School subjects

For Christmas, my mother gave me and Hubby a fun board game, "Are you Smarter than a 5th Grader?" Not having had TV for more than 4 years, I hadn't heard of the game show before this.

It says it is for ages eight and older so we invite the older boys to join us. Since we have a current 5th grader, we let him start the game. He did the 5th grade questions first and got them correct. Then, there was a 3rd grade science question: "How fast does light travel in one second?" We all looked at each other, chucked, and wrote down our answers. Oldest son got it wrong. We checked the answer, we all got it wrong. Oldest son got very mad and quit the game. Now, when we talk about the game, he just comments that he isn't smarter than a 3rd grader and can't play the game. I keep pointing out that we all missed that question, even Dad, who is a science fan.

Having played the game several times now, we discovered a few things. For Hubby and myself, science is our forte. Social studies is our bane. While Hubby sticks to geography, science and math, I venture out into art, music and literature as well as science. I'm terrible at grammar. I'm hoping one day to get Oldest Son back into the game with us, but he is such a sore looser, I'm not sure I want to go there again or not.

I've been thinking about Homeschooling again. Our school district isn't the greatest and I'm concerned about the things they aren't learning at school. So, last night we talk to the kids. They all said no, even our 5 year old who hasn't started school yet. Shoot me down. Well, millions of kids go through public school and do just fine. I guess mine will too. I'm still concerned though....

Nothing to say

We had such a fun Christmas. I'm always so sad when Christmas is over. I love the holiday time. I love the music, the decorations, the lights, the feeling, the excitement, the food!

Since Christmas, we have hung out around the house, playing and enjoying the days off. It is hard for me to believe the cold, winter weather that the rest of the US seems to be in, because it is sunny here. The days leading up to Christmas, Christmas Day and a few days following have had wonderful weather, in the 50's and 60's. Today is colder, the 30's, but it doesn't feel quite so cold. We went out and just wore jackets.

I've been trying to write in my journal about the holidays. This, being Peanut's 1st Christmas, was especially important to write it down. She got her 8th tooth in and is starting to stand on her own. She is getting better and she sees it more as a game than anything else. She put on a show for her Grandparents on Christmas. It was pretty funny. She would crawl around, squealing and then she would pose with one leg in the air. What a show-off.

Well, not much else going on. I hope your days are as nice as mine.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas day and a nice relaxing weekend.

Lost in the kitchen

Moving is tough. Moving into a new kitchen is really tough. You have to arrange everything in a new way because the kitchen you move into is never the same as the kitchen you left. I am in the holiday mood and have been baking a lot. It is forcing me to learn my kitchen, but you should have seen me yesterday. Where did I put the bread pans? I couldn't remember. This kitchen is bigger than my last one and I had to search through several cupboards before I found them. Then I needed my big mixing bowl. I couldn't find it. I looked through all of the cupboards. What had I done with it? Then I looked up. It was sitting on top of the cupboards. I didn't put it there, Hubby did. He's 6' 1", he is tall and can reach the top. I can't. I had to get a chair. I told him not to do that with the stuff I use a lot. This is a big kitchen with lots of cupboard space. We don't need to store stuff on top anymore, like we did with the last kitchen. Still, he puts things up there. He told me that if I need something down, all I have to do is ask. Well, that's great except for when he is at work!

So, I'm learning my way around the kitchen. I don't know if I've got things arrange in the best way, but for now it's working and with it, I'm producing some super tasty things.

Christmas is how soon??

So I was reading another friend's blog and her blog had a ticker for days until Christmas. It said there is 10 days left! What? It can't be true?

Where has all the time gone?

Well, 10 days is 10 days and I can do a lot in 10 days, if my baby lets me. Unfortunately, every time I move or even look like I'm going to move from one spot to another, she starts to scream at me. It makes it hard for me to get much of anything done. Still, 10 days.

Unfortunately, with 10 days to go and a phobia of going to the post office during the Christmas season, presents to family and friends will most likely be late. Sorry.

I have accomplished a few things, I made 2 batches of gingersnap cookies and some fudge. I made up plates of goodies and we went caroling to a few new friends here. It was fun and I got to meet and know some really nice people.

My ego was a little shot going to these homes of these nice people. Several of them had huge 10-12 foot trees, glowing with lights and ornaments that matched. One lady had an enormous wreath hanging over her fireplace that matched her tree. I look at my little scrawny 6 foot artificial tree. It only has three strands of lights and one two of those strands, only half of the lights are working. It is all the lights we had that matched. Our ornaments are mostly handmade, none of them match, and about half of them are made out of paper. The star on our tree is a gift wrap bow.

Well, our tree has personality and I can tell you a story about just about every single ornament hanging off of it. I wish it had some more lights, but yep, I like our tree. Maybe someday I'll have that fancy tree where the ornaments match, but for now, my kids are proud of the tree they decorated with the ornaments they made.

One ornament is a reindeer made from a large Christmas light bulb, googly eyes, a puff nose, and pipe cleaner horns. We've named him Seymour. Seymour has a brother, who looks a lot like him, but has one googly eye. We named him Bob. Yes, we are full of personality!

Trimming the Tree

Last night we decorated our Christmas tree. That is always a fun time. Our tree is little artificial tree we bought around 7 years ago. My husband had always disliked artificial trees, but seven years ago we were living in Hawaii and the real trees you bought from the tree lots were quite old by the time they made it to Hawaii. It was a bit of a fire hazard. I also didn't like cleaning those needles constantly.
So, we have our 6 foot artificial tree and it has served us well.

I always do the lights first. The past few years we've had multicolored lights on the tree, but this year, it's blue. After I finished the lights, I pulled out the decorations and let the kids go at it.

We have 6 small nutcracker ornaments. For some reason, my kids love those. So, last night when they put the nutcrackers on the tree, they grouped them all together on one branch. That way the nutcrackers can chat with each other. It's funny to see all those ornaments clumped together like that in the middle of the tree. Eventually, I'll find a few dinosaurs surrounding the nutcrackers in the tree, thanks to my oldest son. He likes to pretend that the dinosaurs attack the nutcrackers. Apparently the nutcrackers have had one dino-encounter casualty, one of them is missing his legs.

We have a Miss Piggy ornament and a Kermit the Frog ornament. To Piggy's delight and Kermit's dismay, they are always placed near each other on the tree.

There are many wooden ornaments on the tree that I painted myself my first Christmas after getting married. Those get hung up. I have no artistic talent, even when I'm painting in the lines.

There are a few ornaments from my childhood. I like seeing them. One is a cross stitch I did when I was seven. It is my favorite. I remember making that ornament. It was my first cross stitch project and it turned me onto a life long love of cross stitching.

The disco balls. Early in our marriage, Hubby and I discovered we loved to dance to disco music! Several years ago we found disco ball ornaments. We bought a bunch and I love seeing those on the tree. Some day I want to do a tree with nothing but blue lights and disco balls. That would be awesome.

So, now, our tree is up. This morning, Peanut went to explore the tree. We made sure to place a few soft and non-breakable ornaments down low that she could play with them. Instead, she tried to pull herself up and she ended up pulling the entire tree down on top of herself. I laughed, but she was pretty upset. Ornaments were strewn all over the floor. Thank goodness nothing is breakable on our tree. She hasn't gone near it since. I hope she has learned her lesson.

mountains

The mountains where we are are really stunning in their own desert way. From my kitchen window I have a very nice view of one of the mountains. I love it. This particular mountain is in the middle of the range I'm going to attempt to describe.

This middle mountain, and I don't know if it has a name, is what I would describe as a typical mountain. It is tall and long. It is very majestic looking. The mountain immediately to it's south has a whole other look. It looks like organ pipes are rising out of the mountain. A very different type of erosion happened there. To the north of the middle mountain is a set of mountains that look like huge sand dunes, like the wind pushed the rocks up the mountains. It is very much like a sand dune, but it is the size of a mountain and made of rock, not sand.

Such three very different geological rock formations right next to each other. It is incredible to look at. I absolutely love it. Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to live where mountains were. Of course, I wanted to go to Colorado and live among the amazing Rocky Mountains there, but where I am is just a more southern version of that great chain of mountains. I'm so happy to see them out my windows.

Back

Well, we made it to our new home in New Mexico. We got here Saturday night, and got the Internet running yesterday. Our household good arrives on Friday, but it won't be unloaded until Saturday.

We are sleeping on air mattresses, eating at a folding table a friend in a near by city let us borrow and listening to our voices echo in the empty house.

The trip was good and we enjoyed seeing my sister and her family and my parents along the way. I'm glad the trip went as well as it did because things have really not been good since getting here. Peanut, who is 8 months old today, got very sick on Saturday night. A stomach bug of some sort with lots of throwing up. By Sunday night she had passed her bug onto my oldest and youngest sons. By Monday, Princess and son #2 had it as well. Monday night, Hubby got it. I was the very lucky one. I felt pretty queasy on Monday, but I figured it was from seeing, smelling and cleaning up many throw up disasters during the day. I made two trips the the laundry mat that day. I need to do another, desperately. I'll be so glad when Saturday comes and we have our washer and dryer hooked up. The laundry mat gets expensive when you are running loads for this many people as well as all the sleeping bags that have been puked on.

