Halloween Our Style!

Sorry I've been gone a few days from here...just been KAH-RAY-ZEE hectic around here trying to get everything done and throw Halloween into the mix on top of it! LOL

Monday we carved pumpkins, as promised! And I have pics to prove it!! Now, for some people pumpkin carving is a busy activity, and everyone is working hard at creating their masterpiece. For some reason, pumpkin carving at our house usually ends up looking something like this:

And the night isn't complete without the display of evacuating the Halloween delicasy "punkin brains..." First Trey demonstrated his mastery of this macabre ritual:

Then Talin took a scoop at it:

And not to be outdone, Derrick gave it his best shot, but I think he missed the mark a bit ;o)

So he decided to take a stab at it instead and really make a dent in things! (Not to worry, it's a butter knife, not a carving knife!)

The final products of our scooping, scraping, sketching and stabbing turned out to be honest to goodness vegetarian nightmares...I'm sure they would all have preferred winding up pie instead!

Trey's jack-o-lantern:

Talin's jack-o-lantern:

Derrick's jack-o-lantern:

After letting them sit outside and dry out for a day, the BIG day was finally here! There was a parade at the kids' school where they all paraded through the gym in costume for parents to admire and snap pictures at. Then they rode the bus home, we slapped something on a plate and into the microwave before the true artistry began....the painting of the faces! Talin wanted his face red with white lips. I was going goth. Derrick was going as Tigger. Trey saved me from more ovious inability to be aristic by wearing a mask. YAY! So while the kids were eating I started to get into costume. Believe it or not, Bubba did my hair! It took an entire can of black hair color spray to get my hair to look even remotely black!

Talin was first done eating, so I painted his face. Trey was next, so we helped him into his costume. Derrick decided he was going to save his appetite for the road...which didn't go over as well as he'd hoped! Since he was going to be Tigger, I thought it'd be cute for him to have a pink nose, an orange face, and some black stripes. He had seen Talin getting his face done and wanted the same thing done to him, so he had no problem sitting through the orange face phase, but started getting restless with the pink nose. After about 16 swipes to paint his 2 inch nose pink, it was obvious that stripes were not in the stars this year for our little Tiggy. So, he looks like he's part oompa-loompa. Or was in a fight with a bag of Cheetos. And lost. But I was happy with the end result, and the kids were happy with their mountain of processed carbohydrates that they'll probably try to eat in world-record breaking time LOL So, to close today's blog, I'll post a pic that Bub took of us before we headed out to collect the evidence of the beginning of "food season," the first major food holiday of the trio; Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Guess dessert first has always been a great idea! Have a great one!!

Gumball As Big As My Hand!!

That pretty well sums it up! Trey and I were at Wal-Mart the other night, and on the way out there was a machine with gumballs literally as big as the palm of my hand!! I couldn't resist...I had to find out if this was a real deal or if it was just an enormous piece of candy. To my utter amazement, there is a gumball big enough to not be able to fit into my mouth! (Now THAT'S big!!) I had to suck on the candy coating (thank goodness I like the taste of apple!) and soften it up a bit, because the first time I tried to bite into it I think my dentist heard the sound of staying in business loud and clear!! There's GOT to be more sugar in that one piece of candy than in the entire bag of candy I bought for Halloween this year!! I could only chew half of it and then I had to give the other half to Trey, because my jaw was starting to ache from working so hard at sucking, chewing and biting!! Trey even had a hard time biting into just half of it!

So that was the interesting part of the weekend. I worked Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Saturday evening my husband and I went out on a date together. We went out to a nice supper club for dinner, and then met friends at a local bowling alley, bowled a few games, had a few drinks. Tonight was just a low-key night, the regular routine of getting everything ready for school tomorrow. Of course, this was the weekend Talin lost his reading book for school, so he'll have to look for it tomorrow before he goes outside to play with all of his little friends. I'm off tomorrow, so out of habit I'll probably wind up looking for it anyway, just to save myself the $$ for having to pay for a new one. In a way, it's like a treasure hunt...look for something so you don't have to pay for it! LOL

Today I normally would have been at church, helping the kids with the food drive we have going on. But, I worked. I hope the director got things a little organized! I should call her... hmm...

Tomorrow my goal is to get the kids' pumpkins carved. You KNOW I'm gonna have pictures of that up! LOL Always fun to watch the kids dig out "pumpkin brains!" Gotta get that done before Wednesday night!!

Sorry so short tonight...but really not much going on since I worked. Tomorrow I'll be outside, if the weather is nice, raking up the leaves that fell off of the enormous tree in the back yard. I swear, if we got a penny a leaf, we'd be set for a LONG time! Have a great week!!

