I just can't let it go....

I left chat and was going to go to bed when my blog kept popping into my head. So here I am, quieting that little voice in my head!

There's not really too much to talk about. We had a leisurely, non-eventful day. The kids all got along well although Eileen felt left out at times when Carrie and Margaret were playing. Carrie bugged me most of the morning to go to the One Stop...convenience store about 5miles away. She had some money burning a hole in her pocket. Yep, I said had, so she eventually got her way. Although she didn't spend it all, she spent a good chunk. I've been trying to convince her to save her money for something that will last longer then 5mins...but she wants snacks. It's not like we don't normally have them...although our cupboard has been bare the last few days. So I took the girls with me and we picked out some yummy chips and overpriced candy to share with the kids at home.

All day the kids went in and out of the pool. I noticed that my sil's kids have a habit or have been taught (not sure which yet) that they don't sit around in their bathing suit(they have a pool too). So after getting out and drying off they'd immediately change. I just don't get why you'd expend that energy when it's perfectly fine sitting around in your swim trunks/suit all day. I'd say I'm just not up on how it is with a pool, but my parents have had a pool since I was 11 yrs old and we always just wore our suits all day...unless we were leaving the yard.

Today I didn't really do much work...partially loaded the dishwasher, did a load of towels and threw in a load of darks (still in the washer and now need to be rewashed...oops!). I spent most of the day sitting out under our new screenhouse (have to wait to get a pic in the morning to show), reading my book....only 50 pages or so to go!!!

The kids were returned to their proper families after dinner. My kids spent the rest of the evening watching DVDs. I helped Tom put up a wall infront of his patio, picked the radishes, and weeded the green peppers. I also took a few pics of some plants...especially a weird looking heirloom tomato plant I got from Karen while visiting her. I actually have quite a few garden plants thanks to her. :o) Can't forget to share my first flower out of my new front garden!!! A bachelor's button...

I have my 6 younger ones camped out on the livingroom floor for the night (how can that possibly be comfortable?!?!?) I hope they sleep well, seeing as we'll be going over to Tom's older brother's house for a BBQ in the afternoon. I unfortunately have to run to the store in the morning. I was pegged to bring Fruit or Tossed salad. I don't have any fixings for either of them! I NEED to go grocery shopping!!! Hope Sunday's ad is a good one.

Here's my robust and weird looking tomato plant from Karen...

The rest of the story....

My sil and I switched some kids. I lost Luke and Liz and gained Sam(8) and Margaret(7). They're in their rooms now. No bugging needed....maybe I should have overnight guests every night. LOL

It ended up being a fairly productive day here. We 2/3 of the boy's room/playroom cleaned. Both bathrooms are cleaned and 1 huge load of dishes (although there's at least one more waiting for me in the sink). I've also been in and out of the house watching them in the pool. Washing machine is going as we speak.

While I was loading the dishwasher the kids ran in to tell me that there were fire engines down the street. I decided to take a walk (actually got bugged about it until I agreed to it) to see what was up. Figured if there was a fire I could be neighborly and see if there was anything I could do. (even though the occupants of the house haven't been very neighborly to me) By the time we got there (it's about 1/4mile away) the firetrucks were pulling away. So I'm assuming things were ok.

As we were walking home we passed our closest neighbor, they happened to be standing on their porch and we started a conversation. TWO hours later I had to excuse myself because my sil was here to pick up the kids she was bringing home. Tom talked to them for another half hour. It's good to make contact with your neighbor I guess. We've only spoken a few times...but it's obvious they've been paying attention to what goes on around here. Luckily they seem to be ok with all my kids. When they first moved out here that wasn't the case...thanks to some gossipy friends of theirs (actually it was the neighbors with the fire engines and the info was WRONG!). It helps that our houses aren't REALLY close too. LOL

Pat went to Buttermilk Falls with his girlfriend, Jess and her mom. He came home with a ticket!!! Seems they went off the trail and were swimming in a plunge pool when a park ranger came upon them. Jess's mom said it was her fault they were where they were so she's taking care of it. :o)

I finally got dinner done at 9pm and fed the masses. We had chicken tacos, italian sausage sandwiches and Doritos. We were suppose to have canned corn too but Pat didn't finish opening the cans before it was time to eat. Guess I gave him a job that he couldn't handle...WIMP!!

