Kids & Horses

Some pictures of the kids with Lew's horses. Lew is a dear old friend of ours.

Seeing Stars.....

I don't know how big of a trend this has become, but around here, there seems to be an epidemic of stars exploding onto houses. Not real explosions of stars....but more like everyone has one hanging on the outside of their house, usually big red ones. I don't really understand what the big deal is, or why everyone is doing it, but I can tell you what it makes me think (in my ever increasing quirkiness).

Most people know the story in the Bible about the plagues and commandments, I think? As a punishment, because Pharaoh wouldn't let God's people go...God said he would take/kill the first born son of the Pharaoh and anyone else that doesn't have lamb's blood smeared on their door frames. Well, everytime I drive past houses that have these big red stars on them, I think of that story. Like, do these people know something that I don't know?

I know it's just some silly fad that people started as a decoration for their house. And everyone liked it, so they all copied it (and one day my house will be the neat individual one, because I didn't follow the trend)....but, sometimes I can't help thinking it to myself....

I know, I'm weird.....no reason to tell me so!

Lots of Surprises

• Last night while I was at work, Anthony and Zachary decided to play war with each other. Long story short, they were using Rubbermaid box lids as shields and throwing old broom handles at each other. Zachary got hit in the head with one of the sticks and ended up bleeding all over the place (they were outside when they did this). I got called at work and we all went to the emergency room. Zachary now has a nice goose egg on his head and four stitches. -- Boys will be boys, as they say.


• This afternoon, the kids had a half day of school. While I was in the bathroom apparently one of the neighbor boys and a friend to Amanda and Anthony decided he would wait here to pick up his little brother. I didn't know this was the case, until I came out of the bathroom and the boy was sitting in the kitchen. Amanda let him in. I was really surprised to see him sitting at the desk on the computer. I'm really glad I didn't have anything personal on there at the time. The worse part was that I was still wearing my pajamas.


• After the kids got home from school, I noticed that Nicholas was wearing different shoes. He wore boots to school. He's been wearing them for months, because he is too lazy to put on his sneakers. When I asked him where he got them from, he told me that his gym teacher gave them to him to wear (I'm assuming for gym class). I only hope that she didn't think he was wearing those boots because he has nothing else to wear. God, I only hope. The boy does have several pairs of shoes, but like I said he just doesn't want to look for them in the morning and tie the laces. The biggest surprise came when he took off the "new" shoes and he wasn't wearing any socks!! Not only is he too lazy to put his sneakers on, he was too lazy to put on his socks -I really hope he doesn't come home from school on Monday with a bag of new socks, Ahhh.

Why do kids continue to do things that are stupid and embarrasing to their parents?!

Adventures at the Playground

I decided that since it was a rather nice day that I would take a walk. Taking a walk around here usually involves taking somebody with me, because in a house with six kids there is always somebody that wants to come too. Amanda, Sarah, Zachary, Nicholas and Nathan all went with me. We decided we would go to the playground and the Dairy Queen. Daddy gave each of the kids a dollar to spend. Everyone got a "baby" cone of ice cream (a really small serving of ice cream in a cone) and most of them got sprinkles on top. I got myself a small sundae. I couldn't finish eating it because it was too much ice cream for me so, I gave it to Nathan. I also took the ice cream out of his cone that was melting everywhere and put it in the cup with what was left of my ice cream.

And then.....

Some kid at the playground thought it would be fun to throw mulch at Nathan. The first time the kid did it, it didn't get very far. I told the boy that it wasn't very nice (let's face it, I probably would yell at my kids or smack their bottoms if they threw mulch at another kid). Then he picked up two more handfuls and threw it again. This time, it landed right in Nathan's ice cream cup. I was so mad. Nathan's ice cream was ruined and I had to throw it away. Nathan was so upset that his ice cream went into the garbage, I didn't think I would ever be able to calm him down long enough to play before it dark.