Today is Wednesday. I took the boys to their new schools. My oldest goes to one elementary that serve grades 3-5 and then my second son goes to a different school (right next door) that serves grades K-2. I think my oldest son is the only white kid in his class. He is certainly the only blond! My other son has one other white kid in his class. We are defiantly the minority. It's pretty funny. It makes it easy for me to pick out my kids among their classmates.

So, we are going to relax a bit this morning now that the boys are in school. Poor Peanut is still quite sick and having a hard time keeping anything down. She is doing better today and I hope she is on the upswing. She has lost weight, I can feel it when I pick her up. Poor baby. I feel so bad for her. When she wakes up, we will be making another trip to the laundry mat. We are out of towels and three of our sleeping bags need to be cleaned as well.

I am hoping that next week will be better. Our stuff will be here and we can try and make this house our home. We will be able to decorate for Christmas and that will be fun. I'll have my washing machine and that will be good. And I hope Peanut will be well again. Our house has no carpet, only hard tiled floors. It makes it hard for her to crawl around and play.

Enough of the bad, things can only get better and they will!

Going offline

Today is my last day with the computer up and running. The movers packed most everything yesterday and loaded half of the stuff and house into the first container. They will return tomorrow for the other half. That means tonight I take the computer apart. Oh the joys.

Several things got packed that I didn't mean to. Oh well. It is hard to think about everything you need when the small kids underfoot keep distracting you. Thankfully, the movers left the TV and VCR alone. Kids can watch movies while I work on cleaning and organizing the stuff today.

Peanut loves the stairs and she can climb them like a pro. The problem is, I don't want her to climb them. Should she fall, it's a long way down to a concrete floor at the bottom. I spend a lot of time keeping an eye on her. Last night, she got hold of my cell phone, put it up to the side of her face and started "talking". Her favorite sounds right now is the hard "g" sound, so we hear ga, goo, and aga a lot. She is too funny with the phone. She got a hold of the phone again later and just tried to eat it, like normal.

Well, I've got too much to do to hang out any longer. I don't want to do anything, but we leave tomorrow and the old To Do list is long.

Later all, when I get back on, I'll be in New Mexico! Happy Thanksgiving!

Panic

Well, I'm in something of a panic. The movers come tomorrow. Am I ready? NO
Suitcases need to be packed, pillows need to be collected, extra formula needs to be stashed, I need to calm down. I'm not sure what entirely I'm panicking over. We will all be in our new home in New Mexico by December 1. Our stuff arrives on the 5th. So, us and everything will all be together again in a few weeks and really, anything I forget to pack can be bought along the way if it is truly essential. No worries, right?

So, today I've been packing and working on projects. At one I get a call asking if someone can come over between two and three to see the house (it's up for sale again). I said yes and started cleaning my laundry, toys, and beds. The 3 year old had some chips today and dumped a good deal of them into the living room floor. The baby was asleep. I waited as long as I could. By 1:45 I vacuumed and didn't care if it woke up the baby or not. I didn't pay attention to the time after that and just as I was ready to take the vacuum up the stairs, a knock came at the door, it was the people there to see the house. I ushered the kids out and just as I was ready to get myself into the car, the realtor and her person left. A very short tour. I hope that's not bad, but I'm guessing if you only spend two minutes in the house, you probably weren't impressed. I don't know. I took the time to run errands.

Tomorrow will be crazy. I'll be glad when this week is over - very glad.

Funny kids

Today is my Princess's 5th birthday and let me tell you, it has been quite the day!

She has been talking about her birthday constantly for a week. When she woke up, she got to open 2 presents. One of them was a Gabriella dress (from HSM) that I got on Halloween clearance. She loved it. Of course, she wore it for the party. Well, part of the party. During the party, she went up to her room and changed into another dress. Later she opened presents and received a Hannah Montana dress (another Halloween clearance item). She ran up and changed. Later, they decided to go outside to jump on the trampoline. It has been raining for 3 days plus all morning. It was wet. She didn't want her new dress wet, so she changed again into some sweat pants and a t-shirt. Before the party was over, she changed back again into the Hannah Montana outfit. I haven't been up to her room yet, but I'm guessing it is a big clothes mess. The really funny thing is she doesn't know who Hannah Montana is. We don't have TV, so she has never seen the show, but have you ever walked through Wal-Mart with a 4 year old who points out Hannah M every time she sees it? You will find, Hannah M is on EVERY single aisle! I'm serious. All my daughter knows is Hannah is everywhere, she is blond (like my daughter) wears a lot of pink or is on a lot of pink items, and she usually is holding a microphone. My daughter is smart enough to know that means she is a singer. That's all it takes, blond, pink, microphone - daughter loves her!

So, this evening at dinner, the newly 5 year old girl announces to me, "I know what malady means." Really? "It means they belong together." OK. Confused? So am I.

She also got a Barbie today that didn't have a name or anything. My daughter decided to name her Jackal. Can we call her Jackie for short? She decided later she would re-name her and she is now Jeannie. Much better.

Did I mention the Hannah Montana pinata we did today? After we got it opened and the little kids collected their candy, my 10 year old went to town with the bat and the Hannah M pinata. You can be sure, there wasn't much left after he was done. Let me say, Happy Birthday to you, my daughter, but I'm glad it is over!

continuing to stay busy

My days are slipping past me fast. I don't know where the time is going. My to do list is a mile long and each day I think of more things that need to be done before I leave. The movers arrive on Tuesday. They will work Tuesday and Thursday. This week has also had a lot of social activities that I've had to attend, which takes away from my work time, but it has been nice to spend time with people I love before leaving.

Saturday is my daughter's birthday. She will be five. She is so interesting to look at. I look at her and realize she is tall, and has the face of a child, not the face of a toddler. She loves to talk! She loves to sing and perform, and while she loves to be the center of attention, she doesn't demand it. She loves High School Musical, princesses, writing letters, keeping Peanut entertained, and talking. She can be bossy, sassy, and unhelpful. She has the potential to do anything she wants in life. I worry constantly about her and at the same time, I have no worries about her, if that makes any sense.

Well, the to do list is long and it's not about to get any shorter with me sitting here. Yesterday I painted the hallway. It had a horrid, faded wallpaper. I hate wallpaper! This house was covered in it, and it has all be the original wallpaper to this house, 30 years old! I hope Peanut cooperates today.

Birthday time!

Today is my youngest son's birthday. He is three. It's been a tough three years with him. He hasn't been happy to be a part of this world. Still, he has some wonderful qualities. He has the sweetest laugh and it is still so genuine. He only laughs when something is really funny. He loves to work in his "workbook". Years ago, when my oldest was three, I got a Kindergarten homeschool workbook. Each kid has colored in it over the years. Now my youngest son has it and it is HIS. Don't mess with it. He loves to work in it and he is working very hard at his coloring.

He told me yesterday he was 14. Fourteen is his new favorite number. If you ask him how many toys he is holding or how many chicken nuggets is on his plate, he will tell you fourteen.

I've been calling this boy Toddler in blog land, but he needs a new name. He isn't a toddler any more. Still, I'm having a hard time coming up with a good name for him. I'll keep working on that.

So, today, he opened a few presents in the morning and the rest this afternoon after his brothers got home from school. Some friends came over and we had cake and ice cream. Our friends gave him a bag of chips. He loves chips. It was a perfect present for him. They also gave him a transformer car and with no planning, I got him two more of the same kind of car. Amazingly, we got all different ones and now he is having a great time crashing his transformers. That's what you're suppose to do with them. Who ever created those knew what 3 year olds loved. It is perfect.

Well, tonight for dinner is chicken nuggets, currently his favorite food. They smell like they are done and I had better get those out of the oven.

productive chaos

As we prepare to move two weeks from yesterday, I have been keeping quite busy.

First, I must say congratulations to my sister, who had her third baby on October 29. It is a beautiful little girl, from the pictures I've seen and I can't wait to meet her.

My Mom, an amazing woman, came to visit this last week. We had an extremely busy week and quite a few laughs too. We were going to do a lot of yard work, but the weather didn't permit that, so we stayed indoors. We did some major projects like, painting the computer room, spray painting all the ceilings downstairs, and tiling the kitchen and dining room floor. We did countless of smaller projects like repairing toilet paper rolls that had broken, replacing toilet seats, putting up new shower curtains, and lots of deep cleaning that needed done. A million loads of laundry were done, at least 10 trips to Lowes were made, several Wal-Mart trips and a visit to my son's school where he received student of the month. We stayed up until 10:30 most nights working on stuff for a few hours after the kids went to bed. It was lots of fun and lots of work. I learned how to do a few things and I learned how NOT to do many more things. The step ladder became my best friend and I carried it all over the house, all of the time. We used at least 5 cans of white paint, 3 paint rollers, 20 plastic sheets to cover things while we painted, and we each wore out a very tacky work outfit. Mom got a pair of pink nurses pants and a purple t-shirt. I wore my pink Winnie The Pooh PJ top and blue pants. More people saw me in my PJ's this week than I care to admit to.

We learned that two sleep deprived women high on the fumes from Goo Gone are clever enough and capable enough for anything. We had some very creative moments. Overall, the week was extremely productive. Unfortunately, I still have a great deal to do. The kitchen floor tile isn't quite done, but it will be by the end of today. The outside still needs a good deal of work, but we are waiting for better weather next week. The inside of the house is pretty messy with all the stuff from our projects and all the things that are out of place while we've worked. I need to get over to the storage room, empty it and bring everything back to the house.

