Last Post of 2008

I started this blog in 2006 as a way to record memories for my children. A memory is only a memory if you can remember it. And let's face it, I don't exactly have a great memory. Heck, half the time someone tells me something, I forget it a few minutes later. Every year since, I have tried to double my posts. This year I succeeded tenfold. Go me!!

This is my last post of 2008 and the start of many more years to come! Have a wonderful and blessed new year!

I'm the mom!!

Only A MOM Can Appreciate! Don't forget to pause the music below before attempting to watch the video.

The Twins

Sarah and Zachary had their music concert at school about a week or so ago. They are in a special music group, this group is audition only. The Musical Mikes holiday program was wonderful. I didn't get any good shots of the whole group on stage (it's hard doing that with a cell phone camera hahaha), but I took a few good ones of Sarah and Zachary in front of the Christmas tree afterwards.


Zach and Sarah with their music teacher/choral director Mrs. Weisgerber (she used to be my teacher when I was their age, she looks great doesn't she?).


Yes, Sarah is slightly taller than Zach for the moment....




Zachary with his buddies (Caleb on the left is his best friend) being silly.

Bah Humbug!

Yes, I'm in a sour mood. I don't know why, but this year I just haven't been in the Christmassy mood. I didn't send out Christmas cards, because by the time, I thought about doing them it was too late. I didn't take pictures of the kids to put in the cards anyway. The tree just now got decorated. It was a naked tree for about a week. I didn't even put it up, Anthony did.

Let's not even mention the fact that I waited until the last minute to go shopping for presents (and I still haven't wrapped them). I just haven't been in the mood. I think the depression is back and I need my antidepressants upgraded to a higher dose. I have been so bah humbuggy for weeks. This whole year has just been awful. I have been late every single day for work. It's a wonder I still have a job. Everything is just a big mess.

And to top it all off, Rich had another MRI done, which revealed that he has more discs going bad in his back, including one where he already had surgery. I feel so bad for him, I can't even begin to imagine how much pain he must be in.

I'm really hoping that 2009 will be a much better year for me. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Nicholas

Nicholas' first grade program was this morning. The program was great and all the kids did a great job. I was very proud of Nicholas! He did all the motions and sang all the words to the songs. I think he was a wee bit nervous when it was his turn. But, at least he had a buddy doing the part with him so that helped. And best of all Nicholas looked so nice and handsome. He dressed up in his suit pants and a nice white shirt and a red clip-on tie. He looked adorable! I'm going to have to print out his picture and give it to Terri, since she gave him the suit. It was one her son outgrew.

Snow........

We thought we were getting a big snow storm through our area, it snowed all day, even sticking to the roads, caused some accidents, and enough to build a small snowman. But by midnight, it was all gone....it melted. And we haven't had snow since. I guess everyone else got it instead.


Of course I had to put Zach to work

Because someone had to do it

Sarah posing in front of our house

This is one of the trees in our yard

Another tree I thought looked pretty

Our Little Morning Adventure

It all started when Rich woke me up in time to finish getting Nicholas, Sarah and Zachary out the door to catch the bus. Amanda and Anthony already got up, dressed and caught their bus by themselves, they've been doing it for years. And Nathan was sleeping.

So, I wake up to find Zach helping Nicholas tie his shoes.....I should have known something was going to happen based on that, because those two fight like cats and dogs every morning. We're talking about throwing punches here.

While Zach and Nick were finishing, I braided Sarah's hair. Then, I gave Nicholas his little surprise (a Lunchable, which he's been begging for for years, but he's been doing so well with his reading homework, that I caved and bought one....). He was so thrilled.

I told them to get their backpacks and coats. And as they were putting their stuff together, the bus went down the road. By this time Nathan woke up. I was going to have to take the kids to school and now Nathan was going with us, because he didn't want to stay with Rich. I asked Zach to take the car seat out of Rich's car and put it in my van. While he ran out to do that, I had Sarah get Nathan dressed and ready. I ran off to throw some clothes on. Most of the time I don't care...and if they miss the bus, I just ran them to school while wearing my slippers and jammies. But today I wanted to grab a coffee, so I had to get dressed.

By the time we all got ready and ran outside, we had five minutes to get to the school before they were late. All the kids piled in, I buckled Nathan in his car seat. I climbed in behind the steering wheel and went to start the car and couldn't. The damn battery died. That has only happened twice before. Great!

I tell everybody to jump out and get in dad's car. I told Zach to run in and get Rich's car keys and I proceeded to take Nathan still strapped in his car seat and put him in the other car. Ten pound car seat plus and thirty pound kid - was heavy!

