Our day out with Thomas!

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A sneak peek.

The sovreighnty of God in the little things

Today was the big day! The day we road Thomas the Train. It was a good day, a very good day! We have so many pictures, that I think a montage is the only plan. Aren't you excited? :-)

Yesterday, not as good as today. Not even close!

Our morning was good, busy but good. I was very please when I accomplished all my goals for the morning, which included finishing all the packing, packing the car AND making dinner. All that with three kids under foot.

At 11:30, I went to pick up our babysitter. I brought her back to the house, wished her luck, and headed out the door to school. Then I got rear ended. Yeah! Read ended!! Nothing major. And I had to laugh because really, who else has this kind of crazy stuff happen? Just me.

I had a great day tutoring. It was my first day with students and so many times I just found myself on the verge of laughter. There were so many things about middle school students that I had forgotten about. This is going to be fun!

At the end of the day, I start getting ready to leave. No keys. Sure enough, I had locked my keys in the car. So, I had to call Curtis to come rescue me. The whole process put us behind schedule. But praise God (keep reading).

We get home, and get on the road. We hit Hearne, which is only about 15 miles away, and we are in stand still traffic. We tried a short cut, but just ended up back in traffic. We could see the emergency vehicles, but never saw the accident. The police turned us around and we were diverted. We came to find out that the accident killed one adult and three children, and happened around the time we would have been there, had I not locked my keys in the car.

While we were in traffic, just a few cars behind us, there was another, more minor accident. It happened right behind us.

Oh, and during our time in traffic, Benjamin made himself throw up. Twice!!

We got into Oklahoma City around 1:15 am. We didn't get much sleep, but we were so thankful to be here safe and sound. It's so easy to take for granted God's protection. But we didn't yesterday!

Ears

Micah had his ENT appointment this morning, and surprise, surprise, he still has an ear infection. He also failed his hearing test in one ear (the ear with no tube) though this is just temporary due to the fluid and infection. In one week, Micah will have a second set of tubes put in his ears. While they are in there, they are also going to remove his adenoids. The whole procedure will probably only last 15 minutes, but we would covet your prayers. The part that I'm most worried about is when they take him back. He's old enough to be weary of strangers, but not quite old enough for lots of prep. I'm also worried about when he wakes up from anesthesia. He was an angry mess last go around, and now he's almost twice as big!

I'm very thankful that we're going to be able to get this taken care of. I think it will help Micah a lot. They've told us that some of the behavioral problems we've been dealing with should be resolved, which is a HUGE perk!

Thanks for you prayers!

I'm tired!

What a day! A good day, but a long, tiring day. And I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be more of the same. Here's what my schedule looks like.

8:00 all five of us out the door, dressed and looking good.
8:15 Micah's ENT appointment. We're all going so that the ENT can check out Benjamin, and since that put me with both boys, I'm dragging Curtis and Elizabeth along for the fun. And the doctor is the reason we have to look good. Other mom's tell me if I'm crazy here... I always feel the need to have us all looking put together when we go to the doctor. I want to look "worthy" of their time. Plus, I also want my kids on their best behavior (which is the case most days) so I have bags full of tricks to distract and amuse if the doctor is taking too long.
9:30 Hopefully we will be at my Young Mom's Bible Study.
11:00 ish leave the church and meet Curtis for lunch (not sure where).
After lunch, take the van in to have the oil changed and the inspection done. Looonnnngg over due! While the van is being taken care of, the kids and I will be shopping for car snacks and maybe, if they're lucky and I'm weak, car toys.
1:30ish home so boys can sleep
3:00 My sweet friend Andria is coming over so we can chat about our cranio kids.

Once Andria leaves, we head to Arowen's house (a friend of Elizabeth's) to borrow Thomas the Train movies and books, since Thursday we will be leaving to SEE and RIDE Thomas the Train!! We will be meeting my parents in Oklahoma City for this fun, early Christmas present. This week in school, we have been reading about trains, learning about trains, making calender countdowns till we ride the train, coloring pictures of trains. Anyone know any train songs?

Curtis works tomorrow evening, so my evening will be a blur of packing, cleaning, amusing the kids, feeding the kids, bathing the kids, and convincing the kids that I love them as much as Daddy and they don't NEED him to put them to bed.