I still don't know what to do about selling or renting the house, but time is short. I leave my home two weeks from yesterday. Whatever happens will happen. As my favorite actress, Doris Day, would sing: "Que sera, sera. What will be, will be."

Please Election Day, come soon

I'm so, so, so, so tired of all the election stuff. I was tired of it a year ago. Now, as we are down the those last few days, I am (as I'm sure many are) getting bombarded by ads, phone calls, people knocking on the door telling me what bad things the other guy is doing and how I should support them.

Yesterday I got five glossy political ads in the mail. Today I got five more.

Well, if these guys didn't send out all these dumb ads, they would save a few trees and be more "green" as it is popular among politicians to be and the money they would save on paper, printing and postage could be put towards this struggling economy they say they care about and really boost it.

I'll just be so glad when it is all over next Wednesday. I have my pick, but really, I just want to see it end. I want to see them quit talking and start doing.

And please, stop sending me ads!

Getting ready for the upcoming craziness

Holiday season has begun. I just love fall. It is a holiday to me the first time you have pumpkin bread and hot chocolate for breakfast. I usually go pumpkin crazy in October, but this year, I'm trying to clean out the pantry and I only had one can of pumpkin. One can, so many baking possibilities. I made bread.

Our church had their Halloween carnival (trunk-or-treat) already. It was lots of fun, but a bit disorganized. The kids just loved running about in their costumes. There were 5 Indiana Joneses. I brought three of them - my two older boys and a friend. My youngest son refused to wear his costume, that I sewed for him! What gratitude, I must say. Well, that's a two year old.

Speaking of the two year old, who I have referred to as Toddler on this blog will be turning 3 in a few weeks. Toddler no longer fits him at all, I really need to think of a new blog name for him. Maybe I'll just call him Whiner since that is what he seems to do a lot of right now.

Something funny right now, my oldest son has a cough and Peanut thinks it is just hilarious. She is squealing with laughter every time he coughs. It's pretty funny.

Halloween is coming up, then a couple of birthdays, the Primary Program and finally, we'll move in the end of November! We don't have anywhere to go and this might be the dumbest thing in the world, but it seems no matter what I choose now, it doesn't seem right. So, we make a choice and go with it. It's crazy.

odd

So, several nights ago, Peanut woke up and started screaming from her crib. The room where my eight year old sleeps is right next to Peanuts. As I go to get Peanut from her crib, I see my eight year old laying on the floor in the doorway fast asleep. Odd.

The next morning I asked him why was he sleeping on the floor? Did he wet his bed? Did he have a bad dream? No, he laid across the threshold of the room to keep his sister from coming in. Hmm. I don't know when she was trying to get in and I'm not sure if he stayed that way all night long. Why do we even bother buying beds and keeping clean sheets on them if he is going to sleep on the floor.

Well, Princess got told the next day to please stay out of the boys room at night. I don't think there has been a problem since.

mind fog

Wow, I had something I was going to blog about, but then when I sit down to do it, my mind goes totally blank. Hmmm....

Hats

My two oldest boys have decided they want to be Indiana Jones for Halloween. Cool! The costume is harder to find than I would have imagined though. I'm not buying an Indiana Jones (IJ) costume from the store, but I'm searching thrift stores for possibilities. Well, I did come up with the hat,and that is the most important part of the costume. I found them at the dollar store on Friday. My boys have not taken off those hats since I got them. We went to a church activity on Saturday, they wore their hats, when they both came down the stairs this morning for breakfast, they were wearing their hats. My oldest son is 10. He is on the verge of leaving childhood. He wants to be treated older and I'm kind of sad to see him grow out of this stage of life. I'm excited for the young adult that he will become, but part of me just wants to keep my first born a kid forever. But this morning, when he came down in his IJ hat, my heart lept. Part of him is still a kid! Then again, part of me is still a kid, too.

kids

Kids are:
amusing
gross
funny
frustrating
messy
mess makers
helpful
not-so-helpful
stinky
sweet

They make me:
laugh
cry
shout
smile
giggle
tired
dance
worry
very happy

No Sleep

I'm so tired. Peanut isn't sleeping well, so neither am I. She wakes up countless times. I must see every hour of the night at least twice. I'm not getting any sleep, so I'm a witch during the day. Appropriate for the season, I guess, but it isn't helpful to our already stressful situation of preparing to move. The realtor is coming Friday to the house for me to sign the million forms needed to put the house up on the market. Hubby left yesterday for New Mexico. He stopped last night at my sister's house. She lives just outside of St. Louis. We won't see him again until we sell the house and move ourselves. So, no help at night is available anymore, and if Peanut keeps this up, I might be insane by the time we head west.

There is no where for her to sleep where she won't disturb everyone else. Everyone in this house shares a room, except for the oldest, but he is the lightest sleeper in the house. Peanut only has to cry a little and it wakes him. I take Peanut down stairs and she still disturbs him. Once downstairs, there is no room to put her in to let her cry or sleep alone. The entire downstairs is an open floor plan - no doors to shut (unless you include the garage). Maybe I should sleep in there.

I know that as babies start crawling and walking, they sleep less. Peanut is a first class crawler now and last night when she woke up screaming in her bed, I found she had crawled into the corner of her crib and her head was crammed into the corner. I don't know... I'm just hoping a miracle night will come eventually, and I'll get a few hours in a row of sleep.

I did discover last night (or about 3 hours ago) at about 4:15 that Facebook has some fun groups in it. If you have a favorite movie, actor, book, game, whatever, it has a group you can join. Not my favorite way to spend time at four in the morning, but hey....

I just need some sleep.

Bracelets

Bracelets are my new favorite accessory.
I got into beading a few months ago. I haven't done much and what I've done isn't very good, but I have fun. My bead collection is small and mostly made up of the tiny seed beads, but back in August, I had the idea I wanted something fun for Halloween.

I checked out the local craft stores and really couldn't find anything I liked. I couldn't even find orange beads. So, I get on ebay! Isn't that a fun place. I found the greatest skull beads and a collection of 100 orange and black glass beads of various sizes. I thought about those bead for months and decided I wanted to get them and make a really great Halloween bracelet for Princess and myself.

The beads came two weeks ago and I made some really cute bracelets. I love wearing them. What do you think of my nifty crafty work?

Don't you just love the skulls?

Peanut doesn't let me do much. It took me a while just to make these because of Peanut's constant need for attention. I'm thinking now to Christmas. I may have to get back on ebay and find a selection of red and green beads.

Things are crazy!

I love a quiet life. OK, as quiet as you can be with 5 children. I don't make phone calls unless I absolutely have to. I don't get many phone calls and I'm good with that. I don't like a whole lot of extra people in my home, unless they are friends who come to chat. I prefer quiet days in the solitude of my home. BUT, with this move, I'm getting countless phone calls a day. I'm setting up all sorts of appointments for people to come to my home and I'm not liking it much.

Today, we had a handyman guy come to evaluate a few repair jobs that we would like to have done, the movers came to evaluate our household goods, and several phone calls about and to Realtors. Tomorrow the bug guy comes and two Realtors in the afternoon. My house is a mess and I have all these people over to see my house! I'll be glad when this is all over and we are settled in a new home. Then, I can get back to my quiet, kid-filled life.

My niece has just joined a Daisy Scout Troop. I'm happy for her, I love the Girl Scouts. She called me today to sell me cookies. Can I just tell you how happy I am to support my niece in Scouting? Yes, I'll buy some cookies to support her. I guess I can sacrifice for her. Yeah! It's Girl Scout Cookie Time!!!!

Back to the bunk bed, after we rescued the one son from underneath it, hubby put his shoes on and at 9:30 at night, he was hauling pieces out onto the street. Thank goodness today was trash pick up day. It worked out nicely in the end.

Peanut is crawling now. She is quite slow, but very mobile. She has gotten under foot more than once. Our computer room is about 3 inches lower than the rest of the house, so there is a funny little step to the computer room. Peanut is learning to get up and down that step. She was so pleased with herself today when she finally made it up the step. I'm amazed at her determination to move.

Well, I guess that's all for now. It is late, Peanut is sleeping in my arms and I'm going to head to bed.

To be continued

Thoughts a million have been floating through my head lately. Some of them good, some not so positive. Hubby leaves in less than one week to go to our new town. He will leave and the kids and I won't see him again until we sell the house and make our trip west. I'm feeling overwhelmed at the idea of all that is going to have to happen and we want it all to happen within a very short amount of time. The quicker we can sell the house, the less money we pay on mortgage. We can't figure out how to pay for the house here and get a place for Hubby to live in NM. The movers came today to evaluate our household goods. We'll know more about that in a day or so. We still haven't heard from the Realtor and we are getting quite stressed about that. We had a handyman come to the house today to look at a few repairs that we feel are out of our skill range. There is only three things, but it would cost us over $600. Way more than we have at anytime to do anything. Ahh! Less money + moving = STRESS.

