Musing, Rambling and all around Blathering

10 times

2011-08-05T10:45:00.000-04:00

That's how many times I started to post here in July but never finished. I was going to delete them out of my draft manager like I usually do, but decided not to. Even though it's old and irrelevant stuff, it's still fragments of my life. So I'll keep them and will look back on them like I do the rest of my blog. :o)

It's been a busy time here and my body knows it. We were camping over at our church for the summer conference/family week. I couldn't believe how excited I was go be staying in a tent over there. The last few years we've commuted back and forth from home (2miles down the road). But it's different staying there, I feel more involved, the kids don't have to leave things early, and I actually have somewhere the kids and I can put our things and go to if we need to take a break. I worked at the grill and candy stand like usual, although I made a concerted effort to keep some shifts opened for some down time. It didn't always end up working out but I was definitely free more often then in the past. I love it though!!! I got to see and touch base with a lot more people (the customers) than I normally would. I got to do something that helps out the others and earn some money for our fellowship in the process. It also helps that I like working in the kitchen.

The kids had a blast! They got to see friends they haven't seen since June. They swam, ran, climbed, and played on the swings. There was a day of inflatables and pony rides, they marched in a parade, watched the big kids play volleyball and basketball and compete in a group competition. The last day was children's day which had a medieval theme. We turned the grill into a marketplace which looked AWESOME! They had made wooden stalls for all the different things we had. One of the families brought their ducks and chickens out, they pickled duck eggs and sold them (never got over there to try one myself...bummed about that). We gave out free cotton candy and popcorn. We sold drinks (including beer and ale....root beer and ginger ale), snow cones, peasant bread (fried dough), candy and roasted drumsticks. Pretty much everyone dressed up. Some of the kids had coconuts and were walking behind people making galloping noises a la Monty Python.

We arrived home on Wednesday to an empty house. Luke and Val were at Michelle's house and Tom went camping in the Adirondacks with his older brother until Sunday. It was weird, I kept thinking I needed to call Tom and ask him to pick up something on the way home from work. Then I'd realize he wasn't coming home. :o( My sister came out, dropped off her youngest and took Liz and Carrie with her. I was exhausted and took a nap. Or at least tried to. At one time Danielle woke me up to tell me I was snoring weird. I informed her I was snoring because I WAS SLEEPING! Needless to say not much got done in terms of unpacking and cleaning that day....or the next. I was dragging on Thursday too and took another nap (2 naps in 2 days...I think it's a non pregnant record for me!). Last night I went over to Della's to keep her company. We had dinner together, talked and watched some movies. It was nice to have some quiet time with her, even if I felt a little guilty for leaving my kids at home. Which I didn't need to feel since they were having fun here and I knew it.

So today is the day I HAVE to get some things done around here. Luke's graduation party is 2 weeks from Saturday and this place is a mess...rugs half taken out, boxes of vinyl tiles and paint cans piled in the living room. I've already gotten 2 loads of laundry in, cleaned a bathroom and done some dishes....so I'm off to a good start. Now to just keep it going. I think I'm going to have to be a mean aunt and send my niece home tonight (ok...maybe tomorrow). I have a hard time asking them/getting them to work with her here and I need their help. Besides she's coming back next weekend, my sister is going away and they asked if my niece could stay here.

I think I'm finally going to have to breakdown and give Sean a haircut today. he came out of bed with his bangs covered in gum. Don't ask me how he managed to get gum in his bangs that don't even fall over his eyes, but he did. I'll try to get before and after pictures when I do. I kept forgetting I had my camera with me all week (or I was too busy to take the pictures). The only time I got pictures was of Sean taking a bubble bath in one of the utility sinks. Danielle had taken a shower and was waiting for him.

Now off to get some work done!

Looking through my laptop

2011-07-28T08:21:00.000-04:00

I was looking for some pictures I took the other day with my webcam. They were some real cool clouds that were over us just before a huge but quick downpour hit us Tues morning. Then I noticed that almost all the pictures were of the the 4 youngest kids and I hadn't taken them....so I started going through them.

Trampoline time (which the bigger girls shouldn't even be on since it's breaking)

Catching their siblings

And their Dad

OK....and their mom too (to be fair)

Self portraits

Fooling around

I'm meeeelting!

2011-07-22T01:23:00.000-04:00

I don't see myself doing too much sleeping tonight. At 12:20 it is still 90 degrees out with a feel like of 99, I'm dripping wet. I'm trying to plot a way to sleep in the swimming pool but it's not coming. I will be jumping in there very soon though.

Even with the heat I've managed to get a few things done around here. I gave the dog a bath and applied his flea medicine. (Pet Armour from Walmart) His itching has greatly decreased and I don't see any fleas on him right now. Hopefully it'll allow his skin to heal and his fur to grow back in. Now if we could just take care of Carrie's kitten. She's taken to going potty in front of the kitchen sink for some reason. I've washed it with bleach, ammonia, and bathroom cleaner yet she still goes there. Tonight I put out some black pepper in the hope of discouraging her.

Anyways after the bath and meds I painted the dresser we picked off the side of the road. It is now a shiny black enamel (from the dollar store) like Eileen and Olivia's bed. It'll probably end up in their room. Right now it's in mine while it dries thoroughly. I also scrubbed down the back wooden stairs with Oxy-Deck brightener/cleaner. (from the dollar store) It is now ready to be stained Honey Oak with some Olympic stain (from the dollar store). I then managed to paint one of the main walls in the house without too many incidents. It's the wall we call the telephone wall. It's about 3ft across and goes from the living room into the kitchen/dining room. I painted it brown with Dutch Boy's brushed suede textured paint. (from the dollar store) I'm not too sure I like the texture (it's chalky/flat) and I'm not sure how it will hold up in such a high traffic area. I spray painted the light switch cover with chrome duplicolor auto paint (from the dollar store) and I'm wishing I could use it to cover everything. lol

In case you didn't notice....the dollar store has been bery bery nice to me lately. It's a local one and can be pretty hit and miss....which also depends on which store you go to. (they have multiple locations) It's where I bought the self stick vinyl floor tiles for the addition....3 for $1. (15 cases....675 tiles) ahhh a slight breeze! At the other store I bought 10 quarts of Glidden eggshell paint...buttered sweet corn (yellow) which will cover the rest of my kitchen walls. Along with 8 quarts of Dutch Boy's granite textured paint in Ashen (blue) which I'm thinking of trying in the small bathroom (about 6x9). That'll probably be the next project once this oppressive heat subsides. I already have the molding taped. (stupid bug just flew down my shirt!!!! laptop is the only light source around so it's attracted to it/me)

Luke and Carrie are half way done with summer school. YAY! except for the fact that summer vacation will almost be over by the time they're done. Today while out I finally remembered to buy Luke's grad party invitations. So that's at the top of the todo list this week. Aug 20th seems so far away, yet I know it'll be here before I know it. With me scrambling to get things done even though I've been doing them all along.

This weekend will be busy. Saturday will be Meghan's 1st birthday party! Allison and Drew are going all out and are keeping it a secret from us. *sulks* Then Sean will be turning 4 on Sunday. We'll be keeping it very low key. So while out today I got presents for both of them and Danielle who's birthday is next month. I was hoping to add something crocheted to Meghan's present but not in this heat I'm not making it! It'll have to be a Christmas present instead.

Well I'm leaving sweaty fingerprints on the keyboard. Now that it's 90 degrees with a feel like of 101 (at 1:19am) I think I'll publish this puppy and go swimming. OK...now that I'm recovering from a slight panic attack (phone just rang...wrong number. Still can't help but think it means bad things at this hour. I'm really going to try and cool off in the pool. Looks like Sean will be joining me since he's wide awake and looking for a drink now.

I forgot

2011-07-16T10:13:00.001-04:00

I had a funny and a milestone to share.

Some people around here have been Planking. My kids try to find someplace to plank whenever we go somewhere with a camera.

The other day I heard Sean yelling from the bathroom. Jake got up to investigate and yelled for me to come quick. I ran to the bathroom thinking something was wrong and found this....

He had been yelling....I'm planking! I'm planking! One of the younger girls ran to get the camera as I stood there laughing.

Later that day Liz passed out blow pops to everyone. Danielle came running up to me all upset that her tooth broke. I assured her it hadn't broken. That her loose tooth had fallen out. She is well on her way to the Jack-O-Lantern look with the next tooth really wiggly.

Just had to share

Quiet Saturday morning

2011-07-16T09:04:00.000-04:00

Only because I'm the only one up at the moment. It'll get rip roaringly going here very soon, we're suppose to be out the door by 1:30 at the latest for my niece's graduation party. Is it horrible that most of my kids are trying to opt out of it? Some are camping, some are at friend's houses and Val has to work. What did I say? Val work? Yep she got a call last night that she has a job...bar tending. The town is only 15 miles from here but it's in the opposite direction of where I'm going. She's due there at 5 and the grad party starts at 2. So not entirely sure how that's all working out right now. She may have a ride from her boyfriend Matt but I think he's working on the brakes of his vehicle. (which I'd greatly appreciate since he's driving my daughter often). We have lots of time to figure it all out I suppose. lol

I haven't posted lately because I have a partial post in my draft section that I was trying to get done first from LAST weekend. It was to have lots of pictures of our trip to the beach. I finally figured I could post what's on my mind now and try to get the beach one done later.

I've been busy here. We went camping at the conference center with Della and her group. It was fun! Lots of swimming and sunburns. It enabled me to see what I'd want to pack for the summer conference in 2 wks. Also that I may want to have the car there instead of the van since the van is loud even with the new exhaust system. I have to leave by 6:30am on the weekdays (kids have to go to summer school still). While camping this week I ended up parking the van on the other side of the property so I wouldn't wake anyone. Where I parked the first night wasn't far enough away and I woke up some of Della's kids.....ooops! I also have to figure out a way to remember to pick up the school kids (or more accurately...watch the clock). I lost track of time the second day and it was 11:45 before I remembered them. They'd ended up walking and were almost home. BAD MOMMY! At least it wasn't over 90 out like the day before. Poor Carrie got a sunburn though.

Having a mini break from the house got me wanting to get back to work on it again. Unfortunately my body wasn't in full compliance with my mind. I did manage to rip out the carpeting on the addition stairs. They were gross and I was amazed at the amount of grit that was trapped under the padding. I don't ever want carpeting in my house again. All that garbage left me totally stuffed up. I was shocked when I got to the top of the stairs (ripped the carpeting from the top down, removed the padding, nailers and staples from the bottom up). I found Eileen's and Olivia's carpeting about 3/4 of the way removed and some of the padding lifted off. I asked Olivia who did it and she said they both had done it. When I asked how they manage to get it out from under their bunk beds which are massive, she said....We're strong! I guess so.

I'm still not entirely sure what I'm doing with the stairs. Ideally I'd like to paint them white then top them with some hardwood we have in the basement. The only problem is that my mind knows it's a ton of work and it would rather do something a bit more simple...like painting. It's neat to be able to finally do all this work. I've been wanting to do it for a while now. The poor girls waited years for me to redo their room. I have tons of plans for all the rooms. The problem is money and time of course. The good thing is, a lot of what I want to do, we have the stuff here for already. Although I'm not trying to get everything done before Luke's graduation party, it would be nice to have it done. That means I kind of have a deadline of a month. I don't want the kids' summer vacation to only be me doing the house and them keeping the little ones busy. So I'm trying to make sure we stop and play at times too. (Plus my body needs the break...I'm getting old! I want my 25yo body back!)

In all this I'm also trying to figure out things for the summer conference. Meals with limited resources (camping with iffy power supply), packing, costumes for a medieval themed children's day and whatnot. Right now I'm trying to crochet a chain maille hood. I found a tunic I'd LOVE to make, plus a few other things.

Well, Sean is up and wants my laptop's lap space for some reason. I need to throw laundry in and get some things done around here. If things go as planned I'll be bringing my brother's 3 kids home with us today. We wouldn't want them thinking Aunt Kim is a slob. Oh wait, I'm sure that one has already been discussed in their house. Why can't the rest of the house stay nice while I'm doing the other work!!!! Or better yet, why hasn't a self cleaning house already been invented?

Taking a break

2011-07-07T14:15:00.000-04:00

Things are improving around here slowly but surely. Tom's been outside most of his vacation and I've hardly seen him. I'm still glad he's been home and had a great week to do what he's wanted to do. Tomorrow we're heading up to a beach on Lake Ontario. Saturday I'm pretty sure the kids and maybe a few other people may be coming over for a cookout.

Today I decided we'd hit the main living area and try to gain some semblance of order. So the living room and kitchen are improved right now. The kids then went in the pool which I was going to join them, but I see they are out now and making lunch. After lunch I'll be heading up stairs and start ripping out the carpeting on the stairs. I'm still not entirely sure what I'm going to do with the stairs after I tear up the carpeting. Val has her rug ripped out and is starting to lay tiles. Not how I would've done it but oh well...she doesn't want me to ~~butt-in~~ help. Liz has painted 2 walls of her room purple and is on the 2nd coat of the other walls with yellow. I'm trying to encourage Luke to start painting his ceiling and we'll paint his walls on Sunday or Monday. I have to figure out a way to get all the cobwebs out of the addition and prep the walls. It's too high up for a big step ladder and I'm not sure I'm up to using the aluminum ladder anymore. I guess I could do the main house hall and then head into my room instead....saving the addition hall until last.

I really want to get these things in order since it's been on my todo list for a long time. BUT how fair is that to the kids on their summer vacation? I wish I could clone myself into a working Kim and a fun Kim. Life would be so much easier! Well, I should go get some lunch, figure out what's for dinner tonight and the start the heavy work on the stairs. Then again, resting my eyes for a few minutes on the couch sounds nice too.

Oh what a day!

2011-07-06T01:51:00.006-04:00

As I stated earlier in a previos post....I had lots of plans for the day...painting, carpet ripping out and maybe even laying down some tiles. It was 1pm before I finally got my fanny upstairs to work on the girls' bunkbed. Just as I started ~~making a mess~~ painting Liz came upstairs to start work on her room. She nonchalantly asked me...doesn't Carrie have to leave soon? Me....Leave to where? Liz...her dr's appointment. OH SHOOT! It totally slipped my mind. Must have slipped Carrie's too because she was taking a nap at the time and we had half an hour before we needed to leave. So like a smart girl I put everything away...NAW! I decided to paint as much as I could, as fast as I could. Talk about a mess!!! I was working upside down from the floor and had black enamal paint EVERYWHERE...including my body. It looked like I tried to paint with my forearms. I finished the half pint can I had just opened and tried to look as presentable as possible. I wasn't too successful.

On the way to the dr's I scratched my chin and suddenly it was pouring out blood. I felt like my dad with his blood thinners. Of course there wasn't a thing inside the car to contain it. I had blood all over my hands and it was gross. So when we pulled up I hit the trunk release, locked the doors of the car and joined Carrie to search for the paper towels I knew were in there....and I found them.

I cleaned myself up as much as I could and we went into the doctor's. Carrie had to have a sono of her thyroid done. It was a recheck of the nodule that she has aspirated in Feb of '09. We knew it was still there, it felt the same, no big deal...just an easy peasy sono. Well, you know how the story goes with Carrie...nothing is easy or straight. The dr checked things multiple times and compared films from last year to this one. Then he told us the news. She has the orignal one on the right side and it's still the same size. BUT he also found 2 other nodules on that side. AND there was one on the left side which wasn't there previously. He thinks removal of her thyroid is probably best. I'm not so sure I'm ok with being so quick about it. Carrie says...let's just get this done and over with. She hates getting them aspirated and doesn't want to have to do it on a regular basis or have to worry about it. I don't think she realizes that she'll have to take medicine for the rest of her life. Then again, I guess she already is for her diabetes and high blood pressure. In my mind it's different because the lack of thyroid meds affects how you feel a lot more. He did do a few blood tests to see if perhaps she has a certain condition (he didn't name it) that creates nodules and by taking thyroid meds it will reduce them. Either way, she will be taking meds, it's the surgery part we're not sure about right now.

So after bloodwork (she had to get stuck twice...poor thing with tiny veins) we headed out to the car. I realized I wasn't holding my keys and asked Carrie if she had them. Nope. We checked all the areas we had been in and didn't find them. My heart sunk. I knew the car was locked and it was the only set of keys we had. We get to the car and yep, all the doors are locked. No keys are to be seen so then I remembered....I probably put them down in the trunk and forgot to pick them up when we walked away. After talking to Tom it was decided we'd call Hyundai's roadside service and see if we still qualified (wasn't sure of the mileage limit of the coverage)...and we did. So she sent a locksmith out. Our 2:30 appt was now running into 5:15. Carrie and I chilled outside in some shade while we waited for the locksmith.

The locksmith got to work and wedged open the door slowly but surely. Then took a tool and tried to hit the lock switch. It would lock but wouldn't unlock. Could the car detect the door was wedged opened? I asked him if he could grab the manual lock with the tool and he did and it was unlocked. Unfortunately as soon as I pulled the handle from the outside, the alarm went off. What I didn't realize was that it also shut off the electricity to everything...including the trunk release on the door. We couldn't get into the trunk! We tried multiple things to get in there (jump wiring the trunk switch, picking the trunk lock, pulling out the backseat, trying to manually pull the backseat release IN the trunk). To say that I'm confident that my trunk is safe from burglars once they trip my car alarm is an understatement. Fortunately in conversation the locksmith mentioned that the key code written on the original invoice would all allow us to make a new key. I rifled through the glove box and found the invoice! Unfortunately he hadn't brought his key cutter because the assistance report said we had the keys, just not access to them. So he had to run to the dealership which closed within the hour, get one made and bring it back. I turned the car on, hit the trunk lock button and taaadaaaah! had my keys in hand. Her "easy peasy quick" appointment starting at 2:30, ended at 7:15 as we pulled out of the driveway.

The locksmith let me in on something as he was getting in his car. He was a spiritual man and felt more anointed that morning then most. He was also going to turn down my job but decided at the last second to accept it. He said he truly believed that God kept me in the dr's parking lot in order to save me from something. Whether it was an accident, a bad situation or whatnot he didn't know. He just knew that God thought the parking lot was a safe place and it would be best I stayed there. I let him know that he could be right because I believed that God gives me all things for my best, whether I like them or not. We then went on to have a lengthy conversation that included gov't and corporate conspiracy and such. He was an interesting person to say the least.

Carrie and I were famished since we hadn't eaten since breakfast, which we hardly ate actually. We stopped at a KFC and ordered meals. Carrie then reminded me that I was going to order us a few wings to share. So I ordered them after our meals were made. I went to pay for them and the cashier said, no, you're good! Wooohooo! Free wings!!! As we walked out the door I said to Carrie...God wanted me to stay in the parking lot all day so I could get free wings. lol

I was suppose to pick up Eileen and Olivia from my sister's but as I drove I got a headache that kept growing to the point of not being able to think straight or hardly keep my eyes open. I pulled into my parents' driveway, grabbed a cup of coffee and 3 ibuprofen, called my sister and asked her to bring them over...which she did. Thankfully the rest, coffee and ibuprofen did the trick and the headache was reduced to a dull roar shortly thereafter. We visited my parents, then ran through wegman's to pick up things for our trip to the beach. We pulled into the driveway about midnight. So much for running to the appointment and getting right back home to get some work done.

I thought I posted this before going to bed that night, but obviously didn't. So I'm posting it now.

Our backyard

2011-07-05T12:04:00.000-04:00

Out our back door and to the left is the pool, broken trampoline, chicken coop and the basketball hoop I often use to show how deep the snow is in winter posts.

To the right is a hedgerow and another lot

On the otherside of the hedgerow is Tom's main garden...tomatoes, cukes, zucchini, yellow squash, green peppers, cabbages. What you don't see is beyond that garden and behind the garage (which is our neighbors) is another huge plot with corn and pumpkins.

Looking into the backyard from the house side of the hedgerow. The little bit of greyness next to the 2 large bushes is a bridge. We have a ditch/creek across the property which has running water in it during the wetter seasons.

At the back of the yard (but not the property) is what we lovingly refer to as Cambodia. Tom and Billy built a shelter out of logs slashed together when we first moved out here....very primitive. It was mentioned that it looked like a Cambodian hut and the name has stuck even after it was taken down and the 2 sheds were built. The lighter roof in the middle was added on afterwards and is covering a stone patio. It's where we hang out most of the summer.

Between the jeep and the chairs is our firepit for bonfires. To the right is a table we usually use when grilling on a broken down weber grill sitting on a huge log. The three chairs in the center are the ones I've spray painted last week.

Cherry tree on the left, Flag pole which sports an eagle that Tom carved on the top and a neglected green house that Billy built. Plans right now are to pay attention to this next season. The topic of how it should be rebuilt are the subject of many discussions (with MINE being the right one lol). Behind the green house is our very neglected strawberry patch. I didn't get in there and weed at all this season. We'll be digging them up, retilling the area and replanting in September. The blueberry bushes are on the right of the greenhouse. We got about 10 berries from them this year...a new record. The wildlife manage to chew the bushes almost to the ground every winter. So we'll be building something to protect them this fall.

Looking from the firepit up to the house. Three smaller gardens...my flower/weed garden, the rhubarb and then the asparagus, hops and misc other annual crops. Right now it's corn and radishes.

Taken from inside Cambodia...Sean enjoying some quiet time on the yard swing with the apple trees in the background.

Oh the plans we have...if only the contraints of time and money could be lifted.

HELLLLOOOO World Wide Web!

2011-07-05T11:16:00.000-04:00

We've been without internet for a few days now. It's amazing how often we'd refer to something that needed the net. Go google this, look up the directions to that, see what time the other thing is happening. How did we manage to survive without all this information at our fingertips in seconds? What do people without computers do? My dad actually gets mad (since he's not a big internet user) at how presumptuous society is that everyone wants and has internet connections. Newspaper referring to their website for more details on a subject/article. News reporters that say a phone number or such to an organization they were promoting can be found on their website. I was amazed to find that my brother's phone book for the big city was purely yellow pages/business numbers. On the front cover there was a notation that residential numbers could be found at whitepages.com. So I guess you're out of luck if you don't have a computer or can go to the library.

OK...enough of that. I discovered we didn't have internet when I tried to get on here and talk about my Saturday. Drew and Allison came out and set up a tent to spend the night. I got to see Meghan for almost 24hrs!!! woohooo! The amazing thing is that I also had my camera in my possession, the battery was charged and I had an sd card...all at the same time, so I could take pictures!

Meghan went in the pool for the first time. Actually it was the first time she went in a body of water larger then the bathtub.

Hmmmm I think I like it.

Yeah, this is fun playing with my the kids.

I'm not so sure about doing this on my own momma.

Well, if you think I can do it...I'll try.

I guess this isn't so bad

You know, this is really fun!!!!

Just don't let Uncle Seanie splash me...EVER AGAIN!

Before Drew and Allison arrived I was taking pictures of all the greenness outside so I could show you Tom's awesome yard. It'll probably be the next post, later today. Right now I think I'm going to go finish painting the girls' bunk bed and rip out some carpeting.

Ahhh the glorious sound of nothingness

2011-07-02T01:45:00.000-04:00

As exhausted as I was earlier, my day wasn't done. After cuddling with the little ones for a bit I jumped into the shower and tried scrape the paint off of me. By the time I was getting out...Sean was crying that he wanted to get in. He had the whole tub to himself since Danielle didn't want to bother getting in. While I couldn't relax a bit with him in there alone, he had a blast stretching out as much as he could.

Carrie has gotten the fixing her room bug now. She started pestering me to help her start until I finally relented. Her ceiling is now painted (she's too short to do it, even with the broom handle added to the roller) and I "spackled" her wall. I use the quotation marks because it's really a redneck spackling job. I covered the holes with multiple layers of brown packing tape. I tried it on Olivia and Eileen's walls after we discovered a pretty decent size hole we'd missed behind some drawers. I went over it with some sand paper to take the gloss off and help that paint stick to it and taaadaa! A spot that looked like it had been spackled by an amateur, so it matched the holes with real spackle on it. lol

Now everyone is in bed and the house is quiet. As tired as I am, I need to unwind before heading to bed...so here I am...listening to the clock ticking and Carrie's kitten purring next to me. I meant to wish all my Canadian friends a Happy Canada Day in my last post but it slipped my mind. Sorry. Hope it was a festive day for everyone north of the border. I now have my battery charger for my camera...so hopefully there'll be some visual aids posted in the very near future. I'd thought to post some pictures from the past non posting months but that would require me to get on the kids' computer which I'm not willing to attempt right now. Ok...guess I unwound enough. My eyelids keep trying to stay shut.

Happy Saturday everyone!

It's WHAT day?

2011-07-01T20:04:00.000-04:00

Eileen and Olivia's room is now painted....2 coats. I just need to release and remove the painter's tape from the moulding and ceiling. Then we'll clean, organize and then mess it up again so we can lay the floor tiles.

When I finally came downstairs Tom was home. He asked me if I wanted to invite my parents out for tomorrow. I looked at him like he had 3 heads and asked WHY would we invite them out for Friday when you'll be working. He laughed at me and informed me that TODAY was actually Friday and he's now on vacaton. HUH!?! No it's not, it's Thursday. All along I've been planning on painting on Wed and Thurs, cleaning on Friday and having people over on Saturday. So it HAS to be Thursday. After finally accepting that it is indeed Friday I decided that there was no way I could get this place into liveable order, much less company order by tomorrow afternoon. I suggested we wait until next weekend when we can celebrate Tom's birthday. (the 11th), to which he agreed. YAY! I can now continue working around here, although I'm pretty stiff and slow moving at the moment. I'm afraid if I stop, I'll never finish any thing else. Especially when what I really want to do is go float around in the pool and relax. I'd probably drown if I tried to do it now, I'm so tired.

Although I'm bummed to have "lost" a day. I'm excited that Tom is now on vacation. He decided to take advantage of the long weekend and took the remainder of the week off. Not too shabby...using 4 days of vacation and getting 9 days in a row off. I'm sure most of it will be spent in the yard and garden but it's good to see him be able to relax for more then a few hours at a time.

As much as I'd love do nothing else but sit here and chat all night. I have to go pay attention to some little ones. Sean is acting up and made the comment earlier that he didn't get enough hugs today! Danielle strongly agreed. Can someone send the cleaning fairy....PLEEEEEEEASE!

You'd never know by looking at me

2011-06-30T19:31:00.000-04:00

I am stuck in the house for a while because...I'm a mess!!! I got to painting and it shows...all over me! The ceiling wasn't so bad to do and I was pretty neat about it thanks to a roller with a shield. It was the black enamel paint and the bunkbed that did me in! I couldn't start the girls' walls since they needed a skim coat of spackle first. So I decided to get their bunkbeds painted. With 2 half pints of semi-gloss black enamel paint from the dollar store and few sponge brushes I got to work. Knowing that the rug was going to be ripped out soon, I didn't worry about drips. What I forgot was that it might not be a good idea for ME to be wearing the drips. I am covered in the stuff! I ran out of paint, what I did do could use a second coat and I realized that the sponges weren't the best idea, I need a regular brush. So it looks like a trip to the dollar store is in my near future. After running out of enamel I decided to get some fresh air and try out another find from the dollar store.... Valspar spray paint for plastic. I grabbed a junk picked plastic lawn chair and attacked it with the can of royal blue paint. I did a pretty crappy job and used one can on one chair, but it's an improvement over what it looked like. Now to see if it's tacky after it dries or if it's going to flake off. I don't want to do the other chairs and then discover I don't like how it weathers.

I am so pooped out right now but I don't want to stop working. I'm afraid once I stop, I'll lose my gumption. I have to at least get up and make something for dinner. Think they'd mind if I just threw some cheerios into the center of the floor and said...go at it! Can't they see I'm too busy to eat, much less make THEM something to eat!?! I guess I'll be a good mom and cook some marinated chicken breasts and make a huge salad before all the produce I bought last week turns to mush.

Oops! Heavy eyelids won and I dozed off before hitting the publish buton! Now I really have to get up or it'll be breakfast time before I know it.

WHAT are you doing to me!?!

2011-06-30T01:18:00.004-04:00

2 posts in one day...when's the last time that happened here?

I had to run into the city with Liz for a bit, Jake and Luke here to watch the kids. (passed Tom coming home on our street) I ran my errands and as I was coming around the corner of our street I find Jake on the side of the road with Danielle and Sean. (about half a mile from the house) WHAT!?!?! It wasn't so unusual that they were going for a walk. It was the fact that they were all barefooted and the little ones, especially Danielle looked like slobs! Sean wasn't so bad since he was wearing his spiderman costume...luckily it was only in the 60s today. Danielle though...oh my goodness! She hadn't had her hair brushed all day, she had on a winter Dora pajama shirt, and not matching flannel pants. UGH!

I can say I could care less what the neighbors think of me. But deep down I kind of do. At the very least I don't want to give them "ammunition". I can just hear it now...SEE! I told you she couldn't take care of all those kids, no one can. Oh well, I'll just consider it a gift to them to help them feel better about their life and choices in it.

And now it's the next day since my laptop made Blogger crap out on me and wouldn't let me in. Seems my date setting was off on my end and it made blogger security certificate wrong and therefore off limits. (thank you google!) Olivia is driving me slightly crazy. She's relentlessly on me about starting to work on her room. I don't blame her, she's been hearing me talk about fixing it up for quite a few years. Besides our bedroom, it's the one room that hasn't had any improvements on, not even paint. Those new cans of Sour Apple Green paint are just mocking her on the kitchen floor. And to make her even more excited to get things going...I came home with 15 cases of self stick vinyl floor tiles....enough to do all 4 rooms in the addition. We're been dealing with a flea problem and to help get them under control I've thought of getting rid of the carpeting. Besides, the carpeting is really gross. The tiles are low end and are only a temporary fix, but they'll be a vast improvement over what's in there now. When the kids pointed out to Tom what I came home with his response was....have fun with that. So I guess I'm on my own in terms of the work. Good thing I have some big kids to help, I'm not a spring chicken anymore.

Well, I can't take Olivia's pestering for me to get moving...so off I go!

