Whose bright idea was this???

I got up early this morning to say goodbye to the triplets.

They have a big sleepover tonight at a friend's house. They were so excited last night they could barely sleep.

Since we live 45 minutes away from Kingwood now and the cost of gas is so high, they got up early to ride with Wes. They are hanging out with Aunt Heather today until Wes gets off work.

Andie-girl has been with Heather for days now... she gets spoiled over there and I think she might be considering moving in. Hopefully, she comes to visit us from time to time.

So that just left me, Madison and Jake... all alone. What should we do with all of our free time?

I know, let's ride our bikes to the library. Madison was all for it. Jake... not so much.

He drank 2 glasses of water and wanted to pack a bag of snacks and water bottles just in case we couldn't make it. He obviously has no perception of time or distance. It's not like we were crossing a desert or anything. The library isn't THAT far away and we only have to climb a few hills.

Finally, we convinced him.

We dragged our bikes out of the shed, aired up all the tires, and off we went.

The weather was amazing. Bright and sunny with a cool breeze blowing by. It was a wonderful day to be outside in the country enjoying the weather. This was my best idea EVER! I would have patted myself on the back if I hadn't been so worried about crashing my bike.

OK, here we go... the first hill. This is the smallest of them all. We walk it all the time so it shouldn't be too bad.

Zoom... there went Jake flying up the hill. He stopped at the top and watched Madison and I peddle up to him. We were huffing and puffing so much, I didn't think we were going to make it. We were only 3/4 of a mile away from our house at this point and I started to get a little worried.

On we went and eventually we got out of our subdivision. We had recovered from the hill and were starting to enjoy our ride again. I was appreciating the scenery and thinking, "Thank you, Lord, for this amazing day. I am so thankful that I am healthy and able to take bike rides with my kids."

We turned on 150 and started up our last hill (or so I thought). We peddled and peddled and peddled and finally made it to the top only to discover that was a small hill compared to the one we were getting ready to climb.

We coasted down the little valley... and started the next climb. We were going along pretty well until I got a cramp in my hip... then my calves... then my thighs. UGH.... I was in a lot of pain. AGHHHHHH, I screamed, as I jumped off my bike.

The beautiful breeze I was thanking God for earlier felt like a tornado pushing against us. Not only were we going up hill but we were going against the wind.

I had to walk and push my bike up the rest of the hill. I was sweating and beat red by the time I made it to the top. What was I thinking? There was no end in sight. The hills went on and on. Each one looking bigger then the one we just climbed. It sure didn't feel this hilly in the car!

Jake was encouraging Madison and I. "Come on guys, we can do it!" I wanted to hook myself up to his bike and make him pull me the rest of the way.

Finally, we made it to the library. I am sure we scared the poor librarians to death when we walked inside huffing and puffing looking for the nearest water fountain. Maybe we should have packed those water bottles.

After drinking and drinking, I finally plopped down into a miniature chair in the kids section and told the kids to hurry up and pick a book. I just realized I had to carry the books back and I didn't want to add too much extra weight to my bag. Not quite the scenario I envisioned earlier of us leisurely looking at books and making our selections.

I checked out the books and walked back out to our bikes ~secretly hoping that someone had stolen them while we were in the library.

No such luck... we climbed on and decided we needed to refuel our bodies at The Hop, a local hamburger restaurant in town. Surely we would have more energy if we could just eat a little something.

We made it to The Hop and ordered fries, cheeseburgers and cokes. Not exactly the best choice for athletes such as ourselves ~ but we were starving. I considered just sitting there for the rest of the day and waiting for Wes to come by but I knew he would never let us live that down!

After inhaling our burgers and sitting in the air conditioning for 30 minutes, we were feeling much better and decided to make a stop at the grocery store for hot dog buns. We planned on cooking hot dogs outside on a campfire tonight and they were light enough to carry home.

We started off towards home, I was dreading the ride. Whose bright idea was this anyway?

I started praying, "Please, Lord, help us get home... Well, let me rephrase that, Lord. Help us make it to our home...not your home. We don't want to be on the news tonight!!

Thankfully, the ride home was mostly downhill. We were coasting down those hills so fast I had visions of crashing my bike and knocking out my two front teeth. I didn't even care at that point, they make implants now that look just like real teeth! I just wanted to get off that bike.

We did it. We made it home. I was never so happy to see my little, unfinished house in all my life. We got off our bikes and our legs were buckling as we walked. I don't know if I will be able to move tomorrow but we did it. I wasn't a quitter!

I walked into the house and stepped over Madison who had collapsed on the floor in front of a floor fan. (At least I wasn't that bad!)

