Lincoln goes to daycare...

Today marks a very eventful day. Lincoln started daycare for 2 days a week!! This momma is excited!

I know what you're thinking. But Ami, you're a stay at home mom... why daycare? Isn't that pointless? Well no, no it isnt. Now don't get me wrong.... I love my kids. More than anything. Anything! But sometimes, let's be honest here, momma needs a well deserved break! Not only is this a nice little break for me, but it will also give Lincoln some more social interaction with kids his own age. I'm a huge believer in the fact that kids need to socialize and this is the perfect opportunity for him!

I dropped him off early this morning. Before we left home, he was super excited. When we got there, he was a little unsure and started crying. BUT, I haven't heard from them yet (3 hours later) so I suspect that he's doing just fine.

Let's hope for a good day. After our awful doctor visit yesterday we could really use a fabulous day today! :)

My Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Dr. Visit

I know it's been a while but i'm getting back into this blog. This time I PROMISE. Like, FOR REAL PROMISE! Let's start this new found blogging time here on Life As We Know It with a little story about my visit to the Dr. Office with Lincoln this morning. Hold on... it's going to be a wild ride! 

So let's start with few facts. Lincoln starts daycare tomorrow for 2 days a week. He has to have a physical in order to start. Our pediatrician, Dr. Pav, retired in October. (Don't get me started... it was a sad, sad day and I'm still not fully recovered from the loss). But that's another story.... 

Anyway, so I take Lincoln to a new doctor here in town (for the sake of this poor dr. I won't give out the name). But, I had received several high recommendations on her and thought what the heck? It's in town, convenient, much closer... let's give it a shot. Boy, was I in for a treat this morning. 

So, I had to wake Lincoln up to get him ready. Keep in mind, I'm sick too and feel awful. I'm already grouchy and in no way, shape or form in the mood to deal with anyone's B.S. today. But I kept telling myself, this is so close... you only have to drive a few miles and you're there. No big deal. HAH! 

I got there early to fill out all the paperwork since Lincoln is a new patient. We finally get that all done and get called back. The nurse, oh she was a breath of fresh air... Lincoln could sense that too and was already on his way to a meltdown. GREATTTT! So we can't get him weighed by standing on the scale so she asks to move him to the counter scale. Ok. FINE. So I pick him up and set him on the counter. "You need to lean back and not touch it!" Ok... let me let go of my kid so he can fall and bust his head. yep, that's a great idea. 

Moving on... we're in the room waiting for the doctor. When she first comes in Lincoln was talking and she says, "Does he always talk like that? I can't understand him" Are you kidding me? He's 2 first of all, secondly- he had issues because of his ears and not being able to fully hear us until he got tubes put in. He's actually talking a lot more now and a lot plainer. We did speech therapy for awhile and he "graduated" because he was doing so well. AND she's going to basically scold him for not talking "clearly." Insert punch in the face here. SERIOUSLY! But i kept my mouth shut and just smiled a "i really hate you right now but i'm going to be polite" smile. Then she says ok I need to check his "Wee-wee" or what do you call it at home? Ummm, i don't know, I said...we don't really have an "official" term. (See... i'm already super impressed). She sees he has a pull up on- (that's all he wears now because he wants to be a "big boy") and says, oh he's a little young to be potty training already. First of all, he's 2 and he's not too young. Secondly, it's none of your business. OH EM GEE. Then she says ok Let me go see if we got the shot records from your previous doctor. OK. go right ahead. 

(Let me say before I go on, we choose not to give our kids the MMR vaccine until they're 3 or older. That is our PERSONAL PREFERENCE. If you have issues with this, please keep them to yourself. I'm not about to battle the do's and don'ts of vaccines with you- nor am i going to debate why or why my kids should or shouldn't receive them. IT'S MY OPINION!) can you tell i'm on edge today? 

