Yea Though I Walk Through The Valley of The Shadows of Death, I Fear No Evil, For I Have Triplets..

It's Official...

2010-05-28T08:02:00.000-07:00

Today I put my oldest child on the bus for the last day of 2nd grade! What? How in the world did THAT happen? I am quite certain that she just finished Kindergarten! Right? Man where does the time go. Add in the fact that my nephew is now officially a Senior, my niece and nephew turn 1 next week, and I am about to cry real tears. Holy cow, I don't know where the time goes! One day your 21 living life and having a ball. Next thing you know you are 2-days from being 37, your kids and loved ones are growing at warp speed. STOP THE WORLD I WANT TO GET OFF!!!!

We are on the final countdown for vacation. We will leave next week after the twin's first birthday party. We are planning to drive all night and straight through and hope to get into Myrtle Beach, with some sanity left, around dinner time. Oh I am ready for some sand, sun and no agenda! We can't wait!

That being said, I better get back to my agenda and get some things done around here!

That Kind of Monday

2010-05-05T09:49:00.000-07:00

A couple of Monday's ago, I had one of "those" kind of Mondays. You know the kind, they don't start off great and go down hill from there. Well I woke up with the mother of all headaches. So I was kind of dragging anyway. Got Kori off to school. Went through some other mundane tasks in an attempt to call the day semi-productive. Jason was working 3pm-11pm so he was home with us a bulk part of the day. Around noon he started wrestling around with the girls. No biggie, happens all the time. They love it, he loves it, I warn someone will get hurt. I can't help it, it's the mother in me. Well my predictions came true. As Jason was rolling over and taking Kamryn with him she started screaming, "Ow, ow, my arm, my arm!!" It was clear it was hurting and she wasn't moving it. It didn't appear to be broken. This has happened before and after a bit it works itself out and all is well. Not the case here. After an hour she was still not moving it and favoring it. She ate her lunch with one hand and didn't move the injured arm at all. Well my wonderful husband starts getting ready for work. Apparently he had court and would be leaving sooner than I expected, I'm usually the last one to know. I was less than thrilled that he caused this injury, but yet I was now left to "clean up the mess". Grrrrrr....

Long story shorter I ended up making an appointment for Kam when after a couple hours things hadn't improved. After getting Kori off we raced to the pediatrician. Nursemaid elbow was the diagnosis and after some twisting and turning and LOTS of shrieking and screaming from Kamryn, things were re-set and all was well. She left with a mini-pinwheel, a princess crown, and everyone got coupons for a free ice cream cone from McDonald's. Awesome! As it was it was dinner time and I had planned on McD's for dinner. We'd kill two birds with one stone. Off we went!

Well things were going well until Alexis went to get down from her seat for some reason. He foot was tangled in the seat back and she started to fall. In an attempt to save her and the tray of food she was taking with her, I reached out quickly. Grabbed and saved the food, and rammed my elbow into the back of her little head. The cry indicated something was wrong. I apparently bumped her head into the metal chair back and cut her head just above her eyelid. Oh darn!!! So off to urgent care we went.

Two-three stitches would have worked, but in an attempt to keep it as trauma free as possible we opted for the Dermabond glue/steri-strip route. It's healing nicely and she doesn't seem too scarred from it all. I however, feel horrible still to this day.

So there it is, my not so great Monday!

So...

2010-04-30T22:52:00.000-07:00

My sister has mentioned to me several times over the past few weeks they she's sick of logging in and seeing my last post from AGES ago. So here I am! My computer has been in the shop...again but I'm here. I made this long post the other night from my Blackberry to appease my sister and get her off my back (kidding...kind of) and the Blackberry apparently enjoyed it so much, it ate it. At the risk of wearing out my thumbs trying to do it again, I waved the white flag of surrender.

So since I can use a full-size keyboard, voila, here I am!

Jason is back today from a week-long trip to Alabama for training for work. The girls and I took him to the airport last Sunday. His flight left KC at about 10:15 and by 11:30 I know that I had been asked at least 100 times if it was time for daddy to come home. Hmmm, how to rectify this situation? I finally went to the calendar, showed the girls what day we were on, marked a big ol' heart of Friday, the day he would be coming home, in an attempt for them to actually visualize the days that needed to pass, and me not have to answer that question a million times a day. It helped, a little. Oh well, they were missing him, I understand.

Of course Sunday night everyone was sick. Fever for Kamryn. Kori had been home Friday with a sore throat/cough/sinus pressure etc. that lasted all weekend so she was home sick Monday as well. Alexis and Morgan had coughs/congestion. Of course! Tuesday I took both Morgan and Kamryn to the doctor. Morgan had been up at 1am complaining of ear pain. Kamryn informed me that morning at breakfast that if Morgan was going to the doctor, she was going too, because her ear hurt too. Awesome! Off we go. Ear infections for both. Pink medicine for both. Life is good!

With the magic of technology Jason was able to send a video every night at bedtime, telling them good night, blowing kisses etc. They LOVED it! Every night they couldn't wait to watch it. It was so cute seeing them waving when he waved, and blowing kisses back.

I was actually relatively unstressed about this trip and took it in stride. Unfortunately I think that means I am getting used to doing everything myself and am adjusting to it all. That might not be such a great thing.

We kept a great schedule, everyone got to bed by 9pm every night and I was able to have some "me time" and recollect any sanity that had become dislodged in its attempt to flee.

Alexis had the most trouble with it all. Everyday she would express, several times a day, how much she missed and loved daddy. It was very sweet. Morgan seemed annoyed by the whole thing. Every morning she would go up to our bedroom, discover that daddy was once again, not sleeping in our bed, and in her most grumpiest voice declare, "Ughhhhh daddy isn't here YET???? He is gone every single day!" And off she'd grump back downstairs. HYSTERICAL!

Thursday night as I was silently celebrating the week and surviving it all, in my own head while finishing up the kitchen/after dinner mess I heard Alexis crying. In she came and informed me Morgan pushed her. Not unusual for some sort of violence to take place unfortunately. So I turn around casually only to discover that Alexis is bleeding a bit from her nose. So I clean that up, summon Morgan, and plop her in the floor in the kitchen where I can properly supervise her while I finish up my work. Kamryn decides this is a great time to come and pester/heckle Morgan. That won her a similar spot on the floor, just across the kitchen from Morgan. She then proceeds to start with the sassy mouth. Ooooooh, this girl can be sassy. She is perfecting the art of eye rolling which is not going over well with me I must say. I advise her it would be in her best interest to cease the sassy talk and aforementioned eye rolling. So she told me, "You are being ridiculous and you need to get over it". I warned her again of her mouth and then she informed me she was going to "find somewhere else to live". I offered to help her pack. So the sassy/temper won out, she declared me "mean" and got a trip to bed without a snack or bedtime story. Now you'd think that Morgan would learn from her behavior. Not so! She informed me, as I'd taken 3 steps back into the kitchen from putting Kamryn to bed not 10-seconds earlier, "Kam's wight, you are being weally, weally mean" (yes I meant it to be spelled that way). Guess what she got? Yep, to bed sans snack and story just like her sister.

Oh kids, they are so sweet aren't they? I am blessed to have them and never have to remind myself of that once I see their sleeping sweet faces every night.

I was rewarded after a long week of daddy being away, with him having to go to work a mere 3 1/2 hours after his plane landed. I am thrilled he has a job, in these economic times, don't get me wrong, but it's a little easy to lose patience with it sometimes. Oh well, I'm just used to it.

So that's it for us. I will have to post soon about my "Monday" that was everything a Monday could hope to be. It was AWFUL! I will save that for another day and another post. For now, I am tired.

Becky, I hope you are happy now! A new post and already a promise of another one! Mwah!

Hey Lookie Here...

2010-03-25T09:44:00.001-07:00

It's me! I'm here! I didn't disappear! Life has been a bit crazy, but nothing out of the norm for us here.

There has been some illness, some nice weather, a freak snow storm, the melting of said snow the next day. It's been interesting. We are definitely ready for Spring around here!!!

I have decided that as a mother I am taking my house back. My children decided that they were in charge. Listening was a thing of the past! Doing your own thing seemed to be the newest trend. My days were spent saying the same things over and over and over, and quite frankly it was getting exhausting!

So we initiated the rule that I will tell you once, warn you once and then there will be consequences for your action, or in some cases, inaction.

For example, the girls LOVE to drag out the big tub of dress up clothes. Unfortunately it was a fight, which usually resulted in a melt-down when it came time to pick them back up. I warned them that times were changing. Warned them of the new rules and gave them ample time to adjust. That resulted in me confiscated the tub of clothes. They are put up in the sub-basement. Along with a tub of Polly Pockets, a bucket of bristle blocks, a Barbie RV and a bunch of accompaniying pieces.

