What a girl's gotta do

Sarah made the Academic League team...Very proud of her. The Academic League is like Jeopardy for kids. They test the kids on their knowledge and ability to quickly answer the question correctly and those that make the team, then travel to the local college and compete with other school districts. The high school team has actually been on a local television show called Hometown High Q. Amanda and Anthony have been doing this for years now, they love it.

Amanda and Anthony have meets every other Thursday and I thought Sarah's was every other Tuesday. I remembered it was Tuesday, because I remember her mentioning it. I did not realize that it was every Tuesday. And she never actually told me when the meets were. They are held during school hours and they travel with their teams on a school bus. The only drawback to this is, they have to either take their own lunch or buy a lunch from the college, which is a flat rate of $7.

For some reason, Sarah has been telling me that I need to take her to school on those days, because her bus doesn't get there on time. Now, having taken her to school on those days, I have seen her bus dropping off the kids at the same time, she wanted me to drop her off. I've watched her brothers walk into the school while Sarah walked down the sidewalk. So, I don't quite see the logic in this ordeal.

I will also throw out there that I have been working a lot of Monday evenings. Therefore I'm not home in order for her to tell me that she has a meet the next day. She never mentions it to her dad either. Leaving me running around in circles half asleep (I get home from work by 10:30 at night and I'm usually so wide awake that I can't fall asleep before 2, sometimes 3 a.m. on those nights), trying to figure out whether she has time to pack a lunch, or give her money and making sure that I hurridly dress myself and Nathan in order to get Sarah to school on time, before the team bus leaves.

So, this morning at 8:15, she wakes me up to take her to school. By the time I focus on getting me and Nathan ready it's now 8:25....and low and behold, Sarah - who knew exactly what the day was, who knew exactly what time she had to be there, who knew exactly what she needed to do in order to get there on time, asks me what she's going to do about lunch. I said "What do you mean what are you going to do, didn't you pack a lunch?" No, she whines. "why not?" Because I didn't know what to do...."what do you mean you didn't know what to do, what are the rules when you need money for something like this?" We need to tell you in advance so you can go to the bank for money.

Uh, yeah...and your dad just went to the store last night while I was working and bought groceries, what do you think the chances are of him having any money left?" None - good guess! So now, she's scrambling around the kitchen throwing stuff in a bag while I'm zipping up Nathan's coat and walking him out to the car. As we pull up to the school, Sarah notices that the bus isn't there....they left without her, as we are now late (because of the lunch ordeal). She starts crying and screaming that she's not going to school now, because she missed her bus. Well, what the heck am I supposed to do about that?! I told her that she was going to school and she was going to get out of the van and she was going to have to remember that she needs to tell her dad in advance (since I'm working) that she has Academic League and she needs lunch money.

Hey, I have enough stuff of my own to remember doing....plus, 5 other kids that I have to do things for, I can not remember every little thing! She signed up for it....she joined the team...and now I think she needs to be responsible for the things she needs on those days. I felt bad to some degree, but I didn't feel guilty like I normally would. I can understand this and see this from her point of view, however I can not do every thing. Sometimes, kids need to remember and do things for themselves and in my opinion at her age, she is responsible enough to remember an activity that she wanted to do - especially since it's her only activity this year. I'm not riding the guilt train today.......I'm not, I tell you (with heavy heart and misty eyes).

Birthday Fun Times Two!!

Happy Birthday to my twinnie poohs.....Sarah and Zachary!!!! They are now 12 years old! Sarah pointed out a fun fact about today. 12 + 12 = 24 (their age times two equals their birthdate).

Making decisions times two is hard, but they managed to come up with what they wanted. They chose cheeseburgers and french fries as their birthday dinner. And Gold and Orange are their favorite colors at the moment. They got new bikes as their presents, which they have been wanting since, well......for-ev-er. All in all I think they were quite happy with their special day.

One hard job down....

Well, we got all of the border down in the older boys room. I did over half of it and then decided to start working on another room. Anthony got mad at me when I told him he could finish it. In my defense, they really didn't have that much left to do (and the other room was floor to ceiling wallpaper) and he hadn't helped do any of it, he basically just sat there watching me do it. Hey, it's your room buddy, I'm thinking it won't kill you to scrub some wallpaper border off the wall.




Now it just needs to be painted and maybe have the carpet replaced at some point.

Here is the other room so far....three of the walls just had one layer of wallpaper and it came off rather easily.

Then I got to the fourth wall which had another layer under it, which has been a pain in my side getting off. Luckily the girls are eager to get into their new room so they have been helping out by stripping the paper, scrubbing down the walls and painting the trim. It's coming along, just need to move a little faster.



I feel relieved to some degree that things are finally coming together in this house. It's been 5 years since we've moved here and the kids have been beating this poor house to death. But it's starting to shape up again and that makes me feel better.

