Home Invassion or Not...

Picture this: It's 5:00 a.m. you wake up because you heard sounds in the house. Your heart is racing, thoughts are rushing through your mind. And you think to yourself why is this dog still sleeping by the side of my bed and not ripping the person to shreds who's in my house. Well it's a good thing. You finally get brave and get up to check and see what is going on and find your 18 mo old in the bathroom having a grand ol' time covered in toothpaste. At this time you don't know if you want to yell at her or cry because you realize it's not a home invasion. And it's at this moment that she looks up at you toothbrush in hand and says in the sweetest voice "brush teeth" . I looked at this child and asked her what am I going to do with you, and I swear to you this is what she said "luv me" . I think God himself was looking down on this child and thinking I better intervene or she's had.
So yes I think it's going to be a long day, but look at the bright side, she's already had her bath...
I guess these are the thing's I'm going to look back on and laugh at, but not today.

It's a girl

No dear readers I am not having another baby, but we did add another member to our house. Her name is Maggie and she is a lab/boxer mix. We have friends that were keeping her due to the death of her owner. They were no longer able to keep her due to the cost to feed her as they already had two boxers of their own. We decided we could not stand the thought of her going to a pound so now she has a new home.

Maggie arrived at our house last night, i had told our friend that after Emmy's school program maybe we could get her, well that ran a little longer than I thought it would so I was going to wait until this morning but my poor son was heartbroken. How can a mother say no to a sad crying face as he said, "you mean Black Maggie can't stay??" Oh yeah I guess I had better explain that, our friends already had a dog named Maggie so one was black Maggie and the other brown Maggie. So Matthew is running around the house yelling Black Maggie come on--TOO CUTE.

Before I end this i must tell you this story, Matthew was getting ready for school today and looks at the dog and says, Black Maggie do you want to go outside with me, i can show you my school bus. So my husband Joe gets them both ready and when the bus comes has to walk the dog up to the door so all the kids can see Matthews new pet. It was so cute.

The Maring's

This is my father's side of the family, also known as the Maring's. In this picture are my grandparents, Slim and Imogene Maring with their many children. Their are actually eight children not in this photo, they were from my grandfathers 3rd marriage.
You see my grandmother was actually my grandfathers 4Th wife. His 1st he married for love as grandma told me, she died not long after the marriage. He married the 2nd woman and they had two children but unfortunately the children got influenza, my grandfather walked to town to get the Dr. but upon returning home found that one of the children had died. His wife ended up having a break down and was considered insane. Then came # 3, she bore him 8 children. Grandpa went to work one day and when he got home she had left. After a nosey neighbor called state services they came and got the children telling him that a man couldn't work all day and raise children in the proper way. Grandpa hated that woman until the day he died.
So that's where my grandma came in, wife # 4. Grandpa & Grandma had 16 children together( one uncle was a twin but the twin died at birth). One year after they were married my grandma had just had her first child and back came the state with the original eight children. Can you imagine?? Being a newly wed in a sense , just having your first child and here are eight more, What a time that must have been . But instead of complaining she did what had to be done. This woman raised her own children and his as if it were nothing, always making sure each child had what was needed. Now don't get me wrong, my fathers family was poor, but they made due with what they had and all pulled together to get what was needed. Makes me think that in a way they were a lot richer than most families I know now.
They ran a pool hall in Sidell for years for their income, I think grandma had a hand in raising half the children in that town . My grandpa and the boys also took care of the local cemetery, doing all the mowing and yes, digging the graves. He also worked many jobs for the town. At one time he was the town policeman. As I said before they did whatever needed to be done.
There is so much more I could tell you about these two people, but it would go on and on, and I am limited in my time tonight. I hope you enjoyed reading this little snip of information about them, and one of these nights when I do have more time I will tell you more.
Until then, goodnight...

Where to start...

Before I start this I must first thank my grandmother for the positive things she has posted on her blog about me. It means a lot.



As I sit here and write I am trying to figure out where to start. So much has happened since my last post. As you remember the last thing I wrote was sick kids suck, well let me tell ya that was an understatement. # 3 (Sarah) was just getting the mystery bug that had already hit # 1 & 2 and not wanting to be out done by her two older siblings she got it the worst. I ended up calling my husband Joe at work one night to let him know that she had a fever of 104.9 and was still not keeping anything down. So after talking to him and the Dr (thank goodness you can call them at all hours) it was decided that she needed to be seen in the E.R. My husband came home from work and my father in law came over to sit with the other two (#4 had to go with us I nurse him). After some test we find out she had pneumonia. At this point I'm thinking great, another hospital stay. How am I going to stay with her and balance everything at home??? But it turns out they no longer keep them unless they are having problems breathing, like the Dr. said the meds will work at home just like they would here so make her comfortable and give her some extra TLC. I am happy to say she is doing much better now.



I will also write that I had my 34th birthday in September. I had a really good post I was going to write about that but never got around to it. But have no fear I will . (there are so many ideas in this head of mine)



My husband's grandmother passed away then a few days later I got the call that my grandfather had also passed. Oh- did I mention that the day after I was in the E.R. with Sarah my mother called to let me know that my grandpa Miller was there and they weren't sure what was wrong with him. Talk about being worried.