We have been taking my mom once a week for the last several weeks, to the doctor for injections in her knees. We've been having lunch out afterwards and the girls know there is no dessert if you don't eat your meal, not all of it, but a good portion. If you don't have room for the main course, there's certainly no room for dessert. We had lunch at Culver's this past week. I reminded them several times that if they didn't eat lunch they wouldn't have custard for dessert. Morgan and Kamryn caught on. Unfortunately for Alexis she didn't get the memo. So while the other two enjoyed their cups of custard inside with my mom, Alexis and I went to the van so she wouldn't disturb the other patrons with her grumbling. I am thinking, or hoping at least, that they are catching on.

Other than that we enjoyed Spring Break here at home. Nothing special. Kori was glad to have a few days off and enjoyed staying up a bit later than usual and sleeping in some too. I enjoyed being able to sleep in some too.

Still working out. With the exception of the last couple of days due to knee pain. I am having MRI's tomorrow on my knees to figure out if I have a torn meniscus in one or both knees. If not (which I am hoping that is the case!) I will have cortisone injections to "clear up the crackles" in my knees.

Yesterday the trio and I watched my niece and nephew. Triplets and twins! Wow! The girls are very good sitters. I didn't have to do much. I did forget how much work little ones are. I am glad that stage is over for me. My heart no longer aches for more kids. I hit that mark several months after the girls were born. Who can blame me right? :-)

We are headed to Iowa next week for Easter. We will spend Good Friday with Jason's Grandpa Leroy, who is turning 96. He hasn't seen the girls in a while and we're excited to get them up to visit with him. He sure enjoys seeing them! After that we'll head to Jason's dad and step-moms for a couple of days. Should be a good time! Looking forward to getting out of the city for a couple days.

So that's it for us, I will try, key word, try, to be more dilligent in my postings. Again.

Darn It!

2010-03-03T22:28:00.000-08:00

I specifically remember in my last post, aeons ago, that I was going to do better about keeping up with my blog. Rats! So here I am again...behind again. Sorry about it, again. It's a viscious cycle!

I have been working out still. I am at 18-pounds lost now. I wish it were coming off faster, but I am toning things up and can tell in how my clothes are fitting. I hate the two weeks that Jason is on the 3-11pm shift. I sometimes can't get to the gym before he has to leave for work, which leaves me on the treadmill here at home. It is sooooo boring! So I suffer through, but I don't enjoy it as much as going to the gym.

I am ready for Spring! I need to see green, now gray and brown anymore. It is so annoying! There is still some snow on the ground here from the last burst over a week ago. That netted us about 7-8 inches. YUCK!!! Even Kori grumbled about it. You know it's been a long winter when the kids are complaining about more snow. It's supposed to be in the 50's for the next few days so hopefully it will melt. Next up I'd like to order some Spring green please. Grass, plants, leaves, anything green, I am down with it!

The girls are doing great! Daddy pulled the 2nd of Kori's top teeth the other day. She is now missing the top two teeth and looks completely adorable! I love to hear her talk, it is soooooo cute! She is doing AWESOME in school! I am so proud of her every day!

The trio are wonderful as well! I am getting ready to check into pre-school screening for them so try and get them into the pre-school program at Kori's school. Yikes! It would only be for about 3-hours a day, but the thought of it just scares me to death! I'm pretty sure they were just born! Weren't they??? Wasn't this just a couple of days ago???

Now it's pre-school talk, and before long Kindegarten. **Sigh** I remember the days so vividly when I thought I wouldn't survive the first six months, yet here we are, almost 4-years old! Unbelievable!

We have booked our vacation home for the 2010 Rusley Family Vacation. This years excursion will take us to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We are looking forward to some sun, fun, swimming, beaches, golfing (Jason), seafood (Jason) and much, much more! Another long car ride in our future, but everyone is up for it! Heck it's a couple hours shorter than last years Disney World trip. Just over three months to go, I can't wait!!!

So that's about it for me. I won't waste your time with promises to do better,I just will really try my hardest.

I leave you with the cutest kids in the land:

Greetings!

2010-02-09T10:31:00.000-08:00

My sister and I were having a conversation the other night about someone we know that has a blog. She mentioned that this person had been lax about keeping it up to date. I mentioned that I wasn't doing so good either. The look my sister gave me let me know that she was well aware of that fact, so here I am.

There just isn't enough time in the day to get everything done! At the 1st of the new year I decided that I was tired of being overweight and out of shape. I started running on our treadmill here at the house. Well I was doing a run/walk combo program. Along with some ab work on my stability ball. Then I had a talk with our Chief of Police while visiting with my friend Liz at her work one day and was granted priveledges to work out at the exercise facility at our Police Academy, which conveniently enough is less than a minute from my house. So I've been going there pretty much every day, give or take a few days when we were sick with the stomach flu. It's been good for me to try and get myself back in some sort of shape. To give myself an hour or so of "me time" doing something just for me. I have a love/hate relationship with the elliptical machine. I hate the first five minutes or so when my legs are burning, as well as my lungs, but then the other 20 I am great and get in the zone. I have been bumping up the intensity with pushing myself harder or adding more time to the workout. I do some weight work too. So far I've lost 15-pounds. I have LOTS more to go but am please so far. I'd love to see quick results but we all know that isn't how it works. So I am trying to be patient and not get frustrated.

All is well with the kiddos too. The trio currently all have colds but nothing serious. Kori is still doing GREAT at school. We are in the middle of a big penguin project. I'll have to post pictures when we're done. It's making me tap into my inner "not so crafy side" and try and be a little more artsy and crafty. They are all still trying to drive me crazy, but I have managed to elude their efforts thus far.

So there you have it, a not so exciting update from me,and yet another promise to try and be better with my blogging.

Ugh! Ick! Gross! Blach! Ewwww!

2010-01-20T18:12:00.000-08:00

The stomach flu has hit our house! Boo!! Last week a few of Kori's school mates were home with a stomach bug. The little girl on the bus in the seat behind Kori barfed on her seat mate. Great! That always starts the panic to rise inside me. I have emetophobia and I fear vomit. Mine. Theirs. Yours. It doesn't matter. I am non-discriminatory. It causes me great anxiety. I hate it, but it is what it is. My theory is nothing should come flying out your nose/mouth if it was once inside your stomach. Okay, enough with that.

Friday Kori woke up with some tummy issues of the bathroom nature. She burped and gagged a bit so I decided to just keep her home. It was a half-day. She hasn't missed any school yet this year, no big deal. She kept a very low profile in bed all day watching TV. She was better Saturday and we had a belated bowling party for her 8th birthday. It went great! Lots of fun! One of the little girls there, one of Kori's schoolmates, was just getting over the stomach flu. She was out of school Thursday and Friday but was better Saturday. Jason ran into their mom Sunday morning at the convenience store down the road. Apparently the older sister, who was also at the bowling party, was now sick. As well as the neighbors husband. I figured it was bound to hit. It seemed to be running ramapant.

So low and behold Sunday night about 12:30 a.m., Alexis decided to kick things off. Lots of barfing. Bathroom issues. Etc. About 4:00 p.m. Monday afternoon she perked up, ate a pop tart and was find. Cool. That wasn't too bad.

Fast forward to this morning at 3:20 a.m. I am awakened by Morgan who is claiming her "tummy is hurting". I get her settled back in her bed. Sit by it for a while until she falls back to sleep, and as an afterthought before leaving, I throw a couple old towels on the floor next to her bed. Oh you know what they say about a mother's intuition. It was dead on. I no sooner got back in bed and covered up when I heard the tell-tale coughing/crying. So here we go, round #2.

About 6:00 a.m. here comes Kamryn. I'd heard her whining and kind of moaning around 5:00 a.m., but she's a sleep talker so I didn't worry to much. Well she decided Morgan shouldn't barf alone so she joined in too. So there my husband and I sat ready to do battle. Which we did until around noon when the barfing subsided. There are still bathroom issues, but they are up and around, have proclaimed their tummies feel better and are watching Cinderella as we speak. They ate a light lunch and some dinner and so far so good. I am hoping for a barf-free remainder of the week. Hey, I'm going to aim higher, how about the rest of the year! No need to limit myself. I am hoping Jason and I are spared. I have washed my hands so much they are cracked open and bleeding. I wiped light switches, toilets, counters etc. with a water/bleach solution this evening. I've sprayed Lysol religiously. I am hoping this is the end of it and it goes away and stays away.

