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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...
December 13, 2009, 12:16 p.m.

There are eight very excited people in the Carden household. Christmas is quickly approaching!. I've been gone for so long (do I have any readers left? lol!), and I have so much to catch you up on!! For now, we'll turn to my favorite - the bulleted list... I know you missed them. ;)

• Paige is 8 months old! Where does the time go? I need to do a devoted post about her latest and greatest accomplishments. Later this week...
• Andrew and I were doing our Christmas shopping for relatives last night, and there were sales everywhere, and we'd had too much eggnog... Okay, there was no eggnog involved... buuuuuut, we bought a new TV, DVD/Blu-ray, and Wii Sports and Wii Fit Plus... (all on sale too! Woo hoo!)... the kids were so surprised and excited. And Andrew implemented a "no bed time" last night - I only lasted until about 1, but some of the kids were up until 3!!!! Needless to say, we all slept late this morning. :)
• It dawned on us this was the first time we had bought a new family TV since the 4,000 pound 36" one we bought back in the 90's! TV's have come a long way since the 90's!! lol!
• We are headed to Nashville next week. We are going to spend Christmas with Andrew's family. We're excited to see them!!
• Then on the way back, we'll stop in Knoxville, and Andrea, Adam, and Gideon are going to meet us there - I can't WAIT to meet Gideon for the first time!! :)
• We are looking into sending some of the kiddos to a private school next year - we'll see how that goes. The academics at public schools is just so sad. Not to mention the things we don't believe in - like evolution - that are in the textbooks.
• We have been working on the house slowly but surely. The furniture we wanted for the front room (the teal room) was at IKEA, only there is not an IKEA near us. We finally had the money to go to Charlotte and were trying to figure out how we were going to fit 5 bookcases and various other things into our Honda Pilot, along with the people, when, on November 30th - Cyber Monday, Andy suggested I see if IKEA had any deals on shipping. Hidden on their page was a code for free shipping that day only! Yay!!!! My new stuff gets here this Tuesday (why did it take two weeks to ship? I don't know - but hey, it was free shipping!).
• Now that I'm blogging again, I'll be more apt to share photos of our house as we get things done. :)
• Andy has been hard at work insulating the basement as he gets time. He still has walls to finish and a drop ceiling to build. We're waiting a little bit on getting the central heat and air put down there (thus the aforementioned new electronics). :)
• Brittany joined the track team. She is having fun getting in shape and is training to do pole vaulting along with sprinting!
• Brittany also has been more and more musical. She sang in a Christmas choir last week, and her first recital for voice lessons is tomorrow!!!
• Andrew is fully into his Russian learning. His entire job right now is to learn Russian. They have three different shifts, and for the past month or so he has been on the last shift, which is school from 5 pm to 10 pm, then normally he has to PT (physical training) afterward, so he doesn't get home until almost midnight. It has thrown our schedules all out of whack, but hopefully sometime in January he will be back to working during the days!! :)
• Meanwhile, there are Russian labels on many of the times in our home - "window" sounds like "ock-no". I don't remember a lot of them though - I need to learn the alphabet so that I can actually read said labels!! ;)
• I have been healing!!! It was rough post-partum with Paige. My body was all kinds of messed up. I could barely walk, let alone run. If I ever tried to run, it was awkward (i.e. I looked retarded) and it put me in excruciating pain. A few months ago when I tried to get out and go for a walk, I made it to the end of our cul-de-sac (like four houses long) before having to turn around - and my pace was slooooooow. However, I've been working up to walking, walking further, and walking faster... to the point where I have been walking 2 miles in about 23 minutes. Not necessarily great for some of you - but for me it was awesome considering where I was. Anyway, I did a couple of modified cross-fit workouts this past week, and then a couple days ago, I was out for my walk, was feeling good - and I RAN!!! I think I ran about 1/3 of a mile - which isn't much, but I was grinning from ear to ear and was almost in tears, I was so happy about it! I did my two miles in just 20 minutes. :) Healing is a good thing. Yay. I'm excited. :)

Well, I have much to do and little time to do it in (okay, that's not true - I rarely set deadlines for things that need to be done around the house - no sense in feeling stress about whether or not a shelf is organized!)... but I do have much I want to get done, including kicking the kiddos off the Wii and setting up my Wii Fit! :)

And... since I'm trying to make sure I include photos in all my posts, I will leave you with a photo from our recent photo session with one of my best friends - photographer Ali McLaughlin (if you are in the VA/DC area - book her for a session - she rocks!). :)

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I'm baaaaaack.....
December 12, 2009, 12:43 a.m.