I THINK I'm going to try and clean out the fridge before I go to bed. Then again, maybe I'll just curl up with my book and fall asleep on the couch. LOL I don't think I'll get to the grocery store tomorrow anyways. I forgot that Olivia has a dr's appt to recheck her ear from her earache 2 wks ago. Luckily they called to confirm the appt today. So I probably have another day to get to the fridge.

Well Pat wants to use the phone line (Drew's being a jerk about the regular one) so I'll say Good Night!

And then there were 14....

Guess what it takes to get some work done around here is...ADD MORE KIDS! LOL My sil who has 14 kids called this morning. She had a dr appt for 2 of her little ones. The boys don't care to be dragged around to the dr or the store. So could they come over here? SURE! My boys will love it and maybe it'll motivate them to clean their room. It did :o) All the kids ran in and started helping. Of course they didn't STAY helping but it made a difference. We got over half of it done in a couple of hours...it was BAD! So half their room is spotless, the other you can't see the floor. While we were cleaning she asked if her 7yo girl could come too. Of course MY girls didn't think it was fair that only the boys were coming. So this smoothed things over for them. All were happy again :oD

My sil sent over hotdogs, chips and fruit rollups (big treat in this house). Lunch went well and all the kids have been in and out of the pool since they've been here. Now I have to figure out dinner. I had a ham in the fridge and thought today would be a good time to serve it. Unfortunately the ham had better ideas and decided to become SPOILED! So into the trash it'll go. I can't complain it was my fault....it's been in there a looong time. The use by date was June 27th. Maybe we'll have elbows with sauce and italian sausage.

We're thinking of having them spend the night. If they hadn't already seen Shrek 2 we'd be going to the drive-in tonight (and if it doesn't rain). I guess I could try to find out what's at the drive-in that's south of us. Maybe I'll clean up the popup and ship them out there for the night.

Tom just called. He's going to be a while coming home (usually gets home at 4:20). Seems J at work broke his hand when an elevator door crushed it. :o( He's still at urgent care with him waiting for a cast to be put on.

Guess I need to start getting dishes done and figure out dinner.

I'm all mommied out!!!

I guess I should have included ranting in my blog title. LOL I am all mommied out!!! I have no idea why it's happening. It seems to be happening more often lately. Usually it happens on a rare occassion, I think mostly associated with a major bout of PMS. Lately though it's been happening at least a few times a month if not once a week.

Right now I've been trying to get the kids into bed for over an hour. Well, they're into bed but they're not being very quiet...guess they didn't hear me tell them they need to do both. One is not good without the other right now. Olivia is still up, climbing in and out of my lap while I type and telling me stories. I hate to say this but it's THAT type of thing right now that's the most irksome to me...poor thing.

I think the kids think I'm PMS'ing though. I've put them on alert that sleeping until noon and staying up forever are not going to be tolerated. Also that tomorrow is a WORK DAY!!!! I'm sure the big kids are rolling their eyes and saying to themselves....here we go...typical summer vacation rant. Who knows...maybe I am PMS'ing, even my computer being slow has gotten on my nerves tonight. It'd be a weird time to be experiencing it though. If everyone would go to sleep I could sit and read for a while. Now that sounds nice!

On a good note, I'm hoping that my front garden (in it's first year) will be blooming a few things in the next day or so. I'm looking forward to sharing that with everyone! (what did we do before digital cameras? lol)

Well guess I need to take a trip down the hall to remind the kids exactly what they should be doing now! I'll spare you anymore of my diatribe.

I KNOW it's the next day....