My husband and I have celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary on the 8th of Oct. My mother & father in law kept the kids for a few hours so we could have some much needed time together. We went and visited friends. I must say it was nice to not have to chase kids around.



#2 will be starting pre-school soon we had to go to the Dr. and get his physical. That is a whole post in itself let me tell ya.



So you see friends, it might take me a while to post my thought and happenings but believe me they are there, just waiting for the few minutes of spare time when I can share them with you. I hope you enjoy them and maybe laugh a few times.



Until next time God bless and good night

Having a sick kid sucks!!!

Well, I was hoping it had run it's course but I guess not. #3 (yes my husband and I have jokingly numbered our children) now has the bug. Nothing like a sick child to really liven up the day. High fever, vomiting, stuff coming out of every part of her little body. Yeah this is the life.



This all started with #2 (Matthew). Hit him out of the blue. Fine one minute SICK the next. Lasted for a couple of day's and we thought we were in the clear. No one else in the house showing any symptoms. Then #1 (Emmy) started. My throat hurts, my head hurts, I don't think I can go to school today. I knew it was only a matter of time.



Now at this point all I'm trying to do is keep all sick kids away from #4 ( the baby) but for some reason this is when they are most attracted to him. "I'm just trying to kiss him" I hear. Stay away from him I say.


Now don't get me wrong, by this stage in the game I am a semi-pro at this. Yes, I know not to panic when the fever gets high, just put them in the tub, and to cover everything they lay on or around because you would be amazed at the distance a child can get while vomiting without even trying.

But the one thing I am still amazed at is the lack of sleep. You know, it's just not as much fun staying up all night with a sick child as it was when you were younger and hanging out with your friends. You could go all night. wishing it would never end. But now, your a parent and all you can think is please let this child go to sleep so maybe I can rest. Which you know you won't because while their asleep you go into watch mode. Constantly checking on them, listening for every sound they make, watching the clock so you have the next dose of medicine ready, glass of water in hand. Silently praying the fever will break, the vomiting will stop and by tomorrow they will be all better, and maybe you can finally take that much needed shower.

But I better wrap this up. It's that time. Baby needs fed, temp needs to be taken. And hopefully, all will be better tomorrow.

When did that happen???

As I sit here before bed I was wondering when did that happen? Your asking yourself what is she talking about right. Well what I mean is, when did I turn into my mother?

Now growing up I heard from various people that someday I would act just like my mother. I took that a a compliment. Any of you who know my mother know she is a very strong woman. So if i was going to be like someone she would be the one. I was also told I would have a child that acted just like me. I got that one twice over thank you. But that's story for another day.

What I mean is this--earlier I was trying to get everyone settled for bed, that's a chore in itself around here. Everyone calling for mom at the same time while Baby Aaron not wanting to be left out decided it was time to eat and all I could think of was when I was little and I would call for my mom like the 100th time and she would say "Mom dose not live here anymore".
Now as a child (an only child at that) I would think to myself why is she saying that? But now as I'm older and a mother I fully understand it. I now also understand the old Cal gone commercial.You know the one Cal gone take me away!!

I have also been known to wander around the house and ask if I am talking to myself (no one ever answers me on that), were you born in a barn, and the classic "I don't care what so&so's mom does I'm not her mom".

So there you have it. Some how, some way I have turned into my mother. I'm not sure when it happened but it did. But that's o.k. I'm at peace with it because if I turn out to be half the mother I was blessed with, I'm doing just fine.

Now turn out the lights, it's time for bed!!

Here I go, my first blog. I guess this means I am no longer a blog virgin (is that allowed?), I guess I'll find out.
I was sitting here today on face book, I'm also new to that but anyway, as I was reading some post's I thought to myself wonder what g-ma has posted on her blog lately. So there I go. Not much new to report there but I should mention Happy Anv. to my grandparents. Anyway as I was reading I thought to myself I should start a blog. But then i thought what would I say, what would I name it? And would anyone read it. Who knows.
So while I thought about the name my son Matthew went running by with his older sister Emmy fast in chase and Sarah not far behind as I yelled Stop it your dad and brother are trying to sleep. And it hit me. Mandy's Mayhem. But then I thought about it and wasn't sure.
So I got my old friend Webster's out to see just what mayhem means. Now, the first part of it about act's caused by violence just doesn't fit my household. But then it went on to say something about confusion, noise, and disorder. That's it I thought , not so much the confusion, but the noise and disorder, that's my house right now. You see, I just had baby number 4 a couple of months ago. On top of that one week later my mother needed open heart surgery to remove a major blood clot, my husband works nights so that leaves me home with the kids a lot. Mind you I'm not complaining I love my children dearly but there are day's the noise and disorder really get to me.
I'm the type of person who likes everything in it's place, you know the old saying everything has a place and every place has it's thing, yeah that's me. Then the kids came. I try, some day's are better than other's but none are perfect. But hey that's my life and I wouldn't change it for the world. So I just take it as grandma would say One Day at a Time.
So there you go that's it my first blog. I hope I didn't ramble on to much and maybe one of you will enjoy reading it.But for now I have to go see what the kid's are doing, they are way to quiet!!