I have a new laptop, software installed, ready to blog on a regular basis. Yay!!! Expect good things to come. For now though, I am headed to BED!!! :)

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I will blog regularly again...
November 8, 2009, 12:11 p.m.

...as soon as I get a new computer... check back now and then. :)

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Falling down on the job…
October 13, 2009, 5:27 p.m.

•  I am still having technical difficulties. My blogging will pick up soon, I hope. Actually, I'm hoping to get a new computer at some point in the near future!

•  Paige is getting to be a pro at sitting up. She gets more adorable every day. She says dada and mama, but it's been a while since she said hi. She thinks we are all here to wait on her hand and foot… which is kind of true. lol… She ate baby food carrots yesterday and liked them, but preferred the apple she sucked the life out of earlier in the day… whenever I have food she WANTS it, so if it's something she can have, I usually give her a taste. :)

•  I can't eat corn now… more on that on the ‘health' tab as soon as I get that up and running. I have good intentions, okay?!

•  We are passing the flu around for the 2nd time in a month. Andrew had to get the flu vaccine (not swine, just regular flu) at work, came home with symptoms so Justice and Paige and me ended up getting the flu. Hopefully he won't have to get the swine flu vaccine, but they are saying he will.

•  Andrew finished painting the living room, so now everywhere on the main floor is freshly painted except the powder room. Yay! Photos coming soon… the flu, remember? :)

•  Our friends Robyn and Jeff are coming for a visit this weekend with their four girls, and they are bringing us two kittens. The kids are very excited! The kittens will belong to Brittany and Jarvis.

•  Brittany has joined a Christmas choir. She goes to practice every other week for now. She LOVES it. I can't wait to hear them in December!

•  I'm starving. I just realized. So I will have to talk to you later, that is, the three people who read this. lol… :)

my very handsome son, Justice, illuminated by his 14 birthday candles last month

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Brittany is 16 today...
October 7, 2009, 8:30 p.m.

I seriously cannot believe that I have a 16 year old child. Brittany is so awesome! She continues to be extremely helpful, becomes more and more creative and talented with each passing day, and I seriously cannot believe that she is 16!!! She got a ukulele and a bag of paint from us...she is excited. (new photos of Britt coming soon)

My computer has been acting all wonky, aside from the already-there issue of having to copy and paste spaces because my spacebar doesn't work. Thus... not many blog posts. I have good intentions though! I'm dying to get all the tabs up and running. Soon. Soon.

A few photos from this week...

Darby loves holding, playing with, and taking care of Paige!

Darby, age 8 years and 3 months; Paige, age almost 6 months

Paige in the middle of a yawn :)

My fave of the photos... I had them turn so the light was hitting their eyes properly. I love my kids' eyes!:)

I forced my family onto the deck after church this past Sunday morning for a photo. The lighting wasn't right, but I like it anyway. :)

I think I'm gonna try to go to the doc tomorrow. I'm pretty sure I have a double ear infection (fun!).... I've managed to avoid antibiotics for like five years, maybe longer... ten?... but I'm giving in unless I wake up feeling miraculously better in the morning. :-P

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So... I'm gettin' old...
October 2, 2009, 5:48 pm.

• I have more photos on facebook. Click here.
• I will have a 16 year old child in 5 days! Crazy town!
• I've been having technical difficulties with the blog, thus the sparse posts. I'll get it fixed soon. :)
• Andy and I are about to go on a date. Yay! It has been a long while since we did. Of course, Paige is going as well since I'm still her sole source of food, but that's okay. :)

a photo taken at San Lee Park last Sunday (not included in the above mentioned facebook album) :)

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Brownies are the new coffee...
September 28, 2009, 11:39 a.m.

Today is Andrew's birthday. Happy 35th Birthday Andrew! I don't think we are doing anything crazy, just hanging out at the house. I'll probably make him some dinner. Woo hoo. He's not much of a party animal anyway, so I think it'll be okay. :)

I think I have more energy and feel more alert when I eat brownies. They are my coffee. I think I should add them to my daily diet.

