it's only noon.

It's only noon, but I feel like complaining already. Honestly, people, I am so grumpy these days...

Last night I went to bed tired. Aaron didn't get home until after bedtime and I was just... done. Homework was finished, the house was clean, dinner was warm and healthy, but I was so over it by 9:00 pm. My life isn't fun anymore and I am mad about it.

We woke up early and read scriptures as a family, despite Simon's best effort to distract us. I started a load of laundry and went downstairs to make breakfast. Ben opted for cereal today, which was fine. I like to pick my battles. He grabbed a box of Honey Nut Cheerios from the pantry. We usually only have plain Cheerios, but Dad must have splurged on the way home from tennis last night. Ben thought he needed sugar on top of this already sugared cereal and grabbed my big glass container on the cabinet. Unfortunately, he didn't quite make it to the table. Mounds of sugar and little pieces of glass went all over my newly mopped floor. And because I wasn't wearing shoes like the Flylady told me to do right after I get out of bed, my feet were sliced in four different places.

Ben grabbed me a pair of sandals as I tried to clean up the mess. When he handed them to me, his eyes were filled with tears. It's so hard to get mad at this child. He sat at the table and blocked his face from mine with the cereal box. I bandaged up my bleeding feet and put on my tennies.

Luke came down a few minutes later without his shoes on, and I quickly scolded him and told him to run back upstairs until he was completely dressed. He told me that he'd been searching for clean socks for ten minutes and can't find any. I ended up giving him a pair of mine... he wore them because he's cool like that. I would have given him a pair of Ben's but Ben's all have holes in them. We should have bought socks for the new school year. oops.

Zack was sick because he went to bed without dinner last night. He was supposed to clean his bathroom sink before dinner last night and opted to fall asleep before. He ate a bowl of cereal while laying down.

Simon made a mess while eating--- which is to be expected, but today I just didn't want to deal with it. He is so cute, but so frustrating.

I made the boys a lunch and sent them on their way. A dear friend and close neighbor has transferred her kids to the same elementary as mine, so now we can carpool and it's been wonderful. She came to pick the kids up and as they drove away I felt bad that I was such a mean mom this morning. I hate being a mean mom.

Zack and Simon had a super hero birthday party to attend at 10 AM. Only, I didn't have a present... So we loaded up and headed to the store bright and early. Zack threw up in the garbage can at the store and then spent another 10 minutes in the bathroom. Simon got INSIDE the big rubber ball bin while Zack and I were picking out a toy. I got him out, but one of his shoes remained at the bottom of the balls. oy. Zack's skinny arms were able to retrieve it without too much trouble.

We finally picked out the right present and grabbed some bleach for my laundry adventures this afternoon and checked out. There was only one register open and as I was paying, Simon had a meltdown. He let the five people behind us in line know that he wanted a sucker. I am sure those five people wanted to know why I was having another baby when I couldn't handle the ones I already have.

I dropped off the kids at the party-- which was thrown by one of my favorite people in the world. She had super hero capes for all of the boys when they entered. As I was leaving, they were saving little super hero figurines from a big block of ice.. apparently Mr. Freeze had come. Simon and Zack couldn't have been happier about pouring their cups of warm water on the ice and I couldn't have been happier to have some peace and quiet.

I got in my car and drove to Kohl's to buy my boys some new socks. On the way, I tried calling my mom who lives all the way in Chile. But she didn't answer. Sometimes all I want to do is talk to Bev. I was going to ask her how she had ten children... but I think I know what she'd say. "I had them one at a time. You can only take one day at a time, Janet." I feel better just hearing her voice in my head.

All I want in life is to have a good time... is that really too much to ask for? I don't want to run errands and find matching socks and clean up messes and deal with screaming toddlers. I would much rather stay at home and read to my kids and play games and hire a maid. Why can't I get everything I want??

mr mischief

Once upon a time, my sister and I took our kids to a beautiful cabin at Bear Lake. There were 11 children between the two of us. (my four boys, her four girls, and 3 of my brother's kids...) We had a great time there and took a gazillion pictures.. which, unfortunately, will not be included in this post.

