What a day!

If you've ever had a rummage, you know how much work goes in to it... LOTS! I decided to have one today. I've been pricing clothes for about the last month. I put an ad in the paper & said it would start at 8:30 am. Of course, people came early. Not too early, but early. Nate & I were scrambling around outside trying to get things together, all the while hearing the kids scream inside the house.

It was a pretty good sale. I've still got lots left, so who knows. I may get crazy & have another one next weekend at my Grandma's. I think I only bargained 3 times which is rare around here. After a while, the kids & Nate came outside. I sold two of the kids' bouncy seats they had when they were little. It was at the very front of the driveway. I looked down & saw Jonah all laid back in it, drinking my Diet Pepsi. Now that is relaxation! Every person that walked up, he would say, "HI! What's your name?" He was my little greeter.

I closed up shop around 3 pm & went straight to my grandma's to fix her hair. I left from there & went to our church to do the bulletin. When I got home, we immediately left to go to Ashley's house to roast weenies. While there, I cut four heads of hair. We got home around 9:15 & I put a load of laundry in & went to Walmart. I got home around 10:45 pm & am now blogging. Whew, I'm tired. But dear blog followers, I will leave you with this question....Does this guy look burnt to you?

This is my brother in law's back from tonight. He decided he needed to show the difference in color & therefore showed me his whole butt in the process. It was Nate's fault. He said, "Pull your pants down a little more to show the color." Nate's next sentence was, "NOT THAT MUCH!" Perfect timing, Shannon, perfect timing.

Our trip to the hollar

Last Friday; me, the kids, mom & grandma headed down to Tennessee for our family reunion. I picked the kids up from pre school at 10:30 am & picked up my traveling partners. We were on the road by 11 am. Nate stayed back home & partied it up with his band mates at our house. In the words of Sawyer from LOST, "Son of a b%$#*"! I'm kidding. I just read Jorge Garcia's (Hurley's) blog & have LOST on my mind. Okay...where was I?

I'm going to be honest here, the drive to & from Tennessee was pretty much hell. It's a 6 hour drive down to where my family lives. NOTE TO SELF: Get the DVD players for the van FIXED before the next road trip. When you have triplets (or multiple children), it can get pretty loud. They all talk at the same time, they scream at each other, they tell on each other, they spit, they say "poop" three million times and the list goes on. God love my granny & mom for not going insane with me. Grandma has hearing aides & said it was hard for her to hear anyway. I told mom, "If I were her, I would just take the hearing aides completely out." At that point, I, too, wished I was hard of hearing.

I don't think I've posted this, but Jonah is pretty much potty trained. Praise Jesus! I never thought I'd see the day. Seriously folks...if you have one that isn't getting it, just go with the flow & one day they will pick it up. This brings me to the potty issue. Frankly, that is what wore me out the most on this trip. My kids hate public bathrooms. I mean, who really is a fan of them? But my kids are very sensitive to noises & the loud flushing sounds (which are echoed because of the bathrooms) make them nervous; as well as the "hair dryers" in the bathrooms do. Therefore, Jonah did not pee once on the trip. I tried & tried to get him to go. I even let him try outside & on the toilet seat I have in the van for emergencies. It was beyond frustrating.

We made it in to town & went to eat dinner before dropping Grandma off at her sister's house & heading to the cabin. We ate at the Bob Cat & I got catfish. Holy Mary Mother of Moses, that stuff was phenomenal. In all my 34 years of going to Tennessee, I hadn't eaten catfish. I'm not a fish eater & was always scared to try it. I can't believe what I was missing out on. In fact, we went back on Saturday night so I could get it again.

After dinner, we dropped Grandma off at her sister's (Virgie) house. She stays with her when we go down. The kids loved Virgie. They called her, Girvie. And her daughter, Trudy, was there as well. Trudy is deaf & Jasper picked that up not long after we had gotten there. He said to me, "Mama, Trudy can't talk." I said, "That's right Jasper, she is deaf. She can't hear us, but she can see us. And she sees when we wave at her." After that, there was a lot of waving go on. And when he & Isabel saw her signing to her daughter, they stopped dead in their tracks. It amazed them.

So we finally got down to the cabin. We got unpacked & gave the kids a shower before putting them in PJ's. I figured they would be out. My kids, unfortunately, are not car sleepers. Well, that night was horrible. I bet I was up 15 times & I think I got a total of 2 1/2 hours of sleep. I remember laying there about 3 in the morning thinking, "As soon as they get up, we are heading back home." It turns out that Saturday was a great day. Well, minus Jonah pooping all over mom's floor. He just stood there & pooped thru his PJ's. He'd poop, walk a bit, poop a bit, etc. Anyway, the weather was beautiful & hot. We took a hike in the hollar. We looked at all the beautiful creeks. We stayed busy & the kids took an afternoon nap....as did I. It was much needed & appreciated.

