Glides on Smooth?

A couple weeks ago, Tony took Janae shopping. They came home with most everything on the list and and then some. One of the extras happened to be deodorant for the 11 yr old herself. (This seems to be a tradition for Daddy to buy them their first one. Something we'll have to remember for the two other girls coming along =)

A few days later, Britnee and I were in the dining room talking and Janae came bustling through the hall on her way to the living room. We heard her mumble to herself as she passed by, "That stuff doesn't glide on nearly as smooth as it says it does!" I was puzzled at first and then realized, she must have been trying out her deodorant. I called her name and asked her if she had twisted it up. She responded that she hadn't been able to get it to budge in either direction. Britnee immediately went and brought it out to see, yelling Janae's name as she came back in the room. The stick was a good quarter to half an inch BELOW the plastic! Ouch!

Big sister fixed it and we both had a good chuckle after admonishing Janae to always make sure the white part of the stick was showing well above the plastic container!

Of All Places

Why can't they look like this for me or the photography studio?

Happy Birthday, Janae

I'll blame it on my prego brain...the fact that I forgot to do a birthday post for Janae. It's certainly not because we forgot about her birthday, though. We probably work extra hard to make sure that her birthday is special. With it being so close to the holidays, her day is often forgotten by others in the shuffle of Christmas preparations.

We started by planning her school birthday treat to share a couple days in advance since her actual birthday fell on FCA's Christmas party day.

Then, as usual, because we have open Christmas presents early here due to trips to Michigan every year, we let her open her gifts a couple days in advance to keep more of a distance between the two occasions. She received Apples to Apples Jr (a very fun game!), a 'Lil Kinz pig she named Curly, a Magic Treehouse book and her very own MP3 player.

Happy 11th Birthday, Janae! In a few days, you'll be able to say, "next year, I'll be a teenager!" (we'll let everyone mull that one over for awhile :)

Overheard

Janae: Hold on, Britnee! Kerrigan is being like Ruth to Naomi...where you go, I go; where you play, I play!

I Dream of Janae

I had a strange dream this morning. I’m neat even going to try to interpret its meaning. I think I’ll forget about the strange parts and revel only in the one little tiny conversation that I had with my then 2 yr old daughter. That part was real. Very, very real.

In the dream, I had been in and out of sleep. I finally roused myself enough to realize that I was hearing the neighbor’s annoying lawn mower driving around my trailer. It was fall and he had been complaining that I had done the proper “yard prep”. It was driving him crazy but I didn’t have the energy or the drive to tackle it. I was in the trailer with my 2 yr old (who happened to be Janae) and my mother. We were all napping but it was past supper time.

I woke up, checked the meat that was on for supper and put on my coat. I was sneaking around the things outside trying to see what the neighbor (who had now gone over to his barn) was going to do next. I wanted to confront him but didn’t want him to see me until he was back on my property. Fall leaves covered every inch of the yard and there were trees scattered as far as I could see but not densely thick like a forest.

I could see my mom through the window in the kitchen fixing biscuits for supper. The neighbor was on his way back over to our place and I headed across the yard to meet him when out of the corner of my eye I saw a little girl in a purple corduroy jumper and cream turtleneck (an outfit she had in real life) toddling across the yard to me. I picked her up and squeezed her tight, then we had a conversation that went something like this:

Mommy: Did you tell Nonnie that you were awake?
Janae: Yep. I woke up kying.
Mommy: Oh, I’m sorry. Were you crying because you didn’t know where everyone was?
Janae: Yep. I started frowin a fit. Then I held my breath. But Nonnie prayed and Jesus healed me.
Mommy: I’m sorry that you were scared.
Janae: I sink I was sad, then mad, then bad.

And then I woke up. But that conversation was so very real to me. I could hear the inflection of her voice and exactly how she sounded at that age. And I had to grin because maybe, just maybe, I’ll get to hear that little two year old voice again in a couple years - if this next baby follows the pattern. Because Kerrigan was like Britnee, so shouldn’t the next one be like Janae? We will see.

