Do you just end up living in a library or what?

So it's literally been years since I blogged, nobody will read this and that's okay.  I just need to send this question out into the universe.

How do you thin your bookshelves?  

Let me explain.  We have at least one set of bookshelves in every room of our house.  At least one.  Every room.  I love books!  I also love space.  So when I decide it's time to declutter and reclaim some space I occasionally think about getting rid of some of those books.  So here's how it rolls.  I sit down in front of a bookshelf armed with a dusting cloth, a donation box, and a trash bag.  I take every single book off the shelf trying desperately to put them into some kind of orderly system of piles...like a card catalog on my floor...it doesn't work...I have 50 different piles and they make no sense at all.  I dust the shelves.  I move the shelves and dust behind them.  I feel accomplished.  I move more furniture around in the room (or from room to room because I have a furniture moving obsession) and then I decide to do it.  I will only put back on these pristine shelves books that are worth keeping.  Books that are in good condition.  Books we will read!

And then it happens.  I pick up a book, ready to make the decision...keep, donate, trash.  I read the book.  Maybe just a few pages, maybe the entire thing.  I love this book.  This book was one I bought with my own money from the Scholastic book fair in the fifth grade.  I read hundreds of books in the fifth grade.  My reading caterpillar was the longest caterpillar ever.  I learned to love reading because of that caterpillar contest, and in turn I learned a lot from reading.  Everyone who reads this book will learn to love reading and will then learn a lot in life.  This book is amazing!  I am keeping this book!  Next book.  I know nobody is reading it NOW but it's a great book.  Some of my kiddos have read it...others might want to read it soon...I'll keep this one.  It's a relatively small book and doesn't take up much space.  I can tape the cover.  Next book.  Why do we have so many copies of this book?  I guess everyone reads this book in school.  We can get rid of the duplicates.  Great book though, everyone SHOULD read this book in school.  Or in the park.  Or snuggled on the couch while it rains.  I'm keeping this one.  And maybe an extra copy because you never know.  Next book.  This book is WAY too young for anyone in this family.  We will donate this, I'm sure somewhere some small child will appreciate this book.  I'm definitely ready to part with this one.  It's okay that I read it EVERY. SINGLE. NIGHT. to my own children.  It's time to move on.  Except for the fact that the child who I'm struggling with right now occasionally picks up this book and reads it even though it's a children's book and then they remember that we can be friends.  I'm sure I'll have grandchildren some day and they will want to see what books I read to their Mom or Dad.  I'll keep this one, it's a classic.  And so on and so on and so on...until I realize that my family will be home any minute and all I've done with my day is sit in a rather uncomfortable position in the midst of a weird book fort reading bits and pieces of books.  So I rush and put them all back on the shelves.  Slightly more organized and definitely not dusty.  Good day.  Except for that fact that I reclaimed no space.  None.  That shelf was bursting at the seams so the piddly little pile of rejects doesn't even make room for all the keepers on that particular shelf.

If it's my one of my personal bookshelves I can't part with any books because they are mine, the characters are my best friends...you don't just get rid of your friends!!!  If it's the shelves with church books I feel like a heathen when I consider tossing a book...I mean who throws out church books?  I should probably read more off this shelf...I feel guilty when I look at this shelf, that's why it stays dusty.  If it's Dan's shelves full of educator/motivational stuff I think I could easily toss some but really, is that okay to do?  Just toss someone else's books?  Just because I don't like them that much can you do that...just decide what print is worth keeping?  (Side note, Dan is the biggest duplicate book culprit in the family.  If he likes a book he will buy multiple copies and give them away as gifts, usually to new teachers...and he always buys a few extras 'just in case' he comes across someone years down the line who hasn't read this book but needs to...if I got rid of his duplicates would he really notice?  I'm considering.)  If it's my children's shelves they get to decide.  It was THEIR money at that Scholastic book fair this time, you just can't do that to someone, get rid of their books.  Who does that?

