Christmas day and the last few days

I guess before I start with today I should finish up my trip to AZ and the days in between. Niko's day was pretty good. Some of it was pretty funny. We were in the Sketchers store and a lady commented on how our kids were the best behaved kids she had seen in the store (it could be true, it may have been her first day). Then S tells her that it's Niko's birthday and so of course the girl asks if we sang to him. S responded very frankly, "Um... he's dead." Poor salesgirl. She just smiled. I mumbled something about our funky shoe tradition. But all five kids got shoes. M got these very blingish shoes that are enormous. I had no idea that girls' sizes and women's' sizes didn't line up. It was a frightening jump to see a big size in her shoe. T got the pair of 'rhinos' that he has been wanting for over a year. D then wanted the same shoes but luckily found some others when I told him that there weren't any in his size. S got some wide boots at Striderite because regular boots just didn't accommodate her broad foot. And C, she got the true Niko shoes. They are the cutest furry boots.

We went to the park with my friend Heather that day. She saw how S was a bit edgy. It didn't really matter because all the kids had fun there. C added to her battle wounds. M did some homemade exfoliation with sand. Heather's friend came too and she was pretty dang funny. I had the hardest time figuring out her accent. It turns out that she has lived in so many places that she just has her own sound. I always have a great time with their family.

We went to DH's extended family party that night. Things have really changed there. All of DH's cousins are really occupied with their own families and as a result there is less mingling. Still, it was fun to see them. I was especially excited for one of his cousins that had a baby boy with her that we hadn't heard about.

The ride home was less than ideal because we hit a bad storm. It seemed that there were cars that had slid off everywhere. One time this one car started to slow down and then got stuck right in front of another car that had slid off the road. DH just kept saying, "Don't stop. Don't stop." Of course, that was because a big giant truck was coming from the opposite direction and was going to hit us if we didn't hurry. We arrived home frazzled but safe.

Since then things have just been busy busy busy. There was much to do and never enough time to do anything. So we'll just leave that time at that and skip to today.

We finished last night after midnight. We were all tired from wrapping gifts and were eager to go to bed. Guess who was the first up? That would be M at just after 2:30 this morning. The kids had really bright flashlights in their stockings. It was not a brilliant idea for Santa. Imagine shortly after 2:30 when there are FIVE little kids with flashlights running around the house. The kids never went back to sleep and at six we all had to get up. The unlucky little kids didn't get to open presents too quickly though because C spilled foundation all over my brand spanking new carpet and it took about 30 minutes to clean it up.

The kids were thrilled with their presents. I would say M's favorite was her Project Runway projector. T's was his race track with cars from another gift. D's was his King Arthur castle, S's favorite would probably be her bit My Pretty Pony. And C loved her vacuum. I loved my gift from dh but we are going to take it back and change how we buy it. The cheap person in me is still tempted to just say I don't need such a great camera. DH liked his surprise from me and it was so fun giving it to him.

Overall it wasn't too bad. C is asleep on Jason's chest now and I think she has the right idea.

Making up for a lack of posts

I'll add a little bit more tonight. At my parents' house the kids are all over and we pretty much have to disappear to get everyone to fall asleep. I'm choosing the computer. Now, let me add that I am not alone as D was messing around in the bathroom playing in the water and now has a spot on the floor by me where he is still trying to stay awake.

I had fun at my friend's house. The girls played Pollys for hours and the boys did boy things. We figured out which kids bring out the worst in each other and which ones make good matches. Oh, and I played the Wii. I love that thing and would really like to have one. T played boxing until he was sweaty. That's a great kind of EWWWWW!

S is a bit on the out of control side. It got worse and there is only so much I can do about it other than hop in the car and drive home. She was still wearing a pull up because she is in that I will show you mode and I am so glad. We finally got home tonight (and this is after a trip to the potty before we got in the car) and she flippantly tells us that she peed her pants. She didn't even tell us she needed to go or anything. We came back to my parents' house and told her to get in her jammies because my dad had brought dinner home and she just started ordering us around. Hmmm.... that doesn't fly really well. In fact, it doesn't fly at all. When she didn't get her way she pulled out all the stops. She told us she wouldn't eat dinner and so will most likely wake up hungry. DH took her back so she could lay down. She has a spot on the floor in our room. I told him she couldn't sleep where she was because I was afraid she might get stepped on. He asked her to move over and she did and then stared us down and went right back to where she had been. In the end she stood in the hallway by choice. That's a miserable place to be when you are tired. I hope she decides to be happy for tomorrow.

Tomorrow is our Niko day. The kids all get their new shoes tomorrow. Of course, the bargainer in me has a coupon to use so even if they do get to choose any pair in the store I can still save a few dollars. We'll go get flowers and go to the cemetery earlier tomorrow because it's the last Saturday for shopping before Christmas and the mall will be really busy. 10 years ago exactly we went for a walk at the Arizona Temple and looked at all the Christmas lights. We had just gone to DH's extended family Christmas party (something we will do tomorrow night). I remember I wore my favorite blue striped maternity shirt and navy overalls. Yep and I was pregnant enough that they were getting floody. (I may end up writing this type of thing over and over year after year. You know... it's the limited amount of memories thing. There is only so much to go around unless we fudge the details which doesn't work for the rule follower in me.) And then the next day we became parents. And for a year I parented by making sure there were decent flowers at the cemetery. Instead of dreaming about play dates I would make sure I stashed a couple of flowers in the 'neighbors' vases before their birthdays so their parents would be thrilled that someone else was stopping by and their child wasn't forgotten. I would look at his picture each day to make sure that I hadn't forgotten details, little skinny monkey boy features in a body that was really long for his 34 weeks. And now I don't have to try so hard. I see his little picture each day. It's on the mantle. But I am too busy forgetting my keys or where I am headed to worry about other things I might forget. Yet there was a funny feeling when we drove into town and in the distance I could see the tall trees that line the rows of the cemetery. I couldn't help but think, "Hey little buddy, I'll be there to visit in a few days." A decade ago I wouldn't have been able to pass without driving through at least. And now I can pass and feel a longing but not feel like I have to stop. His spirit, along with Joshua's, is with me daily. It made the trip to another state. And I know that in reality it's his body that is here. But for me his body is important too since I never got to see his spirit in it. I have a little idea now as C looks so much like him.

So tomorrow we'll go and celebrate his role in our family. We'll spend slightly frivolously (if you call buying whatever shoes you want that). I'll hope that M picks something that can be worn to church as I thought she was bringing tall brown boots that could also be worn to church and she brought black ankle boots with a heel as her only shoes. T will tease S who will beg for the teasing. D will want some hugs each time anyone else is getting any. C will throw a huge tantrum but then will charm us all with her funny sayings. And S, I hate to even speculate. That'll be life tomorrow. Hopefully we will have good memories and everyone will be on their best behavior. Okay, we'll settle on pretty okay behavior. And we'll continue our family traditions of that day which will help bind our family together. As our lives have gotten busier and busier it has become increasingly difficult to stop and pause. On Niko's day we pause and listen. We think of what is most important to us. We reflect on our Saviour and His sacrifice for us. We remember how important family is and how we are part of a bigger plan. What a gift that is from Niko.

It was good while it lasted

S has had a pretty good run lately. In fact, we talked about how she must have an S on the front of her shirt for super S. She had labeled herself the 'choose the right girl'.

I told dh I was worried about travelling with her because she doesn't do well when her environment is adjusted. It happened. She has gone back to controlaholic mode. I explained to my sister that it's tricky because adults fall for her thing like crazy. And she pretty much is thinking, "Your weak and I can't believe you are falling for this." And in turn, it makes her feel like adults really just aren't good at this and that she has to be MORE controlling. It happens everywhere. At church people try to offer things if she is good. We can't beg her to be good. We lose if we do. I am grateful though that we had around 3 weeks without her most favorite negative behavior. Luckily last night I sensed that she was off kilter and I bought some overpriced pullups at the drugstore. We ended up putting them on her because she was having the kind of rage that usually has her going on the floor in anger. I'm hoping this trip doesn't just sabotage our efforts. I'm excited for the day when I can go out of town or heck, even on a date, and not have to think that maybe a bunch of work will be undone. (Although I do know another really GREAT sitter now so I'm not quite as worried but eventually she will be old enough to date and then I'll be in trouble.)

So good news here. I am NOT pregnant. What you say. Yep, I have been a bit worried. Okay, I have been a lot worried. My tubes should be all tied and twisted and whatever but I still had cause to worry. My good friend joked around that we couldn't be friends if I had another kid and I thought that I would be too busy to have any friends. It made me realize though that I'm not in charge and buying a car with 5 seats for small kids will not necessarily stop whatever the plan is for me. But this time, I'm A-OK. After trying to have kids for so many years it's funny (not ha ha funny but funny just the same) to be so relieved. And well, we make crap cords and I just can't imagine passing off five kids to people for weeks at a time. Anyway... I am much less worried now.