Day Off (Of Work)

Days off are great, aren't they?? Except when you know you're sacrificing an entire weekend to have a couple of weekdays off. Today was good though. Trey & Talin went to school, Bubba let me sleep in, which was AWESOME! We decided to go to brunch before I took Derrick to speech therapy and Bubba went to get a urine drug screen. I'm sure he failed it. I mean, you should SEE the pills he takes!! Some combination of those has GOT to cause something that will red-flag the urine screen! Just kidding ;o) He did fine. Derrick did pretty good in speech therapy. He was fine when I left the room to go put Trey's swimming stuff in his locker so he wouldn't miss practice today (second Friday in a row he's left his swimming bag at home...little monster's lucky I'm at his school or he'd be missin out!), but threw a fit when I went to leave to use the little girl's room! So I stayed, and afterwards he had to use the bathroom, so we went into the little girl's room. I realized then that even if I would have gone, I still would have had to have held it, because once I got DOWN there to pee, I never would have gotten back UP!

Then when we got home, Bubba showed up shortly after. I was feeling antsy, so I raked up some leaves outside with Derrick while we waited for Talin to get off the bus. Derrick "helped" rake leaves, which mostly consisted of him running into the pile I was creating, only to run back out as I added to it. At the very end he decided to be helpful and carry a few handfuls from the pile I was raking to the big pile. But, he had fun, and it was cute to watch :o)

Talin got off the bus and the four of us headed out to Wal-Mart to look at Halloween costumes. He decided he wanted his face painted red, with a design like a skeleton, and a hooded cape like the grim reaper, and a sword. So that's what Talin will be for Halloween this year. On round two to Wal-Mart tonight, Trey also decided on a skeleton mask that pumps blood-looking liquid through it, and also has a hooded cape. I think Derrick is going to be a puppy. It'll probably be the last year I can get him into something cute without having to start World War 3.

Tomorrow I have to work, and then Bubba and I are going out, hopefully with friends, maybe not, depending on how things work out. Hopefully we'll all be able to hang out, but if it's just me and him, I'll be happy with that too. Either way, he's getting out of the house with me, and without the kids, and that in itself is a miracle! Looking forward to that...YAY! Hope you all have a great weekend!!

Memory Of A Fish

Last night was another example of the everyday chaos that seems to haunt this family on occasion, regardless of the fact that yesterday was our anniversary. We decided we would treat the kids to dinner and treat ourselves to avoiding the work of cleaning up. Of course, 15 minutes before I got done with work Derrick fell asleep for a nap he should have taken about 3 hours beforehand. So Bub stayed with him while I took Talin with me to get Trey from swimming practice, swung by the clinic to pick up their prescriptions (both are on Adderall for ADHD), drove across town to drop those off to be filled, drove across town home, woke Derrick up from his nap, got him ready to go, and the five of us went to a restaurant we all like. Derrick was very insistant that he wanted cheeseburgers LOL It's so cute, he's starting to assert his preferences :o) He'll say "cheesy-burgers and french fries!" My mother-in-law burst out laughing last weekend the first time he told her that's what he wanted to eat! After dinner we went to the grocery store so we didn't need to eat out for the rest of the week. I had gone over what we needed with Bubba probably three times before we left the house, and when I asked him again in the restaurant before we left, he looked at me and said "You have the memory of a fish!" I about peed myself laughing!

Tonight is DEFINITELY a full moon! The kids were all running around, being wild little creatures. Derrick was not content with anything. Talin was extra whiney and saw exceptional injustice in just about everything tonight. Trey had a rather odd complaint that I can't repeat on here, but it just seemed to fit in with the night's peculiar events. Even I feel a bit restless, but I'm so tired the only place I wanna be is in bed. The call of the wild becons though...tame the dishwashing dragon, demolish the laundry leprechaun who keeps adding to the neverending piles, destroy the dust bunnies...Mmuuuuuuuuuha ha ha ha ha!!! FEEL THE BEAST!! Okay, nevermind. Night night!

Anniversaries!

Today is the two week anniversary of this blog being used on a regular basis. YAY!! Already I've had 124 hits, which is WAY more than I ever imagined, but in a good way! Thanks to everyone who visits regularly, and for all of the great comments! And welcome to all of the new people who stop by just to see what kind of whirl-wind chaos strikes our house each day LOL

When I started this, I added a little gizmo I thought people would know about, but apparently I'm mistaken here. At the far bottom left of this page there is a picture of a globe. If you click on it, it opens a map where you, the viewer, can pin-point your location. When you have a sec, I'd really love it if you'd do that, and if you have anything like that on your page, please let me know so I can return in kind!

Today is also another very important day for us. It is my husband and my three year wedding anniversary! We had this great plan all figured out, we already had a c-section date set for Derrick to be born, so we figured we'd get married, I'd start maternity leave early to take a week off of work to get things ready for the baby, and then we'd go in to the hospital and meet our baby boy after we were married and everything was all set up! WRONG! LOL I think Derrick wanted in on all of the wedding excitement, because he was born a month early, which earned him a 17 day stint in the hospital since his lungs weren't quite ready to take on the task of processing air. Apparently I failed to explain to him that even if he were born early, he still wouldn't have been able to come to the wedding. I mean, we would have loved to have had him there and meet a lot of our family and friends, but it just seems a bit...irresponsible...to bring a newborn baby to a public event like that and pass him around like a hot potato in the middle of October, commonly known here as flu season. Who wants to spend their honeymoon in a hospital nursing a sick baby?? Well, we did anyway, but that's beside the point LOL Guess I shoulda mentioned that before he wanted to be born, huh? Oops. But he's fine now...nothing to show that he was ever sick...and he yells and screams with the best of 'em!

