I've made the change

Its official. I've switched entirely to cloth diapers! Yes. I am crazy. I'm actually really excited about it. I'm using Bumgenius 3.0 pocket diapers. They are one size fits all (adjustable) and you put a liner on the inside of a pocket. They have a waterproof outerlayer that keeps messes inside without having to use a separate cover. I did not even know these existed until recently! We are loving the bright colors and super soft inside. My only concerns are that I'm afraid they wont fit until he is potty trained. Also, he has a bit of a diaper rash, but that may be because I only had 6 and wasnt changing him fast enough. I need to break my disposable habits! I don't have to "stretch" the box anymore so I can get used to changing him quicker. I recieved my second order so now I have 13 diapers, enough for two days. They fit great now and we havent had too many problems with leaking. I don't even really mind the washing of dirty ones. Not my favorite experience, but considering that I won't have to buy disposables anymore its well worth the trouble! I'm using a plastic painters bucket with a snap tight lid as my diaper pail, and the "dry pail" method of storage. I can not use normal detergent either. Baby detergents are too weak and I can not use anything with additives or they loose their absorbency. I've started with Ecos brand free and clear. I may try All free and clear if I can find it. Another cool thing... the company that sells the diapers has a missionary grant program!! TOO COOL. They donate diapers to missionaries and even have a list of people they have sponsored. It was really easy to add a few dollars onto my order. I hope more people will find out about that program! What a specific need and awesome way to fill it!

Mysterious Hot water and community ham

My parents HAVE power! Conroe school are canceled all week. My dad did have a friend come from out of state I believe who brought them a generator that is big enough to power a light and their fridge and occasionally the computer! They do have phones back and computer access when the generator is on! Somehow they have hot water, even though their water heater is electric... not sure how that happened and neither do they. Also the community is really pulling together.. helping eachother pull down trees and clean up the giant mess! Someone even offered up a now properly thawed Harry and David ham to share with everyone:-). It sounds like things are going well, all things conidered. Ayden had his second week of gymnastics and is loving it! He got to try the rings this week and the trampoline and last night told me his bum was sore:-).

mom

"Mom. mom mom. mommommomomomomomomomomomomomomomomomom MOM!." usually accompanied with the pulling of pants legs or shirt tails. Does not matter who you actually are... this is how Balin will address you. It was cute. The first 30 times.

House saved by Fort Box, aka the swingset in the backyard

update:11 :30

Spoke to my parents around 11. So far the swingset was hit by a tree, but the house is alright. They are doing okay, but I am still having trouble getting through on the phone to them. At about 10:30 we were under a tornado warning. Got the boys and dog into the bathroom with supplies and then pretended it was a fun exciting game and there was nothing to worry about. Shaking I sang songs and tried to get a good station on the radio. Lucas finally got home during that time and we hung out which is when my parents called. The warning is over, but the watch is on until 7:00 tonight. A may get extra junk food today. I will be eating with him.

How long can you hold your breath?

My parents are currently in the middle of a gigantic hurricane. You might have heard something about it. Ike. They chose to stay in Conroe and now I cant get hold of them. I missed a call from my dad, but I am assuming they are reserving their cell phone power because their power must be out. They are not answering their home phone. I am worried. Lucas was called out to a job last night around 8:30. At about 10:00 he called me and said he would be returning home soon. At 11:30 he called and said he was on a new job... In southeast Bossier. Tornadoes have been reported in Alexandria, which is south of Shreveport/Bossier. Please pray for the safety of ALL of my family as we wait this out. Pray for my parents and little sister and my husband and his crew. I was reading Judges 5 this morning and a verse stuck out. It was the cry of the Israelites as they went into battle. "March on my soul with Courage." Our God is not a god of fear. Even in the old testament where God could often be seen as a conqueror or god of war, the reality is that he is a God of comfort. A God of protection. May his hand be on this storm and may his arms be around all who are in it.

my day.

Woke up with a nightmare. Realized I was twenty minutes into my alarm clock's snooze function. Drag a VERY cranky A out of bed. Picture day. Also parent teacher conference day. Struggle to keep A on track getting to school because he kept complaining about a stomach ache. Drag complaining A and two fussy one year olds into the school and have a five minute conference with a teacher who basically only tells me she doesn't know how to make my child listen. I refrain from telling her that's her job to figure it out and instead graciously offer some discipline suggestions.. like having a discipline system with consequences and frequent communication with us, his parents. (I know, novel idea apparently). I then watch my child slide to floor during the Pledge of Allegiance whereas the night before at back to school night he had yelled at the entire room to "BE QUIET WE'RE PLEDGING!. Realize something must be wrong and decide to wait for pictures to be over before deciding on A's attendance. A now near tears A reluctantly takes picture and returns home with a slight smirk. He spends the first ten minutes in the restroom which I hope will fix the problem. He then goes and lays down. I get the call that my two year old will be arriving soon. Hear crying from bedroom. find A with a perfectly arranged towel next to his bed puking. Thanks for being considerate with the towel kiddo. Run to find phone number of 2 year olds mother only to get the call that she has arrived. Make rash, possibly wrong decision to just go about our day as usual rather than make the mother of two tiny preemie twins drag a crying toddler all the way back across town.I then Baby gate off the back bedrooms and start disinfecting toys. ALL THIS while trying to get hold of my parents in Houston. HOPING to hear that they are on their way out of danger and for a nice visit, but no. They would rather face mother nature's wrath than visit a puking five year old and house full of toddlers. Not sure I don't blame them.

making fun of Gustav

Hurricane Gustav may not have had that much of a direct impact on us, but we made the most out of the weather! Here is A enjoying the river of drainage. Yes I made him shower after, and no there was no lightning.

a video from this past summer

I found this while loading a video from a couple of weeks ago. when you have five minutes, enjoy! It's the Tilsen/Barna family at its cutest.