One of the pieces of furniture we decided not to take was the bunk bed the boys are on. It is really squeaky, big and we just did not want to deal with it. We would get rid of it before the move. Well, last night the boys in the bunk bed were arguing. Hubby went in there to tell them to be quiet and just as he was walking out, the bed tipped to the left and collapsed. Hubby grabbed the top piece and I ran in to help and we were able to lift it just high enough for our younger son to get out from under it. Luckily he suffered no injuries other than a bumped wrist.

Be back later.....

Talent Show

Tonight for Family Home Evening we did a family talent show. It was so funny. First up was Toddler (2 1/2 years old), he very quietly sang the ABC's, but he got distracted about half way through and started looking at the Halloween box in the living room. Next up was 8 year old son. He did some flips on the trampoline. Then was Princess (4 1/2 years old). She sang "Bop to the Top" from High School Musical and she danced. Her dancing is mostly spinning around. Then it was Hubby's turn. He typed. His typing speed is 86 wpm. He is very fast and pretty good since he hasn't practiced that much in a while. Next was the 10 year old son. His talent was to eat an entire pizza (a small one) as fast as he could. He did it in 3 minutes. It was kind of gross. He had never done that before, but he was confident in his ability to eat one quickly. He found out that eating as fast a you can is trickier than it seems. We decided one day, we'll have a family pizza eating competition to see who can eat their pizza the fastest. Last was me. I had to prepare mine in advance because my talent is making tasty treats and I made some super yummy Oreo bonbons. Mmmmm.

We talked about how our different talents can help us in life and how God blessed each of us with talents. We aren't sure how eating a pizza in less than three minutes helps us in life, but hey, it's fun to try!

Friendship Bread is taking over my hosue!

Have you ever had Amish Friendship Bread? It is very tasty. We really like it in this household.

I don't know how friendship bread begins. Most people don't. All I know is that a "friend" gave me a loaf of sweet bread and a gallon size bag filled halfway with a cream colored goo. I was given the instructions that I was to mush the bag everyday for 10 days. On the 5th day I'm to add some stuff and mush the bag. On day 10, I'm to add more stuff, and divide the goo into three parts. One part I keep, one part I bake and the last part I pass on to another friend. Well, it only took a month and every woman I know had her own bag of friendship goo.

Our family loves the bread, but what am I suppose to do with it all? My very smart mother-in-law suggested I put the extras into the freezer. Then, I can pull them out anytime and make more bread. What a great idea! So, I've been doing that. However, now I've got 4 bags of bread goo in the freezer, and today is day 10 and I need to bake the bread, which will give me one more bag to my freezer.

Friendship bread, it's everywhere!!!

Good thing we like it so much.

Busy days

Today is Hubby and I's 12th anniversary. I remember when we went to church the first time after we were married. There was a girl there who had been married 9 whole months. I couldn't imagine what that must be like. I had never kept a room mate more than one semester, they would drive me crazy. I wondered, will I still like my husband after three months? Well, I did and still do. There have been many ups and many downs and some times it seems that time has gone so quickly and other times it seems that the time has gone very slow. The year Hubby spent in Korea was a very slow one. Still, through it all, it has been 12 years now. I was looking in the paper at some couples celebrating their 50th anniversary and I thought we'll celebrate that in the year 2046. That seems impossible, but at the beginning, nine months seemed impossible too. I can't wait to find out what will happen in the next 36 years.

Life has been so busy and crazy since getting married. We've moved countless times and have lived in many states. We've welcomed 5 babies into our family and usually we manage to move those same years we have a baby... We moved in 1998 and two days later, our oldest was born. We had our second in 2000 and moved in December of that year. We moved in 2004, 4 months after I had baby number 3. Then, we moved in 2005, and 2 months later we had baby number 4. Now this year, we welcomed baby number 5 and we will be moving again before the year is out. This time, life takes us to New Mexico. Hubby will be moving there in less than two weeks. The kids and I will join as soon as we sell the house. There is so much to do, it is crazy to think about. With all that needs to be done, Peanut has decided this week that she is no longer sleeping. She won't take her long, lovely morning nap. She wakes the moment I lay her down. She cries all day, except when I'm holding her, but she doesn't want to be held either. She squirms to get down and then screams when I do. Today, after many hours of listening to her scream and cry, I looked in her mouth and saw tooth #4 making it's painful appearance. Poor thing. I feel so bad for her. So, a little Tylenol later, she is napping, in my arms, while I type.

With Halloween approaching, my kids are very excited. My oldest has come up with all sorts of costume ideas. Now remember, he is 10 years old, and his latest idea is to dress up like the Pink Panther (the pink cartoon character) and wrap himself with toilet paper so he can be the Pink Panther Mummy. I don't get it either. He also had the strange idea of being the Red Baron Pizza Delivery Man. He likes Red Baron pizza. Now, he really likes Narnia and he loved the Prince Caspian movie and book. I suggested that he be Prince Caspian, but he said he isn't tall enough or have dark hair like Caspian. And I'm thinking: but your tall enough and have a pink full-body suit to be the Pink Panther?

There is so much more to say, but Toddler just woke up Peanut with his whining (he is whining and crying non-stop these days and I just don't know what to do with him.) Well, I had better get Peanut back to sleep.

Peanut Bragging

My little Peanut isn't so little anymore. She is big, getting bigger and thinking she is a lot older than she really is. She'll be six months old at the end of this week. Hard to believe almost half a year has passed since she was born.
- Her hair is brown, light brown, but most definitely brown.
- She pulled herself into a standing position yesterday (Sunday) - twice.
- She likes to sit in the kitchen sink while I cook and clean in there.
- She can get from her tummy into a sitting position.
- She is trying so hard to crawl, she has officially crawled, but she hasn't really made it anywhere yet and she gets so frustrated that she can't move. There is a world to be explored and she can't do it. She realizes that and so she screams in frustration.
- She would prefer to be walking. We'll hold her by the hands and "walk" with her. She giggles and squeals as she walks where she wants to go.
- She is taking 2 good naps most days. Not so much on the weekends because having the two older brothers and dad around on the weekends messes with her schedule. Mom is very happy 5 days a week.
- When she is really hungry and I ask her if she wants a bottle, she giggles.
- Her brothers and sister are the funniest things in the world to her. They can make her laugh so hard.
- She likes to eat bananas, apples, pears, and sweet potatoes. She doesn't like peas (I don't blame her).
- She once got a hold of a ham sandwich that her brother left out (we were having a picnic) and she did her best to eat it. It was pretty funny. I took out the ham and cheese and let her go at the bread. She mostly tore it apart with her excited little hands.
- She has three teeth. Watch out, they're sharp.
- She makes Mom and Dad smile. We think she is just adorable.

Had to brag a bit. She is growing so fast, a little too fast. Before long, she's going to be quite mobile and then look out! Nothing will be safe.

misc thoughts

Well, fall has arrived here, sort of. The last week has been cool, with an almost cold wind blowing for 3 days. I've loved having the windows open to keep the house cool and not use the A/C. The living room window open to our little pond with a small water fall. I love the sound it makes and having that window open is so pleasant. The only problem is the F-18 jets that fly everyday of the week, all day long and late into the night. It wouldn't be so bad if they just flew over us, but our house in right in their turning area, so we get the back burners pointed at us while they make their turns to go back to the base. They fly very low in this area too. This is incredibly loud and can make holding conversations or getting babies to sleep a real challenge.

Still, I love fall.

Yesterday in this area of the country, the New Family Search site was opened to us.
I re-registered (I tried earlier in the year, but it wouldn't let me) and got onto the site. I'm so excited about it all! I looked up some family and couldn't find much new, and some where I found some problems, but one line of the family, I found a line that went back a few generations more than what I had, and this line lead into "royalty" in Wales. I say royalty, but they were dukes and earls and knights of that sort. Once you get into those areas, the lineage was very well documented and so, a great number of names are new to me. I'm a direct descedant of the 1st Earl of Warwick. However, considering the 1st Earl lived during the Norman Conquest in 1066, it is a great many generations back in direct descendant and there are probably thousands who can trace their line back to him. It isn't the royalty I'm interested in, it is just the incredible number of years and generations this is taking me back that I'm loving so much. Can you imagine, I know the names of ancestors who lived in 1066! They were the French speaking Normans who conquered the Old English speakers of England. (I'm not interested in the conquering either, just the fact that I know the names of ancestors who spoke Old French and Old English!) I'm loving the new family search!

So my mom introduced my kids to High School Musical. Not having TV for the last 3 years, I haven't kept up with what is hot in today's youth. For whatever reason, my mom is up on the latest trends and she got my kids the HSM movie. Can I tell you my kids love it? They LOVE it. They have watched it everyday and now I've got all these songs stuck in my head! I like it too, I must admit. My hubby is so embarrassed that his sons should like a musical. He hates all forms of musicals and is tolerant that I like them, but I don't watch them when he is home. Still, I need to get these song out of my head, or as my daughter once put it, music is coming out of my ears!

Blue Angels

I love the air show. The Blue Angels get up close and personal with our neighborhood. We get to enjoy them for about 5 days each year. Here are some pictures I managed to get while they flew over the house.
The two pictures with the blue sky were taken on Thursday, the two with the gray sky are from today. We get to watch them once more tomorrow!





Aren't they awesome?! And loud!

