Joseph's First ER Visit

So I know this blog is about 4 days late but we have been busy this week...school, hubby working, life, ect. Legitimate excuses, you know!!

So Monday started out BORING!!!! Kids went off to school, I started my usual routine..dishes, laundry, floors, picking up after kids, etc. Same thing I do everyday, people....clean my house!! Anyways.......Cassandra and kids came by for a visit. And things were normal...kids fighting over toys, Laila driving her mommy crazy, etc etc. Had a great visit....when it was time for them to leave, we all went outside. Joseph got the skateboard and was "riding" it on the sidewalk in front of the house. Now our sidewalk is the rocks that are imbedded in concrete...not loose rocks. Very pointy and hard to walk on. My feet can only handle walking on it for so long....the kids dont care! So Joseph was tryin to get it to move down the sidewalk...well it only went so far and then stopped.....didn't stop Joseph from moving. He kept going forward!! Get the picture??

Bam!!!! Down he went face first into the sidewalk. At first I thought maybe he had just hit his nose pretty hard and that was it. Until I got closer and there was blood!!!! Now I hate the sight of blood and needles and all things gory. But I have 5 kids and have been through this A LOT!!! Cassandra just couldn't understand why I was soo calm...I said "after 5 kids, its routine around here"...hehe. I picked poor Joseph up and ran into the house and put a wet rag on his forehead THAT WOULDN'T STOP BLEEDING!!! Ran and woke up hubby...an EMT you know! He looked at it and calmly said "it'll be ok, needs a couple of stitches but we can put a butterfly bandage on it for now".

Now the mother inside of me wanted to rush to ER to get stitches but he said to wait till the boys got home from school (an hour later) and then we would all go. Since he works at ACH and had to work that night, we would all just go in together. So I waited. Boys got home, Joseph had pulled off the bandaids, I stuck new ones on, hubby got up and said that Joseph would be ok, just leave bandaid on. I said "are you sure"? After asking several times, he said just to take him in. After 3 hours total in ER at ACH, they came in, put numbing medicine on it (which Joseph proceeded to pull off!! ),cleaned it out, and glued it togehter. I am not a big fan of glue...I wish they had stitched it. He has banged it so much since that night that it started bleeding again. At that point I said screw it, it'll be fine....LOL He will have a scar but so do his brothers.

As hubby says, "he wouldn't be a Venable without an ER visit". So true in our case!!! ALL the kids have visited the ER for one thing or another in the last 12 years. Sooo exciting in our household!!!!

Call him Mr. McGyver

Last weekend we spent a nice weekend camping at Old Hwy 25 in Heber Springs. Had a wonderful time!!

My husband can build, fix, mend, etc. just about anything. Changes the oil in the vehicles, checks the tires, repaired part of my driver's seat when it fell apart, jerry-rigged the hot tub to work, etc. Well he can now build a campfire....with just paper towels and pine cones. Yes, I said paper towels and pine cones!! We had run out of fire starters and didn't check before we left nor did we remember to get any when we headed into town. So we got paper towels and pine cones and started the fire. After the smoke cleared, had a great fire!! Nice and toasty warm..great enough to roast marshmallows..or just sit and eat marshmallows right out of the bag!! I will never doubt the abilities that my husband has..hehe

Motherhood

How come when we have kids, they don't give us an instruction manual on how to deal with them? Like when they start talking back, or smarting off, or heaven forbid fighting!!! And dont get me started on the sibling rivalry and the teenage years!! I could sure use an instruction manual right about now. Having kids is hard work. They know EVERYTHING and you know nothing. And be prepared to know nothing until you die. Because they will think they know it all and you are always wrong.

Be prepared to never sleep again. You have to be on call 24/7 and those little bags under your eyes? Dont bother buying stuff to get rid of them because they will just reappear the next morning and be twice as bad. And even when they start sleeping through the night, you will always have one ear open to hear in case they wake up or you hear any disturbances.