He forgot about it for a while, every once in a while he would remember and start crying again. Later when we got home, he really got upset over that darn ice cream. He screamed and cried over his ruined ice cream, I felt terrible about it. I'm so mad that the other kid did that to him. And what was worse was there wasn't a parent around when it happened. The boy was being watched by his older brother.

posted some new pics

I posted some new pictures on my photography blog, if anyone is interested, the link is on the sidebar.

Speaking of Dryers....

For those that don't know, I have two sets of washers and dryers. One set came with our house when we bought it and the other set came with us from our old house. With a family of eight, it is wonderful having two sets. The one dryer that came with this house was old and finally died about a year ago. We bought a new one and Rich paid for a five year warranty on the dryer. Last week, as I was washing clothes, I noticed that the "newer" dryer was making a squeaking sound and the clothes weren't getting dried after an hour plus time elapsed. The other dryer made the same sound before so it was disconnected. Then, one washer was spinning and made this burnt rubber smell and the other one I unplugged before because the hose was leaking. When I turned it on (the hose was still leaking), it wouldn't agitate or spin the clothes.

Now, I didn't have any washers or dryers that worked properly. The clothes were so backed up that Rich and I both made separate trips to the laundromat. Rich went to Lowes and bought a new washing machine and paid to have it delivered the next day....when the guys came to set it up, they couldn't get the leaky hose off, so they lied and told me it wasn't the hose - it was the pipe. Without thinking, I just let them leave and I told Rich about it later and asked if I should call the plumber to fix it. Rich got mad and said the guys lied to me and treated me like a dumb woman...which pretty much was the case.

He went to Lowes and complained to the manager about what the guys did. Rich told him it wasn't so much that they lied about it at all, it was the fact that they treated me (his wife) like I was stupid. He complained so much that the manager gave him 25 dollars in cash to make up for the cost of having to run to the laundromat (which doesn't even begin to cover the money we spent there). The other washing machine Rich is going to see if he can fix for me.

So then, he calls about the warranty on the dryer. The warranty clearly states that ALL parts and ALL labor is FREE. The company comes out to look at it and the man tells me that I need to pay him $28 for the parts to fix it. I didn't see the warranty paper that said everything was free, so I wrote the guy a check. He then tells me that the parts will be delivered to me and when I receive them, he will come back and fix it.

In the meantime, Rich gets so mad that he is paying for parts that he didn't have to pay for that he goes back to Lowes and tells the manager that he wants a new dryer for free and he doesn't want the same piece of crap dryer that broke, he wants the one that matches the new Maytag washer he bought me. The manager makes the deal that Rich can have the dryer and pay the difference of cost. He also transferred the five year warranty to the new dryer.

So, for Valentine's Day Rich's gift to me was a brand new washer and dryer set. But the story doesn't end here......

Yesterday, I get a call from the company about fixing my dryer (that I no longer have, because I have a new one now). I tell them that I don't need them to fix it anymore because I got a new one. The woman tells me that they want the parts back - the parts that I had to pay for, that I shouldn't have had to pay for. I told the woman that they're my parts now, because in the first place my warranty said ALL parts were FREE and I got gyped into paying for them. I'm not sending them back (because in truth, those parts are what we need to fix the other broken dryer and Hell, I paid for them right, they're mine now). The woman tells me that they are not mine (how she figures this, I will never know) and when the man comes to "fix" the dryer I will have to hand over the parts and he will give me an invoice, AN INVOICE, not the cash that I gave him, but an invoice to refund my money - which would take 10-15 days for me to get. How screwed up is that?!? What a freakin rip off!!

See Ya Later Alligator!

The other day, Nathan was helping me do the laundry. I had washed his teddy bear that he calls "Beary". As I was handing him clothes to put in the dryer, he saw Beary. He told me that he thought Beary was dry and I told him that his beloved toy wasn't dry. Nathan holds Beary up and says "See ya later Beary" as he put him in the dryer. It was the cutest thing I think I ever heard.

A Couple of Favorite Songs

I love Bon Jovi, I never get tired of hearing their songs. And no matter how old they get, they just get keep getting better looking (in my opinion). So here's a few of my more recent faves......






