BUSY!

It's been a busy weekend for us!

Friday was spent doing housework. Nothing says TGIF like stripping beds, washing blankets, dusting, vacuuming, hand mopping floors! Jason kept the kiddos entertained when he got home from off-duty so that I could get done. I started at 10am and with having to stop and go pick-up Kori (it was an early release day) and fix lunch, put littles down for naps, etc. I finally got done...at 12:20 a.m. Man I was tired!

Saturday I ran a couple of errands and then we headed off to a pool party in honor of my nephew's 16th birthday. I volunteered to get his birthday cake because I saw the bakery I use has an AWESOME one that looks like a Missouri Drivier's License. It turned out awesome and my nephew and his friends thought it was cool. Kori enjoyed swimming. The little girls enjoyed watching. The pool is big and not really set-up for little ones so we just watched from afar. It has a bleacher-type area where you can watch so they hung out there. They enjoyed watching everyone go off the diving board and kept themselves full by eating pizza and other snacks.

We headed off after that to a T-Bones game. It's similar to minor league baseball and it was a lot of fun! It was Community Heroes night so they honored military, fire, police, EMT's/Paramedics etc. Very cool opening ceremonies as well! The little girls did quite well, surprisingly. We went with my sister and niece and several people from the unit where Jason worked before his promotion. It was nice to see them again. Good to be out doing something different as well. It was "dollar night" too, which was an added bonus! The girls enjoyed the $1.00 hot dogs, 4 of them to be exact. Daddy enjoyed the $1.00 small draft beers, I didn't keep track of those. Anyway it was fun! We got home late and after baths and snacks the little girls were finally sleeping at 12:30 a.m.

We decided to just let them sleep in today and if they slept late they could just skip their nap and go to bed early. Alexis woke up at around NOON and Kamryn and Morgan at about 12:15! Wow, they were tired! So no naps for them. They are a bit grumpy and whiny and they all have runny noses. There was LOTS of sneezing going on so I am thinking (hoping!) it's allergies!

Today my sister, Kori and I headed off to Santa-Cali-Gon days! It's a huge festival that honors the merging of the Santa Fe, California and Oregon trails. It's in it's 29th year and I don't think I've missed more than a couple. There are stages for musical/dance performances, ice cream eating contests, various venders hawking their wares from salsa, to beer coozies, thermal replacement windows, healing magnetic bracelets, various craft projects and food! Mostly the food comes on sticks, that seems to be a popular way to serve it. There are corn dogs, frozen chocolate covered bananas, corn on the cob, cheesecake, pickles, alligator (yes you read that right), pork chops, chicken and shrimp. There might have been more "stick foods" but that's about all I can recall right now. There are also hot dogs, turkey legs, bar-b-que sandwiches and more! The food is really good. Definitely not good for you but good!

It's an interesting mixture of people. There are LOTS of tattoos and mullets! It's fun to just sit back and people watch while you enjoy your "stick food". There are big tents full of lots of goodies and some not-so-goodies to browse through. It gets hot in there! People step on you and bump into you. There's LOTS of B.O. (body odor) which is never good! I mean seriously, if I can smell you from several yards away, you can't tell me YOU can't smell YOURSELF! YUCK! I always put the deodorant on extra thick when I head out there. Today someone even completed farted while they were up wind from us. It was gross and my sister and I were completely disgusted. Kori thankfully didn't catch any of it. I can only imagine what would have come out of her mouth. My sister got a BIG chuckle today when she professed, "Mommy, it's hotter than hell out here." OMG!!! I politely instructed her that was no way to talk, while agreeing with her that it was quite warm, all the while kicking my sister in an attempt to get her to stop laughing. Kids!

In case your wondering the littles stayed home with Daddy. Daddy despises what he calls, "Santa-Crap-i-gon" so he's never sad to miss out.

Jason's back to work tonight and everyone else is sleeping. I think I'll head there myself.

Teeth!

Well it didn't exactly go as planned, but Kori is now missing her two bottom teeth.