Air show weekend

This is the weekend of the annual air show. The local F-18's have been out a lot more lately, in formation, doing cool things. Today, though, what I wait for each year - the Blue Angels! They are so fun to watch. This evening they were just flying two around, but the fly right over the house! It is so awesome. We believe we heard a sonic boom once this evening as they broke the sound barrier. I've never heard that before, and have always wanted too. However, I was inside when I heard the loud noise and it sent me running outside to watch. They will probably practice tomorrow, the entire group and I'll be out watching. Then on Saturday will be the show. We'll be out on the lawn for that too. It's a fun weekend!

what's up?

Well, I was hoping for a bit of time because I got Peanut to sleep and laid her quietly in her crib. That often works for letting me get an hour or two, but I didn't even get 10 minutes this time. Oh well. We had a nice weekend. My mom came for a two day visit. We had lots of fun and the kids loved showing her all their latest projects and interest. My oldest son signed up for 5th grade string class. He is so excited because he is going to learn to play the violin. I'm going to go pick up his instrument today. I'm excited too. The sting section is the one instrument section I never learned to play anything in. I've played woodwind, brass, and percussion. When he is at school on his days that don't have string class, I'm going to be testing it out. Yeah! I wish he had picked the cello:)

Otherwise, things are going along about the same. I'm going to attempt to do some other projects. I've always wanted to be a writer and while I've had a hundred ideas for various books, I've never had or taken the time to really work those ideas. I want to try now. It might not work, but who knows, it just might. We'll see. However, if Peanut is only going to nap for 10 minutes, like she did today, I might not get any writing done at all.

Fondue Day!

It's my birthday and tonight we'll do the traditional fondue. I love to fondue. This tradition started about 10 years ago, my birthday after my first son was born.
Tonight there will be a cheese fondue with Havari and Gouda and then there will be a chocolate fondue for desert. Mmmm... I can't wait.

I got three of my birthday presents already. One, yesterday, was from my visiting teacher. She gave me a lovely smelling bath set. Now, for the time for the bath.... Today I got my gifts from the kids. (Hubby picked them out for me). I got Silicone oven mitts and a rolling pin. The oven mitts that I have been using are thin and one has a burn almost all the way through. The rolling pin I use has quit rolling on it's axle or whatever it spins on. It just stopped. I make tortillas often and rolling them the last few months has been tough. I look forward to making them next and trying out my super smooth rolling pin.

My sister-in-law posed an interesting question lately. What makes her happy? It got me thinking, what makes me happy? It is a question that needs great pondering because there are several levels of happiness and there is also what makes me happy and what do I think will make me happy. It is something I'm going to be thinking about and sorting my ideas. It is an interesting thought. I read that men should never give their wives kitchen stuff for Mother's Day or their birthday, but I'm so glad when I do get kitchen things. I love to cook. Baking and cooking tasty foods makes me happy and my family happy too. Getting these oven mitts so I don't burn my hands make me VERY happy.

Fudge

Every year at Christmas time, I want to just bake and bake and bake. I want to make fudge and other candies. Every year at Christmas time, what really happens is I don't do much baking. Maybe I'll make a couple of batches of cookies, but I never get to do what I really want to do.

There are two reasons for this:
#1 - The kids make baking and cooking so hard. They want to help and I try to let them, but they end up fighting over whose turn it is to add or mix.
#2 - I really don't like the dish mess that comes with cooking

Now, it is September and my husband decides he wants fudge. He looks up a fancy recipe and reads off the ingredients to me. "Do we have all of this?" he asks. I let him know that we do. "I'll leave up this website for you, should you feel like making fudge."

Last night was busy and I ended up having four tired kids last night while he was off at a meeting. He came home and asked, "Did you make the fudge?" No. So this morning he pulls up the website again. "I've got the site up again in case you have time to make fudge." Because, you know, I've got nothing better to do.

The truth is, I love fudge, I've never made it and I decided to give it a try. It is halfway done now. It is very time consuming. I'll have to finish it soon, provided Peanut permits me. I hope it works. If not, he can make it next time.

PS, it is 10:45 and I'm still in my PJ's. Taking care of kids and making fudge hasn't let me have the time to go shower and change. Well, as long as no one comes to the door and I have changed by the time the older boys get off the bus at 2:45, it will be alright. :)

Update! It is now 12:53. Right after posting the above blog, I went and finished the fudge and decided I had better go shower. I start to go up stairs and I hear Peanut screaming. By the looks of her, she had been awake and screaming for a long time. (I guess it is time to finally break down and get a baby monitor) So, I hold Peanut, feed her, love her, reassure her she is not forgotten and when she is happy enough, I gave her her toys, and put her in the living room with her sister. I go shower. After the shower, I came down to rotate laundry and as I'm loading the washer, the door bell rings. It is my visiting teacher! She showed up about 40 minutes after I wrote that little PS at the top there. I'm so glad I got showered and dressed. The house was a total disaster, but I was clean, fresh and wearing clothes! Whew...

Weather

"As they say in Texas, "It shure looks lack we're fixen to have some weather." Now that sounds ominous. Actually, having weather is traditional in most states. In fact it would be quite unnerving to learn that tomorrow there would be no weather. Texas does have weather, and it will try to kill you."
a quote from Coping with Texas and Other Staggering Feets, by Lowell Christensen

Now, I'm not living in Texas, but I grew up there. I'm in an eastern state now and funnily (to me) we are in the middle east. Maine is the north east, South Carolina is the south east and Virginia is the middle east. Ha Ha! So anyway in Virginia, over the weekend, we had Tropical Storm Hanna. It was the most pathetic tropical storm I've ever seen. It rained off and on, and there were some wind gusts that took out some limbs and power lines, but nothing spectacular. Thanks to Hanna, our lawn was nicely watered, but that was it.

Growing up in Texas, I endured Texas weather. If you've spent any amount of time in Texas, you will understand. In the summer, the heat and humidity will try to kill you. Winters in Texas are cold, and Texans will bundle up for a 45 degree day like a Alaskan will for a -30 degree day. However, in the winter, you might get some ice on the road once in a while. Texans have no idea how to drive on ice, so it is safer to stay indoors. In the spring you get the most amazing North Cold Fronts. They will bring rain, thunder, lightning and once in a while, a tornado. Now, if you are lucky, you get to see the tornado and it's awesomeness before it hits your street. I was unlucky growing up that our couple of tornadoes that hit the area were at night and I never got to see it. Fall is probably the safest season in Texas, but don't get to comfortable in October, because Texas weather has a way of changing it's mind.

"Texas does have weather, and it will try to kill you." I'm proud to be a Texan!

What am I doing here?

It's 3:55 am. Why am I at the computer? The 5 month old sitting in my lap, banging on the keyboard, is why. She woke up and won't go back to sleep. She is trying to bite my fingers too. She has two small, sharp teeth now and is attempting to use them on my hands.

I was hoping for more answers by now on this upcoming change, but I don't have any more yet. I wish we could get some answers so that I could begin making plans one way or the other. I hate waiting.

One change coming is I have been asked to accept a new calling at church. I did accept it, but after this week, I might not be able to do it. Apparently, the Bishop approved me with one condition, that my children not accompany to the various meetings. This was all ok because Hubby said he would watch kids and support me, but now....

We might be moving. That is what I'm waiting on finding out. If we are, Hubby won't be around to watch kids so I can take on the new calling. So, I'm going to have to talk to Bishop tomorrow (or later today since it is now 4:01 in the morning) and see if he wants me to do this or not. If things go like they are most likely to, Hubby will leave for new job by the end of this month and I will stay behind to sell the house.

(Sarcasm) On the lighter side, (end sarcasm) we are expecting Tropical Storm Hannah to hit tonight and all day tomorrow. We are ready, but it is messing with my weekend plans.

It is now 4:05, Peanut is sitting on the floor with her toys. Why oh why is she SO wide awake?

BTW, I do eat carrots. They are the only veggie I like... And as for the Star Wars and Lord of the Rings stuff, I'm working on selling that too, but can you believe it, no one wants to buy it! (Sarcasm font again) I can't imagine why.

Changes in the works

Changes are headed our way. I won't say yet what, because nothing at all is set in stone, but there are some changes coming.

These changes are constantly in my thoughts, but I'm trying not to let them stress me out. There is nothing to stress over - yet. Hubby stresses all the time, whether he needs to or not.

Hubby fixed the toilet tonight. He has been working on it for 3 days. It has taken several trips to Lowes, some DW-40, some power tools, and lots of laying on the floor under the toilet. Some parts of the job required two people and I was happy to help when I could. We haven't been able to use that toilet since Sunday morning and Toddler has been quite disturbed by it. He had several accidents Sunday and Monday because he wouldn't go upstairs to use the potty. Well, it is usable again, thanks to a lot of dirty work from Hubby!

The jets are flying over the house this evening. The windows are rattling because they are using their burners a lot. Our house sits in the turning area they make in this direction. It is noisy and makes getting Peanut to sleep difficult. Well, the good thing is, the air show is in a couple of weeks! I can't wait. It is so much fun to sit out on the lawn and watch the F-18's, the F-20's and the Blue Angels flying over the house.

pumpkin time

We planted a pumpkin in our garden. Well, we actually planted 5 pumpkins, but only one germinated. We picked it a few weeks ago and it has been sitting pretty in our dining room, but it was time to do something with it. After much reading on the Internet I learned how to make pumpkin puree.

