I love days off school

I am blogging so that I don't cry.  No really.... I suppose I wouldn't cry, but I'm very frustrated.  So, today is a day off for the kids.  These days either go really good, or really bad.  They are never just normal.  So this morning Tori and Katie had a smack down, drag 'em out fight over a basket, yup, a basket.  Then Katie threw a temper tantrum over polly pockets, and threw her self on the floor.  3 out of 4 children whined and begged to eat a brownie before 8:30 am.  After staying up until 4:30 am getting my basement ready to show, by 10:30 the kids had it a mess again.  Alex got frustrated with the computer and broke the mouse.  Now the bottom falls off and the scroll wheel doesn't work.  Then they moved outside.  I spent the better part of yesterday afternoon "encouraging" them to clean up the back yard... pick up sticks, put toys away etc.  When the sun set, the job was done.  By 11:00 this morning they were out in the yard playing in their bathing suits.  YES!  I said bathing suits.  It is a balmy 60 Degrees, and windy, but when Liza gets an idea, they all have to do it.  (ARG)  So I figure, oh well, If they get cold, they'll get dressed.  No harm done.  Then I hear water!  Oh no no no, NO WATER!    (we don't have much grass in the back yard, so water = mud)  I told them No!   They pulled out beach towels and lounged on the deck.  I went down stairs to sort through a mountain of laundry ( to avoid having nightmares), when I came up Tori's ride to preschool was here (didn't feed her lunch and she was in her swim suit), and the kitchen floor (which it took me 4 hours to clean as I stripped and re polished it) had a lovely path of muddy foot prints running through it!  OH  DEAR CHILDREN!!!!  RUN for your lives.  Un-like my dear friend "C" I did not patently send them to their rooms and then hold them lovingly after I calmed down.  My guilty confession.... I yelled and threatened to make them kneel on the kitchen floor for 4 hours.  Then I handed them each a rag (despite the fact that we have a wet jet) and made them sweep and mop up the mess.  Then they had to clean the yard back up and then fold up all the towels and mess.  And so now that they have made the messes, and cleaned up the messes, they are back to complaining about being board and begging to watch tv, play video games, and get on the computer.  GRRRRRR.  I was going to take them all on an outing today, but decided to stay in 'cuz our friend "L" is supposed to be coming to power wash the house, and I should paint the front door. Oh what fun! 

 Alex's complaints for today:

-why am I the only boy in this family!

-all Tori wants to do is play babies!

-that dryer makes that buzzing sound every 2 HOURS!

-the dog is the only other boy and he can't EVEN pick up lego!

-why do you always yell?

-why CAN'T I play Wii????

-why CAN't I play XBox

-why do I always have to go to my room for throwing stuff?

Oh dear.... it's only 1:15!  How on earth are we going to make it through this day!?!?! 

SO!!! WE KNOW WHERE WE ARE GOING!!!.... MAYBE.....

Oh has it been a week around here....  

.... we got an e-mail from the Army this week.  It basically said... you're going to be assigned to Fort Campbell, KY.  Report date 07.15.09.  UNLESS.......  this that and the other happens, in which case, we will change your assignment.... so we'll let you know by March 15th.  

AHHHH!!!  Are you kidding me!?!?!  You Turkeys!!!!!  Why oh why do they do this to us?  I have resolved that they must be pretty dang sure that they are sending us there or they wouldn't have said anything... Esp.  early.  So I choose to get excited about it and am looking up houses on the internet.  My mom is coming out to watch the kids so we can go house hunting.  (wait till they hear about that!!!)  We won't go out hunting till after the 15th, but mom is coming here, and we will be going somewhere to look for houses.  :-)  Hopefully Clarksville.  This is actually where we wanted to be.  Clarksville is the city that is closest to Ft Campbell.

