Surviving and Stupidity

So I managed to survive having anywhere from 9-11 kids over most of the day. I don't know how we kept accumulating them but we did. I knew I would have at least 6 or 7 until dinner... but the others were, um... bonuses.

The funny thing is that I was trying to get some things done. I know, it sounds CRAZY but it's never convenient to get anything done so I was going for it. I was trying to empty some of my 72 hour kids and I found Dinty Moore beef stew of all things that needed to be used up. They were big cans and I wasn't in the mood to make lunch. All 9 kids here at the time claimed to be hungry so I heated some up.

They loved it.

How come it isn't like that when I cook homemade things? When did Dinty Moore upstage home cooking? All 9 gobbled it up and wanted more. Um... sorry, I don't keep a lot of that hanging around.

I was terribly grouchy though so it was a send the kids downstairs to play type of day. Downstairs or out back... it was all the same to me. And S fell apart of course this morning. She screamed at the top of her lungs all the way home from dropping M off at dance. I gave her the chance to turn it around at home and she put forth some effort. I don't think her day was miserable. She did, however, have to clean the seats of the car as she decided to spit all over them when she was angry.

I also got grouchy at DH. He probably wishes he didn't ever call after finding out that S started out rough. I'll try better tomorrow. You'd think after 17 years I would get it right but I guess you just keep on plugging along and learn more.

So stupidity comes in because I only slept about 5 hours last night. Then I intended on taking a nap of some sort today but of course didn't feel like I could do that with 9+ kiddos in the house. And now I'm exhausted and wishing I didn't have midnight movie tickets. If I fall asleep during the movie I will feel so dang OLD! Of course tomorrow I have to be on the ball since T has a swim meet that has warm ups commencing at 8 am. I still need to get a redbox movie for home so the kiddilinks will be good or at least entertained.

So when I complain about being grouchy tomorrow, please call me on it and tell me that it serves me right.

Hmm... I wonder if I snore sitting up. Maybe I could discretely get a little sleep ;)

Back in the Saddle

The kids are back. Did I mention that ;) ?

We had our share of everything today. Did we really have a break? It's so easy to forget. First thing this morning I felt like I could conquer the world. By 11 am I wanted to swear.

M- She ditched the family for dance of course and then came home begging to play with her friend. The problem was she owed me half her practice time as well as her chores and room which weren't done and would take a long time. She hated me for it for a while. Then tonight loved me a bunch and wanted help with her sight reading. There are crazy mood swings in preteens.

T- He also didn't want to work but finally did the buck up little camper thing and got down to business. He tried to convince me he had over 3 hours of Poptropica time when he had ZERO! When I had a neighbor over and sent him downstairs he kept being pesty. Finally I told him if wasn't going to obey he could wash baseboards. The little turkey looked right at me, smiled and said, "Let's have a staring contest." Oh he got me to break my serious mood and I had to smile.

D-He had a hard day. It's okay though. I know he will get back to his normal life. It's the fallout from going to Grannie's. He kept asking me the same questions over and over in hopes of changing my response. I have to ignore it at a certain point and come back after the fact. He wasted a half an hour tonight over whether he could sweep without picking up the toys on the wood floor in the basement. He knew my answer and he knows we NEVER budge. We can't or it'll bite us in the behind. But he was emphatic. Finally I had to tell him to go downstairs and finish his chore (it takes about 3 minutes) and if he came back up without it done I was going to grab something quick for him to eat and send him to bed. (It was time for dinner.) Finally he went down and did the stupid chore. Chances are someone gave in at some point over the weekend. It always fuels this behavior. He did it this morning as well as tonight. Hopefully he will remember tomorrow that it doesn't work and have a great day. He also decided today that he doesn't like krump or the tango on So You Think You Can Dance. I'm not too fond of krump either.

S- She hurt her arm again today. So I know I have mentioned that S is super super smart. We thought that from the get go and her psych and therapist have confirmed it. So why is it that I think it was last week that she hurt her arm trying to jump from couch to couch. Then the next day she tried jumping off a table in the basement and hurt her arm again. Today she tried jumping off the trampoline frame and hurt the same arm again. The learning curve on jumping just isn't there. She actually played pretty nicely for much of the day and didn't do a bunch of screaming. She was helpful and pretty kind to others. I am hoping that's a good sign for the rest of the week. DH and I talked about it and we are finally going to let her take ballet lessons in the fall. She'll be more than thrilled. I just hope she doesn't lose it before dance and have to miss the pricey lessons.

C- I can't even remember what she was saying at dinner that cracked DH and me up. She talks like such a little grown up. Today she was trying to eat a grilled cheese sandwich rolled up like a burrito. It was so icky. All evening she kept saying, "Taca taca stop stop ready go." I guess she listened to me when they were practicing.

All the kids had fun picking cherries off the tree. They don't seem to care that it's a sour cherry tree. We had them with dinner and the kids were happy.

C finally went in her own bed tonight. I bet she still wakes up in M's bed.

Tomorrow is one busy day. The kids have violin lessons starting at 7am. Then I drop M off at dance and bring the other kids home. I am supposed to go to breakfast a little later. (If I can find a sitter for the kids I am going to get one. It's no fun going to breakfast when the kids are never satisfied with how much food they have. I just don't want to be interrupted 20 times with "Is there any more food?" They ask it whether they are hungry or not if the food is good. Then I really should clean my house. (Should is the key word there.) Then, sometime tomorrow I need to get a nap so I can be rested for my night out with friends to see Eclipse. And of course, I should fit in running both tomorrow and Wednesday but haven't figured out how to make it happen with violin lessons and then a swim meet early Wednesday.

I am back in the saddle but wish that it didn't have so much dang baggage.

Ahhhh..............

It turned out to be an awesome weekend. Who would have ever thought that all we really needed was a lot of sleep. Lately I have had a hard time sleeping and often find myself wide awake at midnight or later and then wide awake at five. I still woke up early but then decided there was no reason to stay up.

The car ride to pick up the kiddos was so pleasant. DH and I were able to just chat away.

You can imagine the car ride back.

"Mom, open the suitcase I made pictures for you."

"Mom, I played the wii for an hour today."

