Happy Hair Day!

Today it was a glorious event for the Rummel/Sheridan family because Jenn and I got to get our hair done. Wow! I need a life huh? But seriously, Jenn's wasn't so bad but I have not had a haircut or anything since Thanksgiving! So today Jenn went in early while mom and I watched the girls (we both go to the same girl) and then it was MY turn....hallelujah! My hair was so damaged that she whacked off about 2 inches and had to do a deep conditioner......that's the price you pay for going blonde. Anyhoo, thanks Mom for funding this wonderful day for me for my birthday!XOXOXO

Easter with the Sheridans

So here's some great pictures off my camera that I meant to post a few days ago and some that I just took yesterday. On Friday McKenzie, Haylee, and Jenn came over to decorate Easter eggs and Aidan also came over for the weekend. Aidan and Jack got along so well....it was really cute to see the two of them play and talk to each other. I think I've mentioned before that Jack's latest and greatest is flashing his cheesy smile when we say "cheese"...

This one is my favorite! They were so cute in those chairs!Gammie helping Ryan and Kenzie with their decorations

Lst but not least, our traditional easter egg hunt. This year it was just Kenzie and Ryan since Taylor, Austyn, Ryleigh, and Stacie couldn't make it....we missed you guys! Anyway, we had 50 eggs and Kenzie managed to out hunt Ryan! It was so much fun to watch her face when she found those eggs...I can't wait to have Haylee and Jack join in next year! After the easter egg hunt, Adam took the girls in the pool since it was 90 degrees and Ryan and Ali joined in. FYI Easter was the first day in 4 days that Ryan wasn't running a temp due to the wonderful flu bug thank you very much.....don't worry, he shared with Jack and I'm putting up a good fight as well. So all in all it was a really great day. Great weather, family, food...what more could you want?

Happy Easter!

Well, it has been a full week going into this weekend! My mom arrived on Wednesday which is actually always a blessing since she is truly my right hand, and then on Friday I agreed to watch Aidan, Melissa's little guy, for the weekend. Normally having an extra baby in the house wouldn't be that big of a deal but Wednesday afternoon Ryan came home sick with the flu and just today seems to be turning the corner. Overall Aidan was a great baby (he is 6 weeks younger than Jack) and I learned a lot about myself....I could not do twins again. :-) Also, Aidan decided to sleep through the night last night which was great but then, of course, Ryan has one of his infamous bloody noses at 5am this morning which almost turned into an ER run. I've never seen it so bad....so much blood. It was all over my sofa, all over him, we used up 2 towels and 2 rolls of tp until about 45 minutes into it, it stopped. He was such a mess that I made him shower and then we were finally back to bed at 6am.
Today we are just hanging out. Adam, Jenn and the girls are over for brunch, Mom cooked of course, and we are going to do our traditional Easter egg hunt after we eat....FYI it's 90 degrees today so the pool is ready for any takers! Happy Easter from the Sheridans!

It's not easy being a leprachaun....

Before I had Ryan I really didn't know when St. Patrick's Day was. I knew it was sometime around spring break....maybe in March....but just never knew the exact date....until 9 years ago. One of the things the nurse asked me in the delivery room was, "Are you going to name him Patrick?" Being a child of the 80's, some of you may understand when I tell you that I was a avid SNL watcher and the thought of my child being called "Pat" because his name was Patrick, didn't do it for me. This was also before Spongebob so I'm sure he would have got a lot of jokes about that as well in the years to follow. Now, we have some great friends with these names...men and women....so don't take this personally. Anyhoo, so since we now have a self proclaimed leprechaun in our home, it's forced me to be somewhat creative in my bday preparations. Here's a picture from Ryan's kindergarten class party...For those of you that can't tell, that's green cupcakes, green jello jigglers, green kool aid, and a few gold coins.

And it's not just me....Ryan really gets into it.

