A Beautiful Conversation

Okay so this conversation occurred today on the way to my mom's house. It started as I was pulling out of my driveway.

Jeremiah (6 years old) says, "Mom, I'm gonna miss you when you die."

I reply, "Well baby, hopefully that won't happen for a long time."

Then I proceed to go through how my momma is still alive and daddy's momma is still alive and my mom's mom is still alive and daddy's mom's mom is still alive. and on and on....

I finish with, "So hopefully I won't die until you are very, very old."

At this point, Elijah (4 years old) pipes in, "Mom, I don't wanna get old."

I say, "I don't want you to get old either."

Elijah starts rambling, "Well maybe if I don't take bathes (that's how he says it like "bath - ez" sounded adorable and it's my story so I can elaborate if I want!) I won't get old, because one time I took a bath for a long time and when I got out I was old!"

Jeremiah haughtily says, "That's not old that's wrinkled! Besides you don't die until you're 100. Then you die and go to heaven."

Elijah says, "I wanna go to heave, because I want to see Jesus."

I'm in the front seat with tears welling up in my eyes because the conversation so quickly changed from humorous to precious. I say, "I want to see Jesus too, honey."

Elijah says, "I just wanna see Jesus because I want to tell him I love Him."

I say, "You can tell him you love Him now."

He says, "Oh yeah, cuz Jesus is in my heart. So I can tell Jesus I love Him in my heart, right?"

I say, "Yes baby that is right."

He says, "But I still want to tell Him in heaven Mom."

I say, "Me too Eli. You are making Momma's heart so full right now. I hope you love Jesus this much all the days of your life."

Elijah, "I'm gonna Momma. I am gonna love Jesus every day of my life."

Jeremiah, "Me too Mom. I'm gonna love Jesus forever too."

This was one of the most precious conversations I've ever had with my children. It's definitely going right in their journals right along with this heartfelt prayer:

Father God, PLEASE let my babies love you ALL of the days of their lives. May they honor you in all they do. May they never turn away from you. May you be their constant companion and faithful guide. May they grow to love you more than anyone else on this earth. Amen.

Night all! 

An Ode to Prairie Peops....

 Okay so it's a normal one-bath kinda day around here. See your typical day involves at least one bath for Hannah. She's just at that stage. If she's not fingerpainting with poop, she's wearing a bowl of pudding on her head or dancing in a puddle of syrup.

So today it was toothpaste. I went to take off her glasses and they were stuck to her hair with toothpaste. So we trudged up the stairs so I could start a bath.....no hot water. I had to search high and low for a fire source. OF COURSE the one fire starter we have has been destroyed by the kids. I couldn't reach all the way back to the pilot with a normal lighter. We have no matches in the house because my husband has outlawed them because he doesn't like the smell (seriously what's to hate about that heavenly smell?) Finally I devised a plan. It involved a birthday candle pinched between the blades of a scissors (I didn't say it was a good plan....just a plan). So I called John to update him on the situation, breifed Elijah on how to dial 911 and traipsed into the basement to try to light the pilot on the water heater all by myself.

After losing the candle in the bottom of the water heater and having to instruct my son to stick his hand in the tiny opening to fish it out, I got a better grip on the candle pushed the button down and stuck the flame in there....NADA. It would not light.

At this point I was getting a little frustrated. I need to hit the grocery store before dinner time and Hannah CANNOT go with toothpaste all gooed in her hari. John was going to stop home and try to figure it out when he got a break in his work, but who knew how long that would be. So I decided to fill the bathtub part way with cold water and then boil some water to warm it up. (It worked for Laura Ingalls Wilder.) Okay so here I am on my second LARGE kettle of boiling water and the water still isn't even tepid. In strides John with his mini torch thing, and in less than 10 minutes he has the pilot light burning.

Getting ahead of myself....

 Okay so I've yet to blog on facebook. Usually I save my mindless ranting for myspace, but I'm feeling adventurous as I face a closing chapter in my life so here goes....

Hannah went poop on the potty yesterday! Now for those of you who are single or still without children, this seems like just a bodily function that maybe shouldn't be shared, but for anyone who's a parent, I KNOW you're feeling me here.