We went to a new park yesterday and loved it! I have photos - they are still on my camera, but I will try to add some this evening.

For now, I'm off to try to make some sense out of my office downstairs. I haven't been down there to work in weeks. It's such a mess - I can't wait to get it organized! And I really can't wait until we get the ceiling and the rest of the wall down there drywalled/painted/decorated! I'm thinking there will be fewer bugs down there when it's all insulated and drywalled. I hope anyway. :)

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Design inspiration
September 26, 2009, 8:52 p.m.

When perusing websites and blogs, I always save images that inspire me. Here are a few (originally from who knows where) from my folder of magical ideas...

I don't really care for the giant letters on the wall. I saved this photo because I like Mr. Monkey on the wall. Cute, eh? One day I'm going to make one of these guys for Jacob's room.

I really, really, really want to learn how to make quilts. I like the fabrics in this one, but I wouldn't necessarily put them all together on the same blanket.

Brown walls? Cute. But not why I saved the photo. Curtain and fabric streamer thingie? Also cute, but not enough to make me hit 'save'. Those adorable photos are why I saved this bad boy. Most especially the zebra in the middle. I'm painting him for Paige's room! Ya know, when I get the time and energy. :)

I would never put that color in my den, but I like that tree... for a kid's room? Or maybe a craft room?

And that concludes today's what-does-Petra-like-in-that-photo session. Come back next time.

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Heffalumps and woozles...
September 23, 2009, 5:00 p.m.

I had a really crazy dream last night. Heffalumps and woozles were actually involved. I was pretty stoked that they were real, and that they decided to join the six toucans in the tree outside my window. I don't know.

Paige loves cereal. Um, and chocolate ice-cream. She only had a couple little tastes but she thought it rocked.

Paige's first time eating.

She's a natural. Acted like she'd been using a spoon her whole life.

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Is today the 1st day of fall? Goodbye summer! See you next year!
September 21, 2009, 6:23 p.m.

I added a new album to facebook... you should be able to see it even if you aren't on there.

The kids and I went to Jordan Lake's Seaforth recreation area yesterday on the way back from shopping. Fun stuff! :)

View entire album here!

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What's with all the alligators?
September 20, 2009, 10:11 a.m.

Hmmm... three days... I'm not doing so well with the whole blogging everyday thing. I'm trying though. :)

The kids and I are getting ready to go shopping. Funny thing about kids - they get taller and their feet grow. So we are off to find shoes and pants.

Andrew is on his way to D.C. for a two day class.

Andrea and Adam are home with Gideon. I can't wait to meet him in person... I wish they didn't live so far away.

The kids have been enjoying the southern wildlife!
They found this ringneck snake when Andy & the boys were redoing our front landscaping.

There is a wide variety of lizards around our house.
Sometimes they scare me when they go darting past me on the porch. :-P

And a giant wolf spider in our back yard...fun stuff!

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Happy Birthday to Gideon!
September 17, 2009, 6:29 p.m.

Congratulations to Andrea and Adam!
Gideon Archer Van Meter was born today at 4:26 a.m.
6 pounds, 12ounces
20 inches

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I love being a mom! :)
September 16, 2009, 4:01 p.m.

Andrea is in labor! Hooray!!!

I am vowing right here and now to start taking more photos with my 'real' camera instead of just using my phone all the time. I like my photos to be good, and cell phone photos just aren't.

I bought an outfit for 8 bucks yesterday - shorts and a shirt on clearance at Target. I needed something besides the same ole t-shirt and jeans to wear so I grabbed these when I saw how cheap they were. I can't wait until my cute clothes fit me again.

Crows have been coming to my deck today. We keep scaring them away. I need to add them to my 'no doves allowed' sign!

I have perfected my gluten-free tacos and chili recipes. Recipe shares coming soon on the 'food' tab. Be excited!

I chopped my hair off. I started cutting my own hair a while back, after always going months and months (and sometimes a year!) without being able to get a haircut because of being on bedrest, too busy with babies, lack of funds, or a combination of the above... (I learned by watching a couple of youtube videos). Well, I trimmed a few inches off a few weeks ago, but I really needed my layers cut too, so over the weekend, I decided to do layers... It didn't work out so well. I tried something different because I wanted shorter layers, and the basic rule of thumb for cutting hair is "if you don't know how, don't do it!" I've learned this lesson. Over and over. Anyway, so yesterday, I chopped about six more inches off to fix it (I've lost about a foot over the past several months). It's got a 'Rachel' quality to it? Even though it's not 1995. Whatever. All the old used-to-be-bleached-blonde ends are gone now, and it's healthy and natural... until I get tired of the fading and already-turned-silvery-white hairs and start experimenting with color again. And that's my really long I-just-cut-my-hair story.

