bre & jay

We went to Charleston this weekend for Bre & Jay's wedding. (We haven't been to a wedding in 3 whole months!) Jay is one of our old YL club kids from GW. He is back in Charleston and now leading YL there. Ben did part of the wedding and shared some of the fun memories from days gone by. As I say at every wedding, it's always such a blessing to be part of weddings like these. And to see people we love so very much.

We took the kids to this one thinking they would love all the dancing. But I guess you forget about the ceremony, the waiting before eating, the meal and THEN the dancing. They did well. We won't do it again anytime soon. And Ted Tuel put his dancing shoes ON!

Unfortunately, my picture taking skills/desire/etc have gone down the toilet. So here you have the wedding of Jay & Bre through the camera skills of this little lady . . . (There are a few legit photos. I'm sure you'll be able to tell which ones. Sorry if you are a victim of this.)

 "Reading" the program. She was so excited to dress up in her lovely (summer) dress that twirled! We straight ironed her hair and she wore some not pick lipstick. We got new tights that had a hole in them before we even got to the wedding.

 

JB & Bethany

 Brian & Adrienne

 Ted & his hero, JB

  Meredith

The wedding party - from afar

 The 1st dance - from afar

Derek, Lisa and Ben

 Shawna & John

Waiting for dinner

the strobe light

a little daddy/daughter dancing

 

and some sibling dancing

 

Derek went home sick so Ted asked Lisa to dance.

 And then started dancing and didn't stop.

 Which included gangnam style, the jerk and every group dance that everyone else did. I've never seen his face so red! Still trying to get my hands on some video of it.

Congratulations, Bre & Jay! We love you!

social media

So I'm checking my Instagram while standing behind 10 other people in line at Walmart late Saturday morning and this picture shows up . . . 

With this caption: Saturday mornings are the best. Ted on the iPad. Sophie watchin TV. Millie being Millie. 

That all seems nice enough. But allow me to tell you (in the words of Paul Harvey) the rest of the story . . . 

Friday morning we were first in line at MedExpress to have Ted diagnosed with Croup and Sophie's ears rechecked. She had an ear infection 2 weeks ago and has still been complaining. It's just fluid in her ears. We had a rough Thursday night with Ted that involved lots of coughing, trouble breathing, contemplating a trip to the ER and standing outside in pj's and coats to clear airways and make his cough more productive. We went to New Martinsville for a couple of hours to refinance the van at the Credit Union, eat some fish at the good old Catholic Church fish fry and home and in bed by 9pm. 

Friday night:

1:30 am - Sophie wakes up having puked in her bed. Again. She had the stomach virus last Thursday. This time she managed much more damage that involved 3 loads of laundry. Perhaps I should learn for her not to sleep with anything but her bedding. Either way, Ben bathed her. I made 3 trips to the basement (and forgot to turn the washer ON) and remade a bed with whatever remnants of bedding happened to be easily washable and around. Back to bed.

3:45 am - Ted is up coughing and having a hard time breathing. He and Ben run out all the hot water by running the shower to steam up the bathroom. Back in bed.

5:30 am - More coughing and breathing stuff. Less severe. In my sleep stupor, I tell Ted to put on his coat and go stand on the back deck. And please take Millie out while you're at it. That seems to do the trick. Ted is up for the day. Lots of (non-emergency) coughing from downstairs as well as movies, xbox football and Disney Jr. And strange noises that don't seem important enough to investigate at the time.

7:15 am - Ted: "Emergency, Mom! Sophie things she peed in her bed." We'll just call it the "leftovers" from whatever she didn't spew out of her system at 1:30 am. I am up. 

(I should mention that this is the first Saturday in AGES that we have nothing on the agenda and we were very much looking forward to sleeping in, a big breakfast and doing fun things as a family. The best laid plans . . . )

It turns out that, while the rest of us slumbered, Ted brought Millie's bed down to the living room, along with every stuffed animal in the house AND his own personal bedding. He made himself quite the "nest" on the floor using Millie's bed as the bottom layer. I should mention that Millie is in desperate need of a bath and her bed is STANKY! Thank you, Ted, for spreading your bedding all over hers which equals more laundry. We do whatever breakfast anyone feels like trying to hold down and lay around.