So that's the end of this really disgusting post. It is definitely not one of the finer points of this little thing called parenthood. But it is what it is.

Man am I tired. I think the washing machine is about to go on strike too.

Resolutions

2010-01-12T21:04:00.000-08:00

I actually made a few this new year. I don't usually because past experience has shown me that I do not stick to them, no matter how bad I want to. Something this year "felt right", so I made a few. I resolved to not curse. I don't do it a lot, but a little is too much. It's just not lady-like, Christian-like, its yucky. So I am doing great in that area.

I also resolved to lose weight. For some reason, all of a sudden I'm tired of being overweight. It's no secret my body took a hit when I was pregnant with the girls. The added weight from the medicines I took to get pregnant, stay pregnant, etc. didn't help either. The triplet pregnancy completely wrecked my abs. My abdominal muscles are completely seperated. You can stick your fist in this. This makes me unable to do a sit-up, but there are other things I can do. So I have been trying to eat better. Heck, I do good to actually eat at all. Sometimes I'm just too busy, I forget. I used to think my mom was nuts when she said she forgot to eat...now I understand.

So I've been trying to eat breakfast and lunch and dinner and have healthy snacks. You know pretzels, apples, etc. It's going well. Probably the best I've ever done. I'm down about 4 1/2 pounds in nine days. Woo hoo! I have been doing a walking/jogging program on the treadmill. Walk for two minutes, jog for a minute. I am finding that I dread it less and can actually run the whole minute without feeling like I'm going to puke, pass up or die, generally in that order. I strap on my headphones and get to it. The 30-minutes I do for now actually goes fast. When I first started I was at about 1.3 miles. Then I was up to 1.5 miles, then 1.6 I am now up to 1.75 miles. I am increasing the speed and even ran for two whole minutes the other day at 5 mph! My husband is surprised, yet pleased and encouraging with my progress.

The girls are good about watching a movie on my bed while I do the treadmill since it is in our bedroom. The first day I got on it the little girls informed me, "That's not your treadmill, that's daddy's treadmill!" Uh sorry, not any more girls. The other night at the end of my workout, Kori informed me, "Hey you did good mom. You were running good, you didn't look like you were going to pass out or nothing". Uh, thank you????

At any rate it is January 12th and I'm still at it. I can't wait until I can actually see the results, or feel the clothes getting more roomy. Woo hoo!

Dear Winter...

2010-01-10T22:29:00.000-08:00

I am so very much over you. The white Christmas was beautiful. Very nice! Loved it! I especially appreciated it because I did not have to go out in it. The snow over the school Christmas break was a nice touch! Kori had a ball playing in it!

Then you decided more was needed. And more. And more. And yet even more. Then to just be even more cruel you threw in some sub-zero, freeze your hiney off temperatures. Not cool!!!

So Christmas break was extended by a week. A whole week. Not to mention it was too cold to let anyone play in the beautiful snow you sent us. So I had four kids with extreme cabin fever. Definitely NOT cool!

I am now a bit concerned that I am finding the thoughts of temperatures in the 30's to actually be appealing, and thinking they actually seem warm. There is something seriously wrong with that.

If you could whoa down on the dramatics, the rest of your season will go much better and we will appreciate you a bit more.

Signed,

Me

What Happened???

2010-01-03T21:45:00.000-08:00

So today was what I thought a pretty good day. Aside from me pulling our wooden blinds down from our bedroom window off the brackets and onto my head (oh man did that HURT! I have a knot to show for it and wouldn't be surprised if I didn't have a mild concussion), it was a pretty good day. Even though we woke up to freezing cold temperatures and 3-4 more inches of snow.

We met Jason's dad and step-mom for breakfast before they headed back to Iowa. That went good. Everyone ate well. Nobody cried, yelled, spilled, fought, hit, kicked, punched, or otherwise caused any negative attention to us. Success in my book!

We got back and Kori and Jason and I shoveled the drive and sidewalks...again. (Have I mentioned I am very much over Winter??? -- If I haven't, let it be noted that I am, very much so!)

The girls played nicely, always a bonus.

At about 2:30 Kori and I left to pick up Becky and we headed to our long-standing, eagerly anticipated, group date to see New Moon. Hey, better late than never huh? We had a nice time, no issues.

Got home and did some stuff. Wrestled in the floor. Gave the little girls a bath.

Kori came in to take her bath and I noticed she'd been crying. So I ask her what was up? I assumed that something must have happend with daddy or Alexis, because they were the only two that had been with her, Kamryn and Morgan were in the bathroom with me.

She told me, through her tears, that she feels like she isn't part of our family sometimes. HUH??? I asked her what made her feel that way. She told me that she feels like I favor Alexis and I don't make her feel like she's part of our family. It was all I could do to not burst into tears at this point, but I didn't want to discourage her from sharing her feelings with me if something is bothering her. I told her that as mothers we are gifted with the ability to love all of our kids equally, no matter how many we have, and that's how I am. I love each and every one of my girls exactly the same. No more for one than the others. I just was so shocked as to where all of this was coming from. I hadn't fussed at her or anything all day?????

I have been feeling a little "Cinderella-ish" lately as I've been the only one to do things around here. I have been doing everything, with little or no help from anyone else. I just had a conversation with Jason about this a few days ago, but it only helped for a day or so. Apparently my family thinks I'm their personal maid. I am tired of picking up after everyone, all the time. There is rarely a day I get to sit down and relax with all the laundry, housework, dishes, cooking, cleaning, etc. etc. etc. that I have to do. Every night I pick everything up that is left out, because it drives me crazy to leave it out. Surveying all the things I pick up 99% of them are NOT mine. They belong to Jason and the girls. So now on top of feeling like Cinderella, I also apparently am not being a very good mother.

Man this parenting thing is so hard sometimes. The days I try and schedule "family fun time" someone is grumpy or uncooperative and it ends up being "family not-so-fun time" and backfires on me. I try and make sure that I am loving an attentive to my kids even though I don't have a minute for myself, and that apparently is not working out so great for me either.

Feeling very much like flying the white flag of surrender right now.

Okay...pity post over now I guess.

Patience???

2009-12-30T16:48:00.000-08:00

Why is it that my husband has so much patience with so many things, and yet not so much on other things???

The man will sit for HOURS on doper time, waiting for the drug deal of the century to go down, nabbing the suspect in the process.

He will sit for HOURS waiting for a suspect to reoccupy a stolen auto, thus nabbing the suspect in the process.

He can sit and watch baseball or football for hours, never losing interest.

He golfs for goodness sakes. One of the most boring "sports" on the planet (sorry golf lovers). It certainly takes patience for that.

Give the man a gingerbread house and all patience goes out the window.

So without further adieu, (for the sake of my kids feelings, please, no laughing)I give you our 2009 Gingerbread "Creation":

So glad...

2009-12-28T14:07:00.000-08:00

That this holiday season, well most of it, is behind us. I was so happy in fact that on Saturday after my last family guest left, I took my tree and all the inside decorations down. I put my tree up just before Thanksgiving so I was ready for it to come down and have my living room back.

Christmas Eve we took the girls to see Alvin and the Chipmunks -- The Squeakwel. It was super cute, and the girls loved it! Even better they all sat in their seats quietly and watched it.

Admission for the six of us: $35.00
One large soda, one large popcorn, one small popcorn, one order of nachos and one pizza for daddy: $32.00 It would have been more but I smuggled juice boxes in for the girls.

So $67.00 later, our first movie out with the 6 of us was a success!!!

We hurried home since the rain was turning to sleet. Then came the snow, lots of it. Add in the winds that made it a blizzard and man was I thankful to not have to go anywhere. I had a mini-breakdown reminiscing about my dad, but was thankful to my hubby for helping me through it.

We watched Christmas Vacation (the girls watched Santa Buddies) as is our tradition every year. The girls were eager to go to bed so that Santa could come. So daddy read 'Twas The Night Before Christmas and off they went.

They camped out in Kori's room in anticipation of Santa's arrival:

And sure enough, Santa came!!! They got lots of goodies and had a great morning opening gifts. We had a big breakfast, complete with homemade waffles, thanks to my new waffle maker.

It was a nice relaxing day. We would have been snowed in if we would have had to be anywhere, but we didn't so we were happy to stay home. We stayed in our jammies all day and played with our new loot. It was blissful!

Saturday we had a "Mexican Fiesta" here with my family. It was nice and relaxing, which is sometimes unusual when my family gets together. There was no drama and good times were had by all! Woo hoo!!!

So now we look forward to 2010. I am ready to put 2009 behind me!

