Slump

Sorry for not posting as often as usual...kinda just been in a little slump. I've been reading everyone else's blogs and not taking the time to post my own. LOL.

Quick catch-up

Yesterday, KC called at 2:15 and said he had to make a quick trip down to *a town about 2 hours away* to pick up some stuff for work and did I want to go with him? I said sure, why not. So I rounded up the kids, threw some snacks and drinks in a bag and we left at 3. Took a few VERY LONG detours out of the way, thanks to some bad directions on Mapquest, but finally found the place and picked up his stuff. Headed back home and when it was obvious that there was no way we would be able to make it back to church (at 6:30, we were two hours away from home and trying to find somewhere to eat.....somewhere accessible.....this town had a real problem with making you drive around the world to get somewhere and very difficult to turn around anywhere if you changed your mind. LOL), we decided to just go ahead and stop at a couple of stores to try to find a new comforter set for our room. Got home around 9:15.

Today was Munchkin's day to go to the school with K-man (different class now that she's four though), so I decided it would be a good day to get my errand-running done. Things like getting my hair trimmed, that is much more challenging when you have kidlets along for the ride. Anywho, I tried to go pick out and buy some paint for Munchkin's room, but ended up leaving with just a bunch of samples. We were going to go with green, but after getting in there and looking at the paint samples and trying to match them up with the pillow sham that I took in with me, I really wasn't loving green. For one thing, it looked totally UN-girly. After looking at the samples, I was feeling the urge to buy pink....the one color KC was completely against. So I knew better than to just buy it....I decided to bring the samples I liked home and let HIM come to an agreement with me before I purchased. LOL. Smart, huh? Yeah, well....I've learned a few things in the almost seven years we've been married. Actually, sometime in the next week or two, it will be seven years exactly from the date that we got back together for the third time and "got serious." *grin* BUTTTTTT......THAT's an ENTIRELY different topic altogether. LOL!

So there you go. TOTAL random ramblings.

We're gonna hit publish and call it a post. LOL. Sorry if it disappoints you....what can I say? It's a talent of mine. ;-)

Later!

Humph.

I hung a curtain rod tonight. That included removing the old one, lining up the new one and discovering I'd have to make a new set of holes, figuring out which anchors to use, drilling a hole in the wall (special thanks to Morgan for the refresher in changing a drill bit...hahaha), screwing the new brackets in the wall........yada yada yada.

I hung a curtain rod. I can do anything. (ROFL!!!!)

Well, my hubby is home from all the way across the country (the great state of Washington on an overnight trip --- doesn't that just make you tired thinking about it? Yeah, me, too!) Well, anyways, he's home, and he's about to hit the sack, so I am just going to post a bunch of pictures from the very busy last few days and try to keep the words to minimum tonight. *grin* IF I can. HA!


K-man's room project: BEFORE























K-man's room project: AFTER (I LOVE IT!!!)






















The fat cat likes the bunkbed, too....he's already found a favorite spot. *GRIN*





















A random picture of my beautiful sunflower....these poor things...somehow they've managed to survive, although I'm not sure how....I never did transplant them to something besides the 12 inch pot I planted them in originally.....I think there are about 6 or 8 stout sunflowers in this pot.....I wonder if they might be rootbound....they didn't grow very tall. HAHA.

And last, but CERTAINLY not least.....the Munchkin's room. New bedspreads (Thanks again, Sis. T....I LOVE them) and the matching valances, which we had to go buy the panels to match to keep the room darker for Munchkin to sleep. And of course, you can't see it under the curtains, but you know it's there....the infamous "Faith-hung" curtain rod. *GRIN* The shelves above the bunk don't match the new stuff, but I'm very seriously contemplating painting them with my acrylic paints to match the rest of the room. The Barbie Dream House will just have to clash....I'm not even going to think about changing ITS color. *smiles* And I'm not certain if the walls in here will get repainted or not....it'll be a little while....I'm not really feeling the paint itch at this moment. LOL.

Kay....that's it. I'm done. We've been very busy bees around here. In between all this, when Morgan wasn't helping me do this stuff, we redesigned her blog header, and did the math tutoring stuff.....got through 6 lessons, she got all her homework assignments done, AND we went over a bonus lesson right before she left and she took an "extra credit" lesson for homework. Way to go, Morgan! And thanks again for all your help. Couldn't have done it without ya, chicka.

Oh yeah, the Mexican Macaroni was a HIT at the church dinner on Sunday, and for the girls that have asked about the recipe....I'll try to make that a post with a picture very soon....*grin*

Going to bed now.....Later!

Naturally.

In a season of drought, the day that it WOULD have to rain.....would be today. I'm sure that has to be one of Murphy's Laws. LOL.

So I got up at 5:30 AM, got myself ready and got the K-man up and left by 6:30, got to the fleamarket at 10 till 7, unloaded all of THIS:

K-man quote getting into the car: "How'd you DO this, mommy????"

And after 2 hours, it started raining. Just a drizzle. Kinda like we were hanging out under a soaker hose....you wouldn't think a little drizzle could be so wet! So by 10, when the downpour started and it was obvious the rain was going to be sticking around for a few hours, we packed up our wet things and hightailed it out.

