Yes, School Started on August 13th......

...and yes, I am just getting around to getting these up on my blog.


But, before you start busting my chops as a bad mommy....just remember that between Aug. 14th and Aug. 25th, I made TWO TRIPS to Charlotte, NC and back. The first was for CKC-Charlotte, I came home for 3 days and the went right back to Charlotte for all my children to be in my nieces wedding. (so if you add that up....I was gone away from home
9 out of those 11 days!)

CRAZY, CRAZY, CRAZY FOR SURE!!!!!!

(further clarifying my insane post about the cookies!)

Anyway.....onto the back to school story and pics. I'll apologize in advance for my over-indulgent "mommy post" for Back to School. But, darn it, if I have to have a baby going to Kindy and a kid going to Middle School on the same day....you'll just have to understand and be patient with me.

(or possibly make me a sympathy card.....let me know if you need the address!)

Ha ha!



So, here is the middle schooler. He picked out a new outfit to try out his locker and look around. I didn't have the heart to make him change, so I didn't. (he'll just have one less "new" outfit clean for the beginning of school.)

The way it works in our middle school is the kids are divided into teams of 125 +/- kids. And there are 4 teams. Everything Logan does is with his "team." They have the same teachers, the same classes and the same lunch period. In my opinion, this is great. It'll be like he's going to a smaller school within his school.

And, as you can see, Logan is on the Comet team!
(and he's also getting annoyed with his mom wanting to take photo's)Anybody want to bet he lets me take NONE next year?!?!?



I snuck this one while he was working his locker combination for the 27th time.
(just kidding.....it was more like the 8th........)
So, we let him practice a bunch.
Met his EO teacher.
Toured the entire school.
Found his classes.
Practiced the locker a few more times and went on.


Of course, two days school starts they have "School Supply Night," where you bring in your supplies and also meet your teacher. Before we went, I had to take a pic or two, of course.


Jensen in the tree.... (where else would HE be?!) Sitting at his desk... Meeting his teacher. Then, we were off to Kindergarten.


The CUTE Kindergartener. Who was seriously impressed by his "cubby."

And excited to meet his teacher.
(does anyone else question if she's even of legal drinking age?!?!)

Showing off his favorite spot in the room.....the manipulatives area. And his spot on the carpet for group time. And we couldn't start Kindy without a picture with the principal.
She's great and the cutest little thing ever!


ON TO THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!


Up at 6:25am, to be at the bus stop by 7am.
Totally sucked.
For him.
For me.

Logan was not wanting to do the picture thing....
....and I swear, no other kids were around to see! And off he went..... I was happy for him....and it was harder for me than I thought it would be.
(I took this shot from the porch, so nobody would see me.)


So, I came in and had a 30 minute break before I have to get everyone up for
"go to school - round 2." It's nice to have the absolute quiet alone.
I haven't really had anything like that before.

Then, at 7:30am, I get up the two younger boys.
Their bus comes at 8:14am, and they are to be at the bus stop at 8:00am.

Grabbed these shots before going to the bus stop.

Jensen - Fourth Grade

Griffin - Kindergarten And onto the bus.(It absolutely broke my heart, but Griffin insisted on riding the bus to school. His older brothers do it and by golly, he was bound and determined he was going to do it!
Ripped my heart out. Of course, I followed that bus to the school!!!!!!!!)

Once at school....Griffin put his bag in his cubby.
Then, we did a quick pic w/ his teacher. (still not convinced she's legal)
And then there was work to do on the table. (reading books!)

I snapped this from the hallway outside his room....then, I cried. After that, I snuck down to 4th Grade on my way out of the building...and snuck a
picture from the hallway of Jensen sitting at his desk.
(well, as sneaky as you can be w/ a D-SLR w/ a flash!!! Ha ha!)

And after a long quiet day with the princess.....I was overjoyed to see smiles
when they came running towards me at the end of the day!!

Griffin wasn't swallowed by the giant backpack he was "required" to have!
And I had a great photo of Jensen, but I just realized it had his full name and school on it...so I have removed it. And I'm just too tired to go edit it now....sorry!

Growing Like WEEDS!!!!

....they surely are!!