28 years

2011-06-29T11:58:00.001-04:00

It seems like it's been 28yrs since I've last posted here. I must have at least a dozen drafts on my dashboard. No actually yesterday Tom and I celebrated our 28th wedding anniversary! WOW! It's amazing to me to think that since I don't think I'm over 28 myself. lol

As life has been lately, yesterday was no different...busy, busy, busy. I was out the door by 10am, popped in for a minute here and there and wasn't back again until after 9pm. Luckily Tom and I still had a nice evening together. I just happen to get delivery of my new laptop....Happy Anniversary to me! So Tom and I locked ourselves in our room with some snacks and adult beverages and enjoyed a kid free evening. I can see this becoming a regular thing for us. After the little ones got it that we were serious about not letting them in, they were fine. Of course it helps that the older ones kept them entertained too.

My new laptop....I always have my eye out for a deal since Drew rightfully stole (my MIL's favorite way of saying someone used something and never returned it) mine way back when. My old one has since bit the dust big time so there's no returning it. Anyways, I came this >< close to buying one a few weeks ago....4gb of ram for $300 but I didn't have the guts to complete the sale. Tom and I talked about it and I've regretted the decision ever since. Then I came across an even better deal so grabbed it. I'm excited as I don't have to kick anyone off to do whatever I need to do (like post here!!!) Or fall asleep waiting for my turn at night. Not only that, I now have the extra incentive to do what I've been thinking of doing for a while....start taking some online college courses and working towards a degree. So after I've finished getting this machine in tiptop shape (which I'm doing while I'm writing here), I'm registering at the county's community college. Look out world...here I come.

Lots of exciting things are happening here. We're getting the house in order, I actually cleaned my room on Monday. *bows deeply* Last night we bought paint for a few bedrooms. As things tend to go though, while working on things like this, the rest of the house suffers and looks horrible.

This is the first full week of summer vacation. I'm a little off kilter since I've been staying in bed much later and feeling like a bunch of my day is wasted. But, I'm giving myself permission to do it this week since Carrie and Luke start summer school on the 5th and I'll need to be up early on those days. They both have to take one course and if things work out the way we're hoping....should be home by 10am...giving us most of the day to do things if we want. I've managed to gotten most of the doctor and dentist appointments taken care of before the end of school, so hopefully we won't have too many of them mucking up plans.

Now that I have my own machine which happens to have a card reader (desktop I usually used didn't have one), I'm hoping to take and share more pictures of things around here. All I need in the equation is my camera's battery charger and I'm pretty sure I know where that is.

Well, I might have better resources that enable me to be here, unfortunately tons of time isn't one of them. Right now I have a few kids clamoring for some attention, so I'll end this now and post before it ends up being another draft on my dashboard.

Where's my camera? Sean just came in here wearing only his underwear and a huge Darth Vader mask...talking about the dark side.

Did Jake wear my sneakers today?

2011-02-02T00:27:00.000-05:00

That's the question I was asking Danielle at 8:30 this morning. I went to take the dog out and saw his sneakers (only shoes he owns) sitting near the door. So it was a sensible assumption since I know I woke him up this morning for school (is out the door by 7:25). Then I see my sneaks sitting there and it hit me...I don't remember him going out the door! Go down the hall and there he is, still in bed! UGH!

So I took advantage of his laziness and took a nap while he watched the kids!!! I didn't get much sleep last night since Sean was hugging a bucket for most of it. Add that onto the 2nd day of a cold and I couldn't keep my eyes opened. Danielle did manage to crawl in and snuggle with me twice. Sean tried to get me to get up once or twice but I stayed hunkered down. It was too warm and cozy to move. (coming from someone who hates to waste time napping).

I was also awoken when Sean started yelling from the bathroom....HEY EVERYBODY!!! I'm going potty on the toilet!!!! Yep! He went in, took off his diaper, got on the toilet and went...all on his own. Of course this is the one day I was adamant we weren't working on potty training since he had the stomach bug that hit him on both ends. BUT he insisted on wearing undies (Danielle's!) and he has remained dry all day long on his own. No prompting, no cajoling, no bribes, no having to whisked by a big person. Just Sean. He even protested when I put a diaper on him in his sleep. Let's just hope this wasn't a one day thing. But I think it's not.

Everyone is excited that there may be a snow day tomorrow morning. I'm not as sure about that as I was earlier today. The forecast has changed tonight. Instead of 8-14+" they were predicting, the storm is tracking further north and they're predicting 4-8" with sleet and freezing rain. I was hoping we'd be lucky and they'd cancel school tonight and let us sleep in...but it hasn't happened. Hopefully they won't wait too long before doing it tomorrow morning. There's nothing more frustrating then to get up bright and early and get ready, only to find out 15mins before the buses leave the garage that there's no school.

So Michelle moved out this weekend. It's weird to not have a clue what days or hours she's working. Even after I stopped driving her I found myself watching the clock for her, checking to be sure she was up, etc. I haven't talked to her since she left which is also weird. Val has been busy working on the bedroom. She's taken the bunk bed down, stripped all the magazine pictures off the walls and undecorated. She's hoping we can get paint this weekend so she can put everything back how she wants to really soon. The disorder is driving her crazy. I told her after her room is down she has to help me with the little girl's room upstairs. I've been saying we're going to redo it for almost 2yrs now and it REALLY needs it.

I haven't gone anywhere but church and a quick trip to the town next to us to pick up Carrie since last Tuesday when I worked at the dome. It's nice to not have to and it certainly helps with not spending money (not that I have any to spend anyways). You'd think with me being home that things would get accomplished around here. Well they have a little bit, you just can't tell since whatever I did has come undone. I really need to start paying more attention to this place. Especially MY room which is the catchall for everything no one knows what to do with. The place is depressing to wake up in. I feel defeated even before my feet hit the floor. I was thinking if the kids are home it might be a good time to get in there and start working. Problem is, I know once I start, my allergies are going to go crazy. Can my cold get any worse? I'm already stuffed up. Where's the cleaning fairy when you really need her!?!

Oops...Sean is awake. I need to go take care of him. Hopefully we won't be seeing too much bucket use.

3 AM

2011-01-27T04:56:00.000-05:00

Oh I love it when the house is perfectly quiet (well except the loud humming of this computer). I just wish it didn't have to be 3am in order for me to experience it. What's the sense of going to bed early if my body will only let me have 5 or 6 hours of sleep and have me up at such an insane early hour? Unless it's to experience the perfect quiet of my house.

Seems we couldn't avoid getting hit with the sickness that's been going around. Carrie was throwing up all night Monday night and still isn't 100%. Danielle was burning up most of yesterday and just camped out in my lap with a bucket (but luckily hasn't had to use it yet). My stomach felt off last night and I couldn't get warm. Instead of jumping in a hot shower I decided to jump into bed...with my coat on. I went out like a light. But again, I'm up NOW!

So it's been a while since I've been here. A LOT has and is going on around here.

Drew, Allison and Meghan are settling in as the little family they are. Allison is doing the stay at home mom thing and watching her nephew 4 days a week. Meghan is a cutie pants and growing like a weed! I don't see her nearly enough but when I do...I just eat her up!!! I'm already chomping at the bit for when she can come spend the night here.

Pat and Alex were married on November 13th. Beautiful bride, handsome groom, lovely ceremony, fun reception. They are both working their fannies off at a state hospital. Pat's one year anniversary is coming up soon. That means he can apply to school for a nursing degree with the lovely benefit of work paying for it (if he continues working full-time). It's nice to see him find his niche finally.

Michelle took her road test on Tuesday and passed!!!! No more driving her around for me! It was weird for her to go out the door this morning without me. I'm sure it felt really good for her though. Then I realized...she went shopping without me!!! She stopped at Target on the way home from work and I wasn't there. I wondered if she enjoyed putting things in her cart without me seeing or commenting on it. There was a motivator for her to get her license now. She's moving out this weekend. She has almost all her stuff boxed up. They have the place as of today but most of the moving will happen on Saturday since everyone has to work. It's going to be so weird around here without her. She's our main fun maker. Allison is really stoked about her moving out since she's moving into the same apartment complex that Drew and Allison live in....just the building across the courtyard from them. I'm hoping now that I don't have to drive so much...I can drive over to Drew and Allison's more and see MEG!

Val graduated from Esthetics (skin care and make up) school in November. She's waiting to hear from a local spa about a job. (then I'll be driving HER until the weather improves and it's safe to be teaching a new driver). She was to take the written test for her Esthetics license on Tuesday....until we learned on Monday afternoon the test was actually administered on Monday afternoon!!! It's given once a month and on the same day across the state. So she now has to wait until Feb 28th to take it. Frustrating for someone who just wants to complete things and be official. (she has a 6 month temporary license, so she's allowed to work now)

Liz has on her traveling pants again. She's gone back to Norway to be a "mother's helper" for a family there. She left on Jan 6th and is set to return Mar 22nd, a week before her passport expires. She's taking care of a 3yo boy and a 1.5yo girl who are very cute. There is now talk of her starting at the local college in August.

Mr Luke.... he's a senior this year and I'm hoping he'll be graduating with everyone else. It looks like Civics class may put a kabash on that. Well I should say LUKE put a kabash on it with civics class. The boy is intelligent as all get out but sometimes I wonder about him. It's just lack of work!!! He's my most soft spoken, caring kid and doesn't ask for hardly anything. I really have no idea how to motivate him to actually pick up a pen and paper, short of literally sitting on him until he does it. We've even imposed a 2hr study time after school. From 3 - 5 you are to be working on your homework, reading or SOMETHING besides watching the idiot box or staring at a computer monitor. He keeps busy...just not doing what he should. After all...AWWWW he forgot it at school. Grrr! As much as I want to throw things at him. I also feel for him. After all, the kid is at an age/point where he's suppose to/expected to have his whole life figured out and plotted. I can see where that idea could shut him down....especially if he has NO clue what he wants to do. I'm glad I'm not almost 18 anymore.

Carrie's a freshman this year and she's struggling. Although I have to give her credit, she's trying a lot harder to succeed then she has the last few years. We're working with the educational specialist at 5C (Peds Hem-Onc Center) to try to find ways to make things easier on her. I think she's really just wishing these next 2 years would get over all ready so she could take the cosmetology courses at the occupational center during her junior and senior year.

Jacob is in 8th grade and is presently taking his gun safety course. Getting him one step closer into the "He-man Gun Toting Hunters Club"...RUN BAMBI RUN! :o) He's on the go a lot with plans almost every weekend.

Eileen officially became a youth at church this summer and is loving it! She's always ready to go and do, whatever the plans are. She's another one that tends to have plans almost every weekend. Of course she also loves to hang out with Olivia whenever the plans don't come to fruit.

Olivia is all about gymnastics. She's constantly doing splits, headstands, bridges, front walk overs and such. Which isn't easy in the dead of winter in Central NY...especially when a chunk of open floor space is a very hard commodity to come by. The girls even brought up a balance beam into their room before the snow started flying. It originally was a skateboarding rail but it works perfectly for gymnastics. Ah memories of when I was their age and going back and forth on my homemade wooden beam in the yard all summer. (I also skateboarded too but we didn't use rails way back then)

Danielle is too cute for words. She was just recently a flower girl in a friend's wedding last weekend. There's talk of going professional (after all she's filled the position twice in 3 months) lol. She thinks she's ready for Kindergarten and can't understand why she just can't go NOW! I don't want to think/talk about it yet! When not trying to talk me into letting her on the school bus she's plotting ways to get together with her cousin and bestfriend Charlotte.

Seany McSean Sean. The boy is still throwing me for a loop and keeping me on my toes. Right now it's potty training. He can do it and has stretches of time where I think he's got it down. Then we don't. I know he can do it, it's just a matter of him deciding and wanting to. Hopefully it'll be before he's ready for Kindergarten. ;o) His big thing right now is legos. It's nice to see them being put to use again, it's been a while. Now if he could just pick them up when he's done...our feet would really appreciate it.

Hmmm...it somehow got to be almost 5:00 now and Danielle is up. She thought she wet the bed but didn't...phew! She seems to be feeling a lot better so that's good. I intended to put pics up with this post but it'll have to wait. I'm going to take Danielle to bed and cuddle with her until she's back to sleep. Poor me! What a terrible job I have. ;o)

How the heck did that happen?

2010-08-19T16:10:00.000-04:00

And how did I go so long without realizing? The computer I've been using... Dell Optiplex 210 has been running like crap for the last month or so. It's so frustrating! I've been tempted to throw it out the window. It's made buying a new computer very tempting.

First it was constant virtual memory too low messages. Then all operations on it slowed to a snail's pace. I've been fiddling with it constantly ever since. I've defragged it, ran msconfig and turned off everything I possibly could. I deleted microsoft essentials security because I read that it could bog things down and installed another security system that was supposedly faster...still no change (but lots of tweaking of the new firewall though). Then it hit me...the memory!

I wondered if something was up with the RAM. I have 1g of RAM so there shouldn't be a problem. Imagine my shock when I looked at the system's info and see it listing my RAM as 258mb. HUH?!? How could I possibly be working with that amount? My first thought was to order new memory but then I decided to see if it was something I could fix internally (stick not in the slot right, slot dirty, etc). So I crack open the case, take out the stick, clear the slot of dust and go to reinstall the stick. But wait! I need to know the speed and whatnot so I can order the new sticks of memory. Then I see it.... 258mb listed on the memory stick's sticker. NO WAY! Someone stole/replaced my 1g memory card!?! Who would do that? Why would they do that?

I ran down to the library and take the 512mg memory card out of Michelle's emachine that she's no longer using. Installed it so there is now 760mb of RAM and taaadaaaa! Computer running like new again! YAY!!!

On the way home from driving Michelle to work I was stuck in some traffic and got to thinking....really, who would have taken my memory. It's not like memory is expensive or rare. So I decided to look up the system I have and sure enough it's listed as being sold with only 258mb of RAM. HOW did I manage to not get bogged down before this? All those times that Drew kept telling me I needed more memory and I told him...I have 1gig, it's working fine, no I don't. Guess I have to give kudos to the motherboard.

Hmmmmm I'm not sure what's happening outside but Sean just came in yelling behind him...YOU SUCK! Oh such lovely kids. And the joy of having older ones to teach the younger ones all the wonderful language they do. But hey, I have it easier because I have older kids *dripping in sarcasm*. At least according to someone I know. I always wonder if she's eating her words now that her kids are older. Give me a bunch of little ones anyday! I LOVE my older kids to pieces but things were so much simpler/easier when they didn't have a life of their own. lol

Last Saturday I got my Meghan fix in!!!! Drew and Allison came by in the evening. I told them...I'll babysit so you can go out to the fire and they took me up on the offer. She fussed and cried but she's still adorable. Sean was ecstatic to get to hold her since he couldn't the week before due to his cold.

Olivia was all over it too....following me around, begging me to let her hold her. She's growing like a weed! She's gained back a pound in the week since her first doctor's visit....so obviously nursing is going well. Can I be greedy and wish I could see her everyday?

My sister's youngest, Emily is here for a few days. I exchanged her for Carrie who is now done with summer school so is free to socialize. Emily brought her kids' recipe books and Tracy bought her ingredients to bring. We're being treated to lots of treats. This morning they made fruit kabobs with yogurt dip. This afternoon it was pasta salad and cooling down now are chocolate chip cookie bars. YUM! I have to make dinner early since I'll be leaving for a meeting at 6. It's getting to be that time of year again....college sports events and working at the dome. We're running a concession stand for the football season....Go Syracuse! The better they do, the bigger the crowds, the more we sell, the more we earn.

This week has been a little rough. So far we've had...Tom hurting his back pretty bad on Sunday (he's moving around a lot better today). Carrie pouring huge hot cup of tea on her lap (luckily no major burns). Me with a major headache that's on it's second day but no where near like it was yesterday. So to say that I'm excited that Tom is on vacation as of Friday night is an understatement. We want to do a bunch of day trips but not sure where and when. I'm just glad he gets to take some time off and relax for a few days.

Well, dinner isn't making itself and I don't hear the dinner fairy knocking on the door (she's probably out partying with the dishes fairy who's been MIA for a while). So I guess it's up to me to feed this group which requires me to get my bottom out of this chair! BOOOOO!

Hot and humid again

2010-08-09T13:28:00.000-04:00

It's that time of the year again....one where I start looking around and seeing all the things that need to be done around here...painting, new cabinets, floors, etc. It can get downright depressing if I let it. Right now my main thing is our sectional. Drew got it off the side of the road and at the time...it wasn't bad. Yeah the feet of the recliners were hard to use and didn't go down easily. But what we had before that made this one look brand new. Now the recliner feet are permanently stuck out, the front panel keeps falling off the non recliner/sleeper section and with the muggy air...it smells a bit sour. I saw a sectional at Big Lots that I liked and would be perfect in here. The pieces were $250 each. I could buy one with cash and the other...well I would have to use plastic. Tom's thing lately has been to get everything paid off and he just can't agree to me using a card. I understand. BUT it would look SO much better in here!!!! We'd have more room and more sitting area. It would be easier to clean in here, etc, etc. It's enough to make me want to throw a pity party for myself...but I won't. In the grand scheme of things, this is nothing. Especially compared to what others are dealing with on a daily basis.

With my mind a whirl of plans, you'd think my body would jump on the bandwagon and decide it needed to get things done around here. But NOOOO! It's sitting in the corner like a bag of bricks, daring my brain...just try and make me get up and go. I feel a billion years old at times. Will someone please send me my 20something self that used to whip through the housework with nary a creak nor groan. I could really use her right now.

I am down to a few kids right now. Jake, Eileen and Olivia went home with my sister and Emily. Why Jake went, we have no clue. I think he just wanted something new to do. I realized at 4am though that it meant there was no one here in the morning when I had to drive the kids to school and Michelle to work. So Danielle and Sean had to go out the door with us at 6:45. Poor things. I scare myself when I do that...not think through things and then get slammed with a huge...OH NO!!

Allison and Meghan were here on Saturday so I got my grandbaby fix in. (Drew came later, he had band practice...they have a decent paying gig soon! wooohoo!) I was more then happy enough to hold Meghan while Allison had some dinner. Then I felt like a traitor asking for a volunteer to take her after everyone else was done eating and I was sitting there starving. Of course everyone jumped at the chance to take her for me. Danielle and Sean weren't very happy campers though. They weren't allowed near Meghan all day. They started with an occasional clear running nose on Friday night and it turned into colds with a cough by midday Saturday. I just hope Meghan doesn't come down with it.

This is the last week of summer school! Woohoo! Carrie is done on Thursday. Luke is done next Monday. His finals are done by Friday so he'll be skipping on Monday. Tom is on call this week. It's a little less bothersome now that Michelle is working new hours. I can't rely on him doing any driving anyways. He's hoping for tons of rain this week so he can get some overtime in. lol I'm pretty sure he won't be getting it. The exciting thing is that once his oncall week is over...he's on vacation until after Labor Day!

The not exciting thing is that means that Labor Day is almost here and summer vacation is almost over. I have nothing ready for them to go back to school yet. Normally I've been in Walmart a few times a week and picked up a bunch of stuff....not this year. Can we just skip it this year? I didn't think so. For the first time in 21 years I will not have anyone in elementary school or riding the 2nd trip bus. It is so weird to think that once 7:30 hits, everyone that is suppose to be out the door, should be out the door. It also means there's going to have to be some major organization if they're going to do it successfully. But that's a thought for another day. Anyways, I have to go out the door soon to pick up school kids. So enough rambling for now.

I forgot to post this picture

2010-08-07T10:09:00.000-04:00

During the summer conference I was either too busy or forgot that I had my camera...except once. It was during children's day and Liz had taken Sean to get his face painted.

I'm not sure how I missed this the other day but I did. A precious Meghan watching Daddy sleep picture. :o)

The kids were playing with my camera while waiting for me to get in the van.

It's a much nicer day today...My feet are finally back to normal and my headache is barely there. It's less humid and a reasonable temperature. While I managed to get some things done. I didn't do nearly what I'd hoped to do. Most of the day was spent trying to clean up this computer so it ran a little faster then a snail. Funny how much time I can waste on the machines that are suppose to make life easier and save us time.

I'm looking forward to this weekend. There's not much planned. Michelle needs to go to work at 7am. I'll drive her in and then do a bit of grocery shopping. I need to get some things for Jake's birthday. His choice for dinner....steak, pasta salad and salt potatoes.

Hmmm I guess I need to get up and take Sean to bed

And again with the not publishing like I thought I did!

Good Morning! Jake is now 14yo! Where does the time go? Seems like it was just yesterday that I was coming home from the hospital and heading the summer conference. Michelle is now at work and I've run to the store for a few things. I have more to get but none of the stores I needed to run to were open yet. I even ran through the drive thru at dunkin donuts and got coffee for Tom and I. When I walked in the door it was barely 8am and no one was awake yet. Right now it's just me, Tom, Sean and Danielle up. I'm about ready to go and get everyone else up! There are things to do.

Jake had mentioned having strawberry shortcake for his birthday and then changed it to regular cake. While shopping I decided we could have the shortcake for breakfast....now it's waiting for the sleepyheads. When I walked in the door this morning it stunk in here. I went into the kitchen and found one of the burners opened a quarter of the way!! YIKES! I'm not sure how long it'd been on but thankfully windows were open and nothing happened.

I'm really needing a Meghan fix!! I haven't seen her since they brought her to church the other day. I was hoping they'd come here today for Jake's birthday but Drew didn't answer his phone nor did he call me back last night. Hopefully I can get a hold of him in a little while. I hate calling someone with a new baby...what if they're sleeping!?! Hopefully Allison remembers to turn off her phone when she takes a nap.

Ok...the phone is ringing and the little ones are trying to use me as a jungle gym. Time to get out of my chair.

Pictures from Saturday

2010-08-05T11:40:00.000-04:00

I'd left my camera at the hospital when I was visiting Drew, Allison and Meghan on Thursday. I got it back on Saturday when we met up at my parents. I found some coming home pictures on it.

Drew being a goof with Meghan in her going home outfit

Carrie holding Meghan with Danielle chomping at the bit to get her turn. She was so patient, especially when my sister took her from Carrie after Danielle had been told it was her turn next.

Finally getting her turn

Sean had fallen asleep in the car on the way into my parents' and was out cold. So I told everyone to let him sleep until he woke up or everyone had had a chance to hold Meghan. As soon as he woke up everyone was in his face about getting to see and hold the baby.

After seeing her he made it a point to tell people she was this big (holding his cupped hands inches apart). At one point he also mentioned...but she's heavy.

Drew and Allison came out to church on Sunday to show off Meghan and let his aunts get their baby fixes in. They stayed for a good bit of time and had dinner at the grill (my treat). I had them buy a rib dinner to bring home for Tom which he said was DELICIOUS! Jake got his nose out of joint that I wouldn't let him hold the baby. I knew he'd been out in the woods setting up for an endurance competition. He hadn't showered or changed his clothes so I didn't want to risk the baby getting poison ivy...which Jake now has.

The conference was an exhausting whirl of fun. I could barely walk Monday night but suddenly was full of energy to walk the grounds when it seemed that Sean was missing. He wasn't, Liz had him at the beach volleyball finals, I just didn't know it. But by then (at least 20 mins of searching) I was an exhausted emotional mess. Fighting tears I took Sean and Danielle home early and promptly fell asleep with them on the couch. I woke up to the phone ringing and my heart jumping out of my chest. I thought it was 2am and I'd forgotten the kids. It was 11:30 and they were looking for a ride home early...they were also exhausted, Carrie had school the next day and Jake had a headache (he eventually ended up with the fever, muscle ache illness that's been going around here since the end of JUNE...one or two at a time...5 to 7 days between cases...ugh!)

Tuesday was children's day...the funnest of all fun days!!! There were bouncy houses, cotton candy, tons of activities. I helped Della do her famous cookie decorating station. The little ones love it, the moms probably not so much. Especially this year since Della found red and blue frosting for the kids to wear...I mean spread. lol I was tired Tuesday night that in my sleep I started nursing Sean! We'd fallen asleep on the couch again and when he started crying I lifted my shirt and let him go at it. He probably thought he hit the jackpot until a minute later I realized what I was doing and stopped him. Then he was just totally ticked off. Poor guy.

Yesterday was a total "waste" of a day, but every once in a while you have to have one of those. I was out the door early to take Michelle to work and the kids to school. I promptly fell back to sleep after getting home and slept on and off for a couple of hours. I'm not really sure what I did between 11ish and 1:30...pretty much sitting around being lazy and melting in the heat and humidity. Then it was back out the door to get the kids I'd dropped off in the morning. By the time I got home I was exhausted again and with a major caffeine headache. I forgot/was too lazy to get myself a cup all day and was paying for it. I asked Eileen to make me cup and get me some ibuprofen and then jumped into bed. After chugging the coffee I slept for most of the afternoon. My head still hurt but not as bad...again not doing much of anything for the rest of the night.

This morning I still have remnants of the headache and an irritated eye. It started itching last night and now the white of my eye is swollen and red. I'm pretty sure it's allergy related. Please don't let it be pink eye! Since I'm not sure which it is, I'll have to keep my distance from Meghan :o(.

It is another hot and humid day. I don't want to do anything but this place is falling apart since I have hardly been here in almost 2 weeks. Not to mention that Emily, my sister's youngest, is coming today and staying until Sunday night. This makes it hard to get the girls to help around here. Plus I want to have some fun with them...although I'm not sure what we'll do. Oh yeah! Saturday is Jake's birthday...he's turning 14! We should probably do something for that, but again not sure what. I should probably get off my tukus now. Where's that dynamite?

Allllll done

2010-08-05T09:40:00.000-04:00

Hmmm...wrote this Sunday morning. Thought I posted it before running out the door but guess I never did. So here it is now.

Sean isn't nursing anymore. It's official...my nursing days are absolutely done. :o( Sean isn't liking this new chapter yet. He's still trying to get me to nurse him whenever he goes to bed or first wakes up. He scooches down and tries to lift up my shirt. When I hold it down so he can't lift it, he usually insists... "OPEN IT!" The first morning he was crying after I refused to let him nurse. I told him it was ok to which he responded...NO! It's NOT OK! After shopping on Friday he told me he was tired (his cue to me that he wants to lay down and nurse). We went to lay on the bed and he says...I two now, not free. He wasn't happy when I told him, "I don't care how old you are...you're not nursing anymore".

I really didn't want to wean him around his birthday. (didn't want him to think turning 3 stunk). But I couldn't give up the opportunity that presented itself....3 days of no nursing and he survived! All along I've been saying... all I need to wean him is to go on an extended vacation. It wasn't the vacation I had in mind but it works.

So the phone rang at 8am this morning. I looked at the caller ID to see what insane person was calling so early and see it's Drew. My heart dropped into my stomach, immediately thinking the worst. He was calling to let me know that Meghan is NURSING! It's her favorite thing to do now. WOOOOHOOOO! He told me he really wanted to call me in the middle of the night to tell me but didn't....thanks Drew!

I'm already sucking at the Grandma gig. Seems I've been spelling Meghan's name wrong. Allison said...Megan with an "h" and I just assumed she meant Meaghan. I tried to fix it around here but if I missed something....sorry sweetie!

Yesterday was very busy and fun. I was up at 6am and started working like a madman. I did 5 loads of laundry (kind of day where I get jealous of the express wash cycle on Della's frontloader), cooked bacon, teryaki chicken, taco meat and shredded the pulled pork that had cooked in the crockpot all night....dinners for the conference are now done. We were out the door by noon and got to my mom's by 1. Drew, Allison and Meghan were right behind us. The kids got to love on that cutie for 2 hours before we had to leave. My sister and two of her girls came by to get their baby fix in too. I made a salad and my dad grilled the kielbasa and burgers I brought for lunch. We were back on the road by 3:30. Luke had to work at the grill at 4:15...he was right on time. I left, gathered things together and was back at the summer conference an hour later...Sean, Danielle and I stayed there until 11pm. Then I ran back and picked up Carrie, Eileen and Olivia at 12:30. Now were due to be back there at 10.

Back up to the hospital

2010-07-30T11:13:00.000-04:00

Thursday night...

I dropped Michelle off for her last day of work at her old store. She starts Monday at the new store and has a very interesting schedule. She starts work at 6am...that means we have to leave here by 5:20!!! The rest of the week she goes to work at 7 or 7:30. This is causing a slight problem, as that's when the school kids have to be at school (7am). So it looks like they'll be getting to school a little early one day and a whole lot another....sucks to be a summer school student. I could make them ride their bike but they'd have to leave at the same time anyways...so they may as well get a ride. Besides, I'm not even sure if we have decent bikes for them to ride.

After I dropped Michelle off I went to the hospital to see the kids. Meghan looks a lot smaller today then she did yesterday. I guess Drew mentioned the same thing this morning. She's giving Allison a hard time with nursing. She's not latching on or nursing well at all. Hopefully tomorrow she'll be better about it. She's looking a bit jaundice to me already so I hope she cooperates and starts mega nursing.

And now it's Friday morning...

So now it's time to get things going for this weekend. With things the way they are, it looks like I'll have to be more organized then ever. And now I have less time then ever to get it done. Our original plan was for us to camp out there...starting tonight, but I finally made a decision and said we'd commute. Seeing as the tent is in a broken down mess in the backyard (every time it rains it collapses!) and how this week has gone...I think I made the right decision. I told the little kids that we'll have to start a summer conference fund and collect money for it throughout the year, and hopefully I won't have any other commitments to get in the way by then.

My plans to hang out over there all day Saturday even though things don't start until that evening have changed. Allison should be discharged on Saturday. Since most of my kids haven't been able to visit them in the hospital, thanks to a really strict visitor's policy, we're going to try to let them get a chance on Saturday (otherwise it'll be Wed before they can see Meghan for the first time). Problem is, I have a time constraint...youth meeting starts at 8 Oh and I haven't told my parents we were planning on using their house as the meeting place. lol I figured they had more space then Drew's and Allison's apartment and it would allow Drew and Allison to just leave when they'd had enough...no kicking anyone out needed.

First on the list is making a list of what we'll need for meals and whatnot...which I'll do as soon as I finish up here. Then it's buying the ice cream for the grill. I'll be running out in an hour or so to get it and bring it directly to the big freezer at church. Oh yeah! I have to clean the little freezer that we'll be stocking when the grill is open...it was turned off and closed for a while and is a little mildewy. Then back home to get the kids ready. They've been stuck home for long enough...I'll take them with me to finish up grocery shopping. Then it's back home to prepare and package up the food.