Last night was a swim team parents meeting at the Y. Being a first time swim team parent, I was really interested in going and seeing what life was like on this side of the coin. I was on the swim team from the 6th grade on through high school, so seeing what I put my parents through is always an interesting perspective for me LOL Trey's coach said he is doing really well though, and I was really happy to hear it! He's so tall and skinny, I know if he sticks with it and does his best, he'll excel at being a competitive swimmer :o) I bought a pair of swimming "jammers," which are the modern-day Speedos for boys. They resemble skin-tight boxers! So, rather than swimming in skin-tight briefs, my guy will be stylin in skin-tight boxers! He loves it so far though, which makes me happy. I would ideally like each of the kids in at least one sport and in one type of musical program, be it piano lessons, guitar lessons, chorus, band, something. My philosophy is that busy kids stay out of trouble, but I don't want them so overwhelmed that they don't have time to see friends and be kids, too. Guess we'll see what the future holds!

Going Through Doors

Well, let's try this again. I typed up a blog last night, but it got deleted!! I was highlighting it to copy it into my MySpace blog, and suddenly it was just gone! I forgot to post it before copying it...ERRRGGGG!!!

This past weekend was full of excitement for us! Friday evening, my mother-in-law and her husband arrived to spend the weekend with us. We talked about the events we had planned, Saturday installing our new door in the main entry way, and Sunday having 20+ people over for Derrick's birthday party, and all of the things that needed to be done before that. We visited for a bit and then hit the sack.

Saturday morning Bub and I slept in until 9...which is unheard of!! I don't remember the last time I slept until 9! So we got up, had our morning coffee, and then Bub and Tom got going to work at ripping out the old door. I was so excited to finally be getting rid of the old, yellow, ugly, inefficient, windowless, useless slab of wood someone called a door, and be putting in something that would actually serve more of a purpose than to just block the light from coming in. That's something else I love about our new door...the window is huge! Around mid-afternoon, Derrick decided to help, and things were coming along nicely:

Around 7:30, the door was completely in, and I began painting the trim outside. It sounds completely insane, but I kept going outside and standing on the sidewalk, admiring our door! I can't tell you how happy I am that that hideous pee-colored thing that was lodged in my kitchen wall is finally gone! Tom suggested burning it, I was all for it, but we ran out of time to cut it up and roast it. There will be other days!

Then Sunday came. I woke up at 7:30 and hit the floor running! I went through and tended to all of the furry critters, then got ready, told the kids to get ready, and we all went to Sunday School. Normally, with a birthday party under construction, I wouldn't have. But today I was introducing the kids to our new Service Project. Every lesson lasts approximately four weeks, and at the end of each lesson we take one week to do a service project, where we try and teach the kids the value of volunteering, giving back, helping out, etc. This time we're having a food drive to donate food to local food pantries. So, the director and I thought it might be fun for the kids to break down into groups of four and turn it into a bit of a competition. Of course the first week of the new lesson was this past Sunday, so I hauled the boys into church and tried my best to get the kids excited about helping out others in the community who aren't fortunate enough to have enough to eat all of the time.

After that, the kids and I raced the clock back home, and somehow I think we tied! I was happily surprised to find that my mother-in-law had most of the food heating up (we had made up the majority of it Saturday), and there were decorations up! Our new door was adorned to greet the guests:

There were more balloons and decorations around the entry into the living room:

And no three-year-old party for Derrick would be complete without an Elmo birthday cake!

It seemed to be a nice day for all who came. Happy surprises for us were that sister-in-law and her family came from Minnesota, my great-aunt and my grandma from northern Wisconsin all came to join the party! My sister-in-law and her hubby have two little guys close to Derrick's age, and the three of them were outside most of the time, running around and playing. It's something they've all missed doing, since Mother Nature seems determined to drive all of us crazy by keeping the kids inside due to rain the whole entire last week! After lunch, visiting and cake, it was time for every kid's favorite part of any birthday party...the presents! Derrick did a great job opening things this year with minimal assistance from me, but a lot more help from Talin LOL He got a lot of nice gifts...some clothes, socks, two movies, and sippie cups filled to the brim with Halloween candy corns, courtesy of my sister. Oh, and my personal favorite, money! LOL
After everyone was gone and we got everything cleaned up, it was nice to just have a quiet night the rest of the evening. I love having company, but it's nice to have some down time, too. Derrick was wired on sugar, so was literally bouncing off the walls until bed time, and even then he was still pretty wired. But he decided at about 10:30 that he could sleep on the couch. He could have slept hanging upside down from the kitchen fan as far as I was concerned at that point! LOL

So now it's Monday. And I'm finally able to be at work and relax! Have a great one!