And getting a decent picture of all four of them is insane!!!
(but I managed to get this one, which is ok) And these are some of the outtakes from the other one, which I cut out the kids and blew them up. And a single of Marinne, who poses on command! (usually, anyway!) There are none of Logan because he had Marinne on his lap and then refused to pose alone. PRE-TEENS! ARGH!!


(Now, go ahead and leave me a comment to tell me
how gorgeous they all are! You know you wanna!!!!) :)

Mother's Day

I know, I know....

I'm so behind on blogging.

But, I wanted to tell you about my Mother's Day.


The highlights:

...breakfast in bed, including pancakes and eggs made by my eldest
child and served w/ everything you could ever possibly need to eat!

...a card, hand-signed by each of my beautiful children. And check it out.....Marinne has signed U *heart* I on the left side.

Then, she wrote it again on the envelope.
(umm...is anyone as amazed by this as I am? You know she's only 3!)

Her dad tells me that when he asked her to sign the card, he told her to sign her name and she did it purposefully, then she told him she wrote I love you. Could be a coincidence, I suppose. But, she did it twice.
I just don't think it can be a coincidence, do you?


And my wonderful gifts included this: (for bad day mommy emergencies!!)


And I also go these: Logan picked them out. Aren't they just beautiful?!?! And for the bummer part of my Mother's Day.....

...my dad and Janet sent me a beautiful card the week before Mother's Day. Everyday, she kept asking if it had shown up. And everyday, it did not. Finally, about 13 days after Mother's Day...it showed up in a clear bag from the US Postal Service, apologizing for the condition of it.

I was so upset. Here's my card....what's left of it, anyway... ...and I suppose the postal service wants a cookie for actually figuring out the rest of my address and delivering it to me, anyway. Well, they won't be getting any awards from me. I think they suck.

Not only that, but I find it ironic that she sent it right before they raised the postal rates another 2 cents per piece of mail. Because, the service is so great.......

Anyway (stopping rant now)....
My Mother's Day was GREAT!!!!!!!

I took a nap and all in all...it was the perfect day!!

BEAUTY SHOP?????

...or little shop of horrors!?!?! OUCH!

I think we can safely say....I was a good sport!! :)

Coming out of the fog.........

....I'm baaaaack!!!!

Finally, feeling better again. But, another 6 days of being sick really stinks and really makes one run behind!!!

So, how are all of you?!?!?!

Been busy this week....

....wishing both my dad and my best friend, Michele Happy Birthday this week (ya know I love ya both!!!)

....enrolling Logan for MIDDLE SCHOOL! (eek!)

....running errands (must be done!)

....doing laundry (never ending!!)

....single momming while Ike works insane-o hours (Bluck!)

....trying to catch up on DT scrap projects (far behind...)

....working on a Mini-Album (custom job for a friend...)

....making dentist appointments for all (they can't get us in until AUGUST....can you believe that?!?!?!)

....got 10 inches of snow on Tuesday night, into Wednesday morning (that's alot of snow...the 15th for this year!)

....shoveling the walk and playing with kids in the snow (not fun when you are sick, sick, sick!!)

....kids have snow day (and drive mommy crazy being wild!!!)

....dealing with issues at school with both older boys (one appears to have forgotten that he's not to talk when the teacher is teaching and the other is being tormented by rotten girls --
anyone have advice on how to keep M from being one
of "those kind" of girls?!?!

Well, that's pretty much it!
But isn't that enough?!?!?!

Gosh...I love this kid!!!

Isn't he hilarious?!?!!? I think so!


I'm dying my grey hair.....and he just said, "What stinks in here?!?!!!" So, I say, "Oh, that would be my hair."

So Griffin says, "Well, it smells like toilet wash!!!"

UMMMMM.....
...thanks a lot!!


I love my JOB!!

I'm blogging from my bed....

Why? You ask......


Because I have my 2 little sweeties on either side of me taking a nap.
Both of them are sick. I am sick, too (although, not as sick as the kids.)


Poor Marinne just came through a scary 24 hours, in which her fever was so high, we could not get her to drink anything. She just flat refused. She wasn't eating, either, as she had thrown up in her bed that morning. She wouldn't take her medicine (and normally she's a good medicine taker.) All of this eventually led me to the pediatrician, who said we had to get her rehydrated and get her to have a wet diaper. (she hadn't had one in 11+ hours at that point) So....the pediatrician said go to the hospital. We were so worried!!!


