Take you back Tuesday!

    The other day I was thinking that I should write down some of those stories from my past that I never wrote in my journal. Since I am much faster at typing, I decided to use my blog as a gateway to yesteryear. After all, my blog is called, “Pieces of Krystle”, so Tuesdays are now dedicated to writing pieces of my past.



So welcome to “Take you back, Tuesdays!” These anecdotes won’t be profound… as a matter-of-fact, I will be showing that it really takes a life time to master the dorkiness that I call, Krystle.


For instance:


It was the first day of Senior year of High school. I was determined that this would be the year I changed my stars. I was going to be a different person. This year… I was going to leave my mark. I was going to stand out.


On this day, I took extra care to curl my hair (which was significantly longer), and picked out a nice outfit. I got to school wearing a confident smile, making an effort to greet everyone as they passed. Joining the herd of students stampeding up the stairwell, my mind was focused on achieving my goal. So focused… I didn’t notice the pile of toothpaste someone had unloaded on the stairs as a practical joke. Without warning, I suddenly found myself lying on the ground, the loose papers I was carrying gently fluttered down around me. The stairwell froze and all eyes were on me. Then my ears started buzzing… I was being laughed at. There were two choices: Melt into the floor and disappear into miserable embarrassing nothingness, or get up in front of everyone and pretend to laugh at myself like I’d somehow planned the whole scene. Unfortunately, as I was standing up with a forced grin, I realized that my rear end was covered in blue goo. More chortles ensued, luckily I had a hoodie to tie around my waist.


That was that. My goal was achieved. Only five minutes into senior year and I already stood out. My minty fresh start was the end of changing my stars. I’d much rather be plain old Krystle, anyway.

I wonder what Walmart is like in Russia...

     So, at Walmart today, I was feeling pretty good. I caught two guys checking me out! (I did shower today, after all!) That never happens with two small children in tow… or ever… so I was pretty ecstatic. But then, a woman checked me out… and then another… and another, and by this time I realize that I am not THAT good looking, so I deduced that something must be wrong! I darted into the nearest empty aisle, pulled out my cell phone, and took a picture of myself. And sure enough, those two men who made my day, were staring at the huge mascara smear across my cheek.

   
     Darn.


     I wiped the smudge off, and continued on my way. As I was in the meat section, this woman came popping out of nowhere and was raving about how beautiful Laycee wass. She was loud, boisterous, and RUSSIAN! I’m not sure if she was drunk or just a really happy person, but she (without asking) ripped the blanket off of Laycee, and started kissing her feet… very loudly. "Muah! Muah!" Then she finally turned to speechless me, and LOUDLY said (in a thick accent), “I’m sorry! I just luff babies!” She smiled and began to walk away but then spotted Grayson peeking over the cart. Her eyes lit up! “You have a boy too! He’s beautiful!” She then playfully shouted, “Come here!” and started chasing Grayson, which of course, he loved. He climbed up on the meat railing and his foot got caught. She came over to him and was trying to yank him off, oblivious to the fact that he was stuck, and Grayson started yelling, “Ow!” She just looked at me and said, “Sumting is wrong.” I pointed out my poor son’s stuck foot, and she helped wiggle his shoe out of the bar.


    She smiled and then began walking away. But then turned around and shouted “ONE MORE TIME!” and reached out to tickle Grayson. Before she could reach him, he darted out of the way playfully, which threw off her balance and this middle-aged Russian goes crashing to the floor! Before I can say anything, Grayson dives on top of her and she just starts rolling around on the WALMART MEAT SECTION FLOOR tickling him! Loudly!


     A poor fellow shopper was trying to get through, but patiently waited while this bizarre woman was belly laughing… on the floor… without a care in the world. Finally, she got up, smiled at me like that wasn’t THE STRANGEST thing I had ever witnessed, and then casually waved goodbye to my son.


I am so grateful she didn’t hear him call out to her, “Can you come over and play at my house?”


What an eventful day we had at the circus… I mean, Walmart.


    Barry was laughing his head off as I reenacted the whole story, complete with a poorly executed Russian accent. When I finished wiping the tears from my eyes, I noticed my husband pouting. He looked at me and sadly said, “Why does the cool stuff always happen to you when I’m not there?”

It's official...

There is nothing more annoying than getting three kids all packed and loaded into the car just to pull out of the drive way and realize the front door is still wide open.

I seem to do that a lot lately.

CURSES

     We must be cursed. Growing up, whenever I would complain about someone to my mom, my mom would always say, "The Pox on them!" A "curse" she got from her mother. Obviously, someone wished the Chicken Pox on the Ricks. Sunday, I noticed a few mosquito bites on Jaye's tummy and they progressively got worse until her entire tummy was covered in little red, welty, bumps. Tuesday, I saw a few little bumps on Grayson's stomach and we decided to call the doctor.
       I thought for sure they were just having allergies, so we told Grayson that after we visited the doctor, we would go to the store and buy a Beyblade with his birthday money. (Something he really REALLY WANTED TO BUY.) That was dumb of us to promise. After the doctor looked at them, he turned toward me and started flapping his wings. Chicken pox?!? Really? I didn't know that was even still around! He told me that the sickness wouldn't manifest harshly because they have both been immunized but he said we needed to keep the kids home for 5-7 days. He even had us exit his office out of the back door, instead of through the front waiting room, so we wouldn't be exposing other children!
    When we got in the car, Grayson excitedly asked if we were headed to the store to buy his Beyblade... Oh No. You have no idea how difficult it is to explain to a four year old, that the few little tummy bumps he has means he is sick and cannot leave the house! He has been begging me every day if he could go to the store, go outside, have his uncle over to play, wake Daddy up, have friends over, have the babysitter come watch him... he even cried when I wouldn't take him to the doctor with me! We've all been miserably stuck.  Although, I laughed when I looked through the pictures I've taken this week, it seems like we've had the best week ever! I've tried to keep them entertained... but I count down the days until Tuesday when we can leave... and interact with human beings!!!
(Some pics from the last few weeks.These really show my kids personalities... we are just a bunch a goofs up in here.)