I have decided that the house is going on the market this weekend... ready or not.  I am sick and tired of this craziness.  SO, I hope I get it done.  I have a few things to do 

-finish de-cluttering kitchen

-paint doors (3)

-mulch flower-beds

-power wash house

-final touches on basement

-touch up walls in kids rooms

-paint hall upstairs

- clean up yard

- Clean floors 

-take pictures.

Thats the short list.  And monday I have to teach water aerobics, and help alex w/ a report at school.  Tuesday I've got the whole day.  Wednesday I have to Chaperone Toris preschool trip in the am, then Kids have 1/2 day  and then I have YW's in the evening.  Thursday is water aerobics in the am, and PT interviews in the pm w/ kids home with 1/2 day.  And Friday is day off for kids!!  Yipee.  Can you say.... plug in the children?  Yes, they will watch a disgusting amount of TV and will be terribly neglected when we are home.  :-)  Oh well.  It's only a week.  Brent has another busy week, so his to do list won't get done either.  So his crap is going in a big box.  I am done with this business.   Here we go!!!

Oh I have a lot to blog about.  

I have some missionary moments to write about

Liza did a solo at the ward talent show

I danced at the ward talent show

And I know there is at least one more.  anyway. gotta get the house done, then blog.  :-)  

Just For Laughs

I have a TON of blogging to do, but had to post this one cuz it made me laugh so hard today.  I actually went home and got my camera cuz I thought it was SO FUNNY.  Just in case you can't read it the sign says.  "Little Stars and Angels Day & Evening Care."  LOL!  Wonder if they have a wait list.  :-)

Car Conversations

Tori drew this picture at Church yesterday.  They talked about people in our lives who are extra special (extraordinary)  I asked who who this was, "It's Grandma Tiffany."  Awww, she loves her grandma!  My kids really wish that they had family around.  In the car today, Liza had the idea that when she grows up she is going to buy a big "field of land" and she is going to buy a house for Grandma & Karl, Grandpa, Mom and Dad, Grandpa Wall and Arbra, Uncle Ben & Emily, Brad and Jo, Auntie Drea and Jeff, and Auntie Tracey and Brad.  "We should all live together" she said.  I told her that back in the old days, that is exactly what they did.  "Why don't we do that anymore??"  My answer was simple.  "Jobs" :-)  Oh well.  

The kids saw some pour soul getting a speeding ticket and they Tori talked of how she felt sorry for that person.  Then the conversation turned to, "how would YOU like it if MOM got a ticket?"  "Well what if she got 3 Tickets?!?!  They would put her in jail!"  "Yeah, and what would we do?"  "We would have to go to an orphanage"  "No we would go to grandmas!"  "We would have no money, we would have to pickup pennies and save them all until we had $350!"  Yeah, and then what would mom do?"  "Mom would just sit on the floor, cuz there is no toilets in prison."  "Oh man, I hope she doesn't sit in the Electric chair!"  "we could to go to grandmas, cuz mom would just call Grandma and say "I am in jail, can the kids come?"  "Yeah, then they would send us the tickets and we would just go live with Grandma for a year till mom gets back out."  

And that was the end of the conversation.  They had talked it through, all would be well, and Grandma would come to the rescue.

I made the mistake of telling the kids that Grandma wanted them to come and live with her while I got the house ready.  They now won't stop talking about how they need to go and live with her.  They are sure that the schools would be fine with it all, and that some how between Grandma and Grandpa there would be a way to juggle their care.  :-)  Too funny.  Now they are more excited about Grandma coming when we go to look for a house then they are excited about finding out WHERE we are going to find the house!  Too fun.  I am glad that my kids love their grandparents and their families. 

Valentines Day '09

Hospital Valentines Dinner/Dance.