I finally managed to get all the kids to school 15 minutes late. And I really needed that coffee after all that. So I got my coffee and Nathan got his doughnut and we were both happy campers for the rest of the morning. See, I told you I should have taken Zachary and Nicholas working together as a bad sign, didn't I?

This is how I love to start my day....

Propz to Aunt Kristen!

I should have posted this a few weeks ago when it happened, but I was taking a little bloggy break (otherwise known as spending too much time on Facebook).

It all started with Nicholas taking a pair of scissors and chopping off his hair.....



Yeah, I was freaked too!!

Then, I tried to fix it. It started to look better than what he did to it, but Nicholas wouldn't sit still worth a crap, and the back of his head looked like steps. Momma wasn't doing a very good job, plus she was quickly running out of patience.....

Enter Aunt Kristen. My lovely, wonderful sister in law. Our family adores her! Actually, my kids love all of their aunts and uncles. And I have to admit, they have some pretty awesome aunts and uncles.





Zachary decided he would get his hair done next.


They look so cute, don't they? And it's even better in person....


Thanks so much Aunt Kristen, we LOVE you!!!

Holy Bedhead Batman

please excuse the chocolate face.....

Nathan's definations of the world around him

Nathan speaks very well and he pronounces words very clearly too....well, most of the time anyway.


Nicholas = Nickiss

Anthony = Anty

Zachary = Zachy

Amanda = Manda or Manna

Crackers = Cackers

Bananas = Nanas

Snow = no

Know = no

When he wants to say "I don't know" He will say "I no no"

I want, I need and mine are said several times daily.

Ask him if his name is Nathaniel and he'll tell you yes, but he likes Nathan better.

At least it wasn't the girls' panties

Last night as I was walking out to the car to get something out of it, I hear someone yelling from inside the house....

"Mommm, Nicholas is wearing Nathan's underwearrrrr!!"

You're a Rare Thing

The other night at work an older gentlemen told me I was a rare thing. When I asked him why, he said it's because not many families are really big these days. Most people have one or two, sometimes three, but there isn't many people at all who have six children. He said back in the day it was rare not having a big family, now its the opposite. He was very polite about it. He didn't ask me a million questions about my choices or make any strange comments like most people do. I took the "rare thing" as a compliment.

Most of the time, when Rich and I mention that we have six children and that they are all ours together, people are shocked and then ask a bunch of dumb questions that we've heard so many times that we started to say really stupid things in reply.

"Do you know what causes that?" ~ Duh, don't you? Your momma DID tell you the story about the birds and the bees, right? Or Uh, Yeah and we like it.

"You have your hands full" ~ No, our hands aren't full, but our hearts are.

"Better you than me." ~ I'm glad it was me too!!

"Don't you have a TV?" ~ What the heck does a TV have to do with anything?

I think that we are very lucky to have been blessed by God.

I don't honestly think I'm a rare thing. But my family certainly is rare, a rare treasure that I cherish dearly. I'm grateful God thought I was worthy of such a big family. I know I complain alot and it isn't exactly easy, but you know what - it was worth it!

what kind of blogger am I?

I found this cute little quiz thing when I was reading my friend Gin's blog. I thought it was neat, so I had to steal it from her.

Take the quiz by answering random questions and then it will spit out your results. Mine was:

You Are a Life Blogger!

Your blog is the story of your life - a living diary. If it happens, you blog it. And you make it as entertaining as possible. You may be guilty of over-sharing a bit on your blog, but you can't help it. Your life is truly an open book. Or in this case, an open blog!

What Kind of Blogger Are You?

So what do think? Is it fitting or what? If you decide to steal it from me, let me know because I'd like to see your results too.

Strained Lumbar

I'm not sure if I ever explained what I do as a certified nursing assistant (cna). I know I've complained about having to work and I also mentioned a few things here and there about work. But, I try not to talk about work too much, because you never know who may be reading this blog.

I do know that one day after complaining about how much laundry I had to do, someone at work asked me if I ever got all that laundry done. I didn't think anything much about it other than how did she know I was working on laundry, until I realized that I had blogged about it.

It's not that hard to find my blog. I have it posted on MySpace and Facebook, plus a few blog sites and such. But it was kind of weird thinking that someone I work with could be reading this. So I decided I wasn't going to post much about work anymore. I don't need the extra attention, if you know what I mean.

(((On a side tracked note: I also remember how weird it was when I had my weekly column in the local newspaper. I would write about things going on in my town, and I always added a little tidbit about myself or the kids. Basically, because SO many people are curious when you tell them you have six children. And I remember total strangers coming up to me and making comments about what I wrote))).