The good news, in that somewhat dampening 3 hours, I managed to sell a good bit of the more valuable, large sized things, which made the return trip less crowded and somewhat richer. Like $150 richer....LOL. The bad news, we finally found a used bunk bed on craigslist (about 50 miles from us) that we can use for K-man's room and we went and got it tonight....$200. So my $150 walked right out the door almost faster than it walked in....with interest. Ain't that the way it goes???

The bunkbed is a Lexington brand....it's a little beat up, but still in good shape and included the mattresses, which you can't beat. Plus, we got there and realized that it's a lower L-shaped bunk instead of the regular height bunk beds (I thought the picture they sent us was just distorted...LOL!).

This is the picture they sent us.....this is not K-man's room, although when I get it painted, it will be some shade of blue....Anyhoot, it's perfect for the K-man b/c if, by some chance, he manages to roll over the rails, it's not that far down, plus he'd very likely just land on the lower bed.

Well, then tonight I made two of those ice cream cakes (one for the carry-in dinner at the church tomorrow, and one for a little joy for KC and me...hehehehe), so that took me a little while.

I am supposed to make a casserole, too, but I figured I'd be forgiven if I run out of time on the casserole....I'm still going to try to fit it in...probably before church in the morning. Being as how I've been out of bed before 6:30 for 2 days in a row now, I figure...hey, why break the rhythm now...LOL.

I am super, SUPER tired though. Moving all that yardsale stuff back and forth, grocery shopping while it rained, going and getting that bunk bed (which was upstairs in an old house and not quite completely taken apart yet....well, it took a bit of maneuvering and several trips up and down the stairs to get it all outside to the truck....and then there was loading and unloading it), getting home and doing the dishes and then making those cakes and doing the dishes again....

Well...it's been a day. I'm ready to go to bed. I'm sure I'll HAVE to go see if there's anything interesting been posted today, first, though. LOL. But after that, then bed. *grin*

Later!

Breathe....just breathe.....

Wow.

So I packed the car up tonight to go to the flea market. Maybe tomorrow, when it is daylight, MAYBE, I will get the chance to take a picture of it when I get to the fleamarket before I start unloading it. It will take forever to get all of it unloaded, organized, and spread out on the tables.

I still have two boxes and two bags of clothes and a rocking horse that won't make it in this time. Maybe another sale. I sure hope I can get rid of at least HALF of that mess so I won't have to spend another two hours trying to get it all to fit back in the car to bring home. LOL!

You would not believe the car, though....I had to leave K-man's carseat in, since he gets to tag along with me (Munchkin's at Mawmaw's again) but the poor guy will have barely an inch of space around him. It is literally packed floor to ceiling. I had to un-bag the garbage bags of clothing and sheets and wedge them in all the cracks between/under/around/on top of the boxes, to make use of every available square inch of space. It is hilarious.

In other news, sorry for disappearing off of here for a few days. I had the V-kirk syndrome....computer time was at a premium around here the last few days. Hahaha. Nah, it was fine...I just didn't get a chance to get on here much. We had a couple of boys staying with us for a few days while our friends were out of town, and they were on the computers every chance they got, I wasn't mad about it though. There were lots of other things that I needed to be doing besides playing on the computer. Haha.

There really hasn't been much else going on....oh yeah, I've got a handful of new "IRL" bloggers on my list in the sidebar....YAY! Go give some comment love to the two I added this week: Susan and Tracy....I'm sure they'd really appreciate it.

Heh. Got caught up in surfing after I linked those guys and forgot about this post....LOL. Figured I should come back and hit post...since I'm obviously fresh out of interesting topics. *GRIN*

Later!

PS A K-man funny from tonight. I was walking with him in the store, he was holding my hand and he kinda walked a little in front of me and my pinkie toe stubbed on the back of his shoe...it was quite painful. I was like ow ow ow and tried to keep walking but I was in a bit of pain cuz I caught the back of his shoe pretty hard when he says, "Stop whinin', mommy!" It took about 5 seconds for it to register what he said (ya know...the pain and all...LOL) but when it finally registered, I was like...hey whoa up here, that's MY line! You can't tell ME that! ROFL.

Ten on Tuesday: Un-favorite Celebs

This week's Ten on Tuesday is Least Favorite Celebrities. This should be fairly easy. Actually, I could probably list good reasons to dislike a WHOLE lot more than ten. LOL. This will just be the top ten Un-Favorites. Hehehe...not like they care or anything.

(oh yeah, and in the list below, under 18 -- don't click on the links. It's a Christian site, but the content is for adults who are trying to find out the truth in order to protect their kids. It's not whitewashed.)
1. Madonna - nuff said
2. Britney Spears - pretty much the same for this one....these guys can't stay out of the news longer than a few days, can they? Discusting.
3. Any and all of those preteen girls that play up the "good girl" image and then go wild....blah blah blah....if you're gonna do that, don't spend all your time playin' up the image.
4. Heath Ledger - I don't wanna speak ill of the dead, but he is still on my un-favorites.
5. Billy Crudup - it's all in the name for that one. Yuck.
6. Kid Rock - yuck. how obscene.
7. Colin Farrell - ugh. Irritating.
8. Mike Myers/Austin Powers - Beyond irritating, not to mention vulgar. Ew.
9. Paris Hilton - I don't think I've ever heard or seen anything remotely good about her.
10. Tom Cruise - He seems to be way out there...religion, romance....plus he's just plain annoying.

