WARNING, Nuts Story Ahead

I know I shouldn't post about this but it is just too dang funny not to!

Bre had me up at 5:30 this morning and Marcus has stayed up till 2 AM at a friend's house. So around noon today we both decided to lay down for a nap.
I was almost asleep when Marcus came into my room asking me how to remove a tick. I told him you have to pull them off. His eyes got big and I asked him if he had a tick and where was it at. He said yeah he had one, and I quote, "on my nuts".
Well that made my eyes open all the way. I told him to turn on the light so I could help him. That is when I seen what he had in his hands...a fingernail file and a pair of scissors! WTH???
After asking him what in the world was he doing he told me that he had tried to CUT the tick off!
Now let me tell you, I am 110% sure that I am done having children but I still want grandchildren one day. So seeing my 10 year old standing there with scissors and knowing that he attempted to cut a very tiny insect off...well you know where...did not do my nerves any good.
Once the tick was pulled off safely with no sharp instruments involved I inspected it to see that part of it was missing so in fact he did actually cut part of it off.

Just when you think a child is old enough that you do not have to watch them 24/7 they go and cut a tick off of their nuts!

Game Winning Run

Joey, Marcus wanted me to let you know that he scored the game winning run at tonight's game.

I thought the kid had lost it when he done some kind of victory dance and raised his arms in the air as he came onto third base. All I could think was put your dang arms down kid and run, yeah a triple is good but a homerun is even better especially when we are loosing.
Being just a stupid mom it took me a couple of seconds to realize the reason he was celebrating was cause he had just sent Sammy over homeplate.

Bre and Sadie

Don't Underestimate Bribery!

These were taken after we got back home from having her ears pierced. For some reason they didn't turn out very good so you may have to look hard to see the earrings.

The pink horse she is playing with was a reward for ditching the bottles.

This girl drives a hard bargain. I told her if she was a big girl now she could throw away her bottles and get earrings. She happily agreed but then said "I get new toy too". All I could think to say was well OK!

So after MANY trips up and down the toy aisles she picked a pink Princess horse and I already had the Cinderella doll put back for her at home. In other words she got 2 new toys but it is worth it.

BTW Joey you had your chance to take the bottles away and I do believe I remember her telling you "I do it tomorrow daddy". Just think if you would have offered her holes in her ears and a pink horse you could have the bragging rights that are currently MINE--LOL!!

Comment from daddy

Comment from daddy---show me an up to date close up picture of her ears. Love You All!!




Dang you are good!

Yes she is now sporting very pink stud earrings but know what, she didn't even ask for a bottle lastnight!
She was also a very big girl when having it done. There were tears but she quickly wiped them away. Plus watching mommy get the top of her ear pierced helped ease the pain too.

I will post some pictures later on.

Hey Daddy

I have good news and a surprise!

The good news is my bottles are gone. I bagged them up myself cause I am a big girl now.

Can you guess what my surprise is?

Mommy said she would give you a day or so to try and guess.

Does She Remember?

I debated about whether to post this here on the public blog or the private one, or to post about it at all. Then I thought of how many times I have been asked by friends, family, and total strangers "Does she remember being in China?" or been told "there is no way she could remember any of that, she was too young". So here is the post to answer that question and to let everyone know that yes she does remember!

Saturday Marcus, Bre, and I were sitting in Hardee's having lunch. Bre was in a good mood and was happily eating her crispy curls while watching the automatic car wash across the street. She was also telling us each time that the stop light down the road changed colors that "red means stop", "green means go".
In an instance her mood changed. The look on her face became sad. She then told me "I not go back to China. I stay here with mommy. I stay in Bre's house."
I was left speechless. I will admit for a few seconds all I done was sat and looked at her. Finally I managed to say "of course you are staying with mommy". She continued to look so very sad and concerned so I placed her on my lap and hugged and kissed her repeatedly while reassuring her that she was home, we loved her, and that she was not going anywhere.
This left Marcus stunned. He has heard her say stuff similar before but nothing has ever came on this quick and with such emotion before. He kept asking me if I thought she was having some kind of flashback (didn't know he even knew what a flashback was). You know maybe he hit the nail on the head. Maybe it was a flashback of her life in China before she met us.
We do speak of China to her, though NEVER in a negative way. Even with the recent earthquake I have made sure that she didn't hear us speaking of it. I want her to know where she came from and who she is but I also want her to have nothing but admiration for her country of birth. When she is older we have ever intention of tackling the tricky subject of her first family but for now we keep it light and age appropriate.
This leaves me with no other option but to believe that she remembers way more than most give her credit for. I realize she was a baby when she left China and maybe she shouldn't remember but I know I can remember many early childhood details, very early actually. So who is to say that she can't?
So for all those who ask "does she remember?" My answer is a definite YES. To those who say she is too young I beg to differ.