She came to me earlier in the week and proclaimed, "Mommy I am growing a new tooth!" Further inspection revealed a permanent tooth coming up behind her baby tooth. We worked hard on it, wiggling and wiggling over the next few days to no avail.

So I made an appointment for her for our dentist. She went today after school. After x-rays, which revealed the roots to the baby tooth were still completely in tact, it was decided to pull it. It was also determined that the tooth next to it would be suffering the same fate, so they pulled that one too.

She did FANTASTIC! No whining or drama! I was sooooo proud of her! She did awesome and the dentist told me to get her a milk shake on the way home. (I suspect this was so the cold of the ice cream could help with the bleeding etc. She enjoyed that although with her mouth numb she didn't feel that it was running down her face.

She's sleeping soundly and we get to play "tooth fairy" here in a bit.

My baby is growing up! Sniff, sniff! So I leave you with these pictures.

A 2008 Fairytale

Once upon a time in the land of reality lived a mother. She resided in a beautiful home with her husband, her four beautiful daughters, one wonderful dog and a terrific cat!

One day the mother awoke to her screeching alarm, much to her displeasure. Rather than spread her distate for mornings on the others in her castle, she decided to put on her big girl panties and deal with it, all with a smile on her face.

The mother promptly went to awaken the oldest of the daughters so that she could begin her day as well. The mother was met with "I'm tired, I don't want to get up, blah blah blah". There might have been more but at this point the mother turned off her ears and decided to not let the oldest daughters distate for mornings ruin her day.

The mother then went to awaken the remaining 3 daughters. She was met with a round of "Good morning mommy" from the little joys and it brought a smile to her face. That smile was promptly crushed when the little not so joys at this very moment decided to start bickering over who would be released from their sleeping vessel (aka - cribs) first.

After changing and diapering all the joys the mother checked on the oldest to discover she was still not dressed. After some minor fussing, the mother put her happy face back on forging ahead with the plans for a wonderful day.

After more grumbling and grumping the eldest daughter was taken to school. After dropping her off the mother decided some yummy, warm, frosted cinnamon bites from McDonald's were in order for the young ones. 1-because they are yummy, 2-she doesn't have to worry about what to fix for breakfast. While enroute to said McD's one of the "joys" (Alexis) decided she would throw the book that she brought along for the car ride into the back cargo area of the van and then proceed to yell about it being back there. Upon arriving at their destination the mother retrieved the book because if not she was going to go slightly insane. After returning home and getting breakfast out Alexis became enraged that Morgan moved her chair ever so slightly and began to act in an unbecoming manner so she was promptly removed from the table and placed in her crib so she could calm down.

Throughout the course of the morning the mother attempted to do some laundry, make some beds, empty the dishwasher etc. around her castle. This took a long time because the young girls of the castle were fighting, pushing, pulling, biting, crying, screaming, yelling and getting into things they know they shouldn't. It seemed not many of the chores were accomplished and looking around the beautiful castle, it looked more like a land mine had exploded in a toy store.

At 1:00 the mother decided that it was DEFINITELY time for lunch, which would be promptly followed by naps!

As the mother tucked the littles into bed she heard them yelling "stop looking at me", "be quiet", "nooooooooooooooooooo", "no looky at me", "sssscccccccccrrrrreeeeeaaaaaaaammmmmmm!"

It was at this time the mother decided it was time for her lunch. While she enjoyed her bowl of fat free sherbet she dreamed it was a big bowl of vanilla ice cream with brownie chunks, caramel topping, whipped cream and nuts. LOTS of nuts, because that described her current state of mind.

The dream was interrupted by a voice over the monitor...."Mommy, I poopied".

**SIGH**

THE END

A Video!

So I just figured out how to get videos to load from my camera here. I took this a while back but it's cute and I thought I would share it. I will try and get some more up of the other 2 soon. This is Kamryn demonstrating her verbal skills. (Don't mind the dirty face!)

