Life is Nuts

Life is insane, as usual.

My fabulous husband went back to work Monday. Hooray for rejoining the ranks of the employed. On the down side, I am back to being the only adult around during the day. No more leaving the kids home while I go run errands. He also showed the kids the woods and creek behind the house. It is now common to have missing children, only to holler out the back door and wait for three little, very dirty hooligans to come trooping back up from the creek.

Thomas is doing well in school. He loves to read and reads to all of us often. Shocker, the kid needed glasses. One of these days we will get a picture up.

Jerry is Jerry. Less than a year until he is in school and we are all looking forward to the day.

Michael is no longer a baby. He looks so much like Jerry even I get them mixed up sometimes.

I am still teaching music and loving it. I am also doing well with Pampered Chef and loving that too. It is nice to get paid to have fun.

Currently I have two little hooligans in the back yard, still wearing their feety pajamas. Neither one wants to get dressed. I am quite enjoying the hysterical laughter coming through the open door. Love this weather! Wait, kids outside, laughter, this can't be good. Yikes, gotta run!

Have You Ever...?

Been a while, I know. Been a bit busy around our house. Trip to the beach, time with lots of family, meeting new family, more doctor appointments than I have fingers and toes, starting school again, new students, and now home enhancements.

Every day I seem to find myself saying "I never thought I would...." Most of these are directly related to the hooligans. Most have my just hanging my head or walking out of the room until I can figure out how on earth to manage this new misadventure.
Have you ever been grateful to know that rubbing alcohol quickly and easily takes pretty pictures off the bodies of three little hooligans...



We won't mention the arms, legs, belly button, bum or other unmentionable parts that were also colored.

Have you ever cleaned ice cream or sherbet off the floor. The same bedroom floor on multiple occasions?

Have you ever cleaned the stuffing from a cat costume tail out of the space where the handle of the vacuum is supposed to slide down into the vacuum for easier storage? And then also found a toothbrush in said vacuum handle storage space thing?


Have you ever walked into a bedroom only to discover that your 4 year old decided that under the window is a good place to pee? Nevermind the bathroom that is only 10 steps away.

Have you ever scraped the popcorn off your ceiling? Have you ever cut holes into your ceiling? Have you ever eaten two plates full of mac n cheese and 3 hot dogs for dinner? Have you ever had your leg fall asleep while you are writing a blog post?

What on earth does tomorrow have in store for us?

Mushtash

"Look Mommy, I have a mushtash!"

Yes Thomas, yes, you do. Although, the marshmallows do leave some bare spots. Nice hand position too. You should be a model.

Have You Ever Wondered...

I meant to post this last night. Oh well.

Have you ever wondered what happens when your kids get up before you do?

They will help themselves to the chocolate cake that is sitting on the counter. They will eat it in the living room and get crumbs all over the carpet. They will turn on the TV and watch cartoons when they both know they are not allowed to watch TV. They may have had some grapes too.

While doing all this they will leave you alone and let you sleep until 8:30.

Let them eat cake! And then give the baby a cupcake for breakfast when he wakes up, because it is only fair.

Have you ever wondered what happens when a wet diaper gets thrown up at the ceiling?

Wonder no more. I even have pictures to answer the question.

Yes, while I was teaching and they were supposedly having naps and quiet time, the older hooligans trashed their room. They also came down and interrupted my lesson, but that is another issue. Dress ups everywhere, toy box from one end of the room to the other. And an exploded diaper all over the room. Ceiling, floor, stuck to the dresser and window, on the window sill... everywhere. Lucky for someone, who I am not exactly sure, I forgot to change the vacuum bag the day before.

I am not sure if I prefer this kind of exploded diaper or the blowout kind of exploded diaper. I do know I prefer neither.

The evidence, after toys and dress ups were already cleaned up.



Have you ever wondered what happens to hooligans like this at the end of the day?

After several time outs and dinner they were sent upstairs for bed. The house was entirely too quiet. Hooligans and silence can't be a good thing.

Maybe it can.

My fabulous husband called me upstairs when he went up to investigate. Oh dear, what have they done now?!?! I look in the room and see two sweet, not so little hooligans curled up in their bed, under the covers, snoring. Not even five minutes and they were both out cold at 6:30.