All and all, life is great right now! Sure we're busy, but God has been very gracious and we haven't been left feeling as stressed as I thought we would.

And just so we don't have any parents go through Grandchildren Withdrawl, here's a picture of me and the boys this weekend and Anthony's birthday party.

And because I like doing Then and Now pictures, look at what a difference 16 months will make!

I couldn't make this stuff up!!

As I talk to other parents, we often find ourselves saying some of the same things. "Where do the kids get this stuff?" "Why in the world did they do that?" Here's a sampling of the latest thing that has me asking those questions.
Look closely, and you'll see froggy toes coming out of Micah's shirt. Why? Because there is a stuffed frog in Micah's shirt.

Kids are so funny! Curtis and I will be laughing about this for awhile tonight.

Because I miss my sissyters

I'm guessing this is in DC. So maybe '92 or '93?
Christmas morning in Texas! So probably, '97. Wait, I have bangs, that puts it as '99?!?
I think this is in my parents basement in Kansas. Not sure, but isn't it a great picture?!

My sisters and I have always been very close. Growing up in a military family, my parents would tell us, "Your friends will change. But you will always have each other." And I have always had my sisters! Even though I live in Texas, Shannon is in Kansas and Megan is in Georgia, I know that I can call on them for anything at any time!

I love you guys! I miss you both, so very much! Thanks for always being my very best friends!

Those crazy kids

Elizabeth
Yesterday at the doctor's office, Elizabeth shoved a little boy. I was shocked! Elizabeth quickly apologized, and I apologized to the mother of the little boy. "Why on earth did you do that?!" I asked. She looked up at me, looking very remorseful and surprised and said, "I thought he was my brother!"

Today was a long day, followed by a long evening. Elizabeth was in the tub, and I was attempting to clean the mess her brothers made during their bath. Suddenly, the little voice from the tub asked, "Mommy, why did God give you three children." Tonight was not the night for this question! So I asked her, "Why do you think?" She told me, "I don't know. But you're thankful for what you get and you don't throw a fit!"

Micah
Micah, Micah, Micah. He's a mess! It has been a loooonnnngggg day for Micah and his Mommy! Quick health update.... he seems to be feeling better, but is still doing occasional breathing treatments. I talked to the ENT today, and we have an appointment for next week, once he's finished with his antibiotics. We had been told earlier this week that Micah wouldn't have to have a second set of tubes at this point, but we'd have to readdress the situation if he got another ear infection. And here we are, three days later!! So, we'll see what the doc says next Wednesday. If he does need the second set of tubes, the surgery would hopefully be scheduled for the following week, which is when my mom would be able to come down to help!

Here's a video of Micah doing his breathing treatment with the nebulizer.

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Benjamin
And then there's sweet Ben. He has had an okay day, filled with lots of sleep, which is good because he didn't' do much sleeping last night!

Yesterday he got his head stuck under the couch. It was so funny! I heard him start screaming, went into the living room to find Benjamin's body on top of one of the couch cushions, and his head under the couch. Because of the angle, he couldn't get himself out, and just got freaked out. When I asked Elizabeth why he was under there, she just said two, magical words. Animal Crackers!

What a day!

What a crazy day it has been at Casa de Krajca!

1am Curtis and I finally go to sleep.
6:09 am Micah informs us that he is awake, wants to watch TV, and is hungry.
6:30 am All three kids are awake. They "help" me make a yummy breakfast of banana muffins (from scratch!) and scrambled eggs.
8:00 I leave for a doctor's appointment while Curtis stays home with the kids.
9:00 I get home, Curtis heads to work.

Now, at this point my plan was to get the kids ready to go to the library, where we would pick up some train books and our Thursday babysitter, Kaitlyn. We needed to leave at about 10:30. Kaitlyn was going to come to the house, and watch the kids while I did work to prepare for tutoring.