December -- Thus Far

2009-12-22T15:42:00.000-08:00

Nothing too exciting happening in December. Kori is two days into Christmas break. Everyone has received the first booster of the H1N1 vaccine. Kori turned eight on the 17th (I can't believe it!!!!), and lost a top front tooth on the 18th (thanks to daddy pulling it). Times they are a changing!!!

Christmas shopping is done (Thanks Becky and Jason for keeping the crew so we could get it done!) It hasn't been wrapped but that's okay, I still have a little time. I have done lots of baking and I'm trying to psyche myself up for it all. It can be a bit overwhelming.

So that's the past couple of months for us in a nutshell.

Merry Christmas!!!!

November

2009-12-22T15:23:00.000-08:00

Well it went by like a big ol' blur. It ended not so great. But now here it is,three days before Christmas?!?!? How in the world did that happen?????

The majority of November was pretty uneventful. It ended with a bang if you will. Thanksgiving was nice. Very sad for me without my dad. It was typically "our day" we have always loved Thanksgiving. So for me it was especially bittersweet without him here with us. He didn't come strolling in like he usually did with the specially holiday section of the paper in his hand. For the past several years he brought it because he'd found some recipe he thought "sounded good and maybe you'd like to try it too". That was code for I want you to make this for me. He was right, it usually was a pretty good recipe. I missed that so much this year. I thumbed through it but it didn't hold near as much appeal as it did in years past.

Dinner was great. Jason deep-fried a turkey and we had ham as well and all the trimmings. We had a little "family drama" but hey, it wouldn't be our family if we didn't. I'm over it and trying to get everyone else to let it go as well. **Sigh**

So the day after Thanksgiving we headed out for family portraits. I had ZERO expectations this year. Last year I assumed since the girls were 2 it would be easier. NOPE! Except for Kori there wasn't a smiling kid in the shot. Thankfully this year was MUCH better!!! Everyone did so good!!! Hard to find a bad shot. We went to see Santa and ride the Christmas train at the mall and then headed to Five Guys for some burgers for lunch. We came out of lunch with Alexis claiming that her back and throat hurt. She asked for a nap when we got home, even though everyone else was going to be outside riding bikes and "helping" daddy with the outside Christmas decorations. After her nap she was warm so I gave her some Ibuprofen. As the night wore on the fever went up. Finally at 103 degrees and 8:00 pm I took her to Urgent Care. After an extensive wait she finally was taken back and swabbed for the flu's. She had a chest x-ray because the doctor thought he heard something in her lungs. We left with four prescriptions and a diagnosis of the flu and pneumonia in the left lung we got home just before 1 am. Saturday she spent most of the day in my bed watching TV but seemed to be responding to the medicine good enough. Sunday she was up and playing a bit and ate a little. Monday, not so good. Back in bed. Fevering again. Rapidly breathing. Unable to stay awake. Finally about 1 pm I called the doctors and got her back in. Her oxygen saturation levels were low and her lungs still sounded bad so we got sent to the Emergency Room at the local children's hospital to get checked out.

I dropped Morgan and Kamryn off with Jason, who had picked up Kori from school, and then headed off to the hospital. We were admitted since her fever was still very high and her oxygen levels were very low, even with oxygen. No problem, I figured a day or so, they'd figure out what it was and fix us up. Well her new x-rays came back clear from pneumonia and two flu swabs were negative. We kept hearing what she didn't have but not a lot of what she did have. Jason stayed with Kori and Kam and Morgan and I stayed with Alexis at the hospital. I came home for a bit on Tuesday for a shower and then Wednesday to see the other girls for a while and hang out with them. Finally Thursday afternoon she was stable enough and was deemed to have "some sort of infection" and we were on our way with new inhalers and a follow-up appointment with our pediatrician. She slept lots once we were home but no surprise there. We were both exhausted and so glad to be home.

Friday night Morgan woke up about 1am complaining of her "face" hurting. After giving her some Benadryl (she gets a rash on her face sometimes -- I thought that's what it was) she then complained it was her ear. Some Ibuprofen and she went back to sleep with no problems. Saturday morning she professed her ear to be "all better" and no need to go to the doctor. I should have went with my "mothers intuition". Well about 12:30 p.m. Kamryn started complaining about her ear hurting. Off to Urgent Care we went. Her left ear was infected and we were given more "pink medicine". I no sooner walked in from the Pharmacy and Jason left for off-duty before Morgan started crying about her "ear hurting too". Seriously????? So I take Alexis, Kori and Kamryn to my mom's and off Morgan and I go to Urgent Care. The staff was so surprised to see me, yet again. Morgan's right ear that had previously been declared "all better" was infected to the point of the ear drum bulging and the left side looked "angry and red" as well. So more pink medicine and we were off to pick up sisters and search (in vain) for a drive-thru liquor store for me.

So in a span of about 10-days there were: Three Urgent Care visits, two Pediatrician visits, $120.00 in co-pays and $170.00 in prescriptions co-pays. Thankfully everyone is healthy now and I've regained some of my lost sanity back.

Time To Catch Up

2009-11-07T18:00:00.000-08:00

Hmmmm, what have we been doing? We've been busy! Let's see we made cookies to celebrate the arrival of Fall:

We watched some cartoons, very intently one day as you can see. Mommy got a much need minute to catch her breath that day:

We went to the Pumpkin Patch and took a hayride out to pick out the perfect pumpkin:

We carved pumpkins:

We had a "Fall Party" (we must be politically correct you know!) at school:

We went trick or treating:

We enjoyed some lovely weather the 1st weekend of the month. Unfortunately outside means running and playing, and at our house it often results in this: (Poor Alexis!)

And I was hit hard by H1N1 (still currently suffering as I type this). That resulted in a $50.00 for:

And way too much time spent here:

With the only person willing to hang out with me:

The Return

2009-10-19T07:43:00.000-07:00

Well daddy has returned home to the fold! He actually got home on Friday afternoon while the girls were napping. They were sooooo happy to see him when they woke up. Morgan ran to get Alexis who was still sleeping and as soon as she drug her upstairs she proclaimed, "Ta-da, daddy is home!" Good times, good times.

Saturday we took the girls to pick out some pumpkins. They enjoyed the hayride, fried pies and apple cider. The weather was cool, but at least the sun peeked out at the end of the day.

Saturday night I met up with some old friends at Whiskey Tango. It has been 15-16 years since I've seen a few of them. What is amazing to me is that you can pick righ up where you left off without any weird or akwardness. It was a late night, but worth it! So much fun to catch up!

Sunday dawned sunny! Woo hoo!! So great to see the sun!!! The weather-man said the other day that it had been 170 hours since the sun had been out. Depressing! The girls got to play out for a bit, which they enjoyed. It is supposed to be warmer for the next few days which I well relish to the fullest extent, because I know it won't last long.

So that is it for us! I turned in early last night because I was pooped from my late night the night before. Amazingly, you actually pop right up in the morning when you get an adequate amount of sleep. Who knew?????

Picture Time

2009-10-16T09:21:00.003-07:00

Well the girls were dressed and their hair fixed today and since it's been a while here are some pictures of the little girls. I will have to catch Kori this weekend since she was at school.

She's Right...Kinda

2009-10-15T13:02:00.000-07:00

I shall proceed this blog entry with an apology to my sister Becky. I am sorry, but it truly is too good to pass up. Love you!

Okay so yesterday I was talking to my sister. She has graciously offered to host my little girls, individually, for play-dates with my niece Mallory. She mentioned it a few weeks back, and since then Morgan has talked about it EVERY SINGLE DAY. There hasn't been a day that's passed since that she hasn't brought up "when I go to Becky's to play with Mallory". So we were discussing what day it should be. Today came up and I made sure my sister didn't want to get her housework done (she'd be grumping about needing to get it done). Well I assured her we could do the play-date on Tuesday and she could get her work done today. Well she told me she couldn't get it done on the days that Mal doesn't got to school. I joked with her, "You can't clean your house with your kids there, I do?" She then came back with something to the effect of yeah, but two of them are infant twins. Oh yeah, I've never cleaned with infant twins. Which is true. But I did clean with infant triplets. Silly girl! As soon as it came out I could tell she wanted to suck it back in and take it back, but it was already out that and fodder for my blog. It was priceless!!!

