My crazy whacky Jack!

We should have known that from the beginning that you would be our crazy one...the one to tell the funniest jokes without even meaning too, the one with the funny faces and hair, the one who would do anything to impress a girl that you truly like (yes Victoria he still talks about you all of the time, even though Japan was ages ago!), the one whose stubbornness shines through. I love that you have such an imagination, your love of dressing up is legendary...your whole pre-K year you wore one of three costumes to school, you were routinely a dinosaur, Batman or Edmund from Narnia as you played in the neighborhood. Your love of life and lack of fear give you such a spirit of adventure. Jack we love you so much. And we know that you have to work twice as hard to get some things done that take others no time or thought, but that is what makes you special. You never give up, you just keep on going. Happy 9th birthday buddy, and many more.......love, Mom (and Dad, Tristan, Savannah, Merlin and Pepper too!)

Forever Young!

Bailey....what to say about such a great companion. Bailey has been around since this Yerger family was just starting out, we were just dating when Jaesen let me pick out "his" dog. And what a choice I made. At first we weren't so sure that it was a good one, she ate window sills, shoes, door frames, drywall, a brand new sofa (our first piece of furniture we ever bought!), and ran through countless screen doors. But, she came around...she could party with the Marines in flight school and run forever on the beach. She learned to body surf and we would literally have to drag her from the water before she would drown herself. Bailey loved playing catch, she would fetch and fetch and fetch some more, never tiring, always teasing you with dropping the ball just out of your reach so she could snatch it up again and run away.. Bailey gave us ten of the most adorable puppies you could ever imagine, some are already waiting for her on the other side. That was our first foray into parenthood, taking care of ten puppies during flight school may not have been the best decision at the time, but we sure are thankful for her wonderful son, Merlin, who is going to be heartsick in the coming days. You have been a constant companion to me dear dog, when Daddy was gone on multiple deployments, sitting with me through my own pregnancies, always there. I am going to miss you so much, there aren't even words to describe the loss that I already feel in my heart. Tomorrow is going to be so hard...I know Jaesen thinks that you are his dog, but with him being gone so much, I kind of think that you are mine, we have spent more time together over the years and I know that it is time to let you go, but it is oh so hard for me. I will remember how you always went on walkabouts, just up and leave the yard. One day we found you in someone else's garage with another black lab....just laying there being friends. I will remember when you were a puppy and we were driving from TX to LA and you got into a bag of candy and had a piece of licorice stuck to your nose, you thought you were being so sly, but with the licorice on your nose and jujubees in your teeth your secret was obvious. Your love of the water, I think you could just live in a lake. How we taught you to say your name....how you love peanut butter...how you helped to raise three humans as well as 10 puppies....how you played with ferrets, and cats, and sing when the kids would play the harmonica or violin. There are too many memories...I sit here with tears streaming down my face, wondering if you know how hard this is for us, do you feel loved? Do you think you had a great life? I hope so, we certainly tried and your loss will be felt for a long time. Know this Bailey, you were a part of this family, and this family will have a hole. Love you Bailey Dog!

The Details.......

It's been 3 months since my last post, that seems like an extremely long time. Can I really have not written for that long? So I think back to the last several months and what I did. First off, I have three kids, yes the same three, I haven't traded them in for new models yet, and those three kids each know how to become their own category IV hurricane. Thankfully, they all seem to form their storms at different times which is good for all of us. Secondly, work. I worked an exorbitant amount of time at the end of 2011 and it actually took me the whole month of January to recover from that. No, I'm not kidding. I took naps every single day to recover all the rest that I had lost working 4-5 nights a week during those months. The paychecks were awesome though, just in time for Christmas, and it's been hard to see the "normal" size of those paychecks again. Lastly, I think I just needed some time to focus on other things for a bit, but now I'm back. Back to the telling of my life's normal but hilarious stories.