Fast forward to today. She's doing fine. Still sick, but finally hydrated. No vomiting.
Although, she is still running a fever of 102 degrees.
It's viral and the fever lasts 3-4 days.

So, I guess it's safe to assume we'll be home all weekend.
(which I think were gonna have freezing rain/snow mix tonight, so that just fine w/ me!)


Now, poor Griffin, his virus has now turned into congestion in his chest.
His voice is extremely hoarse. And he sounds just terrible when he coughs.

Anyone wanna take bets on us having to take him to an after hours clinic this weekend?!?!
(based on our medical expenses so far this week....it wouldn't surprise me!!)


And me, well, I'll be ok. I'm just exhausted and have a sore throat that hurts like I swallowed razor blades and then drank lemonade directly after. Basically, it hurts bad. If I can just get some decent rest and avoid getting this virus from the kids...I'll be fine.


I hope everyone has a nice weekend.


I'm under deadline (which I not ready for since everyone has been sick for a week now.) I hope to possibly work tonight to catch up. I guess we'll just have to see how the day goes, though.
Usually, I put everyone to bed and go do my work, but when the kids are sick....they earn the privilege of sleeping on a "bed" on mommy's floor (so I can watch them closely.) Well, I've had a guest now for 7 nights straight! And every night they insist I go to bed with them. Well, by the time they are asleep.....I am asleep. Of course, I'm not feeling well, either, so it's probably best I go to bed, anyway. So, I haven't gotten anything done. What can you do?!


All I want is everyone healthy. Is that really too much to ask?!?!

Potty Training.....

So, we've been working on Potty Training with the Princess.

She's been going pee pee on the potty since she was like 15 months. She will be 3 in a month. (It's been a long wait!!!) So, she's been showing a lot of readiness clues, such as: telling me when she pees and taking her diaper off herself to be changed, telling me when she poops and wanting it off immediately after doing it, wanting to wear pull-ups, going potty before getting in the bathtub, going to the potty when requested to do so and usually going pee pee in the potty. It seems like we should be so close. Ya, so close, but yet so far away..... Argh!!!!

I don't really care if she's in panties or not, not really....but I had hoped we'd be there by now, just to save money!! I mean in Oct, Nov, December we have 3 kid birthdays, 2 expensive car tags and of course, Christmas. To say money is tight, is an understatement. She is in Size 5 diapers and the bigger the diapers, the less you get for the money. So, that sucks big time!!


What I can tell you is, we are no closer now than we were 6 months ago. And there's not one thing I can do about it. Thru my past experience (aka 3 kids) I have learned that she will not do this until she's ready. No amount of begging, pleading, bribing, pressuring or any other tactics are gonna work.


Trust me, I know.
I know what NOT TO DO!!


When Logan was almost 3.....I was beginning to feel like a real failure as his mother. Why could I not potty train this child??? He was nowhere near potty training and I felt the shaming judgements from the other mothers. Or so I thought. The truth was, they were actually probably in the same boat as me, but weren't willing to admit it. They had their kid in pull-ups and they were using them exactly like diapers, but they could say their child was in "pull-ups," which put them in an elite group of mothers whose children "were almost there...almost potty trained." A group to be envied.


So, what did I do?

I pressured my poor child.

I bribed him with toys and candy.

I begged him.

I pleaded with him.

I cried.

And one day, I spanked him for an accident.

And as we sat there on the bathroom floor, a shocked child and his guilt-ridden mother. Both of us crying. I realized....there was no way that being in underwear was worth any of this.

So, I apologized to him.
I hugged him tight and I promised I wouldn't mention it again.
And that I would wait for him to decide it was time and he could tell me when he wanted to wear underwear and we'd try it.

Well, it was several weeks after this incident that he asked for underwear.

And, when he was ready....he did it.

And he never had an accident.
Not even at night.

He was ready and I had to be willing to let him "get there."


So....that's the bottom line.
I have to let the Princess "get there."


Because.....


