All Boy

That is the one thing Mason is. He is getting to be such a wild man. We call him Monster Mason, and it fits him to a T. We've been playing outside a lot lately, the weather has been so nice (in the 90s today). He loves to take his dump trucks and play in the flower bed that has rocks in it. Thankfully there aren't any flowers planted yet this year, just the boxwoods. His is fearless, nothing bothers him. He walks around on the rocks barefoot and doesn't mind at all. He has fallen several times on the side walk, and nothing. His knees are all scraped up, but it doesn't bother him one bit. He loves to be daddy's big helper too.
There he is helping dad put some pavers and rock down by the back water spigot. He has tons of fun and gets really dirty and even it he doesn't remember he is making sweet memories for Ben and I.

Changes Complete...For now

So I changed the layout again. I figured out how to get rid of the header (sort of). It's not gone completely, but you can't see it, can you. If you go over to Ben's blog you'll see what the original template for what this page looks like. And now you can see all of the things that I changed. The basic skeleton is the same I just changed most colors and some other things.

I have been doing lots of craft things lately. The biggest project has to be me making diapers. Yep, cloth diapers. I've made five so far. They've worked pretty good. I need to get some more material and make some more. They are called a pocket diaper. They have a pocket in the back where you slide in whatever absorbent thing you want. I am currently using microfiber towels sew in thirds. I think the next ones that I make might be all-in-ones. Meaning the soaker is sew into the diaper, no pocket to stuff. We'll see how it goes. I just want to save some money, I'm so stinking tired of forking out so much $$ on diapers. These are great though cause the wash up and you just use 'em again. Child after stinky child. We don't have the second stinky child yet but some day we will and hopefully I'll have a big stash of cloth diapers that are already paid for. No more running to Wal-Mart at 9.30 at night when you realize you only have two diapers left. I'll keep you posted on this venture goes.

Changes

So I have been trying to make the blog a little prettier. It looks better I think, but in trying to edit some parts in HTML (which I know nothing about) I can't figure out how to get rid of the the header. I designed the graphic header in Microsoft Digital Image (Christmas gift) and inserted it as a picture. So now I want to get rid of the other header but can't. I have even tried to figure out how to just color it white, to fake getting rid of it. Still no luck. Oh well. Let me know what you think.

Musical Mason

Mr. Piano Man or Little Drummer Boy, take your pick. Mason loves the drums and piano at grandma's house. Once got the chance to play the drums that's all he wants to do. He'll go and stand my the door to the upstairs bonus room and sign "please." And he's actually not that bad for a 18 month old. When I don't feel like going upstairs with him to play the drums I set him down by the piano and let him pound on the keys. Check out his form, looks pretty good to me.

Mason is also learning so much about around the house. He will take the towel from the oven door and clean up the floor when his cup leaks, or when anything else gets on the floor. He knows where the trash is and will go throw diapers away. He knows where is diapers are in his room and will go get me one if I tell him it's time for a diaper change. I, like all other mothers, am amazed at how smart and perfect he is. Although he does have his moments, like last night at Wal-Mart when he threw the bottle of Ruby Red Grapefruit juice my mom had got out of the cart and the cap busted and juice went everywhere. He knew exactly what he had done and that it was wrong. But still what a rotten, sweet boy. What a blessing!

Weekend in Owasso

We spent this past weekend in Owasso. Ben was going to Believe in Tulsa to help/network so Mason and I went with him so we could spend sometime with grandma and grandpa. So here are a few highlights from our weekend.

1. Going to ULTA with Mom. Jackie got me a gift card for my birthday, she is too sweet (especially considering she had a horrible time actually getting it, but that's another story). I got some new lip stuff and an eyeshadow. Fun times!

2. Having yummy carrot cake with cream cheese icing from Merrit's Bakery. This was a late "birthday cake" for me. It was so good, a layered carrot cake with cream cheese filling, as Rachael Ray would say, YUMMO! Mom said if I would have got married in Owasso, they would have done the cake.

3. Going to see Because I Said So with Mom. Even though MSN reviewed this and only gave it 1 star. We thought it was really cute. It's about a neurotic mom who tries to run her daughter's love life. There were some pretty funny parts. I'd watch it again. And since it's not very often I get to go to the movies that also made it a special treat.

4. Going to church and hearing a great new song. Well new to me, I don't think I have ever heard it but I really liked it. Revelation Song this is only one of several places I found it online. I think you can also download it on itunes.

5. Getting my sewing machine. Mom got grandma's fixed, so I get Mom's machine. I have already done one project. I made a diaper wallet that holds a couple diapers and a wipes case. Next project will probably be a bed skirt for our room.

Last but not least...

6. Getting to eat at Full Moon Cafe. Mason and I went down Saturday to Tulsa to meet up with Ben for lunch. I picked Full Moon to eat, Carter and Matt joined us. I, of course, got tortilla soup and salad. It was so good. We had good food and good conversation. It also brought back lots of great memories from high school. Good times!

New Teeth

So Mason has lots of new teeth coming in. Two top molars have broke through, one on each side. On his bottom right you can feel one, it's right there it just hasn't broke through yet. His gums are so swollen. We are trying to remember to brush his teeth at least once a day. By starting now hopefully when he gets older he won't be resistant to daily brushings.

