One of those days...

I got up this morning on time and showered and got ready and everything was going great. I woke the boys at 7:43am, I opened the door, turned on the light, opened the curtains and blinds and no one yelled that they wanted to open them instead (this is usually an issue with Edward). I thought "wow things are going really well today". I should have known better. Before the boys would come down they wanted to find both TAG pens and they thought they were both in their room. We searched and I finally told them we should go downstairs and I would search there while they ate. I got them their breakfast and I started looking for the missing pen. I did not find it so I headed back upstairs to look for it. I wasn't gone 30 seconds when I heard "crash". I yelled down "did you spill something?" and Ethan replied "made a mess! made a mess!". I flew down the stairs (still no pen) and said "who made a mess?" and of course Ethan says "Edward did". lol I have no idea who did it but there was orange juice all over the floor, 2 chairs, the carpet at the back door, the back door, the table and both of them.

I have our MWF schedule down perfect. When something like this occurs it is hard to recover so I spent the next 40 minutes rushing around trying to feed them, clean up the mess, get them dressed, brush their hair and teeth and clean up the mess some more. They did get to school on time and I came back home and mopped the floor again. I think it is still a little sticky but I am out of pads for my steam mop. I will wash them tonight and mop again in the morning. I would get them up earlier but if they have too much free time in the morning they get into stuff or fight. Plus they are not morning people and need all the sleep they can get. I am requesting afternoon kindergarten due to this (plus I can sleep in too! lol).

Five minutes before I was due to go pick up the boys the phone rings and it is the father of the boy Marisa is not supposed to be seeing. Needless to say I was late picking the boys up. I was the last parent in the parking lot when we left but I did see another parent enter as we left. They were the only ones from their class still there. I felt so bad. I did that to Jessica one time when she was in Kindergarten and boy did she let me have it! lol

And the TAG pen. Ethan found it sometime during my 40 minute mad dash around the house. I have no idea where though. :)

Just another one of the those days...

Thursday April 29, 2010

Well today was pretty uneventful. We got up and were lazy, just playing and doing whatever until it was time to get Ethan ready for school. Ethan went off to school this afternoon and Edward and I went grocery shopping. That's always fun. I can't believe how much things are costly now! At this rate no one will be able to eat healthy food and the obesity epidemic will just worsen. Seriously, I was shocked at how much prices have gone up. I don't usually notice but we are putting ourselves on a much stricter budget now (plus I blew most of my budget last week) and I just can't get over the cost of stuff. Ugh. If Ed and I weren't on this diet I would not have spent nearly as much but we have to get the weight off somehow!

While we were waiting for Ethan's bus to arrive the boys were rolling around in the living room kicking each other. I kept telling them to stop and they wouldn't so I got out my camera and started taking pictures and told them I was taking pictures of them being bad and not listening. They kept on for a minute or so then Edward jumped up and said "Can you take pictures of us being good now???". I laughed and told him yes. Unfortunately I only got one picture before my camera's battery died but it's a cute one.







Marisa is filing out job applications now. She was told that it is time for her to get a job and learn some responsibility. I take care of so much for them and they really need to learn to do things on their own, for themselves. I told Jessica she can get a job as well if they will hire a 15 year old.

Speaking of Jessica. She was supposed to be taking drivers ed this summer but every time I mentioned it she acted like I was telling her she had to take another math class (which she hates) so I told her tonight that since she doesn't want to do it we won't force her into the class. It is expensive and she would probably end up failing because she is not "into" it yet. Fine. Saves us money. I should have known though. This is the kid who still refuses to order her own food when we go out to eat. Can you see her DRIVING (yeah right!) into the drive thru and not being able to order??? LOL

Video from Jess' party

Here is a video from the party.

Jessica's birthday Luau Party

While preparing for Jessica's party Saturday morning our family received some devastating news. It was very hard for us to function after that so there are not many pictures but the party turned out pretty good. Jess and her friends seemed to really enjoy themselves and that's all that counts. We had a gaggle of giggling girls from around 4 pm until sometime the next morning. It was a Luau themed party so I made Hawaiian Delight cake. That is actually one of my favorite cakes. Here is the recipe from www.cooks.com . My aunt actually taught me to make this years ago but I had lost the recipe...again. lol Also I doubled the recipe for the party so we had a 4 layer cake.

MANDARIN ORANGE/PINEAPPLE DELIGHT CAKE

1 box Duncan Hines butter cake mix 4 eggs 1/2 c. Crisco oil 1 can mandarin oranges with juice 1 (8 oz.) container Cool Whip 1 sm. pkg. instant vanilla pudding 1 can crushed pineapple, drained Mix cake mix, eggs, oil and mandarin oranges, undrained. Pour into greased and floured 2 or 3 (8") round cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. After cake is cool, frost with Cool Whip, pudding and crushed pineapple mixed all together.