As some of you know, five years ago today my sister Margaret (Maggie or Mags) passed away. Born with severe congential heart defects, the tiny little one that was never supposed to live past the age of five, survived and lived life to the fullest until the age of 34. While her physical being is gone, her spiritual being is alive, and as big and full of the robust zest for life that only she had. I feel her around me and I know that she watches over us. I grieve because although I know she is in a far better place, free of pain and suffering, my world is not and will never be the same.

As a remembrance to her, allow me to tell you a bit about her.

Things she loved:

God
Sunflowers
Butterflies
Family
Soap Operas
Reading
Spinach & Artichoke Dip
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Music, ALL kinds!
Baseball
Tim McGraw
Family Get-togethers
Animals
Her pets, especially Harvey
Stylish Clothes
Shopping!
Shoes
Dancing



Things she did not like:

Bugs
Worms
Pears
Family drama
Being Sick
Being Treated Differently Than Others
Cleaning
Cooking


Those are some things just off the top of my head. I guess to sum it up, she was an amazing person. The best sister a girl could ask for. She was an incredible daughter, aunt, sister, wife and friend.

I wish I could say after 5-years the pain has lessened some, but that is definitely not the case.

I am thankful for the 30 years she was in my life, yet selfish enough for so many, many more.

Dislike

I've decided I'm beginning to dislike my ENT Doctor. He is a nice guy, has a great bedside manner and all that other good stuff, he just causes me great pain and discomfort and I'm beginning to grow weary of it all.

As you can tell I went to the doctor today. He pops in, takes a look and tells me, "I know you don't like me digging around in your nose, but there are a few things I want to clean out and have a good look around with the scope. The good news is I will give you a shot of numbing spray and numb everything up to make it less painful." Well that wasn't great news, but he had me at "numbing spray". So he takes a small bottle with a nozzle attached and puts it in my nose. The next thing I know I have said numbing spray shooting into my nose at an incredible speed, think nasal power washer, it was so uncomfortable and completely NOT what I was expecting. I now had a slightly numb face, throat, tongue and tonsils due to the overspray, force, swallowing etc. The doctor advised me he was going to let me sit for a few minutes to "numb up" and he'd be back in to do the great clean out. Cool I'm thinking as I am wiping the tears from my eyes. I wasn't crying but the force etc. of all that had happened made my eyes teary. I am feeling very strange as my throat is numb and I feel like I can't swallow. I also have a feeling in my throat that is similar to when you inhale too much water when swimming. I am a bit in a panic as the doctor and nurse leave but I am trying to play it cool. No reason for them to think I am a loon and a wuss. I fix myself a tiny shot glass, uh I mean Dixie Cup of water and try and relax and wait for him to return.

So I wait, and wait and wait and finally he comes back in. (The whole time he's gone (about 20-25 minutes) I am worrying about the numbing spray wearing off because if that were to be the case there was no way he was doing that again. He finally comes in, straps on his little shiny disc thing he wears on his head and goes to work. I'll spare you the details, but he cleaned everything out and made me blow my nose good etc. etc. etc. He takes a peek in there with a really long thing he called a scope and turns off his light. He then asks me how I've been feeling? I inform him my breathing is better, not 100% by any means but better. All in all I'm happy so far I inform him. He tells me he agrees my breathing is better but still questions HOW I am feeling. Tired as usual doc, but I have 4 kids, insomnia, 1 dog, 1 cat, a busy husband, and parents who's health issues worry me sick every day. That's what I wanted to say, but I just assured him other than being tired I was doing okay. He then tells me that he's surprised as I have a "raging, post-operative bacterial infection." HUH? He then tells me that all the gunk that I've been getting out of my nose should have ended by now. He also says that my nose is full of puss and the tissue in there is red and inflamed and "angry". (I refrained from telling him that I was pretty angry at my nose right now as well.)

He now decides he must take a sample of the things growing in my nose and send it away to be cultured. Gets some more long things, digs around in my nose yet again (I can assure you the numbing spray was not working so great. It was NOT worth it as far as I was concerned which is good to know for the future.) After he makes me sneeze a few times and further continues to help deteriorate my eye make-up he does the other side. After over an hour I am ready to go home.