It's now well past when I wanted to leave. Everyone's ready to go out the door, so time to put this puppy to bed.

Here she is!

2010-07-29T13:46:00.001-04:00

Drew sent this picture to Michelle this morning. Not exactly sure when it was taken.

Happy Family Before (7/26)

Happy Family After (7/28)

Drew getting ready to go into the OR

Video I took for the kids at home. I was trying to capture her crying so Sean could see it. Unfortunately I ran out of memory just as she started crying. Why did I have so little memory left? Because I forgot to take my memory card out of the card slot and put it in my camera!!! So I only had internal memory available. Ironically I did this just after yelling at the kids for using my camera since they almost killed the battery I'd just charged and left the memory card in the computer.

Ignore the voices in the back talking about a baby....they were talking about a different baby, not Meghan.

SORRY!

2010-07-29T08:41:00.001-04:00

I didn't mean to bail on everyone. My cell was on the verge of dying so usage was limited. I left the hospital and reality took over. I was exhausted, left the hospital and went to my mom's where I took a nap and had a bite to eat. Then went home where the clamoring kids, dinner and then bed took over.

My granddaughter is BEAUTIFUL!!!!! I'm dying to be able to love on her more then a few minutes in a much more relaxed atmosphere. I have some pictures and even a video to show but I need to get Drew's permission before sharing it. He hasn't announced any details online yet (he never thought to bring the laptop). I don't want to step on his toes...he should be the one shouting it to the hills for all to hear. (but you guys here are a little different)

Anyways, baby and mom are fine. Allison looked like a totally different person in recovery. She was EXTREMELY exhausted and a bit upset last I saw her (before the birth). She did NOT want a c-section! I'm pretty sure it's because she would love to have a large family (they've mentioned 8 kids before) and she's worried a section would mess up those plans. Plus who's ever happy to have major surgery?

Baby's stats are....

Meghan Louise
7lbs 8oz
21 inches
Time...approx 1:45 (Drew didn't pay too much attention to the time)

The funny this is, I KNEW the baby's name. I didn't know it before she was born. They were keeping it a secret and had one of two names that they were trying to decide between (that they didn't share with me ahead of time). If you'd asked me what I thought they were going to name her before I held her, I'd have said Chloe. With her in my arms I asked...What's her name? Drew told me to guess. I looked at her and then at Drew and said...Megan (how it was spelled in my head). You could've knocked me over with a feather when he said I was right!

The kids and Tom did a pool...guessing the birthdate, time, weight, length and name. Olivia was the only one to guess it would be the 28th (which also happens to be the anniversary of my MIL's passing....4yrs). Sean got the time right with a guess of 1:41 (don't ask me how he said that, but that's what's on the chart). Tom was the winner in the weight department with a guess of 7lbs 14 oz. Eileen said 21 inches and Jake actually got the name right!

I'm going to call Drew in about half an hour and see if it's ok to share my pictures. So hopefully I'll be back really soon with Miss Meghan.

2010-07-28T13:08:00.001-04:00

No progress at all. She's heading in for a c-section. And she's not happy. Baby should be here in about an hour.

2010-07-28T06:26:00.001-04:00

Another morning. No baby, no sleep. Next step pit drip after breakfast.

2010-07-27T23:51:00.001-04:00

Still in early labor. Contrax have changed. Hoping she can get in a nap but not looking like it'll happen.

2010-07-27T08:10:00.001-04:00

Good morning. No baby yet. Lots of little contrax though. Pit should be started after breakfast.

2010-07-26T12:49:00.001-04:00

Forgot i could post here by Phone. Testing it out.

So whatcha doing today?

2010-07-26T09:52:00.000-04:00

Me? Well I'm going on a wonderful adventure with my son and his wife...we're going to go have a baby! Or at least attempt to have one, hopefully the baby decides it's a good time to make an appearance. Tom is taking a half day today so he can pick up the kids from school and take Michelle to work (her last week at her old job). I'm going to pickup Allison and take her to her 3:00 doctor's appointment. If everything continues as planned we're scheduled to be at the hospital at 6 to start an induction. Drew is working all day and will meet us at the hospital when he gets out.

I'm figuring we're in for a loooong night/day tomorrow...but with babies, you never know. It's weird to be on this end of the trip. Usually I've packed and planned and fretted for weeks. This time I'm sitting her fairly calm, thinking I should probably bring some snacks or a book and knowing my kids are taken care of (Tom's taking all day tomorrow off). Right now it feels like any ordinary day. Not a life changing one. EEEE! I can't wait!

This weekend was nice, even if it was wet since we had a lot of thunderstorms. Since the early morning hours on Friday I was waking up...wondering what time it was. Then I'd remind myself that the kids didn't have summer school and Michelle didn't have work. After the 4th time I finally convinced myself that I didn't have to go anywhere. When I marveled that I'd have 2 whole days that I could stay home and not go anywhere I remembered....I had to be at Val's school at 1:30 so she could practice her leg waxing skills on me! UGH! Michelle watched Sean and Danielle at Kmart while I went in and had my legs done...a little stingy but not too bad...took over an hour though. Then I took the kids and Michelle went in and had her arms and eyebrows done. I took the kids to my parents' house since it was across the street. I spent most of the night visiting and working on my parents' computer...getting home about 11. So much for staying home.

Saturday was really hot and muggy but that was ok because it was....Seanie's Birthday!!!! My little man is, as he describes it, FREE! now.

All the kids dropped by throughout the day. That meant Sean got lots of little presents all day...perfect for a 3yo! I had gotten a chocolate cake a few days earlier which Sean seemed to enjoy (we usually don't do chocolate).

The 3 younger girls ended up leaving so it was only Tom, Sean and myself. It was fun to be able to give him our full attention for a while.

Eventually Allison and Drew came by and hung out with us until it was time for Sean to go to bed.

For the last week or so I've been heard saying...Someone needs to give this stinky dog a bath. With the Sunday meeting being canceled at church, someone finally decided to actually do it. That someone was ME! (who else did you expect?) He HATES getting a bath and it's always a ton of fun to do it. Luckily he loves being brushed. I brushed him for hours and he looks so nice right now! Michelle worked early Sunday so we had time to go to Aldi's after she got out (it's usually closed by the time she's out of work). I spent over $150 there which is a LOT of food. I stocked up on some canned goods...kidney beans, pork and beans, green beans, peas, corn, spinach, tuna and tomato soup. With Tom not putting a garden in this year, it's nice to have a small supply of veggies readily available. Although I'm missing eating tomato sandwiches until they're coming out of my ears.

Well, I should do something else besides laundry and pack before I leave for Allison and Drew's. I'll leave you with a funny video we took of Sean in June. He's driving the kiddie bumper cars at Darien Lake. As far as he's concerned he was doing well and having a blast!

Next time I post here...I should be a GRANDMA!!! (and hopefully have lots of pictures to share).

Driving lessons

2010-07-20T14:15:00.001-04:00

Michelle is finally doing it. She's trying hard to overcome her anxiety about driving. Her friend Sarah gave her permission to use her car to practice driving with. Our car is a standard so it's a bit too much for Michelle to learn all at once. She's driven the van but it's a beast and pretty touchy in the steering and brake department.

We went out this morning and she did pretty good! She drove the back roads to the school and she puttered around the school parking lot a bit. I had her pulling into parking spaces so she could get used to judging the turning radius and spacing around the car.....not too shabby. We practiced turning corners. It's an area she needs to practice and I told her it's totally an experience type of learning thing. She drove on some back roads again, practicing right hand turns. Then she ventured onto a few main roads because the car needed some gas. She did really well with keeping the car within the lines. Pulling up to the pump she gave it a bit of spacing but she did it...that's all that matters.

Then we drove the main roads again, went in a bunch of circles (or squares as she called them) practicing turning corners without stopping or flying around them too fast. Then back home. Total road time....over 1.5hrs. She's actually going to attempt to drive to work today! We'll have to leave half an hour earlier since she can be a bit slow at times. Hope everyone on the roads is patient with her.

Val came out last night. She didn't have classes today so spent the night at Brittany's house. She needs some hours doing waxing so she's talked me into being her "client" and get my legs waxed. (Michelle and Brittany are doing it also) On Fridays it's Family and Friends' day which means discounted rates for their services. Since the girls are still new, it's discounted greatly to the awesome price of free. So I'm letting things grow and looking a little rough around the edges right now. lol

PHEW! I almost forgot the school kids! I heated up a cup of coffee. As I was pouring in my milk the clock caught my eye...Oh rats! Time to get the kids! So now they're home and I have a lukewarm cup of coffee I can drink for the next 45mins until we need to leave.

Hmmm Sean just came in out of the pool in a fit of tears. He's gone and jumped into bed with the door closed....I should probably see what's what and get him out of his suit before he decides to pee where ever he's standing/laying.

Week in review

2010-07-19T13:04:00.000-04:00

So where does the time go?

Saturday... Tom was on call for the second week in a row. He had someone relieve him for the evening. He was expecting a couple people over for his birthday but the plans fell through. So we spent a quiet evening out back around a fire, roasting hotdogs.

Sunday was his acutal birthday. He was back on call but it was a quiet day workwise. Being on call though meant I was still stuck driving Michelle and picking her up. Yay me! Otherwise we just hung out, went swimming and had his birthday cake.

Tom had taken Monday off but it wasn't for lounging around. He had to renew his license and run a few errands. It was also Carrie's first day of summer school (Luke's 2nd week) and Michelle had work.

Tuesday my sister brought her youngest, Emily, out to stay for the week. That meant lots of swimming and giggling around here. She kept the kids busy. :o)

Wednesday was running around day. Michelle had her interview at 10:30. All the kids at home (Luke and Carrie were in school) went along.

It was next to the mall so we decided to walk around there. She'd walk over and meet up with us when she was done. I hadn't even gotten into a parking spot when she called me. The lady she was doing the interview wasn't due in until 12:30!! So we had 2 hours to kill. I hit a few stores...bought Luke a white shirt he needed to wear when serving at the wedding, found some $2.99 shirts for Danielle and Sean, a few things that were desperately needed at the video game store. (they really were...I swear! One of them is part of Jake's birthday present) We had lunch and then back to the store for Michelle's interview. This time we decided to walk around the store while she was in there. It was a quick interview. I didn't get far and totally forgot what I went in there for until we were headed out the door. So I ran back in while they waited at some tables. It was REALLY hot out and there was no way I was driving any further without drinks for everyone. Besides, our fast food lunch had left us thirsty (stupid salt!)

Thursday was another day of running around....
Kids to summer school, drop Olivia, Eileen and Emily off with Della at her camper and visit for about 30 minutes, picked up the kids from school, got Sean down for a nap and then Michelle to work...picked up a few things there. Back to Della's camper to visit again, quick dinner and swim for about 45mins. Then sang Happy Birthday to Eileen, cupcakes and oreos with milk. We had to be home by 7 because Eileen was having her best friend Mady over for the night. We got home right after Mady was dropped off. Then I was back out the door to pick up Michelle.

Friday...Michelle was off from work and there was no summer school. Unfortunately it didn't mean I could stay home. We had plans, tons and tons of them! First off it was Eileen's 12th birthday!!!!

She's a youth in our church now! A very exciting time for a young girl. So we HAD to have fun. I felt bad for my niece Emily. She knew all the plans we'd made but my sister came and picked her up before we left for the day. (they were going camping for the weekend) First on the agenda was to pick up Liz so she could go on our adventure too. Then it was a trip to the airport to drop off Michelle's friend Sarah. She's been living here since the end of June. She's headed to England for 2 weeks. Then she's home again and applying for an expedited visa to move to England.

Michelle and Sarah

Olivia, Mady, Eileen, Liz, Danielle, Carrie and Sean

While Michelle and Sarah relaxed in the lounge for a while, I took the kids to the kids' area of the airport. They have a small playground, a cockpit to explore, mockup of the control tower and lots of interactive displays. (somehow I lost a bunch of pictures from this time)

Sean and Danielle flying a helicopter

After Sarah was through security we headed out to lunch. We went to a Chinese buffet place my parents' rave about. We weren't disappointed! Sean ate so much that at one point he leaned back in the highchair, threw his head back and exclaimed...my tummy hurts! I tried to take the piece of watermelon covered in whip cream out of his hands while I told him to take a break. He wouldn't let it go...NO! It's yummy!!! And he kept on eating. I was half expecting him to barf at any second.

Can't have Chinese without orange peel smiles

Danielle tried to hide her messy face but Liz wouldn't allow it. lol

We then headed to my parents' house. We brought along hamburgers, hotdogs and cake to have an "official" celebration for Eileen. Patrick and Tom ended up showing up after they got out of work. I took Eileen and Mady to Mady's camp. Her family was celebrating her birthday the next day and Eileen was spending the night...it's now gone into the weekend. I'm due to pick her up in a few minutes.

Saturday Pat and Alex came over and we talked wedding. I had to be at church at 6. We had a meeting for the food servers for Sunday's wedding. After the meeting I could smell yummy smells coming from the church kitchen so I decided to be funny and let them know they were making me hungry. That led to me working with them! lol It was fun and I was glad I could help. When I got home Pat, Alex and Michelle were heading out the door to the drive-in. As I was cooking dinner, Drew and Allison stopped in. I just wanted to rub Allison's belly all night but I contained myself. :o)

Sunday was the wedding. The original plan was that I'd get to church at 11, work in the kitchen until it was time to change and get ready to serve at 1. There weren't as many guests as they'd planned for so I opted out of my serving duties and stayed in the kitchen where I'm much more comfy. It was fun and I was home shortly after 5. I immediately changed my clothes and jumped in the pool! AAAAAHHHHHH! Jake told me that worked called Michelle and she got the new position!!! WOOHOOO! Congrats Michelle! I guess she'll be starting once they find a replacement for her at her current store...figuring a week or two. We had leftovers from the wedding for dinner...no cooking for me.

Now it's Monday again. Kids are at school, I need to pick up Eileen now and then the kids at school in an hour and a half later. I don't need to take Michelle to work though...only pick her up! The girls are waiting for my sister to call since there's a rumor that they may be staying at her house for a few days. Sean is looking forward to this weekend when it's his turn for a birthday. I'm waiting for a phone call from Drew telling me Allison's in labor and it's time for me to head up to the hospital.

Try, try and try again

2010-07-15T10:32:00.000-04:00

I've been trying to get an update on here for weeks. Life has been pretty busy and then we were down to one computer...and it wasn't "mine". That meant online time was to a minimum. Actually I haven't minded for some reason, my motivation to be online socially has diminished greatly. It's a good thing in a sense because I've been paying more attention to things around here. Of course at the moment you wouldn't know it by looking at my living room and kitchen, but we can see it. I've already told the kids they are hitting those rooms before swimming this morning. It's going to be HOT today so it's best to get it done early.

Allison will be having her baby in the next few weeks, I CAN'T WAIT!!! It's made the transition from Sean being a baby to a big boy a lot easier. From some comments he's made, I think even Tom is dealing with some feelings on being absolutely done. Although we have been talking about him retiring a lot lately, which is also exciting.

Val moved out on Monday. She's going to school to learn Aesthetics (skin care and makeup). The school is practically across the street from my parents' house so she's staying there for the next 16wks. She's one of 2 students and the teacher is pretty young. I'm hoping it turns out to be what she expects and needs.

Michelle had an interview at the same store she works at but in a different location. It's a full time job and most likely she'll get the job, she should be hearing tomorrow. The neat thing is she was going to ask for a transfer to that store at the end of summer. She's planning on moving out and into that area then.

Liz is gone for the month. She's working over at our church conference center. Mostly she's working in the kitchen, feeding the other workers. She's also doing general maintenance...painting, grounds work, etc.

Luke and Carrie are doing the summer school routine again. We're working with the peds oncology KNOT (Kids now off therapy) clinic to help Carrie be successful in school. They already have some good things started, hopefully it'll be what she needs.

We're working with Sean to WANT to be in undies. He uses the toilet a few times a day. Unfortunately he has no desire to do it ALL the time and wear undies.

The rest of the kids are enjoying their summer vacation....swimming, bonfires, bike riding and being lazy. And now I'm publishing this before it sits in never neverland like all the other attempts.

Random morning things

2010-05-24T12:46:00.000-04:00

Danielle had fallen asleep on the couch last night so we left her there. I had to find my camera and call everyone into the room to see this this morning....

Sleeping Beauty...yes she is truly sleeping, not just blinking. She stayed in this position for some time. You have to wonder what her dreams are made of.

School beauty....Olivia did NOT want to go to school this morning. She hemmed and hawed and dragged her feet. It killed me to "make" her go but she did....

Can I just say that I'm super pysched that there's only 4 more weeks of school left!!! WOOHOOOOO! *does a little dance in her chair*

Beauty of an owie...Sean woke up with his ankle like this, I'm assuming it's a bite.

Fortunately it looks a lot better already. I was so worried that we were dealing with cellulitis. I was sure we were headed into the doctors. Looks like we'll be able to avoid that.

As for everything else that's going on here. Can I just say...it was so much easier when the kids were all little. Well emotionally and mentally at least. Physically the little ones will the toughest gig award. There's nothing terrible or really bad going on here. Just some things weighing heavily on my heart. It's so hard when your kids may have to suffer through an experience. You just want to jump ontop of them and block the blows for them. Hopefully in a few days we'll be back to blissfully boring around here. LOL

Wedding...The rest of the story

2010-05-22T08:52:00.000-04:00

Now I get to share random pictures that I like. Only problem is that I don't feel right sharing some as I'm not sure how the people in them feel about being posted online. So as much as I'd like to share even more....most of the pictures will be of my family. (lucky you! lol)

Drew and Tom enjoying a lighthearted moment before the ceremony

Jake experiencing some sisterly love on the dance floor

Allison with all the yummy offerings of the night.

Sean and D showing us their dance moves. Sean proceeded to roll from one side of the hall to the other numerous times.

Pat giving his speech as the best man. He said some words then told Drew he wanted to give him some words of advice. Then he said...

We're no strangers to love
You know the rules and so do I
A full commitment's what I'm thinking of
You wouldn't get this from any other guy

I just wanna tell you how I'm feeling
Gotta make you understand

Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down
Never gonna run around and desert you
Never gonna make you cry, never gonna say goodbye
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you

In the middle of it Drew realized what Pat was saying and yelled out....I'm being Rick Rolled!!! Hysterical laughter ensued.

Drew and Allison getting pictures taken with my parents. A song came on that Allison didn't really like so she's telling him to go turn it off.

And he did...after he took his time dancing over to the laptop.

(I realized when previewing this that Drew seems mad in this picture...not so, they were fooling around)

Allison showing us her best bouquet throwing technique

Guess who caught it...

Allison said to me...Apparently Val has an awesome jump shot. I threw the bouquet and turned around and she was still in the air. lol

Cory and Jake

Ashley and Alex dancing with the baby

The boys playing. (The person in the back is the hands for the person in the front)

Val and John with Sean

Pat and Alex...the next wedding in the family...Nov 13th.

Wedding...the plot

2010-05-21T17:45:00.000-04:00

A handsome young man with 2 of his best friends

Meets a beautiful lady with 2 of her ladies in waiting.

They invite a Justice of the Peace (who also happens to have taught both of them 8th grade history...he's since retired from that position) to a party with a few of their closest friends

And it turns into a....

WEDDING!!!

Allison's dad giving her away

View of Drew during ceremony

Allison during the ceremony

First kiss as husband and wife

Yay! Look at us!

Onto a beautiful life together

Things got a little confused after that. They were going to have a receiving line which didn't last long before they ventured out to take pictures at the falls in a different part of the park.

To get to the falls you had to take a .6 mile long trail with a huge section of stairs. Leg eating stairs. Poor Angie bit the dust and got pretty scraped up. By the end of the night the scraped up leg didn't hurt...the other one was killing though.

The group shot

Back up the stairs to the reception

KIDDING!

Next up...the rest of the story (will probably be tomorrow or Sunday)

Wedding...the cast of characters

2010-05-21T11:14:00.000-04:00

One glowing bride and her bridesmaids

Allison with bestfriend from college Angie on the left and maid of honor and best friend forever Ashley on the right. (Ashley made the cake shown in the last post)

One handsome groom and his guys

Cousin Joey on the left, brother and best man Pat on the right.

Luke and Jake

My older girls

Val, Michelle, Liz and Carrie

Eileen and Olivia

Danielle

She was dressed in a really cute dress but didn't quite make it to the bathroom in time shortly after the ceremony. In her defense, the bathrooms were quite a long distance from the reception hall.

Sean

Funny story...The next day Della told me that someone made a comment that I probably had so much on my mind that I forgot shoes for Sean. Then Sean walked in with only socks on! The truth...he had TWO pairs of sneaks there!!! One pair was plain white with glitter laces that used to be Danielle's...the kids refused to put them on him in his finest. The other were his white and blue sneaks that I threw in the back window of the car before we left. No one could find them. My BIL Ed found them in the back of the van when we were packing up the van to leave. Hey at least he had matching socks on. The fact that they were the proper colored socks was a bonus.

The handsome father of the groom (I was so enamored with him that I followed him home!)

Me, Tom, my mom and my dad

Sorely missed...My MIL, FIL and Billy :o(

Wedding....the setting

2010-05-21T09:20:00.001-04:00

I'm finally getting the pictures up. Sorry for the delay. Because there are so many pictures, I'm going to break this down into multiple posts.

We have one beautiful falls...

One reception hall

Workers prepping

Liz and Eileen (in the orange) working across from Alex. Michelle (on the right) working with Val in the back.

Hall gets spiffed up a bit

with a yummy cake to share

and appetizers

Cheese and veggie table

chocolate fountains

We had a small fountain with pink "chocolate" in it and a larger one with milk chocolate. They were big hits, unfortunately our reserve chocolate was scorched beyond use when I tried to keep them warm in a crockpot.

Next...the cast of characters

Where is my brain?

2010-05-20T09:25:00.000-04:00

OK, granted I have a major headache right now but really. How does a mom forget to wake up their kid for school? Cause that's what I did just now. I was busy here and doing things with Sean. Got up to get him a bowl of cereal and thought...wow! I can't believe Danielle is still asleep and looked at the clock. I was then shocked to see it was only 8:30! I had to double check to make sure I was right and then it was...oh crap! I never woke up Olivia for school, the bus will be here in minutes! Oh well, I guess Olivia gets a day off because I am NOT going to stress her out and make her try to make the bus and my head hurts too much to drive her to school right now. It wouldn't be so bad if she hadn't already missed so much school.

It's not the only time I flaked out this week. I forgot I was invited to Della's on Tuesday night until about an hour after I was suppose to be there. Last night I forgot the kids had cleaning at church and there was a meeting for married sisters. Well I remembered the married sisters meeting at about the time it was due to start. But in my defense...I was locked in my room, having a MUCH needed cuddle with my husband (and I mean CUDDLE...so get your minds out of the gutter!) Then Tom was out the door to get Michelle from work and the kids were freaking out and clamoring for me because I was inaccessible for more then 2 minutes.

Hopefully I can keep my head about me the rest of the day. Right now Danielle and Sean are dressed and waiting to go outside with Olivia. When Olivia found out what I'd done, her response was...Thank you. lol Val's friend Brittany is here, they have big plans with Michelle before she has to go to work. (maybe I'll luck out and they'll take Michelle to work today for me!)

I have a ton of wedding pictures to share! Michelle took 859 of them. The problem is trying to decide which ones. Plus they are on the other computer that the kids use. So finding time to get over there and doing it can be hard at times.

My house is a mess still. I have 5 boxes in the van and car to take care of still. And in true shut down form, I took crochet hook in hand and started creating. Well this screen isn't helping my head so this will be short (for me lol)

Where to begin?

2010-05-16T22:36:00.000-04:00

There is so much swirling through my mind that I don't even know where to begin. Let's just say that yesterday was a thrilling, beautiful, exhausting day. I don't have any pictures yet. Everyone (except Sean) is still sleeping and I have no idea who had and where my camera is right now. Michelle was the "official" wedding photographer so I can't wait to see her photos. She's one of my artistic ones and really has an eye for those things, I'm sure they'll be great. I'm hoping one of the pictures I asked her to take comes out well since I'd like to use it as a gift for an upcoming birthday.

The bride was beautiful and glowing. The groom was quite handsome with just the right amount of nervous and very tender. I was giggling to myself because I wondered if Allison's hands were getting chapped with Drew caressing them so much during the ceremony.

The food was good if I do say so myself. There were some negatives that occurred and hopefully most of them stayed in the kitchen. I'm trying not to dwell on that part of the day. Let's just say I learned some things. (like crockpots are too hot to hold melted chocolate well...I knew I should've tested it first!) My dad and sister ended up working their fannies off with me...along with my sister's husband and brother. It was fun being in the kitchen with them.

Before we started getting ready yesterday I was heard saying...I wouldn't do this (cater an event) for a side job/pocket money. It would have to be an all or nothing venture...you either have a catering business or not. This morning though...I'm rethinking that and whether a business would be feasible. With my sister out of work...hmmm. Then the grandiose thoughts come in. When thinking the setup I'd want, it's mega bucks...catering truck with working kitchen, warming boxes and lots of refrigeration so I don't have to unpack everything immediately after working. One that I could use for a traveling lunch/dinner. Then I get out of my chair for something and I think...ugh! ooch! ouch! I'm no spring chicken anymore.

And now it's nighttime. I've gone to a baby shower for my nephew's wife and taken Allison back to her and Drew's apartment. My house is a MESS with boxes and boxes of stuff laying around. I have it on ignore right now. I'm sure it'll be waiting for me tomorrow. I haven't decided if I'm returning unopened packages of plastic ware or not. I guess I'll have to more it soon or someone will turn the package into an opened one (if they haven't already). Right now I'm leaning on keeping it for summer use.

I was hoping to share pictures tonight but I can't keep my eyes opened to do the work for it. So hopefully I'll get to it tomorrow.

Crunch time

2010-05-14T08:23:00.000-04:00

We're almost ready! I couldn't quite finish my shopping last night so today's list is a bit longer then I wanted it to be. The problem wasn't lack of time or trying (although I was exhausted by the time we got home). It was lack of space...the car (and our laps) couldn't hold another stinkin thing!

Last night wasn't all work and no play. Tom, who hates shopping with a passion decided he'd go with me and Eileen...who was going with me so she could look for shoes. He kept joking to Eileen that he was being so annoying (in a nerdy way), that mom would never want him to go along again. I told him he wasn't getting off the hook that easily! That I'd gladly have him go whenever he wanted. Pretty sad when that's the staple of our alone time...shopping.

On the way to Aldi's I realized that we couldn't go there due to lack of funds (payday is today and they don't take credit cards). So I took the time to finally get my eyebrows waxed! I've been wanting to do it for a while. I've asked the girls to do it but the time never came around. Then Michelle had a coupon for supercuts and a plan was formed. I was going to get them done Sunday, no Monday, ok maybe Tuesday. I had just given up on the idea all together when the window opened. So my mini caveman look is now a thing of the past...for this week at least. lol We also took about 45mins and went to the Chinese buffet. YUM! I hadn't been there in a while. I did notice though that they've cut back on quite a few of their main selections. Probably how they could offer it for rock bottom price. No crablegs so I had to opt for the steamed teeny clams and cooked shrimp. Poor me! ;o)

Tom saw how tired I was at our last stop and said he was driving home. I think he really offered to do it because he was sick of grabbing at the dashboard and putting on his imaginary brakes. (I do the same when he's driving). We had a torrential downpour on the way home. I kept thinking Tom was going to pull over to wait it out a few times but he didn't. I don't think I'd have done so well, especially since I dozed off a few times. The kids were all up (except Danielle and Sean) and helped empty the car. I sat on the kitchen floor and attempted to jam everything into the fridge. We ended up using one cooler (luckily there was a bag of ice in the freezer) and I had to sacrifice a few condiments but we did it...just don't open the fridge door please.

Michelle is my super organizer and it's nice that she's using her talents to my benefit. Yesterday she went off my master list of what we're serving and what type of bowl/basket/tray and serving utensils we'll need and started packing boxes. Her and Liz labeled each thing with what it's used for and put it in a box for a specific area. So anyone can take the chocolate fountain box and they'll be able to set it up without asking me any questions. We'll try to do the same with the food, although I think we need more boxes for that.

So today on my todo list is...

Quick run to the store for the rest of my list
Iron the men's shirts (gotta get rid of the packing creases)
Finish tying the silverware
Pack the boxes
Pack the van
Cook bacon
Make kabobs
Laundry
Clean the house...reason I let the kids stay home from school lol

My main problem is not giving in to the "you don't have enough" worry. There is a LOT of food, if we run out they can eat something else. If anyone goes hungry, it's their fault. *repeats over and over again*

Well my coffee is almost gone and the list isn't going to get itself done. Not sure if I'll get in here before we leave tomorrow. If not, then I'll hopefully have a lot of pictures to share next time I'm here....and a new daughter!

Oh bummer! Our out of town guest just called....he's not coming. There's going to be some disappointed little ones here.

Major shopping day g trm,n

2010-05-13T07:14:00.001-04:00

Two days until the wedding! EEEK! Actually I think we've got our act together pretty well. It helps that I've had tons of time to think today...I've been tossing and turning since about 2am. I finally got up at 2:45 and surfed the net until Sean woke up and wanted me at 4. Then it was back into bed. I'm sure I dozed a few minutes here or there but not much. Next thing I knew the birds were singing and Sean was snoring...so out of bed I climbed to write down everything I'd been thinking. I now have each food item and exactly what I'll need to prep, cook, and serve it written down in my handy dandy wedding notebook.

Everyone went to school today. Or at least the last of them (Olivia) is about to go. Yep! She's getting on the bus right now. I think they're all planning on staying home tomorrow though. We have company from out of state and there's a lot to do or think about doing...so i said they could stay home.