However I did want to touch on a few things we cna's do, to explain what the heck I'm talking about. Being a cna is a physical job. It's A LOT of walking, lifting, etc. We do all of the basic care of the elderly. In a nursing care facility, cna's bathe, feed, change, get residents (patients) out of bed, into bed, walk them, shower them, etc. Lots of people get hurt doing this job. It's definitely hard on your back.

I have had this job for over five years and I've never gotten hurt. Sure, I've had general aches and pains. I've bumped into beds and left bruises, I've been punched, hit, bitten, peed on and even spit on. I've even slid on the floor and fell on my knee and never reported it. I just chalked it up to stupid crap I've done, I mean I am pretty clumsy and uncoordinated.

But, Friday night as I was lifting someone into bed (with help), I felt pain I never felt before. I felt a popping, feeling. I told the girl I was working with that I thought I hurt myself. She in turn told me to fill out paperwork. I said I would, but ended up busy and left without thinking of it. Later when I got home, I realized that I really didn't feel well, my back hurt.

Long story (and this was way longer than I wanted it to be) short, after a trip to the hospital.....I strained my back. So, I have the next two days off, a prescription for muscle relaxers and Motrin. I was also told to use a heating pad.

So there you have it. It took five years, but at least I didn't do any major damage. A lumbar strain sounds so much better than a herniated disc. Especially after watching Rich go through all his back problems, you know? Now if only I can keep Nicholas and Nathan from jumping all over me for the next couple days, I'll be all right!

Teenagers - Anyone want some?

Seriously!

Whose idea was it to give them hormones and attitudes. Forget the acne and the greasy hair, its the attitudes and hormones that you need to worry about.

For over a year now, Amanda has gone into my bedroom and used things she shouldn't be using (almost a whole jar of Oil of Olay and $100 bottle of perfume), gotten into things she shouldn't be getting into (my jewelry box), and taken things that "belong" to her that I took off of her (like her cell phone, ipod and laptop), because she was being a brat.

The lack of respect is what is so aggravating to me!

In the first place, I never would of thought about doing that to my mother (my sister yeah - confession time: her Trixie Belden books, her 8 track player and sometimes, very rarely her make-up....DON'T KILL ME JODI hahahaha!!), but not my mother!

In the second place, what gives her the right to rifle through my things?

And lastly is the fact that I don't ask for much. Seriously, I don't. Rich just buys me things because he thinks I should have them.

Here is an example of a conversation we had that led him to buy the said $100 perfume:

Me to him: You smell yummy!
Him: Yummy?
Me: you know - good
Him: Oh, thanks!
Me: I want to smell yummy too (I generally just use soap, sometimes lotion is a luxury).
Him: why don't you buy yourself some perfume or something, if you want.
Me: No, I cant' do that. I don't want to spend money on something like that.
Him: Why?
Me: I don't know....

On my birthday last year, guess what my present was? Perfume. And not some crappy stuff you get at Walmart either. It was a bottle of Chanel Allure. Yeah, I was shocked too.

So I think that's what bothers me most about the whole thing with Amanda using my things. It's not so much the cost of it, it's the thought behind it. He really went out of his way to buy me something nice, something I never really even asked for. And then it gets wasted. And I feel horrible!

Does that seem so unreasonable?

And one more thing.....

What's the big deal about having a boyfriend? I had an inkling there was one, but she never told us about it. I found out yesterday in passing from Terri and then act like I knew. Because really, I didn't want to look or feel like an idiot for not knowing that my 15 year old daughter was dating a college freshman!!

So again, I ask....Anyone want some teenagers?

No More Poop!

What's that you say?

No more poop?

Nathan is potty trained?


WHY YES, IT'S TRUE!!!

It didn't take very long, once we started. We bribed him...ALOT with small toys and candy, but it worked. He was just peeing on the potty and then, it seemed as though poop episodes were getting fewer and farther between (and no...he didn't poop and hide it, like he did at the beginning...no, this time, he was actually pooping on the toilet). I'd say it took about two months with one or two small accidents before he was and is completely trained. He still wore the Pull Ups at night and he was sooo used to wearing them that he wanted to wear them all the time. I stopped buying them and that forced him to wear his cloth training pants.

A few nights ago, Rich and I went shopping for socks and undies for everybody and I picked up some little ones for Nathan. He is so in love with his new big boy underwear. LOL! It was hilarious the first night he had them. He kept changing into different ones. No sooner did he have on one pair than he turned around and had another pair on. He did that for about two days. It was funny watching him "model" all his new underwear.

I'm so stinkin' proud of him!! He did great!! And the best part of it all, is I, I mean we don't have to change any more poopy pants. Well...except for me, I still have to do when I'm at work. But hey, at least it's not all the time, right?