Late Night Or Early Morning?

How is it that kids' school projects for homework somehow wind up being your homework, too? Maybe it's just me, but it seems to be a common affliction with many other moms I know. Last week, Trey brought home a sheet of paper with school projects to do, and was to choose one. He chose to make a board game. His idea involved a bunch of boxes, four of which were somehow going to become elevators via string, and the contraption was going to be about 3 feet tall when he was done. That idea got nixed fast! So, while we thought about how we were going to do this, a week somehow slipped by, and this past Tuesday I suddenly remembered that Trey had this project due! So Tuesday night Trey and I hit Wal-Mart to acquire all needed supplies for this undertaking. A piece of black foam board, a piece of bright lime-green poster board, a laminated map of Wisconsin, four Hot Wheels cars (hey, it was a good idea for game pieces, just too bad it didn't work :o( so now Trey has four new Hot Wheels), glue, blank business cards to be used as game cards, and a color printer cartridge, because somehow I psychically knew that we were going to need more ink than we had available in the half, okay probably almost empty printer cartridge. Fifty dollars later, we were ready to start.

We destroyed the brand new map in order to trace it onto the poster board for the game board. After those were cut out, and the new bright green Wisconsin cut-out was glued to the foam board, we called it a night. Then, Wednesday night we plotted out major cities we would use as spaces in our game, and drew a path to all of them. We also finialized the rules of the game...which probably took longer than cutting out both Wisconsins! That seemed like enough work for one night, so we decided to finish up after school Thursday night, last night.

See, I have a problem with time. I always think everything is going to go smoothly, and we'll be done in a relatively reasonable amount of time. I am an idiot. Last night was the night Trey and I finalized his game, printing out stars for the major cities and gluing them to the game board, and printing out the 50 game cards we had decided to use instead of dice (fewer parts to throw across the room at fellow classmates), tracing the game path in magic marker, hoping to hide the zillion other erased pencil marks, printing out the rules and gluing them to the foam board so no one could lose them and then make up their own rules. Trey and I started this endeavor at 5:30 last night. Everything was going smoothly until we got to the business end of things...the business cards that would be transformed into game cards. Printing out 50 copies of the same design seemed to be no problem for our printer, but ask the stupid thing to print one copy of something, and it has a meltdown!! I had Trey go to bed at 10:00 PM, two hours past his normal bedtime, because he was starting to scare me with his, um, creative ideas to stay awake, and I figured it was probably safer for him to be sleeping at that point. Dancing in your boxers at 10 PM in the rain doesn't sound like the greatest idea. Nor does banging your head against a wall until you're fully awake.

Bubba was my champion last night. He stayed up with me, tried helping me get the printer to work better, and at 1 AM the devoted man re-installed the printer driver because everything else we'd tried didn't work. That actually did a good job of things, and I was grateful I only had the very few 10 cards left to print out, and was probably more thankful that there weren't more since the printer was starting to bog itself down again. I tried explaining to it that I didn't want to be up that late either, and if it would work faster, I would, and we'd both call it a night early. Apparently my printer was made in China or something, because it didn't understand English. Bubba finally tapped out at 1:30, and I had the distinct honor of calling it quits at 2 AM. Of course, then I couldn't sleep. I mean, I only had to be to work earlier than usual this morning, so of course it's perfectly logical that I deprive myself of more sleep, right? Ugh.

But, what made this all worth it was Trey's gratitude this morning, his exclamation of, "Wow mom, that looks awesome!" when he saw the cards made up and the rules glued onto the foam board. He thanked me for helping him, and I told him he'd better thank Bubba too, since he helped out a lot with the printer. So Trey went in and woke Bubba up to thank him for his help, too LOL Trey and I played a quick game, I won, so I know it's a great game LOL Just our luck, it was raining this morning, so when I drove the kids into school (I normally don't, but I kinda wanted Trey to have his project last longer than 10 minutes), I carried the game up to the door for Trey, so the front didn't get too waterlogged. We got to the doors, I handed him his project, and in they went! He better get an A++, darn it!!

On a different note, Derrick has his first session of speech therapy with his new therapist, which is conveniently located at Trey & Talin's school. Seeing as how Trey forgot his swimming gear, and I forgot to have him pack it in all of the excitement last night and this morning, I'll pop in and give it to him during therapy today. How handy is that? With any luck I'll get Trey & Talin's school pictures cut out and labeled for Derrick's party this weekend, so we can hand them out to everyone while they're here. Their school pictures, and Derrick's 3-year-old pictures we had done yesterday all turned out really nice. I have such handsome men!