Jake said, "Mom, that was fun. If Cameron brings his bike over tonight when he spends the night, Can we do that again tomorrow?"

Ask your dad... I don't plan on getting out of bed tomorrow... or maybe, EVER!

Gods saves a chicken!

Today started off bad.

Really bad.

Well, I take that back ~ I woke up so it couldn't be THAT bad. But let's just say... it hasn't been one of my best mornings.

It started with a "sad" day yesterday. You know, one of those days where you feel sad all day. It probably had something to do with the argument that Wes and I had the night before over the house. We both had different ideas on how to fix something and we both felt unheard. We argued about money and finishing the house. I know you don't want to hear all the gory details so long story short... he was wrong.

Just kidding, I was wrong and had to apologize. Sometimes, I get impatient and just want the house done and I worry A LOT about where the money will come from. So I guess I was still feeling bad about the argument and just felt sad all day.

So, I woke up this morning with a new attitude and decided to go to the gym before we started school. I gathered all my gym stuff (i-pod, towel, cell phone, water bottle) and walked out the door only to realize that I had left my keys inside and I was now locked out of the house. GREEEEEEEAT!

WHY GOD? I just wanted to go to the gym. Why can't things just be easy?

The kids were all asleep so I had to try and wake them up.

I threw sticks at the upstairs windows.

I screamed.

I pounded on the house.

I gathered and threw another 50 sticks. I was getting a great workout!

I sent out a distress call to Wes at school.

30 minutes later...NOBODY heard me.

I cried... really hard. All the emotions from the past 2 days came out and I just sat in a chair outside and cried. I am talking shoulder-shaking-ugly crying.

Wes called and gave me a little pep talk. I felt better and decided I had better try climbing up the scaffolding in order to get closer to the kids window so they could hear me.

As I climbed up the scaffolding, I had a discussion with God about why he thinks I can handle all these little "problems" that seem to occur at our house. He didn't answer.

I finally get to the top of the 2 story scaffolding and start throwing sticks and yelling. Then I hear this noise coming from the silver air conditioning tubing that we are currently covering on the back of our house. (If you don't know about this, I blogged about it a week or 2 ago.)

I kept thinking, "Michelle, if a rabid squirrel jumps out at you don't fall off the scaffolding!" I poked at the tubing with a stick and it moved again. Then I heard bawk, baawk.

It was a chicken. Phew... at least it's a domestic animal... sort of.

Then my thought process went like this... IS THERE A CHICKEN IN THE A/C TUBING? No, is that even possible? The tubing is connected to the main a/c unit and that goes into the house. Can the chicken get into our house through the air vents? WHAT??????

I call Wes and he ASSURES me that it is impossible. That makes me think that yes, it is entirely possible.

I finally wake up the kids and get inside. I go upstairs and look out of the bathroom window and there is a huge hole in the tubing where the chicken has fallen through. GREEEEEEAT!

How do these things happen to me? I couldn't dream them up if I tried?

I can hear the chicken but the tubing is a few feet under the window and we can barely reach it. We (me and all 5 of the kids) are now standing together in the bathtub calling "cheep, cheep" and shaking a cup of chicken feed. Wes is on the phone telling me not to let the chicken go past the hole and climb further into the tubing and into the house.... the pressure!

I finally get enough courage to put my hand into the hole and pull back the insulation. Guess what? She laid an egg in there. GREEEEAT! Wes then proceeds to tell me to not let the egg fall down the tubes and bust because it will smell up the house when the a/c turns on. Ahhhh, the pressure is mounting!

It is about this time that I start thinking that a full-time job would be nice right about now. It would be a whole lot easier then this mom-teacher-chicken wrangler-gig that I have going on right now.

Finally, the chicken comes to the hole and peeks out. Madison pours a little food into the hole and along the top of the tube and she finally lures her out of the hole. YEAH!

I scream, "Madison, push her off the tubing before she climbs back into the hole!" Madison refuses, "NO Mom! She will plummet to her death!"

"I don't care~ she's lucky I don't eat her tonight!" I grabbed the broom, pushed Madison out of the way and smacked the chicken off the tubing. For the record... my blood pressure was slightly elevated.

Before you report me... she flapped her wings and landed safely 2 stories below.

2 hours had gone by, I was mentally exhausted. Wes calls to say he is on his way home to fix the hole. Good thing, I don't think my nerves can take a repeat episode of this.

After we repaired the hole (and stopped laughing), we could only thank God that I was locked out this morning. Only He could have known that I needed to climb the scaffolding today in order to discover the chicken in the a/c tube.