Have you ever wondered what it feels like to want to strangle your hooligans and give them away one minute and just stand and watch their angelic and awe inspiring countenance the next?

Come to my house and find out. I promise, it won't be boring, and it will definitely be worth it.

Where Are You From?

Thomas was working on his spelling homework the other night. One of the exercises is to write sentences with the words. The sentence he came up with for "grin" was "A smile is a grin." Cute sentence.

He was busy working, I was busy getting dinner ready.

"Mom, how do I spell smile?"

"Sound it out. You can do it."

"S-M-I... What comes next?"

"Sound it out, Thomas."

"S-M-I-Y-U-L-L!"

Um, not quite. Only, exactly how it sounds when he says it. I set him straight while laughing at his serious southern drawl. Phonetics can be quite interesting when you have a bit of an accent.

I Have a Surprise for You

Thursday morning I informed the hooligans I had a surprise for them. I had been planning for a while, but prefer to wait until as late as possible to tell them. Something about "is it time yet" or "I'm ready to go" constantly coming out of their cute little mouths in whining tones makes the planned trip less than enticing for me.

We were all playing on my bed when I told them I had a surprise for them. Of course, they got all kinds of excited and wanted to know what the surprise is. I decided to have fun with it.

I whisper to Jerry "We're going on a trip."

Jerry: We're going on a trip?!?!
Me: Yep
Thomas: Are we going to the dinosaur trail? (he could hardly contain himself with excitement)
J: No, that's too scary.
T: No *with that you silly boy tone of voice* they're models *duh, everybody knows that*
J: Oh, ok *smiles and laughs*

Then I tell them where we are going...
Me whisper to Jerry: We're going to ride horses
J: We are?!?!
M: Yes
J: I have to go tell Thomas! (Thomas was sitting right next to him)

A few minutes later...
J: I want to ride a black horse
T: I want to ride a magical horse

And so the morning continued.

We had lots of fun on out little mini adventure. More details and plenty of pictures to come. For now, I have to deal with whiny children who keep annoying each other and thus annoying me. At least I made yummy cheesy bread braids. Yeah, more to come on that one too.

Call Me Alexander

Alexander had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Call me Alexander, or Alexandra if you will.

I finally slept pretty well last night. Until the alarm went off. Then a kid got up. Then I tried to go back to bed and snuggle with him. He didn't sit still, he didn't keep quiet, he didn't let me sleep. I nodded off a bit, then the phone rang. Forget it. I give up. Some days are just meant to be rough.

We went downstairs and had breakfast without major incident. The hooligans made a mess and didn't clean it up. I put them in their room so I could take a shower before we ventured out into the world.

Shower was great. I got dressed in my jeans that make me feel good, my rockin' Danskos that my fabulous husband surprised me with several months ago, and even dried my hair and brushed my teeth.

As I was going to the hooligan containment unit, I heard Thomas yelling "MOM, Jerry drew on the wall!"

GREAT! I just love when my kids draw on the walls with utensils that shouldn't be in their rooms. What fascinating surprise will I find this time?

The picture does not do the shark justice. The shark that Jerry supposedly drew is probably 7 feet long. From the door to the closet is shark. Purple shark. Jerry can't draw a stick figure. At this point, I draw better than Jerry, and that says a lot.

"Thomas, let's try this again. And this time, you will tell me the truth."

"I did it," came the pitiful wail.

Sorry bud, no sympathy here.

Then, I turn around to see this little guy on another wall.

Nice. He is kinda cute, though.

I turn to walk out the door while trying to not throw children out the door or sprout 3 heads and scream like a banshee. I see this master work of art on another wall.

LIVID! That doesn't even begin to describe me this morning.

Then, we head over for the previously blogged about Wal-mart trip.

This day really stinks. Big time.

I go to post Michael's birthday pictures and discover my memory card is missing. The living room is still a mess that the hooligans were supposed to take care of.

Time to teach a voice lesson. Send the hooligans to their room. Michael goes down for his nap like a little angel.

Near the end of the lesson Thomas brings me a bag and says "Jerry ate these."