Finally something...

...worth blogging about!

Janae was supposed to write to a senator or state representative for a Social Studies project. She was to ask them which president they most admired. Some of you will remember this project from PACE 1053 - some of you have it to look forward to.

In all my years of teaching, I can't think of any students who received a response back. So when Tony was looking up the information, we found out we could email them. Wheels started turning in my head and I thought maybe her chances of a response to an email would be greater than snail mail. So we tried that avenue.

Just a few minutes ago, I checked my email for the millionth time today and lo and behold, something from Senator Lugar. Woohoo! I am sooo excited...but now it means she actually has to write a report on that president.

We will definitely be printing out that email and saving it in her special mementos box.

And THIS is how Janae might vote...

Labor Day

On Labor Day we took the opportunity to meet our friends, the Grafs, for lunch at Rick's Boatyard Cafe. After lunch, Kayla texted her mom (from the restroom) and asked if we were going to the park. And so began Tony's and Mark's hunt for something close by. My request was a park with shade! It was an extremely warm day and this Indiana-summer-survival-by-air-conditioning-only mom could only imagine spending the next hour on a park bench in the hot summer sun. (I'm such a wimp.)

Well, I should take a moment to say that probably the only thing more disturbing for me on a personal comfort level than hot sun would be motion sickness, which I seem to come by easily. So with that knowledge you will completely understand how frustrated I was when we entered Eagle Creek Park at 3:42 pm looking for a playground big enough for our kids to play on and finally settled on the best thing we could find somewhere around 4:38 pm. Ugh! If we hadn't paid a $5 entrance fee in the first place, we would have never driven up, down and literally all around the crazy park searching for these playgrounds that we could see but never find the right road or path to get us there! I have since concluded that Eagle Creek Park is really for those poor souls stuck in the metropolis of Indianapolis who don't want to drive very far to enjoy nature. It was not a park as I know it.

But the highlight of the day had to be when our very patient 10 yr old said, "I'm pretty sure that all the roads in this park spell 'Good Luck' in cursive and we've been driving around 'good' the whole time!"

Loser of a Tooth Fairy

So I know she is ten years old and I know that she knows who the tooth fairy really is. But I still can't describe the feeling of complete failure and utter disappointment in myself when she came bounding down the stairs this morning, came to a screeching halt beside my chair and said, with a big grin pasted on her face, "You guys didn't have any money did you?" I saw the baggie in her hand and remembered...she'd lost a tooth that has been driving her absolutely crazy lately because it would pop out of place but wasn't quite ready to pull.

Half an hour later, my mommy heart was still hurting even though she insisted it was okay when I apologized. I kept imagining how excited she was to wake up and look under her pillow only to find her old tooth still laying there. I wondered, why is this bugging me so much? Why do I feel like such a loser? And then I figured it out - it's because she's been going through so many changes in the last year and a half. When I saw a glimpse of the happy-go-lucky little girl that she used to be, then realized that I was responsible for jerking her back to the realities of life, I know I can never get those moments back. And I want to hold onto every single one I can get. Because the older she gets, the fewer and farther between those moments are.

So I've said all that to say this, I'm determined to make the most of those times in the future. I will be vigil in looking for ways to make that happy-go-lucky girl visit again. Though it most likely won't occur with a pulled tooth, I hope I don't miss it next time.

How Many Pills?

We made a special trip to Frankfort Wal-Mart to get a new scrip for Janae's thyroid meds only to find out they were running low. They gave us the remainder of what they had. Look at the dollar amount and guess how many.

God's Goodness Proven Once Again

Last Friday was Fun Day at school. They were having a paper airplane contest with three different ways to win – 1. Best looking plane; 2. Farthest flying plane and 3. Most acrobatic plane. Since neither Tony nor I are experts in the paper airplane department, Janae did research on the internet for different ways to build them. She made several and tried them out. We thought we’d found a winner. The other two girls weren’t interested in competing. But Janae was so anxious for the contest on Friday.