So, the doctor comes back in and says something like "I see you don't have the MMR vaccine." Yes, I said- we are waiting until he's 3 to do that. "Why?" It's my personal preference. "Ok then, why?" Because it's my personal preference. "Yeah but why? I need an explanation" OK then... I studied this subject in college and I believe that It CAN sometimes link to autism and I'm not going to vaccinate my child with the MMR until he's 3. (Yes, I know there's no scientific proof... don't get me started...)"You realize that if there is a measles outbreak and he catches it... he WILL die" Ummm.. ok. Are you resorting to scare tactics? That's what's going through my brain right now.  He will be 3 in about 6 months- I'll take my chances. He will be fine. Already about to punch her in the face, right? 

Then I'm asked about our family medical history. I say, Well on my husband's side there's nothing too much really and on my side I have no idea. "Why don't you know?" Because I was adopted when I was 4 months old. "Ok, I guess that's a good enough reason!" YOU GUESS! YOU STINKING GUESS IT'S A GOOD ENOUGH REASON!? SERIOUSLY!!!! Ok, let me fly to Korea, hunt my birth mom down, find out her medical history and then i'll report to you. UM, NO! 

At the end, she said, ok let me go get your papers. If you need anything, just give us a call. I 'KINDLY' replied "That's ok, we won't be coming back here ever again." Seriously. Never ever ever... coming back here again...ever ever ever. (ok, maybe i was singing taylor swift in my head just then).

I left so frustrated and just downright mad. I have never had an experience like that at a doctors office. Never has my child been treated like that in a doctors office. I'm disgusted and soooooooooo ready to just punch that doc in the face. HAH! I left a review on their website about my terrible, horrible, very bad experience there. The Schiff's will NO longer be visiting this facility. I'll drive the 30 minutes to Carbondale instead. WHY oh WHY did Dr. Pav retire? We miss him soooo much! : (

I wonder what will happen...

... if I make a conscious effort to stop yelling at my kids when they are misbehaving and START being more calm.

You see, at our MOPS group at church one of the ladies made a comment about a little girl coming to her home one time and saying that she liked it there because her mom was so quiet or peaceful... something along those lines. Forgive me, I can't remember the exact quote. But you get my point, right? 

Anyway, it seems like I am always yelling or speaking sternly to these two crazy kids of mine. "Don't climb on that, Stop hitting your brother, We have to share, We go pee in the potty, Don't put that in your mouth, Stop throwing your food, Please don't climb on me, Don't play in the cabinets, Get down before you fall." 

Sound familiar? Anyone? Anyone?? 

Truth is, I have 2 little ninjas that are constantly searching for the next thing to do that will seriously injure them. NO joke. And my words seem to go in one ear and out the other. THEY. KEEP. DOING. IT. All the time. Ok, maybe not all the time... but they're boys- so what do you expect? 

Anyway, for the next 30 days I am going to do a little experiment. I'm going to consciously make the effort to stop yelling and start speaking calmly to them when they are misbehaving. I'm anxious to see how things will change. Will they listen better? or worse? Will they too become more calm? Will the tantrums over sharing stop? 

It's important that we set good examples for our children. They REPEAT everything. Gabe has heard me say "Go stand in the corner" so many times that he has started to tell Lincoln to "Go to the corner." Crazy thing is, Lincoln listens to him! haha. Back to the point, we MUST set good examples. Our children learn and are molded by what we say and do- by our actions. I know for a fact that I want my kids to be well mannered, well behaved children that people want to be around. I want them to love God and show him to others. I want them to be the friend that their friends know they can rely on and seek advice from someday. I want our house to be a "safe, fun" house that their friends want to come to. 

So Mommas, do any of you want to join me on this little journey? It's bound to be a fun ride! 

Motherhood Perfection. It's overrated.

Hi! I'm Ami. I have a great family, a few great friends that I can call family and an awesome husband and kids. My puppy is always properly groomed. My car is always clean and my house is always spotless... 

NOT! 