I keep a bag of goodies in my purse. A handful of skittles, starburst, Hersey's kisses. It comes in handy when I need to bribe, I mean reward, my kids.

No rewards today. They had taken my purse up to their room. They ate almost all the goodies in my purse. They found fruit snacks in my purse that I keep for while we are sitting in the carpool line. Thomas took my chapstick, my good chapstick, and tried to clean the crayon off the walls.

I have no magic erasers because I used them all last week and ran out after cleaning the last disaster on the wall, thank you Michael. I have no magic erasers because Wal-mart really messed up my day and I didn't make it to Target to get the great deals on them that my coupons expire today.

Dinner is in the crock pot and will likely burn or not be cooked all the way. That is just what I predict. There is also probably a bill for $34,239,340.17 in my mailbox waiting for me. And I bet my phone will ring to tell me someone died and my fabulous husband was in a wreck and has lost his job. And I probably have an inoperable brain tumor and will need to have my left big toe amputated. And my ears will fall off and my teeth will rot out in my sleep. It is just one of those days.

I quite. I'm done. I am going to bed and not coming out until you can guarantee me it will be a better day.

Anybody want any kids? They are cute and loving and give great hugs. They have blue eyes and blond hair that will melt your heart. They are adventurous and creative. They are problem solvers and will keep you entertained. Both are potty trained and can scavenge their own food.

Hello, my name is Alexandra. I am having a horrible, terrible, no good, very bad day.

I will no go drink a Dr. Pepper and eat junk food.

Conversations in the Car

This picture is old and completely unrelated, other than being Thomas. But isn't he so sweet?

Do you ever have those days when you wish you could record the conversation and replay it later? All too often those happen in the car. Today was no exception.

Thomas: I want to make Flat Stanley be Dark Vader.

Me: Oh yeah?

T: Yeah. He has a red light saver. Obie Kanobie has a blue one.

M: He does, huh?

T: Yeah. And who is that other guy he is with?

M: I don't know. Obie Kanobie is with lots of people at different times. (Yes, I know it is Kenobie, but I wanted to keep him going because it was so cute and honest)

M: Are you talking about Luke or Anakin or...

T: Luke! He has a green light saver.

T: When I grow up I want a red light saver. I want a real one, not a pretend one. A light saver like they have, not like the candy.

T: The other guy has a green one too.

M: What other guy.

T: The other guy.

M: Can you tell me what he looks like?

T: The little guy, in Star Wars.

M: The green guy?

T: Yeah! The green guy.

M: His name is Yoda.

T: Yeah, Yoda. He has a green light saver too.

Maybe when he gets a little bigger I will tell him that Gingams has hair like Yoda. But that, my friends, is another story for another day. Or maybe not. Maybe you had to be there. Cousins and other unruly family folk, tell me, did you have to be there for that one to be funny?

And the conversations just continued. Different topics, but all just as funny and matter of fact as you can be. I can't even remember everything they talked about, but it was a funny trip home today. Thomas also wants a 3-dollar bill for dress down day, the day they can buy a pass to wear regular clothes and not uniforms.

I love my kids. They are so funny. I think I just might keep them.

More Funnies

I'm tired. It's late. Here's a cute quick little funny for you.

This morning Jerry sneezed.

Thomas said "bless you."

Jerry got upset and came over crying.

I told Jerry that Thomas was just being nice. When someone sneezes, we say "bless you" because it is the polite thing to say.

Thomas says, "Yeah, I was just being nice. And when you are alone and you sneeze, you say ble-shme."

You are absolutely right, Thomas.

Get it... blesshoo... bleshme.

Whatever, I'm going to bed.

Funny Words

Kids say some funny things. More often than not they have no idea they are being funny. To tickle your funny bone, here are some of the fun ones around here lately.

Thomas upon hearing and seeing Sound of Music come on TV one night excitedly pointed and said, "Look Mom, it's Mary Poppins!"

Jerry has all kinds of funny almost, but not quite words
swywater is flyswatter
askident or askdident is accident
mint truck is a cement truck

Jerry and Thomas also used to call my sister AaaunTamanda. Drawn out "A" and all run together like that. She misses that. Now I just call her my seeeeeeeeeester.