I was taking photos while they did the Upper Learning Center. Some of their planes flew pretty far! But when the Middle Learning Center got their turn, I watched the first few and thought Janae certainly had a shot. She got up to launch and her plane only made it a couple of feet on both tries that she was allotted. I could see the disappointment and embarrassment on her face. I finished taking pictures and then went to the van to head across town for groceries while I waited for the rest of the day’s festivities to end. I sat there and cried and prayed. I remembered so well the excited little girl that took her neatly decorated Valentine box to school on February 14th and the sad little girl that got in my van at the end of that day because both of her sisters had placed and she hadn’t. I was frustrated because she does such an awesome job at what she does. She puts enthusiasm, effort and energy into each and every project that she tackles and to see her lose again and again just breaks my “mommy heart”.

So I prayed Friday and begged God to please give her something extra special that day. Something that would show her that He really does care for her and that she isn’t just a middle child with anonymity but someone special in the site of God and others. (Tony and I have been talking about this…that she is so awesome about caring for others and thinking of others and how we need to help her discover a more obvious talent- something that others will notice in her – because unfortunately character often goes unnoticed next to ability to perform.) My girls are well aware of the disappointments that life brings so I didn’t feel selfish to ask God for something for her this once.

I picked the girls up later than afternoon and there were no reports of anything fabulous. In fact, Janae was even more discouraged because not only didn’t she win the airplane contest, they weren’t able to do anything fun outdoors and the water fight was cancelled due to pouring rain. Fun Day hadn’t turned out to be quite as fun as she’d anticipated. I was bummed and a bit disappointed that God had chosen to answer my prayer with a “no”. But all was soon forgotten as we prepared to attend a surprise birthday party and for company to arrive the next afternoon.

When Janae brought up the fact on Saturday that she wondered if she would win the Missions award, Tony and I both tried to encourage her to plan on losing and then be completely surprised if she did end up winning. We’d heard rumor that the amount we turned in was close to one of the seniors who has babysat our girls over the last few years. So we tried to go at it from that angle…that this was Luci’s last chance to win since she was graduating and that if she did, we would try again next year.

Imagine our complete and utter surprise when Janae won the Highest Average in her Learning Center, then the Supervisor’s Award for her learning center. I was thrilled enough with those winnings. So when they said the person who’d won the Missions award had turned in $354 dollars, I thought, “Wow! Luci beat us out by $4!” So when the next words out of the Pastor Johnson’s mouth was, "Janae Derscheid," I was totally shocked.

I didn’t really think anything about it until later after all the congrats of the evening wore off. And then God whispered in my ear, “Remember that extra special blessing you asked for yesterday?” “Yes, Lord, I remember.” “I had it planned this way all along.” And I smiled to think that God knows exactly what’s best for His children – in His own time and His own way.

Alzheimer's, Cancer and Blondes

Janae is our joke-teller. Britnee's too blonde (brain color only :) to get jokes and Kerrigan's too young to even understand the dynamics of a knock-knock joke yet. So it's refreshing to have a child who gets them and enjoys them! Here are a couple from Janae's Joke Bank. One is my favorite and one is the latest:

A man went to the doctor. The doctor said, "I have some bad news and worse news. The patient said, "Okay, what's the bad news?" "The bad news is that you have cancer." "Okay, what's the worse news?" "The worse news is that you have Alzheimer's." "Well," said the man, "it's a good thing I don't have cancer!"


Two blondes walked into a building. You'd think one of them would have seen it.