Check out those eyes! (Paige, 5 months and 8 days)

Check out that drool! :)

(and note the photo-quality difference when I use my 'real' camera!) :)

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Faster than a speeding bullet...
September 14, 2009, 5:32 p.m.

• Commenting is now available for the low, low price of zero dollars. Click at the bottom of each post. And no, Paige doesn't get her narcissicm from me. Why would you say that??
• Paige started saying "hi" last month. She has said it several times. She's an early-talking prodigy. :)
• And she is getting around. Andy put his watch well out of her reach last night, but she got it anyway! She does this thing where she pushes her head against the floor with her butt up in the air - it's adorable. And it gets her where she wants to go.
• Jarvis almost missed out on band this year, but he is back on the flute and practicing daily now.
• Justice was our first casualty of the school year... he stayed home sick from school today. I don't think anything major, just a bad cold that has him feeling weak and coughing.
• What's that? It's almost dinner time? And I need to go grocery shopping? So the choices are extremely limited? Aaaaaa...

Sneak peek of our new living room furniture

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Narcissism begins at an early age...
September 13, 2009, 8:39 p.m.

Paige kissing herself in her mirror last night.

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I have ideas...
September 12, 2009, 2:34 p.m.

I have so many decorating ideas. But two things need to happen beforeI can implement them: 1. several walls need to be painted. 2. I need to come into a large sum of money (to purchase many of the decorating items). Oh, and I need my energy to boost back up so I can stain and reupholster! Okay, so probably more than two things need to happen.

I don't really have much to say right now,so I'll just post some photos that I have recently taken with my iPhone (thus the slightly grainy quality)...

Jacob, age 3 1/2... Paige, age 5 months

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You know how I love a good list...
September 11, 2009, 6:11 p.m.

• Paige thinks jumping is hilarious. I love her cute little laugh! Darby is especially good at getting a giggle out of her.
• I don't think I'd want to live in a castle. A mansion maybe, but not a castle. Castles are just too big.
• I hope, for Andrea's sake, that Gideon is born soon. She's due in 8 days.
• The kids are all doing well in school so far. They started three weeks ago. I have learned how to foil the car line system and figured out the best time to hit the middle and elementary schools and not have to wait. The kids are some of the last ones there, but my wait time is minimal, if at all. Woo. :)
• Brittany has been taking driver's ed. Seems like the whole permit process is ridiculously long though. I'm pretty much ready for her to be able to drive around and run errands for me now! ;)
• I've been itching to scrapbook, but my craft area is still a wreck. There is no A/C in the basement (where my office/crafts are located), so I just get down there on cooler days. It'll be nice when we can get central heat and air down there, and get Brittany's wall built (we are currently using bookcases as a temporary wall to block her room from my office).
• I'm hoping Andy gets a chance to paint the living room soon. I'll post photos of our new furniture once the walls aren't lookin' like cheese. :)
• Apparently I'm mentally retarded because I can't get the comments working the way I want them to. So I'm just going to link to one of those cheesy free guestbooks for now. Because my brain can't handle anymore codes. So please leave comments here. :)

Darby enjoying the last days of summer

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Birds of a feather...
September 9, 2009, 8:32 p.m.

As all my early readers know, I'm scared of birds... mostly just of them touching or pecking me. I don't mind viewing them through glass. Except for doves... doves give me the heebie-jeebies no matter what they are doing.

When we moved here, we had/have a great view out our back windows... the deck, trees, nature...we wanted to set up some bird feeders. Andy has always been an avid birdwatcher, so he was more than happy to get it all set up. We have four feeders currently hanging from our deck, and they are full of non-stop feeding activity.

So far,we have been visited by many cardinals, various types of sparrows, and chickadees. Several varieties of woodpeckers (red-bellied, flicker, downy, and red-cockaded) come see us, and we also get white-breasted nuthatches, wrens, bluejays, house finches, tufted titmice, ruby-throated hummingbirds, and... a few creepy doves.