Painting little figurines from the Dollar Tree... that blessed store...

Finger painting...

I had to leave the table to feed Laycee, and all the sudden Grayson starts laughing and shows me how he has painted his arms... great. Thank goodness for washable paint!!! (From the Dollar Tree!)

 

Running around chasing each other to pass the time.

                                          Like I said... we're just a bunch of goofballs

           I bought like 5 cups worth of random buttons for a buck at a yard sale. They finally came in handy!

Two more cursed days... We can do this!!!

Three's Company

For nine months I heard it all. “You guys are crazy for having your kids so close!” “Three is going to be the hardest thing ever!” “blah blah blah…”



I’ve had nine months to mull over the idea of being stressed out for the rest of my life. I was sure the minute our baby was born, I would be close to tears from there on out. BUT, life hasn’t changed all that much… yet. So far, Laycee is just a sack of potatoes… eating and sleeping, although she is starting to be awake more during the day. Nothing has gotten too hard yet. We DO have to get up earlier to get everyone dressed on time. But, I STILL have time to play games with Grayson, time to color with Jaye. I just do it while nursing a baby… constantly. My kids both adore her, and they both love to help dress her, bathe her, and Grayson even begged me to let him change her diaper. It was a big mess, but I love seeing how much they love her! Jaye is close to being Elvira from Tiny Toons… A little too much love from big sister. Grayson is being trained on how to carry her properly, because he DOES carry her… we just need to make sure that hand gets under her neck, NOT her head. Laycee is an awesome baby! Hardly cries, and gets up every two hours like clockwork to eat at night.


So, to all you people who freaked me out for months and months about how miserable I was going to be… THANK YOU! I was prepared for the worst and so life with three has been surprisingly… not the worst. I love it!


So far.


I’m sure my opinion will be changing when Laycee starts crawling!

Baby time!

Forgive me if this is really poorly written, I am extremely doped up with pain meds, but I figured I’d better write this now, or I never will. Anyway…



What a whirlwind these past few days have been! August is going to be the craziest month for the rest of our lives!


August 11- I found out the doctor who has done the surgeries of both Grayson and Jaye, would NOT be back from his vacation in time to do my C-section. I started freaking out, I don't like doctors anyway, so to have the ONE doctor I really completely trust not be there... I was a bit of a mess.  


August 12- Showed up at the hospital at 7 am. After the spinal block, they waited a few minutes before checking if I was numb. The doc poked me with the scalpel and I could feel it! They decided to wait a few more minutes and all of the sudden I felt like I couldn’t breathe, so I started yelling that I couldn’t breathe and they tried to tell me it was just anxiety. The doc poked me again, and I told them it hurt. They asked “which side did we poke?” I couldn’t think, I was so scared, and so the doctor said, she’s just nervous, and was about to start cutting, when I screamed, “The left side!”


Thankfully, the nurse anesthetist was listening, and told the doctor I really could feel them and that they needed to knock me out. So, I was unconscious for surgery. They don’t allow anyone else in during an unconscious surgery, but for some reason, they let Barry in, which is kind of cool because he took pictures of the C-section, since he didn’t have to be by my side.**WARNING, GRAPHIC PICTURES BELOW! I didn't post these on facebook because they are kinda gross, but I think they are cool!** They told Barry later, that the Spinal block must have gone up (hence my inability to breathe) instead of going down, so I am so grateful someone in the operating room listened to me! It could’ve been terrible!


I came home after two days in the hospital and a few days later I started getting a horrible pain in my incision site. I went to the doc and they decided it is mildly infected. GEEZ! So, it is taking a LONG time to heal but at least I have a beautiful baby that reminds me to smile.

We named her Laycee (Because we love the name, and the spelling because it has the AY like JAYe and GrAYson. Weird reason, but it makes sense to us! And Rachel after my mom and we like to add a disclaimer that our sister-in-law Rachel is pretty amazing too so she gets credit in Laycee's middle name too! :)

 *****

Yesterday, August 18, was our anniversary! Since I was in so much pain, Barry asked my mom to watch Grayson and Jaye for the day, and he rented a pile of movies and we just stayed in bed with a bag of candy and a pan of brownies, and watched movies all day. It was fantastic and I don’t know how we have ended up with three kids in just five years, but I love our family. When they got home from Mema’s we all built a fort and played in it! I am sooooo blessed!!!!

Oh, and did I mention August 14 is Grayson’s birthday, the 13th is my brother’s birthday, and the 19th is the birthday of both of my nieces. YIKES! WHAT A MONTH!!!

My beautiful little girl

     Grayson absolutely loves to get his picture taken on my cell phone. One day, he was feeling particular loving toward his sister, and asked me to take some pictures of them. Unfortunately, he wanted to do "silly face" pictures, and for some reason, the face he made has stuck with my daughter. She thinks it is hilarious, and now I can't get her to make any other face for pictures. Sigh.

Believe it or not, this is just a sample of this face. I have a whole lot more on my camera. What a goofball!