The 4th of July Race

Normally the 4th comes and it goes. It is always a day we look forward too. This year we really looked forward to it. Terry was coming home and so were Chad and Darrin. It has been a family tradition to run the 5k. Normally the boys and grand kids have ran it. Lately, the sister-in-laws have been running it also. Well, this year on a fluke I decided to run it. We all know that I don't run. I don't even exercise on a regular basis. I am basically a couch potato. I can tell you what shows come when they come on and what it going to happen next. This year I decided to run it. I have no idea why. I came in second to last in my division I am pretty sure. The only thing is that I didn't want to come in last. Well I made that goal. I was feeling pretty good in the beginning. I did plan on walking the whole way to the end. I didn't make that goal because it was down hill and it was easier to run. I almost ran the whole way.( When I say that I ran all the way translation is it was slightly faster than a walk it could almost be considered speed walking except they are faster. Sad but true.) My face felt like it was about to explode. I kept feeling it getting hotter and hotter. Kim kept telling me I looked fine. I was a little more out going than I normally am. I do think that I might have embarrassed Kim a little. Though I do have to admit I did like it when they would cheer. I know that I'm going to be sore tomorrow and the next day. Maybe I'll train for this for next year. ( Then again maybe not). I was very happy that I finished it. I talked about all the way home from the park. Aaron said I was bragging but I was just happy that I finished. I was very proud of myself. So proud of myself that I made Zac give me his medal that he won. I didn't realize that I knew so many people. Maybe if I knew that I would see all those people I wouldn't have run. I am happy that I was healthy enough to get and say that I'm going to run and be able to do it. You have to count your blessings when you can. Though at the end when I had to take my number off I did ask the lady to come to me to get it. Steve thought it was funny. Then again so did the rest of them. I did leave Libby. Like I said I totally expected to walk the whole way but it was easier to run because it was all down hill except the last little way. I do think that Libby was mad at me for leaving her. I have been creaking and moving very slowly it feels like I'm about 6 months pregnant. Holly cow. But I didn't think that cows were big enough. So by the end I was saying Holly whale because it was the biggest mammal that I could think of. After the race though I was sweaty and not glowy. I think that I like the glowy instead of sweaty part of it. The night before I tried to get the younger girls to run they didn't. After I did then they all said we should have ran in the race. This maybe a nice tradition for the girls also. We'll see. I did have fun. I'm in a little bit of pain now. I'm sure that I will be in a little bit of pain for the next 2 day.( Or a lot more) We'll see how I do in church tomorrow. There was a part that I had to slap the kids five and I didn't slap Noah or Isabelle so I had to go back and slap them. I know that I surprised Kira that I actually finished and did the race. Though I did try to get Kira to take my number and finish the race for me. She refused. Next year I'm sure she is going to smoke my butt. Then again who says I have to run next year. In the words of Scarlet that's another day.

What fictional character are you?

I would like to know what kind of character are you and why? I know this may sound weird but I was thinking about it and it intrigued me. The things that go through my mind. Please post them in the comment section.

Aaron has earned his Arrow of Light

The reason why the bog is decorated the way it is. Drum roll. You guessed it by the title right? Yes. My son with a lot of hard work has earned his Arrow of light. He also has gotten all his compass points and he has earned every pin in Weblos. Good job Aaron. Unfortunately he will not be receiving them tonight like he was suppose to. He has a scheduling conflicting problem. he needs to perform a play tonight and nothing can be changed so he will get to June 30th. Sad but true. I'll take pictures and video. now that I know how to work it. Promise the video will be shorter. I'll figure it out. so If I survive the next two nights then I'll change the blog appearance again. All I have to do is get through soccer practice, making dinner,cleaning the church,dropping off Aaron, getting things ready for scouts. Tomorrow having a soccer game, scouts, and sending the older kids to mutual. Oh did I mention my dryer broke yesterday and I still have laundry to do!!! Not to mention Elijah got sick and throw up all over his bed @ 5:00 am. He did manage to get some on Aaron's pillow. i was suppose to go shopping for one today, but who needs clean clothes. I'm just lucky that Grandpa is coming to my rescue tomorrow to help me with scouts.

