Just Thinkin' Out Loud

Every morning I feel like it's a race to see if I can beat Nathan to the TV. Even though we have several TVs in this house and a few DVD players hooked up to them, there is only one TV that Nathan wants to watch...the one in the living room where I want/need to exercise. Sure I could go into another room, but what would be the point when he would just follow me in there and whine just as much as he does in the living room. Every time I get ready, I find stuff to occupy him and it's still not enough. I have tried taking him for walks to get my exercise, but with the weather changing it's just getting too chilly in the morning to take him out. Besides, it's only a half hour. It's like as soon as he hears the music - Wham there he is. "Mommmm I want some milk....when are you gonna be done....I'm bored....I want to watch cartoons..." etc. It progresses to the point where he screams he hates me. And at that point - I don't really care, because I'm thinking to myself, why can't you give me one stinkin half hour! I give you everything all.day.long. I put up with you following me into the bathroom and leaving the door hanging open when you leave. It is literally making me insane! The other day he even threw stuff on the floor to try and trip me. And when that didn't work he started spitting on the floor. Of course, he didn't think it was very funny when I made him swiffer the whole room. He kept screaming I'M SORRY and I didn't spit on the WHOLE floor. At least he hasn't done it again...maybe he learned a lesson? I don't know {Sighhhh}

I'm so tired of this stupid spyware crap that keeps popping up on my screen!!! If I click on "protect" it brings up another screen that wants to make me pay for crap. So, I keep clicking on "ignore" and every 20 minutes or so that damn freakin' thing pops up again. I tried going through the programs and finding it so I could delete it from the computer, but I can't find the right one and it takes forever to go through all the crap the kids programed on here so I just sign off and figure I'll deal with it for a while longer.

Did I mention that I'm stuck in the house all day today? Yes, our phone company promised us faster, free services and sent us another router thing for the internet. They also gave us call waiting, caller ID and another program. And then charged us for everything. Rich asked them for a mailing label to return the router and they sent us a Fed EX label with a letter explaining how to return it. It specifically says you can't drop it in a Fed EX box. You have to have an agent sign for it. Great! Considering the fact that we live in nowhere land that doesn't have a Fed EX office. Which meant I had to schedule the man to come to my house and pick the damn thing up. And so here I sit waiting for the guy to come and get it.

In the meantime, I have to attend a mandatory meeting at work today (there are several times during the day, but they are all mainly in the afternoon, which is when the Fed EX guy is probably going to come). If I miss this one, after I already missed the last one because of Sarah's finger and the fridge being delivered I'm going to get into trouble. The last meeting is going to be at 10 at night, which I know I'll be too tired to go to. All I can do is pray the guy gets here before the meetings.

Then on top off it all, I signed Nathan up for Story Hour at the library and we haven't been able to go to any of them since they started, because there has always been some sort of problem that makes it impossible to go. Last week we had to wait for a certified letter. This week we have to wait for the Fed EX man. I thought going to Story Hour might help Nathan interact with kids his own age. And give us something to do to break up the week, but we haven't been able to go to it yet {Ughhhh}

Why does life have to keep throwing us lemons....we have more lemonade than we could possibly ever drink - and my kids love lemonade. ((((knock, knock, knock - ding dong))))))

Oh....speak of the devil......the Fed EX man just came......now you can scratch about half of my bitching. Actually, you can forget all of it - except for the part about Nathan being a pain in the butt when I exercise. Oh and the anti virus protection thingy. Maybe the sun will come out today too. Hey a girl can dream, can't she?!

Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Peppers

My New Fridge.....

Isn't she a beauty?!

So Cute and Hysterical

*Make sure you pause the music on my playlist below so you can hear the video....

This is the cutest, most funny thing I have seen all day....hope you enjoy it!




This one is even funnier....




I don't know about you, but that second one reminds me of the dancing baby on Ally McBeal....anyone remember that show?

Update on Sarah....