I was happily able to inform the girls today that daddy will be home TOMORROW!!! Yesterday was a rough day. I must have heard 2,342,937,432 (approximately) times "when is daddy coming home?", "is it Friday YET", "I miss daddy","daddy needs to get here NOW". By the end of the day I wanted to sew my own ears shut. It is hard to relay the concept of time (especially in complete days at a time) to three year old's. Usually I can break it down in how many movie or TV show's, but this is not the case. I don't think they'd totally get that daddy will be home in say, 75 Spongebob's, 4 Jungle Junctions, 5 Sesame Streets and a couple of Fresh Beat Bands. Oh well, we're at the 24-hour mark now so they are understanding now.

In retrospect, it has been an okay week. For all the dreading and worrying about it. I can say I did it and am coming out okay on the other side. No major issues. The house is still standing. The kids still love me. I even cleaned out their closets and dressers. I gave myself a little "to do list" for the week and as soon as I finish my little bit of housework that is left I will have completed the list.

I have been trying to come up with a week long training session for stay-at-home mom's that I might attend. Heck it could be for any moms. Speed Vacuuming. Dishwashing 101. Extreme Sheet Changing.

For now, I know one thing, I need a vacation.

Clever

2009-10-14T00:06:00.000-07:00

This morning was a marathon session of running the kiddos here and there. Out of the house at 9am for a 9:25 visit at the doctor for Kori to get her flu mist. Then we took her to school. Dropped something off to my sister. Ran in Michael's for a minute and then ended up back at the doctor for the little girls to get their flu mist. Whew! I was tired and it wasn't even 11:30 yet.

So the little girls are sitting on the exam table lined up so cute, patiently waiting. In walks the nurse and Alexis pipes up with, "Morgan is going first". The nurse kind of chuckle and said, "Okay, which one of you is Morgan?" Morgan looks around with an "Oh crap" look on her face and in her sweetest and most sincere voice says, "She is!" All the while pointing to Alexis. Alexis promptly corrected her and informed the nurse that she was very much indeed Alexis and NOT Morgan. It was too faunny! The nurse and I started cracking up! I did what any mother would do, I made them go in birth order. So Alexis first, then Morgan, than Kamryn. They all did excellent and we were off in a flash with our stickers in hand.

The day was busy, but actually not to bad. I am hanging in there in the single parent role. I am not relishing it or enjoying it much, but I am doing it, and feeling like I'm doing a great job. The kids are happy, the meals are cooked, the house is looking awesome, no problemo! I even ironed 117 pieces tonight. It took forver and it's done. For now. Until laundry day tomorrow. While I am "doing" it, I informed my husband tonight that I have ZERO INTENTION of EVER being a single mom so if he was thinking of dumping me, he can get it out of his head right now. I further informed him I would move in with him and whatever woman he tries to replace me with. He assured me this was not an issue but he would keep it in the back of his mind.

Toy pick-up went super smoothly tonight. It was done WITHOUT me asking, which NEVER happens. Bedtime was also smooth as well. Everyone got into their beds, didn't get out, and I only had to remind them to be quiet once. Now I would like to see this happen every day, but I am worried that God was just messing with me today. I fear that tomorrow I will get my butt kicked and kicked good! Praying that is not the case!

So onward and upward my peeps. I am now proud to say I have more days behind me than I do looming in front of me, so I think we're all going to make it.

That being said, I'd like to inform the sun that it is perfectly OKAY to come out of hiding. I don't think it's been out in well over a week. It's been cold and gray now for so long. Today rain came in and apparently it's going to stick around here for a few days. The "normal" high for this time of year should be 69. Our high today? Drum roll please.....brrrrrrrr....45! Boooooooo! I like a nice gray cozy day as much as anyone, but enough is enough. A little sun would be so nice!!!

I shall now crawl into bed and prepare battle for another day.

One Day At A Time

2009-10-12T17:03:00.000-07:00

Okay, we're well into day #2 of "Operation Daddy Is Gone -- Let's Drive Mommy Completely Insane". Daddy left for Camp Dodge in Iowa yesterday around noon for a week of training. I tried clinching onto his leg and begging and pleading for him to stay, but he assured me that it was something that he had to do. So I let go, wiped my eyes and tried to regather some dignity. The girls did okay, but were super concerned this morning to find that Daddy was STILL gone. They talked to him at bedtime last night and on his lunch break today.

Yesterday DRUG by soooooooooo slow. I was glad to see that today went a little faster. Only three more full days left! I don't count Friday cause he'll be home Friday afternoon. Woo hooo! I know that I do it all most of the time alone, but it sure is nice knowing that he's in the same state as me if I need him. It's also nice having him home at night. I just don't sleep well when he's gone. It's a subconscious thing I think about worrying that everything that needs to be done is on my shoulders should anything happen. Oh well, Friday will get here and we will survive.

Today we took my mom to Walmart and then had a burger out at Culver's. Only about an hour until bedtime and then I can regain a bit more of my insanity that I've lost various places throughout the day.

Tuesday

2009-10-08T07:44:00.000-07:00

Oh Tuesday you were cruel to me. On Tuesday I SERIOUSLY wanted to run away from home. It was a LONG, LONG, LONG day. BRUTAL! Jason had off-duty and then went on to work after that. The girls woke up grouchy and stayed that way ALL DAY LONG. Oh man, they were soooooo crabby. They were hitting, pinching, biting, scratching, screaming, crying, whining, fussing, griping. So basically if it ended in I-N-G, they were all over it. I was on the "naptime countdown" at breakfast. That sounds sad doesn't it? I couldn't wait for naptime to get here. I wasn't sure at a few points in the morning that we would all make it to naptime, but we did.

I prayed and prayed that when naptime was over the demons would awaken and be returned to a semi-angelic state. Uh, not so much. The previous I-N-G type things returned. Booooooo!!!!

Kori got off the bus grumpy and stayed that way all evening as well. So I found myself on the "bedtime countdown" too. Sad that all day long I was counting down the minutes until my kids would be sleeping and not causing a ruckus.

I told my husband that I used to think I was a great mom, then I had triplets and that whole perspective changed. Sometimes I get a nice big ol' dose of reality. It is rough! I informed my husband Tuesday night that if the girls were like that on Wednesday I would be running away from home and I was NOT kidding. He asked if he would be able to locate me, which I replied to that question with an unequiovcal, "Not a chance in HELL!" Oh it was rough.

Thankfully Wednesday dawned a new day. I awoke with a HORRENDOUS headache. Probably leftover stress and tension from Tuesday. I got Kori off to the busstop, made the girls breakfast and retreated to the couch. The girls were off to a good start. I told them that mommy had a headache and Kamryn brought me some sunglasses to wear. (Okay they were super small for me, but it's the thought that counts. Alexis asked why I still had my jacket on (I was FREEZING) and when I told her it was because I was cold, she covered me up with one of her prized "loveys". Awwwww, so sweet!

So the day was better, much better. Heck anything would have been better than Tuesday, and I didn't run away. Yet. :-)

That being said, on Sunday my dear husband leaves for a week of training for work in Iowa. To say that I am dreading this is the understatement of the year. He's gone away for a weekend here and there, only once since the trio arrived, and only a couple of times before when it was just Kori. But a couple days sounds a lot better than FIVE days! He will get back Friday evening sometime. I am so NOT looking forward to it. I can do it, I will do it, I don't have a choice. But all day, all night, 24/7 for 5 days without a break seems so daunting to me. It will be fine, but it will be tough. I have warned a couple of the neighbors if they see mee sitting on our front stoop crying with the world's biggest pitcher of Margarita's to think nothing of it. I have told my husband if he returns and the girls are here alone with a big bowl of food and water, to just know that it was more than I could handle and I'm halfway to somewhere.

All kidding aside, I am not looking forward to it but I'm trying to have a more positive outlook on it. I think it might help. Not really. No I'm kidding. Maybe. No I am. I think. Stop. Really. It will be fine. A beautiful disaster. Is it next Friday yet????

Dear Computer Guy

2009-10-05T13:56:00.000-07:00

I took my computer in AGAIN today. It was in last Monday and I picked it up Thursday evening. Good as new...yeah right. If good as new was the fact it still wasn't working then yes, it was good as new.

So I take it in today and had to wait for him to roll in. Apparently the sign on his door that says 10:00-6:00 are just guidelines. He'll get there sometime around there. Oh right, more like 10:30 but whatever.

So I carry in the hard drive and he says, "What's it doing?" Uh, well it's not really what it's DOING, more of what it's NOT doing. It's doing NOTHING. Freezing up. Nothing. Can't check my email. Won't go anywhere on the internet. NOTHING.