Child Interview

Reading Michelle's post the other day about interviewing her kids reminded me of some books that my girls made in Sunday School one year for me. The book is called "Mother's Day Surprise". I (teacher at the time) had certain questions that I asked each student. Then I printed their answers on the computer along with clipart similar to their answers for them to color. Janae was 4.5 years and Britnee would have been almost 7. Every once in a while, we enjoy getting this out and reading it, chuckling at the answers and getting a bit nostalgic remembering how they said it and with what kind of speech and voice inflection.

If I could give you any present in the world, I would give you...
J: glasses
B: a kitchen table

I like it when we...together
J: watch videos
B: play the piano

I feel...when you hug me and tell me you love me.
J: fine
B: very good

I like it when you take me to...
J: the "Peter Rabbit Mall" (Castleton) and Mc Donald's
B: the store

My favorite food that you make for me is...
J: corn on the cob
B: spaghetti

...makes you the best mom in the world!
J: letting me play the computer by myself
B: rubbing my back

When I think of you, I think of your...
J: baby (Kerrigan)
B: smile

I would like you to teach me to...
J: not hit
B: play piano

4 Clicks 4 a Good Cause

Help Detroit Children's Hospital win the extra special Children's playground that Colgate is giving. Voting only goes until February 29 and you can vote one time per day. Right now, Detroit is in 3rd place.

Janae had a life-saving surgery done at Detroit Children's Hospital. She is now 10 years old and we might not have her today if it were not for that hospital and Dr. Klein who believed in our case enough to evaluate her. She had been denied the surgery at another hospital that the pediatric intensivist over her care there felt she need. Let me suffice it to say that she arrived at Detroit Children's around 7 pm and before we arrived at her bedside by 6 the next morning, Dr. Klein had already reviewed her test results and medical file and scheduled her for surgery :)

All you do is click on the weblink here. Scroll down to see the map of the United States and click on Detroit. It will bring up a list of hospitals - you just click the little "dot" in front of Detroit Children's Hospital and then hit submit. Remember, you may vote one time per day thru February 29!!! Thanks for all you do!

Of course, if you have a Children's Hospital nearer to you on the map, I won't feel too awful bad if you vote on that one. It's all for a good cause.

Does Marsh Do Returns?

I’m thinking not and even if they did, it’s probably not worth my time to explain my reason to the clerk. But I have this bag of $2.50 pretzels sitting here that we will most likely not consume. Long story…get comfortable and I’ll try to give you the abridged version.

A few weeks ago, thinking ahead, Janae hopped online and did a search for cupcakes for her birthday treat. Memory evades us of this child taking cupcakes to school. I do not recall exactly WHY but for some crazy reason she hasn’t. So, realizing this and knowing that I went out of my way to make sure our friend had some to take when we were babysitting overnight on his birthday in September, it kinda seemed a must for me this year. That or be banished to the “world’s worst mom” list (which I’m pretty much already on most days).

So Tuesday evening, after not having a vehicle (both without heat…one in the shop; one being fixed by Tony – who, I should insert here, did a fabulous job for a computer geek!!) for two days which totally messed up my schedule for this busy week, I headed to Frankfort. I had last minute shopping for wrapping paper, birthday cards, chocolate chip cookie cake (another specific request) and decorations for Rudolph cupcakes.

I start out stressed because the only chocolate chip cookie cakes on the shelf were decorated with Santa and this mama refuses to mix birthday with Christmas for this child born 6 days before the celebrated birth of Baby Jesus. It’s probably more important to me than her but I still have my standards and with good reason! I finally get someone from the bakery to give me the time of day and they offer to do a birthday cake up for me. Yay! So it’s on to conquer the rest of the shopping list: chocolate frosting, check; candles, check; cards, check; gift wrap, check; curly ribbon, check; cinnamons for Rudolph’s nose, check; big twist pretzels – none to be found. Want pretzel rods? Mini pretzels? Circle pretzels? Pretzel sticks? NO, NO, NO and NO! It has to be big twist pretzels for Rudolph’s antlers. It doesn’t matter how many times I bend over and peer to the back, the space on the shelf remains empty.