So there you have it.  I just end up with clean, rearranged shelves and a pile of great books that didn't fit on said shelves...and then a new shelf!  Occasionally I do part with one in REALLY bad shape or one that was just a terrible book (they must have a friend in the publishing office because they are not an author of merit) but the number of books I get rid of each year and the number I buy each year do not equal each other.  I DO use the library.  A LOT.  I take my kids there all the time, we check out tons of books.  But I like to write in my books...and read them in the tub...and eat while reading...and I always forget to return stuff to the library...I literally owe them over $100 if you add up all the fines on all the cards in my family...so I might as well just buy the book outright and cut out the middle man and not stress about dropping it in the tub or spilling hot chocolate on the cover.  When I go to Half Price Books I have good intentions.  I will just buy a few things and then sell back all the books I don't love at my house and it will all even out.  But I stop off there on a whim so I don't have my 'sell back pile' with me and I don't have many books in my house I don't love...that belong to me...so that pile is pretty meager to begin with...

Dilemma.

Feel free to come on over and borrow a book sometime.  In fact, just borrow the whole dang shelf.

Sleep deprivation

Lots of late nights coupled with early morning seminary and/or sports have equaled a VERY tired Momma.  I am losing my mind.  For example; This morning Elizabeth was taking too long in the bath.  I knew Katherine would be late for school if her sister didn't get out and moving soon.  I needed to get out the door if I was going to get either girl to school on time so I have this conversation with my eldest daughter:

Me:  'Will you please watch Elizabeth in the tub for a few minutes while I run Katherine to school.  I'll get her out when I get back,'

Katherine:  'Mom!  I AM Katherine!  And don't you have to take HER to school right now too?  Who are you driving?'

Me:  'Crap!  You're right!'

I managed to whisk her out of the tub and into some clothes in record time.  Katherine was on time to school but Elizabeth and the friend we were driving were a bit on the late side of things.  I'm going to enjoy a quiet house and take an obviously needed nap. 

Girls Camp was more adventurous than I thought...

I didn't have time to even think about posting this in July but now that the kids are gone and I need an excuse to avoid the laundry here goes!

While I was off in the woods* with these girls and their friends...

 

 





 

 

My dear, sweet husband and sons (and crazy 3 year old daughter) decided to do some home improvement projects...

 

Let me set the stage.  Aaron and Elizabeth were sharing a room...a good solution for a while but not a good long term idea.  They were starting to bicker all the time and let's face it, at some point sharing a room with your little sister is awkward for a young man!  Sooooo, Dan and I have been thinking of how to rearrange the rooms.  We have 3 rooms for the children and 5 children...not good...but, as a middle child in a large family, I have no sympathy for children who have to share rooms so we aren't buying a bigger house.  One night Dan and I were chatting about the situation and I just said "I kind of wish we could just do a boy's room, a girl's room, a guest room, and be done!"  I joked about a 3 story bunk bed (google them, there are some CRAZY beds out there!) but was going to push off the decision for a few months.  Dan had other plans.  The boys needed to build stuff for merit badges so that's their justification...

 

 

 

Exhibit A

 

 

Yes, that is a triple decker bunk bed!  [***Dan said he thought I was making fun of it when I'd shared this story before but I need to clarify.  I really do LOVE all of the things they built.  I was just in shock when I got home.]  Everyone is having a great time with it...especially Aaron.  I love hearing the little thud each morning as he slides off his bed and crashes into the opposite wall...perhaps I should pad that wall...that might be a hard thing to explain to the ER doc.  Anyway.  It was originally built to have Tyler in the middle but when we added the slide and Aaron took over they adjusted the level of the middle bunk up so that Tyler again has the most space.  He can actually sit upright without hitting his head.  I guess that's the advantage of building your own bunk bed.  It is amazingly tall...we have vaulted ceilings and Kyle still has to be careful not to bump his head each day.  I think it measures 9 ft...don't worry Dan anchored it to the wall...in a stud...I wouldn't allow anyone to spend even a few minutes on it until it was sure to stay upright.  Not yet attached/pictured is the fireman's pole for Kyle to use, it will be on the narrow end right next to the ladder, closer to the wall.  No real reason for the pole, he can use the ladder but we're so deep in this insanity we might as well take that final leap into 'totally crazy'.  The big plus to this bed?  Kyle dusted the ceiling fan...because he looks down on it...