He looks at me like I'm crazy and plugs it in to "see what's happening". Nothing is happening I assure him. Hmmmmm...looks like I'm right. So he then says there was info from Yahoo that we need the old browser uninstalled and a new updated one installed. Whatever, make it happen. Will it take a while? Nope I'll do it right now, only a few minutes. 30-minutes later I was informed that it was taking longer than expected and I could just leave it and he'd call me later. **Sigh**

Thankfully I have my sisters lap top so I am good to go until my computer is once again "as good as new". Fingers crossed that is really the case this time.

Here!

2009-10-04T21:33:00.000-07:00

I am, I swear it! It's been busy here as of late. Oh heck, when isn't it busy here? Never!!! I was sick with bronchitis for about 10-days and am finally feeling better. Jason has been getting adjusted (or the rest of us have I should say) to the new job. The hours are okay. Sometimes better than others, but at least he's here at night with me. I've slept better in the last 5-weeks or so than I have for the last four years. We've also had computer problems. It was in the shop for 4 days last week, only to get it back and discover it still isn't fixed. Grrrrr! Back to the shop tomorrow! BUMMER!

School is going good for Kori. She is doing great and having fun! So glad for that!

The little girls are doing well too! They are just turning into such little people. Bittersweet that my little babies are growing up.

Kamryn is so sassy and "adult-like". She longs to be just like her big sister. Her mouth gets her in trouble often. She likes to have her hair fixed and look her best at all times. A mini-Diva in the making for sure! She gives wonderful hugs and kisses though! Love the hugs where she plays with my hair. So sweet!

Alexis is the most dramatic. She cries...a lot. Sometimes over important things (like Morgan biting her --- yes we STILL do that occasionally!) and sometimes over some not-so-important things. Her favorite phrase lately is, "I CAN'T!" So SICK of those too words! She is also very loving and a snuggler for sure!

Morgan, oh Morgan. Some days so easy, some days, mostly likely to drive her mother insane. She gives the most wonderful hugs...when she feels like it. It must be on her terms for sure. She plays hard and passionately.

There are days when I find myself tired and stressed and ready to cry. Then at night when I check on them before bed they look so sweet and peaceful and I remind myself that tomorrow is a new day and all is well again.

I will keep reminding myself of that next week while Jason is out of town for work from Sunday-Friday. I will probably be bald and sipping margaritas 24-7 by Tuesday. LONG days with no breaks. I am not ashamed to say that I am NOT looking forward to it. We will survive though!!! I think. No, I'm kidding. We will! I hope. No, stop, I mean it, we will. Where's the tequila?????

My dad would have turned 66 on September 25th. I took my mom to lunch and to run a few errands with me that day to try and get her out of the house for a bit. Keep her busy you know? It was a rough day for us all. Hard to believe that my dad has been gone for five months almost now. Wow!

On September 26th, Jason and I celebrated our 11th year of marriage. We will go out for a nice dinner once he returns from training. I am sure I will be more than ready for it by then. 11 years! What an accomplishment! Hoping for so many more. Even though he drives me crazy often, I still love him more than words can express!!!

That being said I almost strangled him a couple of weeks ago. I had been sick for 10 days or so and decided to head to the doctor. Even though I was sick I still made a roast and some oven roasted potatoes and peas for dinner. I didn't eat before I left for the doctor and told him I would just eat when I got back. I got back around 8pm to find that my roast was gone. ALL of it! Not one piece left. Jason and the girls ate the whole darn thing. I could not believe it! I was able to chuckle (only a little) after a few days but I was really stunned that night to say the least. I guess I should be thankful that my family found it so delicious that they ate it all. It was a big roast, I was just surprised that there wasn't ANY left for me. My sister made one last week and was kind enough to bring me a big container over, complete with carrots and potatoes. It was DELICIOUS and I was so appreciative!!!

This past Friday my mom and I went to watch my nephew play football for school. They won and are now 6-0. They played Raytown South and they were the worst sports ever! Horrible sportsmanship! It was awful! Crotch grabbing! Heckling the fans! One player bit one of the players on my nephews team, causing him to bleed a lot. So much his parents are filing charges against the other player. So very sad to see, to say the least. I was glad to see that Fort Osage kept their cool and won with dignity and self-respect. What is WRONG with people sometimes???

Saturday it was the girls and I as Jason went to the KSU vs. ISU game with some buddies from his home town. We took my mom to dinner and then went by my sister's for a bit. It was nice to get out.

Today was AWESOME!!!! My sister and her in-laws invited me to go to the NASCAR race here in town at the Kansas Speedway. It was awesome and so much fun! We had track passes and everything. We got to go and see the cars up close, be on the track etc. It was so great! I am so thankful that they thought of me and my husband manned the ship so I could get away! It was wonderful! Beautiful weather, a good race, great company, perfect!

So that's it for us. I will do better! I promise! My sister has loaned me her lap top until our computer woes are sorted out, so that will help!

Can't believe another week gets underway tomorrow! That weekend went by FAST!

Blah-ging

2009-09-09T08:10:00.000-07:00

I'm here. Just a bit uninspired as of late. My days have been filled with fixing meals, cleaning up mess from said meals, laudndry, kid messes, homework, housework, laundry. All mundane tasks I know. But this morning I figured it could be worse, I could be the girl that was driving the Northland Poop Scooping truck through my neighborhood. She stopped at our neighbors and got out with an arsenal of utensils, shovels, scoops etc. The truck contained several different bins, which I won't even think about what they contained (yuck!). What an awful job. Driving around scooping up the dog excrement of others. No thank you!!! I'll pass and stick to my mundane tasks.

School is going great. Jason is loving the new job. The little girls are trying hard to drive me insane. Life is life. My mom celebrated her 65th birthday last week. It was a bit rough without my dad but we all got through it. We took her to dinner on Saturday. My crew, plus my sis and her kiddos. 4 adults, 7 kids, no fiascos= SUCCESS!!! My mom celebrated further by getting a nasty case of poison ivy or oak. Not fun!

So that's where I've been and what I've been doing. I'm going to give being a better blogger the old college try!

Six Years Ago

2009-08-25T07:40:00.000-07:00

I lost my sister Margaret. This will be a redundant post, every August 25th, for as long as I blog. She was truly one of the most beautiful people ever! Yes, she could drive you absolutely crazy too, but who doesn't?

Tiny and petite with a laugh that at times could seriously hurt your ears. She was a lover of dancing and having fun in any sense of the word. Although she had a heart condition her whole life, she was always game to do anything. Roller coasters? Check! Dancing until you were about to collapse? Check! Bike riding? Check (she did go slower than most, but she stuck with it). She was not a great cook, and an even worse baker. We all cringed at Christmas time when she would announce all the things she was going to bake. Her list of 10 or more things would dwindle to one or two after the recipes didn't quite work out, or they got a bit more done than she intended. Funny although she wasn't a great cook, she taught me how to make a wonderful lasagna, the best white cream gravy ever, and she taught Becky her stir-fry secrets.

She was a lover of animals, all of them, but especially dogs and cats. She would have saved them all if she could. Housework was not her thing but we all knew that. Her closet often looked as if a volcano had erupted in it, but that's part of who she was.

Hard to believe that at noon, six years ago, my sweet and beautiful sister, one of my very best friends, gave up her lifelong fight with heart issues and succumbed to it all. She was a fighter to the end and is missed so very much by each and every one of us.

Back To School, Lonely Littles and A New Assignment

2009-08-20T21:41:00.000-07:00

My 2nd Grader!!!

Bus buddies!

Off she goes!

Tuesday began the start of yet another school year for Kori. She is now a proud 2nd grader. I can't believe it! She decided this year to ride the bus with her buddies from the neighborhood. Huh? What kid doesn't want their mom to take them and pick them up? Her! So I relented and let her ride with her friends. She LOVES it! Loves everything about it. We'll see if that's the case when she has to ride the bus in high school.

The little girls are missing their big sister, big time! The 1st day they were sleeping when I walked her to the bus stop. When they got up they asked 1,459,234 time where Kori was and when was she coming home. The 2nd day they walked with us. Alexis and Morgan burst into tears when Kori was getting on the bus. They sobbed all the way back home, "Kori come back". They are so happy to see her in the afternoon when she gets home.

Jason has a new assignment! No more over-night shift!! Woo hoo! He was asked to take over as supervisor of one of our Tactical Response Squads. Like SWAT I suppose you'd say. The hours aren't great, but we will survive. There are pro's and con's but we'll make it through together, we always do. I am glad he will be here sleeping with me at night again. Let the snoring commence! Tonight is his last night of working over-night. He is going to miss his guys that work for him now, but is ready for the new assignment as well.

So that's it for us! We're looking forward to a great weekend! Jason is off and the weather is going to be nice, what to do, what to do???