I always look forward to the opportunity to dress up and go out dancing.  Although I am lucky to get Brent on the floor for more then 5 songs, I enjoy what I can get.  I usually get to eat a few Chocolate Dipped Strawberries (my favorite, just incase you were wondering), so that is also something to look forward to.  I wish that the picture was more of us and less of the big train behind us, but what ever..  I am happy to have a picture of us at all.  Brent and I aren't big anniversary or valentines celebrators.   We do a lot for Birthdays, Mothers and Fathers Day and Christmas, but very little for anything else.  Brent almost always brings me, or sends me flowers, and this year was a bouquet of Stargazer Lilies (My Favorite) and Irises.  It is beautiful, I'll be sure to photograph it when it is all opened up. :-)

We spent the day getting the house ready.  Brent and some buddies packed up the van and Lincoln's truck and took a bunch of stuff (how DO we get so much stuff?)  over to our sweet friend Cari's home.  I had the kids go through their rooms.  Now we have both kids rooms almost ready (just cleaning to do) 1 bathroom done, 2 almost done.  The living room done, and the kitchen and Basement can't be more then a few days away.   The laundry is once again out of control, but we are trying to ignore that.  We'll see if I make it through the night.  :-)  

As far as my kids go, they had a great time at their parties on Friday, and Liza went to a Valentines party at Lindsay's house on Sat afternoon.  I got them Hershey Bars that had cute valentine wrappers on them, and that was about it.  :-)  Poor souls.. I hear all these mommies talking about gifts and surprises, and treats... yeah, not in this house.  Oh well.  They get treats for no reason around here, way too often.

Made cinnamon rolls tonight, and cookies... why???? I don't know, just thought the house wasn't a big enough mess.  Maybe I can bribe the realtor tomorrow.  :-)  My auntie taught me that the way to a mans heart is through his stomach....  no wait, she told us that this was NOT the fact... (I think Tobie was trying to win over some boy by giving him candy.)   She was wrong though, cuz that is the direct line to their hearts.  :-)   Sorry that was a little flash back tangent.  Anyway.  Happy Valentines day!

On a windy day..

Once upon a time, on a VERY windy day, a silly silly mommy decided to run a few errands.  After a morning at the gym and nearly getting blown away walking to and from the door, she needed Valentines napkins for the Valentines party @ school tomorrow.  (PS. The mommy thinks that it is ridiculous that she has spent darn near $20 for her children to participate in Valentines @ school)  A trip to the "party store" was in order.  She chose the party store to avoid going to Target and spending $100, on stuff that she finds wandering around.  The store was filled with lovely valentines mylar balloons and the threesome just couldn't resist!  So out the store they went with 4 balloons in hand.  "Hold on tight to the string," the silly mommy said  "the wind is strong and will steal your balloon."  The 5 year old held tight but the wind stole it right off the string.  Oh the disappointment on her face as she watched her balloon be whisked up into the sky, she stood with the long limp string in her hand and looked to her mother for support.  "Wow!" said the silly mommy "I guess we need to hold onto the balloon, not just the string.  Lets go back in and get another one."  So back in they went.  Back to listen to the two year old whine about all the candy she wanted, and back to the silly mommy saying "not today."   They payed for the fifth balloon and then, balloons in arms, they braved the thieving wind again.  After tying the balloons down in the car, the silly mommy did another silly thing...  She needed more boxes for moving, so we went to the dumpsters behind the stores to dive for a few.  Forgetting the crazy wind, the silly mommy made a pile of boxes that were just the right size on the ground.   Then the pile blew away...  there was that silly mommy, chasing boxes all over the ally thinking the whole time about how silly she is.  She gathered them up, and went to load them into the passenger side of the van.  The silly mommy forgot to bring her keys, so the silly mommy had to leave her second pile of boxes and run around to the other side of the van to get her keys.  By this time, the pile had once again blown away.  She tried to be nice in her thoughts as she cursed her old fashioned van that has no power features.

"Hold on tight to your balloons girls, I have to open the van door to put the boxes in."  Balloons clenched to chests  the boxes were loaded.  They nearly lost the bundle of 3 as the 2 year old cried because the balloons were beating her on the head in attempt to be free.   On the ride home the 5 yr old commented "Well, at least I gave one to Jesus."  Flustered and lost the silly mommy said "What do you mean?  What did you give to Jesus?"  "I gave Him a Valentine balloon mommy, it said "be mine" on it."   With a smile on her face the silly mommy said "I guess you did.  Happy Valentines Day Jesus."

