* YAWN *

I can't stop.  I have no idea why I'm so exhausted today, I went to bed by 11 last night.   My eyes don't want to stay open which is not a good thing when you have to drive in about an hour....Carrie is going to school, Val is going to work.  Liz has today off so I'll only need to drive to the city twice.   Jake and Danielle are home again today.   I think Jake is dealing with sinus stuff which he's never really had before.  Danielle sounds croupy and woke up with a 102.1 fever.   YAYME!  Actually I can't complain, she's pretty self sufficient even with feeling yucky...a little needier in the mom department but that's ok, I'm always up for sitting and snuggling.

It looks like Carrie will have her GED by the end of the month.  She's finishing up the practice test today.  If she passes then she can sit in on the real test when it's given in March (not sure of the date) I was pretty sure that it wouldn't take her long to be test ready but really...it makes all those years in high school she was suppose to do seem a bit of a waste.  Especially when I've got kids who really don't want to go to school when it's so nice out.   Olivia had a hard time going out the door this morning, saying something like...they shouldn't have school when it's so nice out.  lol  I was waiting for her to start asking for me to homeschool her.   I think she'd be the first in line if I started.   This time of the year is so hard for her.  She misses her Uncle Billy so much.   They were best buddies and spent all her free time together.   I've noticed lately she's gotten a lot more quieter.   When I've taken her on car rides with me she's been really hard to keep in conversation.    But insists she's ok and she will too since she's more worried about making things harder for Tom and I.  It's frustrating...I'm almost have to yell/punish her to make her think of  herself first. It also scares the snot out of me because someone like that could really get taken advantage of as an adult.   Although I know they also make some extraordinary people who just want to serve others.

It's hard to concentrate.  Between wanting to go back to bed and having Liz behind me with the music blasting while she does her workout, my brain is pretty backlogged.   So Tom and I have been having unofficial dates lately.   He grabs his coffee and jumps in the car when I head into the city to pick up the girls from school....30 minutes of uninterrupted talk time.  YUM!  I have to laugh though because while I'm enjoying the time we're together, I'm also wishing and thinking we should have MORE...like a whole weekend.  It won't be happening anytime soon but it's nice to dream about.   Maybe for our anniversary in June (29yrs!)     Monday was my day off.  Both girls had the day off work, I only needed to drive Carrie to school at 11.  So what did I do?  Stay home?  Get housework done?  Nope, I took Sean and we went into the big city for the day.   First I got together with my sister Tracy and brother Brian (there's only the 3 of us) to talk about our parents' 50th wedding anniversary on June 9th.  I can't share too much here since I know my mom reads...HI MOM!  I LOVE YOU!   Let's just say it was an interesting time, especially since Brian and I tend to butt heads something fierce.   The funny thing is the next day Tracy and I came over to Brian's line of thinking.  I called to let him know only to find out,  he had decided we had the better idea!  LOL  So we're still at a divide but a bit closer to coming to a final conclusion.    After Brian went to work I loaded up Sean and my niece Sam (she's a few weeks younger then Sean) and headed to my mom's and dad's.   The plan was for Sam to spend the night...she didn't make it. lol   Brian had to pick her up after he got out of work.    It was so hard for Sean to leave my parents' place.  He wanted to stay the night too.   It wasn't going to happen, especially with Sam, the two of them tend to bicker a lot.  

Oops!   Time to head out the door...Be Back Later

I'm beat

Between the time change and the after effects of working the dome........I am totally exhausted.   Driving Liz to work proved difficult, actually driving home from driving her to work was what was difficult.  All I wanted to do was put my head back, relax and find lala land.   I came home and jumped into bed for about 30mins.  But first Olivia and I stopped at the mall and spent her Aeropostale gift card she received from my niece and her family.  MAN that place is expensive!  I hate going in there.   She managed to find a tshirt for $5 and a plaid hoodie for $20.  It only took 1.5 trips around the store.  I couldn't leave the mall without wandering into JoAnn's Fabric.   I finally figured out which yarns I want to use for my niece's twins but not sure of the colorways.   And I still don't know, seems our store doesn't carry this yarn although I've seen it on the website. Grrrr!   I wanted to look at it in person and actually feel it!  It's a little more costlier then I normally use and I don't want to end up with yarn I'm not totally tickled with.   Oh well, I can't really buy it right now anyways and I have the garage sale/craft fair to get ready for before I can do them.