Dentist Days

I finally did something that I've been a little nervous about doing, but now I'm SOOO glad I did. I changed dentists. The last office we were at, everything was super expensive, and just not affordable for us. And I'd heard that from other people about that place too. I also think that maybe they didn't do as good of a job on some of the work they had done as maybe they should have, which is frustrating and disappointing. And expensive. So today marked the day when Trey & Talin were due to see a dentist, especially since Talin had been complaining about two teeth that were hurting him for the last couple of weeks.

After picking up the kids early from school to bring them to see this new, and gratefully better (in my opinion) person whom I would trust my kids' smile with, Trey was selected to go first. Trying to be a bit efficient, I went through Talin's backpack with him while we were waiting for it to be his turn, got his homework done (can you believe they have homework in first grade?!?), practiced his spelling words, and then tried to put together this puzzle that was nine cubes, each with a piece of a different puzzle on them...a 6-in-1 puzzle! Why aren't there MORE of these?? But, after about 20 minutes of Trey being in back, the hygienist came and asked me to come talk to the dentist. This was it...the moment of truth...the deciding factor in whether we'd be back or not. I was greeted by a lady, the dentist, with a smile, introduction, handshake, and "Have we met before?" I don't think we have, but who knows? Then she informed me that Trey's teeth had somehow "lost" their sealants (remember the shoddy work I mentioned earlier?), and one filling was fractured, which seemed to cause him some discomfort when it was moved. Needless to say, I was thoroughly irritated about having paid a mint for this work to be done, only to have it be undone in such a short amount of time. She recommended a few fillings on each side, and new sealants, which I was happy to agree to, and silently prayed for God to have a vault full of money land on my car outside. I'd pay for a cab home then, no problem!

Then it was Talin's turn to go back, and Trey's turn to succumb to my efficiency kick and get his homework done while his younger brother was being inspected. Talin I knew was going to have issues. He grinds his teeth in his sleep, or at least he used to, I don't know if he still does or not since he hasn't lost any teeth lately. But that, I found out, was about to change. Talin will be losing one tooth for sure on November 7. I knew the blackening of his teeth wasn't a good sign, but I thought a filling or something would take care of it. Nope...it's decayed down to the root, which means it gets yanked so it doesn't cause him any more pain. Incidentally, the same tooth on the opposite side has the same problem, and will meet the same fate sometime shortly after the first one is pulled. Talin will also need some fillings, but just on one side. Whew!

I was then ushered out into the waiting area, where one of the two receptionists was going to have me sign my life, and probably body parts, away to her employer. I braced myself as she started going over the figures. I felt myself beginning to think of reasons why we couldn't possibly pay what they were asking. But then I was shown how much we'd actually owe, and told that if we pay in advance we are given a 5% discount. A discount? At the dentist? And a nice, helpful, friendly and understanding dentist at that?? I nearly fainted when the total amount for the fillings, sealants and extractions all came out to cost about the same as just one of those would have at our now former dentist's office. And I was thankful that the good Lord didn't drop a vault of money on my car, so we could get home. Okay, the vault of money wouldn't have been so bad LOL

Skippin Swimmin

Ever had one of your kids really look forward to doing something, only to blow it first chance they got? That happened with Trey yesterday, his first day of practice for the YMCA swim team.

The morning began the usual way, he got dressed, ate breakfast, got his teeth brushed and shoes on and fed the fish. But, this morning before he went out for the bus, we took some time to put a bag together with his swim trunks, a towel, his goggles, shampoo/body wash, a plastic bag for his wet stuff and a Zip-Loc with some strawberry Mini-Wheats in it for an after swimming snack. We stuffed that bag of swim team gear into his backpack, went over the routine of "Make sure you walk to the Y and don't take the bus home" about a thousand times, and off he went. Swim team practice got done at 4:00, so of course, this was the day I ran late at work. As soon as I finished I raced over to the Y as fast as I could, hoping that no well-meaning child abductor had conned my little guy into leaving with him. I had told him to wait for me on the bench in the entry way so he could see me when I drove up. So, imagine my surprise when I drive up and find NO TREY! Figuring my rather slow-to-move son may very well still be in the locker room, I went into the Y, opened the men's locker room door a crack (in order to avoid seeing any other 'cracks') and yelled into the men's room for him. No answer. Great. Now what? Maybe he was watching the more advanced swimmers practice, so I headed over to the pool observation area. I scanned the area for my scrawny blue-eyed baby, but no dice. Trying to push back thoughts of some scraggly guy with a 7 day beard and a jacket with more cigarette burns than filling dragging my kid out the door, I calmly asked at the front desk if anyone had seen Trey. Have you ever asked a stranger if they've seen your kid? You get that look like "Why don't you know where your own kid is?" and feel like the world's most incompetent parent because you didn't install an ESP GPS system between yourself and your child shortly after birth? Luckily Trey had introduced himself earlier at some point, because both of the girls behind the desk said "Oh, TREY! He's probably in the Teen Room." The what? The Teen Room, I learned, is a young boy's paradise. A room with a dance-pad video game system, exercise bikes and a sofa set up around a TV with kids shows on it, a foosball table, and other fun things for young kids and teens to do while they're waiting for their parents or whomever to come pick them up. This room proved to be Trey's Achille's heel that day, in that he was too weak to resist it's call. He went in there before swim team practice, ate his snack, then promptly forgot the entire reason he had even gone to the YMCA to begin with, and spent the entire 2 hours he was there in the Teen Room.