My 35 month old daughter doesn't care one bit what diapers cost.

My 35 month-old daughter doesn't care that I have been changing diapers for almost 12 straight years, sometimes 2 kids at a time!!

My 35 month-old daughter doesn't care about all the other mom's told me that girls potty train early and that I could expect her to potty train at 24 months or so. And so, I've been waiting for a really long time to be rewarded w/ a early trained girl.

My 35 month-old daughter doesn't care that we should have bought stock in Huggies for both the diapers and the wipes for what we have paid to have 4 kids thru diapers.

My 35 month-old daughter loves Dora, but even the Dora panties are not motivation enough to her to even try to wear the panties and stay dry.


Bottom line......

She'll do it when she's ready!!!

And I have to be READY to wait for whenever that will be.


(and for the record.....all 3 boys potty trained between 3 years and 3 1/2.
And NOT ONE MINUTE SOONER than when THEY WERE READY!!!!)


**for KS, another mother in the trenches........miss ya girl**

Out of the Mouths of Babes.....

Oh. My.

HOT DOG?!?!?!?!?!


One of my pet peeves is using the Lord's name in vain.

I just don't like it.

I will 99.9% of the time say

Oh. My. Gosh.

or

Oh. My. Goodness.

or

some other spin on that.


So, today Griffin is looking out the window and he says....

Mom!
Oh. My. HOTDOG!!!!
Look at the............(finish story only exciting to 4yr. old here!)


How funny is that?!?!


At least he didn't use the Lord's name in vain!!!

Ok, I want to say HEY!!! But, I haven't much time....

I have SO MUCH TO DO TODAY/TOMORROW!!!!


#1. Finish the laundry.
#2. Pack the kids to go to Gma/Gpa's house before 4pm.
#3. Drive kids 2+ hours to drop them off to Gpa.
#4. Drive 2+ hours home.
#5. Finish scrapbooking projects due tomorrow. (2 done, 2 to go)
#6. Do laundry and pack my clothes for Creating Keepsakes in KC.
#7. Pack my scrapbooking stuff for KC.
(eventually, drive to pick up the kids....)

Be a mom, cook & clean and all that in the meantime!

If I don't make it back on....I'll update when I get home on Sunday or Monday!


HAVE A GREAT WEEK/WEEKEND!!!!!

PEACE and QUIET

That's what we have at our house.....
PEACE and QUIET!

The big boys went to church camp with their cousins and uncle Randy in Arkansas. Griff went home with Gramma and Grampa. The only child we have here is Marinne, who seems to be having some anxiety about being here alone. She is GLUED to me....freaking out if I walk out of the room and especially losing it when I went to my appointment earlier, while daddy came home to watch her. She is shunning daddy in favor of me. As much as I love that she wants/needs me....it is stressing me just a little and I hate it that she's hurting daddies feelings. Luckily, he takes it all in stride. She is such a 2yr old!

We go to Tulsa this weekend to pick them up....
...so until then....
PEACE and QUIET!!!!

Geez....do I live on the prairie or what?!?!

So, this is the baby Blue Jay bird that we rescued outside our window TWO times today!! You see, when you have a basement, you have these windows that have window wells that lead down to them. (I suppose the windows are so you could escape in case of fire or something....) Anyway, in our front flower bed we have this window well, directly below one of our big trees which has proven very popular for nesting birds. So, this baby must be trying out those new pretty blue wing feathers, but she's not so good yet. And twice, she's fallen/landed down in the well. Then, she just cries her head off (read: slightly annoying bird shrieking) and her mom/dad are at the top of the window well freaking out. So, Big Daddy has opened the window and rescued her. Then, we return her to the tree. But, of course, I couldn't resist snapping a few pictures. (Oh, and L isn't pictured because he was holding back our cat, Christmas, from thinking Big Daddy had gotten him an afternoon snack! Sheez! You shoulda seen that cat switching his tail around after watching these birds up close and personal!)

Jensen is our animal lover. He has a real heart for all things animal. He was very concerned about this baby. He's spent much time watching her after we returned her to the bottom of the tree. He's worried for her safety. He definitely has a soft heart for animals.

Both Griffin and Marinne were just giddy with excitement to see the baby bird up close!