No use crying over spilled milk

I always thought that was something grown ups said to kids who spill their milk. Now I know the truth. That saying if for the mommies who have to clean up the spilled milk. I was just repeating that line to myself yesterday after Zoe spilled her milk on the floor of our virus-infested casa. Then two minutes later Tori did the same thing. Tears just sprung to my eyes. I mean, milk really does go everywhere when it spills. And if someone has to take care of three young kids while they are screaming, strep-throating, puking, and fevering then she by golly has every right to cry over spilled milk...or for any other reason she wants.

Waaaaa-waaaaa. I know.

Feeling much better...

...as is evidenced by these questions of the day:

1. When is the last time you made toast on white bread with a lot of butter? That junk is slammin. It takes me back to my days when my Nana and Papa would take me for my "special turn" to their favorite restaurant called "Cogburn's". Holy white bread, Batman, it was good. They had the best buttery toast that would rotate through that toaster machine. Anyway, I found myself with a loaf of Sunbeam this week and made some "for the kids" this morning. Slammin. Ladies get off your whole wheat horse long enough to give it a whirl this week. It will make your mornin.

2. When is last time you sat down with a bag of Double Stuf Oreos after a week of the strep throat/stomach bug ravaging your household? It's a good time. Yesterday half of my daily Weight Watchers points were oreos.

Update... 4 out of 5 Smiths are on antibiotic for strep throat (or what we thought was strep). I am better, Ian is better, Z and T seem ok. Maggie got a fever last night, threw up today in the car line at preschool, and is sleeping in my (oh so sweet smelling) bedroom. Zoe and Tori are the only two who could possibly get this virus now. We're more than halfway through the family so I got that going for me!

Maggie, post-car line, sleeping with my sunglasses on.
Hey, at least she looks good, right?

p.s. Tori cracks me up in the background. Nice bang-cutting job by me. Poor kid
p.p.s. MAJOR shout outs and thank yous to the sweet ladies in the pick up line who helped me today. Maria, you are a saint! Thank you for staying with the twins at the throw up van while I went inside to clean Maggie up! Only a fellow mommy would do that!

Just one stomach flu away from my goal weight...

Possibly my favorite line from a movie ever. Stomach bugs and sickness are really no fun. Especially for moms. I really don't think it's right for moms to get sick because not only do we get feel terrible physically, but we also pile on a good dose of guilt about all the things we can't do when we're up and at-em. Ian was in Boston from Saturday night until (allegedly) Sunday night. Sunday morning I woke up feeling really rough...then rougher and rougher as the day progressed. It would have been a miracle if I didn't get sick because all three girls had strep throat this week and I wipe and clean every possible bodily excrement on a daily basis. Have you ever had to get a urine sample from your toddler in one of those urine bags that you put on them and they wear in their diaper? Let's just say that some of it made it into the cup, while the rest made it onto my toddler, my hands, and my bathroom floor. Fun.

Sooooo...Sandy came over to save me on Sunday and ended up spending the whole day here because I had to go to the CVS minute clinic and get some antibiotics, which I promptly threw up a couple hours later. Fever, chills, anxiety, pooping...not a good combination. Sandy took care of the kids (and the laundry and the dishes) while I tried not to lose my mind. She is so great to jump in like that. What a blessing to have her living here!

Enter my mom and my sister. When you're sick like that you just want your mom. It's just the way it is. So, I was on the phone with her and with Jeannie a good bit yesterday. Mainly for mental support. You see, when I get sick I need someone to continually reassure me that I am not going to be like that forever. I will get well. It's just strep throat. I am not a bad mother. Maggie will survive if I have to miss her Drama performance on Monday. Mom and Jeannie did that from miles away yesterday - and they didn't even make fun of me. I feel like such a weenie that I'm like that, but I am. Thanks you two!

The village continued to be in full effect, though, because Sandy had to go home last night around 9:00 and Keri Pound came over. What a sweet friend to come and sleep at my house, wake up with the three crazies, fix them breakfast and help get them out the door. I'm pretty sure she'll be getting her tubes tied sometime soon. At 8:00 a.m. my sweet friend Marty came to pick up Mag for school. She also took Z and T with her and let them play at her house for a couple hours.

Marty...she lives five houses up the street from me and it's glorious. It's like having my sister down the street. Do you know those friends who just KNOW when you're going to lose it and you need some help? That's Marty. Not just today, but last week she walked outside, saw Zoe lying flat on the sidewalk throwing a fit, and proceeded to take her for the rest of the afternoon. Marty has three kids of her own - Amelia and Elizabeth (6 y.o. twins and BFFs with Maggie), and JP (totally cute as a button one year old who we are hoping will continue his love affair with Tori for years to come). I tell you all that because not only did Marty and Jasi bought a house in our neighborhood and are moving this week. Yep, moving. So there's stuff everywhere between her old and new houses. She is running trips back and forth like a mad woman, filling up her SUV numerous times so she can get started with unpacking. Her husband is out of town this week on business, her uncle is visiting so that he can help, and she takes my two girls for the morning. Seriously? AND, when I called her to tell her that the girls could come home I heard her talking to Tyler, another little boy that she was watching for a couple ours while his mom was in school. What a saint. I mean it.

So where was Ian this whole time? Well, Sunday he was in Boston on business and spent most of that time feeling pretty sick himself. Because of the weather, he and his coworkers got stuck in Boston and didn't get out and back to Atlanta until 1 a.m. He called me at 3:45 a.m. when he finally got to the hotel. He was back at the airport a couple hours later in order to fly home and be here by 10:30. Ugh. He slept all day and is trying to force down some food. It ain't lookin good for my man.