Ready For Church

One Child Changes Due to Quake

1-child policy has exceptions after China quake
By CARA ANNA, Associated Press WriterMon May 26, 5:01 PM ET
Chinese officials said Monday that the country's one-child policy exempts families with a child killed, severely injured or disabled in the country's devastating earthquake.
Those families can obtain a certificate to have another child, the Chengdu Population and Family Planning Committee in the capital of hard-hit Sichuan province said.
With so many shattered families asking questions, the Chengdu committee is clarifying existing one-child policy guidelines, said a committee official surnamed Wang.
"There are just a lot of cases now, so we need to clarify our policies," said Wang, who declined to elaborate.
The May 12 quake was particularly painful to many Chinese because it killed so many only children.
The earthquake has left more than 65,000 people dead so far, with more than 23,000 missing. Officials have not been able to estimate the number of children killed.
Chinese couples who have more than one child are commonly punished by fines. The announcement says that if a child born illegally was killed in the quake, the parents will no longer have to pay fines for that child — but the previously paid fines won't be refunded.
If the couple's legally born child is killed and the couple is left with an illegally born child under the age of 18, that child can be registered as the legal child — an important move that gives the child previously denied rights including free nine years of compulsory education.
China's one-child policy was launched in the late 1970s to control China's exploding population and ensure better education and health care. The law includes certain exceptions for ethnic groups, rural families and families where both parents are only children.
The government says the policy has prevented an additional 400 million births, but critics say it has also led to forced abortions, sterilizations and a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio as local authorities pursue sometimes severe birth quotas set by Beijing and families abort girls out of a traditional preference for male heirs.
Though commonly called a one-child policy, the rules offer a welter of exceptions and loopholes, some of them put into practice because of widespread opposition to the limits.
For example, in large parts of rural China, most families are allowed a second-child, especially if the first was a girl. Local officials often have wide discretion on enforcement, a fact that has made the policy susceptible to corruption.
Many Chinese have shown interest in adopting earthquake orphans, and Monday's announcement says there are no limits on the number of earthquake orphans a family can adopt. The adoptions, or even a future birth to a family that adopts an orphan, will not face the limitations of the one-child policy.
Officials estimated last week that the quake left about 4,000 orphans, but they warned they would make every effort to connect children with other family members.
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.

