No, Donald, YOU'RE fired.

I don't usually enjoy The Apprentice, but I tend to get into the celebrity version. This season is down to the final seven contestants, and it's actually getting quite fun. (I mean, if nothing else, it's just fun to listen to Sharon Osborne and Curtis Stone speak!) Plus, there's nothing else on TV on Sunday evenings, and it's just what I usually end up watching.

The weak link, in my opinion, is Donald Trump. But since he's kind of the reason the show exists, I just have to deal with him. Including when he makes a fool of himself and the English language.

Last night, in the boardroom, Cyndi Lauper said, "I feel bad," referring to her earlier criticism of the other team. Trump quickly corrected her and said, "You don't feel bad. You feel badly," at which point Cyndi apologized and said, "I feel badly."

Donald, I don't care if you're a gazillionaire--you just came across as quite uneducated in front of many, many viewers. For shame. You, sir, are fired.

Read about action verbs vs linking verbs here.

YUCK!

Warning: bodily fluid post ahead.


Last Tuesday night, just as I was finishing getting ready for bed, I heard Jack crying in his room. (Sometimes he wakes up and wanders around aimlessly because he's not totally awake). I went in and grabbed him and took him into the hallway so Leah wouldn't wake up. Well, he was covered in his own puke. Poor thing. Jack hates puking almost as much as I do. And I REALLY hate puking. I stripped him, washed him off, brushed his teeth, and got new jammies on. He was sure he was done throwing up, so I put him in our bed and Dan lay down with him while I went in and stripped his bed and started laundry.

Pretty soon I heard Dan call for me. He had puked again, all over himself and our bed. Lovely. I stripped him again, washed him off, stripped OUR bed, and returned to the laundry room while Dan got him in more clean jammies. I got laundry going and went back upstairs with clean sheets for our bed. We got them on, covered Jack's side with towels, and got him settled down again. We also found a bucket and begged him to try to make it to the bucket next time. :)

The rest of the night was uneventful, but he ended up throwing up twice the next morning. We laid pretty low all day Wednesday. He didn't eat much, but he also didn't puke anymore, so I figured we were out of the woods. He slept great in his own bed, but woke up Thursday morning and got sick AGAIN. Luckily, the rest of Thursday was pretty normal for him.

Friday afternoon, Dan called to say he was not feeling well and would be coming home early. He walked in the door at 4:30, made his way to the couch downstairs, and was there until the following morning, only leaving to use the bathroom (it seems the bug was giving him "other end" issues). By the time I got the kids in bed on Friday night, I didn't feel quite right. I decided that I better run to the grocery store for some necessities while I still felt human. When I got home, I also washed a pile of dishes so they wouldn't be sitting there all weekend.

By the time I climbed in bed, I was sure I would be up sick in a matter of hours. Well, I wasn't, but I slept terribly. When I woke up Saturday morning, I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. I nursed Leah, handed her off to Dan (who was already feeling much better) and went back to bed. I napped, nursed, napped, nursed. I got out of bed a couple of times, but quickly felt like I was going to fall over because I was so weak. I ate a couple pieces of toast in the afternoon and some soup for dinner. I tried to go to bed early, but the day of naps kept me up a little later than I wanted.

Sunday morning, I felt a lot better, Dan felt a lot better, and Leah had diarrhea. Shoot! She could not escape unscathed. She was a little more cuddly than normal, but didn't seem to be too uncomfortable. We decided to brave the outside world (maybe just so we could get out of the house) for lunch. As we sat down to eat at Noodles, Jack said, "My tummy hurts." Oh, great. I told him that if he felt like he was going to throw up, he had to tell Daddy really quick so they could go to the bathroom. Thirty seconds later, "Daddy, I need to go to the bathroom!" Sure enough, he was sick again.

Seriously! We just need a break! I feel the need to bleach everything in my house. I feel like my washing machine has been working non-stop since Tuesday night. Let's hope that this is the end for all of us!

The truth comes out....

Yesterday, I was tidying up the living room because Stephanie (breastmilk recipient) was coming over with her boys. Jack came over to show me what he was coloring, noticed I was cleaning, and said, "Who's coming?"

Yup. I only clean when people are coming over.

Not really, but it made me laugh really hard!

Mmmm.....croupons

Jack LOVES croutons. And he calls them "croupons," which is just cute. Whenever we have Caesar salad, he jumps up on the dining room table and steals the croutons out of it. And since those bags of Caesar salads don't put enough croutons in it to begin with, we had to buy Jack his own back of croutons so he could have a few when we had our salad.

Last night, we had pasta and a Caesar salad. Jack started crawling onto the table to steal croutons, and I told him to get down. He asked for his own, but they are gone. He got mad and REALLY wanted some croupons! So I told him that he could have some croutons if he ate some salad. He seemed okay with this idea, so I put some in a bowl for him with some croutons, and he totally ate it!

The best part was this morning when he brought it up again. "Mommy, were you really surprised when I ate salad last night?" Yup, I was. :)

He thinks he's hilarious

Jack: Knock, knock

Me: Who's there?

Jack: Leah

Me: Leah who?

Jack: Leah wants you to open the door and give me grapes! (Followed by uncontrollable fake laughs)


Jack: Knock, knock

Me: Who's there?

Jack: Daddy

Me: Daddy who?

Jack: Daddy wants you to open the door and give me apples! (More fake laughing)


I'm not sure who taught him about jokes (not me!), but something tells me he doesn't quite get it yet. :)

He melts my heart!