So here's to you all you sweet sweet women in my life who help me out so much. I really don't know what I would do without you...when I'm sick and when I'm well. I love you all so much!

I am feeling much better. I was able to get to Maggie's drama performance, which was a trip. I'll post some of it soon. She is quite the enunciator.

OK, I'm off to eat some saltines...

Spanking...

I don't really want to hear how bad of a parent I am so if you're inclined to comment with alternative methods of discipline, please don't. I have tried them all. And I'm not necessarily a "spankin machine"...I can threaten, revoke privileges, and send to time out with the best of them. As a matter of fact, this week, for the first time in my children's lives, I used the phrase, "if you do that again I am going to bring you back into this bathroom and wear your bottom out." Stellar moment for me.

Not as stellar as last night's mother-of-the-year performance.

Tori has been kinda struggling all week. She threw up once on Monday, but I thought it was from some meds I gave her that upset her stomach. She has seemed out of sorts, but no fever at all. Just cranky and not too much of an appetite. Still, she was playing and running and being her adorable self yesterday. So when she woke up crying last night we thought it was her bi-weekly "I think I can get out of here and sit with mom and dad for a while because they'll feel sorry for me because I'm small" trick she pulls. She woke up over and over and after many attempts to calm her and give her milk I finally started the threatening..."Tori, if you don't stop crying you are going to get a spanking."

I mean, I gotta follow through.

So, I did. I have to add here that I my spankings are a measly excuse for a spanking. Still, Tori is a lot like me and it really doesn't take much for her to get the message. I spanked her. She kept crying. I went in and told her that if she didn't stop and go to sleep that I was sending in the big guns (aka Daddy). Daddy came and went. She would be quiet long enough for us to fall asleep and then start again.

We gave in. She came and slept with me and Ian got kicked to the red couch curb.

Tori slept pretty well the rest of the night. She woke up fussy, though, so in my infinite wisdom I decided to take her to the doctor. (I need to add here that I was NOT super excited about it because the twins were scheduled to be at Mother's Morning Out this morning and I needed an eyebrow wax something fierce). The long and short of it is...Tori has strep throat.

Awesome.

How'm I doing? Spanking a child who has strep throat. I'm feeling pretty good about myself .

Tori's had two lollipops and numerous cookies today. Not necessarily great for her health, but definitely good for my peace of mind.

Almost Heaven...

Zoe and Tori dancing around Ian's Christmas present - the Smokey Mountain Cooker

Ian's newfound love affair with smoking meats

My girlies on Christmas morning, wearing their "Santas"

Christmas was a blast. Aside from the fact that my sweet Papa was in the hospital, which caused him (and us) much pain, it was a great Christmas. I don't think I've shared this on here, but Papa fell a few weeks ago and broke his neck. Once he got to the hospital they found out that he also had pneumonia. It's been quite a road for him and for my parents, aunts and uncles as they all try to determine what's next for Papa. He is such an amazing man and he's sharp as a tack. He's definitely a guy's guy with a tender heart...especially for his three girls and slew of grandkids. Ian and I went and sat with him for a few hours one morning while we were home. He was in a LOT of pain and was not excited for me to see him hurting, but as soon as he felt good enough to catch his breath he started talking smack with Ian. He LOVES to talk smack with the guys in the family. They talked about the two Carolinas, job stuff, and always always money. Papa loves to talk/joke about money - how much he doesn't have and how much his sons-in-law have and need to give him. My whole life I don't think I've ever spent time with Papa where he didn't grab the butt/wallet of the men in the family and talk trash to them about how much they make. It's a trip. So, at the hospital that morning, while he was in major pain, we spent a good bit of the time looking up and calculating what he made in 1974 and (with interests) what that would be today. Hilarious. Papa was trying to say Ian made so much more than he did, when in reality Papa was raking it in. Hand over fist. He was a salesman and he was really really good. I wish you could know him. He's incredible.

Now for the rest of Christmas. It can probably be summed up in two words: bouncy house. My parents rented one for about four days and the kids had a blast. It was pretty darn freezing outside, but they all just shed their shoes and hopped right in. There are nine grandkids in our family now, ranging in age from 1 to 7. It's like a big party. My parents had a blast too. They just were beaming with pride the entire time...well, when they weren't flipping exhausted from filling sippie cups and wiping hineys. We all went to church on Chrismas Eve and it just so happened that my parents were singing a duet (Von Trapp-esque). They have never done that before and they were really good. Anyway, it was sooooo funny sitting there, taking up the first three rows with our huge clan dressed in Gammy-given outfits. After church we closed it down by trying in vain to get a good picture of the kids and Gammy and Doc.

That night we went back to Mom and Dad's and all the kids opened new Christmas jammies and bounced around the Christmas tree. My Dad pulled out his guitar and we sang carols, interwoven by a couple performances by Nate and Maggie of their Christmas songs they performed at school and church.

As I type this I need to say that I fully and completely realize how amazing this is. It was a slice of heaven, really. I almost feel guilty for loving my family so much and enjoying being with them. It's not always perfect, but it just feels like a great picture of the way the Lord loves me and all of us. Fully and completely, warts and all, knowing the good and the bad. I am so grateful and only hope to love my own kids and husband as well so that one day we will be singing around our tree too...only we'll probably be singing around the Smokey Mountain Cooker.