I took Sarah to the doctor today. There really wasn't much he could do that we already thought of doing. He did prescribe an ointment to be applied three times a day. Told us to keep the wound clean. He sent her for an x-ray just to be sure she didn't break any small bones in the finger. At the hospital they didn't send her to get a cast or splint or anything, so I'm assuming that there wasn't anything broken. He also gave her a tetanus shot. He said that he wanted to see her again in 2 weeks. And that he might decide to send her to "plastics" at that time, but he didn't think it was necessary. He said there didn't appear to be any nerve damage. Her finger tip is still swollen and he said he highly doubted her finger nail would grow back since there was "root" damage....but you never know. Poor thing is in denial that her finger nail won't ever grow back. But as they say miracles happen, only God is in control of that. She's in good spirits, only slightly depressed about the nail. But like I said she's holding out hope. God love her! Oh and thanks for all the prayers...God is good!

My Day Rocked Yesterday!

Rich and I went fridge shopping. I got the exact one that I wanted. He was looking at side by sides. Which I have always said I wanted, but after looking at them I just didn't think it was big enough inside. So I told him I liked the freezer on the bottom one better. Which works out best for him in the long run anyway, because of his back. So we went with an LG stainless steel bottom freezer and she is a pretty little thing!

Usually after shopping I get so tired that I don't feel like doing much other than kicking back and watching tv or relaxing. So at that point I really didn't feel like making dinner. Rich suggested ordering pizza and I jumped all over that. No cooking for me! And my favorite food to boot!

After all that, he decided to let Amanda and me do a little bit of mother/daughter bonding, which we needed desperately since we have been at each other's throats lately. Rich had two gift cards to CVS that he let me and Amanda blow on make up. Gotta love that!

As I was relaying all my goodies to Rich, he said you haven't had a great day....you've had a great week. Do you remember getting a new cell phone this week too? I said "Oh yeah, my life rocks!" And best of all, today is my payday. Great week indeed!

My Poor Girl

At this point, I think it's safe (actually make that very unsafe) to say that my poor Sarah is accident prone. She gets more bumps and bruises than the boys. She is a tomboy though and she likes to do rough things, like climb trees, skate board, hang off the monkey bars, ride her bike with no hands or feet. She is my little dare devil. And she usually gets the brunt end of the stick (a few years back, she got hit in the chin by a fly ball during a baseball game - also during a game she had her finger smashed by a ball). She trips more than she walks when we go for walks. But she takes it all in stride.

This afternoon she was walking Nicholas down to the neighbor's house when she comes running into the house holding her hand with blood dripping all over the place. She very calmly....not one tear was shed....tells me that she hurt herself on her skateboard. At first she didn't explain it very well, maybe she was in a shocked state. Later, she explained that she was sitting on the skateboard and ran over her hand.

I almost threw up when I looked at her fingers. I have a very strong stomach. Like most moms I can catch puke in my hands, change a poopy diaper and then (after washing my hands of course) eat my meals. Things like that don't bother me. And usually as a CNA things of that nature is just part of the job. Seeing the elderly's skin break down where eventually they develop holes in their bodies or sometimes their flesh rots to the point that it's black or gangrene. It normally doesn't bother me, but I guess since it's my OWN kid....it gets to me.

At any rate, when I got a good look at her finger, her nail was hanging by a thread or flap of skin. I had to get Rich, because as I said I thought I was going to be sick. He looked at it and determined that the nail had to come off the rest of the way. So while I distracted Sarah, he tugged it the rest of the way off. He said he doesn't think she will ever have a finger nail on that finger again. Usually your nails grow back, but he said he doesn't think this one will.

I cleaned it up as best as I could and put a bandage on her little pinkie finger. I said that they make fake nails and if it came down to it, we could always get her some. She's holding out hope that it will grow back. I gave her some Motrin and she seemed fine afterwards. However, I think in the morning I'm calling the doctor. I'm worried that she may have some nerve damage, since she was complaining that her finger was numb. The last thing I want to see is her getting an infection and lose her finger.