I found tons of dress up and decorative stuff at Dollar Tree and spent a bit too much on that plus the party bags we gave to each girl but it was worth it I think. We were supposed to have chicken kabobs on the grill but it was raining and we had the party in the basement so we bought a sandwich tray from Subway instead. Should have bought 2 with the way everyone was eating! LOL Here are some pics.







































As you can see in some of the pics each girl has a grass skirt, a flowered bra and leis. They decorated plain flip flops with flowers and beads. They seemed to enjoy themselves and that's all that matters. :)

Forgot to post

At dinner tonight Edward Jr. kept asking us how to spell "water cule", we thought he was saying "water kill". Finally Jessica figured out he was asking us how to spell "water molecule". LOL He is 4.

Something to make you smile

It has been a rough few days for our family but this made me smile and I had to catch it on video to share. I hope this makes you smile as well. I know I have not posted anything about Jess' birthday party but I will in the next couple of days. Everything I thought I knew was changed over the weekend and I am having to deal with a new reality now. It will take me a little while but I will be okay...eventually.

RIP DBM

Tiny Angels

Tiny Angels rest your wings
sit with me for awhile.
How I long to hold your hand,
And see your tender smile.
Tiny Angel, look at me,
I want this image clear....
That I will forget your precious face
Is my biggest fear.
Tiny Angel can you tell me,
Why you have gone away?
You weren't here for very long....
Why is it, you couldn't stay?
Tiny Angel shook his head,
"These things I do not know....
But I do know that you love me,
And that I love you so".

Author Unknown

Busy week

We have had a very busy week. I have been catching up on housework neglected over the weekend and working on the fence after dinner with Ed. We finally finished it last night after having to run up to Lowe's for 3 more slats. Ed did an excellent job of estimating how many boards we would use. :) Ed and I also started South Beach diet again this week. I have dropped 6 pounds and he has lost 7 so far. Jessica turned 15 on Wednesday and she is having a Luau themed party tomorrow. It was supposed to be held outside but had to change plans due to rain. At least we did not put out for the Tiki torches yet. lol What a waste that would have been. I have baked her cake and will ice it later today. Tomorrow the zoo opens so we are planning to be there bright and early. We have missed it a lot. I hope that doesn't get rained out too. It should be a busy weekend but at least the fence is done and we no longer have to worry about it...until we paint it. :)

Today was a very productive day. At 10 am we went out to work on the fence and yard. Marisa helped Ed with the fence, Jessica watched the boys and I mowed and edged the yard. It's a large yard, BTW. :) I cleaned the street at the curb, something the HOA said we must do to keep the streets nice and clean. After all that I decided to offer my help to Ed on the fence. He told me if I would cut the pieces for him things would go faster so that's what I did. I can officially say I helped replace the fence now. I cut most of the slats for the back fence. Things really did move along quickly with both of us working on it. I am hoping we can have it done this week sometime. Here are a few pics.
You can see in the first picture that we still have some old fence to replace but we are 2/3 of the way there now! I put an ad on craigslist for the old fence sections and someone came and got what we had down today and will be back to get the rest when we get them down.

Jessica and the boys tried to make a pyramid today. It was pretty funny. :)

Things I plan to work on soon: paint the kids bathroom blue (tired of the same color throughout the house now), make tables for the family room and one for the living room (yes, I am going to make tables), Ed and I are going to make a bed frame for our bed (farmhouse bed very similar to the one at PB that costs 10 times what we will pay to make it) and if we have time I want to start building our new dining room furniture. Yes, we are building furniture now. It is so hard to find good quality that does not cost an arm and a leg. We are doing farmhouse style in the dining room as well. I can't wait!!!

April 16 2010

Sorry about hitting the publish button when it wasn't done yet. I do that a lot though. Ugh.

This has been another one of those weeks where I can't seem to find time to do much of anything except clean and chase kids. We did take some time out Monday afternoon to go to the park and that was fun.















Ethan did not throw a fit when we left, although he started to but we got it under control pretty quickly. Ed has been working on the fence in the evenings and he has to measure and cut each slat individually so it is taking a while to get done but we don't want any gaps where the dogs can get out. The front and the front gate on the garage side are done as well as the side he had to move because it was on the neighbors property. He will probably get most of it done this weekend. That's what we get for having such a large yard. Today we are expecting storms and cooler temps for a while. It was pretty warm yesterday, 84. Also I found a star for the boys room while I was doing some "retail therapy" the other day. I was going to paint it all red but decided it looks good in there like it is. :)

It's been a few days....

Well it's been a few days since I last wrote. Last week, Spring Break, was the longest week for me. The kids were bored and fighting or getting into things or just not cooperating and I felt like I could not accomplish anything, which is true, I did not accomplish much at all. Friday we woke to snow. Not much but still now. Very odd. Ed started working on replacing the fence Friday night. It has not gone quite as fast as we had hoped but it is coming along. And here are some pics of the kids playing outside. The weather was nice most of the week and weekend.