Exhibit B

 

 

 

This one isn't crazy and it's not even a good picture...but he built that headboard/shelf area.  There are more shelves below the pillow line.  The middle section wisely held a vase of 12 red roses when I got home...I need to add decorations...I know...

 

 

Exhibit C

 

 

Also not totally crazy is the new 'guest room'.  Dan has always (not so)secretly wanted a murphy bed.  So he built one!  That cabinet holds our queen sized bed...if you come visit you will find it very comfie (I hope).  It is also anchored to the wall, don't worry, he was very safe!  He took our old table, removed the legs and sliced off 6 inches or so and turned it into a shelf (I have to admit it took me a few minutes to realize that...I just thought he was good at matching stains).  Anyway.  He then added hinges to the back of the sliced off table, anchored it to the wall, and put the front legs back on.  When we have guests the front legs will easily unscrew and then the table folds down on the hinges flat against the back wall.  We can then move the study desk out of the way and voila!  We have plenty of space for the bed.  I really love this room and hope that the kids keep it free from distraction.  Elizabeth loves to spend long daytime hours there doing crafts and so far the older kids have used the clean table for homework.  Our kitchen table is never  a good idea for assignments that need to be returned syrup/butter/cheeto free.

Exhibit D





 





 

Okay, so he didn't build anything in here but I just wanted to include shots of the girl's room in the decorating transition phase.  We are still adding shelves/decorations to everyone's set up.  I need someone to come over and make me put things on my walls.  Seriously, if you are good at this come visit.

 

So that's it!  My husband is crazy and I'm even more crazy because I just gave him more woodworking tools for his birthday.  He has also found a way to prevent me from ever rearranging furniture in at least 2, probably 3, of our rooms so he's surely feeling victorious.  All you have to do is bolt the furniture to the wall and the wife can't move it, hahaha!  I fear being asked to go to girl's camp again...what else can they remodel?

 

*I had the opportunity to attend Katherine's first year of girl's camp as the camp nurse.  Loved it!  That's the way to do camp...the nurse gets a building and AC...gotta treat those overheated patients properly ;-)  Seriously, it was a great experience and I love to observe my girl with her friends.  She is so wonderful and I loved seeing her smile and laugh and build memories. 



 

Had to share

I realize I don't ever blog so there is perhaps only one person who will read this but I just had to put it down in print so I can remember it.  So. stinkin'. funny.

The other day I was looking at baby pictures with Elizabeth and pointed out that she broke her collar bone when she was born.  I tried to explain where the collar bone was and ended up just saying 'it's by your arm... you broke your arm right here (point to collar bone) but then you got all better'. 

Long, long pause.

Huge eyes.

Even more huge hug.

"Oh Mom, THANK YOU for putting my arm back on.  Thank you."

I wanted to explain how broken bones really work but I just couldn't.  I was soaking up the sweet, sweet innocence of her gratitude.  And suppressing the giggles.  So. funny.

Dad of the year!

I know I never blog and this one doesn't even contain pictures but I have to share and am anti facebook right now.

Last weekend Kyle's YMCA basketball game coincided with some recruitment event at the Y...it's January, come join the Y!  Anyway, they had a promotion where if you took the 'polar plunge' you win one free entry into a raffle for free swimming lessons.  Awesome.  Aaron can't swim...really...it's bad...he's 6 and refuses to listen to any parental instruction on this...destined to a life in the baby pool kind of bad.  So I tell Dan to do it.  Here's the conversation (more or less).

Me:  Go do the polar plunge so Aaron can get swimming lessons for free.
Dan:  What?!?!
Me:  Just go down the water slide one time and you might win some lessons.
Dan:  Might?
Me:  Well it's a raffle so only one person wins...but I just know it will be you.
Dan:  Okay, I'll go if you go.
Me:  ME?!?
Dan:  Why not you?
Me:  I'm not dressed for that...I didn't know about this.
Dan:  Me either
Me:  I'm wearing jeans, and I'm a girl, I have to keep my shirt on.  You're wearing workout shorts and you're a guy...take off your shirt and use it as a towel when you're done.
Dan:  Seriously?!?
Me:  Just do it...the kids will think you're awesome.
Dan: (Ten minutes later, freezing cold and dripping wet)  It's a good thing I love you, get in the car.