My friend Rebecca was helping out in Jack's Sunday school room yesterday and passed along this gem of a story. :)

"I have to tell you something precious Jackson said. One of the little girls came in and her name sounded like Erin. Jack said, 'Erin is my mom's name!' Then he said, 'Well, I call her Mommy, but my Dad calls her Erin...(pause, smile)...or honey!'"

Honestly made my day. :)

nine months

Dear Leah,

I think nine months is kind of a special age because it means you have now been outside my belly as long as you were inside it! That's kind of weird, actually. I feel like I was pregnant for a year and a half, but I'm pretty sure you were just born like last week. Why does time go so quickly when you want it to go a little more slowly so you can enjoy it? Not that I'm not enjoying this, because I am LOVING every moment. But I look at pictures from just a few months ago and think, "Who is this baby?"

Right now you are sitting in the high chair as I type this. You're being quite a little piggy, actually. Lately you've been a little more difficult to feed. You just aren't as interested and you constantly turn your head away like you're done after just a couple bites. But today's lunch was a different story! You had a bowl of applesauce, a piece of toast, and finished off your peaches and yogurt from breakfast. Hungry girl!

Okay, now it's four hours later and you're with me again--crawling around on the floor and I try to finish this. Actually, I'm a little frustrated. The computer has lost the internet multiple times and even though Blogger SAID it was auto-saving, it wasn't. And darned if I can remember what I wrote about four hours ago! Oh well. You're being cute again--what's new? You found a piece of Jack's apple from his lunch and have been sucking away on it under the dining room table. That's your new thing--eating bigger pieces of food by taking bites of it yourself. Your favorite is toast, but we might have to add apple slices to the list! You also keep coming across your blanket (which is normally in your crib for naps and bedtime) and lying down with it. So adorable. Then you motor over to Lucy and scream at her. And you find a toy you forgot you had and spend a whole 20 seconds playing with it. You're a busy little girl!
I am very much looking forward to this summer with you! It's bound to be more exciting than last summer. :) Maybe we can leave the house for more than 15 minutes at a time! I already know you loving the stroller, so walks will be a blast. But it will be really fun to try swimming and stuff too. We have to take advantage of nice weather, because before you know it, we'll see snow on the ground again! :(

Oh, you're clapping! It's just the best. We're working on "so big," but you're MUCH more into clapping. And you totally know you're doing it right too. Maybe it's all the encouragement you get from us because you're so darn cute when you do it. :) And then you flash that toothy grin and it gets even cuter!

It blows me away how much you change in just a month, but it's so much fun. You're simply delightful! It also blows me away that we're only three months from your first birthday. Insane. But man, with one year under our belts, there's not much we can't do, so bring it on!
Love you, dear.
Mom :)

And now, for your viewing pleasure, Leah through the months!


One month

Two months

Three months

Four months

Five months

Six months

Seven months

Eight months

Nine months

This is what happens when I clean!

I come across really random stuff. Like the time I cleaned out the bathroom closet and found three full boxes of Q-tips and my positive pregnancy tests from both Jack and Leah (ick!).

In a junk drawer in our bedroom, I found a piece of note paper that had been used as a bookmark when I read Grace Eventually by Anne Lamott a couple years ago. I wrote a couple small quotes on it that made me want to pick up the book again. So I think I might. I'm between book club books right now and just finished another rather dull novel, so I could use something a little more inspiring. :)

"Jesus is saying that we could be aware of, filled with, and saved by the presence of holy beauty, rather than worship golden calves."

"You want to know how big God's love is? The answer is: It's very big. It's bigger than you're comfortable with."

I love Anne.

The Hills are Alive.....

Every Easter, you can find The Sound of Music somewhere on television. And even though we own the DVD and could pop it in anytime we want, it's somehow more exciting to catch it on TV and watch the whole thing. :) Last night, we finished dinner and were getting cleaned up when I remembered that it was going to be on. So I found it and started watching about an hour into it.

The Sound of Music is, hands down, my favorite movie. Ever. I can sing every line from every song. I'm sure I can recite much of it too. To this day, I simply ADORE Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer. I watched it SO many times as a child that I lost count. But it was funny as I watched it last night. I remembered that the wedding was pretty much the end of the movie for me. Until I could appreciate the backdrop of the war and Nazi influence in Austria, the rest of the movie was just kind of boring for me. I thought, "Why wouldn't they just end with the wedding? It so pretty and happy!" :)

Also, I used to fast forward through the scene where Maria is in the Reverend Mother's chambers after she has run away from the Von Trapp's. I distinctly remember thinking the scene was really dark and depressing. The Reverend Mother sings "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," which was just the most horrible song in the movie. But now, of course, it's one of my favorites! That nun could sing! I also wasn't crazy about the scene where Captain Von Trapp finds Maria in the garden and professes his love for her. Really? Maybe it was just lost on my 8-year-old self who was simply waiting for the wedding. But now, I can't imagine not watching that part. I mean, sure, it's kind of corny when Maria starts singing "Perhaps I had a wicked childhood...." right after they kiss, but that's what makes musicals so amazing.

My favorite part was watching Jack watch it. He didn't last long, but he LOVED the puppet show scene. :)

Good Friday

I have had this song in my head today, and when I searched for it, I couldn't find the same version I'd first heard. It's Nichole Nordeman, and the version I know is of a live, hidden track on one of her albums. But I did find a video of the song put to clips from The Passion of the Christ, so I'm sharing it with you. Never mind the stuff at the end--this was obviously a project for service recruiting. :)

I am thankful for the events of Good Friday, but I'm even more thankful that we know this isn't the end. We have Easter Sunday to celebrate in two days. Praise the Lord!