I leave with an antibiotic, two bottles of Nasonex to use twice a day, instructions to still steam and irrigate my nose (sounds like dry-cleaning or gardening terms) two times a day. He assures me he will call me mid-week to check up on me and to let me know for sure what the cultures revealed. He's pretty sure I'll have to go on something called an intra-nasal antibiotic but he's holding off as it's pretty expensive and makes the insurance companies fussy so he'll wait until he knows for sure what type of monster is using my nose as it's safehaven so he can specifically note it in the event that insurance makes a fuss.

I left there with my sack of meds, racoon eyes and a throbbing headache. Hey, aren't doctors supposed to make you feel better? So needless to say, I go back again in two weeks. OH JOY!

First Grade!

Today was the first day of school. Kori was excited and a bit anxious/nervous. She did great! There were a few small tears as I was leaving her after I walked her in. Of 23 students, there are 5 others from her class last year. She sits in between two boys she doesn't know and I think that, combined with the other "strangers" added to her nervousness. She recovered quickly and I left after blowing her a kiss and giving her my best encouraging smile. Dang this being a mom can be hard sometimes!

I was in a far better mental state this year than last. She knew NO ONE last year and she survived. I knew she had friends in her class from last year, plus she knows other teachers etc. now so that helped. No tears for me. I still just can't believe that she is in the 1st grade! How can it be? I still remember them putting her in my arms when she was born. I still remember crying my head off. So happy and thrilled to FINALLY have her in my arms! I remember my nephew coming in and being the 1st one to hold her besides Jason and I. I remember she greeted him by sticking out her tongue at him. I remember her going from crib to toddler bed, toddler bed to twin bed, tricycle to training wheels, training wheels to two wheels! How is it even possible that she's already in the 1st grade. **Sigh**

The trio, dog and cat missed her terribly. The dog kept watch in the hallway outside her bedroom door. The cat slept with Jason since her door was closed (to keep the 6 little hands/fingers out of her stuff) and he couldn't lay on her bed all day like usual. The girls asked about her right away. "Where Kori go?" I heard that SEVERAL times. They greeted her with "Yay Kori!" when I returned home with her.

She had a fantastic day! The car line pickup went much more smoothly this year than last so that was good. I was pleased to see her come out with a smile.

I'm tired! This getting up earlier is killing me. I still have insomnia so it's kicking my butt! Guess since I'm feeling tired I better hit the sheets!

Special Day!

Well tomorrow is Kori's first day of the first grade! Huh? How in the heck did that happen! Wasn't it just yesterday we were on our way home from the hospital? Wasn't Kindergarten just last week????? Surely I'm missing something. At any rate the summer flew by and school is upon us once again. She is excited and anxious and a bit nervous, but she is looking forward to it.

Today was her special day since it was her last day of summer break. She picked this evenings menu for dinner and I made a cherry pie for her for dessert. She picked steak, Stove Top Stuffing (it's her new favorite thing!) and corn on the cob. I fixed her plate first for dinner and she thought that was super cool! The little girls were less than thrilled with having to wait an extra minute or two for theirs. We're still working on our patience around here. :-)

After he bath I painted her fingernails and we picked out tomorrow's outfit so I think we're ready. She was less than pleased with the menu choices for lunch so she opted to take her lunch so I have to do that yet. Her backpack is loaded and ready. Her mommy, well not so much! Time is just going by sooooo fast! I know she's ready and there aren't as many nerves for me this year than last year that's for sure. I'm still gonna walk her in for the first couple of days. Probably more for me than for her.

So on the eve of the 1st day of 1st grade I bid you adieu! I need to go iron the rest of the weeks clothing choices and make a lunch.

Do You Know?

How long it takes to clean a 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom house with 4 kids running amok? TWELVE hours! I got started around 11am and finished around 11pm, give or take 20 minutes or so.