Had to add this one, because Jon looks HOT!!!! And Amanda likes this song - she really has no idea how great and awesome this song is, does she? She had to be there, to sit in front of the tv and wait for it to come on MTV and then when it finally came on all you could do was sit there watching it drooling because the guys were so hot. Yeah, she really has no idea, huh?

My Health

Just wanted to put this all out there for those that have asked me about it. I have HYPERthyroidism. I've had it for years. I was taking pills for it (3 pills, 3x day), but I hated taking them so I stopped. So in effect, I caused this to get as bad as it has. I was chalking my symptons up to other causes:

My eyes bug me all the time, I have blurry, double vision - I thought it was because I'm allergic to our cat - but it is my thyroid

Anxiety, irritabilty (me being a crab), I thought it was anxiety from being depressed - nope it's my thyroid

Non existant menstrual cycles, I thought it was because I had a tubal, but it was my thyroid.

Muscle weakness in my arms and legs (causing me to fall down stairs or having my legs give out from under me), I thought I was clumsy, but my muscles are weak and tired from my thyroid.

My hair falling out in clumps, my nervousness, and hand tremors, my heart palpitations, can't stand being too hot, me craving calcium rich foods (cheese, millk etc) the way my eyes always hurt, and feel irritated, my itchy skin (rash on my arms and legs) and unexplained bruises---- it's all from my thyroid. Who would have thought that something so small could control and screw up so many things.

If you are close enough to me, you can see how my neck looks swollen, it's actually my thyroid that's enlarged (a goiter). And sometimes my eyes will look weird too

Since seeing the endocrinologist, I will to have to schedule some new blood work and scans, since my other tests were old and then he will make a decision about what treatment to go with. So far, he thinks radioiodine therapy will work the best. Basically, instead of having my thyroid surgically removed or take another type of pill, they will do the therapy to "shrink" my thyroid. I have never done this before. The doctor said everything is done by outpatient (which works out great with the kids). He did say I won't be able to hold the kids or kiss them or work and have anyone too close to my neck a few days afterwards. There is also the risk of me becoming hypo (thyroid). So, say a prayer and think good thoughts that everything will all turn out okay........

Brothers

I posted some snow pictures on my photography blog, but I wanted to post a few here as well. I thought it was really cool to see the boys working together for a common cause. If you don't have any sons, then you might not understand the dynamic of how brothers work.



Anthony being the oldest is idolized. All the younger boys follow him around everywhere he goes. Anthony usually lets his younger brothers pester him until he can't stand it anymore and needs some time to himself, usually when he's doing his homework. Anthony lets the younger boys wrestle and play with him. In this sense he has sort of taken over his dad's rough housing, since Rich can't do it anymore. Anthony is a wonderful big brother and an awesome son.




Zachary is sensitive and usually the most quiet out of the bunch. He is a great helper and he is often doing every one's chores as well as his own. He is the clown, constantly cracking silly jokes and his laugh is so infectious. If you heard him laughing, you couldn't help but laugh right along. He is also the task master, he will make sure everyone gets up and out the door for school every morning. He makes every one's lunch as well. He is a wonderful boy filled with much joy.



Nicholas is the typical boy who was used to the spotlight when another little boy came along. It is very hard for him, even still, to see his little brother getting more attention than him. He is the most bull headed person. No child of mine has ever been as stubborn as him. It takes forever to get him up in the morning and ready for school. We give him alot of slack though, because he was our sick baby. We love our little man with all our hearts, he has endured more than any child should.



Nathan is the most adored child in our house. Everyone loves him, everyone plays with him, everyone dotes him with affection. He is adorable. The most beautiful little spirit resides in him. He is very curious about the world around him, wanting to explore everything. He is also the clingiest little one I've ever had (even compared to Sarah). He cries everytime I leave for work and breaks my heart with his tears and sad goodbyes. He is the miracle our family needed to be complete.





There are lots of fights and wrestling and sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference between the two. There is also alot of love and the knowledge that if you really need your brother, you can bet your life on the fact that he will be there with you. That's the kind of love that makes my heart happy to be the mother of four brothers.