One night, it was raining really hard. In fact, it was hailing on us. The kids retired to their beds early and I told my sister she needed a break, so she went up to her room and read a book. I put the two toddlers (Simon and Betty) in their beds and then went to check on the older kids who were playing cards in the "big kids" room. When I came back upstairs, the doors of the toddler rooms were open, and they were missing. I searched high and low and couldn't find them anywhere. I got drenched searching outside and then started to panic. When I came back in, I could hear the shower in the master bedroom running (a sound I had mistaken earlier for the pouring rain).. When I entered the master bathroom, I found Simon and Betty like this:

As soon as he saw me, Simon smiled big and said, "CHEESE!" as if he knew a picture was coming. I decided to grab my camera and take one, since he was begging for it anyway. Sweet Betty didn't know if she was in trouble or not. She was not. I know my mischievous son and I am not surprised by the fact that he went into her room, persuaded her to take off her clothes and turned on the water in the shower. I helped her in the tub and told her everything would be okay, but she still wasn't so sure.

Simon has been in love with Betty since day one. He talks about her and to her 20 times a day. Most of the conversations are pretend phone calls coming from toy cell phones, calculators and often his own feet (he will put his foot to his ear and say, "Hi Betty! I miss you!"... if only we could all be so flexible.) I don't think Betty feels the same kind of love for her cousin. She often will come up to me and tell me that "Simon's mean." Which is absolutely true. He's also naughty.

hey there!

Long time no see.

I am really hoping there will be some time I can upload pictures on this bloggy before Christmas. but I make no guarantees.

I just wanted to quickly log in and and say thank you to all of you who have emailed or called me with words of encouragement. I want to respond to you individually and I promise I will, but I just haven't had the time yet. Please accept this lame thank you until a better, more personal one can be written.

Many of you have asked me if I am going to pull my kids out of school. The answer is no. The decision to put them in has been a long one coming... made in August 2010. I think I needed a year to prepare myself for it and although the adjustment hasn't been perfectly smooth, it's been very doable. I still have yet to cry about it. and now that I've gotten through the first 10 days, who knows if I will. I honestly believe that everything we do is an education. This experience is teaching us all a lot and even though I don't necessarily think my kids time is being used wisely, I do believe we are learning a great deal.. the least of which is scholastic. I am really trying to squeeze the best out of every situation and gosh.darn.it... before the end of the year, we will have a gallon of lemonade! We really are doing fabulous. One thing I've learned about my kids this past week is that they are all very adaptable. No one has complained about anything and I am proud of everyone (including myself) for how we've handled the new schedule. Heaven knows there will still be lots of adjustments to make, especially after the baby comes.

Speaking of which, I had a little scare this weekend. I started contracting pretty regularly on Friday. I tried to keep my feet up and chill out, but they continued through the night and woke me up early on Saturday morning. By the afternoon, they were so strong that I started to freak out a bit. I know what braxton hicks are and I know when they get more intense. I was feeling rather nauseous during each contraction and started having to breathe through some of them. I still have five weeks to go. Zack was born four weeks early... which is too early, in my opinion. I had the same sort of scare with Simon's pregnancy and went on bedrest at 34 weeks. I don't want to have to do that again, but I will if I need to. I was able to make an appt on Saturday afternoon and felt much better when I got home. Sunday I was a new woman and I have felt great ever since. Until today, that is....

My little toddler is a talented mess maker. He L.O.V.E.S to pour things out-- bowls of dog food, boxes of cereal, large containers of cinnamon, etc. But his favorite thing to do is get a big cup, fill it up with water from the refrigerator and pour it on the floor. Needless to say, my floors are getting mopped often. Today on my way out the door (to pick up the kids from school) Simon was begging for a drink. I gave him a cup, he took a few gulps and then headed out to the car with Zacky. As I turned the corner to follow them out, I realized that Simon didn't drink the whole glass. It wasn't a lot of water on the tile floor, but enough to send me flying in the air. I fell super hard, right on my booty. I was also holding a glass of water and it went all over my face, clothes and newly blow-dryed hair. As if getting around isn't difficult enough these days. I cannot even tell you how crippled I am. It hurts to walk, sit and lay down. What's an 8 month preggo girl to do? I am praying that tomorrow isn't as bad as today... it's all I can do to keep myself from taking more Tylenol than is recommended. I really don't want to have this baby girl early... so grateful she's still kicking and moving around. I guess it could have been a lot worse than it was.

Life is rough sometimes, isn't it? As miserable as I feel, I find comfort in the fact that there are many people out there who are more miserable than me...

happy hump day.

donkey love

today was a great Sunday. I had dinner ready before church, my house was clean, Aaron was home, we whipped up a batch of oatmeal butterscotch cookies, popped popcorn, moved a mattress into the living room, played a few games... the perfect kind of Sunday afternoon.