This is one chick that is very thankful it's their world and not mine. I'd hate it. For multiple reasons.

B +

Dear Monday,
You were so typical. I think you just deserve a big fat positive list cuz you're just not going to do that to me.

1. I got to sleep in a few minutes extra.
2. I woke up in a good mood, despite having a headache and it stuck around for a few hours longer than normal.
3. Munchkin gets to go to play with her friends one day a week (for the weeks when we'll be in town) until More@Four starts for the school year. She was really excited about that. She is driving me crazy for wanting me or SOMEBODY to play with her 24 hours a day and after half an hour playing, I'm going nuts anyways. LOL.
4. The floor isn't sticking to my feet anymore and the hairball remnants on the carpet in the bedroom are now residing somewhere in the vacuum cleaner.
5. There's two less piles of dirty clothes to look at or think about....and they're actually folded and put away, no less.
6. I didn't have to cook supper. Hallelujah.
7. Munchkin put her book away at bedtime and turned off her light without being reminded.
8. K-man put "ew gross" in the potty yesterday morning....the first deliberate time.
9. I have a husband to pester me. (absolutely NO SARCASM THERE, WHATSOEVER)
10. My headache finally went away....roughly about the same time my husband went to bed....hahahahaah....that was absolutely kidding. It went away LONG before that point, thank God.

Anyhoot.

Sis Dawn wrote a song that is running through my head today....particularly the first lines...."I'm so tired of all the rain, it just keeps pourin' down on me" although I don't remember the next lines, the chorus goes something like:

But it's still God who holds my hand,
It's still God who helps me stand,
Through the sunshine and rain,
Gonna call upon Your name,
You know my needs and You're still God

It's beautiful....and so true.

Going to bed now....
Later.

*sigh*

Well....Friday night. Home late from church. Headache. Not fun.

May or may not take junk pile to fleamarket in the morning. Somewhat uncomfortable doing it by myself, so I guess if Wen doesn't have time to do it with me in the morning, I'll just sleep in. No sweat. But that means a whole 'nother week of looking at this pile of junk. UGH.

I went through the final cabinets today....although I guess if I have another week before massive junk sale, I could go through the kitchen again. LOL.

Today was the bathroom cabinets and hall closet (the drawers with toiletries and first aid stuff....I found a couple of inhalers that have been expired for over 4 years....and some other first aid products and zit creme that had expiration dates in 2002 or before. EEK. Guess that was a much needed cleaning. LOL.

One thing I've noticed in cleaning out all these places that are generally "out of sight, out of mind" is that I have a lot of duplicates....for example, you know those plug-in things that are nightlights/fragrances? Well, they take refills. I found refills for those things in all of the following places: under the kitchen sink, in one of the end tables in the living room, in the laundry room, in the linen closet, under the bathroom sink. And no, they weren't stored in all of those places so that they would be close by where there was a plug-in. LOL. Now they are ALL in a basket over the dryer that is neatly labeled: FRAGRANCES. Along with all the bottles of air fresheners that were stored in all of those same places where the plug-in refills were. Of course, there were a few exceptions to the spray bottles of air freshener....I left one in each bathroom and in the stinky diaper-wearing kid's room. Maybe sometime I'll take a picture of all my neat organization skills at work. I should probably do that before it all gets messed up again, but I think I'll wait until I've had time to clean a little more. Like the spray and wipe kind of clean as opposed to the clutter removal kind of clean. Cuz I cleaned out the bathrooms today, but they are not "clean" yet. *smiles* I guess if I don't go to the fleamarket tomorrow, it will be a good time to work on "cleaning" and the car could use some help in that department, too.

Sheesh. Five o'clock doesn't mean quittin' time anymore *SIGH*

I do find myself sticking my head in the laundry room just to smell it though. I "clean" cleaned it when I cleaned out the clutter yesterday, so now it smells like clean laundry. Of course, that smell may be coming from the half a dozen bottles of air freshener that is now stored in the laundry room (my favorite --and hence, most often bought-- air freshener is "clean laundry"....hehehehehe). Whatever the reason, I find this cleaning thing to be rather addicting.

Unfortunately, I'm running out of "fun" things to organize. I guess I'm going to be reduced to organizing the dust bunnies underneath the couch next. LOL. Kidding. About organizing them, not about their existence...AHAHAH.

Sorry. It's late. Getting kinda.....well....you know. I don't have to spell it out.

I feel an urge to go get the camera and take a picture of my laundry room. I wish I could put a scratch and sniff on this blog.....*GRIN* Okay. So that won't happen, but here's some pictures. LOL. I wish I had taken "before" pictures, but suffice it to say that my 'ever-so-observant' Munchkin got up from her nap and wanted to know when I got a new dryer. ROFL. That's pretty bad, huh? I was like, honey, it's the same dryer, I just washed it off. LOL.

The big picture: including my "new" dryer. LOL!