Well, if you saw my fb posts you might get this impression. Truth is... It took me a good 10 minutes to get that one good picture of both of my kids smiling... and even then, one of them isn't even looking at me. I had to spend another 5 minutes cleaning that area they are sitting/standing in to free it from cars, cheerios and other random toys. That picture of our puppy Rylee was taken 4 weeks ago after she got groomed...I've been saving it for a rainy day. And I only post the cute pictures of my husband and I- which are few and far between. Those selfies? well most likely they were taken when I actually had to get "Dressed" like on a date night. 

Truth is. I'm a Mom. Wife. Daughter. Sister. Friend. I have 2 boys that want and deserve my undivided attention 99% of the time. I rarely make it out of my house without looking like a bum who just came off the streets. My house is almost ALWAYS a disaster with cheerios, cars and random toys scattered throughout. I most likely have changed Lincoln's diaper 5 times in the past 20 minutes because he won't leave the stinkin' thing on (pun intended). There is a constant sound of cartoons playing in our house. And those kids... oh my, those kids... well they find every way possible to injure themselves. 

I realized recently that from the outside looking in our lives may seem perfect. When I hop on facebook and see all these posts of everyone's "perfect" lives I easily become mad or envious thinking "well, how in the world do they pull that off?" AHA! Then it comes to me... we live in a day and age where media is overtaking our lives. It's so easy to edit those pictures or just post a happy status so everyone will think life is perfect. 

There are days when I'd like to hop on facebook and post something like... "well, my kid took his diaper off in the middle of the night and peed in his bed, the husband got off late which means no play time for the boys and no rest for me, my house is a disaster and i don't even care at this point, and my kid won't sit on the dang potty to poop to save his life. 'i'm about to pull my hair out or lock myself in the bathroom...which is pointless since the boys will somehow find their way in." 

Instead, it's usually a happy post about how loving my kids are and how they're brightening my day. 

If we Momma's are being real... then let's be real about this. Yes, our kids are awesome and we can't imagine life without them. Everyone knows that. My kids are my world. But OH MY GOSH... there are days when I literally want to scream. There are those days at the store when I'm dragging them both out because they saw a toy they wanted and I said no and their screaming... and the only thing I want to do is spank their little behinds and put them in timeout. But I don't... because someone will see me and call DCFS on me when they should be wasting their time calling about the Mom that just called her daughter a little "B" and screamed at her the whole way out. I have those days where I literally feel like a single mom because my husband is off to work providing for us and he's tired and rarely gets to spend quality time with us unless it's on the weekend. And I don't complain because who am I to complain about my husband giving me this opportunity to stay at home. There are those days when we wake up late, throw on some clothes and make it just in time for Gabe to go to school. And there are those days when I literally weigh my options as to whether we can make it for 6 more hours without milk so I don't have to take the boys to the store and just wait until Jesse's home to watch them. Because we all know that going to the store alone is 100 times better than going with 2 kids. 

We've all been there. We've all sat in the parking lot at Wal-Mart wondering if we really need those 5 things because disturbing the sleeping kids in the back is a battle that you don't want to fight. All of us Momma's have begged our kids not to go to sleep for 5 more minutes just so we can make it inside the house. And we're all guilty of feeding our kids quick and easy meals because we just don't feel like cooking. :)Let's be honest...we've all been there. 

I'm not sure this post made much sense... but the point I'm trying to make is to not judge yourself so harshly Mom's! It's so easy to hop on Facebook and see all these wonderful posts and instantly compare yourself to others. It's easy to think that everyone else's life is perfect.... it's facebook- it's easy to edit and post what you want. Being a mom is a full-time job. It's hard. Really, really hard. And if anyone tells you different, they're lying. My life is far from perfect. But I do have a great family, great friends I can call family and an awesome husband and kids... I Really DO! I don't compare myself to anyone anymore... because quite honestly, those boys of mine... they are what make my world go round. 

Night! 