Brandon Mull anyone?

All this for just a picture. Smile please.I'm so happy I'm crying. No more waiting!!! We can go home.Tada the man we've been waiting for!! We were able to go to the Fablehaven book party. It was fun. They were able to get their books signed. We had a blast but I forgot to take pictures. Well we got a book for Jared and Kira decided that she wanted to get a set just for her. He was going to be at Costco and we waited in another line. This seemed to take forever. But hey this time I got pictures. He is such a nice guy. His hand probably hurt and he stayed until there were no more people. They shut down the line at 2:00pm and he was there until about 4:00pmNoah in the beginning with a messy mug.Are we there yet?We can see him!

I'm here now what do I do?

Moms shouldn't take time outs

When we had gotten back from Virgina I was tired and all the stress seem to be keeping me going left. I was playing with the kids, and asked to take a time out. I put on a show for them. It was awfully quite (never a good sign.) I got up when I heard the water running in the bathroom. I asked Isabelle what she was doing. She told me that she was washing her mustache off. I thought that was weird but I went downstairs to do laundry. When I got upstairs I saw her face. She had drawn on it with a black marker. If you looked at her from a distance she looked like she had two black eyes. It looked like somebody beat her pretty bad. All I could do was laugh. She didn't like it so much when it wouldn't come off. So it had to wear off. This is the reason why my friends moms don't take time outs.

Is school almost over? No but got braces off!!

I can't believe that the school year is almost over. I want it end already. Though then it does get pretty busy with the last minute things. Notice how it's always busy. No matter what. What ever happened to stopping to smell the roses. Taking a break from it all. The world really won't stop. Then maybe it would. Can't take that chance. Well anyway there has been a lot of things going on here. I've been sick,busy,tired or all three to do any writing. So I'm taking a little bit of a break now and the world still seems to be going on.
First of all these are the cute Noah saying for the last 2 weeks. He had come home from school one day. We were talking about his day. When he told me this. "Mom." " Yes Noah." "Do you know what?" "No Noah. What?" I'm thinking that it will be a riddle or joke. "I have a girlfriend." "Really Noah" "Yeah, and I'm a boyfriend. Kelsee told me today that she was my girlfriend and that I was her boyfriend." "I'm really glad that she told me because I would have never have known if she didn't" "Wow! I'm a boyfriend and I have a girlfriend." That was pretty cute because all of a sudden Isabelle has a boyfriend also.
We were driving home from soccer games. We had drove past a yard sell. I told the kids that we didn't need anything from the sell. Aaron suggested that we sell one of the kids. I asked which one he suggested Elijah. I said no way we would need at least 2.5 million just to break even before we could even as for a price. He then suggested Kira I said we would need 50-500,000 before we would break even. The older kids then suggested Aaron . I said no to that because he was my go to guy for cleaning. Nobody wanted to sell Isabelle. At this time Noah piped in saying You can't sell me because I'm handsome and talented. We all laughed but he was really serious. This last week was really big for Kira because she got her braces off. There were no maybe this month and it not being it. She did a really good job with it. I got pictures and video of it. Yeah you guys get to watch it.
She also had her debate banquet. I can't believe that she is going to be a sophmore next year.
I have planned the first couple of weeks of summer already because we will be going to Virgina. The kids will miss the last day of school. They seem to be more upset about that than excited to be going to Virgina. Kira is of course already stressed about it.
Amazing enough I had a whole to say but now I don't. I am pretty excited that we will be seeing Terry soon. It's sad that he missed Noah's graduation.