I hate not having a specific game plan for this thing.   To be able to say......I want to make X number of hats, blankets, headbands,   etc made.   I did end up organizing most of my yarn at the end of island week, so that should make planning and figuring easier.   Now to just get my fingers working..  

OMGoodness!  It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL outside today.  It made it hard to sit inside for a transmission at church. But we managed to sit outside for a bit after lunch.  I got to hold and talk to one of twins, Sebastian.  WHAT A CUTIE!   I didn't want to give him up but unfortunately I had to.   It is so awesome to have so many babies around again.  My hands itch the whole time I'm sitting in a meeting, just wanting to have them filled with baby bootie.   It's going to be in the 60's all week....I'm so psyched.   I know we had a mild winter but I'm so ready to see some green around here.  While waiting for the bus last week Danielle and I noticed some of the trees across the street are looking a bit reddish with buds and the Canada geese are flying back north!  More and more I understand why people become snow birds and travel south for the winter.   If it weren't for family, I think I'd like to live a bit more south....say central PA.   I'd still want the changing of the seasons and snow but just not as much as we normally have here.  

Well the sun is starting to set and it's getting chilly outside fast.  The kids are back in the house and are jumping in the shower for the evening.   Tom has a pot of beef soup/stew on the stove and we're getting ready to eat.   So I should pop off here and stop ignoring everything and everyone.  

It's quiet here

I've been up for an hour now and my coffee is almost gone and cold.  Tom just got up to get ready for work.  Poor thing, I can't wait until he can retire!   Which leads me back to what's been on my mind lately.....What am I going to do come September?   Once Sean is in school and I'm home alone (and assuming I'm not driving anyone anymore) what am I to do.   What I WANT to do is say....to bad so sad, leave me alone to putter here as I please.  I don't want to grow up!!!   The responsible thing to do is to either get a job and/or go back to school and start working toward a career.   Working would get us ahead faster so that Tom can retire sooner.....and I want that.   Going to school would be stimulating and let me earn more once I did get a job.  It also seems nearly impossible with  all the other stuff floating around in my head.  Can I really cram one more fact into it?   It's getting to the point that I have to make a decision so I can apply for scholarships and funding.   (most applications need to be in by may).   Someone tell me what to do and then do it for me please!

A bit of good news... I passed my stress test!  Woohoo!  For a while there I thought it might not go well.  So much so that I refused to have the test on the 6th like they originally were going to schedule me for.  I just couldn't bear the thought of Olivia having to deal with one more bad thing happening on her birthday if I failed the test or was admitted to the hospital.  I'm not sure if I'm in better shape then the last time  I had this done (2002) or if the test wasn't as strenuous as my first test but it was a piece of cake.   I'd like to think I'm in better shape.   Now to get healthier so I don't have to think there's a reason to schedule a stress test, much less think I'm going to fail it.

At the end of the month there is a garage/craft sale at  the local rec center.  I learned about it in January and thought it would be neat to make some things to sell for it.  Allison said she'd make some things for it if she could, Michelle and Val got excited at the idea and said they'd sell some things there, so I reserved a space for 2 tables any size for $15.   I've had 2 months to get things made...guess how much I have done for it.....NOTHING!   Although I don't think I'll have too much to sell from around the house I guess it'd be a good reason to clean and declutter around here.  I've told Luke if he wants to sell any video games he's welcome to.   I still want to make a few things, mostly small trinkets.  I figure it's close to Easter and people might be willing to shell out money for low ticket things to put in baskets.   The drawbacks to doing this is that it's the first one ever and it's only open from 8 until noon.   I'd hate to do all the work and not even make my table money back.   I keep thinking....it's only $15, if I don't do it....no biggie.  But I can't think like that!

I'm thinking if I get back into blogging regularly again that I should just condense my food and craft blog into here.  After all, it's just another part of my life.   So don't be surprised if I talk about crocheting or cooking a bit ontop of all the other stuff flying off my brain.    Unfortunately crocheting wise everything I've started...I've undone.  Nothing seems to be to my liking.  Hopefully I can get some color combos going that seem to be ok to me.  

And now the first trip kids are almost out the door and I want to talk to them before they leave.  So posting now!