For instance: My husband travels (quite a lot these days) so I decided to paint while he was away. Our office was a horrific, seizure causing yellow, and I thought a nice blue or blue-gray would be so much nicer with the wood blinds, and silver accents. So when he left on Monday morning I painted half of the room where I could easily move the furniture. After it dried and I decided I liked it, I realized I couldn't move the computer desk and had to call in reinforcements to help shuffle furniture around enough so that I could paint. Painting was finished and my minions and I moved furniture back, got all the outlets back on, pictures back on the wall and everything put just so, with just hours to spare before his arrival. I was so excited when he arrived I dragged him by the hand into the office and did a voila move with my hands, indicating that he should be so impressed with my efforts. He actually said to me, "What am I looking at?" He must have noticed my quizzical expression because he looked back into the room muttering, "okay it's obviously something, I'm missing something" Ok, I could understand if he didn't know that I had painted it a different shade of yellow, but going from yellow to blue seems to me like a pretty big change. Finally he asked if I had painted. So I asked him what color he thought the room was before. "Uh, yellow" he says. "Oh wow, I really like it!" And that was that. He did say something along the lines of "Oh so that was why you were so busy" so he does know that I was busy. But I moved a metal four drawer filing cabinet by myself, had to move a 400 pound desk, had to extricate a cat from the vent where she decided to wedge herself (and yes it goes straight down and she was traumatized for days, still have no idea how she got back up), didn't wonder how I got all the pictures back on the wall in the correct spots. Sigh. I guess it's because he is a man and I am not. The funny thing is that he did notice the new bedspread on the bed and told me how much he loved that, which I was happy about, because sometimes our tastes do not match. The real kicker to this story though is that I also painted our master bath which has 12 foot ceiling peaks (with my mom's help). I also painted it blue (this time from a light khaki color) and he has yet to notice that the color has changed. It is day 5 now and nothing. So yes I was busy, I painted two big rooms with difficulties, had work, kids, doctor appointments, and all of the normal stuff in life. I'd like to think though I would notice if my husband got a new haircut, painted the garage, or something big. Then again maybe I too am slipping, so if I don't notice your new haircut right away please don't be mad, just chalk it up to the fact that my husband is wearing off on me after 15 years together!

Another year older....

From a tiny (okay who are we kidding, she was never tiny at 8 pounds 12 ounces) baby to a tall, self assured, opinionated miniature of her mother. She keeps us on our toes, tires us with her endless dialogue (no really, it's constant from the moment she awakens to the moment her eyes shut at night), cracks us up with her funny little jokes

Knock, knock Mommy,
Who's there Savannah?
Apple.
Apple who?
Apple, strawberry head, hahahahaha, isn't that funny mommy?

We are blessed to have a little girl when we really didn't think that it would happen. From her birthplace of Japan, to sunny Florida, she brightens our days just by being alive. Happy birthday to my bubbly, full of life, 5 year old girl!

The Challenge

Today I woke up and the morning turned into one of THOSE days. I felt like I was living last night's episode of Parenthood, except instead of locking my tantrum throwing child into their room, I had him trapped in the bathroom. I had insisted he brush his teeth to go to school, and he threw up his own challenge, to be mouthy, throw a fit, and tell me how much he hates school and that he isn't going. Well absolutely nothing gets to me like hearing one of my kids tell me they aren't going to school. I'm not sure why, maybe because I view it as my time to get as much done as possible, while trying to do something "me" centered, or maybe because I know he really does like school. At first I tried the calm parent approach.....Jack, I know you like school, is something bothering you? As he dumped toothpaste all over his shirt and the sink, I sighed, seeing the calmness make a U-turn and depart the scene. I told him I'd rather he just brush his teeth and comb his hair so he could get dressed, we were at our time already to leave and it looked like it was going to be a while until we actually left. At this point I probably would have been wise to go and get a bottle of wine and mull it over out in the hall, but no, I had to press my point of brushing teeth. Maybe if the child hadn't had so many cavities already, or didn't just have 2 teeth pulled due to a horrible abscess in his mouth I would have just let it slide....but Mr. Cavity needed to brush and so the line was drawn in the sand. A terrible meltdown ensued, on both our parts, and the wine would have been better, it would have at least kept my mouth closed and maybe given me a sense of calm. Finally, I had to drag, yes drag the child to his room to get dressed. Savannah has now missed her circle time, and we are really pressing our luck to get Jack to school on time at all. I literally have to undress and redress this 8 year old boy, sometimes it just seems to be easier. Finally I get to what I hope is the root of the problem....a boy is trying to be friends with Jack at school but is hanging all over him and he is getting mostly annoyed. I ask him if he wants me to email the teacher, he says yes, I do and magically the storm is over. We have both yelled, he has cried, punched the floor, his bed and gave me a once over which earned him an equally evil glare meaning "don't even try it buster if you want your butt attached to your body anymore!" I hugged this headstrong child and we all got into the car for school. He happily dashed out of the car and ran off to his class where hopefully the horror of being trapped in the bathroom with his mother is but a distant memory. For me it's fresh and raw and brings tears to my eyes, it makes me so sad when we have these starts. I don't feel like a good mother at all, not like the ever patient mom of Max in the show, or Sydney's mom who just sat outside her door listening to all the insults thrown her way, quietly downing a bottle of wine in her despair. Nope, I'm the mom who insists we don't wear our pj's to school, we must brush our teeth and at least tame our hair....well there are days we can let that slide. I sure do love that kid, for all his up's and down's he can bring me to tears of joy and sorrow, and do both in a matter of minutes. He is so unique though and I'm just glad he's mine, although I will sell him to the highest bidder on certain days!