Isabelle's new boobs

While in Virgina we not only looked at houses but we were able to go swimming a lot. Thank goodness for an indoor pool. It helped a lot. Unfortunately I needed a new swimsuit. This is what every person wants to do, is look for a new swimsuit. Amazingly it was pretty easy for me this time. The swimsuit happened to come on a mini shaped body. I put it into the trash and Isabelle come out with it and says to Noah. "Hey Noah, do you like my new boobs?" Noah didn't know what to say. He had to think about this for a minute and then looked at her and his eyes became wide. "Izza are they yours." She replied yes. "Wow! They look great. They're hard not like mom's and Kira's. I just had to laugh at this. I also had to count my blessings because this could have so taken place with a bigger audience. Some of the best times were when we able to put the kids to sleep. Isabelle had had a long day and was playing on the table when she was out like a light. It was pretty funny. Terry thought that she was faking it. He went to check on her and sure enough she was dead to the world.

So You're Moving to Virgina.

I am so glad that everybody knows that we're moving except us. When we know we will definitely tell everybody but as of right now we are staying put. All except for Terry he is in Virgina.

36 Houses in 12 Hours

Nobody should go and see that many houses in that little of time. That is including travel time.
The kids were very happy to start with buy by the end of the first day they didn't want to see another house. The only way that we got through it was to promise them that we would go swimming afterward. Not to mention that it was raining the whole time. In and out of the rain. They did like getting into the puddles. Well they were not too happy when we had to tell them we were going back the next day. We found some pretty nice houses. But like they say there's no place like home. They were too little, too squishy,too dark, not enough room or didn't have enough rooms and really pricey for us. For Noah and Isabelle it was that they were too dark and some were really smelly. We did look at another house another time but it didn't have enough storage and we just weren't sure. Looking at houses should not be this stressful. I didn't bring myself anything to relieve the stress and so I wound up getting hives. Luckily just on my legs and stomach. The kids just didn't want to look at another house again!! Who could blame them.

Things that happen in and on airplanes should stay in airplanes

Noah my master of sayings and stuff. I was very tired when I last wrote. (But then again when am I not tired.) I don't know if many of you know this but Noah has a HIGHLY sensitive nose. He'll go and see the animals but he has his nose in his shirt the whole time. Well on the plane as we were getting ready to get off we were waiting in line as you would normally would. Noah and Isabelle are talking when all of a sudden I hear this.( mind you they are very loud talkers)
Isabelle I smell something do smell something? Isabelle smelling the air. Yeah Noah I smell something too. Noah. Isabelle did you tooted? No Noah I didn't tooted. Are you sure you didn't tooted! No! No I didn't tooted! Now by this time there are people other than me who are interested in this conversation between a 5 yr old and a 3 yr old. Izza I mean did you fart? Now Isabelle is almost in tears. NO! NOAH I DID NOT FART!!! Well, if it's not you and mom is back there than I think it was her. ( He is now pointing to the nicely dressed lady in front of him. Now I'm horrified so I make them get back into their seats. I tried to explain to Noah that it is not very nice nor is it polite to say things like that to other people. Noah then says to me that it wasn't very nice for to have farted in his face. What do you say to that? I then tired to get them to talk about something else. This is taking a long time to get off this plane. When the line starts moving Noah and Isabelle get back into line and Noah yells Hurry up already it stinks back here!!! Now the people that were following this conversation lost it. They just sat back in their seats and started to laugh. The stewardess all giggled and told Noah what a joy it was to have him. We made it off the plane and Noah says that was one stinky plane and hoped the next one wouldn't smell that bad.
Now it's time to go on our next plane. There was a lady that thought they were just the cutest things ever. ( After the last plane it's up in the air on that one.) She kept on coming down to where we were and talking to the kids. After she left Noah ask." Mom am I famous." I told him yes he seemed to be pretty happy with that. One of the best things about this plane ride is that they finally slept. It made it seem easier.

We are Flying!!!!

