of blogs. I really think you'll like what he has to say.

We Don't Have Room for You

WHAT?!?!

To rehash what happened last night:

I called all the hotels we're staying in during our road trip to ask how many beds we're getting, check that it's a non-smoking room, and reserve a crib. I start at the bottom of the list. First hotel, it's all good. Same with the second, so I think I'm on a pretty good roll. Third hotel, they say they don't have any cribs. WHAT?!?!

Apparently the hotel was sued about 10 years ago about a crib that didn't work properly, and ever since, they won't use cribs of any kind. I tell the desk clerk it's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, and we actually have to bring a crib for ONE NIGHT for a 12 day road trip. Unbelievable. She says she can't do anything about-- well, of course not. (However, we have a very small portable play yard that folds down to nothing, so we're going to use it for the baby). Okay, we can make it work for one night. I take a deep breath and resume calling.

Fourth and fifth hotels are all good (and yes, everyone has a crib except the one in Tennessee which I won't mention). I call the last hotel. I ask if the room is non-smoking, and they say no, it's a smoking. I tell them that will not do at all, we have young children, exposure to second-hand smoke, etc. They say they have nothing left because there's a baseball tournament and a Junior Miss pageant going on the same weekend in their little town. I've always had this thing against pageants, so now I dislike them even more.

David decides to call Hotwire since we booked the room through them. (He is the type of consumer who will not stand for poor customer service). In a nutshell, Hotwire refuses to refund our money or help us find a room with another hotel. I can only imagine the letter David will be writing to Hotwire once we're back from our trip. I realize they can't guarantee a non-smoking room when you make a reservation, but when over two-thirds of the general public doesn't smoke, it's ridiculous to not at least refund our money or offer us some kind of compensation.

This morning, David tries one more tactic. It's one of those moments I know why I love my husband... this handsome, incredible smart, wonderful man of mine. He calls the hotel directly, and asks if there is ANYTHING available in non-smoking. A very nice woman says yes, there's a single king room. So David offers to pay the difference (between that and the room we had reserved with 2 double beds) and Bridget says sure, not a problem at all. We'll have to bring sleeping bags for all the kids, but that's fine-- they love doing that anyway. We are able to reserve a crib as well. Problem solved. David even had us on a 3-way conference call so I could listen and talk too. I'm telling you, I'm the one who "married up."

I am about done packing, except for the food and snacks we want to take along. I've deliberately saved that for last, because I know when the kids see it all, they'll start clammoring for the oatmeal cream pies, cookies, and other delectable fare (a.k.a. "junk food") that Mommy doesn't usually buy for regular consumption. I do try to be a good Mom every once in a while :-).

Yesterday I found a prayer to St. Christopher (patron saint of travelers) and put a copy into my bag so we could say it every morning on the road. At the very least, I'm praying I let "Jesus Take the Wheel." And I'll be saying many, many prayers to the Blessed Mother to help me stay calm on this trip!

And The Award Goes To...

David and Kimberly!

Why?

Because we drove to all the way to St. Catherine of Sienna today for little Nathan's baptism (our newest nephew). We had my sister's kiddie table and chairs in the trunk to give back to her since we borrowed them for our anniversary party. We were two-thirds of the way home when David said,

"Guess what, we forgot to give Mike and Jenn back their table and chairs."

There is an award for being so absentminded, isn't there?

At least I can say it was both of us, not just me.

(Well shoot, I am the one who completely forgot to bring Nathan a gift-- sorry baby! I'll make it up to you at Christmas. I am so preoccupied with getting ready for our trip; or am I just getting old?)

This Must Be Heaven

Christina LOVES The Backyardigans. She has a great imagination, and I think that's why watching these cute characters make up fantastic adventures in their backyard appeals to her. We have about 16 episodes of The Backyardigans on the DVR (plus 4 other DVD's with about 8 episodes on each one). It really could be considered an obsession.