And lastly, because I need to go and watch my kiddos... I have to admit that I really did Spark yesterday. When I spark everyday I do better. I managed to even stay in my range, (just barely thanks to these deliciously greasy jack in the box tacos... why don't they disgust me?). I think I am going to go and fork over the dinero for the Cho Pat double knee stabilizer braces today and start wearing them on both knees and see if I can start exercising again. My theory is that if my knees are down to bone on bone because of maltracking then good tracking should cause them to not rub there. It's worth a try.

(And S, who is hanging out with me, just screamed, "You are MY mean mommy!" Hey at least she still claims me.)

Oh and lastly (but this time for real) can I say that I am feeling like super shopper of the year for Christmas. I managed to get the kids their really great stuff for under 200 bucks (that all five combined). You have to remember that I start shopping in January of the previous year and also have my SIL in AZ look out for things when Target has their happiest day of the year (75% off toys). I paid SIL for the last few things yesterday.

Yipeee... off we go to hang out with friends today. I appears that the sun is going to shine on us. I am anticipating a trip to the park as well as to my favorite Mexican place (oh how will I spark that?).

Wowsers, 200 posts

I have to say I love this blogging thing. This is more than I have recorded in pretty much my entire life.

We are visiting family for a couple of days. Wouldn't you know that we would have a throw up incident. D got sick but managed to make it to the bathroom. He didn't make it to the toilet but he did make it to the bathroom which made clean up a little easier. I saw him standing in the bathroom later and realized why it's always such a mess. I guess no one told him to kneel down when he was sick. Now I understand why the bathroom was such a disaster last time.

We ended up still visiting cousins today. It's always a highlight of a trip. And it was great for me to be able to let my guard down and just relax a bit (or 'chillax' as Polly Pocket would say in the movie that I have heard over and over).

And with that I go to bed. Last night was sleepless to some extent and hopefully tonight will be better and S won't turn on the light in our room in the middle of the night and the bed won't break (and that is from just plain ol' sleeping by golly.)

So the other topics... continued from yesterday

I have been decluttering. That has me sending a bunch of my stuff to the thrift store. Why oh why is it that I really want to send my socks and shoes that have no match? I am not even kidding when I write that I was thinking that maybe there was some foundation for kids that only have one leg. What in the heck? Socks are cheap. Foundations could just send entire packs and divide them up. So I gave away a bunch of my other stuff and I still have the growing basket of mismatched socks.

What else? My friend's friend has rabies. It's the first confirmed case in something like 70 years in Northern Ireland. I still find it hard to believe that she knows someone that has something so rare. And how horrible for her family. I had to read up on it and I guess they have managed to help a few people survive (they meaning I don't know who). It makes me sick for that family.

I managed to get a few things accomplished today. It was frigid here (as most everywhere in North America... at least my mom says it was frigid in Arizona where it was in something like the 50's). I got a chip in my windshield replaced. I have been meaning to do it for something like a half a year and finally decided to get a move on it since the cold will cause it to run quickly.

My carpet is done in my house except my stairs. That leaves a bunch of work in putting everything back together. Did I mention we don't even have a Christmas tree up yet? There just hasn't been the time to do it or the place to put it.

I finally put pics up on the blog I do for the bioparents. I have been wanting to get around to it but that blog has suffered just as this one has. And I still don't have more pics posted on the other blog. I am pokey!

I'm thrilled the garbage man came so I can get rid of some of this stuff. (Not the socks of course though.....)

M had a really rough night. She just wouldn't budge. We took away a ton of things when she wouldn't obey. (For throwing fits she got to clean the hall and the bathroom.) Finally we told her we weren't going to pay for ballet lessons if she was going to act like this. It would kill me to take them away but in reality it's a luxury and one that we all have to sacrifice for. She finally started doing her work. Then later she cried about how she had a rough day at school and that she and her friend were having a few issues with bossing each other. I'm so glad we didn't take ballet away. She did, however, lose her chance to buy treats at gas stations on our 'vacation'. That hits pretty hard when you are dying for a treat. We told her we also might have to take away Souper Salad in Arizona (yes, laugh away). It's her favorite place to eat there. She cried and said, "But I remember Joshua and Nikolas when we go there." I didn't know if I should cry or laugh. If it were S I would think she was pulling out all the stops. With M I am not sure. I've read that they reprocess grief at around 8 and that is where she is at. Maybe she is a little bit sad that she gets to celebrate her dead brother's birthday before Christmas. And maybe she was just trying to get her way. But in the end, the hall and bathroom are clean and she no longer hates us.

Tomorrow I have too many things to do. I am supposed to take the two youngest to violin lessons. (D switched from viola to violin and I am glad. Not only does it cost less but it's less confusing because we sing all the violin songs already.) I also have a dentist appointment to get my crown on and then 45 minutes later I am supposed to be in T's class to share a tradition (and no I can't talk about the dead brother traditions... that just wouldn't go over so well in first grade). And I need to pack everything for our trip and work on putting our house back together.

So what am I doing now? Blogging. It doesn't make much sense.

Oh and I ordered J's Christmas present today. I am so excited to give it to him.

Dang, two weeks has passed!

I have thought over and over that I needed to park my behind in front of this computer and jot a few things down. But there just hasn't been enough time.

Let's see.... here's the quick review of things I may wish to remember someday in the future. S made it an entire week on pretty good behavior. We then went somewhere and she felt worried (enough to express it to me) that T wasn't safe due to some roughhousing and has since been more of a turkey. I finally put it together that she wasn't trusting that adults could keep them safe and she is back to asserting her own version of control. It was a great week though. She was joyful, cheerful, pleasant and optimistic. The good news is that she isn't resorting to her final stick it to you behavior. It shows she is trying. But she has gotten crazy with her food again trying to shovel it in faster than you can imagine. One day she said she was just going to go in the bathroom and throw up to make her tummy feel better. This may sound so cruel but when she does that we have to tell her to sit on the tile and that if she has to throw up she can do it there and it will still be cleanable. We can't have her thinking she can overeat and throw up to make herself feel better when she is only three. How we'll undo that thinking when she is really sick I do not know. I'm a little worried about a trip we are going to take and how the change in routine will affect her. She is just so wonderful when she is acting like a kid instead of trying to control the universe.

We had a cute moment with D and T. I was telling D that there were some things he was doing at school that would make it hard for him to have friends (just being pesty and well acting like you were going to get someone). I was telling him the standard thing about how I want other kids to know how great he is but that they won't give him a chance if he doesn't leave them alone sometimes. T went up to him and said, "You'll always have one friend." Then he got a huge grin on his face and pointed to himself. I'm glad he said that. (Now I am not so thrilled with his high pitched fits when he isn't getting Poptropica to work... he's not a perfect kid by any means.) D has been doing better in school it seems. More importantly he is telling the truth more frequently and that is great for our relationship. He still blames just about everything on someone else if he can get a chance but he is learning and I have to hand it to him. I think it helps him when he knows that other people will tell me what has happened and he might as well fess up. I had a sitter over a week ago... a super cute girl (you can beam mom if you are reading) and she was awesome. She just didn't take any crap. And he really liked her. I hope he feels that way about me someday.

I went and did gingerbread houses at the school with M's group. It was fun to finally get a chance to be with her. I was uber worried about the raw egg whites in the frosting. Each time a kid would lick a finger I would cringe. There was one little girl that I told M she needs to befriend. I hope she takes my advice. The gingerbread house is going in the garbage tomorrow though because it is killing S to not be able to gobble the whole thing up.

Speaking of garbage, mine is FULL and that is because I have a bunch of old carpet pad in mine. My basement is carpeted as is part of the upstairs. Our carpet guy is coming tomorrow to finish the upstairs. He got really sick and couldn't come on Saturday. Our mattress is in our main room. It's a little weird to sleep there but the rest is take apart and so we were out of luck. I did mange to get all the areas with carpet painted. It's so nice to get rid of the flat paint! The kids are loving the basement and I am loving them playing down there. I also love not having a tv upstairs.

We had playgroup at our house on Friday and I was thrilled to send them down. To be honest, I had forgotten it was my turn. But we made do. The kids helped me make some homemade bread and they each made little loaves to take home. Then we ate little roles for snacks. They also loved the jumping castle in the basement. It's a little old and worn out and only one kid can go on it at a time. But heck, they need to learn to share.

C turned two. All day she kept talking about her birthday cake. She liked the presents but she LOVED the cake. She is as two as can be. She does this funny growl thing when she is angry. She also scratches and screams. But she is adorable as well. I love it when I hold her and she reaches under my neck and strokes my cheek as she holds my face close to hers. She is a miracle. To think she was in the same predicament as Joshua and made it because of close monitoring is such a blessing. My friend sent her a shirt for her birthday and she keeps saying, "my birthday cake shirt." What a hit!