I head back to the bakery to pick up the cake. After I pay for my purchases I call Tony so he can order pizza while I make a quick run to McD’s for the birthday girl’s Happy Meal (her choice). Mad dash into Aldi’s - I KNOW I’ve seen big pretzels there. None. Okay, let’s try Marsh. Nothing. Not believing that three stores don’t have these big pretzels and knowing that I’m going to have one disappointed almost 10 yr old at home if we can’t complete the Rudolph look, in desperation, I finally grab these BIG, FAT pretzels (see comparison to the left) thinking someway, somehow, I might be able to do SOMETHING with them for antlers. Tony calls and says it’s going to be 15 minutes before the pizza is ready. I decide to try Dollar General. Nada, zilch. The whole time I am praying for sincere guidance and direction and the Lord is saying nothing (ever been there?) I finally see one last sign up ahead and think it’s worth a shot…Dollar Tree. BINGO!! Lots and lots of bags of big twist pretzels and for $1!! Thank you, Lord. But why didn't you just direct me there in the first place? Oops, I know...we aren't supposed to question You.

When I brought home the food, I hid the bag of mongo huge pretzels. We ate while I informed our soon-to-be 10 yr old that "next year there will be NO pre-conceived notions or high expectations of birthday cakes or treats until we look for and find ingredients ahead of time. So don’t get your heart set on anything, girl!" Lecture over. We frost the cupcakes and put on the eyes and noses. I fiddle around with the big twist pretzels a bit until I get them to break in the right places for antlers. I never did it exactly like the example but they still look cute.

Looking over the finished product, it suddenly strikes my funny bone that I was even contemplating being able to convert those fatso pretzels. I pull out the bag and show Tony. He rolls his eyes and questions me, “You were going to try to use those? On cupcakes?” “Hey," I say in my defence, "desperate times call for desperate measures! Do you think Marsh accepts returns?” “I doubt it,” he responds and leaves the kitchen shaking his head in disbelief.

Editor's note: I'm going to see if they will let me exchange them for some waffle pretzels. These look simple to make and fun to eat!

Happy Birthday, Janae!

To the little girl who we thought might be our boy. You filled our hearts and changed our world! It was a scary few months there in the beginning! We thought we had it made when the delivery went smooth and we got to take you straight home from Mt. Pleasant without a transfer. Little did we know what we were in for 2.5 weeks down the road. But 3 weeks at Sparrow and Detroit Children's Hospitals and two surgeries later, you were good as new. Thanks to many prayers, Dr. Geurtin, who believed in us when others didn't and Dr. Kline, who believed Dr. Geurtin, we made it! We are so thankful that you belong to us. You fill our lives with sunshine and we are proud of each and every accomplishment :)

Are You Smart (er)?

Fact #1 - Our girls attend an ACE school
Fact #2 - The average ACE student should complete 12 PACEs in each subject per year (3 stars per quarter)
Fact #3 - For each PACE completed, the student puts a sticker on their star chart
Fact #4 - If the test score was 100%, that sticker is a logo; if the test score was 80-99%, the sticker is a star
Fact #5 - Our van is in the shop and the heat just went out on our car, so the girls didn’t attend school today

Based on the above facts, this is how a conversation went this morning:

Mom: I guess you girls should have brought home your PACEs last night (sigh)
Janae: Well, I have three stars this quarter in Math already…three stars…literally
Mom: So, in other words, no 100%s?
Janae: Yep. Well, actually, no. I have three stars in Math this year not this quarter. The rest are 100s.
Mom: Oh! (continues to fold laundry)
Janae: I’ve only gotten three stars in Math in my life [out of 42 Math tests]. That’s how good at Math I am! [no conceit in this family, Janae has it all!]
Mom: Welcome to the world of 4th grade. (smile)
Kerrigan: (talking to herself in the next room) Welcome to the world of 1st grade! Are you smarter than a Kindergartner? [can you tell our family has recently discovered the online episodes of Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?]