Mouse

There's a mouse in my house. Jesse's at work. I'm doing the only logical thing I know to do: sit on the couch with my feet up until Jesse gets home...which is 4 hours from now. We've set traps and the stupid thing hasn't been caught yet. I hate these creatures. I hate it being in my house. I now have to scrub my house from top to bottom. I will not be able to function correctly until it is caught and dead. That is all for tonight. The boys and I are camping out on the couch. : (

Catching up with The Schiff's

As I said, I"m making it my personal goal to update this at least once a week from now until the end of the year. Let's see how this goes. Anyway, let's do some catching up on the Schiff's. After all, that is what this blog is about, right? Our family and the kids! :) 

A lot has happened since I truly updated this blog... Jesse got a new job! He got hired on with a company after working for a contractor for a year. We get FREE health insurance (amazing) and to top it off, he just got a pay raise. We took a few pay cuts with the past few jobs but now, we're back in business. :) The new mines that he is working at is also a 20 minute drive from home... so much better than the hour drive he was doing. The only downside is that he works like crazy and only gets every other Saturday off (maybe). Sundays are always a day off. The upside to that is more money...which means more things getting paid off... which also means a GOOD Christmas for the boys...which also means tht we are doing very well at the moment. BUT, we all know how our life goes so I don't want to get too caught up in the moment. But yeah, life is good. Let's pray it stays this way. 

Gabriel started Pre-K this year. Seriously! WHAT!? I debated on him going but since his friend Madilyn was going to be in his class, we decided to take the big plunge and send him. It's only 3 hours a day, but heck- he seems to love it. A future blog post about this subject will happen with much more detail. 

A few weeks ago the boys had their friend, Luke stay the whole weekend. It was soooo much fun. I just loved turning the monitor on and listening to Gabe and Luke have a conversation when I put them to bed. It was so darn cute. We had a busy weekend... again, blog post on this will happen soon as well. 

Other than that, it's just the usual grind around this house. Summer has come and gone and it's officially FALL! I LOVE FALL! Who's with me? I LOVE everything about fall... especially the fact that I get to where hoodies and UGGS and not feel bad about it. haha. Lincoln is his crazy, busy normal self. That little boy sure keeps us on his toes. About 2 months ago he fell while playing with Gabriel, hit the corner of our tv stand, and cracked a hole in his head. I. WAS. TERRIFIED. Luckily Jesse was home and was able to calm us both down. I took him to the emergency room and waited 2 hours only for them to tell me that it was already healing and nothing to be concerned about. I'm really glad I sat in a waiting room full of sick people to be told that. YEah, a lot of fun. Seriously though, that little boy climbs on everything. We joke and say that he is constantly trying to find a way to kill himself... but the sad thing is, it's true. Everything he's not supposed to do, he does. We recently moved both boys into their own room (they share). We'd always wake up to find them both standing at the door. We just couldn't figure out how Lincoln was getting out (we never had this problem with Gabe) because he never did this while he was still sleeping downstairs. Well, obviously he was climbing out... so we turned his crib into a daybed. Now, he just climbs into bed with his big bro every night. It has got to be the cutest thing I ever did see. They truly are best friends and I Love that. 

I still can't comprehend that Christmas is almost here! Where in the world did this year go!? I've gotten a little headstart on my Christmas Shopping... but we still have quite a bit to get. I had made a list of specific things I wanted to get the boys... I've gotten most of the things on my list. Now, it's just a mtter of finding little toys here and there for them. Again, this year we aren't buying all BRAND NEW toys. For as much as the boys play with things, we figure buying some used things is just as good. They'll never know- plus it saves us a bunch of money. I mean really, toys are EXPENSIVE these days. We spend a certain amount on each boy (give or take)... so I set aside 1/2 of that amount for brand new toys and the other half for some used things we find at goodwill, savers and swap pages on fb. Gabe really wanted a pirate ship and a big firetruck. I got lucky and found both at the kidsignment sale this past month. I spent 10 bucks on a ship that is normally $45... and 5 bucks on a huge firetruck that I'm sure both boys will love. I also found 2 Imaginext dino's for $5 on a swap site that Gabriel is going to love. One big present that I'd like to get Gabriel is a Tricycle. He seems to really like them now... so we told Santa that's what he wants. haha. :) I'll post more on our Christmas shopping later... once we're all done. Don't want to give everything away now! 