My Sweet Boy

On the way home from Story Hour at the library this morning, Nathan asked "Do you think I'm a good boy mommy?" Yes, I do. "Do you think the trees are pretty?" Yes, I do. "Do you remember the way home mom, cause if you don't, I do." Yes, I do. "Mom, do you like to buy me treats when I'm a good boy?" Yes, I do. "I like you mommy." I like you too buddy.

I absolutely love these little conversations with him (actually with all my children). They are little, but oh so precious bits of memories that I don't ever want to forget. It makes me want to freeze time or bottle those moments and place them on a shelf to get dusty and dirty so that when I'm old and gray I can open them and release the magic that they hold. I wish all of life's little moments could be this simple and good.

Added some pics to my photography blog

Just sayin' ;)

Shaking my head at the Stupidity

Big boys room - Before

I have been stripping wallpaper in the kids' bedrooms. When we moved into this house, every room - I mean EVERY room had wallpaper in it. There are two different patterns in the upstairs bathroom and kitchen alone. Then there is an accent wall in the living room that has - yep, you guessed it - Wallpaper!

Not that I'm against wallpaper or anything, but the WHOLE house. I'm sure if the woman had thought about it, there would have been wallpaper on the floor. Every house we have moved in to has had either wallpaper or paneling in it (well except for the apartments). Now, we did wallpaper over the paneling in our old house (like I said, I'm not against it - to a certain extent). We even had one house where the former owners used contact paper on the outside of the kitchen cabinets.

I'm in the process of switching rooms around and re-doing things and so I've decided to paint the new rooms for the kids, because I don't think the little boys are going to want to be in a room with little purple flowers on the wall (again wallpapered by old lady/former owner). And most of this wallpaper looks old and out of date. The wallpaper in our (Me and Rich) old room really looked old, it was yellow in color, but it was supposed to be blue flowers on white paper.

So, as I'm stripping this old smelly wallpaper (and giving myself asthma attack after attack), I'm finding really odd, stupid things. Like, in the corners of the big boys room the border was nailed to the wall. Nailed in place, I guess the glue wasn't sticking there, so they decided what the hell let's nail it there (?!?!) And what's worse as I'm scrubbing/stripping another corner, I'm seeing nail heads popping out of the dry wall. And instead of fixing the holes, they put white tape over the hole and then painted the tape (?!?!) Who does that crap???


Getting it off slowly....


A pain in the butt to do, but it'll be worth it.

My Most Dreaded Chore (from a big family perspective)

Having a big family is a lot of fun. There is always something happening. There is always someone to play with. There is tons of love. There is very seldom time for boredom. There is help when it comes to cleaning. Holidays are wonderful.

It's also hard at times. Grocery shopping always requires more than one shopping cart. There is lots of screaming. There aren't very many quiet moments. There is tons of fighting. There are loads of laundry. Money is tight at times. Despite having more than one bathroom, there is always a line for it.

But in my meager opinion having such a big family is probably the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me. Well, that and meeting the man that has made having said family possible ;)

Which leads me to the one thing that tops my list of dreaded chores when it comes to having a big family - going through the clothes. We don't have enough dressers (space wise) or closets for everyone's clothes and that means going through and packing up clothes for the different seasons. I also have to go through and see what fits whom and who needs what new clothes. What can be tossed out, given away, or saved for the next kid. I think this is the most horrid job that exists, but it needs to be done...and twice a year at that (maybe if it was just once it wouldn't be quite so bad, eh? - nah, I think I would still hate it lol).

Through the years, I had a little storage shed out back that was filled through the brim with Rubbermaid totes of clothes. We're talking over 40 boxes at one point (yep, I counted). Now that the kids are getting bigger and I am no longer saving clothes that are smaller than the youngest girl and boy (no more babies/kids for me to save them for) the number of boxes have been dwindling down. Although I still have quite a few to go through. And let's add to the fact that the kids hate going through the boxes as well...they hate that I make them try on everything to see what fits and what I can try and save for the next season. I can't say that I blame them, because it is a pain in the butt. And quite frankly it can get chaotic despite trying several ways of organizing these things. But what's a girl to do, but just deal with it...ya know?!

More Nathanisms

"Mommy, I'm awake cause my eyes won't let me sleep anymore!"

"Don't hug me too hard, cause I have to go poop!"

"You have to sing me songs or I can't sleep til you do."

"Mommy how come you can make your hair look like mine, but you can't make your eyes like mine?" (he has blonde hair, brown eyes; I have blonde hair, blue/green eyes).

"Mommy my bear's bad, he peed on the floor, not me!"

Mommmm, I can't find my jacket!!!

Gee, I wonder why!!