And I'll have to post about the Nutcracker, my DI stuff and random thought for donating things, and my friend's friend who has rabies tomorrow.

And off to bed (or to the living room) while I can.

A Little Break

It's been a bit of a crazy month here. I totally lucked out and had DH home to help me out for the last week. He took a day off to watch the kids while I went to the dentist (which turned out to be an almost FIVE hour appointment if you can believe it... it was so heavenly to only hear drilling instead of fighting and tattling. I really mean it. It wasn't quite and MRI but it wasn't too bad at all.) DH pretty much kept S as his 'buddy' for around six days. And finally on Saturday she decided she wanted to choose the right. I was getting a little hopeless and well, just flat out tired when DH stepped in and helped out. I'm so grateful. I feel like I can keep going now because it wasn't constant tension all day every day.

We are on night 3 of her trying to do what is right. I'm just so glad. I went in her room to check on her and you could tell she was trying so hard to make good decisions. And... well, she hasn't peed on my floor for 3 days now either when she has been mad. That in itself is something to scream from the rooftops.

I sent DH to S's class at church on Sunday. I told him I was worried she would start to get her way and would try controlling people and all of our work would be for nothing. He was really glad he went. He said he did catch her trying to control other people and was able to intervene.

Tomorrow we will continue to try. I have to take S to D's kindergarten class. Somehow I ended up signed up to help. It's not that I mind helping. I really like helping. It fills that teacher need in me. But, I didn't sign up on purpose because I just never know from day to day. And now, I can't leave S with anyone because she starts trying to get away with bossing them around (yep, adults included). It doesn't help her to let her get away with it and it's often hard to spot if you don't know what you are looking for. I figure the K teacher will be okay with it or she'll send me home. I just can't let her stay home with someone that might not keep things consistent.

My basement is close to being ready to carpet. I am a bit worried though as there is still so much touchup work to do. I went down to paint today and realized I had missed some spots with the painters putty. I am hoping to paint tomorrow but it is crazy Tuesday. I'm not sure if the carpet is going in on Wednesday or not. I tried calling our carpet guy and didn't get a hold of him. I want it in but on the other hand, I am feeling a little pressed for time. Oh well, I'll do my best.

We got a new TV on Thanksgiving. It's actually the exercise room television but it will have to do for now. DH wants an enormous one in the new family room and I'm not quite ready to fork over that kind of cash. Anything looks big compared to our old 21 inch one if you ask me.

Speaking of getting rid of stuff, I cleaned out my closet today (okay, so not all of the shelves but I clean the entire floor). I have more stuff to donate that you can imagine. How did I get so many sweaters that are so short. I swear they weren't that short when I bought them. That's one more thing for me to do tomorrow.

M and T had great violin lessons today. M passed off 3 songs and is on her way to a beautiful Brahms piece. Her teacher is going to get the 2nd violin part for hit. At choir on Sunday I realized that there is just no way we can sing one part. It is just too hard. What in the world was I thinking? Okay, I know what I was thinking. I thought how I loved Vaughan Williams and how I had access to this one arrangement of Greensleeves. Well, this arrangement is hard! I asked a friend to play the harp and don't know if she will be able. It's just so hard. M told me that if H couldn't play the harp that she would learn the part. I laughed and loved her confidence. She wasn't worried at all. In fact, she thought playing in church was great. I adore her but don't want her to play along this time.

DH saw the tornado in all her fury. C tagged our walls with marker for the first time. She got the wall in the bathroom. She also hunts for bubble gum and will get it out of any garbage. She comes up first thing and asks for bubbu gum. Today she opened the oven while I was cooking and burned her hand a bit. I couldn't believe she could get into trouble so quickly. She also was throwing a fit today and called me "mean mommy". I guess I am doing my job.

S also had an accident. I have been telling her for weeks to not climb. I even told her specifically to not climb on her dresser because she could get hurt. We did the whole, "Who is the boss? Mom. Why? To keep you safe." thing. So what did she do last night? She climbed on her dresser and pulled the hutch off. It clipped her in the face in two spots and then she hurt her knee falling. She lucked out because she really didn't get hurt but could have gotten so hurt. She told me after that she could have gotten squished like a bug just like I said. I'm so grateful she wasn't hurt more.

And off to bed I go. I feel better having something in my little blog here.

It's official

We all share the same last name now. We went to court yesterday.

It was such a crazy day. The night before DH had been coughing up a lung and I finally went into the family room and tried to sleep in front of the fire. Then, a couple of hours later, I heard dripping. At first I thought someone was going potty for way too long. Then I realized it was coming from my fridge. My worry was that my fridge was leaking and it was going to ruin the walls in my basement before ever getting to enjoy them. So I spent a while trying to figure out how to get the grill off of the fridge. In the end, I went online and found out that the sound I was hearing was the defrost cycle and was totally normal. A few hours later D and T woke up and started talking loudly and woke up the rest of the house.

So you can imagine how happily we started out the morning.

I got the kids off to school and then came home and started to work on putting outfits together for each kid. The morning just disappeared. And while that happened my house looked more and more like a tornado found it.

Then the memories really started. I picked S up from school and the 3 youngest kids came with me to get the older two from school. We walked into the office to request that M and T be pulled from their classes. S went up to the principal who happened to be seated between the secretaries and said, "What's your name?" The principal responded and asked the same question back. S replied and the principal commented on S's beautiful name. I expected S to start talking about how she picked her own name. This is usually what happens when someone tells her she has a beautiful name. But not this time! Instead she said, "Did you ever know that I had something up my bum?" (I am not even kidding one single bit about this.) The principal's eyes got HUGE. I knew what she was talking about and said, "Um, she has had a bit of a wiping issue." There was relief on the principal's face and a little smile. Then S quickly adds, "But I got it all off." And then S walks over and gets up on a chair and starts doing a behavior that is on our list of most important to eliminate. I was ready to crawl in a hole. Fortunately we were able to provide a little humor for the ladies in the office.

Then we came home and got the S and the older two ready and headed out the door. Luckily, we arrived without problem. My MIL and good friend R and her daughter were there. We headed upstairs to our courtroom and went through the questions. Everything went super smoothly (or maybe it didn't and I just didn't catch that part. After, we took some pictures. The judge was really great. He took all five up to his bench and let the kids wear his robe, etc. Then we went searching for an ice cream place and ended up at a super fun place that literally makes your ice cream right there.

The afternoon was back to normal. We had swimming lessons and dance lessons. No problems were solved by the judge making it all legal. I do think it will matter to all of us that we are legally a family and not just guardians. And the judge seemed thrilled to do the case. He said there are 60 or 70 something felony cases in court today. It's still less than thrilling if you ask me. Ideally biomom and dad would have gotten married and decided to do what it takes to raise happy and productive kids. But ideal isn't always reality. So we are going to make the most of this and see if we can give these kids the best chance at a good life as possible.

Something Positive About Everyone

DH- He has hung all but three doors. That's pretty great!

M-Last week she came home very excited for her friend who won a category in a local contest. I was so proud of her because she wasn't at all jealous that her entry in the same category didn't win. It was better for me than having her win.

T- He went to a birthday party for a kid in his class. I asked him what he did and he said he watched the college football game on television. What a goof! He also made it 7 lengths of the lap pool at swimming lessons and didn't give his swim teacher any grief.

D- He had his family birthday party. Last year he seemed so disappointed that the presents didn't just keep coming. This year, he seemed so content with the 3 presents from the family and the ones from his grandparents. It felt like a big victory.

S- She managed to play with her friend for about two hours yesterday without fighting.

C- She warmed my heart over and over again.

Past my bedtime so this had better be short

Tomorrow is the big day. We are going to visit the judge, where S has informed me, she will say that she picked a super beautiful name all by herself. She may just talk the judge's ear off.

It's been a long week.

Since my last post T flooded the first grade boys bathroom with another boy by flushing the potty too many times. He told me it wasn't such a big deal. The bathroom has a drain for that. He ended up doing over 4 hours of schoolwork at home that night. He hasn't had a bad day at school since from what I know.

I found out that D was getting into trouble in the coatroom at school. Of course, it was the other kids' fault. When I talked to his teacher I found out that he seems to be initiating problems at school. I can see how it happens. He can't keep his hands to himself and loves to pester people. It's not that he is a bad kid. He isn't. He just can't stand to not have the attention all the time. Still, it was frustrating. I know he is such a good kid inside. I wish he were sure enough of himself to not have to constantly need attention.

M and I had a Saturday together. We had an activity at church together. We watched Enchanted. How cute is that movie! I hadn't seen it if you can believe it. It was adorable. Then she had Nutcracker practice.