As you can see I never did get to updating last night like I planned. Tom went to bed at 11:30 and I decided to join him, dragging Olivia and Eileen into bed with me, Luke and Jake were already asleep. From what I've gathered this morning...everyone else stayed up until the wee hours of the morning. Michelle and Val had friends K and J over. I heard them lumbering down the stairs (they were watching a video in Drew's and Pat's room) at 4:30am. I checked on them and then couldn't fall back to sleep. So I grabbed the book I wanted to start reading The Cobra Event . After a while I took a nap until until 9am and was STILL the only one up (besides Tom who'd gone to work at 6:30)

I don't like how our mornings seem to be wasted in bed. I've decided to give them the rest of this week and then I'll be instituting a 9am maximum sleep time. If they're too tired to get up...guess they need to go to bed early. I'd also like to get them into bed at 9, having them read for an hour or so. But like I've previously stated below...bedtimes are not my specialty...so I'm not holding out hope on that one. Maybe it'll become important enough to me later to uphold it.

Now onto the update of yesterday. There is no update LOL! Not a stinking thing got done after I last wrote. I meandered around the house, picked up this, kicked that around, thought about it all and ended up not getting anything noticeable done. GRRRR! Tom worked in the yard all evening so we didn't have water until really late. We had PB&J sandwiches for dinner. At least I do have water, unlike Karen, hopefully her problem is already resolved. While chatting last night I lost 2 Christmas Village houses. Guess that goes to show me I should put them away when Christmas or at least winter is over!

My house for some reason is now a total mess. Not only do I still have big pieces of furniture in my livingroom that have NO right to be there. But the dishes are undone, kitchen table is a mess and the floor...well we won't go there. I'm still running the supply pump, planning on getting at the laundry. I know once I get into digging into my room and the hall closet I'll have tons of extra laundry. Not to mention if I get to sewing I'll need to wash the material before I start.

Hmmmmm....kids decided they wanted ice cream for breakfast and being the nice mom (read that lazy) that I am decided it was fine by me...as long as they made me a bowl! The half gallon they brought up from the basement freezer is soft. Guess it's time to defrost that baby. Add that to my todo list...defrost freezer and clean refrigerator before going grocery shopping on Friday.

Tom's HOME!?!?! He just informed me he stopped by while on lunch. He's not really suppose to be out of the county (works for one county, we live in another). He dropped off 2 bags of mulch and a bag of compost from the next town over's community pile. I always get excited thinking he's taken the rest of the day off. If it were up to me the guy would never go to work LOL! Good thing I'm not the moneymaker in this family.

K and J left and now Valerie is gone to the movies. Drew and Pat are finally getting to the temp agency to get a summer job. Hopefully they BOTH come home with one. It would be nice if they were working together and could carpool. It would make the necessity of getting Pat a car lower, although he'll need one before school starts in the fall (unless Drew's and Pat's schedules are similar). I really don't want to give up my car! But if Pat needs transport to work...what am I going to do? One of the disadvantages of living out in the country...no easy access to public transportation.

I find it hard to make everyone work when some are off having fun. Guess I'll have to get over myself and get them moving. Especially if they want to go swimming..looks to be a nice day for that! Guess I have to go get the whip out now.

Ok..here are the dreaded pictures I said I might share. The first picture is the north end of the library taken yesterday. Last night Drew and Pat took out the sleeper loveseat and put it into their room. So now I don't have to work that into the cleaning. The other pic is the south end of the room and is my craft table and all it's trappings. And people wonder why I don't get some crafts for the bazaar done earlier?

And here I sit....

Yep! Getting NOTHING done. We've run out of water. Luckily we have some bottled drinking water and a 5gallon igloo water jug of city water. It's not MY fault we're out! I haven't done ANY laundry in the last few days. Waterwise we're going to really have to watch our original well level and run the supply well often. It's making getting the pool filled a loooong and drawn out process. It should have been filled weeks ago but still isn't up to the skimmer opening....although it's close! At least the kids are using it while they wait for it to be filled. (we're treating it the best we can without the filter)

Poor Tom...he had to go to work on less then 5hrs sleep. He's going to be exhausted when he gets home. He's a sleeper and can't survive on little sleep like I can. Of course *I* didn't have to survive on little sleep, I slept in until 10:00. I'll have to try to remember to be nice to him and excuse his grumpiness, which I'm sure he'll be. Makes it hard for me to ask him to prime the water pump when he gets home. It's one of the only things around here I haven't successfully done yet.