Bragging Rights - FCA Program

Kerrigan was the little Christmas tree that no one wanted. Does anyone remember that song? We had it on a record when I was a kid and fell asleep to it most every night at Christmas time. On the video, it’s just her singing…Tony clipped out all the parts in between to save you all the chore of having to watch a lengthy video. Poor li’l thing had a cold but did a great job. I didn’t realize she was THE main attraction until about a week before the program. Then I got NERVOUS!!


Janae and Britnee sang a beautiful duet that brings tears to my eyes each time I hear it (shhhh, don’t tell them that – they might be embarrassed; but they’ll understand when they are mommies :)

Cravings

First off, let me preface this post with a statement. No, I am not pregnant!

I was looking at a picture of a variety of candy. It had a particular candy bar that never appealed to me pre-pregnancy w/Janae nor does it appeal to me now. But it did once-upon-a-time. So here I divulge my pregnancy cravings (probably more for my record than yours...I've been wanting to do a scrap book page of this info for some time now.)

Pregnancy for Britnee:

• Chocolate donut or Hostess cupcake along with a carton of white milk. I would stop by the donut shop or gas station every day on the way to work and get this for my breakfast. I rarely drank white milk even as a baby...my mom hated it so she gave me chocolate - always (well, after I came off formula anyway)! (In fact, I knew I was pregnant with Alita, our first angel baby, before the pregnancy test showed positive because I woke up one morning, grabbed a brownie and a glass of white milk. Sat down at the table for breakfast, took my first bite and then went, "uh oh!" But that craving ended with the second pregnancy.)


• McDonald's Chocolate Milkshake. Mid-afternoon, my doting father (much to some of my student's parents disapproval) would stop by the school and say he was on his way to town, did I need anything? Of course, my answer was, "a chocolate milkshake if it's not too much trouble". (and it never was...I was the baby :) Now, understand, I LOVE chocolate (you already knew that didn't you?) but milkshakes were FAR down the list of acceptable chocolate indulgences when I wasn't pregnant. So this was new to me.


• Any kind of sandwich (ham and cheese sub, hamburger, Whopper, etc.) had to be accompanied with lettuce, tomato and mayo.


• Spaghetti. I ATE spaghetti before I was pregnant, but only if I had to. I certainly never ordered it off a menu by choice until now.

Pregnancy for Janae:

• chocolate chip cookies. I was a strange child in that I never cared for peppermints, candy canes, ice cream or chocolate chip cookies. But bring on those pregnancy hormones and it'll do crazy things. I especially loved the big cc cookies sold in Target cafeterias.


• Hershey Bar with Almonds. I HATED any kind of nut except walnuts. But I honestly think I consumed a Hershey Bar a day while I was prego for this child! And it HAD to have almonds. I always tell her that's why her eyes are the color of milk chocolate :)
  (note of interest: I could not drink Pepsi or anything sweet at all during this pregnancy and for several months post pregnancy- to this day, Janae is the child that will choose water over other drinks 90% of the time)

Pregnancy for Kerrigan:

• chocolate chip cookies (again, but Chips Ahoy or Famous Amos, this time around :)


• M&M's


• plain chocolate chips by the handful - let 'em melt in your mouth....mmmmmmm...


• Crafts of any kind


• ice cold water in a clear acrylic glass w/beads of condensation glistening

I am sure you are finding these last two hilarious, but I was so sick with her pregancy that I would lie in bed or on the couch and dream of the day when I felt good enough to do crafts or drink all the water I wanted - liquids were as hard for me to keep down as food.
(Again, I could not do Pepsi or sweet drinks - found out it was due to gall bladder issues - but I was able to start drinking Pepsi again shortly after I had her. She LOVES pop more than water, so I have concluded that it is a learned behavior in the early months of childhood not anything to do with pregancy!)

There's More Than One Way...

...to take out the trash