Tonight is my major shopping trip. I'm hoping I've got everything I need on my list and won't have any last minute runs to make tomorrow. Saturday is a different story. Can I just say GRRRRRR! When someone puts in an order you'd think it meant you put stuff aside so you were assured to have it when it was needed. But nope, not always. I got a phone call yesterday morning to tell me the place I ordered my crusty rolls from were out and wouldn't be getting any more this week. I had 200 rolls ordered!!! So instead of nice golden brown artisan crusty rolls, I have to have pale, plain mini kaiser rolls. To top it off, it's going to cost me more as the packages are smaller, so I had to order more. Unfortunately the incident let Sean relearned a new name...poopie heads! I don't know how many times I said it before Sean decided it was hilarious and started saying it too. BAD MOMMY!

Well I have my work cut out for me. Need to make some room in the fridge and clean the kitchen so I can dirty it again. Laundry is screaming to be done. Kids crying for attention. So I'm out of here!

Down to the nitty gritty

2010-05-12T11:12:00.000-04:00

It's go time for the wedding. Less then ~~four~~ three days to go. (started this post last night) Yesterday (Monday) Michelle and I left early in the afternoon and went the looooong way to work, like the opposite direction long. lol We stopped at a few stores and I put in some orders to be picked up first thing Saturday morning. So we'll have a few stops on the way to the reception hall. I took Michelle to work, picked up my dad and made a few more stops. I think I've gotten all the tableware I need. I'll probably inventory and rethink one more time. We're talking about starting to pack the van since there's a lot of stuff and I don't have any room for it.

The girls spent yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon tying the "silver" ware together and putting them into our picnic basket...until we ran out of ribbon (oh rats! forgot to buy more last night). I think it's going to be a nice touch. They also finished up dewaxing the 54 votive holders I'd bought at the thrift store.

I spent most of yesterday afternoon checking prices of things...mostly cheese. I LOOOOOVE cheese so it's hard for me to pick a few to put out on the cheese trays. While out last week we had a cheese monger offer us a taste of an aged gouda. OMGoodness!!! Who needs crackers when you have this cheese! Val and I were addicted, until I saw the $15.98/lb price tag. Then it changed to slightly addicted. I decided to splurge and bought a tiny wedge (considering it my mother's day present lol)...we're still rationing it. YUM!

I had a small panic moment last night. I thought I'd lost my list. I'm always making lists, and losing them. This one though is one I NEED to keep, it's my master shopping list. Everything I need to buy divided up by stores. Luckily I found it when I got home from dropping Michelle off at work, price matching and picking a few things up. Every time I come home loaded down with grocery bags the kids start to look for something to eat/munch. They're getting pretty bummed that there's nothing for them, it's for the wedding. I'll have to try to pick up something for them today.

With me being gone most nights things are falling apart around here a bit. Although I have to thank Liz, she's picked up the slack quite a bit since she's been home. Still it would be nice if I could walk in the door before 10 and not find them eating dinner. Or looking for some. (they manage to snack between school and dinner though...so they aren't starving)

Today Michelle is going into work early. I think I'll stop at the dollar store and get some more serving dishes/trays/baskets and liners. Then onto Walmart to grab soda and water. Maybe I'll even get in a run to the Salvation Army since it's Wed and family day with a lot of ticket colors half off (although I'm not sure if bric brac is included in that). Hopefully Tom will leave early to pick up Michelle and get the beer. Tonight I have to figure out if anyone needs anything else for their outfits. I think Luke and Jake could do with belts and new socks.

Tomorrow is my major shopping day minus the really perishable stuff. Friday will be shopping for the loose ends, packing the van and making up kabobs. Everything else is waiting until Saturday morning/afternoon.

The plan for Saturday is to leave here at 8:30am. Stop at 2 stores to pick up the last minute things...getting to the reception hall at 10 which gives me 6hrs until the ceremony. Easy peasy! lol

Ok...time to put on my chauffeur cap, grab my wallet and head out the door.

Danielle's premier music video

2010-05-10T08:44:00.000-04:00

Danielle has a slight crush on Justin Bieber. She's got the words to his song Baby down pretty well and sings it all the time...even A Capella (I know someone took a video of that too). She's about to go into Ludacris's part at the end. I'm pretty sure she doesn't know all those words.

Is it June yet:?

2010-05-08T08:13:00.000-04:00

No, I don't really wish it was June. At least not most of the time. I want to live through the next week or so. I just want someone to do the work that I need to do in order to enjoy it. lol I've hardly been home all week and I don't see that changing next week. There's a ton to do...ordering, planning, shopping, planning, packing, planning. The ONLY reason why I want this wedding to be over (well besides that Drew and Allison will finally be married) is so my brain can slow down a bit. The rest of the month is pretty much no brainers....wedding that I'm only attending and a soccer tournament and feast.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy doing this type of thing. I just didn't expect it to be all consuming in my brain like it is. What's going to be on the chocolate bar? How will it be presented? What dishes/trays will I use to put it out? When and where should I buy it? (you can't buy everything on Friday! Or can I?) And on and on and on.... I think it's mostly that I have to bring EVERYTHING with me. There's no running into the house, rummaging through the cupboards or drawers for a useable utensil or platter like I do at graduation parties. If it's not there...it's not there!

On a good note, Sean's temperament has changed immensely. He's been a bit harsh and negative lately...especially to Danielle. He can be brutal to her. But since about 2am Wednesday morning, he's been looking like this....

and this....

The reason....

LIZ IS HOME!!!!!!

His reaction and change in demeanor has really surprised me. He's happier and calmer. He just melts in Liz's arms whenever he can. I picked up Liz from the airport just after midnight Tuesday night/Wednesday morning. She woke up the kids to say hi when she got here. She picked up Sean who took a second to figure out who had him. Then a HUGE contented smile came across his face, he threw his arms open and wrapped them around her neck and stayed there...not saying anything...just hugging her for a long time. The smile didn't leave his face for almost 3 days.

I had more to share but right now I'm suppose to be getting ready for the day. We're heading to church. It's the May conference with lots of encouragement, fellowship, fun, and exhaustion. It's looking to be miserable out with rain, winds in excess of 50+ mph and snow tonight, so it'll be a challenge keeping Sean and Danielle warm and dry. Guess I better pack a few changes of clothes and shoes for the day.

Hope everyone's weekend is great.

Busy weekend

2010-05-03T15:32:00.000-04:00

Wow! Has it really been a week since I got something up here? BAD BLOGGER! It hasn't been because I haven't had anything to say either, just no time. Last weekend was 2 bridal showers...Allison's in the afternoon, a young lady from church in the evening. Both of them were nice in their own way. The church one was very encouraging and uplifting.

I had to work at the dome. This time it was a concession stand at a rap concert. We ran into quite a few problems at the stand and with our supplies but we worked through them. Let's just say that it's a lot different serving the stoned concert crowd over the drunk sports event crowd. I got home shortly after 1am. To say I was bit tired and stiff on Saturday is an understatement. I felt like I was moving in slow motion all day. Luckily I didn't have too much that I HAD to do that day. I was certainly glad I decided to do Allison's bridal shower on Sunday instead of Saturday though.

On Sunday we threw a shower for Allison. I'd rented an enclosed shelter at a local state park. The original guest list wouldn't fit into the house very well. Unfortunately there's a lot going on right now so the attendees were a lot fewer. We could've fit into the house fine. Oh well. It was a lovely place and it was COOL in there which is a good thing on a hot and humid day...my house wouldn't have been. Besides I didn't have to clean or kick the guys out of the house! lol

We were having a meat tray for sandwiches. I'd decided to cook a roast as a practice run for the wedding. I'm glad I did. Most roast recipes call for 15 or 20 mins per pound. Cooking a 20lb roast meant it would be done in 5 (300 mins) or 6.5hrs (400 mins). I threw the roast in at 6:20pm and kept checking it. I used a meat thermometer which stayed at 120 for a long time. I was not happy when at the 10:30 check it read 150! I'd wanted it to be between 130 and 140 tops (medium rare). There was a tiny trace of pinkness in the center. I realized as I sliced it up that the slices were too thick for sandwiches (would've been fine for a entree though...just too well done for my taste. So I bagged up all the meat ($50 worth) and put it into the freezer for our future use. Then when I ran to Walmart the next morning I bought a few pounds of roast beef from the deli. So I have to lower the temp and watch the roasts a lot closer after we hit the 10min/pound timeframe.

I also roasted 2 turkey breasts for the tray. I deboned them immediately after cooking and threw them into the fridge. Then I sliced them up the next day which kept the slices from drying out. It came out wonderfully! There's nothing like real roasted turkey for a sandwich. YUM! We also put out a huge mixed green salad, deviled eggs, slices of watermelon and cantaloupe, and chips. I ended up sending Allison home with a care package for their new apartment. They are officially into their new place!

Things aren't stopping anytime soon either. Tonight I have a meeting for the church grill/snack bar so we can work out the logistics of that. Then it's onto scheduling for the conference this weekend. (note to self...remember to sign up to actually work a shift or two! lol)

Tuesday Val and I are spending the evening with my parents. Of course I can't run into the city without running a few errands too...so it's not all fun. I'm hoping to figure out and/or buy supplies for the wedding. My sister is coming over Wednesday morning to bring me her chocolate fountain. The rest of the week will be spent trying to get this place back in order and getting ready for the conference this weekend...so grocery shopping, laundry and whatnot. I also have to do some ordering for the wedding which is in less then two weeks! EEEK! Oh yeah, Luke and Jake need to go shopping for some clothes and it wouldn't hurt for me to find something to wear either.

Now it's time to run Michelle to work.

When, when, when

2010-04-23T20:57:00.000-04:00

Things are going along at a dizzying pace here. My mind starts reeling before my eyes open and it doesn't stop until I'm dead asleep. Sometimes not even then. The kids were off this week and it was nice to have them home. We didn't get tons done here but managed to get some unseen much needed things accomplished. Today the girls (and Sean) and I are heading out to the mall to shop for dresses.

We've had a major minor setback in the form of a letter. A denial letter from the credit union. They say they won't refinance our mortgage. WAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! Tom's already drawn up a letter of appeal so we'll see how it goes. One thing that the letter showed me is how much I've been living in the future. Almost everything had been tied to this refinance. I was a broken record...when the house is refinanced we can.... When our budget gets redone we'll.... I can get/do that after the house refinance. I really had to fight to keep myself from falling into deep despair. I know we'll figure things out...with or without the refinance. Then my mom called (warning....very upsetting news ahead)

We talked about things (since she "lent" me money to close on the refi) and she tried to alleviate my concerns. She then told me why she was calling. Her cousin's (I also consider him my cousin) son took his own life. I lost it. He was between Pat and Michelle in age. He was set to graduate from Duke University in a few weeks. (his parents will receive his diploma) On the outside he seemed to have it all together. According to his note, he hadn't been doing well for a long time, although he was seeking help. They live out of state so I can't attend the wake or funeral. My mom is sending flowers from all of us and I'm hoping to send them a card. After I got myself back together I said....wow that makes my mortgage problem seem like peanuts.

And now it's evening. We went shopping to Kohl's, TJ Maxx and Target. Michelle fed the kids lunch in the van while I ran into Catherine's and used my $15 gift card. They had an additional 50% off some clearance racks. I bought 2 black shirts (a tank and a decorated 3/4 sleeve) for under $12. I then dropped Michelle, Carrie, my niece Michaela, Eileen, Olivia and Danielle off at the mall. Then Sean and I took a ride to my parents and waited for them to be done. My mom and I ordered flowers for the funeral and I helped my dad install a closet door.

I knew Michelle would do well with the girls, she's very frugal. She found Eileen and Olivia $7 shirts at Rue21. I'm not sure I'd have even looked at them on the rack. They're tshirt dresses and seemed a bit casual but they look very nice on. Finding something for Carrie is a bit harder. They found a dress for $25 but Michelle thought it was too prom'y. I saw pictures of it after we got home, I didn't think it was that bad. I think the price tag was what got Michelle the most though. Her, Carrie and Michaela ended up staying at the mall and going home with Val and Brittany who came later.

So now the kids are at activity club for another half an hour. Sean and Danielle are at the other computer and having a minor disagreement about something. Tom is outside banging together a nice looking set of stairs for the back door of the addition. He told me last night that if I give up on the house because of this setback, I'm in trouble. That we have to take this extra time and use it. I know he's right but it's very tempting to let up on it just a bit since there's so much else to do here.

I still have a ton to do tonight...

pick up the girls at 9,
work out a break schedule for the concession stand for tomorrow,
make sure everything is in the backpack for the stand,
weave in the tails of Allison's shawl then wash and block it,
wash the afghans I need for shower gifts
wrap gifts
wash and get out clothes for us girls for tomorrow
figure out a snack to bring to the evening shower and make it

I feel like I'm forgetting something else...

Oh well, now I have 5 minutes until the girls need to be picked up. I need to go find Sean's shirt. He managed to take it off and discard it somewhere. Then it's out the door, into the carseats and away we go.

Semi back to normal

2010-04-19T23:23:00.004-04:00

Today's the first day I didn't feel like I was going to barf all day....just once in a while. It's also the first day I actually ate a meal and not a bite here or there. I didn't eat anything for the first 48hrs at all. I'm starting to wonder if this is the stomach bug that was going around earlier this year that we seemed to miss. I know those that had it said it lasted a long time and this is a ridiculous amount of time to have a stomach bug. Tom's been hit with it now for sure. He spent most of it in bed yesterday. I know he's still dragging today even though he went to work (which I again tried to discourage...bad me). I keep waiting for someone else to get hit with it but so far so good. I'm not relaxing though and I'm definitely not going to wash a bunch of bedding (new clean sheets beg for a stomach bug).

I was dumbfounded this week when mail came for Sean. It was from headstart. Seems they have open house and it's open to anyone turning 3 before Dec 1st 2010! WHAT!?! Send Sean to school!?! I'm debating about whether to send Danielle to Kindergarten in Sept (she turns 5 a week before school starts) and they're asking if I want to send Sean! Insane! WHY would anyone want to send a 3yo (or not even 3yo) off to school, even if it's "only for half a day". At least it's voluntary...for now.

We're starting to get things for the wedding. Yesterday I used a 50% off coupon at AC Moore and bought a chocolate fountain. I'd promised the little kids that we could try it out when I got home...so we did. I am SO glad that I did!! I didn't realize I'd needed 4lbs of chocolate in order for it to work. I'd only bought 1 lb of yellow chocolate wafers (Danielle's choice of color and then she wondered if it would taste like banana lol). So I had to use the pink wafers I'd bought for the wedding. I couldn't get the chocolate to ever flow right, no matter how much cooking oil I added (and I added a sickening amount). Finally it just stopped pumping the chocolate all together. Michelle's wondering if it's the vanilla chocolate that's the problem since it seems to be a lot thicker then regular chocolate when she's used it for strawberries and pretzels. So I think we're going to try it again using only real chocolate. I'm a little bummed since I thought it would be cool to have chocolate in her wedding colors, but oh well. At least this all didn't happen at the wedding itself!

Buying dresses for the wedding. I'm really starting to wonder if I should be having the girls try to keep within the color scheme of the wedding (pink dresses, yellow flowers). Is it too much? Will it look funny if there are too many different shades of pink? How much white is too much white for a dress? Is it too dressy? Not dressy enough? Carrie and I were out yesterday. We found a cute dress for her...

I found something that's a bit younger looking for Olivia but it has a cream/white colored skirt with tulle over the top of it that's embroidered with black flowers. I'm afraid it's a bit too formal looking and it'll seem like she's suppose to be in the wedding party itself. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. The plan for now is to go out shopping on Friday (Michelle's only day off). Hopefully we can all find something then. I'd like to be able to say...at least we'll all be dressed at this thing! lol

Michelle drew up a master list of all the things we should get done around here before the appraisal...by room. It is FIVE pages long. I mentioned it to Tom and his response was...What are you trying to do? Give me a heart attack? I told him don't even look at it. I told the kids if we get a lot of progress done this week, we can do something fun before the end of vacation. What have I done off the major list so far? Bathe and demat Oreo...alright it's not on the list. But he smells pretty and looks SO much better. Part of my weird thinking is...better smelling dog equals better smelling house. Well maintained dog equals less hair to pick up around the place. Besides there's just something so relaxing about brushing and playing with his fur. He's so good about it too, even when he doesn't want to be. Just the bath alone was torture for him...he hates the water. There are times when I'm working on a mat that you can tell he just wants to give me a good nip and say...enough already!

Well, I guess I should say enough already here.

(and I never hit post before taking care of a crying Sean and then falling asleep...so now I will...the next day)

Try to do a fashion show

2010-04-18T10:59:00.000-04:00

The kids had been bugging me to see what Sean's suit looked like on him. I finally caved in yesterday. And this is what happened...

I only got one shot at Danielle and Sean together and it was a lousy one. Sean wasn't happy because no one would believe him that the tie goes on the OUTSIDE of the vest! (ignore the yucky spackled walls in the background please...they are ready to be painted)

Then Olivia got into the action

And of course Jake had to get his mug into the show

This is what happens when you tell a boy who LUBS his suit that he has to take it off now. (notice where the tie is now...outside the vest, just where it should be)

Are we in for some fun or what!?!

From the eyes of

2010-04-18T10:33:00.000-04:00

Eileen!

She borrowed my camera the other day. This is what she saw...

Cherry blossoms

Daffodils and the riding lawn mower

Greenhouse Uncle Billy built, in need of repair

Uncle Billy's jeep (and yes, we still call it that)

Oreo, up close and personal

Stormy skies

And it's storms

Rivulets

And washouts

We interrupt everyday life

2010-04-18T05:27:00.000-04:00

to bring you a Grade A barfing fest. Yep, we're finally gotten hit big time with the throw-up bug. We've had lots and lots of stomachaches here but nothing with major barfing...until Wednesday.

It started all innocent enough with a fun day out with Della. We went shopping with Abigail and our little kids. I found Danielle a dress and shoes for Drew's and Allison's wedding and Sean a 4pc suit! woohoo! Big time score since there was only one suit, it was his size and cost less then $6! Della and I meandered through a woman's dress shop so I could try to find anything...which I didn't. Why is it so hard for me to buy myself clothes. Granted nothing in that place was right for the wedding but even if something had been...I would have agonized over whether to buy it or not. Anyways...we then went to two grocery stores, the second one was a quick run around the outside of the store without any kids type of trip...thanks to Abigail. Della let Sean and Danielle stay at her house and play while I ran to pick up Michelle. I also ran pick up some things while there and ran to AC Moore AGAIN! I decided to get a thinner yarn for Allison's wedding shawl while it was on sale.

We got home and the kids helped empty the car and start putting things away. It was then that I noticed that Jake wasn't around. He showed up shortly thereafter telling me he'd been sleeping and didn't feel good. I'd been hearing a lot of that lately so didn't think anything of it. Michelle declared that she was making pizza for dinner that night. So I then got to relax!! Poor Jake, he took two bites of pizza and lost it. After that he couldn't keep anything down all night long. He felt a bit better in the morning and started eating. But still missed school the rest of the week. Luckily for him Friday was a bogus day since half of it was taken up with the middle school talent show.

Tom started complaining that he didn't feel good Thursday night. He had a headache and was feverish. He never threw up so I'm still not sure if it was what Jake had. He seemed better in the morning even though I tried to convince him to call in sick. He's no fun and wouldn't do it! I kinda wish he had because when I got out of bed I realized...I felt lousy! I hadn't been that sick in a long time. I was exhausted and couldn't keep anything down. Luckily Jake held down the fort with the little kids so I could nap on and off. I still had to take and pick up Michelle from work. It was a scary ride, I actually dozed off at the red light. So to pick her back up, I left the little kids home although Carrie tagged along so she could try to persuade me to take her to get her ears pierced (per our agreement). It didn't work. I guess she didn't get that I was lucky I was sitting upright in the driver's seat to begin with. KIDS!! ARGH!

When we pulled into the driveway we were met with Val's friend Brittany yelling out the door...Seanie barfed! NOOOO! I can't deal with him and me! Brittany was a peach and had taken care of almost everything by the time I got in the door. Val was in the bathroom dealing with her sensitive stomach. Oh she's going to have fun once she has kids! lol I managed to keep control of my bodily functions while dealing with Sean. He was so good about it all. Just grabbed the bucket and let it happen. NO fighting it, no crying. I covered the couch with sheets and we spent the night there.

I had a problem. I was suppose to work at the dome on Saturday!!! I wasn't sure what to do and my dilemma became even harder to decide after I got a call Friday morning that someone else that was scheduled to work was also sick and in bed...so wouldn't make it. I decided to wait things out and see how I felt later. Add Sean to the mix and things got harder. Finally, around 9pm I decided things were letting up for me and I couldn't risk getting anyone else sick...so called another manager to tell them. We tried to get someone to cover but no luck. Luckily we had a few extra people scheduled so we could allow breaks, so they were working with the minimum but were covered.

Saturday morning I felt better so decided to try to go to work. By the end of my shower I realized...there was NO way I could do it. So I sent off my supplies with Luke and said...have fun! Then I plopped myself on the couch where I spent most of my day! I finally decided to try to eat something in the afternoon. My stomach tried to protest but survived.

I'm still not feeling 100%. But there are things to do! The wedding is less then 4 wks away. I have to buy outfits and shoes for everyone. I was hoping to get it done this week while the kids have it off from school. Hopefully the stomach bug doesn't hit everyone and we're stuck home instead. I have to finalize the food and figure out my shopping list for that. I'm not working at the dome on Saturday but have some behind the scene things to do for it. Saturday I'm attending two bridal showers. We're having a bridal shower for Allison on May 2nd at a state park. I have to get everything for that ready with no plans made yet whatsoever. My cousin's wife is having a baby shower the same day as Drew's wedding. I don't think I'll be attending the shower. It was nice to be able to dig into my box of finished projects and pull something out for her. I still have a baby shower to get something made for my nephew and his wife. Their shower is the day after Drew's wedding.

Oh and I'm still suppose to be cleaning and painting the house to get it appraisal ready which should happen in a week or two. We signed some good faith papers so just waiting to hear the final word on our approval which should come this week. Get this... me with no job or income...ever...has a better credit score then Tom. I told him it's because I always make sure MY bills get paid before his do! lol But really...that system is just messed up!

Oh good! My printer has finally decided it's going to read my memory card. Now I can share pictures... in another post.

Picture sharing time

2010-04-14T21:08:00.000-04:00

Tom driving to the hotel for Olivia's birthday celebration....

Olivia listening to us sing Happy Birthday to her...

YOU CAN'T SEE ME!

Here I am!

Having fun on the trampoline...

Random picture of Jake, not sure when it was taken

I'm suppose to be working

2010-04-13T17:51:00.000-04:00

But here I sit with my bowl of cereal and my cup of coffee. I've been working on an afghan for the other wedding shower I have on the 24th. I don't think I'll be getting something made for Allison and Drew. I'll probably go buy them something instead, just not sure what. I didn't manage to get anything done yesterday. Sean seemed extra clingy for some reason. He was extra cranky too. I couldn't move without him crying for me to pick him up. I almost wonder if it's because I wasn't here when he fell asleep last night. Yep! Tom and I ended up going to dinner Sunday night. We used our Red Lobster gift card that Michelle got us for Christmas. We had... steak, lobster tail, crab legs, scampi, salmon, and stuffed flounder. I say we because we ordered our meals with the idea of sharing everything. This allowed us both to have a variety of things. So while it sounds like we ordered everything, we only ordered 2 meals. I had a yummy sangria before dinner. Tom thought it was yummy too and ordered one after. We both agreed that it was much yummier before the meal.

It was SO nice to sit and talk without being interrupted. To not have to do anything but attend to my meal. Luckily I behaved and we didn't have any spills to deal with either! I miss my husband. Things can get so hectic here that we're lucky if we talk a full sentence to each other some nights. One of my biggest fears is that get stuck as parents and not know each other when it's just us. While I loved being alone with Tom, it also fed a desire for MORE! We talked about going away after all this craziness is done. Our 27th anniversary is at the end of June so maybe we'll work on doing something for that.

I think I finally got all the papers in for our refinance. At least they took the money out of our account for the credit check. I may be pushing it but I'm hoping that means we can sign the lock in rate papers by the end of the week and schedule the appraisal. I'm shooting for the end of vacation for that. Although it may make the kids' vacation not too fun which is bumming me out. But you have to do what you have to do and right now...this is IMPORTANT!

It's starting to hit me that in so many days LIZ will be home!!! Although Olivia who's having a bit of a down time right now says...that means I have to wait X many days. While I'm sure that her initial bout of depression was more then school. I think right now it is school. She's almost always on the verge of tears before she gets on the bus. I'm sure once she gets there she's fine. It's the getting up and going that's the problem. I'm usually chomping at the bit for a vacation...this time I'm dying for it!! Only 3 more days!

Well my breakfast and coffee are gone and so is most of the day now. It was another day I didn't get anything on my todo list done. I crocheted and I'm this > < close to being done. I'm hoping to finish it up tonight. Then I won't be distracted anymore (too much lol)

Everyone is home. Val's friend Joe is up here on leave from the Navy and is visiting. Him and Tom are outside talking Navy. Ham is in the oven and making this place smell good! I guess I should go get dinner finished.

Wedding talk

2010-04-11T18:30:00.000-04:00

I only have 25 minutes before I have to head out the door. Let's see how much rambling I can accomplish in that time.

My headaches are gone! I'm not even stuffed up anymore. That was one of the quickest colds I've ever had. (watch me jinx myself and I'll be sick as a dog tomorrow).

Tammy...I forgot to mention in the last post. I like the analogy of driving a car with the horn and raising kids by yelling.

While we picked up around here yesterday, not much else got done work wise. We spent most of the day with Allison and Drew talking about their wedding...only 34 days to go and not much is set in stone yet. Although I think we got most of the menu nailed down. Drew's problem is he wants something different. He doesn't want the classic...roast beef, ham and roasted chicken. So right now it looks like we're doing...spiral ham and chicken and steak kabobs. I'd rather cook a few top round roasts on the webers and have sliced roast beef instead of the steak kabobs. But like I said...he doesn't want the ordinary. I'm not sure I want to fight this fight or not. The roasts are definitely less work and might even be cheaper. I'm not even totally sure how we're cooking the kabobs yet. Allison's maid of honor is making her cake. Drew and Allison went to her house so they could taste and choose which type they wanted. We were lucky enough to be the recipients of the 2nd choice cake. OMGoodness!!!! It was delicious!!! White cake with a whipped cream cream cheese frosting. It had fresh red and yellow raspberries between the layers. Now I can't wait to taste the one they chose...lemon cake with blueberry mousse between the layers (three of them), topped with fresh blueberries and the whipped cream cream cheese frosting.

Tom and I never went out to dinner on Saturday. I never confirmed things with Michelle and she had made plans. So Tom took the kids to subway and they brought back foot long subs (customer appreciation day...buy one get one free). We're hoping that after I pick up Michelle we can go out. Actually Tom asked if I wanted to wait until all the busyness was done before going and I said N! O! I wanna go now. I was one second away from throwing myself onto the floor and pitching a fit. ;o)

This week seems to be empty appointment wise, although Michelle is working different hours. The goal this week is painting some walls and ceilings, finishing up on the laundry and cleaning up the laundryroom (again!) Then next week (which is spring break!!!) we'll try and get rooms cleaned and painted.

Tom just went to pick up Luke, Carrie and Eileen from a BBQ at church. So I guess even if Michelle has plans, we have sitters home. I had some pictures I wanted to share now that I found my battery charger...yay!!! Maybe I can get them up later tonight. No promises though. And now it's time to run out the door and get Michelle! Fastest post I've done in a long, long time.

Good Morning!

2010-04-09T08:06:00.000-04:00

It's Friday! And before I could write one sentence we already had a major crisis averted. I gave Eileen all her documentation for her border crossing. She put it in a plastic sleeve and took it upstairs to put with her stuff to pack. For some reason she decided to act out how the border crossing would go. She opened up the folded birth certificate and said... JACOB ALLEN XXXX! I'd given her Jake's birth certificate instead of her's! THAT would not have been good! So now she's who she's suppose to be, at least I think she is. lol

This morning's main "too early for any sensible person" thought was...I have three bridal shower in less then 4 wks. I'm so lucky to have 2 of them on the same day. Allison's maid of honor is throwing the shower for her side of the family on the 24th. Esther who is getting married the weekend after Allison is having her shower 4 hours later. Luckily they're being held only a few miles apart, so getting from one to the other is no problem. But still...I have to get two shower gifts made NOW. I'm trying not to think about everything that needs to be done in the next 6wks because I'm afraid I'll just shut down. I keep telling myself...It's nothing more then I can handle. I've gone through worse...I think. lol

Reading back the other night I realized that I didn't paint my brother in the best light. It was never my intention. He's a very devoted dad, his kids are his world. One of the reasons why how he parents bothers me is that...I was once like that (and can slip back into that mode on occasion). It's my biggest regret...how harsh I was in my younger years. I yelled and barked. I wasn't necessarily angry when I did it, I just thought that was how it was suppose to be done. When you wanted your kids to listen to you...you barked. When they weren't listening...you yelled. I did it, my brother does it and I've seen my sister do it. Funny thing is, I don't think of us as children as being barked and yelled at. I'm just hoping the cycle doesn't continue on my end with Drew.

OK...I need to go spend some time with Olivia before the bus comes. Then switching laundry, maybe painting walls, and if I'm lucky getting a few afghan motifs done here or there.

Feeling better

2010-04-08T19:33:00.005-04:00

I woke up on Wednesday with a really bad headache. The kind where you try not to move your head because if you do...you'll barf. But there was still kids to get up and things needed to be done. The first trip got out the door and I was getting Olivia going when the phone rang...it was Carrie...could I pick her up, the stairs hurt her knee too much. She fell the night before and landed squarely on them. So I told her I'd be there as soon as I could but it would probably be 30-45mins as Olivia wasn't on the bus yet. Michelle heard the phone conversation and got out of bed so I could go. I downed some Ibuprofen and jumped in the shower which helped deaden the pain to a dull roar.