Only He knew that chicken needed rescuing.

Only He knew the smell of a dead chicken in our a/c vents for the next few months would have pushed me over the edge... right into a straight jacket!

God is amazing. Sometimes, he uses little problems in order to save us from bigger problems.

God really does care about the little things... and the birds of the air.

I will leave you with the lesson God taught me today:

Matthew 6: 25-27

²⁵"For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

²⁶"Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

²⁷"And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?

Wes and his flock

We have always lovingly referred to Wes as a "Mother Hen".

He is very protective of the kids and likes to keep his "chicks" close to him at all times.

Have you ever seen a mother hen with her baby chicks? She will lovingly tuck them up under her wings so a predator is unable to see them. It looks like she is sitting on them and smothering them to death but she's not. They are happy and protected up under those wings.

Ok ~ Well that is Wes. After we had Madison, he worried about her all the time. He had no problems asking other people to wash their hands before touching her. When we moved to Georgia his mom took care of Madison for us while I worked and he went to college. He drove his mother crazy telling her how to take care of her (like she hadn't already raised 3 kids). He would even hide her toys so other kids couldn't touch them and make her sick. Friends used to tease us that he would put her in a bubble if he could.

After Jake was born... it got worse. He would lay a blanket over his infant seat when we went in public. He would unashamedly say NO when someone wanted to peek at him or hold him.

Then add the girls to the mix and he became certifiably CRAZY. He was really embarrassing sometimes!

When the girls got about 3, he finally started letting them go into the Chick-fil-a playground like "normal" children. He would stay in there with them and tell all the other children to stay away from his kids! He (mother hen) would follow them around the playground keeping the other children (predators) a safe distance away. I would just sit looking through the window, eating my lunch and trying to decide how I could get out of there without the other parents knowing he belonged to me!

Our chickens must recognize this quality about him.

They seem to really like Wes. When he goes outside, he will call "Cheep, cheep" and they all come running like he is the Pied Piper!

Last Saturday, while he was up on the scaffolding working, they followed him up there.

This is Reese. (as in the peanut butter cup). She climbed up and started watching him work.

He just couldn't help himself. He had to stop and pet her. Maybe that is why they like him so much. Snickers must have gotten jealous because she started climbing up the scaffolding too. See her over to the left?

There she is still climbing. Wes has gone back to work like it is perfectly normal for chickens to be climbing scaffolding. I think we are beginning to lose all perception of normal out here.

Finally, Snickers makes it to the top. Maybe we should considering putting little packs on their backs and they could start carrying nails and tools up to him. Then I could go inside and take care of some important responsibilities like filing my nails or watching Real Housewives.

Maybe this is why it is taking us so long to get this house done. Wes, get back to work and quit playing with your flock of chickens. Makes me think of a Beyonce song...

"All the single ladies, all the single ladies

Now put your hands up

Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh"

NASA Space Experiment

Today is Saturday.

Saturdays are for resting, relaxing, and grilling out with friends. ~ Well, that is what normal people do anyway.

But, not us... Nope, we are NOT normal.

At our house on Saturdays, we work on our house. Lucky us...

Today we are working on the freakishly large space experiment that is currently taking up the entire back of our house.

I still can't help but laugh every time I see it. It is quite ugly. and large. and shiny. But I love it. (I actually look skinny next to it.) We live in Texas so I NEED it. It just might be my BFF.

It is our Air conditioning unit and I loveeeee me some air conditioning!

I know what you are thinking? "HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?" Well, I have one word for you...

WES!

Wes is what happened. This was his bright idea. He wanted an outside AC unit and he sold me on the idea. His pitch went something like this:

Reason # 1~ It wouldn't take up any room in the house.

Reason #2 ~ We could use the space upstairs to build a closet for the kids.

Reason #3 ~ We will never have to worry about it leaking in the attic and dealing with the after effects of that whole mess! ( Um... we don't have an attic but that was a good selling point honey.)

Reason #4 ~ The ac tubes will only be about 12 inches in diameter and they will run along the inside wall which we will be able to hide with window seats.

Reason #5 ~ His dreamy baby blue eyes. He just COMPELLED me to agree with him.

I reluctantly agreed. Don't judge me... I vowed to OBEY 18 years ago.

Let me just tell you, I forgot the love and honor part of those vows the day the AC people pulled out of our driveway. I excitedly ran to the back of the house to see our new unit and was hit in the face with a HUGE space experiment (I am talking NASA worthy) attached to the back of our house. It was shocking to say the least. SHOCKING! I screamed in fear.