I started working with Michelle in the library this morning. We put a dent in it, but it's still a HUGE task. We have things to get out of there that have been in there since it was built 7yrs ago (wood for moulding/trim, boxes of disgusting books, etc) Within a few minutes I was sneezing...stupid allergies! I should just go in there and work, figuring I'm going to be sick by the time I'm done whether it's one day or 3. Hmmmm... It would be a huge thing off my mind. Then again I could go in my room and do the same. Or the little boys/playroom. Now I need to stop thinking about it before I get discouraged and just not do anything.

On that note, I'll take off and try to do something before this feeling fades away. I took at least one before pic of the library but the batteries are dead. Maybe I'll get brave and share it once the batteries are recharged. I'll update tonight.

Well it's a start

We got off to a good start this morning. The kids set the timer for 5:55 and started picking up the livingroom and kitchen floor. They almost beat it. They would have definitely if the older girls weren't busy moving big things around the house. We finally got the "new" old computer and printer I bought for $25 at a garage sale, off the kitchen table. So now we can all sit down to a meal again!

The dishes didn't get done but Michelle and Valerie started working in the library and they got their room really cleaned! So that's a step. Of course now my house is half torn apart and has big pieces of furniture in the middle of rooms. So tomorrow will have to be even more productive. Why do I make messes cleaning up!?!?! I swear it's the only way I know how to clean.

In the library is all my craft and most of my sewing stuff. I'd love to get that all organized and make the room enjoyable to work in. Right now there's a sofa sleeper in the middle of the room and lack of use has made it a collection area for cobwebs. I guess that'll be our main job tomorrow.

We ordered pizza for the kids for dinner. Tom and I decided to go out to dinner for our Anniversary(married 21yrs!!!). While the kids ate dinner I took a shower and got ready to go. Olivia came up to me and asked....Can I go on your honeymoon with you?!?! ROFL! Too cute! But the answer is NO! We tried to explain that we weren't going on a honeymoon but a date. It's all the same to her...mom and dad are going out because they are married.

After hemming and hawwing for a while we finally decided to go to the Golden Corral (all you can eat buffet). I know it's not a fancy shmancy adult restaurant but for us it was perfect. There was hardly anyone there and we got a corner booth all to ourselves. We had steak, fish, fried shrimp, shrimp gumbo (first time for that...not bad!) all the dessert and salad we could want. We both tried not to get so stuffed that we felt sick. I thought I was in trouble when we were at the gas station afterwards, I felt a little sick to my stomach..but luckily it didnt' last long.

We really didn't want to go back home so soon. Couldn't get a motel room for the night (Tom has to go to work in the morning). So we decided to go to the drive-in theater! LOL We saw Shrek2 and Ella Enchanted. It was a nice night to go...Monday, temperature was in the low 50's, sprinkled on and off all day (but not during the movies)....hardly anyone was there. We parked behind everyone else so we would have some privacy.

It's a good thing Ella Enchanted (second movie shown) wasn't that great or I would have been really peeved! Seems Tom wasn't interested in necking while Shrek2 was on...he wanted to watch the movie!!!! GRRRRR! ;o) I don't blame him...it was a good movie. It was fun to feel like a teenager again though. As the movie started it hit me....this is how we spent our FIRST anniversary. My mom watched Drew who was 2mo old (I nursed him before we left) and we went to the drive-in and saw Rambo. We couldn't have planned a better 21st anniversary if we'd tried (well short of having a few nights to ourselves at a nice hotel/motel lol)

I do have to admit...it's left me wanting more time alone with him! Maybe we'll have to start a monthly date night...I'll have to talk to Tom about that. Hope I can remember to bring it up soon.

Now THIS is what a Sunday is for....

We had a nice and relaxing day at home. I'd even call it productive...which is always a good thing. I worked in both the house and the yard today, but nothing too strenuous. Weeding the peppers, moving planters, cleaning the bathroom and picking up the floors in the livingroom and kitchen. We also sat around and talked, played horseshoes and badminton....we didn't keep score.

I woke up with my back really tight and sore but curled up in a ball for another hour of dozing. It seemed to help a lot but was still tender and stiff on and off all day. I really need to start doing some exercise! At least getting up and going for a walk. I enjoyed it when I did it Memorial Day morning. I wish I could start it and keep it up now. I do like being more active around here though. Although my computer time is seeing a severe reduction and that's not fun.