Michael, among the dog and cow noises, has a new funny. He shakes his little head and says "No doggie, no doggie, no doggie." Sometimes he looks at Daddy and says it and we can't be quite sure if he is saying doggie or daddy. Yesterday, when I went to get him out of bed in the morning, that was the first thing out of his mouth. Today he started doing "no mom," but it didn't last. Or maybe he was doing his best Jamaican accent and saying no mon.

The things they say are so funny and cute. I could even get all sappy and think about how much I will miss the little funnies when they get older. Then I listen to my fabulous husband and the way people laugh at me, like when I tell the kids to get their shoes out of my feet, and realize they will never outgrow it, they just outgrow the cuteness and sweet voices.

Now, if you will please excuse me, I now need to go silence those little sweet voices. Way after bed time and after multiple re-beddings, the words and voices are less than cute.

Testing

Thomas went to the doctor for his annual physical. He is healthy and growing, as we already knew. Earlier this year he had an unusual reaction to something, possibly a cashew, that sent us to the ER, and now we carry and EpiPen. I was asking the doctor about getting a new one when this one expires and after a short discussion decided to draw blood and do allergy testing to get a better idea of what might have caused the reaction so that we can avoid it in the future. Tonight at dinner Thomas was saying the prayer and said "We're grateful that I could go to the doctor and they could take my blood so they can tell me if I like nuts and what food I like." I'm thinking we might not share the test results with him if this is his line of thinking.

In My Head

First off... Happy Father's Day to all of you father types. We hope you had a wonderful day, with lots of yummy food, eye catching ties, priceless handmade crafts, and plenty hugs and love.

So, we had Sunday dinner with Lolly, as usual. We had super easy and yummy crock pot beef BBQ with homemade sourdough bread. Lolly brought rich, heart attack inducing Texas brownies. After dinner, we were getting ready to eat dessert and the kids decided we needed candles to go with our brownies. It seems after Tyler's birthday and Aunt Amanda's birthday, all desserts require candles, so Jerry and Thomas had candles which we lit and blew out several times. Anyway... Thomas wanted to sing Happy Birthday to himself. Fine. Whatever. He started to sing "Happy Birthday to you, Happy..." Then it happened. He stopped and looked at us and said "I'm going to sing to myself... in my head." He got this look on his face and we could just hear him singing inside his head. Then, he looked up without the singing in his head look, smiled at us, laughed, and ate his cake. Is there anything to do at that point but laugh? What a funny boy.

Lame

Thomas asked daddy for snack. Daddy told Thomas to ask mama. Thomas asked me, I said I changed my name. Daddy asked what I changed my name to.... I just looked at him with "that look" and didn't answer.

Daddy says we should change Thomas's name. We should change it to "Cindy." I say it should be "Grumpy." Daddy says "How about Grumpy Cindy?" Thomas rolled over on the couch so he couldn't see either of us.

Daddy asks Thomas if we can call him Grumpy Cindy. Thomas says no, again. Daddy asks why not? Thomas says:

THAT'S LAME

Much laughter and disbelief ensue. Just to clarify, we asked him to repeat. Yup, he said it's lame. More laughter and the obvious statement that this incident is definitely blog-worthy.

Oh well, he's Grumpy Cindy until he isn't grumpy anymore. Maybe snack will make him less grumpy. What do you think, Aunt Amanda?

Sunday Sillies

We have had lots of funnies around here, so I thought I would share and make you smile too.

The sun was shining really bright through the kitchen windows.
"Mommy, turn off the lights," says Jerry.
"That's not the lights, that's the sunshine. We can't turn the sunshine off," I reply.
"We can't turn off the sunshine?!?!" he says as incredulously and shocked as a 3 year old can.

Michael will not sleep with socks on. Not even an option, no socks at all. When you put him in bed, he will stick his feet up in the air until you take off his shoes and socks. Then, once they are off, he will put his feet down and go to sleep.

In the car tonight, and a couple weeks ago, the kids were singing. I was so proud my kids knew the primary song "Follow the Prophet." That is until I couldn't keep my laughter to myself once I realized what they were singing. Instead of "Follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet don't go astray. Follow the prophet, follow the prophet, follow the prophet, he knows the way," the hooligans were singing "Follow the prophet... don't go away" over and over again. Ah, so funny. Just ask Aunt Amanda about some of her goodies with messing up the lyrics. That one could have you laughing for hours.