S spent a bunch of time with daddy this weekend. She seems to do better when she has a lot of daddy time. I think he is actually the better parent. It's just so much easier for him to be consistent. She was doing this crazy play dumb thing though. For example after talking during family prayers DH asked her to sit against the wall. She goes and stands next to the wall and gets a fake perplexed look on her face. "What is against? What does that mean?" She did that type of thing a bunch over the weekend and continued this morning. She is back to putting on a show and being the fake S. It's too bad because the real S is much nicer to be around.

D got in HUGE trouble at church. He peed in the garbage can in his class. Yes, you can fall off your chair and spit hot chocolate all over your shirt. He went to class (located not far from the bathroom) and decided that he needed to go (probably the truth). His teacher wasn't there yet and he didn't want to get into trouble for leaving without permission. Another kid in his class suggested the garbage can and so he did it. LOVELY! Let's just say I was humiliated. After being informed of this by someone speaking too kindly about it, I went back to my 'grown up' class (as S calls it). I told my friend that I knew he wouldn't own it when I saw him. I secretly hoped he would just say, "I peed in the garbage can. I'm sorry." Instead the first thing he said to me was, "so and so told me to do it." I was furious. It wasn't even the peeing in the garbage can in front of fellow six year olds that pushed me over. It was that he wouldn't just take ownership of it. We were right by the back doors of the church and I walked out swearing. Yep, that's right. I maybe have even slipped a little before I got out of the door. I was so angry. What an example of choosing the right I was. UGH! Then we got home and I went into the house and told DH to ask him how his day went and he told DH it was good. HUH? Then he said, "I didn't touch anybody." Yep, but was it really a good day? I so wish he would tell the truth. I want to trust him. I want that to be something of a building block in our relationship. And I can guess why it's hard for him to trust. But I try to show him over and over that when you tell the truth it's better. I try to go super easy on him if he tells the truth. He didn't get dessert.

My friend and I painted baseboards like crazy today. The person who ordered our carpet called to say that it is in as well. Woooo hooo! I can't wait to get that basement done.

I don't know what to think about tomorrow. I don't feel how I thought I would. But that's okay. It's time to do this. D is super excited. He has already memorized how to spell our last name. He's thrilled and I am glad to see him so happy about that.

It's Quiet

My house is just so quiet right now.

I could clean. I SHOULD clean. Instead I am sitting here eating a bowl of fresh cranberries. What a life!

My friend from AZ came to visit this weekend. It was so much fun just hanging out with her. We didn't do anything extraordinary. But they were good times. My kids just adored having her here. We chat just about everyday. Still, there is something about having a friend in real life verses over the phone.

DH pretty much took charge of S this weekend. She has been on a crooked path for a little while. I have been trying to just keep going in the right direction. I was thrilled, however, that DH was the consistent one for the weekend and just let me check out. Yesterday she did one last test of her will early before preschool. I stayed calm and let her finally come around to choosing the right all by herself. It had to be boring on the time out can. Finally after an hour, she turned around and faced the wall and was quiet for 3 minutes. Time out was over and she turned back into delightful girl. I couldn't hold things over her head and try to persuade her into making the right decision. She just had to do it. And since then she has been great and more importantly, happy. And the knot in my stomach, the horrible pain that has been there for days, finally went away after she turned back into happy girl. I finally recognized the feeling from the past. The first year I taught school I had one really really difficult math class. It was filled almost entirely with boys that were very difficult and very far behind in math. I would feel sick every day before teaching that class. (Of course the stink bombs and the pictures of me with my head cut off via machete didn't help.) I think now that I know what is going on I will be able to combat that a little more.

I'm just so grateful for the break from the constant tension. I was telling my friend how magnificent and delightful S can be when she isn't in her control mode. She is so engaging and likable.

What else? C had the stomach bug thing on Sunday. I felt like mom of the year when I noticed things weren't right and managed to get a pan under her. That's tricky with a babe.

I learned to make bread yesterday. It was so easy. I have struggled forever trying to make it and it was a snap. Now I want to make it everyday. I'm sure I'll get over that ;)

The last of the tomatoes are bottled. My box is empty and I am glad. I love not having to buy them but I am ready to send my steamer to its home for the winter season.

We meet at the attorney's office tomorrow to go over the final details for the finalization. That is next Tuesday. It's an odd feeling. I don't really feel ready, yet we have been ready since before we met them because we KNEW that they were supposed to come to us. So we are going to go forward with faith and hope for blessings. What use is faith if it is never tried? I imagine how I feel when I want D to tell the truth so badly. I am just rooting for him inside. Come on D, just tell the truth. I so want you to feel that happiness. I am ready to give you a big squeeze. Just tell the truth. Well maybe something similar is going on in the heavens. Come on, you know it is right. Just do it. I want you to reap these blessings but you can't if you won't go ahead.

And with that deep thought I will leave and go load some laundry and put away the dishes. There is too much of everyday to stay deep for a long time.

Over it

It was neither the broccoli nor a case of Barackitis. It was just a dang virus. I was up most of the night shivering with my head next to a pan. But dang it, I just wasn't sick enough to throw up.

The sun still came up this morning and the kids headed off to school. I guess an election doesn't do much to change anything immediately. I have my hesitations but they won't help me one single bit.

I had a good conversation with my friend today. She really helped me keep the grouchies at bay when I was going to let them get the best of me. S was winning the battles today. She just kept getting to me. And what's worse is that she knew it. Not a good day for me. I could blame it on the lack of sleep or the fact that I was sick all night and then had kids screaming to play outside before sunrise. But in reality, I was just a crankster. So my friend helped me to remove myself from that. It went much better once I listened to that advice. I know these things dang it but once my buttons are all pushed they often get stuck.

Today D made a necklace using dried salt dough and yarn. He painted it for a contest. M also did a salt dough creation as well as a photography entry. T said he didn't care if he won. He just wanted to go to the ice cream party for having entered. That is so him.

I'm hoping DH gets home soon. It's the season for his work. They days are frequently 14 hours plus right at the end of the fiscal year. It stinks but we are used to it and grateful for a job that supports us all.

I ordered doors and baseboards for the basement today. They should be delivered next week. I don't know when DH will have time to get them in but at least they will be hanging out in the basement for any opportunity to be hung. I had four of the kids with me in this story and S was throwing a tantrum the entire time. The prideful side of me kept thinking about how horrible I looked. I just kept imagining this guy thinking, "What in the heck is this lady doing with 4 kids 6 and under?" (Little would he know as there is M too.) But I needed to order the dang doors and there is no guarantee that she will be acting better any day soon. Maybe it's good for me to have to taste a slice of humble pie.

And off I go. It's only 9:30 and DH just signed out of his IM account. He may just want some dinner heated up and it would be the least I could do.

SICK!

I actually feel queasy and I swear it is this election. I thought about it as my husband arrived home just before 9pm. He has a pretty okay job and works really hard. We still try to watch our spending but we aren't poverty stricken. But you know, maybe it's the greedy monster in me, I don't want the government (with the republicans or democrats) deciding where his hard earned money goes. I want to dish out my 10 percent to my church. I want to feel like I can help the well run non profits that call my house. I want to be able to say, hey so and so that has medical bills that will never be paid, here's some money. I hope it helps. I want the government to say, "Hey people, I know you want this or that but you know what it just isn't in the budget. Yep, that stinks." I'm in no mood to watch any government overspend when I am wearing velour pants that are now closer to capris than pants and a hoodie that has a bleach stain. Anyway, I'm not against pitching in and sharing many of the bills. We need cops, judges, streets, etc. I don't want to subsidize someone that spends a chunck of the week watching reruns of the Office on the computer (although I LOVE that show especially the 5k episode... go watch it for a laugh) when my husband works over 60 hours. I'm a little grouchy about this dang it. If I wanted to live in a socialist nation I would move to one. And of course, there are many people that are more than happy to have someone tell them, hey, I'll fix everything. It's not your fault that your lot is hard. You need the government to come in and solve your problems because you are not going to do it yourself. And you know, sometimes it isn't any particular person's fault that life is hard. There are times when it just seems so unfair. When we had Niko I thought life was really unfair. And then with Joshua, I thought the deck was stacked against us. But boy have a I learned a lot from those awful times. So I can't say that it was all horrible and for naught. Both parties have some issues with this.

And it's crazy too because I can see how people can feel so happy right now. My best friend has a little boy that is half black and half white. She adopted him as an infant. He is such a handsome thing. Although she might not be fond of all of our new president's ideas, she does love people that demonstrate to her son that he really can do anything. I can respect that. I just wish our new dawn of leadership didn't scare me so much.