Ummm, did I mention that I had my first Migraine/Sinus Headache last month. OH. MY. GOSH. I honestly don't know how people with chronic migraines do it. I had one for 1 day and thought I was going to die. Literally. Well, more like I wanted to just crawl in a hole and not come out until it was better. This thing woke me up at like 4:30 am... it was the WORST Headache pain I've ever had in my life. I thought I had had a migraine before but after this one I now know I was wrong. Anyway, I took everything I could that day... tylenol, excedrin, ibuprofen and nothing worked. I couldn't even move without my head pounding. I couldn't sleep because the pain was so bad. Plus, I had to take care of both boys who just didn't understand that Mommy was in terrible pain. I took all the advice people gave me... Wrapped my neck and head in a cold towel, took a warm bath, kept all of the lights off, took excedrin migraine, drank caffeeine... NOTHING worked. I just got sick and threw up anything that I tried to eat or drink... which wasn't much bc I didn't eat hardly anything because my head hurt too bad to even walk to the kitchen. So eventually, I was just throwing up water and tea. YUCK! ARound 5 that evening my mom ended up taking me to an Urgent Care Clinic. The PA came in and after discovering that this was my first migraine, she sent me to the ER to make sure it was nothing serious. We had both boys with us and sitting in an ER with them just wasn't going to work. So I decided to just go home and tough it out. Thankfully, my dad met us on our way back and turned around and took me to the ER. We were there for several hours... I got a CT scan to make sure there wasn't anything serious. Thank God it came back clear. The dr. came in, asked me a few questions, and then pressed on all my sinus points. He then concluded that it was a Sinus headache and said the goal was to get my pain level down. Honestly, my pain was at 10! It took them FOREVER to bring me medicine. So there we were... sitting in a dark room because the light hurt. Finally the nurse showed up with a round of meds that was supposed to make me feel better. I got a steroid shot, Zofran, Sudafed and Dilauded for pain. It took another hour or 2 for those to even kick in. They sent me home with some medicine and pain killer to take if it got worse. I came home and sat on the couch for about 2 hours, drinking tea- waiting to feel well enough to go to bed and sleep. I had gotten sick on the way home and threw up.. again. So there I sayt... just waiting to feel better and not throw up anymore. FInally, I made it to bed (Jesse was sleeping and getting up for work a few hours later) and slept the whole night. My mom took th eboys to her house... knowing that I was in no shape to take care of them that night. Plus, it was close to midnight by the time we got home... and the boys were already asleep. They didn't mind getting to have a sleepover with Mama & Papa though. I woke up the next morning feeling much, much better. Never again do I want to experience a painful headache like that one. I honestly just wanted to curl up in a ball, crawl into a hole and never come out. 

Alright, that's about all I got for tonight. My house needs picked up and then I'm going to bed. We're going to the pumpkin patch and a birthday party tomorrow... so I need some sleep! :) 

Have a good one! 

Seriously, I have NO excuse (Gabriel Lee is 3!)

I really wish I had a good excuse as to why I haven't updated in FOREVER. But the honest, blunt truth about it is, I have none...unless you count being extremely tired and busy every. single. day. after chasing around 2 very, very busy boys. Yep, that's my only excuse. Anywho, so much to write about... So much to catch up on. I'm making it my mission to finish the rest of this year out strong on this blog. Let's see... there's Gabriel's Birthday, Jesse's new job, Gabriel starting School, Florida Vacation, Gabriel's first trip to the dentist and of course Halloween (but we still have a week until that!)

