JOB DESCRIPTION: Parent
TITLES:
Mother, Mom, Mommy, Mama, Ma
JOB DESCRIPTION :
Long term, team player needed, for challenging permanent work in an
often chaotic environment. Candidates must possess excellent
communication and organizational skills and be willing to work
variable hours, which will include evenings and weekends and frequent
24 hour shifts on call. Teaching, training, encouraging, and motivating skills are a must! Budgeting, saving, corner cutting, salvaging, and creativity also needed for success in this field. Some overnight travel required, including
trips to primitive camping sites on rainy weekends and endless chauffeuring
to and from various facilities! Travel expenses not reimbursed. 
Extensive courier duties also required.
RESPONSIBILITIES :
The rest of your life. Must be willing to be hated, at least
temporarily, until someone needs $5. Must be willing to bite tongue
repeatedly. Also, must possess the physical stamina of a pack mule
and be able to go from zero to 60 mph in three seconds flat in case,
this time, the screams from the backyard are not someone just crying
wolf. Must be willing to face stimulating technical challenges, such
as small gadget repair, mysteriously sluggish toilets, and stuck
zippers. Must screen phone calls, maintain calendars, and coordinate
production of multiple homework projects. Must have ability to plan
and organize social gatherings for clients of all ages and mental
outlooks. Must be willing to be indispensable one minute, an
embarrassment the next. Must handle assembly and product safety
testing of a half million cheap, plastic toys, and battery operated
devices. Must always hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.
Must assume final, complete accountability for the quality of the end
product. Responsibilities also include floor maintenance and
janitorial work throughout the facility.
POSSIBILITY FOR ADVANCEMENT & PROMOTION :
None. Your job is to remain in the same position for years, without
complaining, constantly retraining and updating your skills, so that
those in your charge can ultimately surpass you.
PREVIOUS EXPERIENCE :
None required, unfortunately. On-the-job training offered on a
continually exhausting basis.
WAGES AND COMPENSATION :
Get this! You pay them! Offering frequent raises and bonuses. A
balloon payment is due when they turn 18 because of the assumption
that college will help them become financially independent. When you
die, you give them whatever is left. The oddest thing about this
reverse-salary scheme is that you actually enjoy it and wish you
could only do more.
BENEFITS :
While no health or dental insurance, no pension, no tuition
reimbursement, no paid holidays and no stock options are offered,
this job supplies limitless opportunities for personal growth and
free hugs for life if you play your cards right.
For more information see your mother, grandmother, Aunts, and other mothers.

To apply see Man of the House....

It has been so nice to finally have time to shop together again now that I'm no longer in the ranks of the employed! Yay! Anyway, the other day Todd and I and the kids were shopping at Target (strangely still my favorite place to shop?) and we were really just browsing sales and such when I came across something that looked handy. It was a package of woodsman wipes with really strong bug protection in them. Our farm in Kansas has so many chiggers that I simply refuse to get out of the car when we go there! Just walking on the driveway gets me so covered that I itch for weeks!! Anyway, I was thinking that if I had some wipes like that I could maybe enjoy going to the farm every now and again. So I picked them up to show Todd who in the amount of time that it had taken me to read the package was now two isles over. (Power shopper, like most men, I guess...) When I found him I showed them to him who casually nodded and said, as he was looking at something else, "Sounds pretty good." So I then turned to place them back on the shelf. "What are you doing?" he asked. "I thought you wanted those?" I looked confused and said, "Oh, you just didn't seem very excited about them so I figured you didn't want them. So I'm putting them back." Then Todd did something I have never seen him do! He threw his arms into the air, leapt up and landed with his feet wide apart, then putting the back of his hand to his forehead he exclaimed, "OH, THOSE ARE THE COOLEST WIPES EVER!! YOU ARE SUCH A BRILLIANT WIFE!!" Then to my further shock he grabbed my face squished my cheeks into my face and then planted a big kiss on me and then for good measure kicked my feet out from under me and laid me out on the floor of Target, jumped on top of me, and loudly smooched while the kids stood staring in shock and I laughed so hard I couldn't kiss him back! A moment later, as I was trying to straighten myself and get up off the floor I saw this lady pushing her cart on past our isle looking like she thought we had taken leave of our senses!! Poor lady! I think she's scarred for life!! LOL!