We went to see my grandmother for Mother's Day. It is about 3 hours there, and we do it all in one day. We had some fun conversations throughout the trip. Aunt Amanda said she didn't want to drive back home (she is not a fan of driving and never has been). She invited Jerry to come home with her and play and asked Jerry if he wanted to drive her home. We laughed because of all the hooligans, Jerry is the one who would try and drive someone's car well before he reaches the legal driving age. We went on laughing about how he would reach the pedals and all the places he would go. Well, he was a bit tired and fell asleep. He woke up as we were dropping Aunt Amanda off. OK, he didn't really wake up, just sort of came out of unconsciousness enough to respond to her. He sort of rolled his head up, half opened his eyes, and said "I need to drive your car," then his head rolled back down and went back to sleep. Oh, Jerry, what trouble you have in store for us.

Another day, we were near Lolly's work and stopped in to say hi. She came out and said hi and brought animal crackers for the two little hooligans. Jerry asked Lolly to stay and she told him she had to go back to work. "Work?!?!" he says, with his head cocked to the side and his eyebrows raised (you have got to see this kid's facial expressions), almost in disbelief. Lolly offered to trade with him and said he could go to work and she would go home with me. I laughed and told him he would get to play with all the things he isn't allowed to use at home like the stapler, hole punch and scissors. If that doesn't get a 3 year old excited about going to work, I don't know what will. For days now, he has been telling me he needs to go to work and use scissors. I think I need to hide all of ours in the safe, or who knows what he will cut up all in the name of "work."

Finally, tonight's funny. Thomas was doing something in the back seat. I told him to stop and he asked "How did you know it was me?" Tyler said "Because Mommy is a secret agent. She has eyes everywhere, only a lot less funding." Ah, the things I could do with the resources of a secret agent. Perhaps a new career is in my future....

Smile, there is silliness all around. All you have to do is look for it.

Hungry?

Sorry folks, no pictures this time.

If you listen to my kids, you would think they are starving and never get fed. If you hang around my house, you soon realize that I am in serious trouble once we hit the teenage years.

These boys eat. A lot. Often. Strange things.

Michael, for example. Michael seems to have some odd deficiencies in his diet. Namely, rubber, chalk, and wax. The funny little baby will eat shoe soles. He takes his shoes off in the car in order to eat them. At Christmas, he was thrilled with cousin Adam's new bike. He walked right over and started gnawing away. I think we found a new use for used tires. And no, he is not teething. He also loves chalk. We have a bucket of sidewalk chalk in the garage. Any time the door opens, he makes a run for the garage and starts chomping chunks off. Crayons hide very high up in our house too. Not just to keep them off walls or out of the dryer, but to keep them out of diapers. Let's just say it looks like a confetti bomb went off with many diaper changes. He also likes to eat pencils and erasers and wipes. Strange kid.

Jerry must have a paint deficiency. The other night he bit the widow sil and peeled the paint off. What on earth posses this child to do these things? He also scales the pantry shelves. The other day he climbed up to the top shelf, (above my head, mind you) opened up a box of hidden goodies, snuck a cupcake, and hid in the dining room. I heard plastic crinkle and investigated and found the happy boy. He sneaks cookies, granola bars, bread, animal crackers, cheese slices, and anything else he can find (leftover lemon pepper chicken from dinner last night as I type this). He even climbed on top of the fridge (while the sitter was here too) to get cereal. Yesterday, he bit off the end of a banana, peel and all. The other night, while I was upstairs getting Michael's jammas, he scaled the fridge, got a Diet Dr. Pepper of the top shelf, cracked it open, and started drinking it. (at least he took daddy's diet and not mommy's real stuff!) We have to keep the fridge and pantry locked to keep him out. Thomas sneaks treats too, but not as often.

Thomas eats, says he is full, then cries from starvation within an hour. How on earth a child can eat 6 chicken nuggets, veggies, a glass of milk and then want the same thing again so soon after is incredible to me. At dinner last Sunday, he ate 3 tacos, then dessert. It makes me hurt just to think about it. At least he eats a good variety of food. In the strange department, though, he likes BBQ sauce on his broccoli. Where on earth he came up with that one? I think the mac n cheese with ketchup is nasty, but the BBQ broccoli wins, hands down.