Last year we actually bought him a leprechaun outfit and he wore it to school....beard and all. Unfortunately I don't have a picture to insert here because I didn't take one....probably has something to do with me being pregnant.....So, this year was a little more"grown up" being in 3rd grade and all. So here's what we ended up THIS year. Each bag had a few gold coins, green candy, and a green necklace. Last but certainly not least, I wanted to say "Happy Birthday!" to Zuzi, our exchange student that lived with us last year from the Czech Republic. Hope your day was filled with fun and lots of love! XOXOXOXO

Happy St. Patty's Day and Happy Bday RyRy!

Ryan 3/17/99 Today is Ryan (aka Pookie Bear's) 9th birthday! I cannot believe that it's been 9 years since Ryan was born....in case some of you don't know the story, here goes. I was originally due on April 6th (my birthday) but woke up feeling rather icky that Wednesday, the 17th. Doug had just left to take the twins to get haircuts and I made a phone call to my OB and asked him what I should do. He suggested that I go to Mission Hospital and be monitored to see if I was, in fact, in labor. I was so uncomfortable and so over being pregnant that I hadn't really showered in about 2 days nor was I even comfortable enough to put on a bra that day so if you can imagine me driving myself to the hospital, braless, showerless...I probably looked like a homeless woman.....walking into labor and delivery with no husband, no bra (did I mention that already). Anyway, they hooked me up and discovered that I was, in fact, in labor and so I called Doug to drop off the kids at Charlotte's. Soon after, my OB broke my water and the fun started. I had contractions after contractions with no rest. Finally Doug arrived but was no help since I had been given something for pain that made me see about 10 of everything in the room. Then the epideral came......sent from heaven....why anyone in their right mind would not use this wonderful drug I do not know. From then on it was smooth sailing. 4 hours after arriving at the hospital, Ryan Douglas Sheridan was born weighing in at 8 pounds 3 ounces.....3 weeks early! Ryan, or Bulldog as he is now called, is a great kid! From day one this kid has been a lover! He always has hugs for me, tells me how beautiful I am and is never afraid to tell me how much he loves me even if his friends are around. Now what girl wouldn't fall in love with that? Today Ryan had school but before he left I asked him what he wanted to do today and he said he wanted to go out to lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. So Doug and I (and Jack) picked him up and took him out to lunch. Then tonight we all took him out as a family to dinner. He wanted to go to TGI Fridays to see Aunt Jenn at work so we went there. Excuse the picture....my camera had low battery when we got there so I used my cell phone for this one of Ry and I.

Also, some quick pics from this weekend. Ryan's baseball team did awesome! They tied there game and Ryan actually got on base!

And while big brother was looking good in the field, Jack was working on his new trick....saying "cheese"! What a ham!

My "Adam"

We have a little joke in our family. Everytime one of the my kids or my brothers' kids does something crazy or gets into something, my mom says "oh, you've got an Adam!"..meaning that my brother Adam was a handful from the moment he was born. One of my mom's favorite stories among many is the one about Adam crawling out of his crib and ending up on another street sitting in the middle of the culdesac....not sure where my mom was but now she can laugh about it. Today I had one such experience where even I found myself thinking now I've got an Adam on my hands. I put Jack down for his nap at his usual 10am time and then did some straightening up around the house. Eventually I got into the shower, anticipating that Jack would be up soon but just play in his crib if he woke up before I got out of the shower. He had other plans. After I got out of the shower, I spent a few minutes getting dressed and throwing my hair into a towel....I could hear him talking to himself on the monitor so I knew he was awake and playing. Little did I know that he was playing in his room....not in his crib anymore. He somehow managed to get out of his crib and was playing in his room having a great time. I freaked out because not only did he get out of his crib but I didn't close the gate at the top of the stairs simply because he was napping in his crib when I got in the shower. He could have crawled out into the hallway and fell down the stairs! So tonight my wonderful neighbor who is also a great carpenter came over and adjusted his crib to the lowest setting possible so our friend Jack will not be making any escapes anytime soon....hopefully. Also, for those of you that have been wondering where the pics are of Jack's foot.....I'm sorry I've been bad about taking pics lately so here's one of last night. It looks really good and he's doing awesome!

Baseball and what's up with this weather?