Earthquake Update

China evacuates villagers after new flood threat
By AUDRA ANG, Associated Press Writer 33 minutes ago
About 80,000 people were evacuated Tuesday from downstream of an unstable earthquake-created dam that is threatening to collapse, and troops rushed to carve a trench to drain the water before it floods the valley.
The threat of flooding from dozens of lakes swelling behind walls of mud and rubble that have plugged narrow valleys in parts of the disaster zone is adding a new worry for millions of survivors.
More than 30 villages were emptied and the people were being sent to camps like the one outside Jiangyou, where an Associated Press reporter saw 12-15 people crammed into each of about 40 government-issued tents pitched on a hillside overlooking the river.
"We were told that so far it is the safest place for us to stay if the dam of the lake crashes," said Liu Yuhua, whose village of Huangshi was one of those emptied. "But we will have to move farther uphill if the situation turns out to be worse."
Troops on Tuesday used explosives to blow up tree stumps that were hampering heavy-duty excavators that were airlifted by helicopter in recent days to the newly formed Tangjiashan lake near the town of Beichuan, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
The magnitude-7.9 quake that struck Sichuan province May 12 sent a mass of dirt and rocks tumbling in the valley about two miles above the town in a spot not reached by roads, plugging a river that is now forming the lake.
Elsewhere in the region, workers also used explosives to level some buildings that were left teetering by the quake — a further sign that officials have stopped rescue and recovery efforts in some places.
The number of deaths from the quake climbed toward an expected toll of 80,000 or more. China's Cabinet said Tuesday that 67,183 people were confirmed killed, with 20,790 still missing.
Aftershocks continued to rattle the region, causing more damage and injuries and jangling the already-frayed nerves of survivors. Two temblors Tuesday caused more than 420,000 houses to collapse in Qingchuan county, Xinhua reported. Sixty-three people were injured, including six who were critically hurt.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured a magnitude-5.2 aftershock just after 4 p.m. (4 a.m. EDT) and one measuring 5.7 about a half-hour later.
In a live broadcast, state television showed heavy earth-moving equipment being used to carve a 200-yard channel to drain the water from the Tangjiashan lake.
"We are prepared to get rid of the trees by chopping and explosion. After that, the second batch of equipment will be moved in," Liu Ning, chief engineer at the Ministry of Water Resources, was quoted as saying on CCTV.
Downstream, officials rushed to evacuate people in the path of potential floodwaters. Xinhua said emergency workers labored into the night to try to get 80,000 people out. Another group of about 80,000 have already been moved out of the valley, it said.
At Tangjiashan lake, hundreds of troops were working around the clock to dig a channel that would divert the rising waters before they breach the top of the rubble wall. Officials fear the loose soil and debris wall could crumble easily if the water starts cascading over the top, and send a torrent flooding down into the valley.
The lake now holds 34 billion gallons of water and was rising by more than 3 feet every 24 hours, Xinhua reported.
Tangjiashan is the largest of some 35 lakes created by rubble blocking rivers in the quake zone. Some rising floodwaters have already swallowed villages, though only Tangjiashan was posing a risk of another big catastrophe.
Adding to the urgency, thunderstorms were forecast for parts of Sichuan this week — a foretaste of the summer rainy season that accounts for more than 70 percent of the 24 inches of rain that falls on the area each year.
Man-made dams in the mountainous region were also weakened by the quake, although officials said there is no major threat.
At one dam site near the town of Mianyang, villagers workings in nearby rice fields said cracks had appeared in the dam wall after the quake but that government workers had reinforced it with steel rods.
In the town of Yingxiu, explosives were used to demolish some damaged buildings, a new element to the massive cleanup operation. Teams have been pulling down creaky buildings across Sichuan using mostly excavators, bulldozers and other heavy machinery.
Also Tuesday, health officials said higher-than-normal rates of stomach pains and fever had been reported among the millions of quake survivors, but that no major disease outbreaks had occurred.
About 5 million people were left homeless by the quake, and many are living in tents or makeshift camps clustered throughout the disaster zone.
Qi Xiaoqiu, the director of disease prevention at the Health Ministry, said the quake had knocked out much of the region's health infrastructure. He said 12 field hospitals had been erected and tens of thousands of health professionals sent into the zone.
"With the destruction by the quake, the living and sanitary conditions have worsened for the local population," Qi said in Beijing. "Their physical conditions are weakened, (they are) more vulnerable to disease."
Diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis and diarrhea remained a threat, but so far no outbreaks had been reported, he said.
Copyright © 2008 The Associated Press.

Road Trip, Pog Style

I had to take Daisy back to the vet today to get her stitches removed from being spayed.

It was Christy's day to clean the house so this meant that all the kids had to go with me. Bre went to school and Dylan and Marcus along with a friend of Dylan's (D) loaded into the Jeep along with Pog.

I made sure the night before that D really wanted to go with us instead of going home, he was sure he did. Poor kid may never go with us anywhere again after the loooooooong ride to the vet.

Daisy spent most of the trip sitting, drooling, spewing, shedding, farting, and any other nasty Pog body function on D!

By time we got there we had used many baby wipes to clean slobbers off of us and the Jeep. It's a good thing we love this dog so much cause manners and cleanness is so not her strong points!

Cool Chick

Bubbie Playtime

Dylan can not leave this child alone and when she sees him she automatically thinks playtime. This time he had her by her ankles letting her walk on her hands.

I just wish you could hear the giggles that went along with this picture!

Dinner time cuteness

Bre Too

Of course you knew Bre just had to have a jersey too! The only problem is she is so dang tiny that it looks more like a nightgown than a jersey but she wears it as if she was 10 feet tall so that is all that matters!

Thunder

Baseball season has hit once again and he got his cast off in time to model his uniform for me.

Since this is the team's last year on the pitching machine and they are hoping for a good season, we wanted them to look sharp. So Joey and I sprung for the uniforms. I just got so sick of all those cheap looking t-shirts that made them look like a walking billboard for whoever shelled out a couple hundred bucks to sponsor them.

We had a tough time figuring out what to call them so I found a list of all the minor league teams and we settled on THUNDER cause that is what they sound like coming across the field. Plus HERD OF ELEPHANTS was to long to fit on the shirts, LOL!

Next was what color? I love red but feel red is a very overused color on the field (we have played 2 games now and both teams had red shirts on). There also seems to be a good bit of blue so green became our color along with a golden yellow.

I think they turned out pretty good.

Moved Back Home

I decided to move back to Blogger from Live Journal( http://bregpenn.livejournal.com/) I will still use the LiveJournal account from time to time when a post requires more privacy but I just prefer Blogger overall. If you want access to the blog at Live Journal (and don't already have it) to view past posts or to sneak a peak to see if there is anything new then email me at stephdpenn@yahoo.com.