Rather than defy the laws of physics and hurl the kid into the stratosphere, Trey is grounded from video games at home and everywhere else except school, TV at home and everwhere else except school for the rest of the week. Or until he can remember to swim first, then go play in the Teen Room when he's all ready to get picked up! Apparently this was effective, as today I actually saw him practicing with the team in the pool, and was ready to take him home when he ambled out of the locker room. I think I'm gonna like Trey being on the swim team! Go CFY!

Mini Engineers

What do you get when you take four boys, and then add a chain and a log to a swingset? Here, let me show you:

Yes, that is four boys, two on each end of a log, suspended by a chain from the top of our swing set. Well, no one ever accused any of them of not being creative!! They all love the new "teeter-totter." Hey, who needs to spend money on attachments when you have mini engineers in the house??

Friday night didn't go quite as planned. Derrick wasn't hungry, so he didn't touch his spaghetti. Which meant I had no cute messy pictures to put up here. And he was crabby, so I didn't bother wasting the time to try and make him smile. Hopefully he'll be in a better mood next Saturday when we have his actual party!

Saturday marked cleaning day, which means the kids help maintain the house in which they produce mass destruction during the week. Even Derrick was helpful this weekend, and wiped down the kitchen cupboards...he's on the right path already! My brother came over and watched the boys while Bubba and I went on the closest thing to a date we've been on in months. We went to Menard's to look at new doors, since the need to replace the one in the kitchen is now at a critical point. There is no glass in that door right now where the window is supposed to be, just two pieces of plastic holding out the chill of fall, and things just seem to get colder from the point on. So, we found a door we like, and with any luck it'll be installed sometime next weekend. Then we swung through Wal-Mart, picked up the things we needed there, some we didn't need, and headed home. We had a friend and her kids (one of which is pictured above) over for dinner, and I later, on a whim, went out dancing with another girlfriend. We had a great time, we don't get much of a chance to go out together, so it was really great to hang out again with her. Hopefully more of that to come in the future! It was even an early...uh...morning...since we were home at 12:30 AM!

Today, Sunday, I was in charge of the Sunday School Service Project. This was my first one ever, so I had no idea what to expect. We had a nice turn-out, about a dozen kids or so, and our Service Project was to do fall clean-up outside around the church. I searched the congregation during church for the Sunday School director, but she wasn't there. Gulp! Great...now what?? I'm in charge of getting these kids, most under the age of 10, to be excited about cleaning up outside, when most of these kids probably have nightmares about cleaning up their own rooms. Okay...deep breath...I can do this. And apparently I did alright, becuase we had kids pick up the garbage along the road and along the tree line, we had kids and parents raking leaves in the back of the church, we had kids and parents raking leaves in the front of the church, we had kids cleaning the outsides of the windows all the way around the church, and everyone worked together to bag up 2 1/2 bags of leaves! I gave one of the moms $5 and asked her to please go to the store and grab some hot cocoa, since today was a little chilly and damp, and it started raining as we were finishing up, which she graciously did, and then I had three kids help her make the warm treat for the rest of the troops for when they were finished. On the way home, I was feeling a little unsure of my performance today as leader of the pack, so I asked my harshest critics...the boys. To my surprise, I got a "fine" from Talin, and a "really awesome" from Trey, and Talin said that Derrick thought I was "totally awesome" too (funny thing, I didn't hear Derrick's comment! LOL), which really made all of my anxiety about the day dissolve. I called the director later after I got home and let her know that all survived, and everyone was home in time to see the Packers LOL

Tomorrow is Trey's first swim team practice. I'm REALLY curious to see how this is going to go for him! I know he'll try hard, I know he wants to swim, I know I want to see him succeed, I know he looks better a nice pink flesh color and not blue. He's all packed up and ready to go...I just hope he remembers not to get on the bus home, cuz there's no swim practice here at home for him, unless he wants to practice in the tub!!

Off to bed...will write more tomorrow about Trey's first day of swim practice! Hope you all had a great weekend!!

Which Of These Is Different?