And look, ain't it gorgeous? I love baskets. They make miscellaneous little pieces of this and that look all neat.
And "anal" me....had to sort the hangers by color and style, too. ROFL. I love it.
And that's it. What can I say...it's not a very big room. Maybe I'll do a full house tour of the rest of my organization projects after I get all the cleaning done. And next time, I'll try to remember to take "before" shots. That is, IF I let it get that nastified again. Hahaha.

Okay....KC's gone to bed before me again. I beat him last night, but I didn't blog last night. LOL. Anyways, i guess I'll go now. I wasn't in a very good mood and didn't feel like blogging, but there is something about doing this that is very therapeutic. Don't ask me what it is, cuz I have no idea. LOL. All I know is my headache is almost gone (of course, that might have been the Excedrin that took care of that part) and my mood is much lighter. It's all good. Now I'm going to bed.

Night, dear blog.

Total Randomness

It is so late. It is very odd, but I find myself looking at the clock at 11:11 a lot. And every time I do, I think...hah.....there is the four ones again.

Hey. I warned you that it would be random tonight.

I cleaned out my nightstand last night. Found the journal I was working on right before I started blogging several years ago.

Read several entries in the journal and decided that if I've got to read something, my journal is not it. Blogging is working much better for me.

Footwashing service was tonight. Me, being my general non-serious self, noted, as Morgs was ever so sweetly washing K-man's feet, "ooh, that water is very warm.....it's gonna make him pee....so much for potty training." Teeehehe.....

On a more serious note, I'm not being disrespectful of the service, I'm all about serving and humility, it just has just always meant more, in my tiny mind anyways, to serve people in other ways. For example, cleaning someone's toilet seems to be more of a humility-proving task than sprinkling water over their already cleaned feet. Humility-proving, in that, I would be completely humiliated if someone cleaned my toilet. LOL. Just kidding on that last part of course. On the other hand, I'm always more comfortable serving than being served, so I'd much rather be cleaning someone else's toilet than that someone else cleaning mine. Unless of course, that someone else was KC, then I don't care. How did I get on toilets? Must get off. *grin*

In other news, one of our summer trip plans has been settled....I'll be spending a week in NY with my parents and the kids at Grandma's and leaving the honey at home. After doing the math related to the expenses we've got and the income we don't, we decided it would be a better plan for me to take the kids and go with my parents, so KC wouldn't have to use up any vacation time, plus it will make the trip cheaper b/c it won't be a "drive up 14 hours, visit 12, sleep 6, and then drive home 14 hours" waste of time. I'm kind of excited. Should be an interesting trip, and doing it this way will be much more relaxing. Well, as relaxing as one can get, on a trip with a two year old and four year old. LOL.

Another little munchkin funny....apparently she is obsessed with voices. Tonight, I had the kids sit and listen instead of playing with toys the whole service (I occasionally do that b/c they observe much more under these circumstances, and their observations generally keep me occupied and/or chuckling for most of the service....LOL). Anywho, so munchkin is sitting there listening and she looks up at me, very seriously, and says, "Mommy? Bruder Ken has a BOOOOtiful voice!" And then goes back to listening. LOL.

K-man's court was continued. Three more months of waiting. *huge sigh*

I have GOT to have a yardsale. SOON. I might be getting a little crazy with my getting rid of stuff. I find myself digging through everything to see if there might be something else I don't use. I'm sick of clutter. *sigh* At this point, it's not about the money....space is money. If I don't use it, it doesn't matter if I wasted money on it....it's going away so that I'll have room for what I DO use. It's that simple. Wendy.....what are you doing Saturday? Wanna meet me at the fleamarket?

The PMS continues. Someone needs to inform Munchkin that arguing with mom and then throwing a fit because mom said stop arguing is NOT a good stunt to pull on the PMS days.

Gotta mow the two strips of lawn that somehow missed the memo that there was drought. I was going to do that today but I took the kids to have lunch with Daddy and by the time I got back, and got the kids down for nap, I didn't have time to go out and get all icky and then come back in and shower and get ready all over again to take the kids to storytime and then church after that. So I decided to play on my computer. It was a really tough decision. LOL. But I'll do it tomorrow, Lord willin.

I also need to put that crazy rock back in its spot in the ditch. It's turned sideways (I think it might have gotten drove over....although I have no idea who couldv'e done such a thing...LOL!!) but it's a massive rock and it sticks up over all the rest, particularly now that it's out of place, which drives me nuts every time I go in or out the drive.

I wonder if KC got the mail today. He's already asleep or I'd ask him.

Speaking of sleep....it's kinda a lot past 11:11 now, so I'm going to go to bed.

Night.

Ten on Tuesday: Vacation Memories

Ten Memorable Vacation Memories (in no particular order....I feel like everything, these days, is in no particular order...hahahaha)

1. Getting bit by a crab while playing in the shallow water somewhere off the Outer Banks on one of our family vacations when I was really little. It happened like three or four times and nobody believed me, so I'd get back in and it would happen again. Finally dad watched the water around me and saw it get me. Since it wasn't getting anyone else, I can only assume I must have been the best tasting. LOL.