Dear Children

2009-08-10T22:26:00.000-07:00

Try as you may, you did not succeed in driving me stark raving crazy today. It was a valiant effort that began around one a.m. when Kamryn woke up from a slumber screaming for me to open her ice cream. After some hard earned convincing on my part, she finally understood it was time for sleeping and the frozen treats would have to wait.

Mother Nature decided to toy with my emotions as well and about 30-minutes after settling Kamryn back in she fired up some storms, which we all know Alexis HATES! So I get her calmed down only to see Morgan sitting up in her bed now. She looked at me and proclaimed, "Oh I'm peeing" and she did. All over her jammies and sheets, oh and the pillow too. AWESOME!

After getting her cleaned up and fresh sheets and blankies back on the bed. Getting her a new pillow everyone was once again quiet.

Until about 3:30 or so when more storms blew in. AWESOME again! I finally plopped down in the floor of their bedroom so they would go to sleep and hopefully stay that way.

The morning came with Morgan grumping about something trivial (so trivial I can't even remember what it was about). I informed all of my beautiful children that I was tired and grumpy and not particularly in the mood for silliness today. They must have heard the exact opposite of what I said. The day was a wreck. Fighting, fussing, whining, crying, screaming, yelling, ignoring me.

Thankfully around 2:15 my knight in shining armour (okay it was just Jason in a t-shirt and shorts, but whatever) arrived to save me. Or so I thought. He sat for a minute and then proceeded to start putting on shoes and socks. Wait, where are you going I asked? I have a meeting at 3, I won't be gone long. No matter how much I begged and pleaded not to leave me alone with the beasts, I mean our beautiful daughters, he did just that.

To escape some bickering/whining, I retreated to the quiet of my bedroom to "sort some laundry". That was code for hide and hope no one found me. I sat on my bed and watched some TV for a while alone. Thankfully true to his word my knight wasn't gone too long.

So anyway, to my children, you'll have to rearm and try again tomorrow. Or not, I am okay with that. I am going to do some house work, I think, so beware, I might attack back.

Love,

Your Frazzled Mother

Manwich

2009-08-02T23:27:00.001-07:00

Tonight for dinner I made Manwich. Not my favorite, but it is quick and easy. Jason needed something to take to work that could be whipped up quick and ready to go before he left for softball. So Manwich was the choice. The girls and I had lunch out with my mom today after we went to the orchard to get some peaches. (Oh they are soooooooo delish! -- Tomorrow I'll be making a homemade peach cobbler -- my first!)

So anyway the girls ate late. I kept asking if they were ready to eat and kept getting "NO" X 4. So finally they decided it was dinner time. Everyone ate an entire sandwich and asked for more. I also gave them sliced up fresh peaches and nectarines and some Sun Chips. So after asking for more Morgan comes running up to me and states without hesitation, "Mommy I need more man sandwich!" I thought I would die. I was eating a tuna fish sandwich (I just wasn't feeling the Manwich) and it about came shooting out my nose. Kori started busting up too, after clarifying that she had indeed heard the request for a "man sandwich" as well. It was too funny!!! What made it even funnier was the fact that they had eaten the last of the hamburger buns so I used up the last of the hot dog buns left over from lunch a couple of days ago. I figured they would be easier to hold/keep together than regular bread. So my daughter asked for a "man sandwich" which was going to be served on a, quoting my mother here, a weiner holder!!!! Oh my stars, are you kidding me???? My life some days is just comical!

Now mind you it came from the kid that went the entire morning and afternoon without underwear under her skort. This morning we were getting ready to go to the orchard with my mom. The girls are big on getting dressed themselves lately, which is fine. Every morning they take off their undies (bad habit from the "take off your pull-ups" days). I reiterate every morning for them to leave the undies on, but someone always seems to take theirs off. I asked even if everyone had them on and got a resounding "YES" X3.

So imagine the chuckle I got this afternoon after we returned from our orchard journey to hear Morgan exclaim from the bathroom "Oh no! Mommy I lost my underwear, I can't find them!" So after some giggling and such I located them, still inside her pajama bottoms.

These kids are so funny sometimes. I mean seriously, I couldn't make some of this up if I wanted too. A man sandwich!!!! Tomorrow I'm going to tone it down

For Sale

2009-07-26T22:35:00.001-07:00

I'm kidding. (Sort of) No really I am. (In a way). She is super cute though right???

Today the girls and I were getting ready to go and watch Jason play in his weekly softball games. We hadn't made it to a game yet this year, and the weather was nice, so why not. As I was putting on a bit of make-up, (no need to embarass the family with how scary I was looking) Kamryn picked up a small electric razor that I have. It's a small one, I believe the term is "personal trimmer". It has several different tools for trimming your eyebrows/nosehair, bikini, underarms, legs etc. Well it was plugged in and charging on my bathroom counter and she picked it up and in her sweet little voice (it sounded like nails on a chalk board once I heard what she said), she said, "Mommy is this for your lip?" (Insert me first being speechless (a rarity) and then me sobbing!) Kidding I didn't really sob, but I sure thought of it. I'm hoping she is thinking of daddy's razor that he uses to shave his face and such for work.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't checking my top lip constantly in the mirror for the rest of the day, whenever the opprotunity arose however.

Now I need to find a good picture of Morgan so I can put her up for sale too. She has informed me on more than one occasion, "Whoa mommy you have a giant butt". I always inform her that I was much thinner and more trim before I got pregnant and gave birth to all 4 of them.

Darn kids!

Briefly

2009-07-25T22:21:00.000-07:00

Today in my house all of our clothes were washed, dried, folded/hung, ironed and put in the proper closet/drawer. WHAT? I ironed for quite some time while finishing up the laundry and got it all put away. YAY! So for about 4 or 5 hours today my hampers were empty. In my head I invisioned them (the hampers) to be very sad and lonely without their friends, mounds of dirty clothes. I do laundry pretty much every day and yet today I managed to scrape up about 7 loads. Granted I had sheets from yesterdays marathon house cleaning session. Not to mention the millions of kitchen towels I seem to amass on a daily basis. My hampers seem to have survived the sadness of being all alone and are now full of a few pieces of dirty clothes. It's a vicious circle, I tell you.

So I washed my car on Thursday, inside and out, and since I have refused to take the beasts, uh, I mean my kids, anywhere in it since, it's still clean. No fingerprints on the windows, random toys strewn about, bits of paper/cracker/fruit snack/candy etc., no drops of juice or milk. It's amazing! Now my house is clean to. And the laundry/ironing is done???? It must be a full moon. The stars never line up quite that good for me.

On another note. Tonight my neighbor (she's a young engaged gal) had some friends over. Lots of cars parked in front of my house. Further inspection, well I noticed it anyway as I was watching the kids play on the sidewalk in front of our house, revealed one of the vehicles to have a giant "Passion Parties By "Sherry" " sticker on the side window. Fun. I guess. At any rate, later I heard a noise. I looked out and saw a limo pulling into my driveway. What? For me? Oh no, I didn't do my hair, or put on make-up today. Could I go in a limo in my shorts and a shirt with Kori's school name and mascot on it? I sure the heck could!!! Only my delight was shortlived as the driver realized he had the wrong house and pulled back out of my driveway only to pull up in front of "J's" house next door. **Sigh** Well a bunch of young, gussied up women came out and looked ready to hit the town. It must be "J's" bachelorette party as she's getting married in September. Now, let me tell you how close I was to running screaming from my house, towards said limo screaming, "Take me! I wanna go!!!" I decided that would be scary, very scary, and refrained. Instead of read Kori a couple of bedtime stories and folded the last batch of towels we amassed after bathtime tonight. Man my life is exciting sometimes!

I've Said It Before...

2009-07-25T01:15:00.000-07:00

And I'll say it again. Trying to clean house with four kids underfoot is as much fun as shaving your legs, while riding a roller coaster. Whew! It takes forever! Thankfully Jason got up around 3:15 or so and help to manage the crew. They put on a lovely concert in the living room using Kori's new Hannah Montana cd for inspiration.

While cleaning my husband asked, "Hey didn't you JUST clean the house?" I replied "Yes, last Friday". Kori then quickly pointed out that houses get dirty fast. You bet they do, when the occupants try and do their best impression of barn animals. Why am I the only one who can put dishes in the dishwasher? Put them away when they are clean? Wipe off the kitchen table? Pick up toys/food/cups/clothes etc. etc. etc. off the floor? Oh well, once again it's spotless. It should last about 2.7 seconds in the morning before the beasts, uh, I mean the kids start to destroy it.