First, we start with our lovely pumpkin:


Next, I cut the pumpkin and took out the seeds and stringy innards. I saved about 20 seeds. We'll use these next year. As you can see, this pumpkin's insides weren't very orange, they were more white.


I placed the pumpkin half on a cookie sheet with some water and baked it for about an hour or more. This is the pumpkin after I took it out of the oven. It was very, very hot! It sat there for a while until I could pick it up to move it.


Next, I used a spoon to scoop out all the meat from the pumpkin into a strainer. I was really amazed at the amount of water in the pumpkin. After it drained for a while, I used a hand held blender and pureed it.


Today I took the puree and made a pie out of it. I got about 6-8 cups of puree from this pumpkin. I'm not exactly sure how much, but there is a lot. Half is in the freezer and half in the fridge. I'll be making pumpkin recipes for a while! I love pumpkin. And this one is my own pumpkin. I'm very happy and excited about the fruits of my garden!

mix up

The other day I asked my two year old to bring me the broom. He happily hops away and returns a few moments later with the toilet plunger.

Ewwwww

Guess we need to work on that vocabulary.

not such a rough day

Today hasn't been as tough as yesterday, thank goodness, but I haven't tried to do as much either. No laundry, no cooking, no much needed sweeping, nothing that really needed to get done.

I was chatting with my sister on the phone today and my home line phone completely died. I'm going to buy a new battery for it tomorrow. If it works with the new battery, great. If not, I guess I'll have to buy a new phone. It is amazing at all that this phone has lasted as long as it has. It went through the washing machine about a year and a half ago.

Peanut has been into eating foods lately. She grabs at the cup when I get a drink. She loves to drink from a cup. Over the weekend, Hubby gave her root beer. She loved it, but I couldn't believe he had done it. He also gave her ice cream. She loved that too. Still, no-fun-Mama is insisting that she eat baby foods like a baby should. I've given her sweet potatoes, which she really liked. Yesterday I gave her apple baby food. She didn't like that as much. Every spoonful I put into her mouth, she spit it out. Sometimes she would start spitting while the spoon was still in her mouth. I tried it again today. She is still spitting it out. I guess we'll try it again sometime this week and then move on to bananas next week. If she doesn't like those, I've got more sweet potatoes.

having a rough day

I'm having a rough day today. I need a hug. Hubby is out of town this week. That's ok with me. I'm quite independent and not afraid to be alone, if you can call being in a house with 5 kids alone. What has been hard is that my sweet baby is no longer sweet. When she turned 4 months old, she turned into something of a terror. She screams when I'm not holding her and sometimes gets so worked up that she screams when I do hold her. She doesn't like to be held while I'm sitting, either. That means when I sit down at the computer while holding her, she screams. When I sit down to watch a movie or read a book while I hold her, she screams. When I sit down to write in my journal or write the grocery list while I hold her she screams. And of course, if I put her down, she screams.

I do nothing for work or pleasure without hearing her scream. I'm frustrated at what I can't accomplish and frustrated that what I do accomplish is with a screaming soundtrack.

This evening, I got her to sleep and I was hoping to get a few things done to get the house and kids ready for bed. I had to run outside to get something that had been left. My two younger kids HAD to come with me. Because they were so slow, they let in a lot of bugs. When I got back in the house I was horrified to see my kitchen wall covered with bugs. I grabbed the fly swatter and started whacking away at the bugs. This woke up Peanut. After I finished with the bugs, I grabbed Peanut, 2 diapers and headed upstairs. My two younger kids peed in their beds last night. I had the sheets clean, but not back on the beds yet. I had to put Peanut down. She screamed non stop while I put on two sets of sheets and put some laundry away. I put diapers on the older two and as soon as I had, they both announced they needed to go potty. I took off the diapers and waited for them to pee. I got diapers back on them and headed to my room to change into PJs. Peanut screamed. All of this took about 20 minutes. I finally got Peanut to sleep and the phone rings. I go get it and it is my MIL asking what year I was born because they were inputting genealogy info into their computer. It is 9:50 at night and it woke up Peanut. That's all they wanted, my birth year and birth place. I've been married to this family for almost 12 years. You would think they would know those two things.

I got Peanut back to sleep after the phone call. I can't blame her entirely for her actions. She is teething and it hurts. She can never get in a good nap during the day. Instead of two good naps lasting several hours (like a 4 month old should have) she gets 10-15 cat naps a day, never lasting more than 15 minutes. This is thanks to loud siblings who show no respect for her or me when I ask them to please be quite. She also wakes up the moment I lay her down. It is all very frustrating to me.

Don't get me wrong, I love all my children, but I didn't plan on a fifth kid. My fourth was such a screaming terror that I knew I couldn't handle anymore. Well, Peanut decided to come along and we had a sweet first three months, but now she is following in her brother's foot steps and I'm tearing my hair out. I can't get work done around the house, I can't spend much time playing with the other kids, and I defiantly get no personal time. A friend of mine is trying desperately to get pregnant. Part of me hopes she can and a part of me that I feel really guilty about is thinking "why?" Why do you want to do this? Why do you want to be screamed at? Why do you want to never sleep? Why do you want to never have personal accomplishments again? Isn't that terrible? I'm such a horrible person for thinking that.

I know that eventually, the screaming will end. I know there is light at the end of the tunnel, because the other 4 kids reached it, but to endure this now and for the next year is so hard. I don't want to be screamed at anymore. How do I get though this next year? How can I get nothing done and feel good about it?

It is night and I'm so tired. My Peanut is sleeping in my arms while I type. Things always seem so hopeless at night. Tomorrow won't be much of a better day. I know Peanut is going to scream all day, but when the sun is out, I can handle it much better. I'm hoping the night goes smoothly and tomorrow morning comes quickly.

Poetic Thoughts

Three years ago this week, I was in Pisa, Italy. I was there for the ICOS conference (International Council for Onomasitc Studies). Onomastics is the study of names. I went alone to this conference, except for my seven month pregnant belly with kid #4. It was my second trip to Europe and there are some ways of life in Europe that I absolutely love. For one thing, you walk everywhere. I wished while I was there that I had my pedometer. I would have loved to know how many miles I walked while I was in Pisa. So, I walked back and forth to the conference several time everyday as well as all the sight seeing I did.

So, all this walking gave me much time for thought. I discovered that I had extremely poetic thoughts. My thoughts are very eloquent. I carried a journal everywhere I went. There was a lovely little park next to the building where the conference was held. It was a plaza with benches, trees, and a water fountain. On the hours they rang the bells, I could hear three to five different sets of bells ringing. It was a lovely place. So, during breaks in the conference, I would head out to the plaza, set myself on a bench under a tree and start writing. I discovered I couldn't write as poetically as I could think. I was disappointed.

I'm still that way. I think all day of great blog ideas and I think out the thought in a very elegant way. However, when I sit down to write, my time is limited by the kids. My oldest son was just in here telling me he would like a blog but doesn't know what he would put on it, but he kept talking about what he would say or wouldn't say. I finally told him to not talk to me at this moment. I can't listen and type at the same time. Then, I'm always holding Peanut (as I am now), she was asleep until this moment because Toddler decided to start throwing a loud tantrum. Well, just now all five were in here defending themselves as to why Toddler is crying. Guess what, Peanut is wide awake now and I'll never get to finish my thoughts now. I got really mad and yelled at them all to get out of this room and leave me alone.

Well, that's the end of this un-poetic thought. Ugg, I'm mad now.

laundry

You ask any stay at home mom and I'm guessing just about most any woman what is the number one thing to do on her TO DO list and the answer would be - Laundry.
Incredible isn't it?

As we are a family of seven, there is always plenty of laundry to be done. But what really amazes me is when I do mine and my husband's laundry. Hubby wears two sets of clothes a day, a suit and tie to work and then short or pants and t-shirts at home. I wear one set of clothes each day.

So, why in the world when I do our laundry is my pile twice as big as his? I don't get it.

My 4 year old always has the biggest pile. She loves to wear and change clothes and she dumps all the clothes she wears all over her floor. When I go to collect laundry from her room, I'm never sure if I'm getting dirty or clean clothes. In the end, it all gets washed and she has a pile that is bigger than anyone elses.

I'm not even going to into what odd little things I find in the laundry, like toys and rocks. And the missing socks.... well, I have a basket where I collect them and then after a while I'll go though the basket and match socks, but there are always a few with no match. Where did they go?

I think aliens are the cause of the laundry oddness.

1st tooth

Yesterday Peanut spent the day very upset. Now, she has the most wonderful personality and I know that when she acts that way, something is bothering her. With my 2 year old, he just cried all the time and I never knew why. So, this morning, she got me up very early (sigh) and she was chewing on my hand and she has a tooth! It has only just come in, but it is there. Her first tooth. I'm sure the one next to it is on it's way as well. She has been in a better mood today, but not her usual happy self so I believe the other tooth is making it's way in. I love toothless grins and I'm sad to see it end so soon, but I also love toothy grins.

Kilts and skirts

Back to some random thoughts!