HE WON!!!  I KNEW HE WOULD!  Now instead of looking like a horrible wife who subjects her husband to torture on a whim I look like a genius (who subjects her husband to torture on a whim).

80 Days!!!

Where do Phineas and Ferb go to school?  104 days is a really long summer break!!!

Anyway, here's the 'last day of school' photos...I usually just do 'first day of school' ones but decided to make my kids finish the year with the same embarrassing shots as the first.  Yes, I too noticed that some people didn't change their outfit all year long.  See?

 Aaron with his "spikey hair".  He is soooooo ready to be in Kindergarten!

Katherine walked in the door and declared "No more elementary school, YES!!!" so I guess she's ready to move on up...

What can I say about this cool dude...he's awesome and ready for a very fun summer...bring it on!



So ready to just sleep in!  I'm not going to lie, I'm looking forward to having this one around so I can go to the grocery store alone...of course with this one around I'll most likely be going to the grocery store far more often...

 

This one is just happy to have her friends home...she was super.excited.to.see.them.after.school!

Day one (I guess tomorrow is really day one...does that make today day half?) has been a success.  We enjoyed a delicious 'after a half day' lunch of pizza while watching "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" (1971 version).  Dan claims to have watched that on the last day of school every year so we have adopted the tradition...

 

We'll have to let you know how days 1-80 go...

 

 

 



I'm 'fine' with it...

I have to admit, one of the perks of having many, many children is having many, many library cards at your disposal. 

My plan: Attend the library at regularly scheduled intervals.  This schedule would permit me to expose my family to a wide variety of highly sophisticated reading material thus expanding their minds without breaking my budget.  My reality:  Go to the library when it rains and we can't do anything else and/or I need to get the book club book.  Allow my children to check out multiple books that they will scatter throughout the house and way too many movies which do not enhance them in any way and I will forget to return within the one week time limit thus accruing $1.00/day fines.  Per movie.

I have successfully 'maxed out' my card, Dan's card, and 3 of my 5 children's cards.  I have library cards for my entire family at 3 different libraries.  I no longer live within the residency boundaries for two of the libraries but sometimes I go anyway.  Thanks to the option of sending all communication via email they may never know I've moved.  Twice.  I try to keep at least one card available for use at each library but sometimes I fail.  I know the amount at which a card is placed on restriction and will pay down my fines to $0.05 below said amount just to keep a card open.  I continually put the suggestion of having 'fine forgiveness days' in conjunction with a food drive in the suggestion boxes. My hope is that I can clear enormous amounts of fines with a can green beans.  So far, no luck.

Should I bother?

So, just in case you haven't noticed...I don't really blog anymore.  Here's my question...should I even bother?  Is this blog on your radar?  I've been thinking I should blog a few things...I have no intention of actually 'catching up' since a) my life is just a life, nothing really over the top exciting and b) that would just take for.ev.er.

If you are reading this you must be desperate so I'll just give you this snippet of a post, if anyone replies I might actually post photos:

Dan, works too hard as an assistant principal disciplining other people's children (and sometimes teachers).  Still inching towards his doctorate, he has decided to take a 3 month deferment so as to actually enjoy his summer, yay!  Said summer will be short because he is going to be the principal of summer school, yay?  Very much looking forward to July when his real summer begins--after taking the YM on high adventure at the beginning of the month, yay!  Okay, so his summer is 3 weeks long but it's gonna be awesome, yay! 

All the kids are great and staying busy, yay!

Tyler played football, basketball, ran cross country and track through school.  He really excelled at the running, yay!  He's finishing up regular season baseball through the city PONY league this week and will then be on the all star team, yay!  If you need your lawn mowed this summer call him because he will need to release some energy (and he really likes money). 

Katherine loves volleyball--she finishes the spring season tomorrow and we just signed her up for the summer one, yay!  She loves singing in the choir and will start violin lessons in June, yay!  She starts intermediate school in the fall and that really freaks me out...way more than when Tyler started.  Weird.  She can't wait for summer so she can just hang out at the pool all day, yay! 