My Kind of Girl!

That's my girl! She's the one who is knocking your girl over, and stealing the ball from another. She has the concept of how to turn that ball and how to block out another player, even at 4 years old. She gets mad when the other team scores and even pushes her own players out of the way to get to the ball. I love that girl! I remember another little blond girl, many moons ago who loved to play the game, running over other little girls, smelling the fresh cut grass and playing in rain, torrential downpours, fog and even snow. I love watching her enthusiasm for the game and for scoring a goal. These are the best days around and I'm honored to be witness to the beginning of a new love, that of soccer!

Glacier National Park

One day of vacation we made the trek from the folks house, left the dock and drinks to take on hiking and wildlife. It was a fantastic day and so worth braving the winding mountain roads with a car filled to the brim with wild children and the adults who were dying to get out of the enclosed space containing said children. We started off with a much needed caffeine break in the town of Apgar and let the kids visit the Wildlife Discovery Center. Here they got to see pelts, hold animal skulls and guess weights on animals and skulls alike. After that we were ready for an early lunch at the Lake McDonald Lodge. The lobby is huge and they have these wonderful red buses that transport guests throughout the park. After lunch we let the kids run by the lake and taught them how to skip stones. This is a lifeskill that every child should at least learn how to do just so that their Dad can show them up at every occasion. Yes, Jaesen, I'm talking about you! After that we braved those winding mountain roads to get to the top of Logan Pass where we went on a hike through the snow, and yes there was a lot of it. You wouldn't think that kids who have winter every year would be so excited, but snow is a novelty in August, and many a snowball was thrown. Mom and Bruce hiked a bit with us and then let the Yerger 5 head further on. I can't even describe the surprise on the kids faces (and ours) when as we were walking, or tromping, through the snow and a mountain goat walked across our path. The kids were literally shouting with excitement. Poor Savannah had trouble with the snow and kept falling down so Jaesen scooped her up and put her on his back, our own version of a pack mule. It was a 3 mile round trip hike, and fairly difficult with the snow, we all fell at one point or another, and we finally made it to the lookout for Hidden Lake which still had ice in it. As we were standing there taking in the majestic views and sheer beauty of this place, two mountain goats took it upon themselves to wander down the sightseeing path. We were rooted to the spot, not sure what to do. Would the goats attack, charge, eat one of the kids, chew off our shoelaces, making it that much more difficult to make the hike back? No, they could have cared less about us, they just wanted to climb rocks and meander on through. We finally decided, due to the huge storm clouds moving rapidly our way, that it was time to make our departure. We took many pictures on the way back down and even saw a baby mountain goat, and Jack's favorite, the chipmunk or ground squirrel. I don't know how many pictures I have of those creatures, he wanted to remember them all I guess. In the parking lot, after everyone used the bathroom, we were startled by the appearance of a bighorn sheep which started meandering through the rows of cars. With his big horns I was more worried about him charging a car and doing some damage, but in the end Jaesen got great pics of him and we chalked up another wild animal sighting. We started our drive back down and although we were pressed for time it was decided (okay by me, which later I might have regretted) to do the Cedar Walk. It is a fairly quick hike through a cedar forest on an elevated boardwalk. At the time we finished it was just after 6 p.m. and we had about a 1.5 hour drive to get to dinner on the way home. For those of you who have kids with ADHD and must remain on a schedule, you know that tweaking dinner to two hours late can be a hideous prospect. And so it was. Jaesen had a migraine which was causing horrible nausea. Translation-not in a good mood. Seven people in a car. Translation-way too crowded. Jack with no food and medicine worn off. Translation-one and a half hours of nonstop us telling him to stop whatever it was he was doing repetitively. By the time we got to dinner, after listening to the all the kids ask for the hundredth time, when are we getting there, I'm starving, I was ready to strangle them all, or myself, I wasn't sure which would be better. Fortunately, I got wine which put me at ease, Jack got two loaves of bread and a salad while waiting for dinner, which did him wonders, and Jaesen's headache finally started to go away, although he couldn't eat anything. All in all it was a great day of hiking and sightseeing in one of the most beautiful places in the world.

Lake McDonald Lodge buses.

Jaesen skipping rocks

Boys walking through the snow

Jack and a mountain goat


boys at another hidden lake

the bighorn sheep

The cedar forest