Teaching Children Responsibility.

When I was a little girl, I thought that my mom was using me as a slave.  As I am sure a lot of children believe.  Little did I know that the job I was doing was most likely done again after I left, or was certainly less then done.  As a mother I have learned that teaching your child to do a job takes WAY more time then doing it yourself.  Letting a child do a job is scary and difficult.... you have to let them do it, and then leave it, call it good, when you would have done it much differently yourself.  My house is not as clean as it should be a lot of the time because of this, I try very hard to not let my perfectionistic qualities shine through as I teach my children.

Some days I am grateful that I have taken the time to teach them, and other days.... like today, I regret...  

I woke up this morning to Liza making cup cakes.  She needs them for her class party tomorrow.  I bought the stuff and left it beside the stove to help her know that it is on my list of to-do's and will get done.  I guess she figured that this morning would work.  Even though she hadn't eaten breakfast and her lunch wasn't made and the bus was going to be here in 20 minutes.   I came down stairs to find, under mixed cake batter in greased AND cupcake paper lined muffin tins.  She had forgotten to dump in the little candies that make the batter festive, and she filled each wrapper right to the brim using a soup ladle.  Oh my....  It took me longer to repair the damage then it would have taken me to make them myself.    I don' t know what they will taste like, since as I was trying to spread the batter around I could see the powdery clumps of cake batter, and I am sure that those wrappers will look so gross as they are totally oily.  But I suppose she gets to tell her class that she made them herself.  

Ah joys of joys.  

what's up around here

I've been trying to keep momentum on this 'getting the house ready' game, but I am loosing steam.  Overwhelmed I think.  Any way, my kids have done a few things lately that I wanted to write down, so I have been keeping a running 'blog idea' list.  

Liza:  Last Sunday Liza decided to be 'little miss helpful'  she bathed the girls and got them both dressed in sunday clothes, she played with them all morning and everyone was happy.  She helped us get out the door for church and was just an absolute delight to be around.  Every so often she does this, and it is lovely.  I do so wish that it was everyday, but we'll take what we can get.  Brent and I both, (with out knowing it)  pulled her aside at different times and expressed our appreciation for her work, and for the nice calm sweet spirit that it brings to our home when she does this.  I was really a lovely day.

Alex:  Alex's "zone" this week was kitchen, so he was to do certain jobs in the kitchen all week.  On Monday we had a little 'how to' session on wiping the table down.  On Tuesday we had Chinese for dinner, which involved rice.  After dinner I saw Alex take the rag, and go stand at the table looking defeated...  He then went to the broom closet and got the dust pan and little broom.  I stopped him "Alex please don't use that broom on the table, it's dirty, it's been on the floor.  Just wipe the table like I showed you."  He stood there for a minute and then said "But mom, see, the truth is....  I don't want to touch that!" (as he pointed to the rice on the table)  He didn't want to sweep the rice off the table and into his hand.  Did this boy not just eat "that", he put it in his mouth, but wouldn't put it in his hand?  I kind of laughed and asked why...  "because mom, that is supposed to go on a fork, not in your hand."    This is funny to me because my little boy has always been a little 'anal' (for lack of a better word) and this just totally describes his personality.  What a funny kid!

Tori has been crafting her heart out, she absolutely loves to make cards and crafts.  The mess is so obnoxious, but she loves it, so I tolerate as best as I can.  A funny story about Tori's Friend...  I drove to preschool on Monday, and I took a little boy that we don't usually take, we picked him up and he climbed in my van, got all settled in his seat, looked up and said "Hey!  Where's your TV?"  LOL!!!  Are you kidding me?  This generation.... I am telling you.  It was like he'd never seen a car w/o a tv in it!  Too stinking funny.