It's the day we have been preparing for and the thing that you can always count on is that things will not go right. The morning started out pretty good. We all got up in time. Kira had a morning side to go to. (Which is an early morning fire side for seminary) The boys had to get up early so that I knew that they would be awake in time for school. The little kids got up at 5:30. They had gone to bed early that night in order to get ready for today. That backfired on me because they woke up at 10:30 asking if it was time to leave yet. There was of course all the last minute Mom where is this or that. The boys were whining because they didn't want to get up this early. The little kids just wanted to leave already. They wanted me to call Grandpa as soon as they were dressed. They were ready now. Kira got off okay. Grandpa finally arrived after what seemed like an eternity. We were on the way. Noah fell back to sleep on the way there. Isabelle was so excited that nothing was taking her down. We made it to the airport just fine. Said good bye to Grandpa and we were on our way. We get to the counter and get our seats hopefully to be all together. All they have to do is just move one aisle seat for another but no they have to move all of us to the very back of the plane. Now it was time for us to get to our gate. Going through security wasn't that much fun. I forgot to take off my shoes and belt. The shoes were caught before I got through the gate but the belt made me beep so I had to go through again which normally won't be such a problem except Noah and Isabelle have never gone through this before and when I started to beep and they sent me back through the kids looked like I was going to prison and had a really worried look on their little faces. I think it was a little bit of stress also. I made it back to the other side of the doorway and all was okay with the world again. Now it was time to get to our gate. It was a fun to time to getting there . We were close to the gate so I stopped to get the kids a drink. There was a man in front of us getting a drink also. We arrived at the tale in of transaction. He gave the cashier $ 20.10 and the item total was $4.09. The cashier had put the wrong amount in the computer and couldn't figure out the change to give the man. Without thinking I said the amount which was $16.01. Well we waited and waited and then Noah said " My said it was 16.01 already. C'mon." The gentleman that was waiting for his change started to laugh and the people behind me started to laugh. He finally got the right amount and off we went. When we got there I realized that I had miss read my gate and it was all the way at the other side of the airport and we only had about 20 minutes to get there. We got to ride one of carts in the airport and made our flight no problem. While on the cart getting to where we were going there was a lady talking on her cell phone. The carts don't have horns to tell you to move out to the way. The driver had said coming through please move or something like that at least 3 times. Leave it to Noah to think of something better to say. He said put the cell phone down and move it already. Now don't get me wrong I do know where he gets this from. I do blame it all on Terry.Now it was time to load the plane. I'm sure that I hit just about every head all the way to the back. A lot of people thought that Isabelle and Noah were cute. Especially since Noah kept telling everybody what their names were but their ages but then tell them he had to go because he wasn't suppose to talk to strangers. Then he would come and tell me he talked to nice strangers. It was very noisy and all they had to look at was the engine. Amazing enough they liked it. Now for the hard part keeping them busy. It went smoothly for most part but they refused to take a nap. On to Dallas. When arriving in Dallas we had to ride a train. The train broke down so we had to another one. This one had to do a loop around the whole airport. When we finally got to the gate there wasn't much time to get them something to eat. Again to the end of the plane. The nice thing is that they fell asleep. Next stop Norfolk. Yeah!

Can we say S T R E S S E D ! ! !