And I am sure I have offended some of my friends. I'll apologize now because I am spacey enough to not remember later. Oh and I can't even stand to reread this thing for typos and fragments. They'll just have to stay in there until I read this again in a decade or so.

On the positive front, the currency markets are responding nicely. Maybe that will help us out. I have a feeling our new president will feel more than happy to take credit for it.

Oh, and the Obama kids are pretty dang cute and his wife seems very likable. I just wish I didn't feel like he was trying to tell everyone what they wanted to hear.

Voting Day

This morning D asked me whom I would be voting for. I told him and he said that he would be choosing the same person. He asked when we would be voting and I told him he was too little. He didn't seem to like that idea. He didn't see a problem with voting when you can't even read about the candidate. And what is frightening is that he could probably make just as an informed decision as many of the people out there today. The media has been crazy about this race. You really have to search out facts. Candidates tell you what they think you want to hear (one more than the other in my opinion) and then the media twists and turns it into a mess. I received and email about Obama with snippets from his book. They all looked really rotten. I had to tell my friend that although I am not an Obama supporter, I didn't think that it was fair for people to pull things out of context. If he is going to look bad let it be on the whole paragraph!

How I vote would be obvious to anyone that knows me well. I don't think either of the candidates are just what I am looking for but I do know that one of them is NOT at all what I am looking for (unless I am checking out a picture and going for who is more handsome ;) ) . Maybe I am getting old and that is why, for the first time, I am a little scared of the election results. The tricky thing is that this dang democracy of ours allows us to CHOOSE a socialist if we want. It reminds me of more heavenly system that lets us have agency to choose to live correctly or to make mistakes. And of course, there are consequences.

So this is the day today.

-S 'graduated' from therapy today. She stepped on her certificate with a wet shoe and decided to throw it away. D tried to convince her otherwise. (He keeps everything.) She didn't care. She wasn't too attached to the certificate.

-I took S to preschool.

-I came home and send DH on his way to work and cleaned for about and hour and a half and got the two that were home ready for the day.

-The three of us (me, D, and C) went to the grocery store and enjoyed some rain.

-I dropped D off to viola lessons and then left to pick S up from preschool.

-S had her quicky violin lesson. She still is ticked that she has to have a good knuckle bump before she can use her bow. She's all about making sound.

-We dropped D off to kindergarten.

-I came home and threw a roast in the crock pot and a load of wash in the washer and then took S and C to the neighbor's to be watched.

-I zoomed over to D's class to volunteer for rotations.

-I picked up the two little girls and put the baby down for a nap and let S choose some books for rest time.

-I came to check on the computer that my polling place was the one I thought it was and got distracted by blogging.

-The kids come home in less than 30 minutes. I'll feed them a snack and then take T to swimming lessons which is two minutes away. If C is asleep I will turn off all working appliances and let M sit in the house with her while I drive the two minutes there. (Somewhere in here I'll also move the clothes that will hopefully be dry soon to my bed and get another load of wash in.)

-I'll pick T up and then bring him home and get him back in real clothes.

-We'll head out to pick up another little girl for dance and then drop the girls off.

-I'll hang out for 30 minutes until David's class starts and then I'll send him in.

-Then I'll take the remaining 3 kids to the polling place and start standing in line. A 6, 3, and 1 year old is better than not voting. We'll wait for an hour and then DH hopefully will come and fetch them.

-And with luck, I'll be home before the national news media calls the race.

What craziness!

Oh and I had a FABULOUS Honeycrisp apple today. They have been close to 3 dollars a pound everywhere and today I found them for 99 cents a pound.

Delayed thoughts

I have been thinking for the last few days. I had a few grouchy (okay, a BUNCH) moments and I was having a hard time getting rid of them. I knew what I needed to do. It was my job to just get over it. I kept thinking how even Heavenly Father must be saying, "Oh please, just get over it!) So I kept some of these grouchies to myself and came up with a good solution. Just love those people. And last night I wasn't up in the middle of the night with my mind racing about it. Hmm... it seems like getting over it was the solution.

I'm not going to whine about the kids today. It's the same as always so why go through it.

We carved pumpkins on Monday and finished all five in 45 minutes. I thought it was pretty good. D is especially excited because he hasn't ever had a real Halloween. He said one year he went trick or treating but there were no other kids out and they didn't have costumes. That's not Halloween. That's begging for candy.

Tomorrow is our one year anniversary of when we brought the kids home. A lot has changed. A lot hasn't. It's still really hard work. You would think in a year we would have all the wrinkles worked out. But we don't . It's just too dang tricky.

I tried to make M a snowflake headpiece today. A note to all others: Don't try to put snowflake Christmas ornaments on a headband with dental floss. It doesn't work very well. My good friend is going to try to salvage the thing.

And off I go. This chauffeur has kids to drive.

Tubes and Other Fine Things

D had tubes put in his ears today. DH took him as there wasn't anyone to get the kids off to school AND I was sick. I didn't imagine that some sick person at the hospital wanted an icky virus to complicate a visit.

D did great. The doctor said he really did need the tubes and it showed later in the day. I let the kids watch the DVD player in the car. Usually we would have the sound at 16 or 17 and he would request for it to be louder. Today, he said it was loud when it was on 10. I'm thrilled about his. I think it could really help with his volume. He wanted to go to school today but the nurse said no way. He was a little bit bummed that people can't see his tubes. T thought it was going to be a hearing aide and D thought that was a fabulous idea. I'll take better hearing without the need for a permanent device.

What else has been going on? DH put lights in the basement. We have forever said good bye to the dungeon. Our goals are different. I just want it done and he wants it nice. I'm okay with nice, I just want speedy nice. Actually that's a lie. I want better than crappy with a super price. But it doesn't matter as long as it's done.

DH and I actually went on a DATE on Friday night! I don't want to think back to the last one of those. I remember we had a babysitter and it was a long time ago. Maybe I should use this handy dandy blog of mine to figure out when that was. We went to dinner at PF Changs and I didn't even order what I have ordered every other time. Then we went looking at carpet. It's easier to look at carpet without 10 extra hands.

S seems to have made more progress. When she starts to get really angry she can get herself out of the cycle. We had a few days where she started regressing and now we are moving forward again. I'm so hopeful. She really tries. Last night DH told me, "She really impresses me." It's not often a 3 year old impresses an adult.

C has been hilarious (when not in trouble). Yesterday I cut up a bunch of apples (a wonderful friend dropped off a bunch from her mother's trees). I called everyone in for a snack. C came in very angry and said, "Apples not snack." Well little missy, not all snacks come in the shape of a princess or Dora.

She is rarely interested in the potty in time. She is, however, overly interested in taking her diaper off when it is full. UGH. That isn't pretty.

T is grounded. You would expect it to be from using some kid's handcuffs at school. Nope, he fessed up to that right after school. He's grounded for throwing fits when I told him it was time to stop playing with is good buddy because we needed to go to music lessons. Somehow, all of the kids are feeling very entitled to play. I'm all for playing. It's good for them and good for me. But there is NO way I am going to put up with a bunch of attitude when it's time to stop. T got over it. Today he asked to play with his friend and I quietly reminded him why he couldn't and he smiled sheepishly and said he remembered. No problem!

M seems to be needing a little dose of you don't always get your own way too. She also will soon be out of money if she has to replace her bunmakers (2 of them), her glasses, and her ballet shoes. She really is pretty sweet. Nevertheless, she needs a little reminding that she isn't the boss of the casa.

D got another lesson in truth telling tonight. I hope he learned the lesson that he just needs to tell the truth. If not, I hope he at least picked up on the fact that writing T's name on the leather couch in pen isn't the wisest thing to do if you write it from right to left. He denied doing it for quite some time and was more than willing for M or T to get the blame. This is one habit that is going to be super hard to break. Maybe I'll shoot for a little success with the quieter voice first.

Tomorrow is going to be great. I don't know why but that's my plan. What day isn't great that starts out with clean dishes and a vacuumed floor.

An update on the potty training

She went a whopping FIVE times on the potty. Two of the times she came up to me and said, "I try. I try." At first I thought, "What in the heck do you want to try?" Then the lightbulb went off and we zoomed to the potty. She also went 8 times on the floor. Luckily, it was often on the tile or wood. EWWWWW!

I forgot to write down a few funny things about our trip to St. George. S kept calling our condo the 'hometel.' I thought that was pretty funny. And speaking of hometels... I am spoiled and will hated staying in a hotel now. I liked having 3 bedrooms.

We went swimming in one of the pools there. M and T were off doing their thing and D was on my back hanging from my neck and S was pulling on my neck from the front. After two hours I was tired and planted my knees in the 3 feet section. S wanted to know why I stopped moving and I told her my knees were stuck. She got very worried. "Mom, we need to go to the doctor. Your knees are stuck!"

Oh, and C has gone on the potty once today and then pooped on Elmo (her choice of panties)...