So being the good parents that we are, (and further fueling the obsession), David's been recording Backyardigans episodes off the DVR onto a disk for our trip next week. We have a LCD player and a DVD player upstairs in the gameroom that will project onto the wall, and David usually does all the recording there. So Christina got all comfortable this afternoon with her pillow and sleeping bag, and enjoyed a Backyardigans marathon. We got about 10 episodes recorded by bedtime, and she sure didn't think getting a bath and going to bed were all that important. It was hard to tell her it was time to come back to earth, because she must have thought she was in heaven.

Who Am I Talking To?

So a certain credit card of ours is due to expire at the end of this month. I was trying to update the billing information today because we'll be using this card primarily while we're on vacation for hotels, food, cheap souvenirs for the kids, etc. I had to call 2 services, AT&T and Sprint. I get the information changed with AT&T, no problem. Took only 2 minutes, and I spoke to a real live person (imagine that!).

I call Sprint, and the first time I get though the automated system, the computer hangs up on me. Round 2, I get some schmuck in India (I can you he wasn't from the good 'ol US of A), who tells me to change the information online. We don't have an account online, and I can't figure out how to update the credit card for our land line (long-distance services). I try again, using a different 1-800 number. No such luck, it's services for pre-paid cards.

Round 3, I call the first number again, and get another schmuck in India. She is very friendly, (the first guy had a nice, thick accent), and transfers me to the Finance Department. Another nice woman can't understand why I'm calling. I tell her I need help for billing my LAND LINE, not my mobile phone. Maybe she was deaf in the ear she was using, bless her heart. So she transfers me to Customer Service. Then I'm on hold for about 10 minutes. I'm starting to feel like an idiot because I'm already getting that sinking feeling this isn't the route I need to go.

And then, guess what? I get the same schmuck in India again! Wow... that's impressive. I tell him to forget it, and hang up. Okay, I didn't really say that, but I already knew he couldn't help me. I rack my brain and think... okay, everything online is services for mobile phones, PDA's etc. There's got to be a separate number/department for long-distance. I get a rare dose of inspiration and go digging in the mail stack, hoping to find the last phone bill, and praying there's a number to call. YES!!! The number to call is entirely different from the 1-800 number I'd being using before. Are you all still with me?

Round 4, I call the 1-800 number on the bottom of the bill. The computer asks for my HOME phone number, so things are looking up. I think option 2 is right, and I plug in the credit card number and new expiration date. But I want to be sure I did it correctly, and go through all the options, hoping to talk to a live operator instead of a computer. Alrighty... "press 0 to speak to an operator." Well, "DUH!"

Okay, I get an operator. She asks for the person on the account, then asks me if I'm the spouse. I wish I'd said, "Which wife are you referring to?" (David and I have a personal joke between us, and sometimes say things like "Well, you must be talking about my other wife/husband, because I would NEVER do such a thing... " etc. ) Of course I didn't. By now I'd been on the phone for about an hour and I sure didn't want to mess things up. I find out the computer billed the card, but didn't change the expiration date, so the operator gets that taken care of.

Total time on the phone: 1 hour, 6 minutes
Number of attempts to change credit card information: 4
Getting the nicest, LIVE operator on the planet who fixed everything in 3 minutes (she even wished us a great time on our vacation): PRICELESS

There is hope for me after all.

Life Isn't Fair

I took the kids to Academy this morning to buy shin guards for Joshua and Rebecca. They're going to soccer camp next week. Neither one of them has ever played soccer before, so it should be interesting :-).

We found black shin guards with a build-in sock for Joshua, no problem. They also came in pink, so I tried the smallest size on Rebecca. You all know she is my petite girl, and it's hard to fit her for almost everything. Sure enough, the shin guard fit fine, but the sock part was just too big, even though the package was labeled "size small." There was no way to make them work. Bless her heart, she wanted them so badly. I even took her down to the kids shoes and had her try on a part of tennis shoes with the shin guards so I could point out the extra 2 inches of sock sticking out over the back of the shoes. Maybe I am just picky, but I can't let the child go to soccer camp with socks that are noticeably too big. We ended up buying a pair of regular pink shin guards and I bought socks to go with them. As you can imagine, that did not go over very well.