Several weeks ago, I was out running an errand for Hubby and I was coming up to a red light. In the lane to my right, just in front of me we two men on motorcycles. One of them was wearing a kilt. It was black and I was very amused. Well, to tell the truth, my first thought was, how does he keep his kilt from flying up while he rides his motorcycle? But as I passed him, I saw he was sitting on it in the middle, holding it down. Smart. I'm not sure if kilts are becoming a fashionable thing to wear or not, but I could understand their appeal.

I prefer to wear a skirt. I wear them more days than not. I wear them with my T-shirt and tennis shoes. I mow in my skirts, I take walks in my skirts, I just prefer skirts right now. The ones I have a long, black, stretchy and comfy. I just am more comfortable in my skirts than pants right now. I could see why some me are wearing kilts more.

I read an article recently and I'm afraid I don't remember where it was from, but a man who works for the Postal Service is asking that a regulation kilt be added to the dress code. I have no preference to this. I wouldn't mind my postman wearing a kilt. But then, I am of Scottish heritage and the idea of kilts appeals to my Scottish side.

There is no point to this. I like skirts and I could see why men would be attracted to kilts. I wish my hubby liked them, but he is the last person in the world I could see in a kilt. Military men just aren't the kind who would wear kilts. True be told, I wish the style of clothes like the men wear in the Lord of the Rings movies were culturally acceptable. I really like the way men look in tunics. :)

the neglected blog

I have had lots of thoughts and no chance to write. Peanut doesn't let me do much. She is sleeping right now and as long as her siblings are respectful and don't wake her up, I am trying to do some things I've put off because they require two hands. If I try to type while holding her, she whacks my hands, or tries to squirm off my lap, requiring me to catch her with both hands. Typing with her is almost impossible.

Peanut is a sweet baby. I can't believe how good she is. The other four were never this good. She is ready to crawl. You can see it in her eyes. She wants so much to just crawl away. She'll lay on her tummy with her arms and legs just going, like she is swimming. Someday she'll figure it out. She is trying solid foods now, officially. (I won't go into what that means) She hates the rice cereal. Can you blame her? It tastes like cardboard. She loves the sweet potatoes.

Well, Princess just made Toddler scream like a banshee (she took a toy of his) and has now woken up Peanut. UGGG! I can never get a break.

The summer is going along nicely. Only two weeks left before school starts. We couldn't go anywhere for a summer vacation, but having a vehicle to just run errands or go to the park in has been great. I'm thinking of taking the kids to the beach next week. I really don't like going to the beach. I hate the sandy mess and I hate trying to keep an eye out for two great swimmers in the water, an eye on a four year old who is incredibly independent and just wants to do her own thing where ever she wants to do it, and keep an eye on a two year old who is doing his own thing. All this while trying my hardest to keep the sun off the 4 month old with no umbrella of any kind. It is way to stressful a trip for me, but the kids love it and we live just 5 miles away from the coast. It will be a much more fun trip to make when they are all a bit older.

I've had all sorts of random thoughts to write about, but Peanut is crying now and I can't write. Well, my time bomb has gone off and I must go.

Kids

As always, things here are busy. Summer is flying by quickly. We have 4 weeks left before school starts again. I wish I could have done more with the kids this summer, like swim lessons or something, but not having a vehicle made it impossible for me to do that when summer began. Now I do have a van to drive around in, but to conserve gas, we don't go anywhere unless we need to. So, home we stay and find plenty to do here.

The oldest two love to swim each day in our pool. Unfortunately, my 8 year old son developed an ear infection. I figured it was just swimmers ear. Well, I was surprised to find out that he has inner ear infections in both ears. Those don't seem to be bothering him, though, thank goodness. So, he has some meds. Mostly, he is just upset that he can't get his head underwater while swimming.

I'm trying to get my oldest son to write a couple of thank you letters and to write them in cursive. He is refusing to do them. He hardly knows how to write in cursive (and he is going into 5th grade) but his printing is SO sloppy, it is unreadable. I'm still amazed at what he was allowed to get away with last year. He is waiting for his class assignment for next year. He is really hoping to be in the same class as his two best friends, but I don't think he will be. His best friends are in the gifted class and getting all A's while he is in a regular class and barely pulling B's and C's. He could easily get A's in the gifted class if he would apply himself, but he hates to work and so he accepts his low grades. I have much to say on this, but Peanut is screaming in my arms and I will have to cut it short.

Peanut had her 4 month check up yesterday. She is 15 lbs, 1 oz now! She is 27 inches long. She is a big, healthy, little girl. She screams way to much, but she isn't as bad as Toddler was at her age. She sleeps through the night most nights too. She is my first to sleep through the night before they are two. Well, it is near impossible to write now because of her.

Later....

not much going on

Well, not much is going on here. Things with the kids are fairly normal and crazy. They enjoy playing on the computer, watching Netflix cartoons, playing in the pool, and in general running around the house.

Peanut insists on being held most of the time and when I don't hold her, she screams. I enrolled my 8 year old back into school last week. I really was hoping to homeschool him again (I loved it more than he did, I think) but he wants to go back to school. So, I'm letting him go back. I'll work on getting Princess through some kind of homeschool Pre-K. We'll set up a schedule and work on school every day. I'll tell you though, I'll miss having my son at home. He is really a good, sweet, helpful kid. He has a natural understanding of empathy and/or sympathy. He sees a need and helps. Of course, being a big brother, he did torment Princess a lot last year, but to be totally fair, she brought some of it on herself. This summer, this son has been a super help to me. Whenever we go somewhere, he'll buckle Toddler into his carseat for me. He'll get Princess or Toddler a drink of water if I can't because I'm caring for Peanut. He has a magic touch with Peanut and if she is crying, he'll pick her up, hold her and she'll often go to sleep. If she doesn't go to sleep, she'll just sit contentedly in his arms.

He is a kid and I have to ask him to do some things, but he is really pretty good at helping without asking. Better than the other kids, that is. Yeah, I'm going to miss him when school starts in 5 weeks.

I got tagged with "The Five"

I got tagged by Real.

The Five

Ten years ago…
1. I had one son, he was one month old.
2. I was living in a one bedroom basement.
3. My husband was still in college.
4. I had quit my job with the school district to stay home with my new baby.
5. I was living in Provo

Five things on today’s “to do” list…
1. Laundry
2. Get to Harris Teeter for the triple coupon weekend.
3. Get boys to clean their room
4. Try and get anything done with screaming baby
5. Not go insane with a screaming baby
(problem is I had visitors from 10 am until 6:20 pm and didn’t get much of anything done.)

Five snacks I enjoy
1. anything with chocolate
2. potato chips
3. no bake cookies
4. cream cheese bacon dip with Ritz crackers
5. chocolate

Five things I would do if I was a millionaire…
1. Build my subterranean (Hobbit) house with pool and greenhouse attached
2. Get completely out of debt and pay off vehicles.
3. Travel! Scotland, France and other countries of my ancestors
4. Travel to visit family more than once every other year
5. Food storage

Five places I have lived…
1. Texas – Howdy ya’ll
2. A trailer home in the desert
3. Hawaii – in military housing
4. Idaho
5. Near the Arizona/Mexico boarder

Monday's Wash Day

There is a kid song I learned as a kid :) that goes:
Today is Monday
Today is Monday
Monday's wash day
Are you hungry brothers?
We wish the same to you.

Then it goes through the whole week with different chores for each day. Well, today is Monday. Monday's wash day. I must have done 8 loads of laundry. That's what I get for letting two days go by without doing any... Do you think I've learned my lesson? No, although I'll try, this will happen again, someday in the future.

The weekend was a busy one. I saw Mamma Mia! on Saturday. It was lots of fun and I really enjoyed it. I love a good musical.

We bought a car! Hubby now has a small, fuel efficient car and I have transportation! I didn't use my SUV today, I had no need to, but how great it is to have it available to me. Hubby says he bought the car because I was pressuring him to do so and not because we really needed to. I'm not sure whether to be proud of myself or not. I'd go into detail, but it is a long ddduuulllllll story that spans three years.

Yesterday we had an open house at our home for a family moving from our ward. They have been here over 12 years. That is a long time for this mostly military ward. They are Navy and his job is finally moving him away from the huge naval base here. They will be greatly missed. The party was suppose to last for three hours. It ended up lasting almost 5 hours. It was great fun and I would do it all over again. It ended up being a crazy pool party when a member of the Bishopric threw one of the teens from the moving family into our pool. Once one kid gets wet, it is a matter of moments before the others get thrown in. Eventually, the teens got the bishopric member thrown into the pool too. All the kids were soaked, but they had a blast.

The above mentioned pool is a new development in our backyard. This moving family was clearing out stuff from their house and they had an above ground pool. Not a huge nice one like our old pool, but one of those 14 foot pools that you fill with water and the sides take shape. The kids have loved having a pool again and I'm so glad they do. Unfortunately, they got a sunburn the first day, despite the sunblock we put on. My oldest got the worst of the sunburns. I'm sad for him, but perhaps now he'll remember and be more diligent in using sunblock because sunburns hurt!

What else? Hubby is still on a crazy schedule at work. It's ok. Good overtime pay and after buying a car, we need a little extra money.

It being summer time, it is Monkee Mania time in our home. The Monkee DVD's play most of the day here. I love having them on while I clean, fold laundry or just sit and hold a sleeping Peanut. My kids love to turn it on too. The Monkees are the best.