"Mom, so and so did such and such a thing."

Mom... mom.... mom...........

Awww............. I guess I am needed.

The kids got a huge compliment in that they had ZERO problems at church. Grannie let them each take something to hold and they loved that. I bet they were in heaven since we don't let them take anything to church. They went to Grannie's school and played in the gym and halls. She braved a store with all of them but T who preferred to stay home with his Papa.

C didn't decide to potty train herself.

I feel like I am back to being able to handle them. A break every once in a blue moon is a good thing. The funny thing is that I thought DH and I would get so much done. But without the kids home we were less than motivated. We did get C's crib taken down. No tears were shed. I'm so over the baby stuff. Let's get it out. The bunks in M's room were taken apart and separated and now each has a bed.

C is still sleeping in M's room tonight. She liked her big girl bed but not enough to actually sleep in it. I guess she needed its twin in M's room.

I'm actually excited for tomorrow to come. After being the tired mama for weeks I can be the well rested mama.

Now how awesome is that?

30+ mile week

This morning had to be the s-l-o-w-e-s-t run I have had in a long time. I just didn't have it in my legs to go faster. There was no kick to my step. So I plodded and luckily, since the kiddos were gone, DH plodded with me for about the first 6 miles. I think he could have walked but decided to shuffle along at my 'running' pace. It was a beautiful morning to run. We left the house just after 5:15 and the sky was just starting to lighten a bit. And there was no wind! That was a huge blessing because the wind might have just encouraged me to walk today. After about 10 miles I realized that just maybe my legs felt so tired because I had already done a long run that week and was at about 30 miles which for me is a lot. I also put in two sets of hills today which might have been a mistake. I was thrilled when the Garmin clicked off the last mile and started walking immediately. It took me a whoppin' 2 1/2 hours. That's a lot of running/shuffling/plodding.

DH did beat me home even with his 3 extra miles.

I came home, stretched just a bit, and made breakfast. Then I took a shower and went to sleep. I was too wiped out to even eat my breakfast. I just wanted to be clean and go back to bed. And then I slept for 3 hours while the little kiddies were most likely making plenty of noise 50 miles away.

Now we have to figure out what to do with the rest of our day. DH asked me what we were thinking when we bought this house and only had one child. It's too big of a house for 3 people.

So that's where our little 'vacation' has taken us. We did end up at a smaller Five Guys last night. It makes me wonder why so many establishments are always trying to come up with some new idea. Earlier this week I saw a hamburger that had two grilled cheese sandwiches as the bun. YUCK! Five Guys has a limited but yummy menu and stays plenty busy. It's the best bunless hamburger around.

Then we went to IKEA and wandered. IKEA isn't a great place for littles. There are too many breakables. I love their kiddie land but C can't go there because she just won't decide she's done with the pull ups. So I don't go there. We bought spoons. Oh so exciting! I'm hoping these are small enough that the kids won't be able to shovel so much into their mouths at once.

And as for the rest of today... we might go to the movies. We have done ZERO cleaning. I forgot I would be wiped out. I told DH I could really go back to sleep again.

It has turned out okay to have a break from the kids but to not go anywhere. I would hate to be in some fun city and be too tired to enjoy it from a long run. And it's nice to be able to rest without people fighting or needing things. Maybe MIL knew what she was doing after all.

Blah continued..............

What is up with these summer doldrums?

We are doing the split floors thing today. I don't know what is up with S and D. They just don't want to get along. Usually they stick together but not the last two days. So I'm all for them having a little break because I'm so done with bickering and then bickering about who was really bickering.

MIL is taking the kids tonight. I called and asked her what time and she joked that midnight would work. Maybe she wasn't joking ;) Instead we will be able to drop them off at 6pm. So we are going to have a glamorous dinner at Five Guys (they do have bunless burgers after all) and then try to get enough sleep to get up at 5am for our long runs. I think I have DH convinced to stick with me until the sun starts coming up and then he'll go his real speed. I have 11 miles to do and he has 14 and he'll finish first.

Then the plan is to sleep off some of the fatigue, clean the house, take apart M's bunks and move a bed to C's room, mow the lawn, maybe go see a movie, and go to dinner at a nicer restaurant. Then on Sunday we can try to sleep in and actually sit next to each other at church. So it might not be super exciting but it'll be a nice break from doing all those things with kiddos fighting or hanging on an arm.

Witchy

Apparently witchy equals how I do my makeup to S. I guess she's trying to clue me in on the fact that I need some lessons in makeup application.

On a side note... I have to get on my game. I've let our schedule slack a bit and it's starting to show in behavior and attitudes. They were doing their chores and other tasks fine until I let them get away with not doing them. Now we are paying the price.

I told the violin teacher today at M's lesson that while she has five hours of dance a day I just can't make her get up and practice for an hour. I told her to prioritize what she wants practiced and after 45 minutes I am saying she's off the hook.

She took it okay but said that M will have more than an hour a day for the month of July to make up for it. Oh well! At least she'll have the time without dance.

What else? I made it ten miles yesterday. They were super slow and many of them were around my block so I could keep tabs on the kids while M watched them. It's not the ideal way to go but it worked and I finished. My vibrams are still holding out for me. If the course isn't too gravely I think I will be able to wear them.

Yesterday was a hard day with the kiddos and it continued into today. They were all being resistant, even the big one. But alas, what can you do? At the moment the four youngest are banned from the couches. They decided to jump from couch to couch yesterday in the basement. Um... do you not have a trampoline that screams jump on me in the backyard? S got hurt an owie trying to jump from place to place. It was hard to feel bad. Then today when she jumped off a table in the basement and got hurt it was even harder to feel bad. Did you not learn your lesson little one?

MIL is giving us our birthday gift and offered to taking the kids for the weekend. I was supposed to usher an event at a fine arts center but luckily I found someone to do my job. We are sort of out of time to plan something fabulous and well, I already spent our entertainment dinero but it will be nice for both of us to be able to get out on Saturday morning and do a long run without having to worry about the kids or running late in the sun. Plus, the kids will have fun as they will have cousins at their Grannie's house. Maybe we can get M's bed taken apart and move half of it into C's room that weekend. C never sleeps in her crib anyway. We might as well get rid of that thing. (We LOVE getting rid of baby stuff.) It's going to be one exciting weekend in discombobulated's house.