Notice the bump on his head. We don't know what happened. Ben went to get him up from his nap the other day and it had appeared. So from the time he laid down to the time he got up that happened. But we never heard him scream or cry out, which in my mind a bump like that would have warranted. Another time Ben got him up from his nap, Mason had his arm stuck through the slats in his crib. Needless to say we are talking about in the next couple of months going for the big move. Crib to toddler bed.

Tots & Tonics

I think that I saw the most absurd segment on the Today Show this morning. It was all about moms getting together and having play dates with their kids and drinking. Do playdates and happy hour mix? Honestly I was amazed at these women that think it's ok to get together with their kids and pour a glass of wine or mix up a cosmo just so they could "relax" a little. Why can't you relax with your favorite coke or Starbucks in your hand, not a gobblet full of wine?

Meredith did an interview with a doctor and a mom who does have alcohol at her playdates. This mom was saying how it's just a way to socialize and get that connection with other moms. She said that it is also a way to weed out other moms who might not like the way she parents in other ways too. She went on the say "some people might not like that I roll my eyes at my kid when he/she crys sometimes, or that sometimes I do think about what eBay auction I could list my son on." I couldn't believe it. Yeah, Ben and I both roll our eyes at Mason sometimes when he gets upset, cause we know it's for nothing. But neither one of us would ever even have a thought about selling him on eBay. I hope that lady knows what an idiot she looked like (in my eyes).

Meredith went on to ask if it would be ok for your babysitter to have wine while watching your kids? Of course the lady said no, "I'm paying her for a job, my husband wouldn't drink at his job." To which Meredith said, "well isn't this your job, being a parent." Lady replies, "well I know my limits." I didn't hear a lot of what the doctor had to say (I was in the middle of making pancakes, while drinking my spiked latte), but she did say she didn't agree with it.

Where is the sense of sacrfice in these moms' lives? Parenting is all about sacrifice, and most people, I don't think realize that. Can't these moms sacrifice their glass of wine and that "relaxed" feeling for the sake of their kids? Who cares if you have a glass of wine, but if you need one to socialize with your girlfriends and make it through the day cause it's so rough raising your kids, something is wrong. Maybe people should be leaning more on the Lord to help them get through the day instead of leaning on their bottle of chardonnay.

Check out the link to the article above, from there I think you can also get the interview that Meredith did on the Today Show.

Ice Storm

Joplin and the surrounding area got hit with an ice storm this weekend. On the news last night they said that around 70,000 people were without power. Ben's sister Cara goes to Ozark, she stayed the night because Ozark's power was out. We also had our friends Jackie and Sergio and their little boy, Josiah, stay the night cause their power was also out. Needless to say, I kind of have cabin fever. I haven't been out of the house since Friday afternoon when I took a trip to Wal-Mart to get essentials and stuff for bulk cooking (more on this later).
WM is normally a pretty crazy place anyways, but that day was SUPER crazy. The aisles were packed with people doing last minute shopping before the storm. I overheard one lady say, "I wonder if this (the storm) was all a ploy by Wal-Mart to get us to shop." I'm sorry lady, WM can do a lot of things, but I'm pretty sure that they can't shift the weather pattern. The lines were so long, they were pre-scanning some people like they do at Sam's. I do have to say it was a miracle though, I think they actually had a check out person at every available register.
After braving WM, Mason and I headed home and we have been locked up ever since. I doubt we'll even get out tomorrow. Maybe Wednesday we'll get out and take a trip to the mall just to walk around and get some much needed activity.
I'm going to try and get a picture that we took of Ben with a huge ice chunk. He cleaned off Cara's car for her this morning. From that he took off this ice chunk that had to be 4ft long and 18in wide, and super thick. Good thing her roof didn't cave in.

Our first trip to the hospital

So Mason is sick. I called our doctor's answering service Sunday morning to see what OTC drug she suggested that we give him. He had been coughing, gross running nose and a fever. She says take him to the Urgent Care to get an antibotic. We take him there, the Dr. says she is concerned with his breathing cause he was retracing alot, so he got a breathing treatment there, but she said that we needed to go to the ER to get an x-ray of his lungs. We go the ER they say the same thing, he is retracted quite a bit. He gets an x-ray, they tell us it's pneumonia and he is going to have to be admitted. He gets an IV, fun times:). We wait another 2 hours to finally get a room. We go to our room and prepare for the night before us. They check on Mason several times through the night, he gets more breathing treatments. They wake him up at 6.30 am to draw blood. Our Dr. comes to see Mason between 8 and 9 that morning, the first thing out of her mouth was, "so why did they keep you?" We told her they said that he had pneumonia and about his breathing. She said they didn't need to keep him and that if she admitted all the kids she saw everyday with his symptoms it would be 4-5 a day. To this I responded, "Are they going to pay for our bill?" She checked him out and said that he just has bronchilitis and a bad ear infection. She wrote some rx for us and told us we need to get a neubulizer for him so that we can give him breathing treatments, and released us to go home. We got released four hours later after waiting for one more round of medicine to go through his IV and for paper work to be done. What a long couple days!! The funny thing is, Mason acted like absolutely nothing was wrong last night after his nap. He was his same crazy, active self. Today he is a little bit more on the cranky side of things. That concludes the long story of our trip to the hospital, but believe me this is definetly the short version.

first post

This is the first post, I'm sure there will be more to come. Most will probably talk about days at home with Mason and something funny he did that day and talk of life with Ben and of course Noel. Here's a picture of, as Ben is referring to him now, the "manimal" trying to get bananas off of the top of the fridge.