Those tv shows you like to watch? I say What tv shows??? I have no idea what happens through half of my shows because they like to sit in here with me and talk!!! Thank goodness for the internet or I would never know what happens on CSI or Numbers!! HAHA

Like a clean house?? So do I. But I dont see my house being spotless until I die. And then I wont have to bother about it being clean because I WONT CARE!!!! Yes, I do do my dishes and sweep my floor several times a day but I'm lucky if my floors get mopped once a week. I know, I know...that is gross....but I do wipe up spills but mopping it is hard to do with 2 little ones running around and the other 3 kids with their friends coming in and out. One of my sons' friends told him that I needed to mop my floors!!! Well buddy, here is the mop! Have at it!!!

And don't get me started on laundry!!! When I die, St. Peter is going to hand me a box of laundry soap and some bleach. That is going to be my job....laundry!! I won't be able to get away from it even after I die. I think I might just be buried naked....that way I won't have to get any clothes dirty!!! HAHA Laundry is never done at my house. I know I say "I'm going to finish laundry today"..well that really means that I am going to stick this load in the washer and scoot the other piles of laundry to the side and say I am done for the day!! HAHA Will never be done. Laundry is my life.

Last note...make sure to make time for yourself. My "me" time is after the kids are in bed and it's about 1 or 2am. Either play on Facebook or read a book. I dont get any chores done at night even though it would be nice to wake up to a clean house. Because I know it won't last long after the kids get up. I might "pick up" a little bit but other than that, waits till the next day. I don't remember the last time I had some time to myself without one or more of my kids calling me wondering when I was going to be home. And time with hubby? Non existant unless the kids are gone somewhere or passed out. I look at hubby sometimes and go "who are you"? LOL

Anyways....having a rough time as a mother so needed to vent a little bit. Get some frustrations out and blow off some steam. Don't get me wrong...there are a lot of joys to being a mother...first words, walking, silly things they do, mud fights, water balloon fights, kids playing in the backyard, no kids..hehe, no fighting..hehe, and finally sleep! I know that I will miss them when they are gone and to enjoy each moment I have with them. But can I please have some time to myself?????? Please??? LOL

What a crazy week we have had!!

I sure hope I never have to repeat last week!! Was HORRIBLE!!! Ok, so Tuesday was a good day even though bittersweet. Last visit to the kids pediatrician Dr. Deane Baldwin. He is leaving to do research on the Swine Flu Vaccine.

Took kids into see him and 3 got shots and Sara just got a well checkup. All were fine....gaining weight and growing like weeds. I had to laugh though because my 14 year old and 11 year old weight THE SAME!!!! Yes, I said it! They are the same weight. Sara and Joseph are only about 3-4 pounds apart in weight...which is no surprise. Sara is kind of little....cute but little.

Wednesday Joseph had a slight fever but got over it that night. Sometimes he and Sara get a 24 hour fever every couple of months. Sara got a fever also that night, which was 103.1. The highest it has ever been. Gave her meds and they both went to sleep. She got up middle of the night and still had a fever so hubby gave her more meds. Fever was back Thursday night though not as high. Gone Friday morning. Back Friday night. I had decided if she still had the fever Sat. morning, we were hitting the doctor's. It was gone!!!! And hasn't been back..knock on wood.

Also on Wednesday my sinks clogged up. All 4!!! 2 laundry room and 2 kitchen. Was horrible. Couldn't use the dishwasher or washer. Could dry clothes all I wanted to but could not wash them. So laundry piled up because I didn't want to drag 2 small kids to a laundry mat. Hubby looked at it Saturday afternoon when he finally had some time. Took a long time!!! I ended up doing the dishes in the bathtub which was something I DO NOT ever want to repeat. But they got clean!!! Oldest son got behind washer and clogged the hole where the water goes after it leaves the washer and I plugged up both sinks while hubby plugged up one sink in kitchen and ran the garbage disposal. Had enough pressure from the towel clogging the hole that it pushed the clog out and sinks were clear!!! YAY!!!! JOY JOY JOY!!! I did a load and watched the sinks. NOTHING!! Ran the dishwasher. NOTHING!! WOOHOO!!! So I spent all day today doing laundry. And might have one more load to do to be caught up for today!! Just to start all over again tomorrow...hehe

So..that was our crazy week. Blah!!! I am exhausted. I should be in bed but I am a night owl...never go to bed before midnight if I can help it. Dont know why....seems I can get lots more done at night after most of the kids go to bed than during the day when they are all awake. I just did the dishes and started some more laundry and cleaned the kitchen. Never rest for the weary!!!!