We also go through about 6 gallons of milk a week. I think I need to start saving now for groceries when they get older. I am in serious trouble. Maybe we will buy a cow. It has to be cheaper to feed the cow and make our own cheese and milk than to keep buying the insane amounts of dairy products they consume. Now accepting donations for future grocery purchases.

Funny Words

Some funny sayings around here that I don't want to forget.

Thomas says "McDonald's has a play station!"
"Really? What are you talking about?" I ask.
"They have a slide and stuff to climb on... a play station"
NICE! Can we keep that concept for a long time? Probably not.

Jerry was in time out this morning. I hear a commotion coming from the corner.
"Michael... go away... I'm in trouble!"
Apparently Michael was trying to play with him or talk to him.

Jerry likes to watch Muffins.
You probably know them as The Muppets.

If you tell Michael to lay down and go to sleep, he lays down on the floor with his head down and bum up in the air. Then he starts to snore.

If you look at Michael and close your eyes and open them, he does it back, but with a cute look on his face.

Michael and Jerry love candy and sweets. Michael comes running over and opens his mouth up like a bird any time someone has treats. Jerry just does anything he can to get to the treats.

There are plenty more cute things, and more are sure to follow as I think of them.

I think the next post will be about fishing. Just wait, you don't want to miss this one.

Time Warp

So Tyler tells me I need to update the blog. This evening he informed me it has been about 6 weeks since the last post. What can I say, we have been busy. For the next little while, I am going to try and post like a fiend and get everybody all caught up.

Thomas celebrated the 100th day of school with a parade and other fun events centered around, you guessed it, 100. For the parade, all the kids wore hats with 100 of something on it. I thought beads on a hat would be easy. Tyler suggested 100 safety pins around the brim of a hat. Of course, most of what I do doesn't turn out right. I thought the hats had to be in on Friday... oops, they were supposed to be in on Thursday. Fortunately, we were able to get the hat done and to the school in time for the parade Friday morning. This was probably in the middle of some insane week where it was quite difficult to find time to get to a store. In the end, the hat took about 3 hours to get 100 beads stitched on. Yeah, should have listened to Tyler on that one. Oh well, he had fun with the hat and parade, so all was fine. All I had was tired fingers and less sleep. I imagine I have more of that to come with other school projects. The kids also like to play with the hat, still. Too bad one of them, different each time, likes to pull a bead as far as they can, so I then spend way too much time fixing the hat by pulling the yarn back through from the inside. Gee, I must be a great mom with too much time on my hands.


On a different note, we have had other adventures lately. Michael got tubes, again. Jerry created his usual messes and disasters. My dining room carpet was perfectly seasoned for the grill. The living room carpet should be free from headaches, muscle aches, fever, and inflammation for about 6-8 hours. Yes, the hooligan dumped grill seasoning in the dining room and Motrin in the living room. He also climbed up the shelves in the pantry, got into a storage box on the top shelf, pulled out a cupcake, and hid in the dining room eating it while I was on the phone doing something important enough that I wasn't paying constant attention to him. Tyler has his final exam in his math class on Wednesday. Thomas is doing great in school and is reading quite well. He loves school and has a great time and is learning more every day. I am still teaching and running around all over the place trying to do and be everything for everybody.

Keep checking back and following us through our time warp recap of the last few months. We still have to cover 2 birthdays, a beach trip, and other fun and exciting adventures and misadventures.

Life Lately

Life lately has been one thing after another. In addition to the usual antics around here, we have had the plagues. Rather than tell the whole annoying, boring story, I decided to cut and paste my facebook status and some of the comments the posting generated. Hopefully you all stay away from whatever was around here lately!