If you are reading this and you believe in a higher power, please pray that Sarah will be okay. Think some good thoughts and send some our way. I believe in the power of prayer and I pray that she will definitely be okay. She is in really good spirits and I did the best I could for her, but a mom worries you know, we just can't help ourselves.

A Moment of Silence.....

Our fridge died this past weekend. I thought it was weird when the leftovers I put in there two days ago ended up with mold growing on them. And everything seemed like it wasn't cold enough. Plus, the labels on the Coors Light weren't blue (the bottles are supposed to be cold activated - when the mountains on the label turn blue, then they're cold). Uh oh, this wasn't good!



The weird thing was the freezer was and is working just fine. I checked the temp in the fridge to make sure it wasn't messed with by one of the kids and it was set for the right setting. So, our fridge simply died. It lived a good life....and it will be sadly missed! We were planning on buying a new one when we re-did the kitchen and put the old one in the garage as an extra. That won't be happening now.


Another thing that won't be happening now is the purchase of a bigger bed. We were planning on buying ourselves a king size mattress this year, but now that we are in need of a fridge, the mattress is out the window. Best laid plans and all that, damnit! I was looking forward to being able to stretch out and not get elbowed off the bed and all that. Oh well what can you do! Damn refrigerator!

The funny thing is even though the kids know full well that the dumb thing is broke, they still keep looking in there. I don't know what for, since it's empty. Amanda said it was force of habit, that's pretty sad when you consider how many times they have opened that dang door looking for food! What's even worse is that I keep finding food in there....see, Nathan likes to stick his plate in there when he's had enough to eat. He's always saying he wants to save the rest for later (which he never eats later anyway). I came home from work on Sunday to find two plates in there and last night there was a bowl and a plate. All of which had to go straight to the garbage can.

Now, I'm just sitting here waiting for Rich to get ready to go, so we can buy a new one. We looked at some on Saturday, but Home Depot said their delivery dates were backed up until the end of the month...like we can wait that long with 6 kids. Then, Lowe's had a sign up that said "delivered in 7 days" and when Rich asked about the one we liked the man told him it would take 2 weeks...so why the heck do you have a sign that says otherwise, because they don't have it in stock, that's why. We would have to buy the floor model if we wanted it sooner than that. Which at this point, I don't really care if it's a floor model as long as it's not beat to hell and back or scratched. I can always clean it out really well, if that's what I'm worried about know what I mean.

I just want to get the damn thing taken care of so I can start cooking again. I can't cook anything, if I don't have enough storage to put the leftovers (did I mention we have a small little fridge, we've been using in the meantime?). Wake up and get a move on Rich...nap time is OVER, I want my new fridge NOW!

Open House Night

This past week was Open House Night for the parents at the high school and elementary center. I ended up skipping the one for Amanda and Anthony. I hate going to those things by myself and Amanda went on a date with her boyfriend and Anthony had a lot of homework to do. Plus, I was still sick and only on day 2 of the z pack, but it's not that big of deal to skip their's since they usually do so well in school.

I did manage to suck it up and go the next night to the elementary school for the younger kids. The teachers usually have some nice displays of the kids' work thus far and I think Sarah's teacher won the prize for being the most creative (albeit creepy as well.....you shall see). They are all doing well so far as in behavior and such. Nicholas is still struggling with reading and we all got a good laugh at his expense, because although he got an "A" and only missed one word on his spelling test....he spelled his own name wrong on it, LOL! I really need to work with him some more on that one, but you would think since he's in the second grade he would remember how to spell his name!

The all elusive spelling test

Nicholas with his teacher

Showing me his desk....how come his room doesn't look as neat as this?!

Using his best Vanna White impression - showing me which one is his.

Zachary with his teacher, again

He was in the newspaper and I didn't even know it (of course the paper spelled our last name wrong!) See that's him on the left.

Zach displaying his project

Sarah's classroom full of......students??

Isn't this really cool and yet, kinda creepy? A friend of mine was there with me and she was like it gets creepier the longer you're in here...and she was right, lol!

Sarah with her "twin"

So that's what it would be like if Zach had been a girl!?