We went and visited our neighbor's chicks today. I was kind of grouchy and there is nothing that says be cheery like a bunch of cute baby chicks. T came in and showed me Rico, 'the fat one' who he adores. My friend's girls were more than happy to divulge which chicks had accidents when being held. There is one with a bald neck nicknamed Baldilina. The poor thing. We'll watch the baby chicks grow for a week and then they are going on to their new home where hopefully they will live in peace without toddlers leaving the door open when bird hunting dogs are around.

The chicks helped me go from grouchy to blah and that is some improvement ;)

I worked in the violin room. It was a wreck and now looks better. I do, however, have to figure out what to do with all of our music which means I am going to have to clean out our larger hall closet so I have a place for it. Maybe I should have just left the violin room a wreck.

Oh and I should probably report something exciting. One of our two tomatoes is now bigger than a golf ball. Now if that doesn't scream excitement I don't know what does. Working in the garden is on the list of things to do this week.

And that's it for now. DH should be home in the next hour and a half. The kids have a slackin' mama who is going to make them hot dogs for dinner. Before you cringe let me say that these are the best ones I could scrounge up. Heck, I could have gotten 5 packs of the mystery ones. There is no corn syrup in these puppies. So they had better like them. DH might not be thrilled with the fancy chicken somethingrather ones that I got him but it's harder to find things that are missing dairy, refined sugars, corn, wheat, etc. If he hates them then so be it. Luckily, usually hunger wins out for him and he'll eat most anything. He likes good food but well, he's not that picky if he's starving.

Eyes

So S is sitting on my lap and looks over to me and says, "Sometimes your eyes look kind of witchy. But not first thing in the morning."

Me: "Do they look witchy now?"

S: "Yep."

Camping

Well, this camping thing is kind of funny. If you go in with super low expectations you won't be disappointed.

So we left Friday with so much stuff. I guess I didn't realize how much stuff it takes to take seven people camping. We had our back tray filled and each kid had a sleeping bag on his or her lap. Additionally, some of our stuff was already in our friends' boat. (That s' is for you A. It's not just S's.)

We had to get the boat in the water, unload stuff onto the boat, take it over and then come back and repeat. That's a bit of a hassel. But the kids were still super excited so it didn't matter so much.

We found our campsite and started unloading the stuff from the boat from the dock that was out floating in water. So you can imagine us carrying stuff through a few feet of water to get to the land. Then we had to go up a small hill to find our area. After unloading some of it there we T found a rattlesnake. I'm not talking about some overexaggerated garden snake. Our friend saw it too and it had rattles. He was near where our tents were supposed to go. We decided to haul stuff back down to the beach and just 'camp' there. The rule follower in me didn't like this as supposedly we weren't supposed to camp on the beach. But the snake fearing person beat out the rule follower. Heck, if there is some rattler there then there is probably cousin Buba and auntie Evil too.

By the time we got everything set up it was getting really late. I was trying to get the kids to drink up so we could take them to the bathroom while there was enough light to look for rattlers. There was NO way I was taking any kid to the bathroom in the middle of the night.

We roasted marshmallows up in rattler territory. I was told they like to be out in the sun and most likely wouldn't be out at night. Still, I sat at the table with my legs folded under me.

The kids zonked out super fast which was a huge blessing because it was starting to get windy. DH and I questioned whether or not the tent would stay up. But we were too tired to worry about it.

During the night it got more and more windy. The wind would wake me up and get me thinking. "Hmm... are there more rattlers out there? Did we zip this thing all the way up or did we forget to zip the bottom adn some cougar is going to come and devour us?" But I was too cold and tired to do anything about it. I actually don't mind the sleeping outside thing if it isn't windy and there aren't mosquitoes everywhere. And in the morning it wasn't too bad to wake up in the tent, wind and all.

The wind started picking up more and more. The kids played in the water. We ate breakfast. It was slightly more gritty than normal but less gritty than the time I made omelets and didn't wash the spinach well enough. So I'm not complaining. The food was great according to me.

But then we had a few issues.

We came to go boating but you know it's not an ideal boating day on a small lake when there are white caps out there. Nevertheless, out we went. And I don't mind that part of it. It's more fun to be one the water when sand is blowing around than on a beach.

The kids were thrilled and wanted to go on the tube. Little girls were up first, then the medium ones. We stopped with the medium ones and the tube started coming up on the back end. The front was sinking. It was totally slow motion. It looked like the giant tube was going to flip over or sink.

And all three kids were holding on for dear life. And then over it went. Out popped J and T but D wasn't out. I froze. DH froze. Luckily, our driver didn't and he dove over the side in the freezing water to fetch D who was stuck underneath in an air pocket which was where one of the three seats is. Out of all of the kids it was really unfortunate that D was the one stuck underneath because he's the only one who can't swim, who has a fear of drowning, and has super high anxiety. Everyone got back in the boat and shivered away. It wasn't much over 60 in the water. We just turned up the music and chilled for a while.

DH still wakesurfed and wakeboarded. Considering the conditions he did pretty well. He had wanted me to try both but I wasn't about to humiliate myself in anything but ideal conditions :)

We went back to camp and let the kids play some more and then most of the kids convinced the men to take them on a hike. I thought they were CRAZY. Did we mention that there was a rattler out there lurking in the brush with its army of rattler friends? I guess the kids weren't as scared as I was and off they went to the top of the little mountain.

My friend and I stayed back and thought we would get a little chilling time. Then the wind picked up. Then our tent started flying away. Out came the stakes. So we ended up dismantling the entire thing.

We had contemplated doing hot dogs for dinner there. Heck, I even bought decent ones ;) But really, I didn't want to revisit our rattler friend who resided by the pit. So we loaded up and headed home.

I did wake up today with a majorly sunburned lip or something. It looks like I had a bad botox job. S kept looking at me today and would stick out her bottom lip. I guess it's obvious. It feels like the whole dang thing is going to blister which is going to stink big time. But once again, it'll be a memory.

And you know, the trip beat my expectations. I guess if you aren't hoping for much then it'll be better.