Dear Mr. Obama

and on a personal note. Dear Mr. Obama... would you please stop spamming me?? I'm not sure who sold you my email... but I certainly did not.

Big boy running

Today the weather was finally clear. Nice and cool outside, we opened the windows and then went out for some fun. B has discovered running. He does not care where he goes as long as he gets there fast!

My baby boy

Gustav Update

Evacuees are returning to the south, but to no power! The news this morning says that there are 1.4 million people without electricity. The American Red Cross and local shelters are still in immediate need of baby food/diapers, adult diapers, and personal items like deodorant and shampoo! there are still flodding rains falling in central LA, but they have moved on from here, although we still have 100 percent cloud cover.

Rain rain go away/Tiniest Gustav refugee

So this is what Gustav looks like to the Ark-La-Tex. We are under tornado warnings as the eye of the storm passes and heads west. Apparently the eye is close to Shreveport right now. Nothing too exciting. The shelters are functioning well according to the news, but are in need of supplies like toiletries. People will begin heading back to NOLA as soon as possible, but that won't be today. Lucas is out on a job, but said other than being soaking wet things are going well. This is his first time being completely cut loose and on his own! Again, I am so proud of him!

"outer bands"

Gustav/Monday morning

As Gustav is making landfall on the coast we are sitting in 80 degree, blue sky weather! They are predicting floods to match and surpass what happened in May, but we live on the high side of town, fairly far from the river so we probably will be okay. The shelters are all full here in town and every hotel room is taken! Pray for the people of this state! Many people are having emotional difficulties simply because of Katrina memories. People are literaly reliving their worst nightmare! The kids especially need prayer! The highschoolers at our church were all praying together on sunday at the alter. At least 20 kids were up there arm in arm. Pray for peace and calm! Pray for the storm to weaken quickly!

Gustav update

As of 5:00 central time, the weather station has the storm at a cat. 3 storm moving at 20 miles per hour. I guess the speed of the storm is a good thing because it will move faster over land and not cause as much flooding! The news reports have tropical force winds making landfall as soon as midnight and the outer bands of the storm hitting here soon! (It is al Rain is forcast from this evening until Friday when hopefully Gustav will have had his fun and gone on home! Shreveport is a major evacuee center with shelters housing thousands of people AND animals. Everything seems fairly calm, though there is quite a buzz of anticipation. We are currently under a flash flood and wind watch with a tropical weather advisory..whatever that means. In my world that means the red box movies will be going back a few days late and we might run out of popcorn! Also the paint supplies and construction paper are at the ready and the wii batteries are charged. (along with the real neccesities like a full tank of gas and bottled water). Yes. I allow my five year old to play video games. Yes. I understand that I always vowed I would never do that. No. I don't really care right now. I might just be playing along with him by the time we are going stir crazy on Thursday!

Gustav

We are surprised by how affected we already are by this storm! We found out late this afternoon that schools are closed through Wednesday because of the potential for bad weather but mainly so our school buses can be sent to New Orleans! We went to the grocery store and the Albertsons gas pumps were covered up with ply wood. The bread shelves and water shelves were emptying fast. The only thing you hear anyone talking about is how ready the state seems to be this time and how they are not taking any chances. Several friends are housing evacuees. As we enter Sunday we ask for prayers for our state. Pray for our leadership, that they communicate and make smart decisions. Pray for the people of the state to make smart choices and not take unnecessary risks. Tomorrow morning the contraflow efforts on I-49 begin, closing any southward traffic and allowing more room for people to get out. I've never seen anything like this.

So much...

So much has happened in the past few days that I want to blog about, but have not had the time. Topics to come back to: A's first full week of school, my first tutu sale, my future tutu sale ideas, B's brilliance (b/c we now believe he is a true Einstein.. really, no really, he is) and to top it all off, Lucas' promotion! Lets start with that one and I'll come back to the others as time allows.

Monday Lucas finished all requirements to complete his engineer training program! He is now officially a Field tech representative for a great company! We are sooo proud of all the hard work he has done. He has spent countless nights cold/hot/rained on/snowed on, muddy, tired, sleeping in folding chairs spending days away from home to learn the job. All without actually getting to do what he in turn was hired to do. All the pre-job learning was tough, but now he is getting a shot at the real stuff. I am so proud of him and grateful that he took this job and is now providing us with so much! I am able to stay at home with my boys, my lifelong career ambition :-). I am taking care of a couple of kids here at home to help with the financial gap, but Lucas is carrying the bulk of that for us! Today he was given his truck! Yay! We can get rid of one of our cars and all the costs associated with it. (YAY).


I sold two tutus to a friend and know that what I make are beautiful. I opened an etsy site, but don't think thats going to be true niche for selling these. Etsy seems a bit snooty. I make rustic hand tied tutus that are wonderful for imaginary play. There are women on there selling tutus they think are more like fashion icons. I really just want to make fun, fluffy confections. I walked into chik-fil-a carrying a couple of them and was pounced! So I KNOW I can sell them, I've just got to find a better way. I'm looking for craft sales at Christmas. Any friends or family you come across let them know!

Etsy!

I'm having so much fun making Tutus I've decided to open a shop on Etsy! Come on over and check it out! It is still a work in progress!