Here's an age-old kids game that never seems to lose it's allure...which one of these is not like the other? Ready? Here's the first picture:




Got it? Okay, now here's the other picture:



LOL This doesn't happen on a regular basis, so don't worry. I begged Bub to pose for this pic so I could have some fun with Derrick getting the last little bit of strawberry milk out of the carton, bypassing the trouble of getting a cuppy! LOL

We had a rather uneventful night last night, which was a nice change from the afternoon! While the two older boys were playing outside yesterday with a friend and I was inside working, these young Einsteins decide to use the push-button trunk release in our car to pop the trunk. This is apparently a ton of fun, and to add to the festivities, they decided to shut themselves in the trunk two at a time, so one was left to push the button and let them out. This fun did NOT last long, because as soon as I realized what was going on, I went outside, popped the trunk, yelled at the boys, shut the glove compartment, locked the doors (made sure the keys were out first!) and scolded them again about how dangerous that could have been. Then I went in the house to continue working, smirking to myself because I could totally see myself doing something like that when I was their age! LOL

Bubba treated us to China Buffet last night, since we hadn't been out as a family for awhile, and neither of us really felt like cooking by the time he got home. One of our baby sitters and her family walked in while we were eating, so it was nice to see them and chat for a little bit :o) She's one of the few who hasn't run screaming for the hills after 15 minutes alone with all three boys LOL She's actually considering sitting with the boys for us in a couple of weeks, so Bubba and I can get some adult time in away from the kids. Yay!! If this actually happens, I'm considering having the event added to the list of rare events in history! LOL

Today is Derrick's birthday, he's officially 3 now. It seems like he shouldn't be 3, he should be turning 1 or something...how can he possibly be 3??? So we'll be having spaghetti for supper tonight, Derrick's favorite! I'll be sure to take pictures and post them tomorrow! Three years old...wow!

Have a great Friday...and thank goodness for it!

The Great Marble Slide

Let's start today out with a picture, shall we??

Looks like a marble slide to me, doesn't it to you?? LOL This was my kids' marvelous idea for making a marble roll seamlessly down a flight of stairs, after rebouding it off the wall that hangs over the steps, which would in turn cause it to land in an exact location on one of the books and roll effortlessly down the slope of books. Of course, Trey thought it'd be a grand idea to first try having a human slide down this using a pillow case like a burlap bag, and volunteered himself to be the first to try this.. Visions of broken bodies laying at the bottom of the staircase flashed through my mind, not to mention my husband having a heart attack as soon as he saw this creative innovation, so I had them pick up the books and put them away before anything was able to be hurled down the "slide". They reluctantly complied, but of course this had to be done in the most complicated way possible...they pushed every book down the stairs, sorted them out as to who's book was who's, and then brought them upstaris to be put away, wrapped in blankets in order to get the whole load up in one trip. Whew!!

Last night we had a lot of fun though. I brought the two older boys to the YMCA so that Trey could practice swimming, as he's wanting to be on the swim team, and I'm not wanting him to drown during practice. We arrived a full half hour early, and not wanting to sit in the pool room in a swim suit I decided that maybe shooting some hoops in the gym would make the time pass faster. What a stroke of luck! I found out that Talin is really quite talented for being 6! I was practicing blocking him, gently at first, and then more aggressively, and he always came close to making a basket when he shot! Then I gave him the idea of trying to steal the ball from me, and he tried really hard at that, too! I was thrilled beyond words to see him doing so well at something that he was happy doing! So, I hope that somehow there's a way I can get him into basketball at some point, because I think he'd really do well with that.

Then we hit the pool, and we had a great time splashing around, swimming laps, and the kids had fun having me throw them around. What a couple of little fish we have! Bub stayed home this time since he wasn't feeling 100%, and that way he could get Derrick to bed on time also, since sleeping in until 9:30 like he had the last couple of days wasn't going to be an option for him since his three year old check-up was this morning. I still can't believe that tomorrow my baby will officially be a preschooler...where does the time go?!? I still can't believe that Trey is only one foot shorter than me at 9 years old!! Other than Derrick refusing to do his eye check, or maybe not understanding what he was supposed to do, and flat out refusing his hearing screen, his exam went well. I'm not at all worried about his vision or his hearing...he can see a treat hidden under 3 feet of laundry, and he can hear the word treat spoken in a 10 mile radius! He's 3 feet tall, weighs 30 pounds, and is doing great with his speech therapy. Yay! Only 2 feet and 3 inches left, and he'll have bypassed me in the height category, too! LOL But he's healthy, and he's happy most of the time, and that's what's important. And he's potty trained during the day, which is equally important as this keeps mommy & daddy happy, and keeps mommy's sanity level healthy LOL

Speaking of potty training, I'm told that his current behavior is normal and that he'll grow out of it. This little guy will hold his poop all day until after his bath, right before bed, when a pull up is put on him. Then he will go poop in his pull up, come downstairs from bed needing to be changed. The entire time he's being cleaned up, he'll say "Eww, stinky! Poop in toilet! Eww ucky!" There is no doubt in my mind after hearing that night after night that this child knows where he should be going poop, but refuses to! UGH! The other night Bub was cleaning him up, and when he was finished, Derrick stood up, pinched his nose and said "Eww, stinky poops!" I couldn't help but laugh at the look on Bub's face! LOL Someday....someday...poopy pants will be a thing of the past. Sad thing is, knowing me I'll probably miss 'em!