10:00 Micah has a coughing fit, partly induced by a fit he's throwing, and starts puking. This continues for almost 30 minutes!
10:30 I call and cancel the babysitter, and get an appointment for 11:30 to have Micah seen (in the past, the coughing a puking means asthma). I also have to call Curtis to see if he can come home to watch the boys while I take Elizabeth to tap, since the original plan was that Kaitlyn would watch the boys.
10:50 The pediatrician's office calls, and they have to move our appointment till 4:20.
10:51 I'm ready for a drink. A big one!
11:00 Call Curtis back after I finish cleaning up all the puke, he can come home for tap, and will just stay and help me with the doctor's appointment.
12:00 the baby goes down for a nap.
12:10 Micah goes down for a nap.
1:00 Benjamin wakes up from his nap coughing.
1:40 Curtis gets home.
1:45 I leave with Elizabeth for tap
3:10 I get home from tap, armed with Route 44 Sonic drinks for Curtis and I (even though I had already had three cups of coffee).
3:45 we leave to head towards the doc's office, via King Dollar.
4:15 we get to the doctor's office, and find that there isn't much of a wait!
5:00 we leave the doctor, after Micah has had a breathing treatment and had been diagnosed with an ear infection. We were to take the baby home and give him a breathing treatment. He was diagnosed with the beginnings of a sinus infection. Lots of drugs for the boys!
5:50 Curtis leaves to go to Academy.

My evening was spent giving breathing treatments, picking up drugs, giving drugs and baths.

So, we started this day with lots of coffee, and are ending it with some beer. here's hoping for a better day tomorrow!

You Know....

You know you're a mommy (and a tired mommy to boot) when you pick up your son's sleeper, which way laying right next to your shirt, and try to figure out how to put it on so that you can get ready to go somewhere.

Needless to say, it didn't work.

And I did figure out what I was doing.

And when you see me, I will be wearing my shirt, not the sleeper. :-)

A day at the park

Hope everyone is enjoying the glimpse of fall!

The WWF comes to the Krajca House!

Don't worry! No Krajca Boys were harmed in the making of this video. They really were playing, and having tons of fun!

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Awww!!!

Look how cute the three of them are! Look how much they love each other! Don't look at the fact that most of them are half naked. We were working on it!

And look how different they are! (June 2007)

Busy during Ike

Even though we never lost power, and were over all over prepared for Ike (which is better than being under prepared!) we still made good use of our Dollar Tree distractions. Here's a pictured of what Elizabeth accomplished during the storm. She did these puzzles about two or three times each! The big Pooh one was her "practice puzzle", one that she has been doing for awhile now. The other three are new ones. The two Pooh ones on top were only 25 pieces. The princess one was 63 pieces! I was very impressed with how well she did.

After our kinda crazy weekend, we are looking forward to getting a start on our VERY busy week. Tomorrow will be my first day of tutoring. This week is also Curtis' first full week at Academy. In the midst of all that, we have two doctor appointments, and our regularly weekly stuff (bible studies, community group, tap, ballet...). Having the weekend to have a lot of good, family time was a nice way to get ready for the impending chaos!

Our morning with Ike

We are very thankful that Ike kept moving to our east, and hasn't caused any problems for us thus far. This morning, around 6am, the wind started picking up. Shortly after that, the rain started. Right now, it's still pretty windy and rainy, but not nearly as bad as we had planned on.

Here are a few clips of Ike. The first two are on the back porch, and the last one is from the front of the house. And doesn't Elizabeth look like a little meteorologist with her baseball hat on? The big kids think all this is super fun!

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Not one to be left out of the fun....

Just in case you were worried that poor Benjamin didn't get to eat a rat, here are hit rat eating pictures.

And I'm sure you can see how battered Ben is looking these days. The little boo-boo under his nose is from him falling in the cul-de-sac. And then he has a bruise on his upper right arm. That's thanks to Micah, who bit him. It's tough being the little brother!

Rats

I had heard with large amounts of rain comes rats. It hasn't even rained here yet, and look what we're dealing with! Rats!!! Gummy rats, that is.
You know, it's a good thing that my kids are such troopers, and will eat anything. That should be helpful if Ike gets really bad.


This picture's a little fuzzy, but so adorable.... even with rats hanging out of their mouths!

See how much fun the Dollar Tree provides?!

Word of the day

Hunker (verb): to load up your house full of supplies for the hurricane, go to the Dollar Tree to find amusements for the kids, and wait out the storm.

Used in a sentence: We are going to hunker down, and wait out this storm.