10:15 am - Ben rolls out of bed. I will say that he NEVER sleeps in like that. Sleeping in to us is 8:00 if we're lucky. He's been really tired so I let him sleep - turns out he needed it. I roll out the door to grocery shop since I missed it because of my MedExpress trip Friday morning. Which leads me back to this picture:

The Moral of the Story (Storal of the Morey in Rindercella's case):

I know that our sick night is NOTHING compared to what some of you all have dealt with this winter. I'm very well aware of that. I'm not trying to compare, contrast or make you feel bad for us. What I'm trying to say here is SOCIAL MEDIA LIES. Or maybe the more accurate statement should be WE ALL LIE ON SOCIAL MEDIA. Or maybe something like WE GIVE IMPRESSIONS THAT ARE NOT NECESSARILY ACCURATE. 

Please note: I love my husband, and I'm not calling him out. At the MOMENT, this was a nice, peaceful minute in time. But it doesn't accurately capture all that surrounded it.

You may or may not have seen that picture on Saturday morning and thought about the lovely morning the Tuel's were having. Not so much. 6 loads of laundry later, whiny kids all day, cooped up in the house on a beautiful Saturday, not doing something fun as a family, etc, etc, was not in the caption of the picture. So, before you start feeling bad about someone else's family doing something super fun or being super awesome or doing things way better than you do, please remember there's a bigger story behind all those pictures on twitter, instagram and facebook. I'm just sayin'.

basketball 2013

Ted played basketball in January and February. He loved it. I loved it. Indoors and time limit. Amen! Ted and Wyatt got to be on the same team which was most excellent for all of us!

february pics

I am so behind. Here is February . . . .

Ted's sweet little basketball team.

And with their siblings that had a lot of fun together.

Sisters playing on the bleachers.

We had a "pick up the dog poop party." If you recall the last post, this is quite an issue in our small, fenced in yard.

Sometimes I just give the kids gloves. It's so much easier and much quicker that way. Please don't judge me. We clean thoroughly when we're done.

Our sweet friends Nadia and Anna Grace came over a couple of Mondays ago. They have a baby brother which is very different from a big brother! Ted gives them a run for their money. Sophie's costume had some malfunction issues due to size, so we sent it home with our guests who could get way more use from it!

 

We painted decorative tiles for the new Child Advocacy Center at The Wow Factory. A very cool and fun fundraiser. We went with 6 other friends under the age of 7. Always good times!

A couple Saturdays ago we had a family game night. Everyone got to pick a game. Ted got a glass of Coke and Sophie a glass of iced tea. Very easily pleased.

Chutes & Ladders

Monopoly Jr

Busytown

And 2 games of Uno.

This was Ted's victory dance.

 

Sophie's victory dance photo was slightly inappropriate for the blog, but might be  considered acceptable for Mardi Gras!

prepare to have your heart melted

To preface this picture:

1) Ted has a journal he writes in about once a month. We are great at follow through/creating habits in our house.

2) Most nights when we say our prayers, I encourage the kids to pray for one person from their class and one family member in an attempt to think of others.

3) We have recently learned of a new little Tuel joining the world - Uncle Andy and Aunt Courtney are pregnant!!

This particular morning, Ted was up super early. He decided he wanted to write a prayer in his journal. Before you get all jealous or think we're all spiritual around here, this is the one and only times he's done that. Usually it's about sports or super heroes. Either way, totally heart melting.

We are praying for you Baby Tuel. Can't wait to meet you!

(We rewrote it with correct spelling and punctuation. Not necessarily correct direction of letters!)

to read and watch

What Teachers Really Want to Tell Parents

Interesting. Fascinating. Telling of our culture.

Why you should be watching Duck Dynasty

We (the entire family) LOVE this show. I wanted to go to bed early last Wednesday, but ended up staying up laughing hard at these fools! I will compare this show to my all time favorite "Everybody Loves Raymond." Simply because I laugh hard at every episode no matter how many times I've seen it. That's quality television people.

Women of Valor

I couldn't find the original post of this anywhere, so this is Jen Hatmaker's blog. Skip down to where it says: "Why You Don't Need Pinterest to be a Proverbs 31 Woman" You will be glad you did.

The Bible on the History Channel

I'm kind of a critic when it comes to these things. But I watched (most) of the first episode last week. (Sophie took a 2 hour nap Sunday afternoon and couldn't sleep that night. This is not your Veggie Tales version of the Bible.) If nothing else, it gives you a different picture of different times. I'm going to continue to watch.