We went out for the evening & headed back to the cabin. That night was much better. I only had to get up a few times. We got up & got our food cooked for the reunion. Mom cleaned the cabin & we got all our stuff loaded in the van & headed out. The reunion was good & the drive home was...hell! Did you think it would be anything else?

I almost wish we would have stayed an extra day or two. I think the kids really would have gotten in to a routine more. But, the time down there was nice. And the kids wont stop talking about it. As always, I have a TON of pictures that I will post soon!

The Coolest Aunt

Last Thursday, I went with my nephew, Trevor, to an amusement park. If you only miss a certain amount of days thru the school year, students are eligible to go on this trip. I think this was his 2nd or 3rd year going. I asked my sister if I could go with him this year instead of her.


Rumor has it, that everyone wanted to be in Trevor's cool aunt's group :) I'm just sayin! So, it was narrowed down to Trevor & 3 other boys. The bus ride was about 3 hours there & 3 hours back. And we stayed at the park for almost 6 hours. It was a long day, but a lot of fun.


The boys listened relatively well. At first, I was going to line them up & tell them from the start..."I better not hear any sass mouth from any of you boys. You understand?" Ashley told me not to embarrass Trevor. Speaking of, I am supposed to call him "Trevor"...not "Trev" when he is around his friends. I suppose this means he isn't my baby any more & that he truly is growing up...sniff, sniff.

Listening to my IPOD...we shared ear buds. How sweet :) This is our "gangsta" face. I don't think the guy behind us was amused.

To pass bus time, we made shadow puppets. Here is Trevor's bird. Not bad at all!

These boys were across the aisle from us. They look thrilled, huh?

Log Ride! I think we rode this about 7 times. This was Trevor & the boys. I sat out so they could go one time by themselves.

The Crew: L to R (Trevor, Corbin, Gage, Spencer)

Trevor & Gage coming off a ride

Singing to me

Since when is the ice cream man a crackhead?

I have fond memories of the ice cream man...fond, I tell you. I remember living on Maple Drive & my sister & I and our neighborhood friends would chase him down. We lived to hear the ice cream truck song playing over the loud speaker. As a matter of fact, the day our little brother was born, Ashley & I were chasing the ice cream man. Our mom stood in the front doorway with her long flowing dress & yelled our names. To be honest, we were kind of bummed that we had to stop chasing the truck just for our measly little brother. But, we somehow grew to love him.

Fast forward to present time. I live back in the old neighborhood I grew up in. It is packed with kids. Needless to say, we hear that ice cream truck from time to time. Before we had kids, you could often times find me at the end of the road with our chubby neighborhood boy, getting ice cream. My mind must have been jaded then. Which brings me to this...

When did the ice cream man turn in to a crackhead? Okay, so I really don't know if these people are crackheads, but I'm guessing they are high on something other than life. When we heard the song playing over the loud speaker, my kids got excited & nervous. I got excited! I scrounged up some money & we waited at the end of the driveway. Here came the van, with a scary looking woman driving it. She was all slouched over like she hated life. I smiled & walked in front of her. She glared with her arm up against her head. Instead of her going to the back to get the ice cream, she looked back at a man who was slouched in the backseat. He got up & took our order. $8 for that freakin' ice cream. $8! For 3 ice cream bars. And not to mention, we were served by some of our county's finest. Sheesh! If you're gonna sell ice cream to kids, at least act like you aren't about to slit your wrist.

They honestly were scary. The kids didn't notice, so it has me wondering what the ice cream man looked like back in 1980. Apparently, the same people work the trucks up north where my in laws live. Nate was there with the kids on Saturday & he told me they looked no different. Must be a new thing on the applications: Do you smoke weed? Do you have no will to live? If you answer yes to these, Welcome aboard Capt'n Happy!

That ice cream made my kids happy, so I will deal with the crazies!

I have to give credit where credit is due. Back in the day, these were called "Bomb Pops". They are now called something different. Back then, they were teeny tiny. Look at the size of those things, now! Too bad I didn't have enough money, because mine & Nate's mouths were watering for one of those babies!

Isabel kept saying, "Does Jonah have lipstick on?"

The reason I can't move away from this state

Is because I wouldn't know what to do without my family. If I could convince everyone that we need to move, maybe it would happen. I'm sure more than just I wouldn't mind moving somewhere tropical...someone just has to take the first step!

