New Web Site

This post does not contain any cute pictures or entertaining stories. It is solely to keep you updated on what I have been doing for the past week. Most of my spare (ha!) time (re: time I should be using to clean the house) has been used to work on my new website. I am in the process of creating the best online spina bifida resource available. High aspirations, I know. But why bother if you're not going to do it right? My goal is to take all the information that is floating around on the web and consolidate it onto one site. Then, I will add some fun catagories, such as clothing, travel, and sports, and tie it all together with a community forum. The forum is actually up and running already. We have 19 members so far. Not bad, considering the forum was launched about a week ago. Most of the pages have some content on them- a few are finished. There are still a couple of catagories that remain as "coming soon". Even if you aren't in the spina bifida community, check out the site anyway. I appreciate feedback from anyone.

http://www.lifestyleaccelerator.com/

Out Of Control

Anna is going through a phase where she puts on multiple items of pink clothing and wears them around the house. She usually starts out with a regular outfit for the base layer (one that I have chosen) and then starts adding anything that is pink and can be pulled over her head. When she came home from school today she immediately pulled on a long sleeved pink dress and then topped it with a sleeveless pink dress. So, she is currently wearing three outfits and a pair of pink sunglasses. Our record so far is 4 layers. That ensemble included her original white shirt, plus her pink princess costume, a pink short sleeved shirt and a pink dress. Wow. I'm surprised she can move in all of that clothing.

Ben.

This morning we stayed home from church because I have been very sick (thanks Emily...) and I didn't want to share my germs with others. Ben was very sad about not going to church, so we compromised and had our Sunday School lesson in the living room. Since I am their teacher, I had all the materials on hand. It went very well. Ben and Anna sat and followed through with all our activities just as if we were really in the classroom. Later, Ben and I were in a conversation about orphans. I was trying to explain the concept to him, and was a little afraid that he might take this on as his new "thing to worry about". His last "thing to worry about" was fire- such as "what if our house burns down, what if we can't get out, what if we burn down, then do we die?" etc. I was sure the prospect of being parent-less would be equally as concerning. After explaining that orphans are children that do not having parents (and hoping he wasn't going to ask me WHY they don't have parents) I was met with this one profound statement. "But if children don't have parents, they might poop on the floor." Yes, Ben, yes. They might poop on the floor. Good to know that when you look at your mom and dad, you think, "These are the people that keep me from pooping on the floor." Not to mention all the other things we do as parents...

What Will They Think Of Next?

Today, while I was cleaning my crockpot (elbow deep in baked-on-grime from where the stew had boiled over and dripped between the pot and the cooker) I heard a suspicious coughing sound coming from the other side of the couch. I rinsed charred stew off my hands as quickly as possible and trotted across the room, dripping stew water from my fingertips as I went. I saw what I suspected. Emily was laying on the rug in front of our couch, throwing up. She managed to throw up not only on the rug, but on a pillow (that does NOT have a removable cover), the floor, her clothes, and her favorite baby doll. After scooping her up, I managed to get another round of throw up on my shirt, and the floor. Anna immediately ran and found a dirty towel from the laundry room, and to my horror, started mopping up the floor (re. spreading throw up around) with one of my white towels. The third round of throw up hit our chaise lounge, and Caleb's Boppy- not to mention the blanket Emily was wrapped in after being stripped of her throw up clothes. "What was Ben up to during this mayhem," you ask? That's a great question. As we all know, children have a knack for knowing when their parents are unaccessible and for using that time to implement their own crazy plans. In the midst of throw up, Ben rolled our pumpkin off the table and carved it. I'm not kidding. He carved it with a 10 year old plastic knife that I bought at Target while I was in college. The only thing I can figure is that the pumpkin cracked when it hit the floor, which gave him an opening. However, he did most of the damage himself. Anna was an accomplice once he got to the seed scooping stage. Apparently, this is what they did in school today. Moms all over the world know that this is why you can't go to the bathroom with peace of mind as long as your children are awake. While you are still flushing the toilet, they will be dropping eggs off the back of the couch to see if objects really fall at the same rate of speed.

Halloween

My babies were so cute this year. I'm so glad that Ben is still young enough that he is excited about being an animal for Halloween instead of requesting something like Spider Man. This year the Donahue household had a mouse, a princess, a butterfly, and a bear. You may recognize Caleb's costume as Ben's from four years ago *sniff*. You can also see Ben, Anna, Emily, and Caleb with their friend Molly by visiting the Hines' blog. There are several cute pictures of the gang, and a good picture of Ben holding his "cheese".