March 19: has two sick kids and a Jerry. What a fun day around here.
Rachel Coombs HolmesThe both have the cough, Michael has wheezing and the nose and no sleep (me no sleep either, thanks baby), and Thomas has a stomach bug type thing and a fever and just wants to sleep all day. Too bad I have to pack them all up and drag them to the doctor for Michael. (response to earlier comment)

March 20:entered the puking phase with Thomas this morning. At least Michael slept most of the night and just has a nasty viral cold.
Rachel Shill Beck The best part of your status...the two words "this morning." My kids always begin their puking about 11:45pm and continue all night long. Hang in there, it'll be over soon!
Rachel Coombs Holmes It seems to have been a one time thing. He has just been tired and fever mostly. He was up for 3 hours, then went back to sleep going on 2 1/2 hours now. Better them than me. I can take care of them, nobody around to take care of me.

March 22: just cleaned dirt and lots of pollen off Michael's fingers and face and mouth and TEETH. He had fun playing on the window sill.

March 22: banishes all bugs and viruses from the premises. You are trespassing... LEAVE NOW!!!
Dare Wyrick Peed don't forget to hang garlic over the doorway! ;) Hope everyone is feeling better soon.

March 23: went to the doctor today. Check my page for the verdict.
Rachel Coombs Holmes Nevermind, new facebook won't let me post on my own wall. After our 1 1/2 hour visit to the doctor we have 3 children and 6 ears attached to said children. Also, there is one ear missing a tube.

Problem: 4 infected ears (two of which are draining), 3 viral infections with fevers and occasional vomiting attached as well as various sore body parts... Read More, 1 sinus infection. There should be a "2" something. Nevermind, we'll just skip the "2" in this count.
Solution: 2 kids on Omnicef, 1 kid on Amoxicillin, two kids on ear drops The missing tube kid gets antibiotic and drops, one Rx for each ear. 10 days and we should be back to normal. I think I have forgotten what normal is like around here. I can't wait to see how they all react to the antibiotics, lucky me!

Kristen Jarrell Barnett Sheesh. Hope the antibiotics kick in soon. Go eat a piece a chocolate. :)
Rachel Coombs Holmes I ate 3 twinkies and I'm drinking a Dr Pepper! Shhhhh, don't tell anyone.
Alida Lee Mmm twinkies!

March 24: had crappy not sleep last night and is already having one of those days. Great!

March 24: cannot do this anymore. Kids for sale. I'll pay you.
Malinda Coombs I think I still have my kids 4 sale sign.....need it?
Allyn Sandridge having a bad day?

March 24: was sick and left rehearsal early, only to be greeted by children sleeping on the floor after one puked on the freshly cleaned bed.

March 25: wonders why Jerry pooped in Michael's bed first thing this morning. Is it only Wednesday?

March 25: still has a disaster on the wall, even after 30 min scrubbing and 1.5 Magic Erasers. If I color the wall with white crayon will it cover the mess?
Alida Lee Just put a frame around it and call it "art".
Lindsey Dean Brogli perfect place to hang a huge photo of the family...

Rachel Coombs Holmes at 2:11pm March 25

I could put a life size picture and it would cover it, but they would break anything I put there. Jerry is a destruction crew all in one little body. To make it better, I scrubbed through the drywall in a couple places. And, it's their new room. I'm crossing my fingers Tyler doesn't notice, yeah right!

March 26: can't believe we now get to add pink eye to the list.

March 27:wishes her big boy Thomas a Happy 6th Birthday! Now stop growing up.

March 28: needs to decorate a cake for tomorrow's birthday dinner. And laundry, and mop, and bathtubs, and get kids ready for church tomorrow, and plan music....

March 30: might be rid of the 7 plagues around here. After another round of pink eye the end might be in sight. Don't say it too loud, though, sometimes the man in charge has a twisted sense of humor.

3 more days of antibiotics, then their little systems should be back to normal again soon. Thank goodness for pull-ups! Almost there!!! (response to previous comments.)

OK, so I can laugh a little bit now. Thanks for the comments and encouragement. We all survived this far. Hopefully we can stay healthy and keep improving.

Mondays, UGH

Mondays are no fun. Neither are mornings. Combine the two and you are asking for disaster in my world.