We went to Ashley's again last night for a little together to celebrate mom & Duane's birthday's. May is a big birthday month in our family. Which means, I'm broke. Oh wait, that's nothing new.

I didn't take my camera which is rare. Even Ashley asked if I was okay. But I got a few crappy shots from my phone.

Nick & Iz ~ Mark my words, I think they are going to be kissin' cousins

Aaron taking Jasper for a ride
I'm not sure what was going on here, but Aaron was dragging a big branch

The kids running from Aaron

My Jonah

Will, Iz & Jonah

Nate has a problem...

FIBER BARS

I got in his car to move it out of the driveway and this is what I stumbled upon..

I bet he has one heck of a clean colon

I lived to see another Mother's day

Growing up, I think it is *almost* every girls dream to be a mommy. Was it my dream? Absolutely! I believe I've always been the mothering type. I loved taking care of my baby dolls. I use to push my little brother in his stroller down our street. I am 5 years older than him. I use to worry about when my older sister would sneak her boyfriends in. Listen...everyone knows this story (even our mom & Ashley's husband), so no worries. Its almost a joke in our family. Just ask Lee (our brother), he brings it up at every family gathering.

I knew as soon as I got married, I wanted kids right then. That didn't happen for Nate & I. About 9 months after getting married, I went off birth control. Each month we would wait in anticipation at the thought of being pregnant. And each month, we had a pregnancy stick (or 2) that read "negative." For a few years, this became our monthly ritual. After the first year, we learned not to get our hopes up.

In the meantime, my sister became pregnant. To be honest (and she knows this), it was difficult. It isn't a surprise, now, that Ash & Aaron are the worlds most fertile couple. However, I grew to love this unborn baby so much. I absolutely couldn't wait to meet him. And at last, on May 30, 2000; my beautiful nephew, Trevor, was born...at 8:28 am. From the beginning, I felt such a strong connection with Trevor. To this day, I swear he is supposed to be mine. But I guess I'll let his mom have him & I'll stick with being his favorite aunt. Each week, I couldn't wait to visit him & love on him & kiss him. My desire to have a baby intensified. If this was what loving a baby felt like, I wanted it!

After a few years of trying to conceive, Nate & I were referred to a fertility specialist. From there, our dreams came true....doubly true! Unfortunately, that dream was shattered with the death of our Eli & Olivia. To know that their deaths were caused from me not being able to carry them to full term, was crushing. I wasn't giving up. No way! I WAS supposed to be a mom. It was my destiny. So we tried again. And after a few shots, I was pregnant with 3!

To find out that you are having 3 babies at one time is quite a shock. And this is something I can share with MY mom forever. She took me to the hospital to see our fertility doctor because I had bleeding early on. Freaked out because of what happened with the twins, she was the only available person to take me at such a short notice. After doing an ultrasound & determining everything was okay, the doctor said, "There are 2 sacs...wait, no, 3! You are pregnant with 3!" I looked at my mom & she said as calmly as possible, "It's okay Shannon, we can do this!" And at 10 weeks, I had surgery to sew the ol' cervix shut & the rest is history.

I was blessed to have 3 healthy babies, born at 30 weeks & 6 days. Finally, I could have this joy that I waited for & wanted for so long. It was my turn to be a mama! And let me tell you, it has been a roller coaster of a ride. I say I lived to see this mother's day because, well, age 3 has not been the easiest for us. But oh my gosh, it is still amazing to me that these 3 little people are all mine! And Nate's. :)

Each day they do something new to make me laugh or think, "what in the h*&$ are they thinking?" They love me unconditionally...even when I flip out. They know that their mama is going to take care of them no matter what. They know that I love them more than life & would step in the way of anyone who would try to hurt them. I am so truly blessed to have so much love & to be the receiver of so much. Life was boring before they came along. Each day was the same ol'. But now, each day is an adventure. And some days, I want to jump ship, but I pull myself back up & get ready for the next adventure. I've learned so much from these 3 people. And I feel so lucky to be their mama!

Happy Mother's Day!

And Happy Mother's day to my mom! She has shown me what it is like to work hard & provide for her kids as well as loving them & wanting nothing but the best for them. I'm so lucky she's mine!

**And to all those mother's who have lost a child & also have living children, it is a bittersweet day. **

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Jonah with the Kiera Knightley nose & pout

My future in 13 years?

Isabel can no longer drive the John Deere. She's horrible! Crazy horrible! The boys like the video and say, "We wanna watch the one where mama yells." Well, I can't help it. My poor neighbors fence was hit. This was after giving her the benefit of the doubt & letting her try again...AFTER she had smashed my leg in between 2 chairs...

I swear, that John Deere will be the death of me. I can see it in the paper now.