2. Riding the ferry to Ocracoke Island on another one of those family vacations.

3. Daddy's "short-cuts" that weren't so short. Funny thing is, I tend to do the same thing when I drive now....and not just on vacation. LOL.

4. Las Vegas in August 05. Actually, that entire trip was memorable....for several different reasons....some pleasant, some not so. Like the poison ivy all over my leg and arm that oozed the entire trip and sent me to a little urgent care place while we were out there....yeah...that was "not so." Teehehe.

5. Dustin and YaYa driving down for a second weekend with us while we were at Myrtle Beach last summer. The moat they dug around their beach mats while KC, Munchkin, and I built the pyramid and sphinx a few yards away.....LOL. Good times.

6. Our anniversary trip to Pigeon Forge in which we discovered that our cabin was pretty much perched on the side of a mountain and we spent the entire weekend hoping it wouldn't snow or else we'd have been stuck for ages. Other than that, it was a great cabin to spend an anniversary in....

7. Walking up the sidewalk in Gatlinburg on our honeymoon in the dead of December, doing the touristy thing with our faces freezing off. And both of us not wanting to say anything to the other one b/c we though they wanted to do that, so we both just suffered and went on. LOL.

8. Burying Munchkin in the sand and then building a mermaid body on her last summer on our first summer vacation with her.

9. Also on that first summer vacation with her....holding her down to keep her from hurting herself or anyone/anything, in the car while she had a massive tantrum and screamed at us. I seriously hope this beach vacation doesn't trigger any more of those flashbacks (which is what we assume happened the last time).

10. The time we spent together in the massive hotel/casino in Las Vegas. Well, we didn't really spend a lot of time in the casino, but just walking through it leaves a pretty vivid memory...LOL.


WHEW. That was difficult. I was drawing a blank toward the end. We always go to the same places, so all the vacations start blending together after awhile. LOL.

Anyways, so there's something that will work for a post. I've been in a rather rotten mood (okay, so it's PMS) over the last couple of days and it's not really left me in the mood to write....or at least to write anything good...OR to do anything else for that matter. LOL.

KC has been laughing at me b/c it seems like this month I've really been a grouch. He thinks it's funny as long as it's not directed at him. He really got a kick on Sunday when I was driving and pulled up at the drive thru after church. I was waiting in line to order, when a car pulled up behind me. Some young punk with his windows down and his music so loud that I'm sure windows were rattling several miles away. I was aggravated, and glared at him in my side mirror a couple of times but he didn't get the picture. So right before I pulled up to order, I rolled my window down and stuck my head out and yelled at him to "TURN IT DOWN.. . ...PLEASE! {long pause} Thank you." He gave me a weird look (which is when I added the please) and then a couple of seconds of me glaring at him and waiting, and then he turned it down (which is when I said thank you). I pulled my head back in the car to find KC staring at me. "What??? I said 'PLEASE,'" I said, to which he busted out laughing, and then I just pulled up and ordered, as calmly as you please. After I got done ordering and pulled up to pay, the guy turned it back up. KC was like, what are you going to do now? "I don't care now," I said, "I'm done ordering. If the guy behind me can't hear, HE'LL have to yell at the dude." LOL.

Moral of the story. Don't make me mad when I'm PMS'in. Haha.

Anywho. I'm going to go to bed now. KC's already sawing logs over there, so I'm gonna get him moving and get both of us to bed. LOL.

Night!

Wild Weekend

As the official picture taker, I managed to be the only chaperone that never got on the other side of the camera. LOL. Good thing....I looked pretty rough by the end of the day, so I'd rather not have been recorded. LOL. I rode everything with the kids except the Hurler....including all the water rides...so I looked like a wet rat for a good part of the afternoon. LOL. Anyways....here's the pictures of the kids. It felt REALLY strange to be one of the "responsible adults" and not one of the kids....Haha. Anyway, on with the pictures...(in no particular order)

Aaron, Devin, Anna, Wendy on Ricochet

Morgan, Hannah getting ready to ride Vortex

Trying to keep the group together walking through the park....

Matt, Hannah, Aaron on Drop Zone (which by the way was my personal fav)

again....

Drop Zone getting ready to come down

Matt, Devin (I think), Casey, April Sa getting ready to take off on the Cyclone

April Sw, Brianna, Hannah, Morgan coming back into the Ricochet station

Anna, Matt, Casey, Aydan...candid shot...LOL

Matt and Aaron coming down the first hill on the Hurler

Aydan....mister cuteness, having some lunch out of a can....mmmm

Tim waving as the Hurler goes up

A bunch of our guys coming down in this train....the hurler again

April Sa coming around on the old Top Gun (now they call it Afterburn...only we kept thinking they were saying Afterbirth....ROFL!!!)

Morgan in front of us as we're going up the first hill on Thunder Road. This was the first time we rode, the second time we were on the other side and it stopped at the top and scared us all. LOL

Coming back into the station on Thunder Road....April and her aunt, don't know that guy behind them, and then Hannah and Devin

Group shot....everybody except me and Bro Preston
Again....Brianna, Hannah, Morgan, Aaron, Devin, Wendy, Regina, Sally, Anna, Matt, Casey & Aydan, April Sa, Mariano, Tim, April Sw


The Wild Thornberry or something....whatever it was, it was not worth the hour wait since nobody but ME got wet (thanks to Bro Tim standing up in the back as we went down so the front end of the log went in the water and splashed us all), anyway, this was Morgan, Hannah, Regina, and Anna.