I have been getting ready to go and see Terry in Virgina. He came out to see us for his birthday. (Which also happens to be a day later than Kiras) It was busy when he came out because Kira had state in debate on his birthday and that Saturday as well. Elijah had a field trip out to a train museum. All we had was the 3 youngest. It was pretty quite for the most part. The kids were having playing with their dad. He couldn't go anywhere with out them. He'd turn around and almost step on them they were that close. As much as he loves them after a while he had had his fill. Not to mention every time he was still most of the time he would be sitting down he would start to fall asleep. We would hear him blowing bubbles and then then the finally the snoring would start in. Of course whenever we called him on it he would deny it. This is how things went most of the morning.Things started to get crazy when it was time for all the kids to come home. Elijah came home first. It is amazing how quite the house is with out him. It always seems louder when he's home. Mainly because he is a pot stirrer. He had a fun time at the museum. Then Kira instead of calling me decided to text me a lot. ( Which is weird because unlike me I would rather talk she would rather text. She doesn't really talk on the phone. She answers with one word if possible. But when she texts she is a lot more talkative if that is possible.) Since I found out that the world revolves around Terry and Kira (mostly Kira) which I'm sure most of the world did not know. Just in case you are the few who think that it revolves around you I'm here to tell you that it doesn't. Kira wanted to know when her Birthday dinner was going to be. Mainly because wanted he father to be here for it. She thinks that her father came home especially for her birthday. Little does she know that he came home for his. Nothing to do with her. When she reads this though it will still be about her though. She wasn't coming home until around 6:30 -7:00 from the bus. We had asked if we could pick her up because her father wanted to take everybody out for birthday dinners this year. Because, Kira was taking so long on the debate trip and she didn't want us to pick her up we were stuck waiting. So now we are in a rush to make her dinner and cake before she came home. Being Kira she couldn't make up her mind until the very last minute on whether to be picked up or not. We didn't get to eat until 8:00 and everybody was in bed by 10:00. It was a crazy night. The next day we had to get Terry ready to leave and all of his stuff that he had taken out back and packed. It was daylight savings time this weekend. While everybody had lost 1 hour he was losing 3. 1 to the time change and 2 to the time difference. He wasn't looking forward to going back. We went tot the airport for the first time as a family. Normally it's only just me. I stopped taking the little kids because they would cry a lot. It was really hard on them. Not this time. We took all the kids (all but Kira because she's too old) in they went up and down the elevators and escalators. Kira kept calling them dorks for liking it so much. The boys were fascinated by the glass elevators. When it was time for us to leave the kids were very sad. The rest of the week was spent getting us ready for our trip to Virgina. Let me tell it it wasn't pretty. We had to clean the whole house, do the laundry, take out the trash, get homework done, pick up glasses , learn how to put in contacts buy luggage and pack. I had to arrange the kids schedules and tell people that we weren't going to be around. I also had to calm the oldest and tell her everything was going to be okay several times. I think that she was more stressed then everybody else (including me who had to travel cross country with the 2 younger ones.) Kira was so stressed that she kept telling me that everything was going to be alright. I think that this made her feel better. Well we got through almost everything. Thanks to Elijah the dishes all got washed and for the most part put away. The babies room got cleaned up and then messed up again. We got all the laundry done and most of it got packed into different suitcases. Though we did stay up late most of the time.

School stuff with kids

The things that I can count on is now that the school is 1/2 way done I'm spending more time in the classes or at the schools than I did when I was in school. If I'm in Aaron's class helping with math then I'm driving to and from High school for Kira sometimes 3 times a day. Then it's off to the jr. high to get Elijah or drop him off. Poor Noah and Isabelle they don't want to go anymore. They are tired of it. I told them it would only be for a little while longer.
Kira has a mock trial the rest of this week and is going to state in debate. She is kinda of excited about it they only thing that isn't so great is that she will miss some time with her father. This week is also her birthday. She will be 15 and wants to be driving. I don't know what's scarier her driving or her turning 15. The combination is not calming. I can't complain she is turning into a great young lady. Somewhere Terry and I did okay. Now I have to find the patience to go driving with her. I'm making Terry be the first one to take her on the road. I also want to tape it so that they both can enjoy later. Maybe I'll be putting it on You tube. We'll see how this all works. It should be interesting. It will also be a test on how well Terry will be as a teacher of driving. We'll see how cool he has. Aaron is afraid very afraid. Though now he wants lesson in case of an emergency. He has a whole scenario planned out. I get knocked out Kira is badly wounded. Elijah can't drive for some reason. So he has to come and save the day. He needs to know how to drive. He won't be able to reach the pedal and see over the steering wheel. I pointed that out to him. He said he didn't think about that part.
Aaron is going to state in his science fair project. He is so excited. He won 1st place at his school and won third at district but at least he is going to state. I hope that he does well.
Elijah is doing better in school. (at least for this week) I can only hope for one thing at a time. So all is well here for a while. It's the weekend and everybody doesn't want to do anything. Isabelle has decided that she wants to be in charge. She has taken control of the whole house hold. Now she is relaxing in the bath. She does know how to boss Kira around. It is kinda of cute watching her boss Kira around. She yells at Elijah and tells him what to do. She whines to Aaron and she really doesn't even try to boss Noah. If she needs Noah to do something either asks,whine, or yells. Whatever she needs to get the job done.
I still won't be getting the house clean and we won't be able to do much when it's all said and done. Terry is coming back on his birthday yeah us. We get to go down there in a couple of weeks. Gotta go now.