Stopping for lunch and dinner breaks, diaper breaks, breaking up fights breaks, mom she hit me breaks, give me back my doll breaks, Kamryn is looking at Alexis and Alexis doesn't want her to breaks, you get the idea.

The most important thing is the house is cleaned very well. All the beds are changed. The kitchen and bathroom floors are hand mopped. The laundry is going. All good things. Let me rephrase, all GREAT things!

Jason worked last night so he was sleeping most of the day. Then he was up and around for about an hour or so before he had to head to off-duty and then to work again. So it was a girls day again.

I cheated and we had Burger King (Kori's choice) for dinner because I didn't want to take additional time to cook. We had apples and such so I tried to balance the good with the bad, but it was all I could muster up. I will make up for it tomorrow with a nice home cooked meal.

I'm off to fold another load of laundry before I climb into bed!

12-Steps

I need to go into a 12-step program for my latest addiction. In the last month I've sold a sleeper sofa, a car, an entertainment center and now possibly a TV on Craigslist. I've told Jason and the girls that no one is safe in this house. Everyone should be watching over their shoulders.

All kidding aside, it can be very addicting. The sleeper we sold for two reasons, one it was never used and two it took up room in our den which we want to convert to a playroom for all the toys we have.

The entertainment center was HUGE and worked great at our old house, when we had our old big-screen TV. In this house it severely limited how we can arrange our family room. The room looks gigantic with it gone!

The car, well it was Jason's. It was an SUV and he was ready for something that got better gas mileage. So we listed it last Saturday evening and had our first and only offer within 3-hours. On Sunday afternoon away it went with the new owner.

Jason is now the proud owner of a 2006 Volkswagon Passat. It's black of course and has lots of bells and whistles. It's gently used with low miles and gets great gas mileage. He's happy so I am happy.

We have our current 50" HD big screen on there now. We have a potential buyer that is supposed to come and look at it tomorrow. Jason got it last year and immediately after getting it decided it wasn't big enough. If it sells we'll get a 60" TV, which is WAY more TV than I need, but whatever. If it doesn't we'll keep the old one and survive.

Yesterday we took the girls to the park/sprayground for some end of the summer fun and a picnic lunch. I'll post some pictures and such tomorrow.

For now I am signing off. The girls have been whiny and clingy the last couple of days. There's been lots of bickering and pushing and shoving and I am tired. Jason had off-duty today before work and again tomorrow. Still no job with days hours in sight. **SIGH** **SIGH** **SIGH** What's a girl to do???

Weak From The Cuteness

Some days my kids are so cute it just makes me weak from the cuteness. These are the same children that on many days make me count down the minutes until bedtime peace comes to our house at long last.

Today when Jason got up the girls were ever so happy to see him as usual. How come when he gets up they cheer him like an olympic champion returning home with a slew of medals. I get greeted with "I want out, I'm wet, change my diapy, I'm wet, I'm wet, I want out first, no me first, no me first". Oh well, such is life. Anyhow this was the scene that quickly followed.



This is how I found Kamryn tonight, clutching her cloth diaper "lovey" and the little brown dog of Kori's that she's adopted. It's the ONLY other thing besides her lovey and pillow that she will allow in bed with her. She's JUST started sleeping on her pillow. She used to only want it grazing the stop of her head. So sweet!!!



This is Alexis. Kori dressed her up the other day. While I know she looks rather vagrant-ish, I think she's the cutest little begger in town!

More!

Hard to see the piggies in the individual shots. Here are a couple of group shots, one minus Morgan because she was being uncooperative at the time. Threw Kori in there too!

Piggy Tails

I scraped, key word here being scraped together some itty bitty, teeny tiny, piggy tails on the little girls yesterday. While they could double as horns, I assure you at this moment, they weren't. They aren't huge, and you might not even notice, but I thought I'd share.

Blah

That's me, and that describes my mood. Do you ever just feel invisible? Like you don't even exist? That's me today. Sometimes I feel like I'm a non-contributor to life. I feel like I rarely have anything interesting to say. If it doesn't revolve around 2-year olds, 6-year olds, school stuff, house stuff, laundry stuff, cooking stuff, etc. I don't have much to add. I've become, gasp, boring.