:-) Can you tell I used to be an English teacher! This morning, Ike's projected path is still to our east. We are going to spend the day getting the outside of the house ready, and making sure there are plenty of distractions in case the electricity is out, making us lose our favorite distraction, the TV!

Hello, Ike!

The count down to Ike has begun in the Krajca house hold. I don't know if it was the extra trip to Wal Mart today, or the buzz of the TV that's been on all day, or the fact that I keep talking about it. Regardless, my kids are soooo excited about this hurricane! My friend Jamison came over on a whim this evening, and Elizabeth quickly told her, "I only have to sleep one more time, then there's going to be a big storm!" Micah and Benjamin quickly joined in her excitement just jumping up and down, screaming, "Yay!!!!"

So, on to the serious stuff. As of right now, we are staying put. Curtis has been given tomorrow off, since A&M is closed. All the stats that we've seen puts the eye of the storm passing to our east. I've learned today that you want to be on the west side of the eye, which is where we're projected to be. Earlier today, Ike was still going to be a hurricane when it hit B/CS. But now, it's maybe a tropical storm. Overall, things seem to be getting less bad as time progresses.

If we wake up in the morning, and the predictions are bad, we will probably get in the car and head north to Kansas. But right now, we are stocked up, and ready to ride Ike out.

Such excitement!!

Right as I was laying Micah down for his nap, we heard a big noise. Micah ran to his window, thinking it was the trash truck. Instead, a very happy little boy saw.....

Right in our cul-de-sac!!! So we postponed the nap. (Micah took the above picture, by the way) So exciting!
And of course Elizabeth, never one to miss the action, joined us outside.
Look at that boy's face!!! He was screaming, "I love backhoes!!"
Thankfully, the backhoe had to take a little break, and I was able to get Micah inside for his nap, which he is now taking, and I'm sure having very sweet little boy dreams!

That was close!

It's Monday. Blah!

But when I woke up this morning, I felt really good, and thought, today is going to be a GREAT day!

There was one little gray cloud. Curtis received jury summons, and was to report this morning. After talking to his Dad on the phone last night, we learn that there's a big murder trial here, and jury selection was to begin today. Uh-oh! We didn't realize it was such a big deal till this morning. And suddenly all my well laid plans were going crazy! We read on-line that the trial could last four weeks. Are you kidding me!?! We are too busy for this!

At about 9:15, Curtis called me to let me know that he hadn't been called for the big trial, and that his trial had been settled. Phew!!

All is much calmer now!

What do dinosaurs do in church?

They give each other piggy back rides, of course!

This is what Micah had his dinosaurs doing today in church. Boy was it hard to keep a straight face! Especially when he had four of them all stacked up!

10 years!

10 years ago today, I returned that fateful phone call. I think (if my memory serves me) that my Dad called Curtis back, then we talked. That was the first of many, many, many phone calls and many, many, many, hours spent talking. The long distance relationship that I wasn't going to have, started over the phone. And we didn't see each other for six weeks!

Here are a few pictures from the early years.......

December, 1998

This was the very first picture that we had taken together. When I went to go see Curtis earlier that fall, he took me to an A&M game. Since, at the time, I didn't understand or like football, the pay back was that he came with me to see the Nutcracker Ballet. That's when this picture was taken. We were babies, and didn't even know it!

Summer 1999

This picture was taken at the MSU campus. My friend, Dee, took this and several other pictures for us. The summer of '99 was a big one for our relationship. When Curtis came home for the summer, he told me he loved me (on my 19th birthday!) and we had our first kiss. And I'll save you the math. That was about 10 months into our relationship. I told you! We were very sweet!
September 6, 1999 - Our 1 year anniversary!

I surprised Curtis by coming down to A&M Labor Day weekend for our anniversary. He was shocked!! This picture was taken shortly after I surprised him.

December, 1999 - our informal engagement pictures (couldn't get my hands on a real one!)

Curtis proposed at his family's farm, on December 20th, 1999. It was night time, so we didn't get any pictures that night. So we went back with my friend Dee, and she took a few for us. 4th of July, 2000

December 2000, going to the Nutcracker again (and by the way, we haven't been again since!)