I love watching them while I'm sitting on the couch or standing at the kitchen sink.Who knew birdwatching could be so much fun?!

I have even managed to get a few of them on film... errrr... not "film", since my camera is digital, but you know what I mean... And all the photos are taken from the safety of my dining room. :)
(the ones below are by Jarvis).

(photo by Jarvis)

(photo by Jarvis)

(photo by Jarvis)

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14 years ago today I woke up and my water had broken. I was about 35 weeks pregnant with my 2nd child. My mom and my niece - Andrea - were there staying with me. Andy was at work, guarding the back gate on Camp Lejeune. My mom, Andrea, Brittany (who was almost two years old) headed to my doctor's office... they wanted to confirm that my water had broken since it was a very slow leak. Once they determined that it had indeed broken (and in doing so made the leak worse!), they sent me over to the hospital. I had pre-registered at the hospital, but they still wanted me to sign some papers before sending me up to labor & delivery. My mom got on the pay phone to call Andy. She went round and round with PMO trying to get him replaced so he could come to the hospital. Eventually - after a few hours, he called the desk and told them that if they didn't send a replacement within a few minutes, he was hitching a ride with the next random car that drove through the gate. Meanwhile, the desk at the hospital was busy - they kept me waiting. And I was leaking everywhere. I was a mess. They finally called my name and the lady calmly said "have a seat" without looking up. I huffily said "if you want me to sit, you should put something in the chair because I am drenched since you guys have kept me waiting so long!" She looked up, and hurried me through then (I guess she didn't hear me the first ten times I told her I was leaking everywhere??). They got me in a wheel chair and pushed me up to L&D, but then told my mom she'd have to take Andrea and Brittany back to the waiting room - no kids under 12 allowed. We were waiting on my friend, Jodi, to come pick up the girls, but she had a broken foot and was delayed. I was like "why can't they come? My husband isn't here yet!" They were adamant though - no kids! I started crying while they were doing the routine admittance paperwork, and the nurse asked "is your husband deployed?" and I was like "no, he's on his way". I was just ticked off from the hectic morning, that he wasn't there yet, and they wouldn't let my mom in the room. lol.

Andy finally got there, Jodi picked up the kids so my mother could come in as well, and I was breathing and ready to give birth. Since my water had broken early, I wasn't progressing very quickly with the contractions and dilating, so they gave me pitocin. Once I got that, I decided to go for the epidural, but just one small dose of it to take the edge off. It helped get me through labor, and then it wore off a little while before it was time to push. I hollered and yelled "no, I can't do this" and "stop" when the doctor was checking me, but I managed to push out the cutest little 5 pound, 7 ounce baby at 6:05 p.m. Since he was early, the placenta wasn't coming out on it's own, so the doc had to reach in and tear it away from the uterine wall - oooh, that was fun. I think that was worse than birth. But it all worked out. I felt better after having Justice than I did after any of the other kids (maybe because I was only 8 months pregnant when he was born - ha!).

And now, 14 years later... Justice Thor Carden is still cute, but has grown taller than me and is turning into quite the young man. He asked me not to make a blog post about how he likes basketball and all the other embarrassing details of his life, so I went with his birth story instead. He said nothing about that! ;)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUSTICE!!!

I'm on Andy's computer so I don't have all my photos here, but here is one of Justice from this past weekend - he, Andy, and Jarvis went hiking at a local state park:

photo by Andrew Carden :)

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I'm baaaaaaaaack...
September 6, 2009, 5:39 p.m.

Did you miss me? I took kind of a break, but I have not replaced blogging with facebook. Never fear. :)

I thought about going back and trying to catch everyone up, but that just seems like way too much. So we'll just start fresh from today.

Things to be on the lookout for on the new and improved website:

• actual working links [don't bother clicking on anything yet]
• daily posts (hopefully?) :)
• old blog archives (I know you're excited)
• the ability to leave comments [please try leaving a comment at the end of the post -full of ads and messy, but I didn't have to learn any new programming] :)
• lots of things such as recipes, photo albums, scrapbook pages and crafts, health info re: celiac/fibromyalgia/chemical sensitivity, and more...

I'm going to try to add at least one photo per post (possibly a bit ambitious of me, we'll see), so here is todays...

Darby turned 8 during my blog hiatus (July 13th). She's such a cutie!