Crazy Things Kids say

When you have kids you can always count on them saying the funniest, craziest, zaniest and almost always not the most appropriate things. I wish I had written all the things my older ones had said when they were younger. I remember once at a drive thru it was taking a little longer then we wanted it to and because Terry had been complaining when it was finally our turn to receive our food Aaron said to the person "What did you have to kill the cow!" Not funny at the time but now it is. Well the persons that come up with the best sayings now most of the time is Noah and Isabelle. When Noah was younger and learning to be potty trained when ever he had to go to the bathroom and had to go poops he would scream from where ever he was as he was running to get to the bathroom "My butts working!! My butts working!!!" Now he says things like "Mom, I just pooped crap." Well, I decided to change the brand of toilet paper the kids are using because they go through it so fast. Well Noah asked me if it was as soft as the other. I told him I didn't know. Then he told me " Well, Mom I don't know if I can use that kind because it will make my butt scratchy." I have no idea what that means but I think it's cute anyway.
Recently Isabelle hasn't been able to sleep through the night. It is so cute when she wakes up and come into my room with all her hair going every where. She asks if she can sleep in bed with me I ask her why. Her reply is " I can't sleep in my room in my bed because I'm afraid of heights." I don't know where she got that from. She doesn't sleep in a bunk bed or anything. It's amazing how we forget these little things. Noah had gotten a watch for Christmas and was looking at it. His Aunt Dona was by him he looked at her and at the watch and told her that it was time for her to leave. I think that was when he was 3. What a corker. Isabelle when she was 2 she was just learning how to speak. She answered to Princess. We asked her if Kira her older sister was a princess also. She said "No just me." I'm hoping that I can keep this up so that I can remember and have laughs when I'm sad. I know I can count on it making me happy.