The joys of pottytraining!

Overreacting for sure

I am jumping for joy!

C just went on the potty. She isn't even two yet. I finally decided to give it a go because she keeps taking her diaper and then pees on things while she holds up a dry diaper.

Yesterday we went and bought underwear. The little turkey didn't want just plain jane 10 in a pack underwear. She wanted pricey undies that only come in threes. We still haven't tried those out.

But this morning she woke up and had a bottle (yes potty training while having a bottle is a little weird) and then we played for a bit and I asked her the big question and she was willing.

Onto the potty she went and produced rather quickly. We cheered and clapped and shouted hooray. She would hold it and just let a little bit out at a time to get more cheers.

But she did it!

And I was too scared to use the underwear. I put a pullup on her.

S and the M&M's

Yesterday S saw her best buddy right before preschool. Her pal knows her well and gave her some M&M's. Her hands were filthy (yes they do melt in your hands). She says to me that she needs to go and wash them.

"Why S?"

"T is my best friend. She gave me M&M's." (Notice correct M&M pronunciation here.) "I have enema juice all over them."

I just about peed my pants. I thought that was so dang funny.

On another note, I think I have T's room painted and I have the first coat of M's done. It makes me excited to get it done.

I bought C some rice cheese this week. Yes, there is rice that is squeezed into something to make little cheese like slices. C is pretty happy. She keeps saying, "I want cheese." (She doesn't pronounce the t.)

M graduated from her Suzuki book this week. Hooray! We got her new violin and I was just sooooo thrilled. It has such a great sound for the price. Her teacher had such a surprised look on her face. She said I made a great find. Tonight M almost memorized the entire first piece in her new book.

T took her old one and we fitted D and S with their respective instruments. I think S is the most excited. D is excited to be included but S can't wait to get her hands on that thing.

Tonight I was changing C's diaper. All of a sudden she says, "Bye bye poop." What a turkey! Let's get this kid OUT of diapers.

Funny D

Today the kids had a practice for their program at church. A friend of mine said that D was so incredibly reverent. (She didn't comment on T so I am guessing that means he, um, wasn't.) She said when she looked at her watch and saw there were just 10 minutes left she decided to compliment him and tell him it was only ten more minutes. He told her he was doing it for the pizza (provided after). HA! Love it.

The big program is tomorrow. D and T have their parts memorized. M has her violin duet down. Now let's see if they can make it through.

I went to dinner with some ladies from church tonight. Then, instead of going to the women's broadcast, I came home and watched it on television. Which things stuck out in my mind? When I am feeling down in the dumps I need to get off my butt and find someone worse off to serve. The other thing was to make things beautiful. I don't know how successful I was at that one but I went and picked a bunch of tomatoes and bottled them.

Oh, and today we went to one of those bouncy places with a bunch of inflatables. I gave them each something they had to do to participate and S just wouldn't do it. So when the time came I didn't buy her an admission. I felt pretty rotten but had to do it. She said to me something about how she thought I really would still let her do it. I guess that's what happens when you are three. I would think the pattern is so well established that she wouldn't risk missing a fun activity. When we got there she told me that I was mean and she didn't love me. I just told her, "Well, I love you anyway." Later she told me, "I really do love you mom. I was just trying to get you to let me play."

We had another funny D moment today. Well, it'll most likely be funny in twenty years. This morning I caught T wrestling him on the tramp. I got on T's case immediately and asked him what he was doing. He was quite forthcoming and honest. (I always ask what the person was doing before finding out what the other was doing.) I asked D what he was doing and he said, "I didn't see myself do anything." So of course then I ask him, "What did you do?" In a drawn out whine he said, "Nothing." I asked him what T did and he told me just what T had already said. So D got to come inside and hang out on the couch. He kept crying and screaming, "I don't understand why you won't beleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeve me. I have been telling the truth." "I have been a truth teller and you won't believe me." The list goes on. You get the point. Well, about 30-45 minutes later I finally get the truth out of him. He had hurt T first. Of course he tried to cover his bases by saying he didn't KNOW he was hurting T just that T told him he was hurting him and to stop. Hmmm.... okay kiddo, so what was all this talk about why won't you believe me. The answer is that you weren't telling the dang truth. This truth telling thing is a pain in the behind.

All of this also got me to thinking what I really want my kids to be like. We have had a little discussion on parenting on one of my messageboards. I feel a bit harsh but in reality how we are doing things feels like the only method of survival for our family.

How do I want my kids to turn out? I decided I want them to be people that enjoy serving others and want to be good when no one is watching. That about sums it up.

The Car Shop

It helps to remember to leave your keys when you leave the car.

Oops.

It didn't really matter because my car won't ding for them like it did for me.

But I did get a filter change as well as an oil change.

And breakfast, it was great.

An overdue follow up

Last weekend went great. The kids' aunt and uncle were great people. In fact, they were quite a bit like us (minus my chub factor). Uncle had a similar background to DH. Okay, so maybe aunt wasn't that similar to me except she was NICE. And really, I'm not always that.

We learned a few things about their family and I feel made some new friends. They have two darling earth children. It was so pleasant.

S had a GREAT start to the week. She had so many good days (read that 3 but hey that is a bunch) without tons of sassiness. I just kept snuggling her and asking her how good she feels inside. She seemed SO happy. And this was the genuine happy thing. Yesterday that disappeared. She had a really rough day and ended up needing to go to bed before her bedtime. It got me to thinking about how maybe we are alike. Do I start to eat more healthy stuff and then self sabotage. Does it make me feel better to get rid of the crap in my diet. It sure does. But somehow the rice crispy treats still call. Maybe she is a bit like that too. (Only she's cuter with those curls.) Still, the trend of behavior went in the positive direction for a few days. I'm loving that.

I finally got M a violin this week. It's being delivered sometime before her next lesson. I couldn't get this brand of violin out of my head and it was keeping me up until after midnight each night. I finally decided I needed to quit looking and just buy the dang thing. My expectations are high as I was playing thousand dollar violins in her size and really liked them. But you know what, she is EIGHT and doesn't need a thousand dollar violin when my basement isn't done and I have crappy furniture. The five hundred (something like that, for real) review I have read say these sound like violins about 3 times their cost. So hopefully I'll get something that sounds even better than the ones I was playing. I was just grateful she started practicing without being asked this week.

T's tummy has been improved this week. We still have none of the tests back. His swim teacher said she thinks he would qualify for swimteam now. I might have to wait.

I figured something out with D this week. He needs more independent time. I think the reason he likes to pester people is that he can't stand to entertain himself. Even when he is playing, he constantly comes out to show you something. (I mean every minute or two.) So, we started independent playtime for 30 minutes each morning. He can show me anything after 30 minutes. It has been a real struggle for him but I think 30 minutes is fair for a kid that is almost six.

And the baby, she's a TORNADO. I can't even remember everything she has done. She makes it all a blur. She's gone through all the dental floss in the house, one tube of clomiterazole, a box of cereal, toothpaste, milk (in T's bowl, he forgot to put it in the dishwasher), a thing of wipes, and I'm sure a bunch of other things. She just goes from room to room in destructo mode. Luckily, she is so dang cute while she does it. I'm trying to remember if T was like this too. It's probably just a normal kid thing and because it has been so long since we had a kid this age, the effects seem greater.

DH has been running more. I'm not asking him if he is doing his upcoming marathon or not. M gave him the 'We don't want to watch other people finish. We want to watch you.'

I screwed up and parked in the middle of the driveway yesterday. Dang it. Why do I do that? I know it annoys the heck out of DH. I always think I'll move the car and I forget. I need to work on that. It's thoughtless of me.

And now I need to get ready. I am....

drumroll.............

going out to breakfast without kids. I have a sitter coming.

I'll enjoy the breakfast and I'm piggybacking it with dropping my car off for a repair. There is nothing that says fun like sitting at a car dealership for hours with FIVE kids :)

Good times!

But if I don't get dressed my breakfast won't happen. If I am going to stay chubby I might as well do it enjoying friends' company.

The weekend just might get more interesting

D's and S's aunt (from dad's side) contacted me tonight about visiting. They (she and her family) are in town for some work function. She seems very nice and very normal (i.e. will not hunt them down all the time) and I think we might try to meet up with her in a park.

It's a little weird though because we haven't let anyone know that S changed her own name. S and D have met this aunt before (the aunt says she has seen them only a handful of times) but they don't know they are related.

I feel like we should do it. It would make it much easier if I didn't feel that way.

I hope that it goes okay and that S decides to behave.

It's hard to believe I am going to call this person up tomorrow. Have I ever mentioned that I could barely get myself to call in a pizza until after I was married?