Zach and....Sarah?

this one even had pants and shoes on....so weird!
Sarah with her teacher

This was only one of the cool projects that Sarah's teacher had on display. They also made these newspaper front page things that had a news story, their heroes and other favorite things. It was a nice little project as well and it was super cute seeing that Sarah's hero was her daddy. She made a short paragraph about his accident and how he got hurt taking down an inmate and the huge scar on his back from the surgery...it was cute, but the pic I took of it came out kind of blurry so I can't share that. Her front page story was all about how she hit a triple during one of her baseball games last summer - she was (and should be) so proud of herself.

Great night, even though I was sick.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions....

After the last post, I began to think (scary, I know), that I may have started this whole bathroom thing. See, when the kids were little I carried them everywhere, even into the bathroom. I did that for a few reasons....

1. because I just loved those sweet little babies that I could hardly put them down.

2. because that way they were close by in case they started to cry or needed something.

Then as they got a little older, as in the toddler stage, I took them in there with me so that I would know exactly what they were up to...you know instead of dumping eggs and flour on the floor, or tearing pages out of books, or coloring on the walls, etc. Of course they still managed to do those things anyway...but you get my point.

And so now, here I am complaining about the fact that the kid follows me into the bathroom all.the.time. Well...gee wonder why he does that?!

Which then leads me into my next bitch....Bedtime battles! (who would of thought that rocking those sweet little babies to sleep would wreck so much havoc at bedtime!!)

When the kids were infants, I did what every mother does, I rocked my babies to sleep. Even after they said you should lay them in bed awake to get them used to being alone and used to falling asleep without help. Yeah, I have no one to blame but myself now that I have a boy who doesn't like to go to bed. What makes it worse is that I have done this with every single child of mine. I rocked them to sleep....sang them songs....read them stories and then struggled to keep them in their beds every night. Have you ever watched those Super Nanny episodes where she teaches the parent to keep putting their child back in bed every time they climb out....yeah, I've been doing that for YEARS! Heck, I think Nanny Jo must have been peeking in my windows at night and stole that idea from me.

You'd of thought I would have learned my lesson with the last five kids, but alas nope, I'm a dumbass doomed to repeat the same mistakes. See even a seasoned (yeah, after 6 kids - 2 being teenagers I think I can claim seasoned rights) parent makes mistakes. Everything is like one big experiment when it comes to kids. And the only person or people you have to blame for your screw ups is yourself.

What would I do without Max & Ruby?!

I have been reduced to scheduling my potty breaks to when Nate's favorite cartoon comes on. I mean, c'mon do you really want to sit in there watching me sit on the toilet...how much fun is that buddy? Sometimes, Mommy suffers from stagefright you know and while you're standing there asking me a million and one questions...like "Are you poopin' or peein?", doesn't really help the um situation. So now, anytime you hear the theme song to Max and Ruby...just get outta my way!!

thought this was funny

Found Nathan sleeping like this one night

He even tucked in his buddies....

and then decorated the place too!

And the #1 reason why I love my little guy...

"Mommy, do you know why I keep giving you so many hugs? Because I love you" ~ Nathan

Love Bites!

Nathan's favorite cereal is Count Chocula, I don't know how this came about but whenever we buy cereal and we have him with us, he runs to this cereal. A few nights go Rich and I were going to go out and ended up at Target instead (we are so pathetic, using our "date" night to go grocery shopping). Later at home, as we were putting the groceries away, Nathan saw "his" cereal and said "I SOOO love this vampire cereal!!" So I had to let him have some.....

Not quite like the Duggars

I don't know how other "big" families do it, but on average we grocery shop at least one or two big trips a month and then little smaller trips in between. Most of our big trips are to stock up on things we use alot. The smaller ones are for little forgotten things or milk, bread, etc.

When we first moved into this house, our kitchen while bigger than the last house, didn't really have a lot of cupboards. So, I asked Rich to turn the coat closet (right off the kitchen) into a pantry. We eventually out grew that as well, so we turned a small downstairs room into a pantry/storage room. And this is how it's been for the last few years now. I'm happy with the room, it has lots of shelves to store food and rubbermaid storage boxes that hold the kids' toys.