~TTFN

Thanks Everybody!

After several hours of work my site now has a new look! Thanks Caleb for all your help! This was fun!

~TTFN

Extra, Extra! Read All About It!

Trenton Lee Francis

is Eight Years Old Today!

My most special  (and only ) boy has grown into such a wonderful and incredible son. I don't know what it is about 8 but he just seems to be officially not a little boy anymore; he's a full grown boy now and somehow it just feel like I will blink another couple of times and he will be a man! I probably can't even imagine all the amazing things that God has in store for my handsome and precocious boy!

"Trenton, Mommy and Daddy love you so much and are so blessed by the person that you are! Don't ever loose that delight in life and constant exploration! God is using the gifts he has given you already to bless your sisters and us! Just keep seeking God and He will make your paths straight! WE LOVE YOU!!!"

My precious baby number 4 has turned 3 today!!

She is such an amazing addition to our family in so many ways! Let me name a few....

I remember finding out I was pregnant with her.... I was so incredibly sick and emotional! I told myself every day that this baby was going to be such a precious child and that God had GREAT plans for her life! I talked to her constantly --needing to feel like she was real and I wasn't just going to die or go completely insane!!  Those were some of the hardest days of my life but I never wanted to resent her or wish it all away. I just knew our lives would never be the same because of this precious baby I was carrying and nothing could be worth more than that!! We named her Tyler very early in my pregnancy... so early we didn't even know if she was going to be a girl or a boy. But we were so excited to tell Trenton, Trina, and Tacey that they were going to have another new sibling but we also wanted to tell them at the same time what the baby's name would be so they could talk to her while she was still in my tummy and call her by name. We had always had Ty on our list of favorite boy's names but we had never really considered Tyler as a girl name.  Todd and I remembered that his Grandmother's maiden name was Tyler and we thought that we would honor her by naming this baby Tyler-- Girl or Boy. So eagerly we gathered the children and informed them that new baby Tyler was on the way! They too, loved her from the start!

Three ultrasounds later we still didn't know for sure if she was a girl or a boy! But they gave us about an "80% sure" guess that she was a girl so I didn't unpack the boy stuff and tried to stay down so she didn't come early.  I was due Sept. 1st and so two weeks before this date 3 years ago they gave me the ok to return to normal activity and be ready to have a baby any day. As we got closer and closer to the end of August and Trenton's August 30th Birthday I decided that I needed a project to keep me distracted from analyzing every contraction so I delved into throwing a major lakeside birthday party for Trenton complete with something like 30 guests!! Our pond/lake was newly finished and we were dying to entertain by it! We had big tents, horse shoes, volleyball, badminton, several grills for hamburgers and hot dogs, frisbees, and more! And then, just two nights before all this was to happen, I went into labor-- for real this time!

By 11am the next morning, in our tiny, barely cool upstairs bedroom Todd and his mom had single handedly delivered a very blue 7lb. 14oz. BREACH baby girl! We had never been so shocked to see feet in our entire lives!! She had been head down all the way through labor!! Miraculously Todd resuscitated her and she pinked right up and blinked up at us. We rejoiced... I, who hadn't felt so many forms of discomfort all at once in my entire life until I conceived Tyler, now felt almost instantly a zillion times better! It was dizzying to feel sooooo good! And within a hour family and close friends began stopping by to admire the new baby and slap Todd on the back-- our hero of the day! He's my hero everyday but he sure out did himself on that day bringing little Tyler back to life!! He swears he aged 10 years in those moments after Tyler was born so still and lifeless! I guess I was too out of it to really worry that much... God is just so incredibly merciful to us!

By 5pm I got dressed and was downstairs eating pizza that Todd's parents brought. The next morning I got up and dressed up my new baby and myself and without Todd's knowing, got Todd's brother Tim and Kelly (his girlfriend at the time, now his wife) to drive me to Wal-Mart to finish the shopping for the party that night by our pond! Needless to say, Todd was more than a little upset that I was out that quickly but I felt great and the party must go on!! LOL! I managed to host most of the evening before I called it a night and headed for my bed. Trenton still tells everyone that he got Tyler for his birthday.  What an amazing couple of days!