Yesterday started with no hot water. I had to take Jerry to Duke University for a study he was taking part in, so I kind of needed a shower before leaving for carpool. I am not one to enjoy a cold shower or find it invigorating. In the end, I shoved my head under the faucet and had a chilly hair washing session. As a result of the water incident, we ended up a bit behind schedule, only a minute or two, so not too bad. The kids had a pop tart morning for the sake of my sanity. Unfortunately, as we were walking out the door, little Michael dropped his in the garage. I didn't realize the "breakfast" had hit the floor, I stepped on it, and almost fell. Pick up the pieces, send Thomas back inside to grab another and we are out the door and on our way.

Wait, hold that thought, we are out the door, but far from on out way. As I was putting Michael in his seat, I noticed the seat belt was slack. Strange. I pulled on it to tighten it and the entire belt came through the seat. JERRY!!!! The little stinker had unbuckled Michael's seat at some point. Do you know how hard it is to re-buckle a seat with a child buckled in it already? Not easy, at all. Poor Michael got a bit squished in the ordeal.

By now, we are really running late. I told Thomas to hold Michael's pop tart until we got to pick up carpool, then to give it to Michael. As we pulled in the driveway I asked Thomas where the pop tart was. He held up 1/3 of a tart. The pill totally ignored what I said and ate his brother's breakfast. On the way to school Thomas and one of the girls got into it... again. That is another issue that I need to deal with. Those two seem to love to irritate each other. Of course, we can't forget the big sign on the mom mobile that says "please cut me off, drive slow, or do other irritating things, but especially drive slow... the slower the better."

The traffic report says there is a nasty backup on the freeway. Great. Wait, some good news?!?! My fabulous husband called and told me how to get around the mess. It worked and we had no trouble, other than the u-turn due to a missed turn. We also had computer issues, blog issues, and kids not eating dinner issues. Oh yeah, and I totally forgot that I had to take Tyler to class because I had to go to the store while he was gone and needed the mom mobile.

By the end of the day I was about to lose it. So, what do children do when mom is barely hanging on?!?! They push her over the edge, of course.

We had milkshakes earlier in the afternoon and Jerry didn't finish his. I put it in the freezer and he just got it whenever he wanted. Slight problem, when Jerry opens the fridge or freezer, Michael pulls out anything he sees. So, next thing I know there is a glass bottle of Soy Sauce hitting my floor. No breakage, thank goodness. Put everything back in and repeat several more times. Now we have 3 poopy boys (possible stomach bug coming on, great) to add to the mix. I just love poopy underwear, don't you? All kids clean, time to go to the store. Oh, wait, nevermind. Time to clean ice cream out of little boy HAIR. While I was helping Thomas clean up, the other two played with milkshakes and thought it would be fun to drip onto the floor or in each other's hair. Run over with wipes and we are out the door. Shopping at BJ's with 3 boys, so much fun (no sarcasm here, ever)!!! Potty stop for Jerry at BJ's. Problem, what do I do with the other two hooligans? "Thomas, stand here with Michael while I go help Jerry." Piddle, piddle in the potty, wash hands, out the door.... YES, they are both still standing there waiting for me.

I treated myself to Chick-fil-a and a gigantic Dr Pepper. The we put on a DVD in the mom mobile and headed to pick up daddy from school. I never do this around town, the DVD is for travel only, but desperate times and mommy's sanity called for breaking the rule this time. More disasters once we got home, including sick tummys and lots of laundry. Can't forget cleaning the kitchen, cleaning the bathroom, staying away from the broken bathroom, laundry, and not having a meltdown.

I don't know about you, but Mondays are just not my friend. It has to get better from here. I certainly don't want to know how it can get worse, that's for sure! I hope your Mondays are better than mine was. Off to deal with a nearly as rough Tuesday. LUCKY ME!!!

I Prayed to Jesus!

Yesterday Star Wars came on TV after church. The kids go down for naps after lunch, so Thomas was quite upset that he was going to miss Star Wars. I told him that if it was still on once he woke up he could probably watch it. I knew it would be over, but wanted a nap and would deal with the drama later. I was awake in my room when Thomas woke up. From downstairs I heard his little voice "Star Wars is on Daddy! I prayed to Jesus that it would still be on when I woke up and Jesus answered my prayer! Star Wars is still on!" We just laughed about it and were also quite proud that he has the basic concept of Heavenly Father will answer our prayers. I love my kids and all the teach me.