T had a school program today. He looked tired. He kept rubbing his eyes and yawning. I guess that's what happens when you are up throwing up every single night. M got her teacher to let her out of class to watch it. He missed swimming lessons because I flat out forgot about them. I realized late tonight that I had. Dang it!

I made peach jam for the first time today. It looks so pretty that I might just make some more tomorrow.

We'll see how the budgeting thing that DH I are trying to do goes. I finished off my grocery money today including my extra get to keep it if I don't spend it money. I don't have to buy anything that I know of though and so that should help.

YIKES! It's already tomorrow. Off to bed I go. The kids will be up in less than six hours.

Just Another Day

A couple of funny phrases from today-

From C: I colo (color) too Daydoe.

From S: (and this is frequent in her prayers) Please bless us that harm will come to us. (We have got to get the NO harm thing in there.)

And the rest of the day was almost uneventful. I woke up at 4:15 and T was in the bathroom sick. He's such a good kid and takes care of so much of it himself (which reminds me that I need to go and clean their toilet tonight again.) Most of the rest of the kids were up not too much later. 4 were up when DH left at 5:45 for work.

T still was feeling stinky before school started but the color started returning to his cheeks about 45 minutes after school started and so I had him get ready and off we went. It sounds cruel I know. But after he starts to feel better he'll just play anyway and he isn't contagious or anything.

Then the preschool lady came. I gave her a couple of pieces of advice, filled out paperwork, and watched another teacher interact with S. They brought S some crayons (big fat chunky ones... NICE) and a notebook that is actually her school notebook. Of course they needed that back and S wasn't up for giving it too them. I think she really thought she could abscond with it. They just weren't direct enough and were being too sweet. It gave me a chance to tell them what works for her. It has to be direct and it has to be a command.

Today when she wouldn't stop throwing tantrums I sent her out back (and then watched her interact with the dog. She did great by the way, very gentle... progress in the making). I shut the blinds in the back door and let her scream. She knew she just needed to calm down and be quiet and she could come in but she wouldn't give in. My friend R came over and heard her and opened the door and hollered like a monster from Monsters Inc. at her. I laughed and S seemed so surprised to see a door open and have someone oogly woogly at her and then shut the door before she could get a word in. It helped. Maybe I'll try that more (or I'll just invite R over to do it for me as it's kind of entertaining for me too.)

I did bottle some tomatoes for me and a couple of quarts for someone at ballet. I hate to see people's tomatoes go to waste. They look so pretty in the jars. I did pick maybe 30 pounds of peaches today and have to figure out what to do. I need to either cute them and freeze them for smoothies, can them (which I am not so sure will get eaten as much), make jam (something I have yet to do), or dehydrate them (which I like too much and down them like candy). But I have to get moving on it because they will be ripening quick and then all of the pears as well.

Tomorrow I am going to get my behind out of bed to go swimming. We got another person to come with us so it will be more fun. And, as a little carrot to get out of bed there is that coke machine that sells the bottles for 75 cents. Now that's a reason to get out of bed at 5:30.

Hidden blessings

I think I need to acknowledge that there are hidden blessings all over. It occurred to me again last night.

The lab at the hospital said it was open until 7 pm (actually the lab itself didn't talk but the employee did). I came up with a little plan to get DH home by 6:30 so I could go without kids, especially the two with Hand Foot and Mouth. So DH gets home and I try to go and collect a stool sample. This isn't exactly a party I tell you. I was trying to rig the toilet to hold the sour cream container for me but I just couldn't get it to work so I decided to go back to those good ol' hands.

While I was in there C managed to get into an entire bottle of vitamin C that was in DH's work bag (and she licked a bunch of them with her virus infected tongue thus rendering them useless). She also ran off with my lab referral papers that I had set out to take.

I wasn't super thrilled about the latter. I found them a couple of minutes before the lab was going to close and therefore couldn't make it there in time. I was a little ticked but what can you do. Since it was bedtime for S (C had a long nap) I called everyone and reminded them of the time and we did scriptures and prayers together. C was acting really funny and kept rubbing her nose. That mother's intuition came to me and I told DH that I was pretty certain she had something up her nose. After we sent S off to bed (where she did anything but sleep) we got out the tweezers and a flashlight and there WAS something in her bed. This is where the hidden blessing comes in. I don't know if DH would have thought to look up her nose when she was cranky and the huge piece of watered PAPER would have been in there all night. I don't know how in the world she managed to shove that much paper up her nose. I am glad that I wasn't at the hospital when I wanted to be.

Since it was too late to go to the lab I picked and cut some peaches and pears and loaded them into the dehydrator, canned some tomatoes, did the dishes, and loaded some more laundry.

This morning I woke up later than usual (after 7 am if you can believe it) and D had wet the bed. I hate to say it but he didn't seem bothered by it. He just wanted attention for having done it. I wet the bed is not a bragging phrase. I try to praise and praise him but he just can't get enough. But I can't turn wetting the bed into a huge praise fest. I've been trying to lay it on him today though in hopes that he'll look for the attention in good places.

S's hands look worse today. The has some more blisters and so she is out of commission for a few days. She's pretty bummed that she can't play with friends. Maybe in her quasi quarantine time we can break this bad streak we are on right now with her behavior. I dropped her off to my friend R's house (just to R's front yard) so I could run into the school and check T out to go have a his blood drawn. R said S told her that her dad hadn't been obeying her when he cleaned her owie. I wasn't surprised. S tried to command me around all morning. I really believe that she thinks she is the boss and in control of everything. She just still seems so surprised that she can't get her way every time she wants to. Once we get her to believe that she isn't in charge of everything I think we'll progress a little more quickly.

I took the 4 kids to the hospital lab with anti whatever cleaner to clean whatever S touched (I kept C in my arms). T was a trooper. He didn't even cry this time and instead of picking a sticker for himself, he picked an Elmo one for C. S wasn't choosing to obey (instead she was standing on their chairs, trying to bite her leg and shoe, etc) and left screaming because she didn't get a Tootsie Roll. There's nothing like leaving a building with a kid yelling at you, "I waaaaaaaaaaaant candy." I just kept saying calmly, "I'm sorry. It's too bad you didn't choose to obey." I got a bunch of evil looks from people.

Tuesday is usually our super busy day. I'm not quite sure how today will play out. I might be switching driving to dance days.

The family reunion

Almost every year my side of the family does a 'reunion' in the ever so family friendly town of Laughlin, Nevada. There is nothing that screams family more than a smokey casino and the ching ching ching of money that people are trying to win rather than earn. That being said, it is more family friendly than some places because it has cheap rooms.

We left last week on Thursday. Of course we didn't get out before 9am like we had hoped and instead left about 45 minutes later. Things were looking good for the first maybe 30 minutes. Then the indicator came on and tattled that I had forgotten to get the oil changed the day before. Dang it.

About an hour and a half later we had the opportunity to chill on the highway that had since turned into a parking lot. They closed the freeway shortly after we arrived. We could see a semi sideways ahead that was blocking the entire freeway. . Luckily the DVD player still worked and the kids watched a couple of shows. An hour and 40 minutes later we were on our way. It appeared that no one was hurt. While sitting in the parking lot/freeway I realized I hadn't packed any underwear for myself. Oops. I told DH I needed to take a picture of it and grabbed the camera and the batteries. Hmm... it's too dang bad that I forgot the memory card in the computer.

We cruised along until we hit a bigger town and I went and bought myself the missing goods. I managed to pack underwear for 5 other people as well as a pack of diapers and forgot the things for myself.

We hit Vegas right after 5 pm. That would be prime rush hour time. Eventually, 11 hours after leaving we arrived.

We were thrilled that they could get us adjoining rooms. The four older kids were in one room and we were in the other with the baby.

The next morning the kids got up at about 5:45. DH left in search of a market because they were all starving. He came back with some overripe bananas, some juice, and some sweets. He said he couldn't believe there wasn't a real grocery store in that town and that he should have crossed the border and just gone into Arizona. The kids didn't care. They got to eat crappy junk food and loved it all.

Then things got even better. T started feeling sick and his throwing up returned. He threw up several times. My mom called maybe an hour and a half later to invite us to breakfast and I told her that a. the kids had eaten much earlier and would soon be ready for lunch and b. T was starting the sick thing again. DH took them down to seen family in the hotel and let them play a bit (all but T and the baby who ended up going down for a nap). DH and I switched jobs when he brought the other three back and I took them down to the river to play and he stayed in the hotel room.

Much later T woke up and felt like eating and they went to a casino arches restaurant. He was fine for the rest of the day. His color returned and he ate like he was hungry. So DH called me and I picked him and the kids up so they could join us at the river. T felt like jet skiing and playing.

Then of course the next morning he started looking white at breakfast. He ran for me and said he was feeling sick and he started throwing up the little bit of watermelon he had eaten. Luckily, most of it was down the front of him. I hauled him back up to the hotel room and had him take a shower. And then he felt pretty fine and wanted to go jet skiing again.