The pros of the trip:

-Lots of pictures
-Getting a good view of a ton of stars
-Watching the kids enjoy themselves
-Getting a little extra fiber in the form of sand
-Finally having enough sleeping bags for our family in case of an emergency
-Chatting with friends

The cons of the trip:
-Loads of stuff to pack for a one night trip
-MOSQUITOES
-Rattlesnakes
-Wind
-The boat rope taking a bunch of DH's hand with it.
-Burrs
-Sunburns and a big fat lip
-Bringing home sand in everything

Random Wednesday

So I think I'll just get random stuff down today.

I have to start with what is so dang funny to me. I bought this shirt for S at a consignment store. It was from Gap, had stripes, and was in great shape (or so I thought). I'm not anti buying used stuff for kids. Maybe mine are the only grimy ones in the world but heck, after one wearing the clothes look used and I'm not so super with a stain stick. I miss things all the time. For a while I just made my kids wear prints.

Anyway, S has worn the shirt once before. I didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. Then yesterday I noticed something so strange. Someone had monogrammed the pocket with a rhinestone T (or maybe it was a J). What the heck? I bought a shirt with some other kids initial. So I asked S to come over and I kind of tried to pick off the rhinestone. She wasn't thrilled. "What are you doing mom?" I replied, "Oh, I am just seeing if these are sticky." She told me she loved the sparkles and didn't want them off.

I'll just keep letting her wear it. I obviously didn't check that shirt very well and just trusted it was in good shape or I would have seen the almost 2 inch sparkly letter.

And doesn't it figure, she didn't even spill on it so I could throw it away.

In other news, I had a sassy little 3 year old yesterday. She had a mind of her own for both bad and good. When I asked her to put her clothes away before eating lunch I got a very valley girlish 'whatever!'. Luckily for her she conformed. I'd hate to have to starve the scrawny little thing (said jokingly because she is far from scrawny.) Earlier in the day she informed me she was wearing underwear. Whatever! I've heard this before. (I wonder where she got the whatever from.) When we went to take T to the pediatrician's office for his 10 month late yearly exam I asked her to put on a pull up. She started crying and said, "I am stupid in pullups." So she wore underwear and actually went to the bathroom there. Way to show me kiddo!

What else? I am secretly hoping S makes it through today. She will get her sugar back and will be victorious. I'm not saying to much about it though because I don't want to jinx her. But I am feeling hopeful that she will do it.

I did my sub 11:00 minute mile today in the wind to boot. Now I have to work my other miles down so they are faster.

We had a tricky morning with D. He got a little worked up (okay a lot) over his practicing. But we made it though and eventually he figured out that screaming wasn't going to cut it. He's back to normal and playing downstairs.

I have my friend's kids over this morning as well as her sister's 4 kids. I don't know how people with a gazillion kids do it. Right now I have 10 kids I am watching who are 7 and under. I forgot how little babies are tricky. My house is so not baby proof. C came and sat by me while I fed him a little of his bottle. She was mesmerized.

And I guess with 10 kids in my house I should stop blogging and get to work!

Going out of the comfort zone

I did it. I put a real picture on Facebook.

I had a goofy sunset on there just because shadow man was bothering people.

So when I had a picture that didn't have twelve chins or a giant blemish on my forehead I decided to go for it.

I was worried for quite some time that somehow it would make it easier for bioparents to be overly involved in our day to day life. But somehow I don't think the picture will make a difference.

I'm generally not really into pictures. Occasionally I let myself be in one just so my kids will remember what I looked like if there is some unfortunate accident. You know how it is. It's always, I'll be in the pictures in x number of pounds or when my hair is like this or that.

How I wish I had thought that about 20 years ago ;) I didn't like pictures then either.

In other news.........

I got a little high and mighty on my run this morning (and no I don't mean high like druggy high or runners' high). I was 'cruising' along for most of my first mile at around a 10:45 pace. (Chuckle if you wish... that's BLAZING fast for me.) It felt pretty good too and like I could have gone faster if I really wanted to push myself. So in my mind I had this whole I am going to finally do a sub 11 minute mile. I was certain of it. So I didn't push myself because what is better than a sub 11 minute mile than a sub minute mile when you can tell yourself that it wasn't even your best. So I didn't push it and when my watch beeped the time for that mile it was at EXACTLY 11 minutes. Had I actually pushed myself I would have hit my goal but because I was a lazy bugger I got as close as I could be without actually doing what I wanted to do. Serves me right. So now you can imagine my goal for tomorrow :) Then I just finished my run up nice and easy because I was bummed. The good news is that I got my butt out of bed even when I had to run solo.

So yesterday was crazy. I was trying to help someone I know get an interview at my MIL's school. She may or may not be a fit for the job but in this economy an interview is an interview. It just turned out to be crazy crazy trying to coordinate things. Then we finally realized why it wasn't working. She had no screening interview and no where on MIL's district's website did it say you even needed one. (I'm sure somewhere hidden there is something about it but it wasn't on the page showing you what you needed to do to apply for a job.) MIL had a great attitude about it though and I hope it still works out.

Last night I went to Kmart of all places for the gazillionth time trying to get a bike tube. This has been an ongoing thing. That store is almost always empty it seems and I am surprised that they don't know me as the bike lady. (Oh and did I mention I really don't ride bikes. I'm sorry but even the big ol' granny seat that is about as big as my behind doesn't keep my sit bones from hurting and my legs from going numb.) First I bought DH the wrong sized tires. Then I didn't buy enough. Then the one inner tube was jacked up. I'm hoping this is the end of the biking saga.

What else? I think we are halfway through June :) I've survived this long.

I have to mention that yesterday we had a day with no craziness from S. She got a little grouchy here and there but she didn't have any of the out of control freakouts. I was thrilled. I'm hoping it's not a fluke but a change of the tides.