All 6 of us were laying on the mattress on the ground, Aaron next to me, the boys jumping from the couch to the mattress. Everyone was giggling and even though I know things aren't perfect, I believe this is as good as it gets. It's crazy to think that just a few years ago (can 12 be considered a few?) Aaron and I barely knew each other. Now, here we are, hundreds of miles away from any of our family. We have created a life and family of our own. And it's a beautiful one.

After about an hour of jumping around, we decided to try to calm the troops by putting on a movie-- an episode of planet earth. I could watch these DVDs over and over and never get tired of them. Tonight we watched the lions take down the elephant-- and my boys were absolutely thrilled. I am the only one who hates to watch the predictor catch it's prey... everyone else in my house cheers, including Simon.. I can't wait until our daughter joins the family, I need someone else around who has feelings.

Somewhere in the middle of the film, Ben stops it and says, "I can't believe we forgot to tell you this! When we were at recess a few days ago, there were two donkeys in the field..." (they go to a school in a city where wild donkeys roam freely..) He continues, "One donkey was on TOP of the other one. Well, it's two front legs were on top of it's back and they were stuck together!" I asked him what the other donkey was doing and he said, "It was trying to get away, but the one on top just kept moving wherever the one on the bottom went." Luke was in on the story now and said, "Yeah! It was so crazy."

I figure we probably should have THE TALK with them now that they are going to public school... but I am not sure if I am ready. How do you know if you/your kids are ready??? If we wait too long, one of their classmates will give them the sex rundown... or a couple of donkeys will act it out for them. I just want them to hear it from us before anyone else. We're not going to be able to keep them innocent and naive forever, although sometimes I wish I could.

3 years already.

Last weekend marked our 3rd anniversary of buying and moving into our home. We celebrated - most appropriately - by checking into a local hotel. I don't expect you to remember it like we do, but we spent the entire month before we closed on our home living in various hotel rooms around Las Vegas. Yes, we were homeless for 4 solid weeks. It was quite the adventure. These are some of the lessons we learned.

One NIGHT in a hotel is so much more fun than one MONTH. We checked in after Daddy got off work, picked up some greasy food to eat by the pool and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. It brought back some fun memories of warm summer nights long ago...

Eating out nowadays is WAY more expensive than it was when we were homeless. Three years ago, our boys literally shared a single happy meal at McD's (which is exactly why we decided to collect all 18 of the Star Wars bobbleheads.) Now, each of our kids need a full-sized adult meal to keep their tummies satisfied... you better believe I am including Simon in the bunch. He is often eating before the prayer is said and will continue to shove food in his face long after the rest of us are full. It's pretty disgusting... and amazing!

We owned the pool in the late hours of the evening, watched a fabulous episode of America's Funniest Videos, slept relatively well crammed in the same room, enjoyed the continental breakfast in the morning, hit the pool again, buddied up for a few intense chicken fights, did a little school shopping and were thrilled to come back to our home sweet home on Saturday afternoon.

The picture below makes me laugh.. Ben is drowning, Aaron can't see and Zack & Luke's bones are showing because they are so skinny...

I tried to recreate this gem taken in August 2008 during our homeless adventure...

But I never could get the boys in the right position and each time Zack pulled himself up on the edge of the pool, his swimsuit would come down and show his butt. Ben and Luke were quite entertained.. so is the life with little boys. They have grown up so much in the past three years, and yet, they are exactly the same.

The only picture I took in our hotel room was of Zack, who was absolutely ecstatic about the fact that tissues were hiding inside the bathroom counter. He kept taking them out and bringing them to everyone. His enthusiasm for life never fails to amaze me.
Which reminds me..... We asked the boys some of their favorite things about living in our house and these were the only things they listed: We don't get wet when it rains. We can lock our doors so robbers don't get in. (& last, but not least) We can go to the bathroom whenever we want. Apparently, our home is just one notch up from living in a cardboard box.. I love how simply children look at the world. It really doesn't matter where we live, as long as we are warm, safe, and have access to a toilet.

**This Friday night is a lot different than last. Aaron picked up pizza on his way home from work and is now entertaining the kids downstairs. I was able to take a long bubble bath, shave my legs, blog and now I am watching The Man from Snowy River in my bed. Sometimes it's fun to sleep in the same room with your entire family... and sometimes it's fun to be completely and utterly ALONE. I am grateful for my house, my bathtub, my awesome neighbors, the freedom I have to paint the walls, my kitchen were I can cook for my family (when I want to) and for all the memories we've made these past three years. Most of all I am grateful for the people that live within these walls. We have turned this house into a home.