Rough few days

And I totally feel guilty over having a hard time of things.   It's BIRTHDAY WEEK!   It's suppose to be a fun time for all. Olivia's birthday was SOOOO hard to get through and the guilt of wanting to just give up and give in to my emotions was nearly choking me.   All I wanted to do was climb in bed and have a good cry.   It's the first time we had a normal (meaning boring) birthday party for her since Billy's death.  Two years ago we went away to a hotel, last year we rented a gym and had a gymnastic party.   Olivia seemed to be doing well all day.   I picked her, Eileen and Danielle up from school at 12:30 and we hung out together for the day.  Drew, Allison and Meghan came over for dinner since we were having Walmart fried chicken (Olivia's request) which we haven't had in a loooong time.  YUM!   Tonight Olivia seemed a bit depressed.  She rode with me to take Liz to work and wasn't her normal chatty self on the way home.   Luckily she was heading to my SIL's house to celebrate with her cousin who's 22nd birthday is the 12th.  Those girls are so awesome with my younger girls,  I don't know what I'd do without them.      I think I kind of shut down these last few days.  Done what I had to do to get through the day (like send the kids to school or make dinner) but anything other than that...nope.     Val's birthday is tomorrow (she'll be 22) and she's requested steak for dinner.  I stopped at BJ's today and bought a roast...if she insists on steaks, I'll cut it up.   I'm hoping she'll be ok with a whole roast though.

Carrie's first few days of the GED program have been going well.   She did her testing the first two days and got the results yesterday.  Math she's a 8.2 out of 9...so no tutoring needed there.  For reading she's 7 something out of 9, so she needs a bit of work before she can take the test.   They are having her work her way through a workbook.  When she's done with that they'll have her take a practice GED test to see how she scores.  If she passes that test, then it's onto the real thing!  I don't think it'll take her long at all.   It's good to see her excited when talking about school.

After picking up Liz from work tonight I am on vacation for a few days.   Val and Liz both have Friday and Saturday off!  Woohoo!   Unfortunately I won't be home on Saturday to enjoy the vacation since I'm working at the dome all day for Monster Jam.  But it's nice to know that Tom won't have to worry about driving anyone while I'm gone either.   I want to relax all day tomorrow but this house is screaming at me to get something done!

Speaking of picking up Liz, it's that time.   If I don't post this now, it'll never get posted.  So finished or not, it's getting posted.  Hopefully I'll be back later to post more.

Front row, left to right... Olivia, Liz, Val, Eileen, Carrie and Jake
Back row...... Pat holding Sean, Drew holding Danielle, Luke and Michelle

Just realized I should probably share a semi updated photo of the kids (minus wives and others). This was taken this fall while we were all out apple picking together.

Oh wow! I just realized I never mentioned the kids who aren't living at home.

Drew is starting his 2nd week of being unemployed. The company he worked for is no more. His not sure what he's going to do now. I've told them they could move in here with us if they want/need to. I'd love to have Meghan under foot all the time. She's 1.5yo now and lots of fun. Allison and her spent all week with us last week for ISLAND WEEK! I'll have to post about that in a different post.

Pat and Alex are working their fannies off at the hospital. I think Pat's going to try to get into nursing school this fall. At least that's what I've heard. Now he just needs to get his fanny in gear and do the paperwork! The kid will make a great nurse one day, he's already a pretty good Aide. They got a new puppy Cain to go with Iorek.

Michelle has now been out of the house for a year. It seems like she moved out ages ago. I miss having her fun making self here. She does come by on her days off so she can hang out with Val for the day. As usual it wouldn't have been Island week without her talent and hard work. Her kids (once she has any) are going to have the FUNNEST mom in the whole world! Lucky ducks!

So my mom asked me...

(Originally started 2/24)
Why aren't you blathering? At first I was confused, then I realized she meant posting here. Can I just say life's happened. As usual I've had tons of intentions of posting, composed posts in my head but to sit down here and write it...hasn't happened, obviously. I was going to get back into the swing of things when the holidays passed, a new year started...so fresh start. Nope, not quite.

So what's going on here right now. Luke is working with/for my nephew...doing construction. He loves it because he's working with his friends and the boss is pretty awesome. :o) Unfortunately he had a little accident in February that put him out of work for a month. He shot a nail into and through the bottom knuckle on his left thumb. He required 3 days of inpatient IV antibiotics, but it has healed quickly and is almost back to normal.

At the end of August Liz started working at a nursing home...doing food service (washing dishes, making up trays of food and meals on wheels lunches, stocking food on all the floors, etc). The only drawback is that it's part-time.

Val started working at the beginning of this month as a manager at a tanning salon. I think it's quite ironic that a licensed aesthetician is running a tanning place. I think at first it was hard for her...seeing all the "sun" damage, but she's good at the job and likes it.