She won't do ANYTHING on the toilet for me. Nope! Nuhuh! No way! But Elijah hoists her little tush up on that throne and sure enough...she goes #2! I was screaming and cheering and dancing about like a fool.

This morning as I awoke, I took a few minutes to ponder what life would be like with NO diapers. I cannot even imagine it. I have had non-stop diapers for almost 9 years now! In fact quite frequently, I have had two in diapers at once. I'm not sure how I will function without having to change diapers, and I'm sure I'll never figure out what to do with the extra $25 per month I'll save.

So finally after all that dreaming, I got out of bed. Hannah got up. I put her in her adorable little Tinkerbell undies, and I thought about framing the receipt which had my very last box of diapers on it. Before I could even finish the thought, she came around the corner walking with her feet spread about two feet apart. Tinkerbell had been defiled and I realized....I was getting way too far ahead of myself. I'm sure my diaperless days will come, but I'm also sure I'll probably make it to at least April before I have to worry about what to do with that extra $25.

Hannah's lost tooth

 You know you kinda figure by baby number 4 that you've kinda seen most of what you're going to see in parenting. Nope...not so much. First of all my number 4 doesn't have a penis and that alone makes for a world of fun...she is TALKATIVE, a bit divaish (I'm sure we created that), and just a little more cautious. Not only that but hey since you didn't have enough to do with 4 children let's throw in a tiny little pair of glasses to afford, keep track of, worry about. Then a bunch of first time ever experiences you really could have lived without....

Sunday between church and youth group, we were frantically trying to get our basement cleaned. Anyone who has tried to walk down the laundry covered stairs to the large garbage can called our basement (or anyone who remembers me falling down the stairs into the cement wall last Thanksgiving) can imagine that this was no easy feat. Last time we cleaned it we ended up with like 4 55-gallon bags to goodwill and 5 of garbage. Well we're all down there and Hannah keeps heading for the stairs. I keep pulling her off of them and telling her she's going to break her skull, but in true Kastner fashion, she just keeps on ignoring me. All of a sudden I'm sweeping and I hear that sound that makes your heart completely stop: someone or something tumbling down the stairs. I throw the broom, cuss, and sprint for the bottom of the stairs. During my 3 second sprint, I hear what I really didn't want to hear....the finale to the tumbling: Hannah's screams.

Thank GOD! I hadn't yet cleaned up the dirty laundry gathered at the bottom of the stairs because that at least broke her fall and protected her from smashing her head on the concrete floor. I picked her up and she was screaming and blood was pouring from her mouth. This is not new. I've done that scene about a MILLION times in the past 8 years. But as I opened her mouth, I started to tear up. Her bottom left tooth was turned at a right angle to the others. John was just getting to the bottom of the stairs and I said, her tooth is knocked crooked. We have to call the dentist. He pulled Hannah out of my arms as I rushed up the stairs and he started examining her tooth. He was able to get the tooth back in place, but it was a little loose. When I called the dentist's emergency number, our pediatric dentist said, "Guess what I'm actually in the office right now because someone else is on their way for an emergency appointment. Can you bring her right in?" PRAISE GOD! "I sure can."

Well the dentist said he thought the tooth would tighten up over the next few days. He said to bring her in on Friday to be checked or to call if it worsened. Well, it worsened....later that evening she picked up her shoe and tried to chew on it. She started SCREAMING! I ran over and she had blood everywhere and her tooth was poking straight out from her teeth. I pushed it back and calmed her down. At 1:30 she woke up and was fit to be tied. We figured maybe she was in pain, so I took her downstairs to give her Tylenol. She started thrasing cuz she didn't want the Tylenol and bumped that tooth on the spoon....more blood and she wouldn't let me check if it was in place anymore.

In the morning when I checked it, it was VERY loose and about to fall out. I called the dentist who advised us to give it until the afternoon and then check back in. Well this isgetting kinda lengthy so I'll wrap it up...I had to take her in last night to have the tooth pulled. It's not the end of the world...it's only a baby tooth. She does look pretty cute with that little gap there, but everytime I look at the cute little hole in her smile, I remember what a bad mom I am because I let her fall down the stairs.