Kyle played flag football (his parents are too overprotective to let him play tackle yet) and baseball and loved them both, yay!  He's signed up for a summer basketball league--he was going to do an outdoor sport but then realized we live in Houston and went with the indoor sport...he's no dummy, yay!  I'm also sneaking back in some piano lessons for him this summer--he'll be excited once they start, right?  He's so funny and is excited for some fun summer activities with friends, yay! 

Aaron loved his first season of T-ball--he mostly loved the snacks but there was still a lot of love, yay!  He 'graduates' from preschool on Wednesday and will start kindergarten in the fall.  When I told him they would do an assessment in August before he starts he asked what kinds of things they would test.  I gave him the run down; colors, shapes, letters, etc. When I said they might ask him to count as high as he could he cut me off with 'well they are going to be there for HOURS because I can count forever'. He  proceeded to count all the way to 219 then said 'I can count higher but I think I'll stop here for today so you don't get tired'.  Stinker.  Yay! 

Elizabeth.  Whew! 

If you know her you know what I mean.  She's just so crazy but adorable so we'll keep her.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with her alone for the next 3 school years but we'll figure it out, yay!  Right now we enjoy 'cleaning', not napping, feeding turtles, sometimes going in the potty if we feel like it, cooking, playing dolls, and pretending like we don't go into the boy's room while they are gone, playing matching games, and making Katherine's bed (yes, that is the only bed she makes).  Yay! 

We are, again, signed up for free AMF bowling--so bring on the summer baby, yay!

I still work at the hospital 6 shifts/month.  I will refrain from complaining about that since some people work 6 days/week and my 6/month seems pretty lame compared to them.  Believe it or not I'm trying to convince my boss to let me 'cut back' but we'll see how that goes.  I am grateful that I can work so little and help out so much...if I have to have a job outside of home this is a decent one so I'll say I love it and be done, yay! 

That's it.  If we have something exciting happen we'll let you know, that is if you exist and I'm not just writing this to myself.  Not blogging for so long made me wonder about abandoned blogs...what happens to them?  Do they just sit there for years on end?  If you die should you leave your blog to someone in your will?  Should you also will them your shutterfly account so they can add photos?  All kinds of things occupy my mind when I'm trying to avoid cleaning my room and doing laundry, yay!

Back to School!

Yes, I realize that I barely posted anything from summer and the real beginning of school.  I missed some birthdays and lots of cool adventures but I just wasn't in a blogging mood for a few months. 

BUT today Aaron started preschool and I'm home with just my Little Miss E for company.  She's currently enjoying touching everybody's stuff while they're at school and can't see her do it.  While she's occupied I'll take a moment to post photos of the crew.  Please ignore the fact that the older three have been in school long enough to get their first progress reports...

 

3rd Grade.  So fun loving and sweet.

 

5th Grade.  Oldest in the school, OH YEAH!

 

7th Grade.  Too cool for everything, loving football.

 

Preschool is FINALLY HERE!  "I'm only 4 but I get to go to high school, SO COOL!" (His preschool is a class is at a local high school and is taught by the high school students.  He is proud of the fact that he is the first kid in our family to go to high school.  He also loves the fact that he has 58 teachers...) 

 

They are all such wonderful kids.  Elizabeth and I sure miss them when they're gone...kind of.

That stinks!

I meant to blog about this a long time ago but forgot until today when I was adding photos from our recent vacation (blog post coming soon) to the computer.  Just for the heck of it, I'll do the blog I meant to do TWO MONTHS ago.  Jeez, Amy!

Early in 2011 Tyler and I decided to train for a 5K together, a little Mother/Son bonding time.  We got up and ran every morning at 5:30 and in May of 2011 we ran in the Pear Run.  It was fabulous!  A great race and we loved our t-shirts.  It was so much fun we vowed to "do it again next year".  It got hot, really hot.  School let out.  We stopped getting up at 5:30 to run.  We got out of shape (and by 'we' I mean the Mom half of the team, the son is always in shape) BUT in the spring of 2012 I got an email reminding me to sign up for this year's Pear Run.  So I did.  We didn't train as much as we should have but we thought we'd be okay.  The day before the run it was raining.  A lot.  Dan said, "Do you think you'll end up having a race tomorrow?"  I replied "rain doesn't shut down races, jeez Dan, it's not a baseball game, we can handle the mud." 