Grades and Kissess

Not a lot has happened in the last month. The things I can always count on is getting sick when you least want it. Then again I don't know when getting sick is good. Okay when your younger if you have a test or something you don't want to then getting sick is good. As a mom there is no sick leave. Nobody tells you that when you are going up. I mean you don't really think about it. I guess you always knew it the back of your head. So I'm telling you guys right now that Moms don't get sick days or sick leave. Well maybe you will get a couple of hours but most likely it's just going to be minutes. Well almost everybody in my family has been sick. Kira got strep and didn't tell anybody until we had to take her to the doctor. She probably infected a lot of her friends. Luckily none of us got it. I don't know if that was lucky actually. We got a really great cold instead. At least she could take antibiotics. We just have to suffer. As you can guess I have been sick this weekend. I felt bad for the kids because I couldn't take care of them like I wanted. Isabelle keep saying Mommy you feel good. Then she put her hand on my head and said you'll feel better in a minute. It was so cute. Unfortunately I didn't get better in a minute.
Good thing I have great older kids. They took the younger ones out to play. Kira and Elijah were gone for most of the day on Saturday. Aaron got to play with Noah and Isabelle until they came home. Noah and Isabelle were glad to see them.
I think what did me in was going to Elijah's parent teacher conference. He isn't doing too well in 3 of 7 classes. The reason is not that he can't do the work or that he didn't do it. It's that he isn't turning it in. It's sitting in his backpack or at the bottom of his locker or on his bedroom floor. He is getting a C in math because he didn't turn in his work. At least he is turning in some of it or he would be getting a F. He knows the math because his test scores show it. I was so mad that my immune system was down and WHAM O I got a bad or fabulous cold. That will teach me to be mad at my child. Now I just have to find a way to motivate him and everything will be okay.
Noah has been giving me kisses for my cold telling me that it will make me feel better. It does make me feel better. Isabelle has me calling her my talking baby. That her name for herself my talking baby. So when I'm sick I can call her Isabelle but when I'm better I have to call her my talking baby. How weird is that. This is something that is cute but kinda of weird because since Terry has been gone we have been using the computer to talk to him so that we can feel closer to him via web cam. So now Noah and Isabelle open up the computer and say Hi Daddy. When he's not in there they wonder where he's at. Funny huh. Well my medicine if finally wearing off so I can go to sleep. Will write more later.

Grades and Sickness

Okay it's been a little more than a month since the last time I wrote. I'm trying to keep up. A lot has happened but then again it's been a month. There are always thing that I can count on. One is that things hardly ever go as planned. Valentines Day was a bummer this year. I didn't get to spend it with my honey. Sad but true. He was in Virgina. The kids had fun. Aaron made me a really sweet card. Another thing you can count on is you will get sick at the wrong time. It seems like someone or another has been sick for almost the last month. I have been sick for the last two days. It isn't how I want to spend the weekend. I feel bad for the kids.

Kira and Aaron have been great at helping out. Elijah was good at helping once he got back from camp. I have some really great kids. Now all I have to do is get Elijah to do his homework and hand it in. He's going to kill me with school. He does the work but doesn't turn it in. In math he knows how to do it because his tests scores are fine. It's just bringing his grade down not turning his work in. I just don't know what to do to motivate him. I'm counting on finding the motivating factor hopefully sooner than later.

Aaron is going to district on his science project. He is very excited about it.

Kira had a region debate tornament this weekend. She doesn't think that she made it to state. I'm kinda sad for her. She will find out on Monday. I hope that she made it.