Don't worry ~ we can hide it! Wes said.

I think that is starting to become our mantra around here... Don't worry, we can hide it!

No, that is not a "little person" up on that scaffolding. Can you understand how massive this is? Look how small his head looks in comparison to that bright, shiny, silver tubing. (Doesn't he have a perfectly round shaped head?)

Well that was 1 1/2 years ago and we are finally going to hide it. I think it took Wes this long to figure out a way to fix it.

So hopefully... in the next few days... I will have new pictures. And hopefully, in the next few months, I will forgive Wes for this, this... problem.

AND better yet, hopefully, in the next few years, I will learn to stop listening to Wes when he has a new bright idea! Hopefully...

I will have to get some vervain to protect me from those baby blues!

Broken Refrigerator~Round 2

We have a broken refrigerator.

No, let me rephrase that...

We have 2 broken refrigerators! Yes...2

Let me start at the beginning.

We bought this beautiful stainless steel Samsung French Door Refrigerator when we moved into our "under construction" house. I really loved this fridge. Freezer on the bottom, lots of room on the top AND millions of fingerprints on the front. (OK, maybe I didn't LOVE it but I liked it a lot).

(Please do not judge the walls. Like I said~ we are still "under construction"!)

Fast forward 1 and 1/2 years to the present. I noticed the food in the fridge wasn't very cold. Wes, who thinks that I panic about everything, assured me that it was probably NOTHING as he checked the temp and showed me the reading on the front that said 37 degrees.

Well, being the "common sense" kinda girl that I am~ I thought, hum... 37 degrees is just over FREEZING and the food is lukewarm. The fridge is NOT working properly regardless of what the nice blue illuminated temperature-reading says!

The next day I was cooking all the food in the freezer and transferring the rest into coolers because the fridge was BROKEN!!

Wes' sister, Lauralee, found us a repairman. (Thank you, LL) He came, he saw, he... agreed with me... it was broken. He is currently working on getting it replaced by Samsung because it can NOT be fixed. Please, Lord, let us get a replacement.

My sister, Heather, being the kind person that she is~ offered us their extra fridge that they keep in the garage~ to use until we could get ours fixed or replaced. Aghhhh, thanks Heather!

We have been using it for the last week. We have really enjoyed having it here. We have become fast friends. I already consider it part of our family. We have hung our pictures on it. Everyday, I sing its praises and lovingly wipe it down and tell it how much I love it.

(Some people have 2 refrigerators in their kitchens, right?)

Life was good UNTIL... we got home from church last night.

I kept hearing this clicking noise.

What is that? I asked. CLICK...CLICK...

NOTHING, said Wes! (his classic "in denial" answer)

I couldn't just sit there. I had to investigate. I listened. I waited. I held my breath.

CLICK... Oh, there. Did you hear it?

NO... said Wes. (still in denial...)

I tried to convince him to abandon his lazy-boy-chair and come into the kitchen to hear the noise for himself.

He politely declined.

He thought I was overreacting. He laughed at me. He made jokes about it. He listened from the comfort of his chair and refused to hear what I was hearing.

(Somebody is living in the land of make believe... Sometimes, I wish I lived there with him.)

Ok, I thought, maybe I am a little over-dramatic. I am sure this refrigerator is not going out. Nobody has that kind of luck, right? I do have a tendency to over analyze things in my life. I can literally think something to DEATH!

Well, guess what?

I got up this morning and the food in the fridge is... cool at best. I opened the freezer and guess what? The bag of ice that was in there is now a lovely puddle of WATER!

Wes got up and guess what? He now hears the clicking! (Welcome back to the planet, honey!)

I Googled the problem~ it doesn't look good.

Wes called the repair guy.

I am trying not to shout I TOLD YOU SO! That would be rude. and childish. and not-productive. But oh~ so satisfying!

Wes just got home with a refrigerator that he found on Craigslist. Great, I hope this one works. Our kitchen is beginning to look like a refrigerator graveyard!

Madison~ Our first blessing from God

Madison is our first child~

She is my miracle child. Without knowing it, she introduced me to Jesus before she was ever born.

When I was pregnant with her I had the Alpha-fetoprotein test to check for birth defects. She tested positive for Downs syndrome. We were sent to genetic counseling where they advised us to abort her. We were told we would end up in divorce, overwhelmed with financial obligations and burdened for the rest of our lives with a child who would never live on his or her own. We were devastated and confused. We went home to think over our options. It was the scariest time of my life.