With Carrie home and Michelle up early, I decided to take advantage of things. I got the girls to take Danielle and Sean outside to enjoy the awesome weather. Then I got busy and painted the kitchen ceiling! The climbing on and off the counters, standing on a chair, working over my head. UGH!!! I hadn't done it in quite a few years and the job really accented that I'm not a spring chicken anymore. I made a mess! While standing on the counters and painting over the cupboards, my hair got stuck in the wet paint. I started to look like Cruella Deville. I never remember having so much paint run off my paint pad before. I'm blaming the paint, yeah it's the paint! I kept wanting to stop and take a break but then I'd decide to do...just one more section. I've done the worst part of the living area...it looks a lot brighter in there. I was tempted to try to get away with only doing that. Then I looked at the rest of the area a bit closer and noticed that I really shouldn't try that. So we'll press on, just not today.

Today I woke up with a headache again but not as bad. After being up and about, having coffee and few ibuprofen it was better, less of a roar as yesterday but not totally gone. I got to work as soon as my feet touched the floor. I cleaned off the addition stairs and both bathrooms. I sorted a hall full of laundry and was starting in the kitchen when my dad pulled into the driveway. He was due here at 11 but was half an hour early. I scrambled to throw on a pot of coffee as he came in the door. He was looking at our electricity. We haven't had any service to a few front walls in quite a long while.

First we had to figure out which breaker went to where. Then we tested the breakers and they were all good. The outlets were dead though so somewhere between the breaker and the first outlet in the circuit there was probably a broken wire. We thought to replace the wire but we were pretty sure BIL stapled the wires to the wall studs when he did the work. We talked about opening the wall to get to the wires....but decided to play around with it a bit more. After running a few tests we finally figured out that the outlets got power after you reset the breakers, it lost it as soon as you plugged something in....so back to the breakers we went...it was bad. Phew! An easy fix! I called the hardware store in the village and they told me they didn't have the exact part but had something that would work. I sent Michelle and Cory up there and when they got back....it didn't fit. So my dad and I returned that one and then went to the next village's hardware store and found something that would work. We got back with a few minutes to spare before Michelle had to go to work. As Michelle and I walked out the door, my dad was screwing everything back together. He didn't wait for me to get back like I'd hoped he would, but I understand why not. I'm sure he was as exhausted as I was from all the stair climbing and such. So no more extension cords running all over the place for us! Another thing crossed off the todo list...THANK YOU DAD!!!

Now we're working on getting Eileen and Carrie ready for their trip tomorrow. They're going to Ottawa for the weekend with a group of girls. It sounds like they have a lot of fun planned. I have to remember to have Tom sign a note for them to be able to cross the border before he goes to bed. Otherwise they'll have to stay home. I'm hoping once we have the house refinanced that Me, Tom, Luke, Carrie, Jake, Eileen and Olivia can get our passports. I figure Danielle and Sean won't be going abroad anytime soon and can wait. The other ones are more likely to go to Canada, Norway or the like in the next few years. It occurred to me in the middle of the night last night...What if Carrie or Eileen gets hurt in Canada and has to be admitted the hospital? While we're giving the girls that are taking them medical authorization...Neither Tom nor I could cross the border to relieve them of that responsibility if we needed to...not good!

I am SO looking forward to this weekend....maybe a little too much. It's the first and almost the last Saturday that I'll have free until June (I think May 1st is free but it's in between a late Friday night concession at the dome and us hosting Allison's bridal shower on Sunday...so not very relaxing). I keep thinking of all these things we can do or get done on Saturday. Michelle said she wants Tom and I to use our gift card and go to Red Lobster for dinner. Seeing as I just double checked the calendar and what I wrote above is true....I think we will! Otherwise we'll never get there.

OK it is 4.5hrs after I started this. My mind is mush after writing notes and filling out forms. I feel like I had to write a novel when writing Carrie's medical info. I hope they don't have any problems crossing the borders...we really need our passports!

My turn

2010-04-06T15:19:00.000-04:00

It's my turn to be sick. It started last night with a stuffy nose, headache and the chills and it continues today..lucky me. My dad was suppose to come over see if he can find the problem with our electricity in the front of the house. I called him and asked to postpone until tomorrow or Thurs. So we are.

At least I slept a semi normal sleep cycle last night. I went to bed after the basketball game and went right out. Unfortunately I didn't stay that way. I woke up at 2:30ish and tossed and turned but luckily fell back to sleep after a while. I was up for good about 5am although I didn't get up until 6 with Tom. It was just too comfy warm in there to give it up.

Today has been spent finding documents and wrestling with my scanner and email program. I hope I didn't send the lady at the credit union 10 emails with the mortgage application and documentation in it. It was a HUGE file (due to not being able to make a PDF file from my scanner...but now I can) and the email kept timing out on me and I'd get failure notices.

Michelle is being a sweetheart and trying to get rid of the huge pile of stuff in the livingroom before she goes to work in an hour.

Michelle told me I sounded like an old person yesterday. We were at a very busy intersection where I needed to turn right. Two teenage girls were walking and talking on the sidewalk alongside of me. Let's just say it's a very good thing I'm a cautious driver because those girls didn't even pause at the road, much less look to see if the way was clear. Just kept on walking like it was the sidewalk. Michelle made me honk at them as I drove by them. Then made the old person comment after I said something to the effect of Kids these days.

I love my brother but MAN! He has bellowing down to an art! He's the type of person who thinks louder means powerful. At my aunt's I almost said to him...will you please just walk over to the girl and tell her not to do that! Our aunt's neighborhood already knows someone named S is visiting (since he bellowed her name enough times...it's his youngest who is 2yo). Do they need to know everything she's doing too? I think Drew is very similar to him. So I was also thinking...if that was Drew.... I think I might get myself into trouble as a Grandma.

Well now Michelle needs to leave in 15mins, so I need to get off here and get ready to leave.

Phew! She did it!

2010-04-05T11:54:00.001-04:00

The second trip school bus just left and Olivia was on it. She was balking at going and was on the verge of tears at times. I'm pretty sure there wasn't a threat of tears when she ran out the door though. Now if I can go through the day without a phone call from the school, it'll be good. Her mood seemed to lift more as the week progressed with Thursday being the biggest improvement. It was also the last day of school before a 3 day weekend, so I have to wonder....Deep down, is it school that's causing the problems for her? She still continues to say it's not school though, that school is fine and nothing happened there. But I wonder.

Yesterday was weird. I mean everyone had fun but for myself...it was weird. I found myself being very impatient and harsh while getting ready to go to church and then again to my aunt's. While driving to my aunt's I was in an almost sulky funk. I couldn't help laughing at the situation. One of the most religious days of the year and here I was at my worst in a while. I almost wonder if it's my classic backlash due to having the family split up and not having Tom with us on an important day. Of having to miss out on things that I'd prefer not to. Usually I can sense the feelings stirring and come to grips with it. This time it just seemed to sneak up on me and take over for a while and was scary.

It was the perfect day to be sitting outside and visiting. I had a nice time sitting there, watching the kids play and catching up with everyone. The kids had another easter egg hunt and then an egg toss. Sean and I were a team...and then he was done....so Carrie and Jake took our egg over. My dad asked me about my aunts and uncles being invited to Drew's wedding. He was a bit disappointed when I said we didn't/couldn't invite any of them since not even all Drew's cousins were invited. I'm pretty sure I saw a look of relief in my uncle's eyes though....that's a lot of weddings he's off the hook for! He's still dealing with his own nieces and nephews, much less kids of nieces and nephews. (my dad is one of 13...there's almost 50 of us cousins...the youngest one is 10yo now)

My kitchen has been filled with a heavenly scent. While at BJ's I smelled it and just had to buy some. It was Easter Lilies. I found smaller ones at Walmart and figured I'd buy 2 of them for my mom and my aunt and take the big bunch back. Well, I never took it back. With all those plants on the kitchen table, it was all you could smell when you walked in the room. I gave my mom the big bunch, my aunt got a smaller one. I suggested to Tom that he either give the last small one to our next door neighbors who helps us out at times. Or take it up to him parents' graveside and perhaps plant it. He hasn't decided what he wants to do with it, so I'm enjoying it still.

One of the things I did in the middle of the night last was redo the inventory list for the concession stand. The dome's version is fine but I wanted one that anyone could pick up and use without explanation. I'd never worked with excel before so it took a bit of playing around to figure out what I was doing. It's done and I'm hoping it makes taking inventory as easy as I think it does. Another thing off my todo list.

Today's agenda is to work on the laundry a bit more. I've already warned the kids that they'll be working on it when they get home. I want to get Allison's shawl completed so I think I'll work on that too. There's a lot more I could add to the list, but for now that's good enough. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get into the girls room and clean...I want to start painting! Oh and Tom and I HAVE to sign the papers for the mortgage and email them back so the credit union can do what they need to do. Because you never know...a couple who's been doing business with you forever and has been paying faithfully on their house for 20yrs, just might have terrible credit. Or not be able to pay for the new mortgage, even if the monthly payments are less then the ones they're paying faithfully now.

OOPS! It's taken me almost 3hrs to get this post done. Lots of distractions today...fighting kids, kids into baskets that don't belong to them, post Easter clean up, breakfast, snacks and coffee making...of which I need to do...If I can shed this little boy from my lap. The good news is...no calls from school so far!!!!

How long is this going to go on?

2010-04-05T05:37:00.000-04:00

I don't like to sleep. I consider it a waste of time. But even I think this is ridiculous! I took Sean into bed last night shortly after 9:30 and promptly fell asleep. No problem...until I'm wide awake and tossing and turning at 1am! I finally snuck out here at 1:30. I thought I'd take a crack at getting Allison's wedding shawl done but I'm not sure where my glasses are right now. I didn't want to get sucked up into the web (nothing personal) if I could help it...so stayed clear of it for a while. Realized that we ran out of clean towels yesterday so threw some in. Got a load of whites ready to go in next since finding socks yesterday was a chore and a half. Sean woke up so I jumped into bed with him again. I might've dozed but for only a few minutes. Then back out here again, switching laundry, towels in the dryer, whites in. Now there's whites in the dryer and washer.

I had been deciding whether to try to go back to sleep for an hour or so. I think I'd realized I'd made my decision when I started stirring a hot cup of coffee. Well, I had to have SOMETHING to go with the baggie of sugar cookies I demolished. Sean's back up again (I swear he's a lighter sleeper then I am) and snuggling on my shoulder. I probably should try to get him back to bed but I'm not sure I can do it with Tom's snooze alarm going off for the next half an hour or so.

Tammy....the dome I refer to lately is the Syracuse Dome. The sports stadium at Syracuse University. Our church as been fundraising there since September, we either pour beer or run a concession stand. Lots of fun!

Third times a charm

2010-04-04T09:23:00.000-04:00

This is the third attempt to get a post up. It'll have to be quick as I'm suppose to in the kitchen making something to bring to my aunt's for Easter dinner. The plan for the day is church for a transmission at 11. Following that is an egg hunt for the kids afterwards. Then it's home to pick up the nonchurch goers and onto my aunt's house for another egg hunt and Easter dinner.

I've been busy but you wouldn't know it. I got home from taking Michelle to work and Luke's eye doctor appt on Wednesday and found my computer with the blue screen of death. Error messages and no amount of rebooting would fix it. So I had to reformat the hard drive which required a recovery disc. Guess what wasn't in the file box like it's suppose to be. I found it on Thursday while straightening up my computer desk. I started fixing it immediately but Michelle got called into work early and I went to my mom and dad's for the day after that. Michelle got us for April's Fool Day. In the middle of the night she switched the livingroom and diningroom furniture around. The table fits in the livingroom very nicely! LOL The sectional in the diningroom....not so much. The kids enjoyed being able to eat at the table and watch tv for a few days. Yes, it stayed like that for a few days.

Friday was GORGEOUS weatherwise! Yet what did I do...spend most of it infront of my computer! I got it up to date, installed the imperative programs, did a bunch of banking and applied for the house refinance. We're finally going to get this over and done with! I was hoping it could be done by the end of the month so I could have a bit of cash for Drew's wedding but it looks like it'll take about 5-6 wks. So probably around the wedding day, but not soon enough for me to utilize it. Now we have to get going on this place and get it fixed up for the appraisal. I'm figuring we have about 2wks, 3 tops. The kids had a ball running in and out all day. It really emphasized that we need to fix securing Oreo better. He didn't get loose but it was a constant thought. He had to stay tied up more then he normally was. I don't like having to tie him up as much as he usually is, much less any more. I also have to do something about his fur. He didn't seem to enjoy the heat too much.

Saturday was another beautiful day. I didn't get out too much that day either. The morning was spent getting ready to leave. The rest of the day was spent working at the dome. At least the walk to and from the dome was totally enjoyable. The night was really windy which was cool. Although a few times it made the drive to pick up Michelle a bit more difficult. I almost forgot about Easter baskets! I was dozing on the couch and thinking about going into bed for good when I remembered. Carrie came in and asked to help when she saw me starting. So we did it together. Sean woke up near the end and offered his help too. He was so excited this morning since he had an idea of what was waiting for him on the kitchen table.

And now we're back to the beginning of the post. I've already made up the scalloped potatoes and they're in the oven. I've thrown in laundry and started on the dishes. Now it's showers for Sean and Danielle, packing up and getting me presentable before 10:45. Goooo ME!

I'm up again

2010-03-31T04:47:00.000-04:00

My sleep is all messed up. I couldn't keep my eyes open while watching American Idol last night so I took Sean into bed shortly after 9:30. And we know what 6 hours added to 9:30 is...so here I am at 4am, wide awake. If it didn't mess up my days so much I really wouldn't mind it. I love having this totally quiet time all to myself. I very rarely get it. But what do to do....type here, crochet, play my game. Guess here wins first.

I ended yesterday's post before I intended to. I was on the phone and just hit publish, guess it's ok. One of the things that had been going through my mind was Liz. I realized laying in bed the other night that I said ALL the kids were here for my birthday and I felt guilty. Of course they ALL weren't here. Lizzy is sorely missed. BUT I know she's in a good place with good people having a life changing experience...and it's a bit easier. One of the best parts of my birthday was that we finalized things and bought Liz's plane ticket home! WOOOHOOOO! I won't say for exactly when as she wants it to be a surprise. Although I'm pretty sure it won't stay that way...sorry Liz.

Carrie got a surprise in the mail yesterday. A letter from Liz! It really made her day. The amazing thing is, Liz mailed it on Feb 22nd. It's postmarked Feb 23rd. It took FIVE weeks to be delivered. I'm not exactly sure on who's part the delay is, but WOW! I've had a box sitting here since February to mail to her. Now I'm not sure if it'll get there in time. I feel so guilty. All those...I'm mailing it out THIS Friday and now it's too late. And Liz's mail box remained empty. I figured it would take two weeks tops, not five...sorry again Liz.

Michelle has been a peach around here lately. She's spent at lease one of her days off deep cleaning an area of the house. Last week it was the woodwork and painting the back door. Yesterday it was the playroom/library/workout room/catch all the stuff you don't know what to do with room. When I was getting dinner out of the oven she was walking by me with black garbage bags chocked full of stuff. I said a bit too loudly...WHAT are you throwing away!?!?!?!?!? She said...It's all garbage. Why do you want to go through each one? It took all I had to say No and to let it go. I'm confident she can tell what should be kept and what shouldn't. Still before sitting here I stood in the middle of the room and wondered...WHAT is she throwing away? Should I go check the bags? Where is the big container of trucks and cars and such? Do I dare open the toy box and see how full or empty it is? I didn't, I just said...I have faith in her and I'm letting it go...and then walked out of the room. How many days left until trash day?

So school meetings yesterday, yes I ended up with more then one. I met with Carrie's teachers and felt totally deflated and sad for Carrie by the time we left. When I go to these things I'm used to hearing...they aren't applying themselves, they know the work but aren't doing the work, if they did their homework there wouldn't be a problem. Not this time. Yes, Carrie COULD be better about doing homework. Yes, she COULD stay after school more often for help. But whether she'd be where she needed to be right now if she did, it's not looking that way. *heavy sigh* The 8th grade team is doing WAY more then they have to to try and get her to passing...including allowing her to take her tests open book. And she still can't make the grades. The good thing is we've started the process to bring the educational specialists from 5C (peds oncology department) in to help. I called them when I got home from the meeting and talked for over 20mins. Hopefully by the end of this week, beginning of next we can start some things. I should've started this LAST year at the latest. I really thought it was more of a slight learning problem with a big lack of effort problem. She's going to get swallowed whole in high school. :o(

My other meeting was with the counselor at the elementary school. I talked with her for almost 20 minutes. I've requested that she meet with Olivia on a regular basis for a while. I've never seen Olivia like she was Monday night and it scared the daylights out of me. She did seem to be a bit more social yesterday and she says she's going to school today. Tom's really been trying to spend some extra time with her too which seems to help...both of them. Someone suggested to me that she's not depressed but doing this for attention. GRrrr! SO WHAT! If she's THAT desperate for attention, isn't that something that needs to be addressed? Actually I wish that was what the problem was. Taking care of attention needs is a lot easier then helping someone take control over depression. When I was talking yesterday the counselor suddenly got alert and quickly asked...Is she home alone right now!?! I assured her she wasn't and that I wouldn't allow that even under normal circumstances. That I had her same concerns and I'm her watching her more closely....Monday was that bad.

So making the phone call after my school meetings yesterday allowed me to check things off of my way overdue TODO list. It was a relief to be able to stop thinking about them and encouraged me to get more off my list/mind. So I made a few more calls and checked off a few more things. Funny how something that is really so simple (dialing a phone) can be so debilitating. Only problem is that now I'll be gone most of tonight due to the calls. I hate not being here after school and for dinner prep. It's always something.

She's still in bed

2010-03-30T09:48:00.000-04:00

I tried to wake Olivia and she stirred for a bit then fell back to sleep. Tried again halfheartedly a second time and again she didn't say much and then fell asleep. I knew I wouldn't push her to go. Driving home from the stores last night I noticed she really did horrible. She's pale and has huge dark circles under her eyes. I don't think it'll hurt her to miss just one more day. I know she has to get back into the everyday stuff but just one more day....

We ended up calling it a night earlier then originally planned. The Netflix kept crapping out on us (stupid dsl!) so the movie was taking forever. While waiting for it to start up for the third time, Sean woke up. So at about 12:15 I said I was going into bed with Sean. Olivia was still awake. Grrrr I'm not sure what time it was exactly when I woke up for good this morning. I know I tossed and turned quite a bit before I finally got up. When I came out into the livingroom it was just after 4. I was about to jump on the computer when I remembered my new game! So I got a few hours of playing in. I'm still not through all the tutorials, but I'm getting there.

I'd thought to visit my parents today but then I remembered I have an appt for noon at the school for Carrie. And then the ped's office called to remind me of an appt for Carrie at 4. Figures, Michelle's schedule changed this week and she has today off, yet I still have to drive into the city. It always seems to happen like that.

One of the stores Olivia and I visited last night was the craft store. I wanted to pick up different yarn for Allison's wedding shawl (and use a 50% off coupon). Olivia was petting all the yarn and mentioned learning a bit more crocheting. She can do a mean chain stitch but hasn't wanted to move on from that. So she just makes chains a mile long then pulls them out and starts again. Maybe we'll work on it today. :o)

Well I got my wish

2010-03-29T23:31:00.000-04:00

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and hugs...they mean a lot to me.

I got to sit next to Olivia all day and give her hugs and kisses. The school counselor called me. Actually Della called me to tell me the counselor was looking for me and I called the counselor back. What can I say...I had a quite a few phone calls this morning. When I saw the school's number pop up I ignored the beep because I figured it was the nurse calling to see why Carrie was home today. I knew when I ignored it that I'd probably get "in trouble" for doing it.

Anyways, the counselor was telling me that Olivia never made it into class. She got off the bus and her teacher found her crying at her locker and sent her down to the counselor. The counselor couldn't get her composed enough to send to class and she wanted to know what I wanted to do. Of course I said I'd come and get her immediately.

The poor girl has been crying all day, hasn't smiled or done too much and isn't even making eye contact with anyone. I brought her with me when I drove Michelle to work and ran to a few stores. We talked a lot but still....she's not right. Right now she keeps trying to sit in the hall and not go to bed. I finally had her climb into Sean's little bed at the foot of our bed. Hopefully she'll fall asleep quickly since being tired doesn't help anything. I feel bad because I got stern with her tonight and told her she can't continue like this. That Billy wouldn't want to see her like this. (she knows that) and that it's not doing anyone any good to continue. She knows she has to go to school tomorrow. I just hope she can really do it.

All the kids came over today. Not all at once, Michelle had to work until 9. Pat and Alex had to leave because Alex had to be at work by 11. We had make your own pizzas, a really nice salad and cantaloupe slices. Pat gave me a Rubik's cube (said I could beat Catherine's time ROFL!) and a Mancala game. Drew gave me a bottle of wine and beautiful white tulips. Michelle gave me an Xbox game...Final Fantasy XIII!!! Now if only I had time to spend hours and hours playing it. Maybe in June lol.

Ok....the kids have Julie and Julia up on Netflix and are bugging me to come sit with them and pay full attention to it.

I know sweetie....I know

2010-03-29T09:01:00.000-04:00

I finished posting the last post and turned my attention to Olivia. She's the only one to get on the second trip bus and it can be hard for her. There's no one here to keep you moving and going when all you want to do is go back to bed. She was ready and sitting in the other computer chair with her back to me. I could see she was dragging and so was trying to encourage. I was saying attitude was everything. If you mope around, it'll be a blechy day. When you decide to be happy and make it a nice day, it usually ends up being a good day. Then she said...Mom....I and squeaked something out.

She has been asking for me to homeschool her so I thought maybe she just didn't want to go to school and was repeating her request to be homeschooled. I spun the chair around and found her slumped down with tears running down her cheeks (the bus is due to pull up at any second). It took a bit of prodding but I finally got it out of her.....I miss Uncle Billy! Oh sweetie...I know! So do I, so does dad and everyone else. It's hard but we just have to get through it and push on. She got herself together enough to be able to get on the bus when it pulled up....I hope. I'm hoping she didn't breakdown again. I just wanted to hug her up and keep her home. But she's missed way too much school. Besides, I know one of the best ways to get through those feelings is to keep busy and get on with everyday life. Still, I wish I could peek into her room and make sure she's ok. Even better, sit next to her and give her hugs and kisses all day. OK...now it's my turn to go and cry.

Feeling 100 years old

2010-03-29T00:11:00.059-04:00

I am EXTREMELY achy and slow. I'd say today but it's actually a multiple day affair. Thursday I worked the concession stand at the dome for two games. I left the house at 1:30pm and I walked in the door at 2:30am. Not only did I work almost 12 straight hours, I'd been up since about 3:30 that morning. I've been sleeping lousy. I don't know if it was the concessions on my mind or getting old that caused it. I'm taking it as getting old as it's happened to me a lot in the last few months. I was ready to quit working even before I ate breakfast. We've been having problems making sure everyone gets a chance to take a break. I spent all Thurs morning working on a schedule that would rotate a group of 4 out every 20 mins. I think everyone got at least 3, if not 4 of the scheduled breaks. They all liked it so I'll count that a success! Working it out on Saturday morning was a bit easier although we had to switch a bunch around once we started working.

I walked in the door on Thurs night/Friday morning to Michelle holding Sean, who'd just woken up. He immediately jumped into my arms. I took off my coat, kicked off my sneaks and tried wrestling out of my pantyhose with one hand. Finally I got free and managed to get my butt off the couch and took Sean to bed. With him not feeling well still, he slept lighter then normal so I was essentially a human pacifier all night. My muscles kept trying to cramp up on me or were spazzing. I felt like my dad with his restless leg syndrome. yet I wasn't sleeping through it like he does. To say I was sore and my muscles were tight in the morning was an understatement. I remembered my high school gym teacher's advice (hey! I did learn something in gym! lol) that when you're like that the best thing to do is just get moving. Ya gotta get the blood flowing to those tired muscles! So up I got and cleaning I went but only waist high. If it involved bending over, I left it for someone else. Tom came home in the afternoon to find a few piles on the floor waiting for someone to finish sweeping them into the dustpan. He was a peach and did it for me. Michelle got into the act later in the day and scrubbed all the woodwork. She even painted the back kitchen door before heading to bed. It looks a lot better! Sean, Danielle and Michelle were the only ones here most of the night. So we went to bed about 10 or so. And again I slept lousy.

Tom had taken the day off. After the school kids left in the morning (except Olivia...she said she didn't feel good and I was too tired and achy to argue with her. Besides, she kept Danielle and Sean busy most of the day) he left. He picked up Pat and they went and put new tires on our car. They also got the alignment done. Originally it was pulling to the left so hard that my arm would be tired from trying to keep it going straight. If you let go of the wheel you immediately ended up into the oncoming traffic. I haven't driven it since then but Tom says it's like driving a brand new car! woohoo! Especially now that he's changed the oil on Saturday.

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We had concessions again on Saturday. I moved a bit slower and it was a bit harder to pick up the heavy stuff. I'm sure most people there were feeling the same. We plowed through though and did really well. I think we were home by 10 or 10:30 that night. Sean had been sleeping on the couch and woke up when he heard me come in. That's when I heard it...the cough...it wasn't quite croupy, kind of a semi bark. But it was close enough that I figured we'd be spending some time that night in the steamy bathroom or outside under the stars trying to clear him up. Luckily none of that happened and I slept, if that's what you can call it. I did my usual wide awake a few times through the night. It didn't help that I had the dog snuffling in the back of my head because he needed to go out. Or that the wind was smashing Tom's huge wooden shamrock cutout against the house. I finally got Sean into a sound enough sleep that I could sneak out of bed without rousing him at 7. With how I felt and knowing that Sean and Danielle were still feverish on and off with colds and coughs...I'd decided we weren't going to church that morning. Then Della called a bit after 10am....

She was telling me that she wasn't going to church either and would get my girls home sometime that day. When she mentioned trying to get a trip to the grocery store I said I was out of everything and needed to go. With that a grocery trip was planned. She was at my house in less then an hour and the two of us were on our way. It was SO nice! We're rarely out together without kids. Although they make it fun too, it's nice to be able to just talk freely and openly without interruptions. We were good girls and hit only the grocery stores. Well with a side trip through McD's drive-thru for coffee and a snack.

It was great! Tom and the kids brought most of the groceries in. Everyone put them away immediately (we usually have bags of non perishables sitting on the floor for days). And to top it off Tom had dinner done and ready to eat! Yay me!

One of the conditions of me going with Della was that I had to buy myself a birthday cake or cake mix for Tom to make. I opted for lemon cake mix with a can of whipped cream frosting (never had it so we'll see how it is) and a cream cheese one to be mixed together. Tom and the kids made up the cake before bed. Hopefully it doesn't get invaded by lady bugs before they can frost it. I hope it's as yummy as I'm thinking it will be.

I've had a good morning so far. All the kids have been wishing me happy birthdays and giving me tons of lovin'....what more can a woman ask for?

I NEED coffee!!!

2010-03-24T11:07:00.000-04:00

Sean and I spent another night on the couch. Not a good place to sleep even under the best of conditions. Add a burning up 2yo and a mom who's on the alert to possible barfing and you have one fuzzy headed, sleepy eyed mommy. Sean on the other hand is a lot more animated today. I actually had the opportunity to make oatmeal and eat it solo.

One of the times I woke up was at 5. I debated on whether I wanted to try to get into bed for an hour or so. Figured it would be best to stay put then Sean made the decision for me. He was up, gabbing and totally animated. No way I could go into the bedroom with him now, he'd wake up Tom...so we stayed put and eventually fell back to sleep. Next thing I know it's 7:00!!!! The bus would be here in 25 minutes! The kids should've been up half an hour ago. To add to things Michelle also needed to use the bathroom since she had to be out the door at 8. I hate when the mornings start like that!

Luke and Jake eased things a bit by not feeling well and staying home. Carrie and Eileen made it out the door....Carrie with her medicine in hand (she's doing awesome with it btw!), Eileen with her permission slip and $5 to go on a bowling field trip. Olivia up and ready, opted to go with me and get dropped off at school instead of waiting for the bus at home with an awake Jake. Danielle was still sleeping when we left but awake with Jake when we got home. Luke and Val are still sleeping, yes, Val is here again.

I don't have the gumption to get anything done...including crocheting. I'm fuzzy headed with a slight ache. Whether I'm getting sick or just tired, I have no idea. My main goal is to sneak into the shower by myself and then maybe a nap before I pick up Michelle at 4. I guess getting this house appraisal ready by my birthday isn't going to happen. :o(

Well need to go get some ibuprofen in me and make another cup of coffee. It seems Sean decided my last cup of coffee needed to be cleaned, so he put a wipe in it while I was getting their clothes out. If anyone has some dynamite they can spare, I could use a few sticks under this chair! Where's the cleaning fairy when you need her?

A looong night and day

2010-03-24T01:08:00.003-04:00

It's Sean's turn to be sick. He was up at 2:30 and burning up. I pulled him into bed which in hindsight was a mistake because as he calls it...he pluked. So I've basically been up since 3am. I've also been holding and nursing Sean continuously since then. I just got him to stay asleep on the couch so I could go potty and grab something more to eat...I was starving!

Jake and Eileen stayed home today too. Eileen missed the first trip bus and then threw up a little before the 2nd trip bus came. I'm not sure what exactly is/was wrong with Jake. I just know he slept a good part of the day and was pretty low key. Danielle is sick again too. Her nose is running non stop and she has a yucky cough.

Now I'm scared. I can NOT be sick!!! We're working our biggest concession at the dome for the sweet 16 tournament on Thursday and Saturday.

And Sean's up again

Playing house

2010-03-22T10:41:00.000-04:00

That's what I felt like we were doing all weekend...just a young couple who borrowed someone's kids for the weekend and were playing house. It was fun minus the parts I wanted to scream or sit down and cry! lol Even though it was a relatively easy weekend I still found myself getting frustrated and starting on a pity party for myself. I'm the only one who has to make plans to do anything...even go to the bathroom or clean. I'm the only one who has to stop what I'm doing a zillion times to check on kids, stop fights, pick up a different mess. I wish I could just go in and lay down whenever I felt like it...and on and on and on. It took all I had not to let myself dive deep into that pool.

