This is an atypical shopping trip…but I just thought I’d share that Murphy’s Law (what can go wrong will) was applied to our outing today.

So, it’s the first of the month and I thought I would try and get ahead of our monthly shopping and hit some stores by myself. One included a quick trip into a grocery store to see what their price was on organic/”green” beef…we’re trying to decide if it’s worth the increase in price to purchase this beef compared to what we get at our wholesale store. It took only a few seconds for me to see that their prices were more than what I could pay at EarthFare (our organic/health food store). We left there, change Josiah, fed Josiah, and headed to Sam’s.

Sam’s is always busy but even more so at the first of the month. As we walked through the parking lot, I had Zoe holding Liam’s hand, Ace holding onto my pants and Liam was holding my hand. Of course, I was carrying Josiah. As Ace continued to pull my pants down, I asked him to please stop. He didn’t and shortly after this, he tripped on a parking block (you know the ones that keep you from driving onto a curb, etc). As he tripped, he jerked my pants with him. Thankfully, they didn’t come all the way down, but I was showing a little belly and undies for a second. I got angry (because I lost sight of what a blessing he was at the time) and decided he couldn’t really be that bad hurt…it did look a little dirty but that was it. I made up my mind to proceed through the store and get what we needed…however, Liam saw someone’s bicycle parked outside the store and decided to touch and play with every part of it. After dragging him into the store and safely secured into a shopping cart, I bent down to check Ace’s knee. And Liam kicked me in the face (not on purpose). I finally get a good look at Ace’s knee and I saw that he lost a good bit of skin…now I’m mad at myself for getting angry with him for declothing me. We rush through Sam’s while I try to keep Zoe from being an annoying big sister and bugging Ace. Every time I mention getting to the car to doctor up Ace’s knee, he moaned in pain…or drama.

After doctoring up Ace’s knee, changing Liam’s training pants (soaked…and we were out of disposable pull ups), we headed to Wal-Mart to pick up the aforementioned disposable pants and to get some lunch. Boy, that’s a run on sentence right there! Sorry, mom! Anyway, back to the story. So, we’re happily eating our greasy burgers, chicken, and fries, and Liam announces that he pooped. Which meant that he teeteed. Common terminology for him. Let me back up for a second, I only brought in the stroller, my wallet, and the kids because it was going to be a quick trip in for food and pull ups…no diapers, no cloth training pants. A couple of seconds later, he announces he pooped again. And sure enough…he did. We finish eating, Josiah’s fussing for a nap, and I rush to the bathroom to dump Liam’s disposal and slap the dirty pants back on…sorry, but that’s all I could think to do at the time. I secure Liam into the stroller and we head to get our items. After that it was pretty uneventful since I was tired and ready to head home!

Such is life, shopping with four children under five!

Ace was fine after he threw up. Go figure!

Mark and I celebrated 12 years of dating on Saturday night (it was actually the 20th but we had church)! We celebrated with a dinner in (thanks to Ace being sick) from PF Chang’s and swiss cake roll from EarthFare. And a movie.

Zoe’s reading like crazy! She’s an amazing kid.

Liam’s potty training is pretty non existent…still going in his training pants but also on the potty…weird.

Josiah started running a low grade temp yesterday. We’re watching it and waiting. If he’s still running a fever, he’ll go in on Thursday or Friday. It was really weird yesterday because I noticed his hands and arms were really warm, but his forehead was cool. I kept checking him until we got home that afternoon (a trip to the park at the library and the gym) and his forehead was cool the whole time. So, when we got home, I checked his temp and it was at 101.3. Ughhh! Odd fevers…today his forehead has actually felt warm.

I’ve got pictures in folders to be uploaded but haven’t had a chance to resize them…they’re coming though.

Today started out fairly good. I slept in with Ace on one side and Liam on the other. Today is the first day my ears have not really hurt.

However, Ace just wouldn’t get up. He kept complaining that his tummy hurt. He didn’t eat supper last night…because it was healthy and I reminded him of that. He kept complaining and sat at the breakfast table with his head down. He ate a couple bites of breakfast and drank all his juice.

Then, when I handed him his milk that he asked for…he threw up into it and all over him and all over the kitchen floor. This is where I thank God that we have hardwood floors and that it is fairly simple to clean up throw up on the floor.

I sent him to clean up and then ran to take a shower because what I planned to do before the throwing up was to go to the gym and then Wal-Mart to get stuff I needed for the rest of the week, then come home, take a shower, and have school, lunch and do a 15 minute de-clutter. See, I planned the day, but God had other plans. After my shower, I tried calling my neighbor but couldn’t get her. After a couple of tries, she called me and agreed to run and get some “blue juice” aka Powerade for Ace. Which he promptly threw up. He was so pitiful saying he was really hungry. I made him eat saltines after that because he kept asking for food. After he kept those down for 30 minutes, I let him have a peanut butter and jelly sandwich (which he asked for) and milk. And tonight he ate a few bites of a pizza. His attitude is back, so I think he’s feeling better. If this is the same stomach bug that everyone else has had around here, he’ll probably throw up sometime tomorrow or he’ll be fine.

Miss Zoe is turning into quite the mama and I found her saying the things I say when they have the stomach bug…like, “Here’s the bucket, please don’t miss the bucket…get the throw up in there.”

By the way, Ace did miss the bucket. I think since he’s a poor shot in the bucket, we may have to do what the Gosslin family does and stick him on the floor in the laundry room…except her laundry room is MUCH cleaner than ours…maybe I’ll put him on our bathroom floor.

And Zoe thought it was so cool that Ace got to chill on the couch today that she’s hoping she’s the next one sick. I told her if she throws up I’m going to ask her how much fun she’s really having. She just grinned…childhood innocence…she has no idea! In her defense, she hasn’t gotten a stomach bug since she was about 2 1/2 or so. She doesn’t remember the nasty sick feeling, like you’ve been run over with a truck and any smell of food sends your stomach quivering.