I was not a christian at the time and I believed it was a women's right to choose. I was not raised in church and didn't know how to pray aside from "Now I lay me down to sleep". We were terrified. I didn't know what to do or who to talk to. Through a series of events over the next few weeks, God showed His face to us. A friend offered for us to come to her church where they would pray with us. And pray they did. They wept while praying over me. They cried out to God to heal this child I was carrying. I felt such peace when I walked out of those church doors. I didn't know what the future would hold. I didn't know if she was healed. I didn't know if she would be born with Down Syndrome.

But I will tell you what I did know ~She would be born. She had a right to life. God created her and only He would decide what would happen to her. Wes and I would stand together and face life together with our child...with God. We found out the next day that the test was wrong. Our baby was a perfectly healthy little girl. Praise God we didn't listen to the Doctors. Praise God people were bold enough to share their faith with us. Praise God that we listened.

13 years later... We have a wonderful, sweet, healthy daughter.

She loves to read... she will read for hours at a time. She takes a book with her everywhere and tries to sneak in a page or two whenever she can. She can't read in the car though~ she inherited car-sickness from her dad.

When she was a little girl she thought she was an animal. She ran/walked on all fours (even in public). At Wes' graduation from the University of Georgia, she was on all fours telling everyone in the VERY CROWDED auditorium not to step on the horsie!

She has a servants heart. She loves to bake, clean, organize, babysit, and cook for us. She just loves to help. Often, she will offer to babysit so Wes and I can go out to dinner alone.

When she was little, she was so shy that she didn't want people looking at her. Whenever people said hello~ she would say, "Don't look at me!" and hide behind me. Soon, everyone learned to say hello without looking at her!

She loves music and she has a beautiful voice. She listens to her Ipod ALL the time!

She wants to be a stay-at-home-wife and homeschooling mommy one day.

I worked for the first 3 1/2 years of her life and she was lucky enough to have her Mammie and Papa in Georgia to spoil her rotten!

She adores her dad and loves to spend time with him. They will spend hours watching boring movies and shows together.

She is compassionate ~ Many nights she has sat up with her brother or sisters while they were scared or sick. She never wakes us up, she just comforts them and prays with them.

She is funny. She loves to laugh.

She loves hanging out with her friends and cousins but she prefers to be at home with her family.

She is always the first one to offer words of encouragement or a compliment when someone is feeling down. She sees the good in people and reminds them of their good qualities. I love this about her.

She has integrity.

She was born on her dad's birthday.

She has a quiet strength. God must have known she would need it with triplet sisters. Instead of being jealous of the attention they get, she is proud and happy for them.

I am already dreading the day she leaves home. I don't know what I will do without her. I want to keep her here with me... forever.

Going...going...gone!

Well, it is official. We found a new home for Skittles (the hen/rooster).

I stopped over at my friend's house and she was more then happy to take Skittles off our hands for us. The only problem is that she wouldn't be keeping him in her flock.

She was willing to take him and turn him into a chicken salad sandwich! GASP!

Don't judge, people. You do realize that the chicken you buy at Kroger used to be alive, right?

But I am with you. I know that chickens were created to feed us but it was sad to think that Skittles would be... you know... boiled, grilled or pan fried and placed on someones table. I was totally getting the vegetarian movement sweeping our nation. Skittles was a sweet little hen turned rooster.

He was Kennedy's pet. The sweet little chick she used to carry around. The sweet little chick that pooped on her hand one time. Ewwww... but like a true mother, she loved him still.

I "chickened" out and couldn't go with the family to deliver him to his final resting place. I lied to my sweet children and told them that Skittles was going to a new farm to live a happy life. I tried to justify my lie by telling myself it was for the best. What they didn't know wouldn't hurt them...right?

The guilt was killing me. One lie soon turned into more when they started talking about the possible life he would lead. They had such high hopes for the little guy. They even talked about wanting to visit him one day. GULP...

The time came... Andie scooped him up in her arms, they climbed into the back of Wes' truck and off they went.

Goodbye Skittles! Kennedy sit down!

They came home all excited... Mrs. Beth told them he was going to live at a new farm with other chickens.

Oh no... the guilt... now other people were pulled into my lie. Then Wes told me the wonderful news. Skittles was indeed going to live on a new farm.

Beth decided she couldn't eat Skittles. She used her chicken connections and found someone who was looking for an Easter Egg-er rooster (chicken breed that lays blue and green eggs) and they wanted our Skittles.

So all is well... Skittles gets to enjoy a happy life. A dream life for a rooster... he will enjoy getting piggy back rides from all the hens on his new farm.

and better yet... I ended up not being a big fat hypocrite every time I tell my children that a lie is a lie no matter how big it is!