Katie's Sou sou's (pacifiers) "broke" yesterday (I warn them that they are getting big and that their soothers will break when they are too big for them, then one day, I just cut the tip off them all).  She was sad.  It was kind of funny and sad to watch her discover that they were all broken.  I showed her one and said "uh oh Katie, Look your sou sou broke."  She looked at it, touched it, and then light heartily said "s'okay, anoder one." I handed her another (as she had 5 in her bed).  She looked at it. "uh oh, sits broked too."  I said "put it in your mouth, see if it still works."  She sucked it for a second "nope, it needs new batteries"  (LOL!!  Batteries!)  "hum, katie, I don't think batteries will help.  You got too big and they broke."  She took a turn with each of the 5, and then put them all in her bed for later.  Before bed she showed them to Daddy, we were all a little sad, for this is then end of an era for all of us.  I love pacifiers, I think they are cute.  I love the snuggles that I have had with my babies, all of which took place with pacifiers in their mouths, so to me, the signify, peace, rest and snuggles.  It is probably harder for me to give them up, then it is for the kids.  So she went to sleep okay. Apparently there was some discussion with Alex before bed, where he assured her that there was no more, and to just go to sleep.  But she made it.  Slept through the night (which surprised me!!!) and when i went in to get her this morning,  i said "Katie, you are such a big girl, you had a big sleep with out your sou sou's."  "Yup, you cut all my Sou sous."  (oh brother, great who told her that?)  Oh well, she did great.

We had a power outage this week, a large part of the day was w/o power.  We were reminded through the day just how much we use the electricity in our home.  The home was pretty well lit by sunlight, and so we were getting breakfast.. I cut off a piece of yummy bread and stuck it in the toaster.... ooops.  Then i went to the fridge to get a drink from the dispenser... ooops.  So I puttered around eating my bread.  Then I figured, the hot water tank is already full of hot water, I can have a shower.  Um, yeah, there is no window in the bathroom.  It was interesting to discover how much we use it, and also to see how quickly our house got cold, no wonder my heating bill is high, this house isn't insulated very well.  

I hit the mother load this week in the swimsuit department.  I am very happy that I now have several "water aerobics suits"  It is fun to have a variety and even more fun to get the GREAT deals that I got.  Yeah!

Obsessed?

My sweet Tori is completely obsessed with Peter Pan.  Some days are worse then others, and it comes in spurts, but when it rains it pours.  This girl thinks that someday she and Peter will surely marry.  She draws pictures and quotes the movie all day.  I was told 3 times today alone that Hook just call's him "pan".  She gave me a very detailed run down of the beginning of the movie this morning that was accompanied by a drawing like the one in the movie.   Now if it was the cute little Disney Peter Pan it would be different (I think) but this girl is obsessed with what she calls, "Peter Pan 2"  It is a live actors version, with Jeremy Sumpter as Pan.  Before Christmas (the last spurt of obsession) she asked me to print up a picture of Jeremy Sumpter.  She carried it around with her for about 2 weeks, it actually got ruined and she had me print a new one, but I used it as leverage and got her to do something (I can't remember what) before I would print her a new picture.  She talks all the time about how she wants to "do the peter pan play" which means basically to make others play rolls in the movie with her and act it out.   She is seriously crazy about Pan.  She even talks with a British accent from time to time as she quotes some lines in the movie.  She is a little movie critic as she tells me what parts of each version of Peter Pan she enjoys more.  She is a little disturbed by the fact that on "peter pan 2" the sew his shadow right to his foot and it hurts him.  Anyway, I just Wanted to make sure that somewhere it was documented what Tori spent the 5th year of her life doing.  Between this and her determination to gather all her pals and do what she calls "The Mary Play"  Which is essentially acting out the nativity.  She is going to make me crazy.  Sure love her though.  At least she's not being obsessive about something naughty.  :-)