Let's start with Gabriel's 3rd Birthday! 

I honestly still cannot believe that my tiny baby boy is already 3 years old. Seriously, how did this happen? It just doesn't seem possible. He's growing and learning so much every single day... it's unreal. We don't take Gabe's birthday lightly around here... maybe that's crazy to some people but the fact that he is a healthy, strong, smart boy is something to be celebrated- considering where we started. My little 2 pound baby is now a whopping 25 pounds. And yes, every little thing he does is cause for celebration. So, on his birthday we take a little extra time to celebrate his life. 

This year, we wanted to do something a little different for his birthday. We've always had a pool party in the past but with this crazy weather and it always being so hot we opted for a party indoors somewhere. SI Bowl was the perfect place for us. They have the smaller lanes for Gabe and his friends and a party package that was a great deal. All we had to do was bring the cupcakes. They did everything else...including clean up. Which I must say, was awesome. All of the kids got to bowl for one hour and then we had the party room for about an hour as well. Everyone also got $1.00 worth of quarters to play games in the arcade and pizza and soda. The only extra thing Jesse & I purchased was extra pizza for everyone. So easy and SO much fun. Gabe LOVED it. All of his cousins and friends got to come and they had a great time. Though the bowling probably would have been more fun if we had just done a free for all instead of making everyone wait their turn...hah! It was SO much fun watching all the kids bowl and play. 

The theme of his birthday was Disney CARS of course. His FAVORITE! I made him a CARS shirt and we had the cutest CARS cupcakes that I bought from Wal-Mart. Seriously, Wal-Mart has some delicious Cupcakes/Cakes! :) At the end of the party, they let all of the kids sign a bowling pin and Gabe got to bring it home. Now, he will forever know who all came to celebrate his birthday with him! That evening when we got home, we played and played with all of his new toys. Everything from Spiderman to his magnatile blocks. He thoroughly enjoyed every single thing! He's so loved by so many people. It's amazing. 

The morning of his birthday, Gabriel woke up to presents, balloons and a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY poster hanging in the living room. We're still in the stage of.... I wanna play with the first toy I get. Regardless, he loved all of his gifts. 

My little man is growing up so fast on me. I hate it. I hate that my little baby is gone... but I love watching him grow and seeing the young man that he will one day be. 

Gabriel Lee: 

Weight: 25 pounds

Shirt size: 24 months/2T

Pant size: 18 months-24 months/2T

Movies: CARS, Monsters Inc., Despicable Me, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs

TV Shows: Curious George, Mickey Mouse

Food: Macaroni, Pizza, french fries, PB&J

LOVES: 

His "Beet" aka. Blanket
Brother
Rylee
THE MOON
Mowing with Papa
Going to Rodney's 
Watching Tyler ride his vroom-vroom (aka dirt bike) 


Dear Gabriel Lee, 

Oh my goodness, I still can't believe that you are 3 years old. Even sitting here (4 months after your bday) I can't get over that you are growing up on me. You are the sweetest, most handsome little boy. EVER. You have a little bit of both Mommy and Daddy's temper which at the end of the day, isn't always a good mix. You sure know how to drive Mommy crazy but you also know how to be sweet and get your way. You got your daddy wrapped around that little finger of yours... which is quite possibly the reason why you (and Lincoln) have everything you could ever want or need. I love getting to watch you grow and learn new things. You are always coming up with something funny to say or do. You have more energy than anyone and at the end of the day, I find myself exhausted after keeping up with you and your brother.I know I say it every year, but I'm so proud of how far you have come. It seems like just yesterday you were this tiny little baby boy sitting in the incubator (remember that? You told me the other day that you remember your time in there. haha). And now, you're this big boy who runs, plays, laughs and occasionally cries...but seriously, it's amazing. You've overcome every obstacle they said would be in your way. You are so nice and polite to everyone (don't know where that comes from) and you have a heart of gold. I love you more than the universe little man. 

Love, 

Mommy