Sit Down and Get Comfy...

Ok...so I'm behind in my blogging (what's new) and I finally sit down tonight after cleaning up after not 1, not 2, but THREE puking children, and I go to plug my camera in and get some pics off of it and the battery is dead. Normally I try and stay in order, but I thought tonight I would just post on the actual day that it is (Thursday, August 12) and catch you up on this week, and then try to get back on track for next week. So, grab a drink, sit down and get comfy and get ready to tackle my blog post. :D

First of all, I'm sitting here wiping the tears from my eyes after watching a clip going around on facebook right now. Maybe you've seen it...video clips of loved ones re-uniting with soldiers? Wowzers...talk about get the kleenex out! I have no idea what in the world the music is in the background, or the verse at the end from the book of Moses??- ignore that part, but the videos are just so sweet. One little girl just about did me in! When the camera focused on her, I thought that she might not even remember her daddy she looked so young, but they cut the music out so you could hear her tiny little voice..."Daddy? I missed you daddy! I love you!" Oh Man!! Buckets of tears flowing out of my eyes. Sometimes I just enjoy crying...it is cathartic. Anyway...sorry for rambling.

Ok - my last post was for Saturday and would you believe it? Neither Ben nor myself got a picture that day. But I can at least re-cap it for you. Ben woke up sick...Hmmmm, now that I type that, could it be that whatever virus he had last Saturday is still floating around the house and that is why my kids are puking today? Quite possibly. Anyway, he was up early in the morning and finally crawled back into bed around 8 a.m. and I got up with the kids and shut the door and turned the fan on and let him sleep. Once he finally got up, he ate some breakfast and was feeling a lot better. I didn't think he'd have been able to do it, but he went to the church at 1 p.m. to hold the last Holiday Bible School meeting. Thank God he got over it quickly. I stayed home to get ready for school. I got a lot accomplished and they had a great finishing day to Bible School.

On Sunday we headed to church. Services went well and after our Bamenda service we all stuck around for quite some time b/c it was pouring rain. It was a good opportunity to fellowship with everyone. We got home quite late, but I always enjoy rain in Bamenda. It makes the service so much cooler! I made BLT's for lunch, and once I get the camera battery charged I'll insert the picture of the kids eating them [HERE] :D

Monday, was back to school for the Sinclair kids. As usual they were all excited (for this week anyway!). I took a ton of pics Monday and have enjoyed scrapping them this week in fact (I'll share some layouts at the end). I'll post a few of my school pics since I'm short some other pictures! :D

Here they are...ready for the day. Excited to meet their new teachers via DVD and look through all their brand new books!

Drew is now a 4th grader!? Wow...still sinking in for Mommy I guess.


Sweet Kate...enjoying her first day. For now I have her in the parlour. We will see how it goes. The first week or so is a trial to find out where everyone needs to be.

Haha! I just love this pic of Emma. She is excited to be in the first grade. I think. Her first week was a bit uncertain...I have her in the kitchen with me so I can keep an eye on her. And before I continue...does that phrase sound odd to anyone, "I have her in the kitchen with me." It actually sounds like I live in the kitchen. Well, folks...I DO! :D

Oh my... Faith Ann's first year of school. She is an official K-4 student and she can't WAIT to do her phonics!

She is the only one who got a brand new outfit for today. It wasn't planned, I just happened to find it while I was doing all that cleaning. It was something I forgot to give her for her birthday.

So, all in all Monday was a good day. The school year usually starts out organized, but by the end...chaos. We didn't go to town b/c of our first day of school, but also b/c we were invited to the Yeiters house for Autumn's birthday party. We had a great evening with them, and even though we got to bed late for our first school night, it was well worth it! I have another picture from the party to insert [HERE].

Tuesday went well in spite of the late night. Faith Ann was sick in the night and threw up in her bed...so yeah, Ben could have started all of it the previous Saturday. Anyway, I was frustrated because we had no water all day and I had pukey sheets to clean out. I finally ended up doing it at around midnight when the water finally came in enough to use the shower head for spraying stuff down. Other than all that, the second day of school went great and the kids were done in record time. I'm not sure why I was feeling so much pressure, but by Tuesday I was feeling stressed. I failed to even get a picture on this day (shame on me!) :( Faith Ann ended up doing school on Tuesday...whatever this virus is, thankfully it runs it's course pretty quickly.

Wednesday went well. Drew had a longer day than the girls, but that is the way it goes. Sometimes he will be the first one done and other times the last. The kids usually end up racing each other to see who can finish first. Thankfully they haven't started that yet. Ben went to town and when he got home, brought me a gift, and a sweet note encouraging me to keep on keepin' on. I really don't know why I felt so stressed, but I did. We had a good date night though of chicken pizzas. That helped me relax. And unless Ben got pictures on Wed....I don't have any for this day. Have I mentioned that I've been under stress? Evidently stress makes you forget how to operate a camera. :)

And that brings me back to today. I got out of bed to get the kids going on school only to find out that Emma threw up in her bed. Great...more pukey sheets. Thankfully we had water today. Drew said he didn't feel so hot either. So, I dubbed it a no school day. Our first school disk in every subject only has 4 days on it anyway, so to keep it to one disk per week, it worked out well to take a break today. By about 4 p.m. Emma was feeling better, and Drew started vomiting. He threw up right before bed tonight, and as far as I know hasn't been up since. I warned Kate that her turn was coming. She just smiled at me as if to say, "yeah right." Well, I put her to bed in a seperate room and told her to take a bucket to bed with her. Wouldn't you know it, right before I came out here to write up this post (at about 11:30...yeah, I know it's gonna be a late night for me) I heard her call my name as I walked by. She said, "Mom...I threw up two times." "In the bucket?" I asked. "Yep" ... "Good girl." So basically the only one left to get sick is...oh, Me! Please pray I avoid it.

Be sure to check back tomorrow and see the pictures that I have added to this post. It is really, really late now, and I better get to bed! Oh, I almost forgot to post a few layouts.