I Will...

This New Year there are a few things that I feel I can reasonably accomplish. I'm not going to call them resolutions because for many reasons I don't follow through with them. Instead I'm going to call them goals. These goals are pretty simple and even if I lag a bit throughout the year I think I should get most of them accomplished. Here they are (in no particular order):

1. I will update my little blog at least once a week. I think this is doable.

2. I will take a photo of something or someone in my life EVERY day this year. This one will probably be the toughest but I'll try my best. This is mainly because one day I would like to scrapbook again and hopefully this will help to motivate me.

3. I will be crafty. My goal is one item of craftiness a month. This will have to be like a date night that I actually schedule into my life.

4. Date night. In almost 10 years I can count on one hand how many dates the Mr. and I have had since having children. That's pathetic. I'll find a way to make this happen. I feel like this one may be the most important goal of all. Actually, I know it is.

Well, that's it. Not very exciting I know but hey, this is serious business, this goal setting stuff. I'm not used to it yet but I will be.

A Little Self Pity

I honestly don't know how I'm going to handle this. Oh, not that we're having another boy, just the fact that I never thought that I would be the Mother of FOUR children. Today I'm officially halfway through my pregnancy and I feel terribly close to curling up in my bed, putting the covers over my head and bawling my eyes out. I won't of course, but I might wait until later when the kids are all alseep and Cory is at least home to give me a hug and tell me that everything will be fine.

My Poor Baby Girl!

Well, the day started out great. We went over to visit with Grandma and Grandpa just like we always do and since it was SO hot the kids went swimming. Cory and Val took the kids in while Sherri and I watched a movie in the cool air-conditioned house (Baby Mama, which is hillariously funny by the way). It was the first time since last summer that Olivia went in the water and after a few minutes she loved it just like the other kids. I went out and snapped a couple of pictures of my happy, goofy looking kid before I started melting (I'm made of sugar you know) and had to hightail it back into the cool house.

Little did I know that the cute pool picture would end up being my "before" shot.

A little while after the kids got out of the pool Sherri and I decided to run to Target to get Olivia a new swimsuit. We were gone about and hour and when we arrived home with our purchases we walked into a horrifying scene. Cory was holding Olivia at the kitchen table and Val was leaning over her while she was screaming her head off. All I could immediately take in was that my daughter was crying and that THERE WAS BLOOD!!! Cory looked at Val and said, "I knew they would walk in on this." So right away I turn into the howling fishwife and demand to know what they did to my baby. As it turns out she tripped on the rug in the den and fell face first on the tile. Cory said that he was so close to catching her but just missed and she hit.

Now about this time I'm trying really hard not to burst into tears myself and be calm about things for the sake of my other kids who are also concerned about their baby sister. All I could think was that her teeth were going to turn black and fall out. Now that's not too bad since she will get her adult teeth someday but for goodness sake she's a GIRL! It really does make a difference. Anyway, Sherri put in a call to her nephew D. Max (the dentist) and he helped to reassure me that as long as she still had the teeth in her mouth and they weren't all warped and out of place she had a good chance of keeping them. Although only time would tell if her gums were injured and they would still turn black and fall out.

It's been a few days now and while Olivia's lip looks a lot better, I'm still freaking out over her teeth and constantly checking her gums (which look a bit bruised) for any sign of serious damage. She hasn't been eating too well but that's to be expected with a sore mouth and she is getting enough to keep from starving.

I guess I'll just have to put this down in the books as a "childhood mishap" and take it day by day.

This is a picture of Lily's latest "pet". Since she cleaned her room this weekend she got her allowance of five dollars. This morning we went to Target and as we were passing an endcap with clearance items she stopped dead in her tracks.
"Mom, I never had a piyata before", she said to me.
"A what?", I replied.
"You know, a piyata, like at parties and they have candy in them and you break them open".
Then it dawned on me, "Oh, a pinata".
"Yes, that's what I said, a piyata. Can I buy it with my allowance money?"
Since it was on clearance for only $3.24, I thought, what the hey? And Lily said that it was her new pet and she wasn't going to put candy in it because she didn't want anyone to hit it with a stick.
It's name is Pony.

I just can't get enough of this girl's imagination.

Name

Well since the name The Jacklin Family was already taken :) I had to come up with something to call this here blog so this is how I got the name.

I used to go out scrapbooking with my friend Wonda every other week or so and Cory would stay home with the kids. One day I asked Gavin what him and Lily did with Daddy when I was gone and he said "We have Jacklin Dance Party." "What's that?" I asked. His reply was that it was "Where Dad turns on the music really loud and we all dance around the house like crazy people". I asked Cory the same question and he had the same answer. So as I was struggling to come up with an at least semi-original name for my blog that story popped into my head and here we are.

Okay , so it's not very exciting but that's the story anyway and I've always loved it. Also, if you're ever in the neighborhood and I'm not home but Cory and the kids are, chances are you'll hear the music on and the sound of three happy kids laughing and dancing like crazy people with their Dad.

Well, here goes nothing...

That's it, I'm finally on the blogging bandwagon. It took me a while but it's something that I've been meaning to do for a really long time so ... here goes nothing.

I want to let it be known that this will be more of a journal for me that entertainment for others. Although I believe at times it will be alternately hilariously entertaining and vastly boring, so read at your own risk.

First off, I don't really know what I'm doing so bear with me, mistakes and all. Secondly, if you don't want to hear both my glorious acheivements in motherhood AND my rants and failures you should just leave now. And thirdly, I really don't know what I'm doing.