At 5:00 the next morning I got up, it was not just raining, it was storming.  Hmmm, would they really cancel a 5K?  For rain?  No way.  Yep.  They did.  The really sad thing is that by 7:30 it was GORGEOUS!  I mean seriously the best weather we'd had in a loooong time.  That perfect 'right after a rain storm when you can run forever because the air is so crisp and clean' kind of weather.  I secretly declared that I would have set a PR that day the weather was so awesome.  Alas, we will never know. 

Here's the kicker.  Later that week I put on my race shirt, just because.  Nobody else had to know the race didn't happen.  Besides, I paid good money for it, I was going to wear it.  I was doing some chores and kept smelling something icky...like sour milk or baby puke...I thought maybe I needed to do more chores to find the source but the harder I worked the stronger I smelled the smell.  What?  How could I be missing the source.  Other people in the family started to comment.  "Ewww, what's that smell?"  "Do you smell barf?"  "Something stinks in our house."  Etc.  I reached my shoulder up to scratch my nose without using my hands and discovered the source.  THE SHIRT!  Ewww!  At first I thought maybe someone had used my brand new race shirt to clean up a milk spill and then just not washed it.  So I washed it.  And washed it.  And washed it.  THREE times I washed it, with oxi clean.  There was no milk spill involved.  It was just a stinky shirt!  I finally tossed it in the trash. 

Soooooooo, after all was said and done I made a nice donation to the Pearland City Police Department and all I have to show for it is this blog post. 

I don't even live in Pearland. 

July 2012

Click here to view these pictures larger

warning

Apparently you should take care of your personal needs BEFORE you come to my house.  This is a shot of the grocery list/reminder part of our menu board.

(Dr. Cline is our eye doctor, in case you were curious.  It's time for some updated glasses, I'll be sure to post pics)

Summer "fun"?

So thanks to some combined inspiration from my older sister and one of Kyle's teachers I have formulated a plan to have a great character building summer.  Okay, so I'll be happy if my children don't kill each other and nobody's brain rots out their ears!  Here's my plan:  before you can rot your brain in front of a screen you must do something from each of the five categories listed above.  You must report the first four to me, the last is on your honor (because really, the best service is done privately, right?)  If they can convince me that their task fits into a category it counts...I'm really looking forward to this...I have some pretty creative kids.  They are supposed to spend a minimum of 15 minutes on each task...that's not really enough time but I figured if I said longer they would rebel and maybe, just maybe, they will get so engrossed in an activity that they will lose track of time and forget about the TV/xbox/Wii/computer(ha!).  Also, my children tell time in 'episodes of Phineas and Ferb' rather than minutes/hours so saying that each activity must be done for 'one episode of Phineas and Ferb' made sense to my Phinadroids and Ferbots. 

We're on day 3 of summer vacation (but really day one because they wouldn't have gone on Sat/Sun anyway) and it's going well.  I stocked up on crafty things at Hobby Lobby the other day and that kept them busy for about half a day, fun!  My van is spotless, and Tyler has been making lunch for everyone (it doesn't count to make food unless you make it for more than just yourself...woohoo, a lunch chef for the summer!)  I don't know all of their service acts but they have been slightly more kind to each other...only 84 more days, we'll see how the project goes.

Okay, so before I close I have to let you in on the best/worst part of the deal.  While I was explaining the summer plan to my children I had a flashback from a talk I heard to the youth of our church.  The speaker was asking the youth to do some things and said that she never asks the youth to do something she doesn't do herself and then committed to do all those things.  Soooooo, I took a page from that book and committed to do all 5 tasks every day right along with the crew.  On Saturday, day ONE, I was preparing to grab a few pizzas for our start of summer pizza and a movie night when my dear sweet children asked if I had done all 5 things from the list...because if not I couldn't have screen time.  DOH!  It was a really busy day but I quickly thought of things that fit most categories...unfortunately I couldn't convince them that I had sufficiently 'exercised my body'.  That's right folks, I hitched up the bike trailer, rode myself to Little Caesar's and filled that baby up with dinner.  If you know where I live in proximity to LC you aren't very impressed but I have to say I took the trail, went PAST the restaurant and stopped in on my way back home.  It was a good little ride and I'm glad they held me to my commitment, maybe we will have a character building summer after all.