We played at the river for a while and then said our good byes. Oh, did I mention that my aunt lent me her FABULOUS Canon Rebel camera. I took it to Sam's to have a cd made of the pics I took. When I got home I realized they only put the single picture that I wanted printed out on the disk. Luckily, my aunt still has the card and hasn't erased it yet. I fell in love with that camera. I didn't even try her even better Canon because I didn't want to love something even nicer.

We got out of there about 30 minutes later than we had hoped. And somehow, we managed to miss an accident (that was the good part for certain) but managed to find ourselves on a highway that had once again turned into a parking lot. Luckily, this was only about a 20 minute delay. Someone wasn't as lucky in this wreck and had to be life flighted out. Maybe it's good that we were as late as we were both times. Maybe we would have been in the wrecks too.

Poor little C was really cranky on the way home. She cried for most of the last half of the trip. When we got home at almost 11 pm we were just thrilled to be able to put them all in their own beds.

Then next morning we got started with getting ready for church nice and early. We still managed to arrive late. After a few minutes I held C and looked at her hands. They had spots and little blisters all over. I had DH look at them and then sent them home thinking she had chicken pox. After more of an examination we now know that it's hand foot and mouth and not chicken pox. As soon as our first meeting was over I took all of the kids home. There's no point in potentially spreading that at church. It's no wonder she was cranky on the way home. She really had a reason other than being sick of the car. Poor kid.

T is home again today. He threw up this morning and is having other digestive issues. S has spots on her feet and face now. D is still on a roll. He was in time out last night until he told the truth and it took him two hours. This morning he tripped the baby on purpose.

And that's where we are at. The good news is that hand foot and mouth isn't itchy, just really catchy. I cancelled a preschool appointment for S and will be cancelling violin lessons. I'm hoping this HFM thing is passed because we have playgroup at our house on Friday.

Still, it was fun seeing family. It's just always crazy how things fall together.

Taking My Own Advice

I am known for telling my kids to make a change or quit complaining. I think it's high time I took that advice. I'm going to give it a whirl this week (in real life that is, I may still have to rant away here a bit).

T and I were reading tonight and just cackling away at a Junie B. book. It was hilarious. I don't know if he was laughing at the story or me.

DH made it home from Virginia safely. I'm always glad when he is home after being gone for a week. I was so grateful to be able to go to sleep before 1 or 2 am last night.

I got to go grocery shopping BY MYSELF this afternoon. These are good times.

M isn't feeling well right now. I don't know if she ate something weird or not but she has been on the floor of the bathroom for two hours. Poor kiddo!

T's doctor visit

I have to admit. I didn't really want to go to visit the pediatric gastroenterologist. This is going to sound so stupid but well, I didn't really want to bother him when the meds they gave to Topher seemed to help quite a bit.

DH said go. Good friends said go. Mom said go.

So I went. (After all, I am a bit of a pushover and a pleaser.)

I'm so glad. And in reality, the doc couldn't be too unhappy because he gets paid one way or the other. And in reality I was kind of surprised to not see other people in the office. You would think that someone that gets booked a half a year in advance would have a busy office. Maybe they just knew from the phone vibes that we would fill the office all by ourselves.

The doc did thing we need to check T out some more. He was the same doctor we saw almost 4 years ago when they had to take T off of all food and put him on the predigested stuff to give his little body a chance to heal.

Maybe we'll figure this kid out. We do get to do some more bloodwork and a stool sample. (Mom gets to collect the stuff in an old cool whip container. EWWWW!)

So the hope is that we can figure out T and that will help me with little C since she does the same things he did as a baby with her tummy.

And that is good news!

The visit was also a hit because I actually got the children kid's meals at Wendy's. I would normally not do it because we have this saying that we go to restaurants for food and not for toys. But I couldn't resist. They have the Magic Tree House books on CD. How great is that! I'm tempted to go and buy myself a kid meal for lunch tomorrow just to get another story.

D's First Day of Kindergarten

After having a couple of kids start school you tend to have expectations about how the first day goes. In our house it usually includes perfect hair, perfect school clothes, a nice meal in the tummy, a walk to school, and a few tears from mom.

I thought that is how some of our day would go. Then two days ago the people at S's preschool called and told me that she HAD to come in for her assessment. I informed them that D had his very first day of K only two hours later and they said it would be no problem because the assessment would be easily done in an hour.

I'm sure you are all starting to see where I am going with this.

Here's how the morning went.

Everyone got up cranky because no one would fall asleep last night including me.

T didn't have his homework done. (How can we have such bad habits after only a week?)

T and D were fighting over cleaning their room.

I shoved T out the door with a piece of bread in his hand.

I tossed C into the tub to try to get the rest of the diaper ointment out of her hair. Mission accomplished.

I made D get in the shower and then later S.

We zoomed out the door to S's assessment.

I put D and C in the daycare at the assessment center.

S passed the vision test.

S got mad at a kid for looking at her while waiting for the cognitive test.

We were randomly assigned D's therapist for an evaluation. (I didn't even know he would be there.)

S refused to play the 'games' that her tester had for her.

I chatted it up with D's therapist while S tried to distract me and tried to keep from doing the test.

The first alarm went off.

Everyone ignores it. Then we are all ushered outside.

D and C are somewhere on the campus without me.

I keep checking the time because D has Kindergarten.

We finally get in and talk to someone who reviews our results. I try to inform her that we are in a hurry and she doesn't seem to care. She must have been the head honcho or something because people kept asking her which copies of things they should make.

She says that S didn't score well on the verbal part. I look down and it says that she flat out REFUSED to do it (later she tells me she just didn't feel like playing).

That lady finally lets us go and we head to the dental. I tell them she just went in for a checkup (true) and they let me go.

Luckily the next people let me go with a promise to get the lead level in her tested.

I realize we have 15 minutes to make a twenty minute trip.

I find a daddy juice (juice pouch) in the back of the car and some left over pretzel crumbs from a month ago.

D gets that for lunch as well as two suckers I had in the front seat. Had I had ANY idea that we might have a fire alarm evacuation I would have come up with something better than two suckers for lunch.

We get to school five minutes late. D's hair hasn't been combed. He's using the violin lesson backpack from the front seat. My camera has no batteries AND I forgot his homework.

Oh what a day! I can't believe I sent him on his first day after having a lunch of smartie suckers.

And he loved it. The day was great for him.

Back to Blogging

Heck, if I take off a few days it starts to be overwhelming to continue.

So a few random thoughts to get over that and back on track.

My knee isn't as bad as it could have been. I guess the cartilage is worn in a spot and there is some bone on bone action. My knees aren't tracking properly. This is no shock as I have feet that are flatter than the ground they walk on. I'm taking a bunch of old people pills to try to keep those joints lubricated. And for now, the doc says I shouldn't run unless I want to make it worse. I was very bummed initially but I am somewhat over that now. I'm hoping to get my knee tracking better and maybe look forward to a few runs a week and a 5k or two next spring/summer.

Today I went lap swimming at the pool. So I haven't really gone swimming since having C. I went to a cheap store last night and found a not so functional swimsuit. I tried that puppy on last night and thought, dang, I can't fit well into this thing but I am going swimming tomorrow anyway. Luckily, this morning I figured out I had part of it twisted. WHEW!

The swimming was harder than I thought. I haven't done any laps for a couple of decades so 30 minutes of them killed me. But that's good because obviously I need it. At the end my friend climbs right out of the pool and I thought, "Dang, what in the world am I to do?" Climbing out of the pool would so not be pretty. I ended up dodging people in other lanes to go to the shallow. During this time my friend was patiently waiting (and slightly shivering) for me. I'm so grateful she said she would go because I so would have chickened out.

What else has happened? The kids started school and this time I didn't cry.

T's stomach is finally doing better. The very pricey meds they gave him helped a bunch.

C has started singing Bob the Builder all the time. It's kind of a funny choice for her.

D is excited for school to start.

S tried to hit her substitute church teacher over the head with a toy. She also spit at him and stuck her tongue out. I asked her why and she said she just didn't want him there. He wasn't her teacher. Hopefully she will be allowed back in after that. And thankfully the man (a friend) had a quick hand and caught her arm before she decked him. I don't know if I should be frustrated or not. At least she wasn't caught up in being fake. That has to be something.

Life is still busy busy busy. My basement is coming along. Nacho (I think that is his name. I only heard it when he called) was supposed to come today and didn't. Oh well, it has waited long enough what is another day or two. The 'sheeprock' is all hung though and it has been mudded. YIPPEEE!

And with that I will try to sleep. I feel so much better knowing that I am somewhat 'caught up' on this. (Okay, I know I really am not but I'm considering this done.)