So Rebecca pitched a fit in the store, and continued to throw a tantrum all the way home. She is currently in her room, STILL crying, ("It's not fair, I want the other pink ones!") and this all started at least an hour ago.
Did I mention I love being a mom? And I love my daughter, I really do. It takes talent to throw a tantrum for over an hour, right?

I said some prayers and let Jesus drive today. 'Cause if it had been up to me, I would have left the child on the side of the road.

It Must Be... "Honey!"

David called me while I was getting the kids into the van this morning and head to Kroger. I was in the middle of getting seat belts on, so I had to call him back. The conversation went something like this:

DAVID: "Hi, how are you?"

KIMBERLY: "Hi honey, I'm fine, we're just heading to the store."

JOSHUA: From the back seat, "Honey?" "That means it MUST be Dad!

DAVID: "Who else would it be?"

KIMBERLY: "I wouldn't know..."

Finally, Gabriel's Walking!

Okay, I should say Gabriel's been walking a fair bit for about 2 weeks now. This blessed child, who took 20 hours to come into the world (how does that happen with the 4th baby?), didn't roll over both ways until 7 months, sit up unassisted until 9 months, and crawl until 11 months finally decide to try a new mode of getting from point A to point B at the grand age of 16 1/2 months? I know, I know, now that he's walking, I'll regret it. He's always been our very laid back baby. And I think I can read his mind, "Walking?...Please, that is SO overrated." But honestly, I'm relieved because we're going on vacation in 3 weeks, and I was hoping he'd be walking by then. There's so much of the world you don't see when you're on your hands and knees. I fully realize he will remember nothing from this upcoming trip, but I heard someone say even though he'll have no memories, they'll be moments when he'll know he's loved and being paid attention to. I plan to take lots of pictures and put some in his baby book (yes, I'm determined to take as many as I can. After all, this will be our first long road trip as a family).

I did get my baby sling back from Tammy because I wanted to see if he'd let me put him in it. Then at least we could walk around, see the sights on our vacation, and I'd have my hands free. I tried it a week ago, and Gabriel loved hangin' out on my hip. It made me miss his infant days when he'd spend half the day in the sling, sleeping away, and looking like an absolute angel (which he still is, of course). We went to the museum last weekend, and when Christina got tired of walking, I'd sling Gabriel so she could have the stroller. I just loved having him so close to me. He still smells like a baby, and he still has that baby-soft skin. Sigh...okay I'm starting to go sappy, I'll sign off before the tears start.

Did I mention Rebecca was bribing Gabriel with an animal cracker so we could get these pictures?

Splish Splash

Today I took all the kids swimming by myself for the first time. I was a little daunted, but I knew they would love it, and I can't take them to the clubhouse pool in the afternoons (it doesn't open until 12), and that's when Gabriel needs a nap. We went to Dawn's house for playgroup, and she let us swim in her pool. Joshua and Rebecca are good swimmers (thanks to 3 summers of swim lessons), but Christina wore a swim vest, and I had Gabriel in a little inflatable frog. At one point, Gabriel wanted my sunglasses, so I put them on him--what a stylin' baby he was!
I now realize it takes at least 30 minutes to make sack lunches for everyone, get all the kids into swimsuits, and then put sunscreen on (including myself). I remembered just in time NOT to put the swim diaper on Gabriel until right before we got into the pool-- yes we learned the hard way those swim diapers do not hold anything, they just keep the water out. And no, I didn't take any pictures because I was too busy making sure nobody drowned. But the kids did great--I knew as long as Christina kept her swim vest on, she'd be fine. There have been times she will take it off, and get in the water, but she's not a strong swimmer yet, so we insist she wears it.
Gabriel and Christina are napping now-- they were so ready to hit the sack for a little bit.
I think now I'm brave enough to take them to the neighborhood pool by myself. However, I wish there was a way to take just one bag of stuff to the pool. Even though the kids helped out today at playgroup, we had to carry my purse, the diaper bag, the bag of towels, the tote bag with lunches, and the portable high chair for Gabriel, and the inflatable frog. Really, why do mothers have just 2 hands?