April Sa, Casey, Sally, Brianna

Morgan peering back as their log goes up....

April Sa....looks like somebody is gonna get the elbow....

Woops....overblown shot. Matt, with his usual glare, TRYING not to smile for the camera....LOL.

The first ride of the day....the Borg....(only it was renamed the Nighthawk or something)....it was our kids in lanes 2-5....

Bro Preston squeezes his eyes shut in terror (lol...just kidding) as we get ready to go around on Rocket Power

The youth leaders: Sis Regina, Bro Preston.....love that expression....HAH!

April Sa and Casey waiting in line for the log ride....there was plenty of time for me to be bored and play with the camera during this wait.....LOL

And more playing in the same line...

Anyway.....so there ya have it....the wild bunch. Left at 7:30 and got home at 11. VERY long day...and very tired. *SIGH*

And we all survived. Back to normal posting later....this took all my effort.

Later.

Updated To-Do List

To Do List: (as of 7/11)

• Finish cleaning out K-man's closet CHECK
• Clean out K-man's room CHECK
• Finish cleaning out Munchkin's closet CHECK
• Go through the enormous pile of sheet sets that are stashed in at least 5 different locations through the house and see how many complete sets I have and just keep a couple for each bed.
• Laundry PARTIAL CHECK (Working on it now....and there are two loads that are waiting to be folded....LOL. At least they're clean)
• Look online again for a bunkbed for K-man's room (which is going to be swapped again so that when he goes to a big bed, he will go straight to the full size bottom bunk which is in Munchkin's room -- only it will be his room at that point...have I confused you yet?)
• Clean out the living room "junk drawers"
• Get all the yardsale stuff together PARTIAL CHECK (The pile has grown some since yesterday)
• Decide if I'm going to have a yardsale this Saturday or if I'm going to go to Carowinds with the church kids (Morgan and Wendy are quite convincing....except I don't want to drive, so I guess that will be the deciding point....if there's a spot for me to ride. And the roof is out. LOL) CHECK (Well, Wendy decided for me....I'm going to Carowinds...hopefully it will be fun. LOL)
• Work on the next edition of the church newsletter PARTIAL CHECK (Did a couple articles....going to work more on it now, while Munchkin is napping today)
• Munchkin's storytime CHECK
• Appt at the Health Department about the kids (thankfully I don't need to take BOTH of them for this one) CHECK (AND I managed to get Munchkin's teeth cleaned in between this appointment and storytime AND go to Walmart AND end up with a few minutes to spare in which we sat in the car and had a snack before storytime. LOL....am I good or what?)
• Pay bills CHECK

Wow. I didn't realize how close I was to getting all the things done. Hooray. However, I think I might be satisfied with just doing more work on the partial checks and then completing them NEXT week. LOL.

Off to get busy now. =)

So Much To Do

Wow. It has been a busy week. And I still have a lot to do.

To Do:
Finish cleaning out K-man's closet
Clean out the living room "junk drawers"
Get all the yardsale stuff together
Decide if I'm going to have a yardsale this Saturday or if I'm going to go to Carowinds with the church kids (Morgan and Wendy are quite convincing....except I don't want to drive, so I guess that will be the deciding point....if there's a spot for me to ride. And the roof is out. LOL)
Work on the next edition of the church newsletter
Munchkin's storytime
Appt at the Health Department about the kids (thankfully I don't need to take BOTH of them for this one)
Pay bills

Seems like there is more that I needed to get done....I need to go check the notes I jotted down last week in the car.

Yesterday, Morgan stayed with me and we went to the Laundromat and washed all the bedspreads and extra blankets that haven't been washed in AGES and were desperately in need of it. While we waited on the stuff to wash, Munchkin played with her toys and Morgan worked on her math with occasional pauses for tutorage....LOL.

Then last night, was SNO (sisters night out) with a bunch from church. That was fun...had some new ones last night....it was great. A couple of sisters didn't make it b/c of other plans, they were missed.

I need to hop off here and work on the church newsletter b/c I don't really have the time to work on the other projects that are on my list and still get everything lined up for the appointments and storytime today. EEK. I've got to figure out how I'm gonna get the munchkin a nap in that small time frame. LOL.

Later.

I'm Alive

I got a phone call earlier today. It was my mom. Now that I don't work in the same workplace as she does anymore, I don't get a chance to talk to her quite as much. It's been a few days since I've had a chance to call. So she left a message on my phone.

Something along the lines of....hey, you haven't updated your blog in days and I haven't heard anything from you either, just checkin to see if you're alive.

LOL. I called her back and assured her that, yes. I AM alive. Just insanely busy.

Doing things like making this. And then REALLY enjoying it. *GRIN* Oh my. Out of this world.

And Sunday....church, eating out with friends, nap, church.

