Washer is up and running!!

Matt finally got my washer fixed! And wow, do we have a lot of clothes to wash!!

I thought my washer would be running today nonstop just to get it all done. But I was wrong, like usual.

I got two loads done today. Only TWO!!! And the girls did one of the loads because I was busy feeding Micah.

I guess I am just out of practice!! Haha!!

Broken Washer. :(

I know I haven't blogged for over a week. Trust me, exciting things have been happening, but apparently not so exciting to blog about!!

As many of you know, laundry is a never ending problem at my house. With four kids and a husband, I need to keep up on laundry.  Last Thursday, I brought all the laundry downstairs and was starting to get ahead.  I noticed a little bit of the floor was wet, but didn't really think anything about it. I just kept washing clothes.

Fast forward to Saturday and Matt asked me if I had noticed any water on the laundry room floor. I said I did, but thought it was ok. He said that the water had actually leaked through the floor and there was water in his office! OOPS!!

After taking the back of my washer apart, he figured out the problem, but needed it all to be dry before he could fix it.

Here I am Tuesday and my washer is still not fixed.  The floor is dry, Matt has figured out the problem, but time has been our enemy. He also needed to go get a new part, which he went out tonight, but the store didn't have the part he needed. Now he thinks he can put the old part back on and it should be fine.

I don't really care how he fixes it, but if he doesn't soon, we are going to have trouble! I have already noticed Christian picking up dirty pajamas off his floor and wearing them to bed!!! (Honestly though, I don't know what is clean or dirty on his floor anymore!)

Braces for Megan :)

I know very well that Megan needs a full set of braces AND another palette expander.

She had a palette expander about a year and a half ago, and it did it's job, but since she has grown so much, she needs another one.

We got an estimate from our current orthodontist over the summer for the price of braces.  Our estimate AFTER insurance was about $3100. Matt and I think this is crazy for braces!!! (The original price was $5400.)

I found out about a month ago that our current one is not "in-network," so I thought I would take her to one that is on our list and see if it would be any cheaper.

This last week, I took her to a different orthodontist. The estimate for this "in network" orthodontist was $2600. His original price was $4800.

That is a $500 difference between the two estimates. They both had the same plan for treatment.

Do I automatically go with the cheaper plan? Or stay with the orthodontist that we know and already did her last palette expander?? And the one who did Courtney's braces?

Matt and I are thinking we got with the cheaper plan!

By the way, a couple of weeks ago, I had taken her to another "in-network" orthodontist and her estimate was $4100 AFTER insurance! NO WAY! Her original price was $6100!!!

On another side note, I asked the place where I took Megan to this week how much it would be for me. I know I need either full braces or invisalign and their estimate was $1800. I would need a consultation to know for sure, but this was their thought. When can I start?? :)

Who is taking all these selfies??

As I was trying to figure out my camera on my phone, I soon came to realize that some little children already figured it out! And it was full of selfies!! Geez, children these days...

New Phone!

I have a new phone already. Matt didn't want me driving four children around town and not have a phone, so we went out Thursday afternoon and got me a new one. I now have an Android.  Spint no longer carries Microsoft phones and Microsoft does not even support them, so I really didn't have a choice!

I now have to learn everything completely over and Microsoft and Android phones are nothing alike! The good thing is that many people have Androids and can share all the secrets. :)

I purchased a case for my phone, so hopefully if Micah gets ahold of this one, he won't break it.

That's the end of my phone. :(

I took Micah to Wal.Mart tonight while Megan was at youth group.  We were both shopping happily, and then my phone notified me that I had received a message. I took it out of my pocket, and Micah decided he wanted to see too, so he knocked it out of my hand, and it fell to the floor.

My phone falls all the time, so I reached down to pick my phone AND the battery up off the floor, and when I turned my phone right side up, I saw that my screen was completely cracked!! I went to move the screen and it wouldn't' work. :( 

So that is the official end of my cell phone.

Matt was not too happy either because he just took insurance off of them about a week ago.

The good part of it all is that our two year contract is up, and we are eligible to get new phones. He said he was thinking about getting a new one anyway.

The bad part of the deal is that we both had Microsoft phones, which Sprint does not even carry anymore. Matt refuses to get an Apple phone, so it looks like we will be getting Androids. I am not looking forward to the change!!

Thank you Micah!!

This happened!

When did this boy get big enough to stand up in his crib??

Now he can add his set of teeth marks to the bed. Just like his brother and sisters!!

No Sleep, not even on Vacation!

We have been gone the last five days on a mini-vacation to Niobrara State Park. This was the only park with spots still reservable a couple of weeks ago, so we jumped on the chance to get away for a few days. We had never been in northern Nebraska, so we thought we would go explore somewhere new for once!

We had a great time! The area up there is BEAUTIFUL and the park was very isolated and quiet.  We went to Gavins Point Dam one day and explored that area.

We also went to Ashfall Fossil Beds and saw all the work they are doing there. It was so neat. I loved it that Christian wanted to learn everything he could about every picture and fossil there. Courtney kept saying, "I thought this was vacation. Why do we have to learn something??" Quite the difference!

Yesterday we thought we would let the kids go swimming at the pool at the campground, but it was cold and chilly and we ended up just sitting around all day. It seemed like it was going to rain at any moment, so we stayed close to the camper. I really wish it would have rained during the day because it rained ALL NIGHT!!

Since we were just sitting around all day, we ended up getting the kids to bed earlier than usual. I actually turned my light off around 10, which is early for me. At 11:09 pm, I woke up because I was having a very weird dream! I also heard some noise outside and when I looked out the window, I could see lightning off in the distance. I woke Matt up and we checked out the radar. There were bright red areas coming out way! I didn't like the looks of the radar! And here we were in a camper with four kids!

Luckily for us, it was just pretty intense wind, very heavy rain, lighting and thunder. There was no tornado watch or warning! But when you sleep in a slide out, every thing is twice as loud.

This rain started shortly after 11 and kept going until about 2:30!! I was awake almost the entire time and I kept looking at the radar, hoping that it would be over soon. At one point, we were in the clear and there was nothing else coming out way. But unfortunately, another storm popped up and we were getting rained on again.

Thankfully, everybody but Megan slept through it all.

By about 2:30-2:45, it was done and I tried to get to sleep. I think I achieved my goal until Megan got up to go to the bathroom around 3:15. She had been awake since 12 and couldn't sleep. When she opened the bathroom door to go back to bed, it squeaked and she woke Micah up! NOOOO!!!  I got up right away and tried to nurse him back to sleep, but that didn't work. I was losing my patience fast (remember, not much sleep at this point), so I put him back in his bed to scream while I woke Matt up to help me.

Matt took care of him for a little bit and Micah ended up laying beside me in bed.  He was awake until 5:45!!! I was also awake. I had pretty much been up since 11 with about a half an hour nap!

I got Micah back to sleep and tried to get some sleep myself. It is always depressing when I am trying to go to sleep and the sun is coming up.

Around 7:15 am, Micah was back awake and crying again!! That was only 1 1/2 hours! I really didn't want to get up, but I knew he would continue to cry until I picked him up.  I got him up and eventually the other kids got up too. I was really hoping we could all sleep until 9 or so!!

So in all, I think I got 2-3 hours of sleep last night.

Seriously! Even on vacation, I cannot get enough sleep!!!