Just thought it would be fun to share pics of my little "store".

Six Dollars!!

I returned some books to the library. Albiet, they were late. I only had a small handful of books, maybe 3 or 4. I knew they were late when I returned them so I asked what my late fees were going to be. When the lady told me $6, I about fell on the floor!! What ever happened to 10 cents a day. Surely, I didn't owe that much! Not that I mind paying, it's just how in the hell did I accumulate six dollars worth of fees for 3 or 4 books! Geesh!!

Confession Time

*I make my 4 yo go with me to the laundry room (if the big kids are home then I make one of them go with me). It's not that I don't love being by myself or like I'm afraid to go in the basement by myself. It's just that I'm scared to death of spiders. And it's that time of year and they like my laundry room for some reason, especially the clothes. So I make someone go with me. It's not like a 4 yo without shoes on is going to be a big help when I see a spider, but he makes a good cheerleader when I'm trying to kill one.

*I, not only stayed in my jammies all day long yesterday, but I slept in them too. Ewwww, so gross, I know! But I have a good excuse, I wasn't feeling very well yesterday.

*I joined twitter over 6 months ago, but I've never tweeted anything. It's just one more thing that I know I would be addicted to, so I try not to even go there and read anything.

*My hair has been falling out since before I had the radiation done (for my thyroid) and it's still falling out. I need to see a doctor, but mine retired and I HATE going to the doc for anything and now I have to find a new one (endocrinologist). It would be nice to have the reassurance that everything is normal, but I'm scared that I'll get bad news...so I don't want to go.

*I bought myself some "body volumizing" shampoo to use just for me and got mad that my daughter couldn't even wait until I opened it first and she used it. What really made me the most upset is that her hair is thick and gorgeous and this beautiful red color that women would kill to have and she's doesn't like it, in the meantime I'm afraid to color mine blonde again for fear all my hair will fall out....so I'm walking around with 2 inches of roots showing and looking ridiculous, I'm sure.

*I was so sick this morning that I took some allergy pills that made me so sleepy that I laid down for a while and entertained Nathan by letting him take pictures with my cell phone.

Oh...there's more, but I think that's enough to embarrass myself with for awhile!

Goal of the Day....

Seeing how long I can leave the jammies on (me that is, not Nathan - no, he's perfectly content running around in his underwear).

3 o'clock and still going strong.....even answered the door for the pizza delivery driver in my jammies.

Yep, it's been a lazy kind of day at the old ranch.

Oh, and for what's worth, make sure that when you preheat the oven, to take out the leftover pizza box that you hid in there from the kids, otherwise it makes your house smell nasty.

How to Entertain a Four Year Old While His Older Siblings are at School

It was quite an adventure trying to keep Nathan occupied yesterday while the big kids were at school. First, we dropped the kids off at their perspective schools and classrooms. Then, we went to the grocery store and the "dough nut" store for a couple of Krispy Kremes (it was our little secret). Next, we came home and watched some Scooby Doo, did some laundry (washed his puppy), got the mail, played outside, made a blanket fort, built a puzzle, cleaned up raw eggs off the kitchen floor and that was all before noon!

After lunch, we played hide and seek, drew and colored pictures, finger painted, made and then played with edible play dough (peanut butter play dough - 1 cup pb, 2 cups confectioner's sugar and 1/2 cup of honey), played in the fort again, tore it down and had to build a new one, watched some more Scooby and then petted the dog and pointed out all the dog poop in the yard and watered our flowers while we waited for the big kids to come home.

Then he crashed, much to my chagrin at 4 p.m. I knew I was in for trouble later...especially when he woke up at 9, refreshed and ready for more. I seriously thought he was going to kill me hahaha! And then by the grace of God he fell back asleep at 1 a.m. Let me just tell you...I was one tired momma!

And the best part of it all.....was we got to wake up today and do it all.over.again!