And going swimmin at Mo-gi's today with Munchkin (and that was after getting up, taking the K-man to school, coming back to the house and flying into cleaning frenzy to get the house in shape after the weekend and hurrying so I could get to Mo-gi's by 10:30).And then helping Mo-gi with her math. And then coming home and starting supper and suddenly realizing that one of Munchkin's best little friends (in her mind anyways....he's a boy and I think he thinks she has cooties) had a birthday party tonight that I was totally unprepared for, given that I'd already started supper, both kids were discustingly in need of a bath (not to mention pool hair'ed me) and the party was in half an hour....at a location half an hour away. Yes, this is how my days go.

Speaking of the day....it's not quite over. Mo-gi is staying the night and working on her math and about ready for me to come over and look over her work again to see what kind of homework the mean tutor is going to give her for the next week. *GRIN*

So I'm off.

Later.

Random Conversations

This morning while getting ready to eat breakfast:
Mommy: "Do you want to pray, Munchkin?"
Munchkin: "Yes. Thank you for this food, bless our bodies, Amen. (pause) Oh yeah, bless Bruder Ken, Amen. (pauses and looks up to find me looking at her strangely b/c she very very rarely puts any addendums on her prayers) Mommy, Bruder Ken need pwa-er today."
Mommy (chuckling a little bit): "Yes, honey, that was very good of you."


While I was changing a yucky diaper:
Mommy: "Why did you do *'ew gross' in your diaper instead of the potty?"
K-man: "Cu I sai so."
Mommy (trying NOT to crack a smile): "K-man, no, you don't tell mommy that."
*ew gross is his term for poo....I guess because every time I change his diaper, it's discusting and I say "ew, GROSS." LOL!!!


When I got into the car after loading up four bags of trash in the back to take to the dump:
Munchkin: "Good GOB (job), mommy! You have BIG muscles. When I grow up, I have big muscles like you, right?"


After watching Daddy put a bandaid on his finger:
Munchkin: "Daddy, you need Bruder Ken to pway for your finger. I'll tell him he needs to pway for you, kay?" (Then she tracks me down on the other end of the house and explains the situation with daddy's finger to me and says "Mommy, I 'mind (remind) Bruder Ken to come pway for daddy's finger, kay?")

(for some reason, she is stuck on "Bruder Ken" today...LOL...she prayed for "Bruder Ken and Kiter {Sister} Tesa" tonight at bedtime, too....after she asked me who all to pray for and I said, how bout the boys who stayed with us the other night, so she prayed for the boys and then added on the other ones....and then was like oh yeah and Kiby and Mo-gi. LOL!!!)


After leaving the bluegrass music this evening, sitting in the car while Daddy's pumping gas:
(a little history is that "Uncle Wally," which is what munchkin calls a guy I used to work with that I was talking to at the festival, was kidding around with the munchkin after I told him we were heading off to take our hot and grumpy kids to the air conditioned grocery store to pick up some much needed groceries and tells her, "Okay, I need toilet paper and laundry powder.....oh and FROSTED Flakes, too. Did you get all that?" Of course, she giggled, so I thought she caught on to the fact that he was kidding.....LOL.....okay so back to the car scene:)
Munchkin: "Mom, don't forget, when we get to the store, Unca Waw-we needs to'wet paper and.....um....what else?"
Mommy: "Frosted Flakes."
Munchkin: "YEAH. Fwosted Fwakes and.....um....what else?"
Mommy (laughing): "Honey, Uncle Wally was just playing with you. He doesn't really want you to get all those things for him."
Munchkin: "Nuh UH, he needs to-wet paper!!"
Mommy: "I'm sure if he needs it, he'll get it the next time he goes to the grocery store."
Munchkin (insistently): "No, he needs it NOW!"
Daddy gets in the car and hears the gist of the conversation and chuckles with mommy.
Daddy: "Really, Munchkin, he was kidding with you."
Munchkin: "Oh."

LOL!!! Funny....she believed Daddy. Haha.

Oh and here's an adult conversation in the grocery store that was slightly humorous:
Bag Boy (talking to me): "That's a cool shirt!" (I was wearing a company shirt from the place where I used to work)
Me: "Oh, thanks."
Bag Boy: "How much did you have to pledge to get one of those?"
Me (shrugging): "Well, I used to work there, so I kinda got it for free."
Bag Boy: "WOW. COOL! What did you do there?"
Me (laughing now): "Uh....well....designed these shirts."
Bag Boy: "Hey, that's really cool!"
Me (still laughing): "Well, thanks."

*EDITED TO ADD PHOTO....I had to delete the pertinent information that would be a dead giveaway to the location. LOL. Obviously it would look much better without the blurry and erased parts. LOL.*


Anywho. That's all that I can think of right now. I have dirty sandy feet from walking through the parking.....field (LOL)....and I need to get busy finishing my internet stuff so I can go wash my feet and go to bed.

Later!

Update

A couple of pictures from Monday.....
This was a rainbow just before dark on Monday night. It was a full one...you could see both ends of it from one side of the sky to the other...it was beautiful.
and an update on the boy....he's in another placement tonight. I took the stuff over to his social worker this afternoon and she assured me not to worry about it and was very apologetic about the whole thing. He's had trouble this way before, apparently, but had been on good behavior for several weeks straight, so they thought he was doing better. Anyways, I feel really bad for him. You're right, Jules, it does make one wonder what in the world his life has been like to make him like that so very young. It's very sad. But we just can't deal with that.