Oh and in other big news it looks like we are going camping. Now I may have mentioned before my camping aversion. Generally I see camping as more work than it is worth. When DH mentioned it I had to slowly raise my eyebrows in that are you kidding me. But when he told me who had invited us I figured it might be fun. Our tent isn't big enough for our family. I haven't wanted to get another that is big enough because I haven't wanted to ever use one. So we are borrowing another friend's tent that is so huge it appears to be for at least 18 people. (In reality, I think it's for 10 people.) There will be sandy beaches and lots of water fun for the kids. So maybe this will be a good intro to camping for me. We have yet to tell the kiddos. They will just bug and bug us about it until we don't want to be in any confined tent with them. It'll be easier to just take them and surprise them.

I guess that's about it for life until now. C is in the kitchen spreading mustard all over the plate that held her eggs. I am pretending I don't know about it. What harm is mustard?

The Conversation in the Basement

S: We are playing house and I am the big sister and my power is flying.

T: Noooo, we are not having powers.

D: No S, you can't live in there. It's not your room.

S: My name is Strawberry and my power is turning into a strawberry.

(No one argues with that one for some reason.)

D: T, aren't you going to be the dad. I just want to be a normal brother with no powers.

S: I just don't like anyone controlling me. (Insightful... but how is the strawberry power going to keep someone in control of others?)

C: (Ignoring all this power talk....) I'm just making sandwiches.

That's my kid. All she cares about is the food, pretend or real.

Titleless Post 2

Many more of these will come from this title challenged blogger.

I'm having a hard time remembering 3 days back. This is why I have to blog frequently. I lose it too dang quickly.

Let's see... I remember D trying his newer dance class on Thursday. At first I didn't want him to be moved to the next lower level. It botches my carpool. Plus, his other class was for 2 hours twice a week and this one is for an hour once a week. I went and rented a redbox movie, parked right in front of the door and then watched D's class while turning around every minute or two to make sure everything was okay with the kiddos. They were thrilled to be in the car watching The Tooth Fairy. This class was much more at a level D can do without getting frustrated. I was surprised because his teacher only demonstrated the barre combinations one time and then the kids had to jump right in. He seemed happy in his class and although I lose my carpool, I have to agree that it should work out better for everyone.

Friday morning I did my 9 miler. I was too lazy and well, scared to leave when I had planned. I just don't like running out in the dark by myself. Something isn't so right about that. And remember, there could be wild animals out there too! So I went out and ran just under 2.5 before meeting up with my friends, then ran 3.something including a nice hill, and then I finished it off to make 9.02 miles. Don't forget the .02! Around mile 7 my legs started getting tired though. I was shocked because last week my legs were fine although I did every stinkin' mile last week more slowly. By the time I got home my legs were sore enough that I almost had to pick them up individually to go up the stairs to my house. The good news is that they recovered fast and aren't even sore. I don't know what was up. This week I have to up that long one to ten miles. I'm still amazed that this old and not so well taken care of body can pull this off.

We drove to T's swim meet and got him settled. I was reminded quickly why we generally don't take the kids to meets. It's a big fat pain in the keester. But it was good to support him at this meet. He swam 5 events over the course of two days. He ended up with a silver in the backstroke. I think he was a little disappointed he didn't medal in his 50 free where he took 4th but for some reason he swam it almost 4 seconds slower than his last meet. If he had gone that fast he would have medaled. But the biggest news was that he didn't get disqualified in the breaststroke (breathstroke to him). DH told him Friday that if he didn't get dq'd, we would all go out to ice cream. The pressure was on the poor kid. Even C kept telling him, "Don't get disqualified." So he was in last place and DH said he saw the refs arm go up. We just figured he had gotten dq'd and the whole family was bummed. Then today, after the meet ended I was looking at the results and two kids around him go dq'd. It was the first time he has made it across the pool swimming the stroke correctly and it was a 50m. I was so proud of him. Then today on butterfly it was a bummer because he has always gotten disqualified on that one too. So before he started I was giving him the little reminders and I quickly reminded him which stroke he was swimming. He gave me the 'oh mom, come on' look. Then he dove in the pool and did two strokes of freestyle. DQ! What the heck? It was his best butterfly too. I think he still might have been disqualified because one time his arm didn't look symmetrical to me but you never know what they will catch or not catch. But starting off in the wrong stroke will never go over.

After the meet we went and got ice cream as a family. It was great ice cream too. And as a result of that, muffins for breakfast, and a sandwich with a roll, I will be a puffer fish for a few days. Oh and the baked potato the night before won't help either. Back on the plan I go. I just can't eat that way.

We drove home today and I slept. I should have driven and let DH sleep. He got up early and ran 12 miles today and was a little tired but was kind and drove. We got home and DH offered T and hour of Poptropica time if he pulled this kid sized weed that has been growing in our yard. It had HUGE thorns. It took T a long time but he did it. He ended up hacking it down with the tree trimmer first. Then he dug the root out. I went out to get a picture and he said, "You're going down weed." He came in victorious some time later with his arms up in the traditional Wheeties pose.

What about the rest of the kids?

M was really helpful on our little mini vacation. She whisper to me this morning that she was going to have a bunch of services today. She really was helpful. She came home and just wanted to Ripstik. She was bickering but was fine with the consequence.

D had fun on our trip. He really wanted to spend his time in the hot tub. I kept making him get out so he wouldn't get too hot. He's been in a funky mood and ended up playing on a separate floor from the other kidlings tonight. DH and I are sort of done with listening to arguing and bickering. If you can't play nicely then don't play with other kid. He couldn't stop pressing the issue with DH and me. M usually takes her consequence and just deals with it but D just keeps asking over and over for whatever privilege that is taken away. Tomorrow will probably be better. It'll be good for him to get a fresh start with some good sleep under his belt.

S wasn't too thrilled on our trip because of some more recent sugar losing behaviors. But she had lots of fun in the pool and loved her new navy with white polka dot shorts. She was happy with the chips that replaced her ice cream. (See, I really am not that evil!) She came home and played pretty nicely. Of course it worked out that way because she and D usually flip flop back and forth.

C was a stinker once again. We had the three girls sharing a bed sleeping sideways and C was such a turkey. She just kept trying to hog the entire thing. She is into thinking she can get her way by throwing fits. Luckily she also gets out of those fits. This morning at breakfast she was stuffed and declared she couldn't be done because she hadn't had a bagel yet. Sorry kiddo!