Carrie had her thyroid removed at the beginning of January and has been feeling blah since then. We found out last week or so that her dose of synthroid wasn't cutting it so we've upped it. Unfortunately for her not feeling well for so long meant that she missed school for all but 2 days of January. She tried to go back to school shortly after the surgery and couldn't, then it was...I'll try again tomorrow. In hindsight we probably should've had her tutored for the whole month but technically if things were right, she would've only needed the few days after surgery. Missing so much school almost guarantees that she'll fail for the semester and probably the year. It's been so hard seeing her struggle to keep from drowning. So we've asked that she be enrolled into a GED program through school. We found out today that she's been accepted and should be starting soon. (waiting for the occupational center that runs it to contact us on start date) It's self paced. She'll be tested to find her weakness and then taught toward those weaknesses. When the staff thinks she's ready to pass the test she'll take a practice test. If she passes it then they'll allow her to take the GED test. Once she passes that test, she's completely done with school. She's a very smart girl and I don't think it'll take her long to get through this. She's excited especially with the idea that she could "graduate" on time (when she turns 18) instead of when she's 20 or 21 which is what she was looking at originally.

Unfortunately for me the girls having a job requires me to drive back and for to the small city...most times 4 times a day. (Luke's friend picks him up and drives him) Each round trip is 45 miles long and takes an hour...so I'm in the car.... A LOT! (although Tom tries to help with the night and weekend driving when he can) We're hoping to get a car with an automatic transmission that the kids can use to learn to drive within the next few weeks. My goal is to have them all have their license and a car by the start of summer. I DO NOT WANT TO DRIVE THIS SUMMER!!!! The thing that bums me out is that this winter would've been an excellent time to learn to drive. There's been very little snow and what we have had has been manageable driving wise. It would've made for a good winter driving experience.

It's now 9 days (3/4) since I started this, let's see if I can finally finish it!

Carrie has been accepted into the GED program and starts tomorrow afternoon (half day sessions). We're all excited. Last Friday started off Birthday week here with Luke turning 19. Olivia will turn 12 on Tuesday and Val will turn 22 this coming Friday. Luke wasn't home all weekend so we had a small family dinner (meatloaf) with brownie sundaes. I didn't really get him anything...bought him a chocolate bar and a package of sushi he wanted while we were out grocery shopping. I at least one more idea of something to get him. The kid is hard to buy for! Especially now that he has his own money.

The rest of the kids are doing well, going to school, hanging with their friends, playing on the xbox and the computer. Danielle started kindergarten. It was hard to send her because she was the only elementary school kid and was going on the bus alone. Besides Drew, all my other kindergarteners had an older sibling to take them under their wing. But she's doing fine and loves it, she's soaking everything up like a sponge.

That leaves Sean as the only one not in school. He will be going in September for sure. The kid LOVES his numbers, letters and is trying to read. I realized the other night...I'm right where I was 7yrs ago when Olivia was the youngest one and about to start school. Only this round there won't be any new babies to change amything. So the big question lately is.......what will mom do come September? I say cry my eyes out for a bit and then kick back and relax!!!! ;o) Everyone else seems to think I should be employed. humph! It would help to get us ready for Tom to retire when he wants. He's eligible to after July of '13. BUT MAN! Lazy me does NOT want to join the rat race.

Besides driving I've been working at the Syracuse University Dome doing concessions for our church. We work all the home football and basketball games. It's been really busy seeing as the teams are doing well, especially the basketball team (30-1 record! woohoo!) That's coming to end though, the last basketball game was yesterday. Next week we have Monster Jam and then 2 lacrosse games and we're finished until September again. I've been doing a tiny bit of crocheting, but not enough. I'm behind 2 afghans for my niece's twins and we're suppose to be having a table set up at the end of the month for a garage/craft sale. I haven't started ANYTHING for that and keep wondering......WHAT was I thinking?? Housewise, it had been looking pretty good in here but it only takes a blink of an eye for it to fall apart and fall apart it did. I just wish it only took a blink of an eye (or a twitch of my nose) to get it back to where it should be again. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

I did it! Got to a point where I feel comfy calling it done. I promise (and I rarely ever promise anything) to try and get on here more often and maybe even fairly regularly! I've missed writing here, although I do try to do a blog tour of all my old friends on a regular basis. So not totally losing touch, only on my side.......BAD KIM! Good night

10 times

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

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!

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

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

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

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!

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

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!

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

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?

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

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!?!

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

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.