I'm trying to convince the kids if they help a little each day that we can have all the rooms cleaned eventually. Then we can easily have people over to visit and swim. (once the pool is finished and running well that is) I'm not sure if I've been successful but at least the work we did this afternoon hasn't been undone. It's better then normal, hopefully tomorrow we can make a greater leap toward getting things cleaned and organzized. I MIGHT even get the Christmas village off the top of the organ in the livingroom. Laundry is calling my name too :o( Guess I can try and get a bunch done tomorrow. Hopefully we won't run out of water before I'm done.

Tomorrow is our 21st wedding anniversary. I'm trying to figure out how to get the kids into their rooms by a decent time (meaning before we fall asleep!) So we can have a "date" and have the downstairs to ourselves. Stuff like that was so much easier when they were little. Makes me jealous of Catherine and Reg's system of having all their kids in their bedrooms by a certain time everyday. Nowadays I'm pushing my teens to bed so I can go to bed!

Well guess we'll have to see what tomorrow holds. Hopefully it's as enjoyable as today.

Ok...so having them grow up does has some benefits.

Sunday was my dad's birthday and we all went to my parents' house. We had 14 people in our 13 passenger van. We had Tom, me, 10 kids, 1 fiance...Allison and 1 girlfriend...Jessica. Drew decided he'd ride with us. I think his lack of working and high prices of gasoline had a role in that decision. LOL The girls had their regular sing-a-long on the way....at the top of their lungs. I Met a Bear never sounded so good. Patrick kicked me when I hinted I would get them going on a round of..."It is the Song That Never Ends". They've been known to sing it loudly for the entire 45min trip into the city.

It looked to be a not so great day at the beginning. The weather wasn't cooperating,cool, raining on and off and very windy all day. My brother also decided that HE was in charge and no one could do anything right...especially me. We've always butted heads as kids but I had thought we were getting along a lot better as adults (I'm the oldest of 3 kids....sister is 14mos younger then me, brother is 4yrs younger). After getting ticked off and going upstairs to cool down and stop crying...I talked to him and explained what I was doing, and why. He actually seemed to be listening for a change and calmed down after that. Thankfully it was the last of our headbutts for the evening.

My dad wanted to do a shot of Sambuca for his birthday. Luckily he didn't care if they were lit on fire or not. I'd never had Sambuca, don't care for licorice, don't handle shots well and had 10 kids I had to take care of. This is where the benefit of having older kids comes into play.....I had 2 underaged DRIVERS at my beck and call! :o) So I got adventerous and joined into the birthday shot. It was SMOOTH and I didn't mind the licorice taste at all. While sitting down to dinner I thought...that didn't hit me. Then BLAM! 10mins later I felt it. I could see where someone could do a bunch of shots and be totally blasted without realizing it. I decided to take advantage of having the drivers around and enjoyed my adult beverages, although I was in no way drunk.

It's a good thing that Drew did drive...even though I hadn't drunk for a few hours and felt fine. They had a sobriety test at the thruway tollbooth. I thought for sure we'd get a ticket for an uninspected vehicle. Luckily the trooper didn't notice...seeing as he was preoccupied when the car infront of us took off without getting his toll ticket from the booth attendant. He just said to Drew...I'm assuming you're sober...seeing as you're responsible for driving all these children, and he let us go through.

My parents' street is a dead end that ends at a firehouse parking lot. This weekend happened to be their annual fielddays. My kids were ok with not going down and knew I hadn't brought my wallet....not that there was anything in it to give them. My sister had promised her 3 girls she would take them down...NOT a good idea when you're trying to relax at a family party. They bugged her and bugged her. Finally they started to get ready to go. By the time they went down her husband had us ALL going down. They spent over $100 for everyone to ride a few rides. BIL decided that all the kids needed to play the watergun game. So he had them line up, and play...to the tune of $20 each game! They played 2 games with my neice Amanda winning a huge blue stuffed dog and Valerie winning a huge blue with green spots stuffed lizard.

We finished up the night around a fire in my dad's fireplace. The kids even decided to go swimming again!!! BRRRRRRRRR! Oh to be young and brainless...I mean carefree again. LOL We left when my dad's birthday was over....past midnight.