Geting the tree down

Now this is what happened later that day. Before we could get the living room cleaned we had to take down the Christmas tree. Now this year my tree was really big. It was so big that at the top it had to bend to fit. I could have cut it but I thought it gave it character. I'll put a picture in as soon as I can figure out how to get off my new phone. ( which in my case it may take years.) I had to get more lights for it and then wound up blowing a fuse near the top of the tree I think. So it was only lit in the middle and at the bottom. It had lights on it everywhere that was just the places that worked. Terry wasn't here this year to put up the tree or it would had been made to fit the house. Well it was funny watching us bring in the tree. It was funnier watching me and the kids take down the tree. First of all I found out that I'm allergic to the needles on the tree. They give me big welts and itch. The tree was really mad at being taken down because it started to leak a lot of sap. Didn't help much. It also started letting a lot of needles fall everywhere. It was like like it was shooting it at us. We finally did the 1, 2, 3 thing and got it lifted off the stand. ( we are a bunch of wimps at our house.) then we started for the door. We were going the wrong way so it seemed like the tree was fighting us and trying to stay in. We got needles everywhere. As we got to the door we figured out that not all of us were going to fit at once so I had to let go and hope that the kids could carry it out by themselves. This tree is about 11-13 ft tall. I thought for sure they were going to drop it but no they managed to get out the door and to the outside. It was comical to watch because graceful it was not. Elijah surprised me because he actually carried most of the weight. Even though Kira will tell you it was her. So not true. Aaron was in the middle and Kira brought up the rear. They finally managed to get it to the side and then they had to push it up further in the snow. The boys wound up doing this because it involved more snow. When we got back there were pine needles everywhere. Some had gone down my shirt. That hurt. I don't know how but some had gotten down Aaron's pants. I'm sure that didn't feel good either. During this time Isabelle had gone to the bathroom by herself. (That is a good thing) The down side to this is she didn't put her underwear back on and was about to sit in a bunch of pine needles because she liked them. We got to her in the nick of time. Because I'll tell you what that would have hurt something awful. We finally got the living room cleaned with out that many beatings. We were still on the high of getting down the tree. Our house seems a little bit empty now that it's gone though. I think that it's that way every year we take it down. Cleaning the kitchen is a whole other story. We still haven't gotten all the way done from when Terry decided to rearrange things. On rearranging all he did was take things down and out and then left them there meaning to get back to them but never did because other things got in the way. Sometime short attention span. ( Really nice way of saying he made and a mess and didn't clean it up.) Did get Noah's and Isabelle's room cleaned. Now it's just the basement and bathrooms. All the big people have to clean their rooms themselves. My kids say that they miss the days when I cleaned their rooms for them. I would say the same of my mom but she never cleaned it for me. The thing that I can count on for today is Noah rubbing my arms to de stress after pre-school. Isabelle rubbing my cheek when something upsets her. Elijah forgetting to tell me about all his homework. Aaron forgetting his Cello. Kira not being interested in anything I have to say after school.

The day of being mean. Let the beatings begin.

Today is the day that we all start cleaning the house. I know it's a little late but we still have to take down the Christmas tree. The kids haven't shown any interest in working. Surprise! Surprise! We shall see how well we do today. Hopefully not that many beatings. Let the games begin!

You know how there are always things that you can count on during your day. We all have them. Like I know today will be just as busy as yesterday was. I'll have a million and one things to do and only get (if I'm lucky) 20 of them to do so that means that tomorrow I'll have to add all the others things to that day and I'm already behind. Something to look forward to. (laughing) The other things that I can count on is that there isn't going to be enough time to do everything. But I'll try anyway. I'll still have a messy house at the end of the day no matter how hard I try. The kids will have a thousand and one crisis that have to be taken care right now. The great thing about that is that right now together we can take care of most of them. There will always be homework or something else to do. The time that I have left with each child gets limited all the time. I need to make the best of it. I need to pick my battles wisely. I can only do what I can and let the rest go by. All this being said I'll go and start my day. Because today can only be better that yesterday because I get to do all these things and spend time with the kids. Now time to make lunch for Noah and Isabelle. This is the weekend we have a new schedule to keep. Or least trying. We are going to get all the cleaning done before Sunday. Translated means that I get to mean Mom until it gets done so that we can have fun on Monday. Kira has a friend coming over tomorrow to do a project. Will write back later.

What a day

Today started off okay but quickly everything went down the drain. I can feel my sanity slipping away and then coming back for a visit. Today Kira didn't get her power point to save on one of those little scan disk thingies. Aaron had already left for orchestra along with Elijah. That left me and the babies (which are not really babies anymore. They are 3 and 5. It's just easier to refer to them as that.) to figure out how to save it. The new computer I got for Christmas my 3 year daughter has managed to put something in the usb port that keeps my computer beeping and telling there is something wrong with it so it will not recognize the f drive which is what we need to save Kira's powerpoint on. My WONDERFUL husband calls me at this moment which is a good thing because I need help. He talks me through saving and trying to fix my computer. I finally got Kira's powerpoint saved. I was VERY happy. Haven't managed to fix the usb port problem yet. Still working on that. During the whole time on the phone Isabelle is calling for me to pay attention to her. I can only multi-task so many things. the phone dies and haven't been able to get a hold of him since. All this was before 9:00 am this morning. have been going and fixing things since then.