Mostly my problem was trying to accomplish way more then I usually do with no one to help occupy Danielle and Sean. Eventually Sean and Danielle got into playing house. They traveled from room to room, switching the scenario and leaving a mess each time. First it was the bathroom with Sean being the baby. It involved tons of blankets and flip flops (have nooo idea why). Then Danielle was Santa Claus and visiting little kids' houses and giving out tons of toys. Finally they were just a regular family who happened to NEED a fish tank. At least according to Danielle as she was walking down the hall with one of my empty square 3 gallon water bottles.

I cleaned out my lazy susan pantry, the spice cupboard, the coffee/tea cupboard, did 2 loads of dishes, washed a ton of pans, picked up the kitchen floor, cleaned off a few counters, did laundry non stop, tried to fix the little wooden bed and lost the open bottle of wood glue in the process. I put it down somewhere between my bedroom and the front door that I had heard open and close. I found it eventually the next day in a pile of laundry in the hall. Luckily the glue stayed in the bottle. So if you drove by my house and saw a little boy standing in the front yard with just a t-shirt and diaper on. Thank you for assuming he wasn't some neglected kid that needed CPS to protect him from his supposed parents. I really was right behind him...at least as quickly as this body would allow.

It was a beautiful day out so we couldn't spend it all inside. Finally after Sean trying to escape out the front door for the umpteenth time, I grabbed their boots and jackets and took them out. They rode on ride ons, jumped on the trampoline and went on swings while I sat at the picnic table and crocheted a few squares of Allison's shawl.

Tom and I both went to the store on Friday and bought things for a really nice dinner. I had fun shopping for only 5 people. I suddenly could afford to buy things that normally I wouldn't look at like brown and serve sausage...one box fed us all! lol Tom had picked up stuffed clams, crab and shrimp cakes, asparagus, and a surprise of 2 T-bone steaks. I bought the salad fixings, mushrooms and potatoes. Funny thing is, I bought the mushrooms without a plan. It's one of those things I could suddenly afford. (I normally have to buy a ton to satisfy all the mushroom lovers here). I hadn't had it in a while and wanted, so in the cart it went.

It was a nice dinner although it didn't work out entirely as we thought. Sean fell asleep at 6 no matter how hard I tried to keep him awake. Danielle asked me to put her to bed at 7 while I was making her dinner. Eventually she put a diaper on herself and climbed into my bed on her own. And then what I feared, happened....Sean woke up. We set his batman plate and booster seat at the end of the table between us. He really enjoyed eating with us and ate a ton (for him). It was fun to see him take a bite of something new then exclaim....MMMMMM! Dis is good! The one major glitch in the meal...Tom couldn't find the fresh asparagus he bought. We figured when he bagged the groceries, he left it on the counter. (bought it at Aldi's) I found it the next day in the cheese/lunchmeat drawer.

Sunday was nice since I didn't need to be at church until 3:30. I got up, made a pot of coffee and a pan of eggs with leftover mushrooms and steak from the night before. Did a lot of laundry and little things but not much of any one thing. Took Michelle to work at 1:45 and then busted my rear to get out the door again at 3:30 for church. We didn't have a regular meeting but instead sat around having fellowship over cups of coffee while the kids played. It was so nice! When I got home Pat was here with our car!!! Woohooo! Driving to pick up Michelle was a bit less of a hassle and definitely cheaper! (van gets 10 mpg, car gets about 30)

Now it's back to the same old, same old. Wrestling kids out of bed, trying to make it look like I actually accomplished something this weekend and get a hand up on this place. Maybe I'll just open all the cupboard doors and admire the orderly shelves for a bit.

So much for that plan

2010-03-18T10:11:00.000-04:00

Danielle was out in the hall screaming for me at 6:15 this morning. Very unlike her. When I picked her up I understood why...she was burning up! Poor thing. Guess that clinches it...no school meeting for me today. Besides, Michelle isn't home yet (went with Val to a friend's house for the night) so not sure who'd have babysat anyways. At least I didn't forgot to call the school and cancel. Just wish I didn't feel like they're thinking I'm making excuses to avoid the meeting. I'm still stuffed up from cleaning my room and am fighting a headache. Hopefully I'm not getting a sinus infection. I have too much going on in the next week or so to feel sick.

I was so excited last night. Michelle got out of work at 4 and the kids didn't have anywhere they needed to be. I thought it would be the perfect time for Tom and I to go to dinner. Michelle had bought us a gift card for Red Lobster or Olive Garden for Christmas and we haven't used it yet. I called Tom to ask him if he wanted to go and then I remembered....he's on call! GRRRRRR! We talked about going next week but I'm not going to be home all day Thursday or Saturday. (concession stand at the dome for the NCAA tournament). It's frustrating, on the surface it looks like we won't have any free time until JUNE!

If Tom wasn't on call, this weekend was gearing up for potential fun. Luke, Jake and Carrie are going to be gone for the youth weekend. Eileen and Olivia are going to my sister's. Michelle will probably have plans but we don't need to worry about her anyways. That leaves Tom, Danielle, Sean and I at home! Thinking on it more, I guess we can work around the on call thing (unless he really gets called out). Maybe feed the little ones and get them to bed at a decent time. Then we can have our own dinner and a movie at home. Hmmmm a really nice salad, some crablegs or a steak with asparagus and baked potatoes on the side. Last time we had the opportunity to do it and tried it, Drew stopped by for a visit just as we were about to eat! lol

Pat and Alex bought a new car this week! They're planning on putting new tires on our car and detailing it. I guess we should see it this weekend. Oh yeah, it's Thursday! Pat's starting his new job today. He will now become a state employee. :oD He'll have health insurance again!

Poor Sean, he's lost. Danielle has gone back to bed and he's either trying to nurse or wandering around looking for something to do. Guess I'll go and read him his new book from Dolly Parton.

One last thought before I leave....Perimenopause SUCKS!

I don't want to be IRISH!

2010-03-18T09:35:00.000-04:00

Getting Sean dressed today I threw a short sleeved green shirt at him and said...Here put this shirt on and then you'll be Irish. Sean was totally offended. I don't want to be Irish. I tried to convince him that it was ok and fun to be Irish. NO!!!! I DON'T WANT TO BE IRISH!!!! I reached into his tote and brought out a green striped long sleeve shirt and asked....do you want to wear this shirt instead? His answer...SURE! and off he went.

Tom's a little disappointed that there's no corned beef and cabbage today. Me, I'd like to have it because it's yummy. Unfortunately it's just too expensive for as many people as we have.

One good thing about running out of gas on Monday....I got my census forms filled out. Normally I'd just stick them into the pile on my computer desk and forget about them. But I'd gotten the mail just before getting in the van. So I took the down time and got them done. It went right into the mailbox when I got home.

Allison stopped by today...she got a peek at the baby again. This time they found out the gender. My grandbaby is a granddaughter!! woohooo! Not that I wanted one sex over the other. They have no clue on a name...haven't even discussed it. So I can now get rid of all the clothes that are too small for Sean....or can I? I tried to today and there were outfits I really really wanted to squirrel away for no reason then that they were cute and I liked them. And I wonder why I have so much clutter.

Danielle has a mind like a steel trap. It amazes me what she remembers. Today she was begging me to go to where Michelle used to work. Since Michelle is working at the only place she's ever worked, we were lost. So she tried again... Where we walked and they had a playground. Finally after a few more attempts to explain the place Michelle figured it out...she meant the college! She wanted to go on the nature/walking trail there. I assured her after the mud dried up a bit we'd try to go.

Yesterday I ended up buying the most expensive vacuum cleaner bags in the world! I stopped at the dollar store for them since they use to carry them...not anymore. I spent $19 anyways. Then it was onto the Dollar General to see if they had any....nope but again I spent $19. I got the most awesome deals and want to go back! Shoes I thought were 70% off, rang up 90% off. So Eileen and Olivia have corduroy clogs for $.70 each. Danielle and Sean have really decent size 12 sneaks for $1 each. Sean is now the proud owner of 18 prs of size 4 fruit of the loom white briefs. (6prs for $2.50). So then it was onto the village hardware store. They had them! And again, I spent $19 in there. The really funny thing is...as desperate as I was to buy the bags....I haven't used them yet!

Tomorrow I have to go to school for one of the kids. I'm so afraid that I'm going to get busy and forget about it.

Hmmmmm...I hit the publish post button and went promptly to bed. It never published.

The STUPID Dog!!!

2010-03-17T02:08:00.005-04:00

I don't know why I'm still up. At first it was because I had a load of laundry that needed to get done for the morning. Now...I'm just up. I tried to go to bed, really I did. My hands started itching to crochet while I was laying there. So I decided I wouldn't fight it and got back up. But did I pick up my hook? Noooo! I decided I had to come here an talk instead. :o)

All I can say is....it's going to be a loooong summer! In my last post I mentioned Sean letting Oreo out the door. Well he did it again later in the afternoon! And again I was right there and got him leashed up quickly. That means I ended up going on two short runs today. It got us outside for a while...so everything was ok.

Until this evening. Carrie opened the back door to ask Tom for a ride over to church. While she was talking Oreo managed to get through her legs and outside. Carrie ran out after him and caught him quickly. He came in the back door and walked through the house to the front door. The steel door was open but the glass storm door was closed. No problem. Oreo pushed on it hard with his paw and it popped open and out he went. Carrie ran after him again. Then I heard it...a car was coming down the road. I yelled to Eileen to grab his leash and run out there to try to help Carrie. (I was nursing an almost asleep Sean) Eileen jumped up grabbed the leash and ran out the door. The car drove by and I watched to see if Oreo was chasing it....I didn't see him. I listened to hear if the car had to slow down or stop...it didn't. Carrie was at the top of the driveway and Eileen was now at the bottom of the front porch stairs. Suddenly Eileen changed directions and ran into the house yelling....Oreo got hit by the car!!! I jumped up, dumped Sean on the couch and ran up to the road. The SUV had pulled into the next door neighbors driveway and was turning around. I couldn't see Oreo. Carrie said he was down the road. He had rolled after the car hit him and then started running. He came running through the hedgerow and ran up to Luke who was standing on the front porch. No limping, whimpering, tender spots, or labored breathing...PHEW!

We talked to the driver for a bit who we happened to know. (Her son and Jake were once best friends). I told her I think the dog was ok. She responds with...yeah cause I was driving so slow. (BULL!) I ask if they were ok. She says yeah, as long as there's no damage to my car. I look at the front of her car....it has these HUGE grille guard bars over the front of it. I observed that I doubted he could do any damage through those bars. But you bet your bippy she pulled out of our driveway, drove down the street a few feet and got out and inspected it herself. Knowing her I'll probably get a bill for some damage she found.

So you'd think having a close encounter with a car would put a damper on his car chasing drive...not so! He was on his line and started to get excited as the woman pulled away. I yelled at Oreo and he calmed down but the next car to drive by was way too enticing to him. He tried to listen to me and not run but as the car got in front of the house he couldn't contain himself any longer and ran as far as his line would allow him. UGH!! I have to start working with him more.

Now that I've started reading on different dog training philosophies, I'm nodding off.... so off to bed I go.

A slow down

2010-03-16T12:09:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a sort of a take it easy day. I didn't get anything major accomplished...just got through the day (which can be a lot in and of itself). Danielle and Sean were pretty needy yesterday morning so we hung out for the day. I don't blame them, I tended to put them off a lot last weekend while working in my room. So we read books and played at Sean's favorite place...pbskids.org. Ask him to say his ABCs and he does... A, B, C, PBSkids dot org!

Michelle had to go into work at her usual 4pm which means we have to leave by 3:30 at the latest. I had us leaving a little earlier because Tom hadn't gotten gas the night before and the van was on E! What I didn't realize until I got in the van was that it was beyond E! As I pulled out of the driveway I said...I hope we can make it to the village (3 miles)...well we didn't. Luckily we had just turned off our road when the van started sputtering (less then a mile from home). I called Tom who left work immediately (first day of getting out at 3:30 lol). Michelle tried calling into work for almost 45mins and got a constant busy signal. She had to go to the bathroom so decided to walk home while we waited for Tom. The amazing thing....only ONE person stopped to ask if Eileen and I were ok...our next door neighbor. The REALLY amazing thing...one of the people who just kept on driving was someone I know well! He just smiled and waved as he passed by us sitting in the van on the side of the road. Who knows, maybe he was late for a very important date. So Tom went home, got the gas can, ran to the gas station and got us back on the road. Michelle was 80mins late to work and I was glad I'd decided NOT to bring the little ones with me.

Between my stuffy nose and the time change it was hard to keep my eyes open on the way home. Luckily I had Eileen with me to keep me going. I jumped onto my bed in my nice clean room shortly after dinner....for just a few minutes. Before I knew it, Danielle and Sean joined me and then Tom. Eileen had mentioned she had had problems with a math test and needed help correcting it....so in she entered. We all laid there working, talking, playing and relaxing. It brought a smile to my face since that's some of my fondest memories of growing up....relaxing with my parents on their bed.

Olivia asked to go with me to pick up Michelle. At first I was going to say wait until tomorrow but then I figured...why put her off. It'll be good to have some one on one time with her. On the way to the van I realized she wouldn't want to come tomorrow anyways since American Idol is on. lol We got into the van and her mouth went nonstop. :o) Her first thing was to ask if she could be homeschooled. It's been a greater topic of discussion with her lately. I asked her why she wanted to be homeschooled. She had 3 reasons....

1) She wouldn't have to wake up early every morning. She always feels sick when she wakes up early.

2) The bus smells and it makes her feel even sicker to ride on it.

3) The kids in her grade are gross. They are already starting to date and have all this drama going on.

Hmmm

I'm getting a slow start to the day. There are beautiful blue skies out there and I want to take advantage of it. I'd thought to do some laundry and see how the septic manages. So the plan is to throw in a load for the dryer, then a load of bedding to go on the line and then another for the dryer. If I stay on top of it and change it out as soon as it's done it should get almost 2 loads washed in the time the dryer dries a load. I need to get to the store and buy some vacuum cleaner bags. Seems the grocery bag full of them is missing. Probably thrown away by a kid in a mad cleaning spree.

Grrrr! While gathering sheets for the next load of laundry, Sean let Oreo out the door. Thankfully he's started coming quickly when he realizes you have his leash and will take him for a walk. Only this time we went for a run...down the street along our property and the neighbors a bit, then turn around and back past the house to the other property line taking breaks for pottying. Luckily the walk doesn't have to be long to be satisfying to him...as long as he gets to go along the road for a bit. Now I'm really ready for a nap and the laundry is still waiting.

It is done enough!

2010-03-14T23:56:00.079-04:00

YAY! My room is the cleanest it's been in over 10 years. There are still some areas that need to be taken care of but they aren't in jeopardy of overtaking the room again, so it's ok. I spent most of yesterday weeding out the filing cabinet and going through boxes of papers. Each of the kids, Tom and I each have our own file in the cabinet for important and memorable papers. The kids really enjoyed getting their files out and looking over things. Especially their journals and books they wrote during Young Author's Week. (I wish our school still did that) I found the receipt for our very first computer I bought for Christmas of '97...a 233 with MMX capabilities, the new and upcoming thing you never heard about after that year. Price tag..$1523.00!!!! Thing is, I was so proud of how cheap I got it for! lol

Now I want to clean off the paper clutter on my computer desk. It was so hard to stay on track. I just wanted to sit on the floor and thumb through my years of cross stitch magazines. They looked like so much fun! But I didn't. I sorted them by year and filed them away...why, I'm not so sure. Maybe I'll start it back up again. It did remind me that there were some designs in there that could inspire afghans!

I have mostly Olivia to thank for pushing on at the end and taking care of the little things that are so hard to figure out what to do with. Drew and Allison had stopped by last night and wanted to talk about the wedding. Allison pointed out that she only has 64 days left and she didn't even have the guest list nailed down yet. She'd like to get the invitations printed out and mailed by the end of the week. So while I sat out here talking with them, Olivia worked away in my bedroom...clearing off my dresser, picking up all my little piles of stuff waiting to be dealt with, etc. Her and Eileen finished it up for good this afternoon.

We took the wooden toddler bed out of their room and moved it to the foot of my bed. The hope is that eventually Sean will acclimate to being in bed by himself and actually use the thing. He seems excited enough. Last night when we were talking about it he told me...Me get a big big boy bed mom...You sleep on top bunk!

So with Allison and Drew here, I didn't make it over to church for the sister's gathering. They've been to our house 2 Saturdays in a row to talk to us and we haven't been here...I just didn't feel right leaving them in the middle of everything. Spacewise they are going to be tight. The place holds 180 max so they're figuring 150 comfortably. With just immediate family and aunts and uncles (no cousins) they had 90+ people. They were torn about what to do about the cousins. After much discussing and gnashing of teeth I think we've finally settled on 21yo and up only. They also didn't include...and guest when inviting a lot of single people. I'm sure some feelings are going to be hurt, like my sister's girls. But we can only do so much with the room we have. Who knows, we may get a look at the place and figure we can fit more then we thought and change things with the cousins. We'll have to look at it first (it's closed for the winter until next month). It kills me to leave anyone out and with me doing the food, cost to add more won't be THAT much more.

Allison is having a friend of the family make her wedding dress. We'd talked about what style she was thinking of. She mentioned liking something strapless but it might be risky for her body type. I suggested maybe a shawl to wear over it. So that's what I've been doing with my online time....looking at crochet shawl patterns. I think I might try to get something started tomorrow.

My idea that my bedroom being taken care of would make me feel better and change my attitude about the whole house was correct! It's so nice to wake up and not have to try to figure out HOW I'll get in there and take care of the disaster area that day, only to fail. I actually like being in my room! I WANT my house to look the same. And I don't have to worry about my bedroom door being closed everytime someone walks in the front door!

And true to form, the rest of the house has fallen down around everyone in the meantime. My next goal is to finish taking care of the spackling and clean up the stairs really well. Then move onto the main hall. It's where residual piles of clothes from my room ended up. I really should go to the laundromat one of these days too. I have 2 - 5 gallon pails of paint in the basement. One is an Antique white Behr for the halls and the other is flat white for the ceilings from the last time we painted. I could get a good portion of the painting done without purchasing anything but paint pads.

Well I've nodded off here a few times midsentence so need to get my fanny into bed.

I can't breathe!

2010-03-13T06:39:00.040-05:00

Thank goodness for Claritin otherwise I'd be wheezing something fierce too. WHY can't a breathe? Allergies...I've been cleaning my room! All this time saying I'm going to, I'm going to or I want to and I've finally done it. I'm not completely done but I'm hoping to finish it up today. No sense putting it off and making myself sick at another time. Plus I know if it's not completely done, what I did get done will be undone quickly.

I have a lot of clothes to wash and I'm dreading it. Most of it is stuff I wasn't sure what to do with to begin with. Should I save it for Danielle? Give away? Trash? Where I would've automatically gotten rid of stuff that's too small for Danielle and Sean, I'm saving for Drew and Allison's baby. They'll be having an u/s on the 19th and have decided to try to find out what the sex is (originally Allison didn't want to, but everyone else did so she's going with it). If everything goes according to plan I'll know which set of clothes to save and be able to ditch the other (minus a few special pieces of course lol). I'm thinking I may need to go to the laundromat to get this done. Our yard is pretty saturated with all the snow melt and the septic is running slow. But I'm not 100% committed on it yet.

The other projects in there are totes of craft supplies I need to decide what to do with. A filing cabinet that hasn't been used in quite a while and boxes of papers to weed through. I haven't decided if these projects need to be done to feel done in there. I'm thinking at least the paper aspect should be as it's easy to get away from me. Plus it'll allow me to declutter my computer desk a bit.

This morning I was laying in bed thinking...If I got out the ceiling paint, it would improve this room a lot! I'm pretty sure I even have the paint for the room down in the basement (bought new paint a few times but haven't used it...oldest stuff isn't usable). So maybe I'll paint before I move onto another room. I'm afraid that if I don't, it'll never get done. (it's the one room that's never been painted since the house was built...20+ yrs ago)

Not only are my sinuses suffering from this. Everything else is. While I'm cleaning, the little ones are out and about uncleaning everything else. I was deep in some clothes sorting when I heard the telltale noise of marker on the wall. I yelled and jumped up to see Danielle running down the hall. She managed to decorate quite a bit before I came to my senses and realized what the noise was. *heavy sigh* Earlier in the morning Sean had poured cereal for the neighborhood, luckily into bowls. We cleaned/ate them up after school. :o) It was so hard to stop working last night because I was worried I wouldn't start back up again. That meant that other then snacking, the kids didn't eat dinner before they left for activity club. Dinner was ready when they got home at 9pm though...I was starving!!! lol

Ah daylight savings time! I love it and hate it at the same time. I hate it because it messes up the kids for a while. It'll be hard to get them to bed. I love it because there's more daytime in the evening!!! Plus Tom gets out of work a half an hour early...giving him even more daylight at home. He also goes in half an hour earlier...giving us a less hectic morning routine. He's out the door before the kids need to use the bathroom instead of them waiting for him to be done so they can get in there.

Well, people are starting to stir. I need to go grab something to eat so I can get back in my room before my butt takes over my brain and convinces it to stay in this comfy chair instead. There's a sister's get together at church today and it would be nice if I could finish up, wash up and get over there sometimes today!

Can I just crawl back in my bed please?

2010-03-12T12:15:00.001-05:00

Oh it's one of those days. Not one specific thing is getting to me, just a bunch of little itty bitty ones. Mind racing with a todo list a mile long before my eyes open, major messes in my face before I even get out of bed, everything and everyone calling for my attention at once, taking one step forward and 5 steps back. Then there's the emotional stuff...missing Billy and my inlaws, Tom's uncle passing, missing Liz, Val, us verus them situation that I'm seriously trying to avoid.

So I can sit here and wallow or I can look around again. There's Danielle sitting on my lap, arms wrapped around my neck, squeezing hard. She told me...I hugged you so you would be better. Wiping my tears. Then sniffing me she says....Mommy, you smell so good!...and she sniffs some more. lol Sean who's dancing around here singing a song without a care in the world other then to convince me I want to sit down for a few minutes so he can nurse and snuggle. The big hairy kid...all clean and fluffy, nuzzling me for some pets, head in my lap with a huge sigh, ready for the luvin' to start.

Then there's the stuff I can't see right now. A friend on the phone who's willing to listen and talk about things. :oD Little girls in school who'd love to be home instead. A fine looking husband hard at work for us, even if he'd rather be outside playing in the mud. A grandbaby on the way and two weddings to plan. An income coming into the house and our bills up to date. A nice, adequate in size, sturdy house around me...we just won't look down for now...what we can't see won't hurt us. Well, maybe we should look down, this stuff can hurt us if we step just right. But for the moment I have it on /ignore. A working vehicle (and maybe SOON TWO of them!!) to get us where we need or want to go. A full tank of propane...without me needing to call for a refill...woohhooo! Plenty of ingredients for good food. Longer days and more sunshine ahead.

PHEW!!! Feeling better all ready! Now I need to take the bull by the horns and just do what I need to do. Today is Michelle's day off so no driving for me. I think I'll ignore everything else and get my bedroom taken care of. If I can at least get rid of the chaos I wake up to in there every morning I think things will start off better each day. Plus it'll give Tom and I a place where we can connect more. Right now it's just a place where we sleep.

Ok...can't get to work while my butt is in this chair (as comfy as it is). Off I go!!!!

Break out the Birkenstocks!!!

2010-03-11T15:17:00.000-05:00

This week the weather has been BEAUTIFUL! And to the utter joy of my feet I've started wearing my Birkenstocks again. Oh it feels great to not have itchy socks and stuffy sneaks on.

Yesterday we spent most of it outside. Sean and Danielle rode on the ride ons on the front walk while I did pooper scooper duty in the front yard. We HAVE to get Oreo a better place to be outside. Hopefully we'll have a new system worked out soon. I also swept off the front porch, walkway and yard...most of dog hair. You could practically pet the walkway and the grass along it, it was so bad. The hair battle inside is driving me crazy so it was nice to be able to see such an improvement outside. We also jumped on the trampoline for quite a while. With Luke's help I managed to get the last huge hunk of snow and ice off it. It's nice to have a dry and warm (being black...it absorbs the heat) spot to hang out on. Last night the kids were out there in the dark for a looong time.

The kids are already dressed and excited to be outside this morning. I'm putting them off for a bit as I have other plans. Top of the list is to give Oreo a bath, brush him out and douse him in flea powder. I've been brushing and dematting him for the last 4 or 5 days. The job has brought to my attention just how bad his flea problem is. The warmer weather isn't helping either. The poor guy is being driving crazy with the itching. So we'll do some immediate results things this week and go for the long term results next week (payday).

I also want to start concentrating on a room a day. The idea is to deep clean it so then I can start painting. I'd like to get the house appraised by my birthday at the end of the month. Who knows maybe my usual birthday wish may actually be fulfilled....to have my house and especially my bedroom cleaned!

Val popped in on Monday. She turned 20 on Tuesday and needed a few things for her day trip to NYC. She'd already picked up what I'd bought her for her birthday at Luke's party (12 pack of Arnold palmer, some breast petals from the dollar store and Aveeno lotion...plus after Christmas I had bought her some Gwen Stefani perfume that was marked down). It was amicable with a slight hint of chilliness. I emailed her about it later and she emailed me back. Apparently I'm not the mom I once was. Oh well, can't please everyone. She came by again last night to get some clothes for her trip to South Carolina today. It was a little bit better. She made a concerted effort and that's a lot from her. Usually once you've offended her, you're done and over.

And now it's the afternoon. The first trip kids are off the bus getting a snack. Michelle's in the bathroom, racing the clock as usual, taking a shower before she's due out the door in less then 20mins. I successfully gave Oreo a bath, took the little ones outside for quite a while, had cereal at the picnic table, jumped on the trampoline and worked on Oreo's matted hair quite a few times. I'm not exactly sure what's for dinner yet. I have a 1hr ride to the city and back to drop off Michelle. Need to get on the kids to do their homework when all they want to do is go outside and try to keep Sean from going outside without supervision. Not to mention a ton of other things. The room of the day was to be the kitchen. I haven't gotten in there for more then 5 mins yet. Maybe after dinner...but not counting on it. *huge sigh*

OK...we're down to 10 mins and counting until take off....need to get off here.

Oh what a weekend!

2010-03-10T19:27:00.000-05:00

We had a great weekend! I was a bit worried on Friday evening though. I had gone out for the day with Della...nothing too stressful or strenuous...just meandering through the stores and chatting. BUT I ended up shutting down after dinner. I couldn't get myself to get up and do anything. Finally about 9:30 I grabbed Danielle and Sean and went to bed for the night.

I haven't been sleeping well for the last year or so. I have a period every night when I'm awake...usually sometime in the 3am hour. I toss and turn and doze off here and there for a few minutes but mostly I'm awake. Well a 9:30 bedtime doesn't help. I was up and raring to go by 5am Saturday morning. I threw in a few loads of laundry, did dishes, cleaned bathrooms and picked up the kitchen floor all before anyone else woke up. The plan was to leave by noon, 1:00 at the latest. I was doing good and was on track until I realized that if I'm going swimming...I had to SHAVE! lol So we were a little late leaving but it was only half an hour or so.

Our first stop was the chinese buffet for lunch. Danielle and Sean were SO good! It made for a very pleasant lunch. Tom had everyone cracking up when he learned that the kids call the flap of skin on their elbow a wenis. He looked at his and said....WOW! I have a BIG wenis!!! Look at it! (yes, we are all 8yo lol)

After a quick run into the dollar store we were on our way to the hotel. Tom ran in and checked us in. When he came out he was a bit unnerved. I'd reserved the room with the maximum people the site would allow....2 adults and 4 kids. It was a suite which had 2 double beds and a sofa bed so room wasn't an issue. What the issue was is that they gave us 6 wristbands that allowed the wearer to enter the pool area and 6 passes that got you into the evening manager's reception and huge breakfast buffet in the morning. I wasn't worried about the passes but the bands for the pool might be a problem. So in we went and explained our situation..... 7 kids, 2 adults. They said maximum occupancy according to the fire code is 6 and that was the most they could give out per room. They also said....the managers reception and breakfast is for ALL The hotel guests. And that we may not all be able to use the pool at once. Tom was a bit on edge because he thought we had to get another room (not an option) or we were going to get in trouble. We checked the pool area on our way to our room...no one was monitoring the door, there was no lifeguard to "worry" about and hardly anyone in there had their wristbands on...problem solved. It took a bit but Tom eventually relaxed.

Unbeknown to us the hotel had a luau planned for the evening. There were snacks, pizza and tons of fruity refreshments both for the kids and the adults. They had a dance party with a DJ, a mechanical surf board and some pay for fun things that we ignored. We had lots of fun. After the luau we went up to the room, sang Happy Birthday to Olivia and had her strawberry cupcakes she'd made. The kids tried to organize a game of Apples to Apples but they kept getting distracted. We had lots of snacks with microwaved corn dogs and pizza rolls for a late dinner. Eventually we all settled in to watch The Incredibles on tv and then to bed.

I slept lousy!!! It was hot and dry in the room (even though the thermostat was down as low as it could go and the window was open). I was worried that Danielle and Sean would fall off the bed or were uncovered...so woke to check on them. I saw Jake sit up about 6:15. I grabbed the chance and joined him in the living room. We watched the movie Honey I Shrunk the Kids until everyone was awake and ready for breakfast. As we came into the lobby for breakfast we saw that the pool was closed (I think someone was sick in it the night before) so our swimming before leaving plans were shot. Instead we just relaxed in our room, watching Happy Feet until it was noon and time to check out.

From our hotel we went to my parents' house which was only a few miles away. My mom had birthday cards for Luke and Olivia. We stayed until shortly after 2. Everyone was getting hungry so we headed to McD's near the roller skating rink to have lunch and let Danielle and Sean have some fun on the playground. We knew the roller skating rink was close but we didn't realize it was right behind the McD's were at! I walked Danielle and Sean over so we wouldn't have to buckle and unbuckle them if they rode in the van (had to drive on a busy road to get to the roller rink parking lot).

I hadn't realized it but Olivia had never been rollerskating before. The poor thing fell a bazillion times....and hard! She did improve greatly by the end of the night. Danielle and Sean did ok but they were more interested in the game room. I was a bit uneasy on my feet at first but like riding a bike...it never totally leaves. I was back to my old skating self in no time. Which is a good thing since I had to support Sean, Danielle and Olivia too. (As a kid I lived a few blocks from a roller rink and I wasted a lot of time there). The rink closed at 6:30....just in time to get Michelle from work.