At dinner tonight S says to us, "I have a joke. What does M-O-M spell?" C chimed right in and said, "Dad's girlfriend." I was cracking up. The spelling thing drives me batty lately. D is constantly asking S and C what things spell knowing they can't spell and now the two younger ones for the most part make up words. We usually do made up answers too like this: "What does AGSYU spell?" We reply, "You want to go to bed early tonight." But it was funny to have one work out in such a funny way.

The One I Couldn't Title

I just hate giving titles to these things. I know I have said it before but it deserves repeating.

There was nothing too fabulous to report today. I woke up at 4 something anticipating my run and went back to sleep. I woke up again around 5 and tried to go to sleep. I finally just got myself out of bed. I actually ventured out in running clothes today. No, I didn't do little shorty shorts. That's just too frightening. But I wore a longer running skirt with compression shorts. And you know what, I loved it. I felt so much faster without hot ol' pants on. (And not hot in a good way!) I'm loving that my runs are starting to feel easier. I probably should work harder during them and I might once a week but really, I would rather just enjoy it. Plus I have people with whom I can run. Yippee! They go a great pace for a regular training run and make good company too. I'm thrilled. Running by myself is going to stink ;)

My plan for manana is to do a shorter run and then get up early on Friday and so my 9 miler. I figure I'll split it and try to do around 5 miles before meeting up with my friends, 3 miles with them and then a mile after. I'm actually kind of looking forward to it. I am going to have to figure out my fueling options because that run will take me a while. I'm out of my dehydrated pears that worked so well last time.

I took the 4 younger kids to breakfast. It was almost embarrassing. I mean, I know the boys are hungry but heck, I swear they kept asking for more just because it was so good. I ate a third of my potatoes (I know, poison to my system... they are my weakness.) and half of my omelet. The rest, plus the English muffins went to the kids. Then each kid had pancakes and eggs as well as anyone else's pancakes who would finish. Oh and they also had a piece of bacon. I know they are growing or whatever but come on kids. Next time I'll save myself the money and make them breakfast at home and hire a babysitter. When your food is gone you are done.

Then we went and watched the season finale of Glee at my friend's house. It had some great singing in it. I still go back and forth on whether I should watch the show when I wouldn't let M watch it. Obviously I haven't come to my final conclusion yet.

I picked up from ballet today and took the kids to the health food store where I found a sports drink that has no added sugars or HFCS. I was thrilled. I bought two for DH to try. Even better they were on sale. Too bad I picked the flavors he would like least. Oops.

We came home, made lunch (very late because they were so dang stuffed from breakfast), and I went to get the oil changed on my SUV. If they only knew that having them vac out my car makes me want to have my oil changed every month they would do it for everyone. I was thrilled. Goodbye crapola that people keep dropping!

The kids played, had dinner, and went to bed. We had some crazy fits today. One was over the toilet paper on the roll. UGH! But he got over it and so that is good. I'm to the point where if it's going to cause a cyclone of emotions I just want to ditch out and regain sanity. I figure we can revisit things later. That's what we did with violin this morning. When he started freaking out over things I told him to just put the instrument away and we'd try again later.

I'm ready for bed. This waking up early to run thing is getting the best of me. But I am finding my groove in it so I can't complain. It's just so much cooler to run in the morning verses the evenings. Plus you don't have to deal with food in your stomach.

And that's it! It was uneventful for the most part. We had much of the same ol' same ol' today. I screamed once and I can't remember what it was about. Grrr... I hate losing it. The kids were happy. The kids were bored. The kids wanted me to entertain them. The kids wanted me to stay out of their business. It was just a regular summer day.

2012

So T the other days says to me, "We don't have to worry. We aren't ever going to grow up."

Me: "What?"

T: "The world is going to end in 2012. They said it was going to end in 1999 but it didn't. Why couldn't they just wait until 2011 to tell us."

Me: "T, the world isn't going to end in 2012."

He's not convinced. But I have to laugh a bit that he said the 2011 thing. It's so like him to want to just delay knowing things that might be problematic.

A Bummer Deal or a Tender Mercy?

The sitter I had hoped for isn't going to work out. I found out last night and well, I was pretty bummed because I really was hoping for a much wanted vacation. (I almost said needed... but really it's wanted.)

But then I got thinking that maybe it's actually a bit of a tender mercy. There was an article in the Wall Street Journal recently about DH's company looking for buyers. This could really change his job status depending on who buys what. Who knows, maybe he will be out of a job sometime in the nearer future and the money we would pay a sitter as well as that which would fun the trip will need to go to a house payment.

It looks like there is a backup sitter if we are interested. But as much as I want a break, I don't know if it is wise timing. We've had a couple of breaks since we got married almost 17 years ago. We took a 4 night cruise when T was one and then we have had a couple of staycation type of nights nearby. So I shouldn't complain. The timing was just a bummer because S has been a big fit thrower and D has gotten himself into a couple of very long cyclical tantrums in the past few days. But as much as DH and I both have wanted to get away I think it might be a bit of a relief to not be worried about spending the dinero when jobs could be up in the air in the future. (This is just my thinking... it's nothing official.)

What else? M survived her first long day of dance and really liked it. I love that kid. She came home and did some extra stretching and did her chores without complaining. She's going to grow up to be awesome. Today at her violin lesson, her practices got extended to an hour a day. I'm not sure how I feel about that. It seems a bit excessive for a 10 year old. She didn't complain or anything but it seemed like a lot to me. But then again, I have never been one for practicing.

T is excited for his swim meet coming up. He is certain he can have a fabulous day today because it's the only way to get his Ripstik back.

D started dance again yesterday but the class was too advanced for him and the instructor's son. She wants to move him down a level. I totally get that but I just don't know if I can squeeze in the activity without the carpool. I have some thinking to do about it. I made sure he knew she thought he really did a great job but that it was just too difficult. He has been struggling lately and I am less than sure what to do about it. The tornado is out in full force with the same things being repeated over and over again until they are blown all out of proportion. He's not happy when he gets like that. And today he got himself out but it took over an hour. I have to go outside and let him just scream at himself or it just doesn't seem to stop. My attention has to be gone. But thankfully, it's a nice day out and wasn't too hot. Plus, my friend was trying to ride her daughter's new Ripstik and it was pretty dang funny.