December 31st, 2000 - Us leaving for our honeymoon! January, 2000 - on our honeymoon in Colorado

Between the above picture, and the below picture, we both finished college. No small feat, my friends!
Fall 2002 - our Christmas card picture... look how skinny our dog was!
January 2002 - on our anniversary cruise

And you know the rest!! We had a baby, we bought a house, we had two more babies, we laughed, we cried, we loved, we learned, we grew....

and lived happily ever after!

Perfecting the Pout

(do you like his "spikey up hair"?)

Bad Mommy!

Thursday was Elizabeth's first day at Suzanne's School of Dance. (I know, that was two days ago!! There goes Mother of the Year!)

You might remember awhile back she had expressed interest in tap dancing. I made a deal with her that if I could find some tap shoes (meaning: cheap, used shoes) she could take tap lessons. This summer, I found a super cheap pair of tap shoes, bought them, and called Curtis to ask, "Are we sure we want to do this?"

After researching a few places, we settled on Suzanne's, which was our first choice. Elizabeth is in the Pre Primary II class, which is a combo class of ballet and tap. Here are a couple pictures that I got of her that morning (she wore her tap attire for the entire day!).



Very wisely, the teach has the girls do ballet first, then they change into their tap shoes. On our way to class, Elizabeth told me, "I'm so excited about tap, it's all I can think about!" As you can see in the picture below, she was ready to break in those tap shoes!
Elizabeth would be the little girl in the black leotard with crossed arms. I don't know what that face is about!

After one lesson, Elizabeth is having a ball! I think she is very much looking forward to getting to go again next week!

So, it's been quite the crazy week for her.... starting Pre-K, first tap lesson.... of the joys of being 4! Next week she starts back to ballet, and is very excited that Hannah is going to be in her class. Can life get any better???

Poll

You might not have noticed, but on our header, there is a quote. "It's a crazy life, but it's our life. And anything else would be boring." The first part of that quote is from a TV show. Do you know which one?

John and Kate Plus 8
On the Road with 16 Children
Raising 16 Children
The Brady Bunch

And in case you were curious, the second part of the quote is straight from the mouth of Christi! She reminds me all the time that if my life was calmer, I would be bored.

The fateful phone call

10 years ago today, my Dad got The Fateful Phone Call.

The night before, Curtis and I had been IMing (Instant Messaging). The summer had given us some time to get to know each other better, and we were both enjoying our new found friendship. Curtis was a sophomore at A&M, while I was a freshman at VRJC, the local junior college. That put us about five hours apart.

Everyone around us had started seeing the potential for our friendship to move into something "more". I saw the potential, but didn't want a long distance relationship, didn't wanted to start a relationship right as I was also starting my college career, and of course, he wasn't reformed! Oh, I had a good, long list of reasons why I was not going to fall in love with Curtis Krajca!

We had been putting up with a lot of the silly, "He likes you!" "You guys should get together!" Then my Mom flat out asked me, "Are you falling in love with Curtis?" "Of course not!" I replied. I had a list, remember?

I was relaying this story (minus the long list of reason I would NEVER date him) to him when he got kinda weird and quiet. So I asked, "What's the big deal? Are you falling in love with me?" Silence. Not golden at that moment! I thought I knew what he would say.... but boy was I wrong! He told me YES! He thought he was falling in love with me.

And being the good little girl I was (and still am!) I told him that I was going to bed, and he should call my Dad the next day while I was in class.

And he did.

I'm not sure exactly what was said. Something along the lines of pursuing a deeper relationship with me. And my Dad, being the cool, calm guy he is told Curtis that he would talk to me, and take time to pray.

I'm sure you can guess what happened next. Poor Curtis waited three days for an answer. But I did have a list that I need to settle first!

I love our story! I love how sweet it is. I love the fact that both of us had our parents involved. Was it perfect? Of course not! Despite a really good start, did we always do things the way we should? Of course not! But God used the beginning of our relationship to really lay a strong foundation.

And I'm very thankful that Curtis made that fateful phone call 10 years ago!

First Day of School!

Today was Elizabeth's first day of Pre-K! Here's a little sampling of what she's been working on today.

The bulletin board that we got set up this weekend (thanks to Daddy, Grand-Daddy, and Grandma!) This is where we do our calendar time.

Elizabeth, hard at work on her name.

Her finished work! (draft 3, I think) The first time she's written her name!

Time to work on numbers!