This weekend was quite interesting. It was officially our first weekend without hockey. Of course Doug was having withdrawls so he HAD to put AJ in a clinic on Sunday...oh and private lessons in San Clemente on Saturday I almost forgot. Ryan's season is officially over now along with AJ's so with that means planning for NEXT season of course....there is no rest for Coach Doug. Anyhoo, Ryan is on the Yankees AA team this year and I have to say I LOVE watching him play! He's having a bit of a hard time this season with getting used to players pitching instead of a machine but I must say that he is the BEST looking player out there. His game this weekend was on Saturday and his team won 17-3. It was actually pretty exciting considering. Adam, Jenn, Kenzie, and Haylee all came to watch as Ryan struck out twice and then got walked...it's ok, Uncle Adam is going to take him to the batting cages. So on Sunday it was a day of nothing...at least for mom. Doug and AJ took off for the hockey clinic, Ali went to church, and Ryan, me, and Jack just hung out.
Ok about the weather....my sister in law emails me a picture of her house this weekend in Ohio and it's snowing there! Here it's in the 80's and I actually got a slight sunburn on my arms at Ryan's baseball game. What is up with that? I thought this was supposed to still be winter? Today it was more of the same....sunny and hot. I guess it's supposed to cool down in the next few days...maybe down to 70????Whooooooo!!!!
***For those of you reading this and getting slightly dizzy...sorry about the new template. I love it but I'm working on fixing the background to be solid.

Letting it go....

For those of you closest to me, you know that the last 24 hours have been...well....hell. For those of you that do not know, I'm sorry but I'm not going to rehash it. Anyway, I am letting it go. Jack is doing great as usual. I usually don't post new pics everyday but today he had a doctor's appt. and they said that his foot looked so good that he no longer has any restrictions other than direct sun on his foot and bald spot AND the greatest thing is that he can take a bath again and I no longer need to put anything on his foot other than vitamin E. For those of you that have followed this drama you know this is a big deal for me since I've spent almost a month now dressing and redressing his foot everyday. Here are some pics I took tonight of his foot along with some others I couldn't resist....

His scab came off yesterday and there's already hair growing back!

He really wants to walk!

I also have to say something about my kids. I have the greatest kids in the whole world. Sure, there's those moments when I think I'm going to commit myself but overall I have some really great kids. I have a daughter that is my right hand girl and would do just about anything to help me out, I've got my comedian with whom I share some pretty corny jokes that only him and I get half the time, I've got my PookieBear that I can always depend on to snuggle with and who gives the best hugs just when I need them, and then there's Jack....Mr. Happy....having 4 kids can get pretty crazy and alot of days I am worn to the core but it's those few moments throughout the day or even once or twice in the week when I look at each and every one of them and say to myself, "What would I do without you." They each enrich my life so much that I know I am a stronger person, a better mom because of the lessons they have taught me. This past 24 hours has taught me that no matter what anyone says, I am a good mom. I love my kids with all my heart and no one can convince me differently.

9 days post op

Bad day today so just pics

15 years, almost 9 years and 11 months!

In the midst of all this "burn center" saga, I managed to forget to blog about the twins' birthday. In my defense, we were in Vegas so I really didn't have time so here's goes. I have been AJ and Ali's mom now for 13 years......wow! How time flies! They turned 15 which means we have exactly 6 months until they get behind the wheel...scary! Being their mom has been such an amazing experience for me since I was only 20 when I met them, they have really taught me a lot about being a mom, being patient, and also learning from mistakes along the way. I could not have asked for a better set of "step kids" even though I never think of them in that way but I also recognize that it could have been very hard raising kids that were not mine and me being so young....but they really made it easy by being such great kids. Anyhoo, here's a little blast from the past and then what great looking teenagers they've turned out to be.....

Also, I can't forget to blog about my cutie pie, Jack who turns 11 months today and stay tuned for Ryan's 9th birthday coming up in 12 days!!!!!

One week of healing.....

and despite his boo boos, he's happy little Jack!

Day 5 of healing

The brown is actually NOT part of the burn but simply skin graft overlay to ensure the red parts accept the graft. It's much smaller than it looks. The brown is already scabbed and should fall off soon and leave only the red to heal.