Gimme That Grilled Cheese

Zach is SOOOO ready for some real food! Is he really only 5 1/2 months old?

The Petal Pusher

So most of you know my mom and dad recently bought The Petal Pusher. It's almost time to decorate the store for Christmas. I thought it might be fun to have a blog friend night at the store to "play". A night without kids. A night of early Christmas music. A night to use the espresso machine, make Italian sodas, start decorating the trees and the store. My mom even said you could take home some free Christmas stuff (or flowers or fall stuff) for all of your hard "work". Anyway, just give me a call or drop me an e-mail if you think it sounds like fun.

dorothy@eotnet.net

Family Trip to the Oregon Coast

We just got back from a trip to the Oregon Coast with my parents, Mark and Liz. It was SOOOOOO nice! We stayed in a beautiful house. The weather couldn't have been better. We relaxed. We roasted marshmallows and hot dogs. We enjoyed the beach. We went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium. We went crabbing. It was great. I wish we were still there. Here are some pictures. I have a lot of pictures so I'll probably do several posts over the next few days. :o)

A rare picture of the four of us together!

Zachery and Liz. I think they're related. I finally figured out whose nose Zach has.

Roasting marshmallows in the backyard of the house we stayed at. They had a cool gas firepit.

Ashley and Papa

The Name Game

Copying the rest of you. . . (I just edited this on 10/14. I am retarded and read #1 wrong and had my FIRST car in there instead of my CURRENT car. . .)

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME: (first pet & current car) Carmen Accord
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite cookie) Pralines & Cream Chocolate Chip
3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME: (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name)D-Mon
4. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal) Red Dog
5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first) Mondo
6. SUPERHERO NAME: (2nd favorite color, favorite drink put “The”) The Brown Coffee
7. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers) Raymond Myrrl
8. STRIPPER NAME: (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne, favorite candy) Ginger Essence Almond Joy
9. PROTECTION NAME: (mother’s & father’s middle names ) Rae James

Plan Ruined

So last night we're doing the bedtime routine. Ashley finished brushing her teeth and I told her she needed to go potty. She told me she didn't have to go and I told her she needed to at least try. She really didn't want to but I made her. She actually ended up having to go pee quite badly. I told her, "See! You did have to go potty silly girl!" She said "I know! I wanted to ask you to go potty when I was in my bed!" I said, "OH! You wanted to use that as an excuse to get out of bed, huh?" She said, "YES I DID and you ruined it!" :o)

New To Blog World

My sister is blogging now! I'm so excited. Check out Liz to the left.

A Very Rare, Personal Post. . .

So those of you who know me know that I am a Christian. Not religious - not an "in your face" Christian" but you know that I love my Jesus and try my best to live a Christian life. Well, I had a powerful God moment that I really feel like sharing. I am usually a very private person in this regard and you won't see too many posts like this so. . .ENJOY!!!

I think I may have started with a little postpartum depression after Zach was born and let it spiral a little out of control. I didn't recognize that until yesterday. On Monday night I met a wonderful friend - Sheila - at Starbucks. Sheila is a friend that I get a chance to meet up with about once a year but a friend that I can talk nonstop with for hours on end when we get the chance. Sheila was in our wedding and someone who I love, love, love. We visited about life, kids, work, home, etc., etc. It was just a great time of visiting with a dear friend. I don't know if that had anything to do with my turning point but thought I'd throw that in there just because I felt like throwing it in there. Anyway, on with my story.

I have been feeling SOOO incredibly overwhelmed with keeping a clean house, playing with my kids, transcription, working one day a week at the hospital, cooking dinner, planning dinners, finding time to do fun things in life, laundry, being a wife, finding time for God (which I have conveniently managed to shove aside - the root of my problems), wanting to "play" at my mom's store but having no time, struggling with migraine headaches, mourning the fact that I just gave up nursing my last baby so I can take medication to try to prevent my 3-4 migraine headaches a week, wondering if we'll ever get the outside of our house painted or a yard in. . . Anyway, the list goes on and on but I'll stop. This list has been constantly replaying over and over and over in my head. I have been physically sweaty, clammy and shaky. I have had to struggle to make my voice sound happy when the phone rings. I have choked back tears when I talk to my family and friends so they won't worry about me. It has been bad. Very bad. I didn't know how bad until Monday night when I FINALLY let it all come pouring out to God. I got home from having coffee with Sheila and Ashley was snuggled up with Danny asleep in our bed. I moved her to her bed, got myself ready for bed and climbed in. Danny was snoring so I decided to sleep on the couch - which I haven't done since I was pregnant and uncomfortable. I got out there and couldn't sleep (which isn't anything unusual for me lately). I decided - finally - to pray. I had actually quit praying lately. I hadn't even felt like praying!! I let myself quit praying. YIKES! I can never let that happen again. Ever. That is so terrible, so sad, so unbelievable. When I started praying, I couldn't stop. I felt like God took over what I was praying and all I could say, over and over and over was "I can't do this." I don't know how many times I said it but I said it over and over with a very strong emphasis on the "I". I know it was God guiding my prayer. It was so powerful and felt so wonderful. It had been so long since I had felt God in my life like that. I then felt compelled to give God my family, my life, my schedule, my work, my finances - basically anything and everything that popped into my head.

By yesterday evening, the only way I could describe how I felt was like I had climbed out of a black hole and today I feel totally like myself. Anyway, it feels so good to be back. All I can say is I don't know how anyone can survive without God. It is a very sad, very lonely, very scary place to be. My few weeks of being incommunicado with Him were pretty much unbearable. I never want to be in that place again. Ever. Never.