Tyler is:

• Funny


• Goofy


• Corny


• Full of Life


• Girly


• Uninhibited


• Dramatic


• Talkative


• Inventive


• LOUD!!


• Bright


• Loving


• Colorful

We Love You, Tyler Lenée!!

 My poor little Tegan has has really missed her mommy!! She has been so... almost... depressed for the past few weeks...  This is the face she pretty much has been giving me when I saw her. She sucks those two middle fingers and holds her hair (or mine if I'm holding her) and just looks so pathetic! Breaks my heart!

I love this little hair clippy. Tacey loving on her.

Mommy finally got a smile!

Pretty Ladies! Grace and Tacey.

Tyler and Grace

Afternoon Sun.

Pretty Budgy with her baby.

Uncle Fun! Caleb and Trenton just Hangin' out...

I took some pictures of Caleb and Grace for their blogs and for Mom and Dad. We really had a great time!

Don't you love my house??? Yeah, very funny... This was actually taken at Park University just down the road from where we live. But gorgeous... just gorgeous!

Too fun!

Yep, it's true.....  and believe it or not it is one of the best things that has happened to me in months!! Hallelujah!! I haven't been this happy in a long time!! It's a weird story but I can see you all scratching your heads so here goes:

Two weeks ago today (Aug. 9th) I went in and talked with our HR executive at my Target store and informed her that I needed to put in my two weeks notice. Caleb and Grace had just arrived the weekend before to bide us some time while we waited to hear what Todd's loan check was going to be this year (the school makes those decisions and we never know exactly what they will award us until we get the check) and checked into a baby sitter for the school year. So only now did we have a chance to look at the numbers and it wasn't going to work out. My notice obviously came as a surprise to her and she expressed regret at my having to leave. I explained that childcare was going to cost more than I make...blah, blah, blah..... so I regretted having to leave after having accomplished so much in my department but it was unavoidable. She and I discussed a possible demotion and my still working part time, etc. but I told her I would need to get back with her. She said fine and said well why don't we make your last day in Electronics Sept. 1st. I blinked. I was a little confused how that worked out to be two weeks (my blonde coming out, I guess ) but she said something about my getting a .50 raise effective the 1st of Sept. and so if I waited to demote then I would be able to just drop $3 an hour and keep the .50 raise. I was confused about that since I had been told that I wasn't due for another raise until next May! Weird... but I figured if it meant more money than I would hang on until Sept 1st and see if Caleb and Grace could stay a whole month. At first that seemed like it was going to work out and so I started really digging in at work and trying to get everything ready for a new Team Leader to take over the department and was really making great headway. But then last Saturday my parents got ahold of me to tell me that Caleb was needed at home for a large Termite job and I was going to need to meet my parents with them the next Saturday. I was fine with that but I wasn't going to be able to get child care for my kids for another week so I knew I need to chat with HR again. Sunday at the end of my shift I finally caught her just outside her office and said,

"I am going to have to go back to my original last day to be August 23rd since I am loosing my baby sitters."

She blinked at me so I explained the whole situation while her face got redder and redder. When I finished and expressed my regret to have to do this but that I needed to take care of my family and I was only going to be able to fill in every now and again and not go on a part time schedule just yet --maybe around Christmas I could, and the next thing I know she snaps at me,

"Well, what am I supposed to do about your shifts?" and goes off ranting at me about how she had thought I was going to stay until the first and that I was putting her in a bind, etc., etc. I very calmly said, "Well, I don't know but what am I supposed to do? I don't have childcare. I don't have family near by. I don't have anyone who could help me and I can't just hire a baby sitter for a week. I'm sorry but this is out of my hands"