S has really had her good moments. She has loved searching for strawberries. She was thrilled with her new shirt I bought last night that says 'Love' on it. She giggled and giggled with the neighbor girls as they played some ghost game.

C has been sneaking any food she can get. I think she has had 3 boxes of raisins this morning. I'm sure the consequence will hit eventually. C loves hanging out with the five year olds in the neighborhood. I guess she figures that she must be one of them because she is their size. Today she asked what she was and I said a toddler. She gave me grief about that. I guess she doesn't think she is a toddler. I then said, "A preschooler that doesn't go to preschool." Hmmm... she didn't like that either. Sorry Charlie! That's all I have got.

Another Run Bites the Dust

8 miles! I did it. It was really slow. I mean, like I was about 1 1/2 minutes slower on each mile. My hamstring on my right leg was really sore yesterday. Then this morning something else near there on the same leg was hurting after only two houses. I wasn't sure what I to do. I needed to get the run in but I didn't want to get hurt. So I decided to start out slowly and see if things got better.

They did. It wasn't perfect and I'm still a little sore but I was able to do it. And by going more slowly I had no pain under the ball of my foot. The bad news is that my heart rate really was too low for just about everything except coming up the heel. But I would rather be uninjured and slow.

Of course I left a note on my door for my yard saling buddy. It pretty much was a hey, call me if you are going note. So here I am 3 miles away from home and she calls. I told her that perhaps she could pick me up at the library because of course I stashed some cash in my pocket. But she was out on her bike exercising so she gave me the time to make it up the hill and home. It's good practice for me. I was kind of hoping for the lazy way out but am glad that I got the hill in after all.

There was some great yard sales today. I managed to find myself a pair of Gap jeans that were actually longs in just my size. Lucky me! I found one shirt at the same place. I don't generally find anything because it's all too short. But if I do find a shirt the good news is that it's already had its chance to shrink.

I found 6 cute books (like we need any more), some great clothes for M, a shirt for S and a shirt and pants for C. It wasn't a good day for boys. Luckily, the boys don't need a whole lot.

I got home and DH told me he needed to go into work to get some things done more quickly than he can at home (which is just about everything). I took the two youngest girls with me to the nursery and we bought our zucchini, cucumber and melon plants. The S and I planted them together.

And since I was already grimy I decided to mow the lawn for DH because I know he has a long run to do later and I would hate for the sun to wipe him out before he even begins. It doesn't look fabulous but it's done :)

I have finally showered for the day and now feel like doing nothing. All I have accomplished since showering is eating (too much most likely), doing the dishes, and blogging. S is still struggling and it's exhausting on top of everything else. I don't know why her new thing is trying to slam people in doors. Where does she get this stuff? I think it's day 4 or so of her struggling so maybe just maybe we are on the verge of a turn around. I thought earlier she was switching back but then things got difficult again.

As for tonight, I will most likely be a slug. I'm wiped out! I might try to get a little laundry done and well, I guess I should feed my family. What's up with them thinking they need to eat every day ;)

And guess what, I ran 8 miles straight.

Fancy

I got home from my run this morning, showered and got dressed into some capris I found when cleaning out my closet.

She comes over to me, "OOOOh, those pants are cute. No they are better than cute. They are fancy."

She's pretty funny sometimes.

Another dia down

I'm thinking I may just have to move my bedtime. I swear I just am not ready to zonk out at 10 pm. The good news about that is that I can try to go to sleep and then get up and blog a bit.

Today was a super productive day for me. I got a run in, took T to swim where I watched him fly. Actually (I got there to late to see his fly but I saw him zoom in the free). When he's not messing around he's pretty fast.

Then I got to work on my linen closets. I'll be honest, for the past umteen months I have just been trying to shut my eyes when it came to looking at them. I would do the quickly grab a towel and get away from them. The kids have this habit of pulling out the bottom towel or blanket and then all of the others go tumbling down.

But today that all changed.

It took forever but I have now gone through everything except the top shelf of one of the linen closets. (I just can't figure out where I need to put the stuff there yet so why bother.) They look so nice. I was so excited for DH to come home and see them. I also managed to do a ton of laundry and most of it is done, folded and put away. And for the piece de resistance... I folded socks. I hate folding socks. I loathe folding socks. It's one of the reasons I have the wear sandals rule in the summer. It's not because I really care about sandals so much. I just HATE matching socks.

I pulled out the socks that were too little or had holes and tomorrow is going to be a family fun day of scrubbing baseboards with them.

S managed to pull out of two giant screamy fits and D survived a bout of cycling (not the bike kind). T went and ran 3 miles with DH. I was surprised because they managed in I believe 32 minutes. That's slow for DH but fast for little 7 year old T and well, faster than me! (Not that I am saying it takes much to be faster than me.) The poor kid came home bright red and so sweaty.

C was a major pill today. She got into the dog food and got it all over the garage. DH told her she had to clean it up before she could have dinner. She chose to not eat dinner. Three year olds can be so stubborn. What DH didn't know is that she sneaked a bunch of stuff in the late afternoon and pretty much already had an early 'dinner'.

M finished the second book from the trip to the library yesterday. (And for anyone who is worrying about my library fines... I didn't check out the book. She and a friend did it on her friend's card.) So today she took the books over to said friend's house.

I should have gone running again. I only ran 27 minutes this morning. I realized that I didn't have my knee braces on so I went back to T's swim practice. Then I came home and realized that I was supposed to have a longer run today anyway. I never got around to it. I think I have to do five tomorrow now. Bummer!

Oh and how could I have forgotten the trip to the school's lost and found. T and I went in search of both boys' thermoses. (Is that a word?) In the bottom of the fifth giant bag we found them. Hooray! T reminded me that we just saved 32 dollars by getting them back. (He was the one who managed to leave them both... not D. That's not his style.) We also found two other thermoses and T decided to put them on top of the bag since they are so expensive that other kids might come and look for them. I thought that was pretty dang funny. I was glad that he saw the value of them though. (Of course I didn't tell him I waited and bought them 75% off at Target ;) ) I really want my kids to realize that money doesn't grow on trees.