So this is vacation!?!?!

So much for a relaxing summer vacation. LOL No I'm not complaining that the kids are home, bored out of their skull. No they're not driving me crazy. I'm just saying that no one realizes it's suppose to be summer vacation here.

This week has gone a little like this...

Saturday...Graduation party for Pat, Laura, Susan and Joey (all couins). Luckily it wasn't at my house so prep time was at a minimum..but it was ENOUGH! Especially with trying to get end of the school year projects done. AF was due

Sunday...50th Birthday feast at church for Dennis K (dad of 14 kids). Started at 10:30am...great postparty time to be out the door. Came home..talked to Tom and ran back out the door to visit my dad for father's day. Seems Tom got a little shorted for father's day. I'll have to make it up to him later. Had a nice visit with Dad and picked up Pat at midnight from his girlfriend Jess's house.

Monday...Field trips and such for all the kids....what a waste of a school day. Olivia woke up at 8:30 screaming her earached. She didn't stop for more then 5mins until she fell asleep at noon. (I was ready to bang my head on the wall by then) We had to leave at 12:30 for her dr appt. She needed antibiotics...inflamed ear and sore throat. Bought a FRE hpt while at Walmart...took it as soon as I walked in the house...BFN....AF showed up 3hrs later. :o( A couple of the kids complained of not feeling so hot. Oh great...another sick summer for us (flashback to summer of 2001)

Tues...Half day for the kids....generally an ok day. I think I did something but can't remember what it was. So it wasn't so bad.

Wed...Kid's last day of school. I picked up the kids that didn't want to ride the bus home (they have a 1hr busride that they HATE). A few opted to ride with their friends on the bus one last time. We adopted Luke's class goldfish...who is now named Fred. He won him by paying 80 class dollars at the auction. In the evening we dropped Luke off for his overnight camping trip with the older church boys. I ended up giving them my bus to drive. Luckily Tom didn't freak and it survived. We stayed at church and had a girl's Last Day of School Party. They swam in the pool and then had cake and snacks. Poor Jake was out of sorts...it was so hard for him to see Luke take off without him. He kinda hung around us girls...which didn't really help. LOL

Thurs's adventures are documented below.

Same for Friday except I didn't mention that Carrie and I were out grocery shopping from 11:30 until 4. Had to come home unload, feed everyone, IRON PAT'S clothes (grrrr on him waiting until the last minute) and then back out the door at 6:15 for graduation.

Today...After finishing this up I'm going to try to get a few more loads of laundry done (pile is taking over my hallway!). I have to fix a fruit salad and a pasta salad, we're going to my parents house for my dad's 64th birthday party. Wonder if I can get some work out of the kids before we leave at 1 or 2. I keep thinking tomorrow after church I won't have anything to do all week! There's always hope.

Now you're up to date on why I'm sitting here wondering where the vacation half of summer vacation is! I'm hoping next week is BORING!!!! I just realized that I haven't had a cup of coffee (good excuse for not making sense and all my typos lol) So I'm off to get that!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!!!!!!!!


Wanted to show you what I meant by my bus...holds 13 people and lots of gear.

It Happened...it REALLY Happened!!!!

That's what I keep saying to myself tonight. Patrick,18yo, really graduated! The kid who kept self-destructing, failing and attending summer school has graduated...and when he was suppose to! I was so afraid he'd still be in high school when he was 20yo. LOL PHEW!!!

It was the same as always....long and boring! But exciting too. They mentioned their class angel Cody M. and I was in tears (died in a snowmobile accident 1.5yrs ago). Pat got a recognition award from the village bank. He's hoping it's a LARGE sum seeing as it's from a bank...told him dream on. He has to go to school to pick it up next week.

I got "in trouble" from Tom. There was a lady in front of me with a little girl about 6 on her lap. They were playing one potato, two potato...getting sillier and louder. It was IRRITATING! So when there was a break in the speaking I leaned over and said...would you PLEASE stop that! She was not pleased and I saw Tom give me THAT look out of the corner of my eye. But they stopped fooling around and ended up taking the little girl out of the ceremony.