Taking care of the outside

Hubby and I have been talking about making some changes to the front yard of our house. There are some hedges that didn't look nice and some bricks that were breeding grounds for ants. And I hate ants!!!! It's like I kill them and the next thing I know, they have multiplied 10 times!!! Get the taken care of in one tree, and they show up in another tree. And we LOVE our trees!!! Provides shade for us so when I find ants in them, it devastates me!!

So we decided to make some drastic changes to the front of the house. Pulled up some plants and heges that we wanted to get rid of. You can see to the right of the house in front of the window where the house is "green"..that's where some of the plants were. And I dug up the rest of the hedges (to the left of the front door where the big pot is...ok just looked at the picture and you can't see the big pot....LOL so behind that planter sitting in the yard with the green in it...haha) and boy were those hard!!!! The previous owners must have just dug a hole, planted the heges, then put the plastic around them, then some bark mulch and some rocks. So needless to say still a lot of work to accomplish but it does look better!! Hubby also pulled up the small trees that were close to the street and not in any real formation. Just planted and left. The hardest was the tree closest to the driveway. Though hubby was going to curse at it and condemn it to hell before he finally got it out. It was heavy!!!! Now trying to decide if we want to plant something else in the spots we cleared or leave empty. I've included some pictures. People might wonder why I'm posting pictures of my yard but I like it!! So..enjoy!

Blog Issues

Ok so I like having a blog. Finally figured out how to add a picture to my header. But now I can't figure out how to change the color of "the Venables". Can hardly see it. I guess it is trial by error and just playing around with it to see what fits and what doesn't. Wonder if there is a class about how to blog??? LOL If anyone has any suggestions or any help they can give me, post in the comments please!!!! I want a purty blog!!! hehe

Camping Trip to Choctaw, Arkansas

So our camping trip started last Sunday. We loaded up and finally left the house. I said house, not Cabot....LOL. Stopped at Walmart for gas for the bbq, gas station for soda and some candy and then FINALLY on our way.

Hubby pulled the popup with his truck along with the bbq grill and bikes and ice chests in the back. I followed...really really slow. After following for what seemed like HOURS, he finally pulled into a flea market type of place. Looking for a hitch receiver for my van so I could pull the popup. Apparently his truck did not like pulling it. So after visiting 3 flea market type places, we found one.....right about the time #2 son Nathan came in and asked "is this what you are looking for"??? He had my friend Cassandra's hitch receiver in his hand...had been in the van the entire time!!!! But we ended up buying the one we found because hubby decided we NEEDED it!!!

So finally on our way again. This time me in front pulling the popup going "where am I going"? I didn't know where I was. So had to keep looking at hubby in the rearview mirror to see if he turned his blinker on or what so I would know where to turn. I finally recognized the gas station and turned. Not too much longer and we would be at the campsite.

Finally got to the campsite and got the popup straightened out and level and everything out and set up. Time to eat. Everyone was exhausted...and it's only supposed to be an hour and a half drive from our house. We ate, made a campfire and roasted some marshmallows and headed to bed.

Next day we got up, cooked breakfast and headed to the lake. We couldn't keep the kids out of the lake. Not even our dog Spot. She loved it!!! Joseph preferred to sit at the beginning of the lake and talk to himself and play with the waves. Hubby and I chilled in the chairs and made sure the kids were behaving and playing semi-close to shore. If they wanted to go out far, they had to have the life jackets on.

I couldn't believe how far the water had come up!!! When we were there 2 years ago, there was a whole lot more of the parking lot available. Now only one row. The trees were almost completely underwater and there was no sand!!! But kids had a blast anyways. I enjoyed standing on the concrete parking barriers to show how far the water had come up.

Our trip home was uneventful. Actually kind of boring. Got home in record time and parked the popup in the driveway and crashed onto the couch. Still haven't put the popup in the backyard or unloaded the back of the truck (except for the ice chests) but did get the van unloaded and dirty clothes washed. Now back to reality and housework and laundry and blah!!! I hope you enjoy the pictures that I have put on Facebook, Myspace or on here!!