Girly day

I'm so, so, so sad I didn't have my camera with me but have to say I had the best impromptu girly day with Katherine on Saturday. We were at the mall...as a family...bad idea...who takes 5 kids to the mall? Anyway, after a horrible 'browsing' experience at Game Stop Dan decided to take the boys and the cranky baby and go home. Leaving me, Miss K, and some Bath and Body works coupons to ourselves. We enjoyed some leisure time smelling and trying lotions in the above mentioned store...and 'helped' Santa get us our years supply of scented stuff. We were going to leave at that point but I desperately needed a hair cut. I put my name on the list and with 20 minutes to kill we mosied on over to Claire's. Because that's what you do in the mall with a 9 year old girl.

Back story: I had to wait until the ripe old age of 12 to pierce my ears. I felt that was WAY too long and was overjoyed when the day finally came. Soooo, when Katherine was 8 I surprised her by giving her permission to pierce her ears. "No thanks" was the reply. WHAT? She didn't want to get her ears pierced? How weird. Every so often I will point out that she can have it done whenever she wants. No such luck. A few weeks ago she finally piped up and said 'I think I want to pierce my ears'. I was so excited I grabbed my stuff and started out the door. 'Not TODAY Mom, just sometime, maybe.' Argh.

Done with back story: So we're in the mall...in Claire's...and I mention to the sales girl that my daughter might want to get her ears pierced. She was so excited (the sales girl, not Katherine). She showed her the earring choices and the little 'gun' and then said 'Cmon...let's do it...it will be SO fun'. Katherine wasn't convinced until I pointed out that you have to leave the studs in for 2 months...and that would take us up to her birthday. So she decided to take the plunge and it was just a fun girly moment. She seemed so surprised that it didn't hurt and has had some fun looking at earrings...I think she has a secret plot to buy me earrings for my birthday and then steal them a month later when she can take out her studs. Evil genius.

After the ear piercing I chopped off my hair (okay, so I let someone else do it...I had to clarify because I have been known to do it to myself...another post for another day). Then we left the mall and went to Jo-Ann's...I had a 60% coupon burning a hole in my pocket and we needed a craft project to complete our adventure.

So fun! Thanks for the fun girl time little Miss...can't wait to let you steal my earrings.

Scam

In preparation for a church event I made 8 dozen mini cupcakes, which really is only 2 cake mixes. As I was putting the first batch in the oven I, in horror, realized that I did NOT ADD ANY EGGS!
Holy cow. I almost threw them out but decided to just bake them and see what happened. It wasn't like was going to waste the ingredients any more by baking them, right? Guess what happened?


Nothing really. It appears that you do NOT actually need eggs when making a boxed cake mix. I had heard this rumor before and am now confirming it. The texture was a little different...I was using a super moist mix and it turned out more 'regular' moist. I even got compliments and requests for the recipe...ummm...buy a cake mix, mix it improperly, top with frosting and serve.Giant scam.

Babysitter

We took a leap Saturday night and let Tyler babysit everyone during dinner and bedtime. We've allowed him to babysit during the day a lot and in the evening a few times...but we either took some youngsters with us or timed our dates to avoid bedtime (going out REALLY early or REALLY late). Saturday night we had a church meeting to attend so we just went with it. Pizza and a movie were on the schedule so it wasn't exactly a difficult dinner...and we made sure everyone was in their jammies before we left. Really all he had to do was push 'play', throw away the pizza boxes, and tuck them all in their beds. When we walked in the door the middle three were in their beds-sound asleep-and the bookends were like this.

Tyler just looked up at me and said, "Wow Mom, this is hard". The next morning he unloaded the dishwasher for me without being asked...

