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.