Puppy Says Squeak?

This morning started out eventfully enough. A constant squeak had me searching through the house looking for a mouse, only to discover the clip to the dog's tie out chain had somehow remained on her collar and the friction between the clip and the metal loop on her collar was making the squeaking noise! I was just grateful she hadn't swallowed a mouse whole. I mean, how do you teach a kid a puppy says "Arf" when its tummy is saying "Squeak?" LOL

Last night I finally drug myself to the grocery store with all three hungry kids in tow. We managed to make it out alive with only one smooshed loaf of bread out of three, one sit-down strike by Derrick after being refused a bag of chips, only two packages of cookies, about two tantrums from Derrick total, one trip to the restroom after Derrick's proclamation of "I go pee!" was as contageous as the flu, and me wondering a dozen times exactly WHY couldn't I feed my kids Halloween candy, cereal and apple pie for supper again?? I mean, that was available as soon as you walked in the door, and apples are good for you!! Oh yeah, dentist appointment next week. I could see my kids saying, "Our favorite supper was last week when Mom let us have candy, cereal and apple pie for supper, as much as we wanted!" The jingling sound of paying for the damage to teeth that they will lose in a year isn't music to my ears.

Speaking of which, if there were such a thing as tooth fairies, "Deal or No Deal" would have NOTHING on them!! I mean, we parents spend a MINT to keep our kids' teeth healthy, strong, and useable by way of fillings, crowns, cleanings, whatever needs to be done, just for them to fall out! Then, the tooth fairy comes and takes this little mine of precious materials and leaves what, 25 cents? If only I could be a tooth fairy...

Tomorrow is Derrick's three year old well child check with the doctor. My little boy is getting big so fast!! I'll write soon and let you know how that all goes!

Run, Run, As Fast As You Can!

Monday...it's not for wusses! Typically the groggiest day of the week is well known as the slowest day of the week. Today, however, took a dramatic twist from the norm. Today, I didn't manage to wake up, even to the alarm, until my kids were heading out the door to the bus. Upon dragging myself by the hair out of bed, it's very apparent that my husband will not be attending work today, as the torture bug has it's teeth sunk in DEEP to his immune system. I shuffled into the living room where I saw the baby, still sound asleep on the sofa, where he FINALLY crashed at 5:15 this morning, after an hour-long struggle of trying to stay awake at 4 AM. This contributed greatly to my inability to wake up on time! However, unlike my fair-haired child, I didn't have the luxury of sleeping in until 9:30 this morning! Nope, I hit the keys like a good girl and started work at 8 AM, while hubby and baby each slept on a sofa. While the puppies slept on the floor. While the kitties slept on the chair. I felt a bit left out!!
Then, 10:00 AM hit. I logged out from work to take a shower and get ready for my eye appointment. After taking my usual 20 minutes to shower and dress, Bub asked me if I'd take Derrick to the sitter's, which normally I would have, except that my eye appointment was in Eau Claire at 10:45, so I HAD to get a move on! Bub reluctantly (thankfully!) agreed to take Derrick to the sitter.
My eye appointment was predictable...my eyes are getting older and need more help seeing things the way they're supposed to. Oh, those glaucoma drops!! YUK! My eyes felt awful, and they hurt. So, to avoid any more unpleasantness, like the headache that was creeping up on me, I thought I'd treat myself to Taco Bell, for being a good girl and taking care of myself! Then I thought of Bub, sitting home by himself, sick, and decided he'd probably like something too...and then he couldn't be TOO upset with me! So, off to Taco Bell I went, then back to the office where my wonderful co-workers are, and I shared their lunch break with them. It was SUCH a nice time to see some of the folks again, and gab. Just like old times!
Then home, to finish more work, and feed Bubba, who wasn't really hungry, but found it in his heart...or stomach...to eat what I had brought him. Work, work, work...kids come home from school! I sorted through their backpacks and shipped them outside to play for awhile, while I finished up work. I worked until 5, and this, folks, is where the night really began.
I left home at 5:50, got to parent/teacher conferences in time to start Trey's conference at 6, with all three boys so Bub could rest in peace, went to the book fair the school was having, attended Talin's conference, went to the Y to drop of Trey's permission slip to try the swim team next week, drove over to McDonald's for supper, sprayed $10 in the car for gas while inhaling my double quarter pounder, shot across the highway to pick up some medicine for Bub's cold, swung into Gordy's to get some soup for him...cuz chicken noodle soup cures every cold...then finally was able to drag all of us home only to pursue a new sport called speed bathing in order to have all three kids in bed before 8:30!
Now, most people would think I'm here relaxing, taking it easy before turning in for the night. Nope. I will be here, typing away, making up the 2 1/2 hours I still have to make up from my eye appointment WAY back at 10:45 this morning. (Remember that part??) I think I can't wait until the kids can drive! LOL Hope you all had a great Monday, and not nearly as hectic as this one was for us!