I felt bad about it at first but then thought....NO WAY! I would have been appalled if my kids...all together...had created that much of a disturbance! I certainly wouldn't have been playing and laughing with them. I wanted to tell the lady...I understand how boring it is for a kid, but *I* left my little ones home so as not to disturb anyone. (I made the mistake of taking everyone to Drew's graduation, 2yrs ago LOL. They were very bored...but well behaved.) But I didn't. It's a good think too, it might've been just a little bit too arrogant. ;o)

That makes....2 down and 8 more to go...wooohooo!


Kim, Pat and Tom in the highschool library after commencement.

About Us~fix

I thought it might be a good idea to introduce you to the people I'll be speaking about most of the time...my kids.

Andrew/Drew is the oldest of the kids. He's 20yo and will be attending a community college in the fall. He is engaged to a great girl named Allison. Drew would love to be in a famous rock band when he grows up. LOL (he plays bass)

Patrick/Pat is 18yo. He just graduated highschool and will be attending a community college. He loves to play sports...especially soccer and track.

Michelle/Shelly is 16yo. She is artistic and is always drawing. She will be a senior in the fall.

Valerie/Val is 14yo. She reminds me a LOT of myself. She's going into high school as a freshmen in the fall...which makes her a little nervous.

Elizabeth/Liz is 13yo. She'll be in 8th in the fall. She's really active with our church and likes to play soccer.

Luke is 11yo. He likes Yu-Gi-Oh and pokemon. He's looking forward to seeing the newest Harry Potter movie. We've all looking forward to the next book (I read it aloud to them) He'll be in 6th grade in the fall.

Carolyn/Carrie is 9yo. She will be in 4th grade in the fall. She's a "normal" kid now but 7yrs ago that wasn't the case. She went through a bone marrow transplant in June of '97. (Drew was her donor.)

Jake is 7yo. He's the whirlwind of the family. He's constantly moving and going. He's causing me to pull my hair out of my head one second....ROFL the next. The kid needs to learn the meaning of the word, WHISPER!

Eileen/Bean, is 5yo and just graduated from Kindergarten. She's shy yet one of the most outgoing of my kindergarteners. She has lots of friends and cousins in school with her and enjoys playing with them on the playground almost everyday.

Olivia/Livvie, is 4yo. She's the baby of the family and it shows! She's spoiled rotten and everyone thinks she's just TOO CUTE! (and they're right lol) She's home alone with mom on school days and has lots of pretend friends to help play with our new kittens.

SUMMER VACATION!!!!

YEP it's finally here!!! The day I've been waiting for. Summer vacation. Most people think I'm crazy to WANT my kids home all those days. I just love not having a schedule to follow.

Bedtime has always been the hardest part of the day/night for me. I don't like to sleep myself and feel like it's a waste of time (not to mention I might MISS something while I'm sleeping). So getting kids who really don't want to go to bed but should be into bed...isn't something I'm so great at. NOW I don't have to worry about it. That is until I'm all mommied out and wish I could just throw them in bed. Luckily that doesn't happen too often.

We started the official...get the house deep cleaned so maintaining it will be a lot easier. I always feel like a mean mom to have them clean the first day home, but it's always how it's been. Well I guess that should be usually. Last night we had a last day of school party at church with the girls. I lost Luke, 11...to a boy's camping trip, Michelle, 16 to my bil's house, Valerie, 14 to her best friend's house. Now Carrie, 9, is gone for the day and Pat, 18 did a little work and got picked up to swim at his girlfriend's....so here I sit! :o) At least we got under the couches all cleaned out. Too bad I can't walk across my kitchen floor yet. Guess that'll get done tonight after the kids get home...yeah right. Tomorrow will tell.

I had to laugh at the kids last night. They were all sitting on the couch doing workbooks and ditto'ed packets they brought home from school. Wonder how long that'll last. I do want to keep up some type of reading/math type of exercises going during the summer. I have at least 2 kids with learning disabilities that will lose a lot of knowledge over the summer if we don't. It'll also give me a feel about how those who don't work well at school would do at home. I'm always considering homeschooling...at least a few of them.

Well back to being the mean mommy and trying to get more work out of the kids. Wish me luck!