We got to the store about 15mins before it was to close, so I ran in for a sec. When I came out Tom had everyone out of the van and running sprints in the parking lot. They were having a ball racing each other. Even Sean and Danielle got into the action. Me, I was a party pooper and stayed a spectator. Michelle got out and we headed back to McD's for dessert (and Michelle's dinner) to eat on the way home. The kids got to pick whether they wanted a cone, sundae, parfait or apple pies. I chose a sundae for Sean and Danielle for neatness sake. Sean took two bites of his sundae and started screaming for a SNOW CONE!!! Luke was a sweetheart and switched with him (but first he ate half the ice cream off the cone like I asked him to...what a trooper! lol).

We all dragged ourselves out of the van and into the house. It wasn't long before almost everyone was in bed sound asleep. Everyone woke up Monday morning quite sore. Poor Olivia was the worse. She missed school Monday and Tuesday because of it. She says it was worth it and wants to do it again. Jake asked if he could have a skating party too. So I say it was a success.

Now if only my camera's batteries hadn't died! I'd have a lot of cute pictures to share too.

For the last time

2010-03-04T22:20:00.000-05:00

We did beer pouring for the last time this season on Tuesday. After pouring for the Villanova game this game (vs St. John's) was a piece of cake with attendance at just over 26000. We will be doing a few more food concessions before the end of the school year. I'm excited for the NCAA tournament game days at the end of the month. :oD Now we have to figure out new ways to do some fundraising for the summer. Opening an Etsy store is still being looked at.

Tom and the kids saved Luke's birthday brownie sundaes until I got home. YUM! I had ridden with Mikey B to beer pouring so he stopped in for some too. Val was here until just before I got home. I'd suggested to Tom that he call her and invite her over since I wouldn't be here. I guess she called to talk to me but I'd already left for beer pouring. They had a good visit with her which is important to me....she is still their sister whether things are good between her and I or not.

I've been talking to Pat a lot lately. He put in his 2 wk notice at his present position (it's a long term temp job). He's been accepted to a permanent position as a health aide at the hospital. If he goes to school for the medical field, work will pay for his schooling. He's thinking of going into radiology. He's trying to buy a new car and give us our's back (and I can't wait!!). I'm hoping it'll happen in the next week or two. Him and Alex are going like gangbusters on the wedding plans. They've booked a photographer and just got the place for the wedding reception. It's a lodge at a local park. They'll most likely have it catered, although I'd gladly do the food for them and they know it. He mentioned Danielle being a flowergirl but they haven't officially said it.

Through the grapevine (named Pat) I also learned that Allison and Drew booked a reception place. Also a lodge but at a different local park. Unfortunately with such short notice they couldn't get the original date they wanted (June 6th...their anniversary). It's now going to be May 15th. Amazingly (and unbeknown to them at the time)it's one of the few weekends I have open that month. We have the spring conference, open weekend (now their wedding), T and E's wedding, and then the soccer weekend. So I guess things for their wedding should be kicking into high gear soon. Pat and I both said we'd do the food. I'm not sure what they were thinking of doing. Oh yeah...Drew started a new job 2wks ago working with one of my nephews. It's nice to see him getting regular hours (unlike Dunkin Donuts where they were all over the place) and getting 40+ of them each week!

So that brings us to Liz. She's emailing her boss now to see if she can leave Norway in time to come home for Drew's wedding. I asked her if she would be going back, she said probably not. It's too hard on her. I'm sure they won't be happy but oh well. I looked at plane tickets. It'll be a bit under $500 (plus tax and fees) for a round trip ticket. For a one way one...over $1200!!! That's ridiculous! Sean and Danielle are really excited to hear that she could be home for good really soon. They were dancing around the living room over the thought this afternoon.

This Saturday is Olivia's 10th birthday. It's also the one year anniversary of Billy's suicide. We're going away for the night. As of right now we're thinking...chinese buffet for lunch, hotel for swimming and soaking in the hot tub, evening reception that the hotel does, more pool/hot tub time, snacks and dinner in the room with games and all night fun, not much sleeping being planned. Looks like we'll be taking Michelle to work on Sunday, killing a few hours (maybe lunch at McD's and the playplace?) and then going rollerskating from 4 - 6:30...finishing just in time to pick up Michelle from work at 7. The kids are really excited. It's helped keep everyone's mind occupied.

There's a heavy cloud hanging over this place. Everyone misses Billy so much. I still walk into the kitchen, look out the back door window and expect to see his trailer out there, only to be surprised to see it gone. I've also jumped up to start a conversation with Billy when I hear the back door, only to have it be the cat batting the handle or the wind. I can't even imagine what Tom's feeling or dealing with right now. I keep trying to not start crying but the last day or so I haven't been too successful. I found a wish list that Olivia had written. #1 was....go to Florida. #2...Have Uncle Billy come back to life. #3...get Carrie's tv and I can't exactly remember the next 2 things. Oh how I wish Olivia...how I wish.

Luke's another year older

2010-03-03T09:25:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was Luke's 17th birthday...and I wasn't home for it. (had beer pouring) Feeling a little bit guilty over it I decided to make it a Luke and Mom night on Monday. We took Michelle to work at 4 and then went shopping for sneaks. He hadn't told me until last week but both his sneaks were ripped out in like 5 places. I shouldn't be surprised, I bought those for him at the start of school LAST year. Being that they're his only shoes, it was kind of important to replace them. He found a pair he liked at the second store we tried. As a bonus he also found a new hoodie. He wears those instead of coats all year long (I even bought him a winter coat but it stays on the hanger).

The next stop was the video game store where we drooled over a few games. I got all excited when I saw the poster for Final Fantasy XIII and that it was for the Xbox 360. I've been saying I'm going to buy a Playstation 2 just so we can play FF X and Kingdom Hearts again (and a decent game of DDR...we don't care for the Xbox version). When I mentioned to Luke we could get it for his birthday he was reluctant to say yes. He knew it was a bit more then I normally spend for birthdays. Then he had the idea that we could get it for both of us since my birthday is in a few weeks. lol Sounds like a plan to me. Now to wait for it to come out (release date is the 9th), and the funds to be available.

Oh this is shaping up to be a grand day. I climbed out of bed to Tom swearing his head off in the basement. Seems he smashed his foot into something down there and is pretty sure he broke some toes. The boys both say they aren't feeling so good. Carrie isn't feeling great either but she got up and got ready for school (picked her up from school yesterday because her stomach was bothering her). Then I tore the livingroom apart looking for Eileen's agenda planner (school issued and the kid HAVE to have them). We looked last night and couldn't find it and still no luck this morning. She was refusing to get on the bus without it since it had all her work she needed for today in it. While fighting her about missing a day because of a book, Carrie ran out the door because the bus was pulling up to the house. She slipped on the porch and landed squarely on her knee which bruised immediately. I waved the bus on with Carrie on the ground crying. Then to top things off while Eileen was filling a baggie with some ice for Carrie she happened to notice a phone laying in the trash can....it's TOM'S!!! So now he's at work without his work phone and probably scrambling to try to find it. There was some dampness in the battery compartment so I took it out and it's drying now. Hopefully he'll call me from his office phone soon. Now to get Olivia up for school and have Eileen keep tearing the house apart looking for her book.

PHEW!! Agenda planner found in Michelle's and Val's room. Eileen forgot she was in there last night to talk to Michelle. But wait! Where's the essay? So then it was a mad scramble to find THAT. After scouring the house AGAIN and Eileen checking her planner twice...I checked and found it in the planner. UGH! It's only 8:40 and I need a nap and have the start of a headache. Olivia and Eileen are outside waiting for the bus (Olivia almost fell down the porch stairs too) Carrie is back in bed. Jake is down here now cuddling on the couch with Sean. I guess they are planning on watching a movie. I just want to sit with my coffee and then my crochet, but I can't. This place is a mess from being searched and there's laundry to be done.

Oh wait! I was talking about my date with Luke on Monday night, wasn't I. The idea was that Luke and I would get this sneaks, maybe a few groceries, grab a bite to eat and then go home...taking a few hours. Tom would then pick up Michelle at 9. It didn't work out that way. Luke decided he wanted Chinese so that's where we went. We talked and we talked and we talked some more. I think the kid talked more to me that night then he's talked to me in the last 3 yrs combined. He's one of my kids that I worry about getting lost in the shuffle. He's pretty shy, easy going and very quiet. He can talk to you about almost any subject...he's a walking encyclopedia (reminds me of Billy in that sense) but to get him to start talking about it is another matter. We had so much fun hanging out and talking that we decided to just stick around the city for a few more hours until Michelle got out of work. After dinner we went to the grocery store, then visited the puppies and fish at the pet store. We perused AC Moore. I was hoping I could find him some ceramic things to work with. (we talked about buying a kiln for him lol) I had him petting the yarn and was encouraging him to take up crocheting (he's used a round loom before). Then it was onto Big Lots and a trip around Michelle's work before they closed up.

We were laughing as we walked in the house because we'd both at the same time said...That was fun! It made my day when he said...I enjoyed that, thank you Mommy.

Wow! THAT was fun!

2010-02-28T11:04:00.001-05:00

Last night we had beer pouring for the Syracuse vs Villanova basketball game. It was a record breaking crowd with 34,616 in attendance. I LOVE working at the Dome. The crowds, talking to people, even just working. I thought I made myself some trouble because I stayed up until 4am Sat morning crocheting (had to MAKE myself go to bed). The game was late with a 9pm start. No problem. I actually was so pumped by the time we left that I couldn't fall asleep until after 2 last night. Of course this morning is another story...I'm a bit stiff and a little slower then normal. lol

They opened the Dome half an hour earlier then normal. We poured our first beer almost immediately (usually the first half hour we don't do too much) and it didn't really stop from there. I got into a rhythm where I could pour and cap without turning off the tap. I'm not sure exactly how many cups we (me and another lady from church) poured but by my count it averaged about 500 cups per hour. (poured for 3.5 hours) I've had football games where we didn't pour that many the whole day (and it's a longer beer pouring session). They definitely got their money's worth out of us last night.

I was laughing at myself last night when it was announced that some of Syracuse's past best b'ball players were in attendence and I became all giddy because I was there with them. It's not like I even saw them...I was standing in a hallway where I couldn't even see the basketball court (the private boxes were blocking my view). But I was there and a part of it nonetheless. :o)

We have one more basketball game to pour beer for on Tuesday. Then we're doing a concession stand for the Sweet 16 and Elite 8 games for the NCAA tournament at the end of March. I think we're also doing concessions for a few lacrosse games before we're done for the summer.

Today Michelle has to work at 2 and Pat and Alex may be coming out but I'm not sure when. Because it's been so long since we've held a regular meeting at church, they've decided to have one at 3:30 today...so not sure how everything will work out. I hate when both my worlds collide!!!!

Tavel Advisory

2010-02-26T08:13:00.000-05:00

I was tossing and turning since 3:15 this morning. I finally managed to sneak out of bed without waking anyone at 5:30. Peeking out the window I saw a slow snowfall. Imagine my surprise when I turned on the morning news to see school closings listed. Even more surprising was seeing the BIG districts listed. I thought they were being ridiculous, especially when the newswoman reporting live outside one district started talking about how bad the snow was falling. All I could think was...she's obviously not from this area. It was later reported that the closings were based on weather reports for the bus drive home. Just a few minutes before 6, our district popped up on the list. YAY! I'll take a snow day any way I can get it. Although as of right now I think they would've probably been ok going. Tom walked out the door at 6:30 encouraging me to have Michelle call into work. While the drive there might be ok, it's suppose to be the worst weather when it's time to pick her up at 9pm. She finally called them at 2:02. She was worried she'd get written up because she's suppose to call 2hrs ahead of time (she was due to work at 4). Her boss said she was close enough...phew!

Right now Michelle's getting everyone riled up. She's made a chore list and told them if they get it done...we'll have an electricity free night. It involves candlelight only lighting, camping out on the livingroom floor, board games and maybe a dance party by a battery operated radio. It's amazing how much and how fast they can work with the right motivation.

Never posted this...it's the next day

We had a fun night. My making pizza ended up being overridden by the Michelle, Carrie and Luke who made dinner. We had eggs in a basket (bread formed into a basket in muffin tins, filled with an egg and then baked) and soup. With the soup all I could think of was the stone soup story. They started with bouillon and just kept adding things...it was really good and filling. They also made a cinnamon sugar coated trail mix for our snack along with grapes and lemon slices.

After dinner we sat around telling stories and then we did round robin stories. It's where one person starts the story and then the next person adds onto it. For some reason our stories seemed to always include a janitor, diarrhea, and axes. With no lights on in the house, you could see how bright it was outside. More then once someone mentioned turning off the outside porch light. We could see Tom outside trying to gain on the snowfall. Wasn't happening, even if the neighbor came over with his tractor and cleared the driveway before Tom got home. Tom asked/suggested/told me I wasn't going anywhere in the morning. Luckily I had no plans to leave the house. The night ended with a huge dance party and air guitar session. It was after 11 before we all started heading to bed. I was banking on the kids having at least a 2 hour delay in the morning.

We got the 2 hour delay! Then it changed into a snow day...no school! Woohooo! And as I type this the next door neighbor is outside clearing the driveway with his tractor. (it's 8am btw) So the kids get a break with no shoveling in their near future (snow has stopped for now). The amazing thing is, true to form...a few of the kids were up and raring to go even before they normally grumble out of bed for school! lol Luke and Jake are glad to have the extra time today. They're doing laundry, getting ready to go to young brother's weekend at church this weekend. I'm working on a new afghan, planning on getting some kitchen work done and maybe even head off into my room...even if it's to organize my yarn and fabric. Oh and make cookies that never got made yesterday. The no electricity party food prep team took over the kitchen last night and kicked the about to be cookie makers (Eileen and Jake) out.

And awaaaaaay we go!

A short day

2010-02-25T07:30:00.001-05:00

The kids HATE their bus ride and are always asking for me to pick them up. I don't blame them really, it's an hour long ride over hilly and curvy roads....carsick city. Usually I'm on my way to take Michelle to work when they get out. Today Michelle went into work at 8:30. So I told anyone who wanted to that I'd pick them up at 2. My mindset was that Michelle was getting out at 2:30, I'd get the kids, pick Michelle up and then run a few errands. Then I looked at her schedule and realized...she gets out at 4. I was really tempted to call the whole thing off and just go by myself to pick her up after the kids got off the bus. I couldn't really though....they were so excited to go, especially Danielle. She's been talking about going to the dollar store and buying socks for weeks now. No toys, just socks. Of course once we got there her whole demeanor changed....she got the gimmes pretty bad.

I picked up Luke (no need to sign him out) and then he waited with the Danielle and Sean while I ran into the elementary school to sign out the rest of the kids. When I went to sign the sign-out book I realized I was shaking pretty badly. I'd forgotten to eat before we left. None of the kids had any snacks or candy in their bags either. RATS! I kept debating on what to do. Stop for food first and eat on the way into the city or run an errand first and take the kids to McDonald's to play. I opted for the errand first. I LOVE our small city DMV! I walked in the DMV door, up to a window, did what I came to do and was back in the van before the parking meter even knew I'd dropped a quarter into it. I asked the kids if they'd done their homework while I was gone. For some reason no one did any.

I was still shaking so it was onto McD's. The kids hadn't had an after school snack so were on the hungry side also. Carrie...she just wanted fries. I got to indulge in a filet o fish (or two). thank you lent! I love McD's 2 for $3 fish and lg fries special every lent. Carrie ended up "stealing" my salad (she wanted to go buy one so I just gave her mine). Sean and Danielle split a McDouble and the three of us split a lg fries. The rest of the kids got a dollar sandwich and a lg fries each. They were SO good. Sean and Danielle just sat there chomping away, watching the tv. I had to tell them to stop eating and go play. lol We stayed for about an hour...until it was time to pick up Michelle from work. Then we hit the dollar store, stopped at Burger King so Michelle could grab something to eat, a quick (and expensive) trip through Walmart to get prepared for the weekend and snow. Michelle bought Tom a chicken teriyaki sub from subway for his dinner. Yay! No cooking for me! The kids fixed a snack before bed. We got home just in time to unload the van and take the kids to cleaning. Now they're in bed, hoping for a snow day or two. I told them not to hold their breaths for tomorrow since the storm isn't suppose to be bad until evening...right when I'm suppose to be driving Michelle to work and picking her up!!!

I remembered to bring my camera with us today. BUT I forgot the memory card in the printer so could only take a few pictures.

Luke lounging with his ice water

Jake feeling right at home with a video game

Carrie getting in on the action

And of course Sean has to be a part of it too

Danielle the two headed girl

Olivia

Carrie

Eileen finally gets a turn on the video game

Oops! Did I say they were SO good!?! Danielle started to protest because we had to pick up Michelle from work and not go to the dollar store which she could see...RIGHT! ACROSS! THE STREET!!!!

Michelle

The whole gang on the way home

Odds and Ends

2010-02-22T15:24:00.000-05:00

Just some fun pictures I wanted to share (especially with Liz)

Danielle after her makeover. I'm not sure who did her makeup.

Seanie showing off his cup Aunt Della gave him.

The world through Sean's viewfinder...

I last but not least...I decided I didn't want to clog up the family blog with tons of craft/crochet posts. So I've started a blog dedicated to it called... It's off the Hook!

I'm pretty sure I've caught up on everything I wanted to share. If not, I'm sure I'll post again. lol

The rest of the week

2010-02-22T14:37:00.000-05:00

The rest of the week was kind of low key. We tried to gear our meals toward the island theme but that was about it. I never did get pictures of the ceiling fan in the kitchen dressed up as the sun. Or Olivia's treasure map that runs across the back wall. She has us going around a palm tree, over a mountain, past a volcano and through a river before coming to the big red X of a treasure. I never finished the palm tree either.

On Sunday we were surprised when our friend from church, Delandie, pulled into the driveway.

He lives in Michigan but had a doctor's visit here on Tuesday. So he turned it into a week long visit. He stayed at our house Wednesday and Thursday. His original plans were to stay until Sunday morning but on Friday it ended up that he was here with just Tom, me and the little ones. He decided to head back home early. The ironic thing...one of the reasons he decided to go early was so he could hang out with the boys from here. On Friday Luke went with a few boys to Michigan to hang out for the weekend. lol Shhh don't say anything but there's been talk of him getting hired in our area in a few weeks. Seems he may be working at his old job soon so will be moving back here for the summer. (it's a seasonal job) We're all praying it happens. Also that he can find something more permanent while he's here.

On Tuesday night we dropped Michelle off at work and then headed to McDonald's. The little kids played in the playplace while Carrie, Delandie and I sat and talked. I let them all get a sandwich and fries. Then I splurged for sundaes for everyone (and another sandwich for Delandie lol).

Wednesday was right up there as one of the worst days of my life. Val and I ended up getting into an argument over something really stupid. In not one of my best motherhood moments, I allowed it to escalate into something really ugly. She ended up calling Pat to come pick her up, walking out the door without saying anything to anyone...even the little kids. We haven't heard from her since. (although I'm pretty sure she's talking to at least Michelle) I was a mess for days. It breaks my heart that we have this divide between us. She's the type of person to keep it there for quite a long time. I'm not sure if we'll ever be ok again. Whoever thinks having big kids makes life easier is INSANE!

Saturday we went to visit my parents. We hadn't seen them since they were out here for their Christmas visit. They just got back from 2 weeks in North Carolina last Sunday. It just so happened that my mom was cooking a pot roast and if I could bring potatoes, she'd have enough to feed us. So I grabbed Tom, our bag of potatoes and loaded Jake on down into the van. We had a good visit filled with lots of laughing as everyone got to play with their Wii and balance board. Someone had mentioned us getting one (I'm thinking it was Drew) but I nixed the thought since we already have the Xbox. Now seeing how physical the kids are while playing it, I'm rethinking it, but it's still pretty low on my list.

Sunday was finally the day that it happened! We finally got the kitchen together and enough chairs that allows us to all sit at our kitchen table. It's a really tight fit but no one's complaining since they've missed it so much. I can't remember the last time we all sat our kitchen table for dinner. We had a ball! Allison came over and visited us. We talked about what Olympic competition we each thought we'd be the most likely to metal in (being that we had lifelong training and such). I picked softball, Jake and Allison picked curling, Tom picked running. Then it was onto what competition would we most like to be able to compete in. I picked the platform high dive since it seems so scary to me and it would be awesome if I could do it. Tom picked weight lifting. Olivia and Allison picked the half pipe. Danielle said skateboarding. lol We then moved onto our favorite veggie and fruit. Then we played Doctor. Get your mind out of the gutter and stop giggling. It's a parlor game where someone is the doctor and leaves the room. The rest decide what the symptom will be (like everyone to say Ummmm before answering their question). The doctor then comes in and asks everyone questions. Everyone has answer his questions while incorporating the symptom into the answer. The doctor has to figure out what the symptom is. After a few rounds of that I had to be the wet blanket and end all the fun. But it was after 9:30 and there was school the next day.

Island Week 2010

2010-02-22T13:35:00.001-05:00

Friday Michelle and I got to work trying to get things in order here and decorate, afterall it was ISLAND WEEK! We were hoping to kick it off in high gear on Saturday. It was decided the livingroom would be the ocean. The kitchen would be the land. This year we lived underwater with the fishes. We had crepe paper waves above our heads along with swimming fish.

Ocean bottom with some seaweed

Our dolphin friend

Coral reef

Flower garden in the kitchen

The kids made a mega hopscotch game in the hall. Sean loved it!

Drew and Allison came over on Saturday. They even brought their dog Sweetpea who was in her island finest.

Just for fun everyone decided to start cheering for Val

We had coconut shrimp, punch, rye bread and dip, and other snacks. There games of limbo, including one done backwards. We played Apple to Apple during which I feel asleep in my chair, leaving Tom to work for a win on his own (we were partners).

I have a lot to share

2010-02-22T13:20:00.001-05:00

UGH! This computer is moving like molasses. And wouldn't you know it...I have a bunch of photos to upload and share.

Super bowl antics. It ended up that Tom and I where here with only the 4 little ones. Everyone else was either working or invited somewhere else. Eileen and Olivia got into the game spirit and got their game faces on.

Michelle and Carrie got home just after half time ended. They had their own little party in Michelle's room since she has the best tv in the house. Most here were happy that the Saints won. At Pat's house it was a very sad occasion.

The rest of the week went on fine. Carrie had her TODAY study appt. We picked up Carrie from school at 1:45, dropped Michelle off to work early at 2:20 and then headed to the city.

Getting ready

Hiding on Carrie. Carrie was out of the room getting her vitals taken. Danielle and Sean decided they'd hide behind the door and scare her when she got back. Here they are with Danielle peeking out of the crack, watching for her.

Danielle's hair was going crazy (moreso then normal) so Carrie tried to tame it with a pony.

Carrie getting down to the nitty gritty.

Her blood pressure was good for the first time in a long time! She's been good about taking that medicine since it's once a day...in the morning. It's trying to remember the 2nd dose of her diabetes medicine at night that's the problem (and weekends).

Carrie's been bugging me to get her ears pierced. I've always told the girls not until you're 18...old enough to give their own consent. As time has gone on my take on pierced ears has changed. I've found that after the excitement of getting them done is gone, most people tend to not care about it so much. You throw in a cute pair once in a while but for the most part...they're just there. Still it wasn't fair to the other girls if I gave in. Then it came to me....Carrie's been having such a hard time getting on track and taking ownership of her medication requirements. So I made a deal with her...If she can take her medicine twice a day everyday and test her sugar at least once a day and log it...she can get her ears pierced. Guess what...she's taken control and has only forgotten one night (we both swore she took it, she must have become distracted in the middle of doing it...I've given her a by on it)

Next up....Island Week!

Thanks Della

2010-02-09T19:16:00.000-05:00

My SIL, Della over at 18 Under One Roof honored me with the next Honest Scrap Award. So now I have to think of 10 things to share with everyone here. Hopefully at least one of them will be good/positive. :o)

1. I hate shoes and socks give my feet the heebie jeebies. I'd be in hog heaven and might even move down south if bare feet were allowed in public places. I'd say I'd throw all my shoes away but I really don't have many to throw away. Right now I'm wearing my sneakers in lieu of boots. Quite the fashion statement especially paired with #2 below.

2. I don't own any pants. I only wear skirts. Well I do have an old pair of red sweat/active pants around here somewhere but it's been so long since I've worn them...I don't know where they are. They certainly aren't going out the door in quality, they're barely going to bed in ones. I wear them for modesty and comfort. I think I'd die of embarrassment if I had to wear pants out in public. I know the inseams would certainly drive me crazy...almost as much as socks.

3. I'm a slob. My sister hated rooming with me when we were kids because my side of the room was always a pig sty. I don't walk around here thinking I need more storage space but more flat surfaces to make piles. I don't mind cleaning, actually I like to do it. Problem is that I don't like to do it ALL the time. Or I think I have time to do it later, yet later never comes. I have gotten better as my family has grown. Unfortunately my family has grown faster them my skills have developed.

4. I'm a procrastinator although I've learned to a point that it's best not to and try to avoid it. Maybe it's because I work best under pressure and actually enjoy it. (although those working with me may not) I think that's why I like working concessions so much.

5. I'm the queen of fairness to a fault. Everyone has to get the same amount or nothing at all. It's driven Tom crazy for years...especially at Christmas and Easter time. I've gotten better about it over the years. Especially when you think about it...exactly how fair is it for a 2yo to get the same amount of candy as an 18yo?

6. I'm a terrible friend to communicate with. I'll do anything for you but ask me to call or email you and you're pushing your luck. I guess it kind of goes with the procrastinating and thinking I'll do it later. Next thing I know it's too late to call or what I needed to email you about is over with.

7. Food controls me...I love it! Often my state of wellness/depression can be attributed to the amount of food that's in the house. When my cupboards are full and there is a plethora of quick fix meals...I'm ecstatic. Bare cupboards with need to work to make meals only and I can become really depressed.

8. I have an addictive personality. Or more like a personality that makes addiction a real threat for me. With my mom it's reading. I wanted to avoid that trap so I rarely read anymore. (always had my nose in a book before kids came along) The few times I've been to a casino I always end up saying...I'm so glad I don't live closer to this place! I'd be in trouble. While I feel like garbage because I've lost my "play money" (money I'd intended to use there). I'm still thinking....oh if only I had $20 more dollars. Oh look at that machine! For a while the computer took over where reading would be. Now it's crochet. I've gotten better at tempering my time with them. With crocheting I can reason that it's functional too. But sometimes I really wonder.

9. I feel really guilty right now. I'm dreading Olivia's birthday which is 3.5 weeks away. I've been dreading it for months. Just writing about it makes my chest get tight and the tears threaten to surface. It's the anniversary of Billy's death. I'm still mad at him for doing this to her. (amongst other things) I know we'll get through the day but I really don't want to. Olivia tries to talk about what to do that day but I tend to put if off until later or say we'll see. I'd really like to make it special for her but not sure what. I'd also really like not to be physically here. Hmmmm, it might be a good time to go away for the weekend with everyone. Although I'm not sure if we can swing it $$wise.

10. I have the word SUCKER written on my forehead. I'm a pushover and people pleaser. I have a hard time saying no when asked to do something. While I've been known to say...I'm your mother, not your friend. Many times that line gets blurred more then it should. I'm terrible at giving ultimatums, deadlines, and whatnot. Take driving Michelle to college/work. I KNOW that should've been over a long time ago. I KNOW I'm not doing her any favors by continuing it. I've said she's going to learn to drive after the snow goes because I'm not driving anymore. We'll see how that goes. Or how about our new car that no one was going to drive but Tom and I....that Pat's still using.

So who do I pass this onto? Since I'm not much of meme person to begin with...I'm not passing it onto too many people.

Gretchen over at A House Full of Boys

And

Karen over at Our Deer Baby

You can thank me later ladies. lol Have fun.

4 days at home

2010-02-09T09:09:00.003-05:00

Wednesday I took Michelle to work for 4 and never made it home before she had to be picked up. I hit the grocery stores and when it was obvious I needed to kill some time. I used the last of my gift card at AC Moore and bought a bamboo handled G hook, grabbed a package of mill end yarn I bought at Big Lots that day and sat at her work (they have a table near the entrance) and crocheted. We got home pretty close to 10.

It's a rarity but I had 4 straight days when I didn't leave the house this weekend. Drew took Michelle to work on Thursday, Tom picked her up. She had Friday and Saturday off and there were no activities planned. Most of us skipped church on Sunday after Sean woke up complaining his eyes hurt. I figured he had a headache. Danielle said she didn't feel good either but I'm not sure if she was just trying to jump on the sympathy train with Sean. They both have had yucky noses so I'm sure she wasn't feeling 100%. Then Tom took and picked up Michelle for me.

What's even more amazing is that I was in an organizing mood and my body cooperated. I cleaned out a cupboard or two, scrubbed down cupboard fronts, cleaned out the laundry room and did laundry non stop for days. I'm happy to say that I was down to a tiny bit in the hamper. Then Eileen and Olivia cleaned their room. No problem...I did that too. What the problem is...I slacked back off on keeping the machine going and it's quickly piling back up!!!!! Last night I declared that no one could wear clothes anymore. I don't think anyone was listening.

Usually when I'm in that type of mood I can be someone who you don't want to be around....especially if you get in my way. This weekend was different. I just puttered around and every once in a while decided...I'm taking a break. I'd grab a coffee, my crochet hook, some yarn and sit for about an hour. I'm lurking at a few crochet alongs over at Crochetville and have started a few of their projects. Problem is there are too many of them...I want to do almost all of them! lol

So my WIP's (works in progress) are....

Jackson Square Blanket that the Captain Hook and the Yarn Pirates are doing. I have 4 squares done so far. I'm not sure who or why I'm making it...just for practice I guess.