It was kinda funny, another social worker, who didn't know we had this situation last night, called and wanted us to do respite for a week for a 16 year old girl who had run from her previous placement. I was like...well, we just had ___ last night and it went SO not well, that we had to call and have him moved today, so we're really not up for another unknown respite situation tonight. She was like...OH, no problem....I totally understand! Which was a relief.

Anywho, gotta run again...bathtime for the kids....storytime was canceled for this week b/c it's the week of the fourth, so I had a minute to hop on here, but I gotta go get the kids ready for church.

Later!

Words Escape Me

Wow...been a few days since I posted.

Sunday we stayed at the church all day to save gas since we had choir practice between services.

Monday, I got up and took some more boxes up to the attic and tidied the house up a bit, then packed up the kids (K-man's daycare is closed this week) and went to Morgan's house to help her with her math, and after we did her math and the kids had napped, got in the pool with them for awhile. Then when I got ready to leave, I packed up my kids and my friend, K's, kids (who were over there for the day) and took them back to their mawmaws and brought Morgan home with me so she could go to K's the next day. When we got home, we fixed supper and then Morgan helped me work on cleaning the garage. We've had some MAJOR progress on that....but then after we did that, I had to throw the kids in the tub b/c they were having a REAL GOOD TIME out in the MUDDY backyard, while we were working....

Tuesday. Yeah, well, this is where words escape me. We had set up that respite for this week starting yesterday evening, they dropped him off at 4:30. There has been one night in this house that was probably one of the worst in my life....that was a few years ago. Last night? Well, it wasn't worse than THAT night, but I'd have to say it would be the second. In the almost two years we have been foster parents and having done respite four or five times in addition to the three that stayed here a couple of months or more.....we have never had to call DSS. But I had to call last night and if I don't hear back from them this morning regarding where to take his stuff, I'm going to call them b/c there is no way we can deal with that for another night. It's crazy, he is only six. I feel terrible for him, but I cannot subject the kids in our house to potential danger. If it were just me and Casey, we would deal with it, b/c he can spit in our faces, bite, kick, or whatever and we would probably be okay, but if he attacked the kids like he attacked us just because we said after the movie was over it would be bedtime.....not to mention the literal fight he gave us when we tried to get him to lay down.....well, they're smaller than he is and I can't risk that. We moved K-man into our room b/c the other kid's kicking and screaming was keeping K-man from going to sleep, plus I was afraid if we left the room and he didn't have us for a target, that he might turn on K-man.

There was more than that, it was unreal. I don't really want to say anything more than that, since this isn't a private blog, all I can say is, Thank God we didn't take him a month ago when they asked us. There is just no way. Generally, the first week or so is a "honeymoon" phase, so they're on their best behavior....then after that, you see how things are really gonna be. Heaven help that poor child (and anyone who has to take care of him) if that was his best behavior. I cried. I felt horrible for him, that he could be so young and already so hateful. You know the whole time, it's just a defense mechanism, but it was just sad. And you'd like to be able to help them, but you don't know what to do. He kept saying we were mean, and we were like....wait a minute, we're not hitting you or spitting on you or even raising our voices or getting excited. Who's being mean here? Just because we told you that we are not going to just let you attack us, and that behavior is not acceptable, does not make us the mean ones.

It was a very difficult night. Not to mention the fact that I didn't sleep very much b/c our two kids were on sleeping bags in our floor, since we had to put them somewhere quiet while the other one was carrying on....they tossed and turned the whole night (very unusual for them) and about every half hour, they'd crawl out of the sleeping bags and be cold, and then I'd have to get up and put them back in so they would go back to sleep. And then around 3, the other kid came into our room and like it was the middle of the day instead night, said (in a completely normal tone of voice), "I want my cover back on me." I was like, uh....okay. SO I went in and covered him back up....which made me paranoid about all THREE of the kids coming uncovered. The next time he woke up, I heard him before he got up and went in there while he was just sitting up and covered him up real quick. I finally caught more than 20 minutes around 4:30 or so and actually fell asleep until 6. I just can't do that again.

We had two other older kids that we kept for the night for some friends so they could go away for a night, but they weren't any trouble at all...matter of fact, I barely noticed they were here. They were excellent.

Anywho, I had to come let out a little steam....I guess steam is the right word....I'm not mad about it, but the stress was making my stomach upset. We need God all the time, but some times it seems like we need a WHOLE lot more of Him. Last night was one of those times. I'm thankful for the support we get from our church family. A brother came over when KC called and helped him pray until they got the kid calmed down to where he finally stopped attacking. Even M was right there for whatever we needed last night. Oh and then him and Z helped me find my phone this morning....we had to actually turn the loveseat recliner over to find the phone. That was an ordeal....I have no idea how my phone got hung up in there.

Gotta run...it's time to feed the kids....the little ones and big ones....and then get the little ones down for a nap so I can take all of them to the library for Munchkin's story time. *grin* Hopefully the rest of the day will go smoother.