21 months....

having kids close together is crazy.  absolutely nuts.  i always said that i wouldn't plan to have another child until i had the previous child obeying in such a way that was up to par with what i felt like was necessary.  this rule of thumb generally meant that children should be about 3 years apart....in my opinion.



now for reasons that i will not go into, i have 2 kiddos that are 21 months apart.  21 months.  holy cow! what in the world? i get no flippin' sleep! 21 months apart!  i know, i know, some people have babies that are like 6 months apart and they are probably thinking, what is your problem, dezra?!?!?  suck it up!


anyway,  i had a baby...i was 22...it was easy.  i had another baby almost 4 years later...i was 26....it was easy.  i had a baby...6 years after that...i was 33...it was not quite as easy.   i had another baby...21 months later...i was 34....it almost killed me.  the sleep deprivation and chasing of toddlers that is.  now this could be because of the age factor...who knows?




 but back to my original point of having babies close together.  i have decided that it has its advantages.   i love that they always have each other to play with.  i love how they wrestle.  i love how they take each other's food when the other isn't looking.  i love how griffin and ella can share pacifiers in a pinch.  yes, griffin still takes one sometimes.  do not judge me!  i have babies 21 months apart!



 anyway, i feel so blessed that i was able to have these 4 perfect little beings.  i feel so blessed that God saw fit to provide griffin with a playmate before his big move to africa.  i feel so blessed that ella was the perfect cherry on top of the freeman family sunday.  it's a good time.  and now that she is almost 17 months old...i'm starting to get some sleep!  hallelujah!

i'm really not an idiot...

i know that i have discussed my inability to pay attention to details before. it often gets me in trouble. it often makes randy wonder why in the world he married me. it often makes me look like the biggest ditz in the world. now, i consider myself a fairly intelligent person. i have thoughts, they are thought out, and i think about those thoughts on a regular basis. of course i'm being silly, but as a general rule, i don't think i'm an idiot. but let's face it, we all know idiots and none of them recognized their idiot...ness. i realize i could just be very unaware of my being an idiot...but i prefer to think i'm just horribly unobservant.

i'll move on....

so i have been looking for black heels. not because i particularly enjoy shopping...i do not. but i am in need. well, after much toil and frustration, i found the most wonderful "pair". i was so happy. i took my old black heels out of my suitcase (as it stays packed continually), and replaced them with the new shoes. sunday morning i got up, put on my skirt, hose, and my right shoe. then i went to put on my left shoe....then i went to put on my left shoe....there was no left shoe...only 2 right ones. WHA?!?!?!!?!?! this was very annoying to me. for many reasons....now i have to go back to the mall, they may not have the match and then i have to start my pursuit all over again, i had to wear an absolutely ridiculous ensemble to church on sunday. i actually considered wrapping my left foot in a bandage so i could still wear the right shoe and not look weird. well, not too weird.

as i ate breakfast with randy, he told me that the daily dezra never lacked for material. this is true, and good news, too! my happenings and goings on prove to me that i will have plenty of things to blog about once my children are grown and on their own.

lest you think to yourself that i'm being too hard on myself, and that this could have happened to anyone, i should disclose some other information. last year i looked and looked and looked for the perfect pair of brown boots. i finally found them! they were beautiful! they were perfect. i put on the left one, and then i went to put on the right one....and then i went to put on the right one, and then i went....yes, last year i bought 2 left boots....

The Hunt is ON!

i have decided that since easter is just around the corner, i better start working with ella on her easter egg gathering skills.  i feel like she could have a break through year in regards to the collection of eggs.  she seems fast, agile, intelligent, and she loves candy.  the makings of an easter egg hunt star!   we have begun the preliminary training with griffin, too.  olivia gave him a crash course this evening in what you are looking for, or better yet shaking for, when you pick up an egg.  he listened with eyes wide and a big smile on his face. every now and then he would nod his head yes, and say, "ok."  he seem to understand the easter olympian that we were trying to make of him.  then we did a quick, mock hunt.  we still have work to do, but the eagerness is definitely there.  we plan to practice quite a bit from here through easter...olivia (winner of last year's golden egg), is an excellent instructor.  i realize these things aren't important to everyone, but the easter egg hunt represents the way you take your place in this world.  you gotta go for it! don't shrink back...grab that egg!  i'm kidding...don't give me hate comments.  even though i do contend that you can tell a lot about a child's personality based on the easter egg hunt.  i have never seen olivia leave a hunt without her basket running over.  olivia is a go getter.  i have no doubt she will some day be rich.  hudson can take the eggs or leave the eggs....he has never cared too much.  he is so relaxed that sometimes other people put eggs in his basket for him.  he always gets eggs, but it's not usually from working hard for them.  that is just the way he rolls....in life, and in the hunt.  griffin has only been on his own for one egg hunt.  in that egg hunt he picked up every egg he saw, and then started getting eggs out of other people's baskets.  i'm not proud, and i made him put them back.  i figure, he will probably work for the government some day with this type of skills....