The Tree of Life Afghan that I found through the Tree of Life CAL (crochet along). I have a wedding in May and I figured this would make a good shower gift. I'm on row 21 of the first set of trees. It's a bit harder to do around here since I have to concentrate and count my stitches more. I'm a little bit disappointed in my yarn. I'm using aran Bernat worsted I had stashed. In natural light it looks ivory/cream colored. In artificial light it can take on a yellowish coloring. I'm afraid I'm going to put all this work into it and then not like it enough to give as a gift.

Working the Tree of Life as a shower gift also allows me to join along in the new Somebody is Getting Married CAL. And when that's done I have 2 other weddings I want to make gifts for, so it works for me. I've also thought to offer to make wedding favors for them. (hearts for Drew's, snowflake ornaments for Pat's maybe?) but we'll see.

I also have the Midnight Brites afghan. However I haven't done too much on it since the last time I mentioned it. Maybe I need a CAL for that! lol

My last WIP is MIA at the moment.

I seem to have misplaced the baby blanket I was working on (on row 44 of 73 rows). Last time I had it I was working on it in the bathroom while supervising Danielle and Sean in a bath. I stuck the bag into the closet before they got out of the tub so that they wouldn't get it wet. When I went to get it, it wasn't there. I haven't looked too hard for it. I'm hoping I took it into my room when I went in there to get their outfits. I'm dreading the thought that someone thought it was a bag of trash and collected it before Tom left for the dump on Saturday. Finding and working on this would make it possible to join in the Baby CAL. Then there's the things I want to make for Drew's baby. And the things I can donate to various charities. Baby things make for quick projects.

Then there's the...12 months of Crochet Christmas Caroling, the February Charity Blitz (might still join in that one) and the Lumberjack Flannelghan to name of few. But there's too few hours in the day.

I am happy to announce that I can share pictures now. While out shopping last Wednesday I bought a memory card! YIPPEE! And wouldn't you know it...first thing I walk in the door I find this...

And the next day Danielle and Sean were too cute sitting in the new chairs, reading.

John and Sean playing guitar together.

So now I need to get to work and keep up the momentum I started this weekend. Tomorrow I won't be able to do much as I have to go to beer pouring at the Syracuse Dome. Thursday is Carrie's appointment for the TODAY study. Then the last day of school Friday before midwinter break and ISLAND WEEK!!!!

I can hear them laughing from here

2010-02-03T09:20:00.002-05:00

This morning has been a dandy already. Tom informed me when I got home from beer pouring last night that Oreo's lead had broke. He also informed me that he fixed it. Well he may have fixed it for normal everyday use. What Tom doesn't realize though is that Oreo goes absolutely berserk when the school bus pulls up to the house. I think you can guess what happened. As the kids were climbing into the bus Oreo managed to undo Tom's fix. Before I knew it he was standing in front of the bus barking his head off. The bus was gently and ever so slowly trying to persuade him that it wasn't the best place to be (with a car waiting behind it no less). Oreo wouldn't be persuaded. The bus continued to creep very slowly down the street with the maniac dog dancing and barking at it's front tires in front of it.

I didn't know what to do. Sean was up but no one else. I planted Sean in front of the computer, threw on my sneaks and ran out the door screaming. They were pretty far down the street. I definitely couldn't run down there, I'd drop dead from exhaustion before I made it to them. Plus I was sure my kids on the bus didn't want everyone else to experience their mom running in half on sneaks, no coat...oh it's just not a pretty sight. I tried my no fail method of getting Oreo back to the house...turning on the van like we're about to pull out of the driveway. No go...after all why would he bother coming home for a puny van when he had the mother of all catches under his control already! I was standing in the road screaming for Oreo, trying to decide my next step (grabbing Sean, throwing him in his carseat and driving down to where the bus was so I could snag the stupid dog). Then the bus put on it's blinking lights and a kid got off the bus, crossed in front of it and came out the other side with Oreo in his hands. The bus turned off it's lights and continued on it's way. I could barely make out who it was. I finally heard his faint yells and realized it was Jake. He dragged the dog home by his collar, no small feat. The bus driver is a sweetheart. She called our house before she left the school for her 2nd trip. She wanted to make sure Jake and Oreo got home safely.

So Jake went to school on 2nd trip (an hour late) and I had to write him an excuse for his tardiness. I had NO idea what to say. I couldn't say he overslept or that he missed the bus...everyone knew he didn't. So I wrote...

Please excuse Jacob's tardiness today. We had a major loose dog incident. Thank You.

Now the question is...will they accept it as a legal excuse....after they pick themselves up off the floor and wipe the tears from their eyes of course.

Maybe I WILL give Oreo that bath I was thinking of giving him today...he HATES it! Serves him right! :op~~~~~

Full weekend

2010-01-31T19:40:00.002-05:00

I should know better then to set deadlines on here. I know I said I'd get my Honest Scrap post up last weekend but as usual, things happen. I have a post started if that means anything. I worked beer pouring last Saturday and then concessions for the Syracuse vs Georgetown game Monday night. By the end of the game I felt like I'd been run over with a truck and had a massive headache. It lasted well into Wednesday and was only subdued to a dull roar with ibuprofen. Carrie and Luke both ended up with one last week too. Thursday found me driving through a blizzard and starting to go off the road. When I left home it was blue skies with wind driven snow drifts here and there...nothing too bad if you drove carefully. By the time I'd dropped off Michelle and made it half way home we were into snow and eventually total white outs. Even though it was daytime I had a hard time seeing where the sides of the road were. Luckily things let up enough to make the trip not too treacherous on the way back to pick up Michelle. For a while I thought we'd have to get a motel room in the city. lol Much to our chagrin school wasn't even delayed the next day.

Michelle had Friday off. A day to stay home and get some things accomplished. First on the list was the taxes...we NEED our refund! Now I'm counting down the days until it gets here. Thankfully we don't have to wait for months for like in the old days. I managed to get some much needed things done here but was limited due to rationing propane since we're almost out. We managed to make it last through the weekend, allowing the kids to shower for school today. PHEW! Hopefully they'll come today. I'm dying to bake cookies and get caught up on the laundry.

Saturday was FREEZING out! When I got up it was -7 degrees Fahrenheit. At least it wasn't snowing. lol The kids were bouncing off the walls because WE WERE GOING TO A HOTEL!!! My niece won a free weekend for a local inn's bridal suite in a nearby town. She was only going to use it for Friday night so asked Della if she wanted to use it with her little kids. Della then lost her mind and invited me and my 4 youngest kids. I was equally insane and actually said yes. I thought Danielle was going to jump out of her skin waiting until it was time to go. When Della pulled up to the house to pick us up Danielle just kept yelling...IS SHE HERE? IS SHE REALLY HERE? REALLY? SHE'S HERE? REALLY REALLY? I had to hurry and get her out the door so she wouldn't explode.

The place was awesome and if I had a memory card (which I hope to get in the next few weeks!!) I could actually show you it. It was a loft bedroom over a sitting area/kitchenette. To get to the loft was a wood spiral staircase. The counters were all granite. The bathroom was tiled throughout with a huge shower room. The kids were thrown for a loop because there wasn't a door or curtain it. We had to explain that the shower was made so that the water wouldn't leave the stall area and didn't need one. There was a huge wood door with a stained glass window on one wall. When I opened it my eyes practically popped out of my head. It was an executive conference room. It was a beautiful dining and sitting area with an awesome view of the river. The walls were a light buttercream with dark wood moulding. The floors were red cherry maybe (at least they were stained a really dark red/brown). There was a massive table that fit 14 huge wood upholstered chairs. Along with a wetbar with a second fridge. The sitting area had a couch with 2 chairs overlooking a chest of drawers coffee table and a gas fireplace. (It took me a few hours but I finally found the switch to turn it on!) The furniture was all Stickley!! YIKES! It was mission style furniture so was sturdy but it's expensive!! Not something you want the kids climbing all over and eating on. They actually did pretty well until the very end when Danielle broke the rules. She went upstairs (which she wasn't suppose to do) with juice (no one was suppose to have up there). The juice ended up spilling on the bed cover.

Most of the kids settled down pretty well. I lucked out and Sean feel asleep nursing and didn't wake up when I put him down like he usually does. Danielle took a bit to convince but went without too much trouble. I'd say I barely slept but I'm not sure I was awake any more then I would be at home lately. As I knew he would be, Sean was up at the crack of dawn. I TRIED TRIED TRIED to keep him quiet. As long as he had a finger up to his lips he'd remember to whisper. As soon as it wasn't there...it was full volume mode. The first thing out of his mouth was...Della here? Della an aunt (we've been talking to him about him being an uncle when Drew's baby is born). Go bye bye to the bouncy house!!! I settled him down for a nursing session to keep him quiet. Mid nurse he stops and looks up at me and says... I lub you. Talk about heartmelting. I don't think anyone slept very well. Which made the day ahead a little bit harder.

We packed up and then ate a really nice continental breakfast in a library that barely fit us...luckily there wasn't anyone needing to eat in there at the time. When we got back to the room we realized it was still a bit early for us to get to church so we had some time to kill. The older kids settled upstairs for a movie while Della and I sat in the conference room with Disney on for the kids and more coffee for us. Finally it was time to leave. We all packed into Della's van, stopped by her house to pick up the lunch and dessert Marielle had made for everyone and then onto church. We then had a leisurely day hanging out with the ladies, eating a yummy lunch and watching the kids jump in the bouncy house, run around and fall apart due to exhaustion.

Sean had me laughing last night. He was tired and was climbing into my lap for a nighttime nursing. He suddenly looked at me and said...Where Della? When I explained that she was at her house he fell apart and started crying...DEELLLLLA! DEELLLLAAAAA! It took a bit of work but I finally calmed him down enough to nurse and fall asleep. The night ended with us watching Slumdog Millionaire with Tom (one of the few movies he's requested to see).

This morning has been interesting. Eileen was going to throw up, Olivia's throat is scratchy and red and Danielle has been crying about everything and anything since she got up. I still say the weekend was worth it.

We had a nice 3 day weekend.

2010-01-21T09:07:00.003-05:00

Nothing pressing was on the agenda which is a rare thing. Drew and Allison came over, picked up Sean and Danielle and took them to Chuck E Cheese. Drew didn't want to take Sean because all he had to wear on his feet were princess lightup sneaks and it was just wrong. You hardly even noticed what design was on the side of the shoes! Well he took him but he brought him home with royal blue mud boots on instead. LOL Guess they stopped at Walmart before they went to CEC. Thanks Drew (or should I say Allison), Sean loves his new boots! And they're so easy to get on and off for him. I can see him getting a lot of use out of them this spring and summer. The kids had a blast at Chuck E Cheese. Sean is still talking about it and wants to go back. Olivia asked if maybe they could go for her birthday. It's the only time they kids have gone before...when Della and I took them there for "Olivia's Birthday" on Val's birthday (the 9th). I really want to do something special for Olivia's birthday but Chuck E Cheese wasn't on my idea list. Maybe if she really wants to go, we will.

My sister's youngest, Emily was here for the weekend. I managed to get her handwarmers done I owed her for Christmas. I also made up one of Amanda's. I was hoping to get those done and off my todo list too. Unfortunately they're black which is very hard to work with in poor lighting and the lighting stinks in this house once the sun goes down. Emily left early in the day so I didn't have time to get the second one done before she left. So what do I do? I put if off and started something else. *heavy sigh* I don't get why I just don't get them done so I can stop thinking about them! But no! That'd be too easy.

In my early morning awake time (mentioned my funky sleep thing in an earlier post) I started thinking about Liz....and feeling guilty. I haven't really talked to her since she left. We've chatted a few short times on facebook but nothing too much. I miss her yet it must seem like I don't care. :o( The last time I talked to her she mentioned going to England for the summer. That means she won't make it to Drew's wedding. I told her it was ok if she was ok with it. He'll get over it and we can really let her "be there" with Skype. I can just carry her around on a laptop. lol She didn't think that was really funny...but then again none of my kids think what I say or do is.

Drew's wedding.... I asked Allison the other night if they had anything done for it besides pick the date...June 6th, their anniversary. I asked her if we were waiting until the 4th to make the plans. Again, I wasn't funny. Oh well. I don't mind doing things on the spur of the moment but I'd at least like to have time to get things in order around here if this is where the wedding will be. Guess I should plan on having company over here anyways and just doing what needs to be done.

On the other end of the spectrum we have Alex and Pat's wedding. He called me a two weeks ago to let me know that Alex bought her wedding dress. Also they were figuring out the guest list and needed addresses from me. I asked if they even had a date picked yet and they do....Nov 13th.

Then at the end of this summer Val's best friend Janna is getting married. Danielle is her flower girl and I have to buy her this dress...

I like the dress and it's something she can wear again so that's always a plus. The problem is figuring out how much she's going to grow in the next 6+ months. Do I go up one size and hope she doesn't go through a major growth spurt? Or two sizes and have it altered closer to the date? I think right now her dimensions figure out to be a size 2! I'm hoping to get this checked off my todo list within the next few weeks...waiting for our income tax return check. (story of my life)

On the grandbaby front. I bought my first thing for it. It's a cream colored christmas dress, size 3-6mos. And to be on the safe side I bought a santa suit outfit although it's a 6-9mo size. It was that or 0-3mos. I know I have a smaller one around here if it's a boy and that suit is really really too big on him. I also started crocheting a baby afghan on Tuesday. It's out of the new book I bought with my gift card last week. It's all white with a mint green ruffle and ribbon accent. I'm not sure if I'll stick with the mint green or wait to see if Allison finds out the sex and then do the ruffle. I'll probably just do the mint and then do a gender specific one later. I figure it takes me 10mins a row, the body is 73 rows...so about 13 hours in the making. I'd like to work on it an hour a day but life isn't always that accommodating.

Take yesterday for example. While looking through a charity crochet project site, my computer got a virus. It took me ALL afternoon (and a bunch of hair pulling) to get rid of it! So if anyone gets an email from me...DON'T OPEN IT! I think I got it pretty quickly and my internet provider does a pretty good job of filtering outgoing mail, but still...just be warned. I have NOT sent mail in the last few days. Needless to say I updated my security a bit while I was at it. Unfotunately it's making this computer run as slow as molasses in February.

Sean announced he had to pee first thing this morning. So he did and I put his superman undies on him afterwards. He lasted lasted about 2hrs before he came to me and announced he peed. He was barely samp and I had him use the toilet quickly, which he did. He refused to put undies on again though...so he's in a diaper. (and as I typed that, it was announced that he was stinky....so a diaper change later....not ready yet). Now they are sitting on the couch with the electric babysitter (tv and netflix). As the morning goes on I'm finding out I'm losing the battle against a major headache. So much so that I think I'm going to have to end my computer time (couldn't even think of how to spell computer for a second...what did we do without spell check before?) So I'm off to grab some Ibuprofen. I see Della tagged me with the Honest Scrap award yesterday. I'll try to get something for that up before the weekend.

New day ahead

2010-01-16T08:32:00.002-05:00

Ahhh Saturday morning. I was up at 4am (been doing some funky sleeping thing lately) and realized...I don't need to get up in the morning!! But I was up by 6:30 with Sean following right behind me. Oh well.

Sean didn't last too long with his undies on. The good thing is that he didn't soak himself, only a little dampness. Still he didn't balk at putting a diaper back on. Am I lazy? Probably. But I think they train easier and faster if they REALLY want to be out of diapers themselves. He's just not there yet. Doesn't mean we don't encourage him though.

I was busy all day yesterday but didn't get nearly as much done as I'd hoped. Of course I was expecting that but still it's a bummer. Mainly we got some laundry done and worked in the kitchen. I did do 5 rounds of the test hat (it's being done in blue/denim, not brown) and 7 rows of one of Emily's handwarmers. Amanda was here last night and decided she wants her's in black. I should probably work on those during the day since black is so hard to see in bad lighting.

My sister brought Emily over last night and the little ones have been having a ball ever since. They've darkened their room and have a strobe light going like crazy up there right now. They're planning on going out and enjoying the above freezing tempeatures today. Tomorrow it's suppose to hit 40 woohooo!

I forgot the kids and Tom have Monday off! The school nurse reminded me when she called to see why Luke and Jake were out yesterday. Thursday the girls were home, Friday it was the boys turn. I think everyone is on the upswing now. So next week should be a good attendance week.

What's on the agenda for today? I'm chomping at the bit to go out to the van and bring in my Salvation Army purchases. I want to photograph them in natural light and put them up in my ravelry stash section. Problem is, I know if I bring them in, I'll want to start tearing them apart. I HAVE to get the other things finished first! (hat and 3 sets of handwarmers) So I'll probably work on those instead. I guess on the top of the list I should have...TAKE DOWN THE CHRISTMAS TREE! Especially since I have lots of helpers here today. It would free up some badly needed room in here but then again it'll seem empty. And we can't forget...laundry, cooking, dishes and such. Maybe after breakfast (Eileen and Olivia are making bacon and eggs to order for everyone right now) we'll do a quick but major Saturday morning cleanup.

LOL Eileen just announced it smells like camping. Funny how certain smells can do that. Now that I think about it, we rarely do have bacon and it's usually when we're camping when we do. I WANT TO GO CAMPING!!!! But I'm off to go do something not as fun instead. Have a great day.

It's FRIDAY!

2010-01-15T09:21:00.002-05:00

And the fun thing is...I don't have to go anywhere tomorrow! Yeah me! This week has been away games for the Orangemen so no beer pouring or concessions. Michelle has today and tomorrow off so no driving her. The kids have activity club tonight but that's just a quick 2 mile run down the street and then back to pick them up. My goal is to get as much done today so I can relax tomorrow and do some projects. I still have some Christmas presents that I owe to finish. If I get the chance I might even start my mom's cloche. She's picked this hat when she was out here last weekend. I have some Bernat Satin in a charcoal grey she approved. I'm going to make it up in a light brown Bernat Satin first to see if I need to modify the pattern. I figure I can always add it to my donation box if no one else wants it. There's always some organization that's looking for hats, blankets and such. So may as well put it to good use. My sister's youngest Emily is coming out tonight after Activity club and I'm assuming staying the whole weekend. I owe her and her older sister Amanda handwarmers since I already gave Jessica these...

You can find the pattern here

So I'll let Emily go through my stash and pick a color she likes and make her's. If time allows maybe she can pick a color she thinks Amanda will like and I'll get those done too. I can always hope.

Anyways, I'd feel a lot better about doing the above if I get a bunch of stuff done today. I've already thrown in laundry, loaded the dishwasher, pulled out and cleaned under the couches (still have 2 piles to deal with because of it). After my coffee is gone and I'm done here I'll go back into the basement to throw in more laundry, then the kitchen, more laundry, then the bathrooms and again more laundry. Who knows, I might even get the Christmas tree down! (yes it's still up and decorated) I will NOT go out to the van and sneak my bags from the Salvation Army in, nor will I pick up a crochet hook and start using it!

Sean decided this morning that he wanted to wear underwear! He's nursing in my lap right now with a cute pinchable hienie tempting me. Who knows...maybe I'll be right this time. Everytime I buy a huge box of diapers from BJs I always say...THIS will be the last box of diapers I need to buy. I've only been saying it since last summer. lol Hmmm I just had a thought....will I be sitting in the bathroom all day with Sean? That'll make my todo list easy...NOT!

Coffee's almost gone and Sean is heading to the bathroom so I should follow him. Have a good one!

A rare treat

2010-01-14T20:13:00.002-05:00

Michelle got home from work Tuesday night and asked if I wanted to go to Pizza Hut for dinner the next day...her treat. I was confused because I couldn't figure out why she'd treat us to pizza when she was working. It took a few minutes for her to realize my confusion and set me straight...she was working 8:45am to 4pm....doh! Val wasn't home so that meant I had to take Danielle and Sean with me...brrrr. It didn't hit me until early the next morning that the timeframe also made it impossible for me to get Olivia to school on time. Luckily a quick call to Della and I had the solution...I dropped Olivia off at her house and she caught the bus with Della's kids. Sean was so excited to be going bye-bye. It's been so cold out and with the van not having any heat...I've kept my passengers to a minimum. Danielle and Sean haven't been in the van since the New's Year Feast.

Tom's not feeling so great now. He came home early, took some cold medicine and went to bed. He really wanted to go to Pizza Hut with us but decided it was best for everyone to stay home. So I took all 9 of the kids who live here and Val's friend Brittany to Pizza Hut. Sean was so excited....his feet were going a mile a minute and he was dancing in his carseat all the way there. I'm not sure what he thought it was going to be like but he seemed to have enough fun. Stupid me, I forgot my camera. There was some awesome photo ops too. (I'm consoling myself with the fact that even if I took pictures, they'd still be on the camera since I still can't find my usb cord and don't have a memory card)

The kids were angels! I knew when we walked in there were people who were rolling their eyes and holding their breath...including an older couple. By the time the couple left Sean had won over the husband. They were making googly eyes at each other. lol On the way out the door the wife said...."I just need to say that your children are SO well behaved! You've done a great job!"....made my night. Luckily they left when they did because it wasn't too long after that that Sean decided to yell out for no reason...BUTTCRACK! Of course most of the kids tried not to giggle at him but it was near impossible...he thought he was hilarious and had to keep doing it. We finally distracted him by getting him to start saying Candy Cane.

The pizza was delicious! We hardly ever have Pizza Hut pizza so it was extra special. The kids ordered everything themselves...I just sat there and enjoyed it. We had Hawaiian stuffed crust, Veggie stuffed crust, Buffalo chicken pan and pepperoni, bacon and ham pan pizza. Danielle was a little piggie and ate 3 half pieces. Sean finished off the half piece of meat pizza and dug into the Hawaiian. First bite was followed by a yummm, second bite got another yummm. He then held up the half eaten piece and proclaimed to everyone....Dis is wilwee good! No one argued with him about that. Danielle put a little damper on the night when she threw a fit going out the door and to the van. Seems she wanted to buy a necklace from a bubble gum machine but all she got was someone carrying her screaming self out to the parking lot.

Thia, don't be amazed at the time I find to crochet. I don't find it, I steal it...from cleaning, cooking, reading, computer and to a point my kids. I am a bit more accessible to the kids when I'm crocheting then when I'm doing other things. But still I can become distracted when I'm deep into a project. Usually there's something suffering...most likely it's the house. So to me it's a pretty selfish thing right now. One problem I'm finding is that I HAVE to do the unraveling during the day or I can't see the stitches I need to deconstruct the sweater properly. So that's my excuse ATM.

A really neat thing is that some of my kids are interested in learning. Olivia can already do a pretty mean chain. I think she's a little intimidated to go onto anything more. So she'll chain a houselong chain and then rips it out, just to start again later. Both her and Eileen have been helping hank up the unraveled yarn at times. Jake is usually right there, talking about what I'm doing. It'd be really neat if he decided to join in. And if Sean gets a ball of yarn and a hook...watchout!..His hands move lightning fast. lol

I worked on unraveling some more sweaters. I decided to pick up the magenta cotton again. Once I started it, it was done in no time. I was thinking it might make a cute dress for Danielle. I haven't crocheted any clothes yet but I'd like to start. If I don't do the dress I'll probably start with a baby sweater for the grandbaby-to-be. *smiles ear to ear* I have so many projects rattling around my head right now! I need to get some going so I can stop thinking about them. It doesn't help that I bought a new baby afghan book with my gift card and a 40% off coupon. (still have a $2.XX balance on it! lol) They're all so beautiful, I want to make everyone one of them! And I won't mention that I stopped by the Salvation Army last night and bought a bunch more sweaters to unravel. I left them in the van because I couldn't trust myself not to dig into them when I should be doing other things. :o) Ontop of that I've been reading about dying the natural animal based material (wool, cashmere, angora, alpaca, etc). You use of all things...Koolaid or food coloring! There are some awesome colorways created out there!!! ARGH! I need more hours in the day!

And on that note, Tom's home after picking up Michelle from work...so I'm outta here.

Let's try this again

2010-01-12T07:44:00.002-05:00

It's 7:45am and I think I'm about ready for a do over for the day. I woke up late, getting the kids off to a rushed start. Made coffee and when I went to sit down caused my computer chair to knock over my huge cup...breaking the handle off the cup. Luckily it had been sitting for a bit as I ended up wearing some of it.

(well I would insert a picture of my poor pathetic coffee cup with no handle but I still don't have a memory card and as usual the usb cord for my camera isn't where it's suppose to be!)

At least the kids made it out the door with everything they needed and some toast. Well most of them, Eileen is still in bed for some reason. I'm sure she'll tell me she isn't feeling well..most of us aren't. Val is coughing really bad, Danielle and Sean are coughing a bit, most everyone else has some sort of cold, sore throat, and/or headache. Me, I'm stuffed up which makes for a sloooow go of things. I'd really rather be sitting on the couch, under a huge blanket with a book. Carrie is reading Lovely Bones for her book report this month. She really wants to see the movie so I suggested she read the book first. Tom picked up my mom's copy of it yesterday. Now I want to reread it. I also have a book my mom said I needed to read on my dresser...The Shack by William P Young. I'm not really sure what the story is exactly...probably why I haven't picked it up yet. Or is that my crochet hook has taken over instead?

OOps! Time to wake up Olivia for school. This should be fun since she knows Eileen is home.

She's up and going! I forgot that Eileen was complaining about being dizzy last night. It really doesn't have anything to do with them still being awake well after I was in bed last night, really. (although I did go to bed a lot earlier then normal, it was still past their bedtime)

Saturday night I got a surprise. The list came out for beer pouring and my name wasn't on it! Here I was thinking I'd have to be gone most of Sunday and suddenly it's free. Wooohoo! I debated on whether to go to church or not but with the little ones running fevers on and off and coughing...decided it was best I stayed home. Guess it was a good thing I wasn't scheduled because by the end of the day I was starting to feel the cold coming on. I still had to drive Michelle to work and pick her up since Tom was on call last week (ended Monday morning).

And then I got distracted and left this sitting there. Wouldn't you know it I ended up knocking over ANOTHER huge cup of coffee the same way I did this morning! So the floor around my computer is extra clean and I'm down one mug. The first mug didn't make the drop. I noticed huge cracks all the way through after I finished the coffee I remade in it. Luckily it didn't leak all over too. \

I took some me time on Sunday after dropping Michelle at work. I returned my electric yarn winder (didn't wind the yarn tight enough, had to babysit the yarn too much...would stop winding at the least little tension), looked through the fabric store and walked out without spending anything. Then it was onto AC Moore with my $25 gift card Pat gave me for Christmas. I was in there FOREVER!!! I could NOT figure out what yarn to buy. I wanted something to make a neutral gender baby blanket (with no pink or purple in it or Allison won't use it on a boy). I also want to make each couple a wedding afghan. I couldn't find what I wanted on sale (it's just too hard for me to buy things at full price). I saw some really nice painted/variegated yarn and some sock yarn that I'd love to have. At $5 or $6 per small skein I just couldn't bring myself to buy it without a specific project for it. I settled on white baby yarn for an "heirloom" blanket...I'll make something gender specific once I know what they're having. I walked out of the store having spent only half my card. I think I might take a 40% off coupon and buy an afghan book I was looking through with more of the card. I then headed to the thrift store. I had my fingers crossed that I'd run into a yarn winder, saving me tons of money...but no go. So I headed to the sweater racks. I've been wanting to try reclaiming yarn from thrift store sweaters and wanted to see if I could find something suitable for a first time project. I walked out of there with 5 of them...magenta cotton, green wool, green chenille (thin thin yarn), blue baby alpaca, and a striped cotton/nylon shirt. I spent more then I usually would on them but knew I wouldn't be back through there any time too soon. Hopefully I can do this and it'll be worth the money I spent.

Yesterday was spent taking apart the green chenille shirt. I have a pretty good size pile of yarn waiting to be rinsed and dekinked. I also started on the magenta cotton shirt but ran into some difficulty with unraveling it so put it aside. Today it was the striped one. I had some issues with it but I think I've worked it out. It's such a fine/thin material that it's taking a bit of time to do.

And now dinner, homework, picking Michelle up from work and bedtime has come and gone. So I'm ending this before it drags out into tomorrow.

Can I REALLY stay home?

2010-01-09T09:42:00.002-05:00

Michelle has been having Fridays and Saturdays off for a while. Thing is, there's usually something that needs to be done or is going on those days. So for me to be able to say that I'm really staying home and not getting in the car is rare and it's happening today! Although (and there usually is one in there isn't there) my parents are coming here. They originally planned to visit last Saturday after I got home from beer pouring but the weather was too bad. And I told them to stay home again last Sunday because it was still bad out here (not so much at their house).

One of the good things about having visitors is that it gets the kids motivated to help without too much screaming on my part. My original plan was to tear apart my kitchen, cupboards and all, and put it back together again all spic and span. Instead I found a few tiny, no notice jobs that had been bugging me to tackle. I did get in the kitchen and did make a dent in things, I just didn't accomplish what I'd originally planned. We'll see if things get done this morning, but I doubt it. I told my mom I'd have my great aunt's present finished for her to take home. So I'll have to work on that sometime this morning. It's only a half an hour or so job, but still it's time I need to keep free before they get here.

I haven't crocheted much lately. I still have 3 hand/wrist warmers to finish that I owe my nieces for Christmas and I think it's putting a kibosh on me doing anything else. I'd really like to start an afghan for one of the boys wedding gifts or my new grandbaby coming. EEEEEE!!!!! In a perfect world, I'd etch out some time everyday to work on my crafts, but this isn't the perfect world and I know myself...not going to happen. My first inclination was to join a few crochet alongs at crochetville so I'd have a motivator or someplace to keep me accountable. But again, I know myself and decided not to put that pressure on me. I really do want to keep crocheting something I enjoy and not something I HAVE to do. I'm hoping to get pictures of some things up soon.

It must be the new year

2010-01-07T14:11:00.002-05:00

I've been wanting to change things up here for a while. It must be the new year "traditions" clicking in...changes, starting fresh, etc. Now if things would only kick in for me housewise, things would be a lot better around here...but NOOOOO I have to sit here and redecorate my blog instead.

I didn't like the busyness of the 3 columns...so we're back down to 2. I also wanted my photos to be shown bigger then the previous template allowed. There are still some things I need to fix and may be adding, so don't be surprised if things are funky here on and off.

I also wanted to add more of what I'm working on craftwise here...including a photo gallery of finished things and WIP (works in progress).