Then she snaps, "Well fine then!" and marches into her office. I sheepishly headed for my locker to gather my things to go home and then she storms back out and says, "You're going to have to fill out one of these." and slaps a piece of paper on the table and turns on her heels and marches back into her office. I turned to look at the paper and started to fill it out. Then the header catches my eye, "Involuntary Termination". I paused and did a double take. "INvoluntary Termination"!! That means I'm fired!! All the blood drained from my head. I was mortified! How could she fire me when I had given and was planning to work my two weeks notice!?! But I have never wanted to stay were I wasn't wanted so I shakily filled out the rest of the paper and put it in her mail box and left. I just wanted to get home to Todd so I could rant and rave in the safety of my loving hubby! I was so upset! When he realized what had happened all he kept saying was, "Are you sure that's what the paper said?" "YES!" I repeated emphatically, "She fired me!" Finally he says, "Hummm.... Jess, this is the best thing that could have happened to us! Are your sure you got fired?" I rolled my eyes, "Do you know any other meaning for 'Involuntary Termination?'" He laughed, "No, but she just did us an enormous favor! Now you can collect unemployment for a few months while we figure out if we can survive without your income." I just blinked. "Oh, yeah....." But I still hated the feeling that she didn't want me. (All that 'fear of man' junk coming out.... yuck!)

Anyway, we found a box lying around here and headed back there to clean out my desk. It had been almost 45 minutes since my conversation with HR so I was still in shock but I emptied my desk and headed to my mail box for any papers still left there. Right on the top of my mail was a piece of paper titled, "Voluntary Termination Report" and a sticky note was stuck to it saying, "Jessi, I had you fill out the wrong paper. I need you to fill out this one." Todd and I both rolled our eyes. Yeah, right! Sure you did! We were about to call her bluff! I turned right around and headed into her office and said, "What is this? After you fired me?!" Her attitude hadn't cooled in the least: "I just gave you the wrong sheet of paper!" she snapped. I blinked at her (it seems I have been having alot of blonde moments lately!) so Todd jumped in. Let's just say from there the whole thing only got uglier. She certainly failed me make me feel wanted there or even that it had really been a "mistake" at all!! Todd and I were both convinced that she really intended to scare me into working out the month! So we left. And I'm still fired. And I couldn't be happier. Strange story, huh?

I have had a conversation with her boss and it looks like I shouldn't have any trouble working at another Target store if I ever wanted to in the future so I think it all worked out for the best. I just can't stop looking at my babies and kissing their precious little cheeks! I am so glad to be full time mommy again! And Caleb and especially Grace have been a huge help this week with babysitting the kids and letting me get some much needed errands done and spend long put off time with Todd! It's really been a huge blessing!

~TTFN

We recently discovered Smithville Lake --a  wonderful big lake just a mere 25 minute drive from our house and we have fallen in love with it! We find ourselves slipping out of the city every chance we get to go to the lake! Our kids seem to be part fish! They love the water!!!! Anyway, since I am now the proud owner of a new camera (ahhhh, I'm soooo excited!) here are some pictures of our fun day...

The Big Kids

Ty Baby Grins *ahww*

Tacey.... Ever accessorizing!

Water Fun!

Tegan fell in love with the water first thing. We hadn't planned on her getting in the water so we didn't get her a suit that day but she got so excited when we first got her in the water that we've made sure now that she is all set up!

Look at that happy face! You can even see her new tooth.  Ohhh, she is just such a dolly!!!

Soakin' up some rays.

We finally got Tyler's throat surgery out of the way. She was born with Brachial Cleft Fistulas on either side of her neck; a completely benign result of incomplete fetal development. She could have kept them her entire life without any difficulty but we wanted them removed since they drained and made her neck look dirty and would probably have made her self-conscience when she got older. We figured it best to get them removed while she is too young to really remember or have it bother her much. Pictures from the eventfull day:

I took this as we were walking out the door to the hospital. Don't know if you can really seem them. They were pretty small little holes. These are extremely rare. The medical students at Todd's school got a kick out of seeing them!

She sure was excited just to be going out with Mommy! I left Todd with the other kids but they joined us later.

Waking up Post Op. She only wanted Daddy.

Daddy encouraged her to start moving around after a bit. Here she stops to charm the nurses into giving her cookies.

A little blurry but you can see her post op neck.

Heading home with baby sis firmly in tow!

"My Operation Was  Bearable at Children's Mercy"

That evening and she's back to her orrnry ol' self!   

 Our favorite neighbor took this picture with his new super fancy Mac after a day at the lake. Yep, we look a little scuzzy but we had a blast!