Peanut is giving me a bit of a rough time. She screams when I set her down and she often screams when I'm holding her, especially if I'm sitting while holding her. She has an incredible scream. It is one of those high, ear-piercing, nerve-grating screams. Oh how I can't stand it. Thank goodness for my 8 year old. He is my biggest help when it comes to Peanut. He has the magic sleeping touch and can usually get her to fall asleep in his arms.

Toddler has a cold. At least, I guess that is what it is. All it is is a green gunky runny nose. It is pretty gross to look at, but it doesn't slow him down one bit. I gave him a bit of medicine tonight hoping it would relieve some of that runny nose and make him tired. No such luck. Oh well...

I guess that is enough of a book today. Oh, my four year old daughter said something funny to me yesterday. Well, I'm not sure if it is funny, but I was definitely amused by her comments. She asked me if girls can go on missions. I said yes. Then she announces to me that she is not going on a mission because she is going to be a singer and a dancer. OK, I said. It's a good thing we have many years before those kinds of decisions need to be made.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Waffles

Mmmmm!
These were tasty and a big hit with the kids. I decided to try them tonight since Hubby is working nights this week. He doesn't like peanut butter so this was a good night for these tasty waffles. The waffles are topped with Cool Whip and sprinkles.

I did mine a little different than her recipe. Hers calls for peanut butter chips and chocolate chips. I didn't have these. I just took a big spoonful of peanut butter and plopped it into the mixture. It worked great. I'm sure the two types of chips would only make it better, but this worked and was a big hit with the kids!

I got the recipe from a site I love to visit: More Than Rubies
http://mrsbrooke.blogspot.com/2008/06/chocolate-peanut-butter-waffles.html
(sorry, I couldn't figure out the link thing tonight) :)

carrot harvest

I pulled about 1/3 of our carrot crop today. I was so excited to see what came up. Some of the carrots were tiny where there were too many growing in the same spot. Some have funny shapes for the same reason, but the really great unique carrot(s) was the twisted carrot!

Don't you think "Twisted Carrot" is the perfect name for a rock band?

thoughts

I've been wanting to post more, but Peanut keeps me from doing it as often as I like. Right now she is fussing at me, but her older sister is working hard to keep her happy. I've also been depressed lately. I have a hard time keeping positive thoughts, so I don't write. I don't want my post to reflect my not so happy attitude.

I'm trying to work out in my mind what I can do to make myself happier, more grateful for my situations, more loving and more accepting. I want to talk it out, as women are prone to do, but I don't feel I have anyone I really can talk to, or who would really want to listen to me rattle on. My hubby is frustrating me and my kids are driving me crazy with their lack of compassion towards each other. I have about 5 great projects and ideas that I'm wanting so much to work on, but with zero opportunity to do it. The thing is I can't change my hubby, I can teach my kids compassion, but it is up to them to follow it, and I should know, after having 5 kids, that I can't do personal projects while the babies are in their first year of life. I need to change me, but I'm not sure how.

I'm always stumped as to what the first step to take is. Hmmm, if the kids can give me a few minutes of alone time, maybe I can think of something. Sorry for the post, but I'm honestly having a hard time thinking of funny, positive things to write.

I guess some nice things are Peanut is just adorable! Anything that comes into contact with her hand is immediately shoved into her mouth. She charms everyone at church. When I get up in RS to lead the music, I never have a hard time passing her off to someone. She is strong, she is smart and I can see in her eyes the desire to be a big kid and play with her brothers and sister. I want her to grow until she can sit up on her own, then she has to stop. I forbid her to grow more. I want her to stay sweet, cute and unable to tell me "NO".

Ambitions

I mentioned in the last post how much my sons were enjoying their journal, well, it has been six days since they got their journals, and already my oldest son has written 24 pages! He has never worked this long on any project. I'm happy for his enthusiasm.

My oldest son is 10 years old now and hates to work. He hates anything he has to put time and effort into. He wanted to play a sport, until he realized the number of practices he would have to attend. He talked about an instrument until he realized that he would have to practice a lot, like everyday, to be able to really learn how to play it. He doesn't like scouts because he has to put forth energy, time and work into earning his awards. He says he wants to be a scientist one day, but he hates that he would have to learn math and math requires work and memorization of basic tables. He has never worked for anything, never really achieved anything on his own. He has no passion for anything. He needs to be proud of something and really work to get it. I don't have any ideas for him yet, but it is good to have identified what it is he needs.

I would love to type more, but Peanut is in my lap. She has discovered she has control of her hands and arms. She hits at things and grabs for things. So, I'm here typing, she is sitting in my lap, grabbing at my fingers and getting frustrated that they keep moving. I've made so many typos thanks to her. Well, she is getting tired and fussy and I'm tired of typing with her "help". She is growing too fast.

Journals

For my son's 10th birthday, he received the book "Diary of a Wimpy Kid". I read it. It is really good! It got me thinking about my journal I kept when I was a kid. I wrote in mine a few times when I was 7, 8, 9, and 10 years old. Once I hit 11, I started writing in my journal more often.

Last Monday for FHE, we talked about the importance of keeping journals. I read several entries from my journal and the older boys really enjoyed hearing what I had to say. So on Friday, we bought the two older boys their own journals. They have loved them. They have written 5 times a day since Friday. I would love to read their entries, but I won't. I gave them some stickers for the 4th of July entry.

For 10 year old's Bear Scout achievements, he is required to keep a journal for 2 weeks. He is well on his way. He is three days into it so far and has written about 6 pages, at least. I'm glad they are starting this and I hope it develops into a lifetime habbit.

Happy Independece Day!

A most wonderful 4th of July to you all.

God Bless America!

Hands are full

I've been wanting to write lately, but my hands are always holding Peanut. I'm not complaining about that, I love to hold her. Still, it makes it hard to type with a squirmy 2 month old in my arms.

Last night was book club. We were trying to find a few good books for the summer. We were there for about 5 1/2 hours (7:30 - midnight). We never did decide definatly on some books, but we had lots of fun talking, eating watermelon, and playing bowling on their Wii. I got the lowest score, but I've only bowled a few times in my life and I had never played a Wii before. It was lots of fun.

Well, there is much to do and I'm still in yesterday's clothes. Maybe I had better shower first...

Peanut's progress

Well, Peanut is almost 3 months old. I think she has officially reached 12 weeks old, but she isn't 3 months old until next week. It is hard to believe how fast the time has gone. It is like she has been a part of my life forever, not just three months.

Peanut has two favorite things - her fingers and ceiling fans. She loves to munch on her fingers. They are in her mouth all the time. She doesn't suck on them, she munches and gums them. She also LOVES to watch ceiling fans go round and round. How great life is when munching on your fingers and watching a rotating fan makes you happy.

Peanut has been in the terrible twos (months that is). No, it isn't really terrible, but she can and does throw tantrums. This morning, I had her laying on the couch and I was sitting right there next to her. I was folding laundry and chatting with Peanut when she started to fuss. She had had enough of laying down. Of course, it doesn't matter to her that I have been holding her non-stop for 2 hours, and I set her down so I could do some much needed folding. Well, as I was saying, she was done and wanted to be picked up. I didn't and she got madder and madder until I had finished and stood up to put away dish towels. That was it for her. She was furious I had left her and she screamed. What was really funny is that she had just stuck her fist in her mouth. She is screaming at me now, even though I'm holding her. She is throwing a 1st class tantrum.

How fast they grow.

Regrets

We all have things we regret. I certainly have my share. There are many from my life BC (Before Children)that I have regrets over and many more since. Most of the time my regrets are over big things like I regret not going for a Masters degree before having kids. Today, however, I regret something on a much smaller scale. I regret taking a shower.

All I wanted was a few kid free minutes to shower, clean, think clearly and enjoy some needed peace. When I came out of the shower and in the process of dressing, I get a knock at the bedroom door. "Mom, Toddler pooped on the floor!" I groan, "I'll be right there!" I come out of my room to see poop on the floor just at the top of the stairs, I look in his room and poop is on the bed, the floor, a blanket. I gather up the dirty things and start cleaning the floors. I go down stairs and I see huge smears of poop on the floor. Peanut is laying within 2 feet of the stinky stuff. I move her, and look at the damage. Someone had taken a dry dish towel to the poo and had tried to clean it. It didn't work and poo got all over the towel and smeared into the carpet more. I look at Toddler. My mind is in a fury. I yell, "Go upstairs now and get in the tub!" He covers his ears and runs off into the family room. "NO!!!" I run and grab him, his shirt is covered in poo as well as his hands. I grab him and carry him up the stairs. I throw him into the tub, turn on the water and leave to gather more cleaning supplies. After turning off the water I told him not to get out of the tub and I ran back down stairs to clean up the floor.

Ug, I hate the smell, I hate the sight. It is gross. After getting the floor cleaned, I washed my hands and started a load of poo laundry. I wash my hands again and run back upstairs to clean Toddler who is sitting patiently in the tub. By the time he is clean and I'm back downstairs, Peanut was screaming. She had been ignored quite long enough. I cuddled her and smelled her sweetness and sat down to feed her. I sat there wishing I had never gone upstairs to shower. How dare I think I could have a few minutes of peace. I should know better than that by now. I should know that whenever I try to do something for myself the kids make me regret it.