i don't know what's crazier...my thumb or that doctor...

so i have dry skin.  bad dry skin.  it's terrible. i realize that i should moisturize more, but i hate putting on lotion.  for one, it's loaded with chemicals.  at least the good lotion is...the one that actually moisturizes.  and i really do try to limit my exposure to weird things that i cannot pronounce.  the other reason i don't put on moisturizer as often as i should is because i forget.  after all, i do get my teeth brushed and my pants on every day.  why ask for me to do more than that?

anyway, my dry skin left me with a deep crack in my thumb.  it hurt...and it wouldn't heal.  no matter what lotion, cream, ointment i put on it.  i seriously considered going to the doctor and having them stitch it up.  it was bad.  so this went on for about 5 weeks.  then it started looking weird.  crazy! after a week i decided to go to the doctor.  keep in mind i hate the doctor.  not because of the reasons most people don't like the doctor...i don't like my doctor because they are unfriendly.  they make me sad.  i have actually blogged about the dreadful place before...i think the nurse may be a robot...

so my thumb is infected.  this is the diagnosis after the doctor looks at my thumb and then sits down and googles something on the computer.  that really happened.  i'm not sure if it was to show me what was going on, or for her to make sure she knew what she was doing...  either way, i was googled at the doctor's office....that can't be good...

so i asked the doctor what i can do to help me not have this dry skin on my fingers any more.  she says for me to put lanolin cream all over my hands and sleep in gloves.  insert far off gaze in my eyes here.  oh yes, doctor, i'm going to lather my hands up with special cream and sleep with mittens on...some night when i'm not so tired that i don't remember getting into bed, i will certainly try that....

today i~

today i-
-cooked for almost 3 hours.
-explained to griffin why we don't put boogers on our sofa...or anywhere else, except a tissue.
-noticed a new birthmark on olivia.
-found out ella can take off her own pants.
-gave away some more stuff in preparation for our move to africa.
-decided i should probably go to the doctor for what seems to be leprosy on my thumb.
-celebrated that ella's diaper was finally a solid (stomach virus hit us bad).
-sorted, washed, and dried 3 loads of laundry.
-stacked said laundry on my bed.
-had many thoughts of folding, hanging and putting away said laundry.
-had a great homeschool day.
-read outside with olivia...because it was BEAUTIFUL!
-watched as griffin happily played with all the toys he found in the garage that use to be hudson's.
-skyped with my grandmother.
-skyped with my mother.
-washed the new birthmark off of olivia. :)

all in a day...

-went to the airport to pick up randy...
-griffin pee'd on the chairs waiting for randy at baggage claim.
-gave ella milk because we were out of juice...i knew this wasn't a good idea, seeing as to how she has been running fever....
-ella puked curdled milk all over me today...me, and my boots.
-put on chapstick...it was wet for some reason.
-remembered seeing griffin get the chapstick off the mantle and apply it to his face.....
-realized that griffin must have applied some chapstick to his mouth....the inside part.
-my carpet and my boots still stink...
-glad that randy made it home safely.
-because randy is home now, i got to take a normal shower tonight...the kind where my hair AND skin were able to get clean.
-over all, a good day....minus the pee and puke....but really, i have to minus that from almost every day truth be told.... :)

love languages revisited...

so i have not read the book 5 love languages.  after all, why would someone who clearly speaks them all really need to read about them?  my logic may or may not be flawed, but it has sparked a rather amusing conversation between randy and myself.

for whatever reason, we were discussing this 5 love language thing a couple of months ago.  i told him that i thought my love language was acts of service.  i felt this was my love language because it seems to me that i would definitely feel more loved if someone, say, randy for instance, mopped the floor or cleaned the kitchen.  he proceeded to tell me that that was not my love language at all.  that my love language was quality time.  hmm, i thought.  i guess so.  i do like to spend time with randy.  it must be my love language.

the next day as I was doing the dishes, i began to think about our conversation.  i started to laugh.  it was funny to me that i thought i had a love language and randy corrected me on what my love language was.  suddenly, what i heard him say in my head was, dezra, you want to spend time with me...you do not like it when i do acts of service.  by then i was literally laughing out loud at the sink.  of course he would say that!  who wouldn't?!?!

so then it came up again last week.  i started laughing at the observation i had made and told him why i thought it so funny.  he said to me, "since i'm the one who actually read the book, i think you should know that you speak your love language by being this way yourself."  in other words,  if acts of service was indeed my love language, i would always be preforming acts of service...............(very long pause)...........................................oh.  yeah, my love language is quality time, you are right.  i don't like preforming acts of service.  i don't like it at all.