So that was about it. I told DH that even with the bumps in the road I found today to be easier than last year. I love how looking back helps me to see that things are getting better.

For me, that's what blogging is for ;)

The One that Kicked My Keester

So I decided to be adventurous tonight and took an advanced adult ballet class at some other ballet school. I thought it would maybe keep me entertained until my class started back up.

Entertained is not the word.

It was torture and I am not certain it was the good kind.

By the end of plies I was sweating like crazy. I may not have ever mentioned that I go bright red when I am working hard. There's nothing like a deluge of sweat in the first 5 minutes to make you feel confident about the rest of the class.

The other tricky thing was the instructor didn't give just your basic front side back you lost more of your brain cells with each kid you delivered combination. They were all mixed up with so many different steps. And to make things worse, everyone else had done the combinations before so I pretty much had to figure them out from her marking them.

She kept saying, "Cross your fifth. Cross that fifth tightly." Um, have you seen the difference in the size of our thighs lady. Trust me, I am trying to work it. There's just only so much I can do.

I was so exhausted that I almost left after barre. But my pride got in the way. So instead I muddled my way through center. To give you an idea of how hard it was I will just say that she said to just throw in a triple or quadruple turn in the middle of the turn combination. Ummm... I could do a quad on ONE side in my prime. That's it. And I am not in my prime. There were a bunch of 'kids' in there that may be in their prime. They were pre preggo not even a ring on the finger kids.

But the class was even too hard for some of them.

I didn't leave frustrated though and I am glad. It's good to realize what your limitations are. A couple of the people in that class kept saying to come back but I am wondering if it would be better for me to take the intermediate class. The downside is that I would know nobody. I did know one person from my other class that sort of recruited me for this one.

So now I need to think, do I want to take that class because it's one heck of a workout or do I want to take an easier class where I can actually do things properly. It was a workout. I left with salt all over my skin just like after a really long run. I know I am going to be sore tomorrow.

But it didn't feel pretty. It just can't when you are flopping all over the place.

Hmmm... what to do?

Memorial Day Part Deux

DH had the day off work yesterday and we were invited to go boating with friends. The weather wasn't super 'boaty' but heck, it was the last day of May. Plus, cold or not, it is fun to be with fun people.

For the most part we used the giant tube. All of the kids wanted to ride on it. The funniest kid had to be C. She is a little adrenalin junkie. She just smiled and smiled and then would put her thumb up indicating she wanted to go faster. I couldn't believe it. This was the kid that cried through Pirates of the Caribbean.

T had a funny moment too. Scott chucked a Twinkie out at the girls who were having a snack out on the tube. It didn't make it to them. T jumped into the water and went after it like you would imagine a dog would. He came back with purple lips but victorious with a Twinkie still dry in its wrapper.

D seemed to have fun. He thought he wanted to water ski until he felt the temperature of the water. The tube was more than enough.

S loved having a little friend to sit by. She was happy enough to just go on the tube.

And M, she brought a bag with some math work and paper. You know, because she might just get bored out on the lake. Only my little one would do such a thing. What I thought was funny was that she had a little group of kids who were all into it.

Amy and I ended up out there. It's pretty scary I tell you. I'm just wimpy I guess. And I so didn't want to end up tossed in the water. Pretty much every picture of me has my face cringing.

DH and Scott wake surfed. DH surfed for a while and then went down and realized he had forgotten to put on a life vest. Here I was snapping pictures and I didn't even pay attention to that. We were trying to get a nice big wake and most of the kids plus Amy and me were all sitting near one corner. It was um, cozy :)

We went and barbecued at their house after boating. The kids ran around and played. We chatted. The men cleaned up the boat.

Amy and I talked about blogging. It's interesting what different purposes a blog can have. I have one that just has a few pictures now and then to keep S and D's bioparents updated. I have this one which is just a journal pretty much. It's not interesting to other people for the most part but does help jog my memory when I read it. Then I have my picture blog which mainly keeps friends and family in the loop. None of this is particularly entertaining but it's useful. I never would have recorded so many memories if it weren't for this blog.

When we got home I ran to the store. We needed pull ups yet again. (This kid is never going to be potty trained.) I also needed spoons. I don't know where ours go. Thank heavens one of my least favorite stores on the face of the planet sells them in little packs.

So that was our day. We started June this morning. I was thrilled that I stayed in my budget for yet another month. I gave the kids their chore charts this morning. We had a little grumbling from T over his math. Did he really think I was going to give him easy stuff. I realized that I botched the chore thing just a bit. You can't have one kid cleaning off the table AFTER another one sweeps all the floors. Oh well, it's not always about getting the work done. It's about teaching them to work. A good friend's husband made up charts for her kids. They get 2 bucks a day if they do their work. I told her to keep that info to herself. My 3 oldest are getting 10 dollars a month and would be getting less but it's easier to teach percentages for tithing and saving out of 10. I told her I could give them 2 dollars a day but then they would have to feed themselves.

M is less than thrilled with my summer challenge of less wheat and sugar. It's only June 1st and she is whining that wheat is in EVERYTHING. Yep, it sure is. But how about you are grateful that your mom got up and made you eggs and cut up fresh fruit and made a homemade lunch. I don't think she'll get it until she is older. I'm not trying to make them miserable but a) I don't really want to make two meals all the time in order to accommodated DH and T and the rest of the family and b) I am getting more and more convinced that we develop starch bellies. I don't want her or the other kids to have to struggle because I fed them in a way that messed up their insulin responses. So we will do carbs. In fact, occasionally they will have wheat still. It's in everything and I can't be that careful. But I'm going to try to ditch the bread, pasta, and cereals. I figure if they get their carbs from things like veggies and fruit they will get more bang for their buck (or my buck).

Memorial Day

Yesterday was a day to remember those who had died serving our nation. I'm lucky that none of the people in my family have had the fate of dying while serving. I do know that my grandpa wouldn't talk about WWII. I have pictures of his boat coming back to the states after his service. There are so many men on the boats. And to think that so many of them didn't ever make it back.

Could I do that? I don't know if I have the guts.

Yesterday I was listening to the radio as they discussed Israel's flotilla raid. Then I thought of the heightened tension between North and South Korea.

It could happen again.