September and October

Okay, so I've been a very poor blogger lately and I'm pretty sure nobody reads this anymore BUT I'll go ahead and post a couple of shutterfly albums to keep people up to date. I'd vow to do better in the future but let's be honest, I have a love/hate relationship with technology and I'm just not sure when I'll cycle through to 'love' my blog again. Even though I catch myself thinking in blog posts sometimes...you know...an event happens and you immediately compose a witty paragraph to describe it to your multitude of 'followers'. Seriously, the weather is finally nice enough to enjoy the park that is one street over from our house...I will be on the computer even less than I have been...which is pretty much never. Enjoy the pics...some of them are really random, respond to my blog and I'll explain them. ;-)

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Seriously?

We've had the weirdest dental month...I'll fill you in later. (My first mistake was scheduling cleanings for the week BEFORE Halloween...genius at its peak). My main question of the day is this: How much does the tooth fairy pay if the lost tooth has a bracket on it? Does she pay more for the scrap metal? Yes, we had to make an emergency trip to the orthodontist so the dangling tooth could be cut loose from the line...lovely.

First Day of School!

I will pretend that this guy,
is the reason I took so long to post first day of school pics...not that I've been too lazy to get it done.

Today my Aaron started preschool. He's SO. EXCITED. His backpack has been packed for several days and he has been packing lunches for 2 weeks straight. He faithfully gets up with the big kids, packs a lunch, sends them off to school, and eats his "lunch" around 9:00...he just can't wait any longer than that! A few friends from church have joined forces to do a home preschool with each Momma being the teacher for 2 weeks at a time. He was dressed and ready to go to Jack's house at 7:20 a.m. which is good because school starts at 9:30 and we didn't want to be late.
Can you tell how sad she is to be home all alone with just Mom? Rough life for this one.

Kyle is loving the 2nd grade so far. The new school was a bit of an adjustment the first day but he seems to be making friends and fitting in just fine. He misses some things about the old school but likes some things at the new school better...all in all he's doing great!

Miss K LOVES 4th grade. She has had no trouble at all with the transition and pops out of bed ready to go every morning. If she could change one thing about the new school it would be to have more days of art and music and less days of P.E.--ask her Daddy how he feels about that.

Here they are together on Day #1 of a new adventure. I was all set and ready to go take them to the school. AND THEY TOTALLY DIDN'T WANT ME TO! They insisted on riding the bus the first day!!! I took them to meet the teacher the week before school started and they figured that was good enough. It's not like they are kindergarten babies and need someone to walk them in, Geez Mom. When did they grow up?

Speaking of growing up...

Starting middle school is tough enough but when your parents up and move the family 5 whole miles down the road it pretty much ruins your entire life. Good thing this boy is resiliant. Here's Mr T ready to tackle intermediate school. Big time 6th grader. The move has been hardest on him, he really misses his friends from the other school and is taking longer to adjust but I think he's starting to warm up to the idea that we live here and we're not moving back. The good news is we have some church friends in the neighborhood so at least he knew a few people before school started. The first day was rough...they didn't give him P.E.!!! That would have been AWESOME for his sister, but was devastating for him. I got it fixed and he's much happier. He's getting involved in some groups at school and finding his niche. He's really looking forward to 7th grade when he can compete in sports but all in all is doing great. We love you T-Hop!

Disposable?

Certain things are okay to purchase at Wal-Mart...diapers, graham crackers, paper towels, etc. Certain things are, generally speaking, not okay to purchase at Wal-Mart. I'm pretty sure pets fall into the later category. We live on the edge. For $0.28 each we went crazy and bought one for each kid. The 'pet' guy at Wal-Mart accidentally gave us 6...I pointed out his mistake but he was too lazy to either remove one fish from the bag and/or rewrite the sales ticket so we scored a free fish (SWEET). Meet 'Popcorn', 'Captain Crunch', 'Nemo', 'Fred', 'Seafood', and 'Little Mikey'. I am also aware that 6 fish is too many for that little bowl, thank you for your concern. I am simply taking bets on how long until all 6 are floaters.