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!