Today while talking to Jason he literally fell asleep while I was talking. I kid you not! That did NOTHING to boost my self worth.

So I'll leave you with a picture that's far cuter than todays entry. I made peanut butter blossoms today for dessert. Alexis enjoyed hers. I've titled it: When Cookies Attack!

7 Hours

Give or take in the car today and we all survived. We went to visit the grandmother of my sisters husband. She was sooooo tickled to see the trio in person again. She hasn't seen them in person since they were 5-6 weeks old. She enjoyed watching them run all over and play with each other. It's always nice to make other people feel better by sharing your chilren with them.

It was MUCH cooler in Iowa than it was here in KC. We got home and it was MISERABLE! My mom said the heat index was 112 degrees today...blach!

Anyway, the floorboard of the van is a MESS. There are goldfish crackers and Dora cookies. I am going to vacuum it out. The girls all did really good. Considering that our car consisted of 1-6 year old, 1-2 1/2 year old, and 3-2 year olds, along with my sister and I. We were grossly outnumbered but we survived. I had a headache that was pounding when we returned, but if that's the only thing, I think that's good. We left with 7 people and made it home with the same 7 people, so that's always a plus.

Off to clean up the sea of crud from my floorboards. Jason enjoyed his lake day today. Man he sucks sometimes. :-)

Forgot

To update about my sinus issues. I had a follow up appointment yesterday. OH THE HUMANITY was it painful! I was still SUPER congested. The doctor slapped on his shiny disk headband thing, took a look up there and said, "Yep, you've got a lot of congestion up there." Uh, no kidding, I sound ridiculous, was that the first clue. He thing proceeds to get these very LONG tweezers, to my horror. I promptly blurt out, "Uh what do you think your doing with those?" He informs me we're "eradicating the congestion". I hear "digging up your nose with these long tweezer things. Oh man, it was painful! Had I known that would be the case I would have taken TWO pain pills that I washed down with hard liquor, rubbing alcohol, or something of the like prior to coming.

I am glad I didn't wear any makeup as I had tears streaming down my face. If I would have had makeup mixed in there I would have looked even more atrocious than I already do. Needless to say about thirty minutes of eradicating later, I could breathe much better. Not great but better. My nose is now as sore as ever, and I have to go back next week for more digging, uh eradicating.

I'm starting to not like this doctor very much.

So that's where I am. Breathing somewhat better. Still lots of drainage and pressure. Still sleeping propped up on two pillows because laying flat causes even more pressure. I will survive this too. I think.

The Weekend

The weekend is here. Jason is gone to the lake with some friends of his. There are about 14 of them. I have dubbed it the Boating, Beer and Bikini's weekend. My brother-in-law is with him as well so it's just the girls and I. He left this morning and will be home Sunday. He works hard and deserves a little break. I am going away to Chicago in October for a girls weekend, so I'll get some "me time" too. I baked him some cookies to take and got up to see him off this morning. He checked in earlier and is there, settled in and they were going to hit the water.

The girls were missing him already this morning. Tomorrow we're going to Iowa with my sister and niece to see her husbands grandmother who has lung cancer. She isn't up to traveling much anymore and she loves my girls so we're going to visit with her a bit. We'll drive up, visit and drive back. Hopefully all 5 of the girls will cooperate. I'll put the DVD players in later tonight. Becky got juice and snacks already so we're set there.

We're going to do some back to school shopping on Sunday for both Kori and my nephew Cody. His 16th birthday is coming up later this month, so we'll get some birthday stuff for him too. He's a fashion snob and is currently hung up on Hollister. The joys of having only Aunt's growing up. He's worse than a girl!

So that's in from here. Pray for me I don't lose my mind this weekend. Even if Jason were here he'd be working and sleeping, but it's different not having any extra hands around. Oh well, I will survive. (Cue the Gloria Gaynor song!)