I washed my van on Thursday. It's spotless inside and out. It will stay that way until the next trip somewhere. I've never seen kids who can make such a mess in such a short amount of time.

So my house is clean and my van is clean. Tomorrow I will celebrate a beautiful Saturday by catching up my laundry. I might further celebrate tomorrow evening by doing my ironing. I know, I know, I really should live a life that has a lower volume of excitement in it, but hey, I'm a risk taker,it's what I love.

I Have Not...

2009-07-07T23:24:00.000-07:00

Fallen off the face of the earth, in case you were wondering. I will admit however that I am having a hard time hopping back into the routine of things post-vacation. I think Jason and I have a bit of post-vacation depression, or PVD as we like to call it. Nothing to look forward to anymore. No more beaches. Palm trees. Okay enough, I don't need to depress myself anymore.

I am suffering miserably the last couple of days with allergy/sinus stuff. Good times. Factored in that my hubby is being not so dear, and my PVD, good times, good times indeed.

I had a wonderful conversation with my oldest daughter this evening. She can be a riot and she truly doesn't even mean to.

Our life insurance agents had to stop by today so I could sign some paperwork as Jason and I just upped our coverage on our life insurance policies.

Kori: Mom, what were they doing here?
Me: Just doing some life insurance stuff.

Kori: What's life insurance?
Me: Something that you get so that when you pass away things are taken care of.

Kori: Like what kind of things?
Me: Well like if I passed away daddy would get money and you guys could pay the bills and everything and keep living here and there wouldn't be anymore drastic changes due to me dying.

Kori: Oh.
Me: Oh and the money is also used for my funeral so you guys could bury me.

Kori: Can't we just use a cardboard box?
Me: WHAT?

Kori: Well we'd get a nice big one.
Me: Gee thanks. Can't I even have a nice casket?

Kori: Well we'd decorate the card board box with stickers and stuff.
Me: Awww, that's sweet honey.

Kori: But I wouldn't cut you out a window because that would let the spiders and worms and bugs and stuff in with you.
Me: Thanks, you know I'm not a fan of the bugs and such.

Kori: Just looking out for you mom. Did you see Brooke's (our life insurance lady) shoes?
Me: Yes, they were cute weren't they? (They were zebra/leopard skin high heeled contraptions -- they were cute for people that need to walk after wearing them I suppose).

Kori: Oh man they were spankin'! I couldn't stop staring at them the whole time.
Me: Spankin'?

Kori: Yeah you know cool, awesome, neat. Get with the program mom.
Me: Uh yeah, sure okay.

This kid cracks me up sometimes!!!!

So that's it for me. I need to sort through the 300+ pictures I took on vacation and post some. They are too adorable!

14-Hours

2009-06-23T21:28:00.000-07:00

That is how many hours we spent yesterday at Magic Kingdom. My girls did GREAT! It was 98 degrees, with a heat index of about 108. Oh man it was hot. I was sweaty from the time we got there until I crawled (almost literally) into the car. Alexis actually crashed in her stroller for about an hour and a half. I had two battery operated fans clipped to her stroller canopy and she slept really good. We were parked in the shade. I stayed with her while everyone else did some stuff. Kamryn dozed on my shoulder for a bit while we were waiting in line for Goofy's Barnstormer. They enjoyed their first roller coaster ride. They all asked to do it again.

In Mickey's Philharmagic Show I got a little teary when I looked to my left and my family and saw them enjoying the 3-D show so much. The little girls were grabbing at the things on the screen. Kori was singing along with the songs. I saw Cody even singing along to "I Just Can't Wait To Be King" from the Lion King. That brought back lots of memories as that was one of his favorite movies when he was much smaller. It just made me so grateful for the family I have left. It made me miss my sister, who loved all things Disney, especially Winnie The Pooh, and my Dad, who loved seeing his grand kids enjoying life.

The tears returned when the girls got to meet Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella and Belle. As soon as they saw Aurora they all stopped dead in their tracks. Their mouths were hanging open. They were in complete awe! Even Kori was enjoying the moment so much! The princesses were all so wonderful with the girls. Interacting with each of them and giving out lots of hugs. The girls were telling them how pretty they thought each princess was. It was too cute! It was, at the risk of sounding cliche, so magical! Jason stood with a big ol' smile on his face watching the girls all interact with a few of their favorite people. Even Cody said that moment was one of his favorites of the whole day. Just seeing the girls all enjoying the moment so much. I was so grateful for a husband who works so hard to allow us to do such great things as a family. For God for blessing me with such beautiful and healthy children. At that moment, even if it was hotter outside than possibly the surface of the Sun itself, all was right with the world.

The Spectro Magic parade was another high point. I had Kamryn and Alexis with me while the rest of the crew rode Splash Mountain. They got a kiss blown to them from the Genie from Aladdin. They returned and he caught it and acted like he was falling over. Ariel blew them kisses too. Peter Pan came over to shake their hands. Lots of waving and such from others too. Even Sleepy from Snow White came over and pointed to himself as he yawned. The girls thought that was funny. It was a gorgeous parade as usual. Kamryn and Alexis sat in their stroller with their ice cream shaped rice crispie treats waving and smiling. Once again...magical!

So we all piled in the van and headed for home. We got home at around 1am. After baths to wash the sweat and sunscreen off, the girls had a bit to eat and then went to bed. It was the easiest bedtime in the history of bedtimes. Even Morgan didn't make a peep. Maybe I should take them to Magic Kingdom every day for 14-hours. Jason and I joked that a day like that could possibly be considered as child abuse.

Today we slept in. I woke everyone up at 12:45!!! Yes you read that right. Alexis and I were the only two up for a while this morning. We finally started waking the others up. If we hadn't, no telling when they would have gotten up. We had a low key day today. I made bacon and scrambled eggs and toast today for brunch. Then we hit the pool at our house. It rained on us a bit but the pool is screened in so it was okay. We only got misted on. We had fun clowning around and acting like a bunch of loons.

I was doing a bit of laundry before we were going to head out for dinner. Kamryn came to me in the hall and told me her throat hurt. Weird I thought. Well then she told me that she swallowed a coin!!!! WHAT????? So I called our pediatricians office and had the nurse return my call since it was after hours there. She said to give her a piece of bread and some water to make sure things were moving along like they should. She said if there were no complaints of throat pain, stomach pain, fever, etc. everything would be fine. She was actually chuckling as her 3-year old had just done the same things. She said I could "look for it later, if you want, but it's not necessary". No thank you, raising three year old triplets is about as adventurous as I like to be. You'd think at three we'd be passed this kind of stuff, apparently the girls didn't get that memo. So we had a nice talk about not eating coins. So we finished getting cleaned up after that and headed out to the Crab House for dinner. Jason was in heaven with the All You Can Heat Hot/Cold Seafood Buffet. He ate a lot, especially the crab legs, he loves them. The food was delicious, dessert was even better and we all left full and happy.

So now everyone is snoring away and we are gearing up for Hollywood Studios. It's supposed to be about 5 degrees cooler than yesterday, but the humidity is going to be a bit less, so hopefully we won't sweat ourselves to death.

At any rate, vacation is going good and we are having fun, that's what matters right?

Whew!

2009-06-21T20:50:00.000-07:00

Man oh man is it hot here! 97 today with a heat index of 107!!! Blah! After we all slept in ridiculously late, we slathered on the SPF 50 and hit the pool! We went to the big resort pool instead of the little one we have here at the house. It was a really great pool! Only 4 feet deep at the deepest part. It was zero entry, where it gets deeper the further you walk in. The girls had a blast! I put sun screen on them lots and am proud to report after about 3 hours, no sunburns for the clear kids, and their mom. Their dad is a bit more stubborn and decided he wanted to "tan". He's a bit red, not too bad, but that's his problem, not mine. :-)

We after we swam we showered and headed out for dinner. I made everyone suffer through at the Sizzler. I loved them as a kid and we don't have them in KC anymore. It was good and we all left full and happy.

We drove by the hotel where Jason and I stayed when we were here on our honeymoon. Just as fancy and lovely as I remember.

Then we headed out in search of mini-golf. We hit Congo Mini-Golf and had a blast! The little girls fed the alligators they have there. They thought that was cool! I had to be extra dilligent that no one snuck any of the 'gator morsels. They were cut up hot dogs, which is a fave of my girls! We finished without eating any and then hit the links. I am proud to report that the hole in one totals are as follows: Kori 2! Daddy 1. Cody none. Kori was so excited! Hers were back to back ones no less.

After golfing (and sweating our rear ends off) we headed back for home, where we bathed again and are now bedded down in anticipation of the Magic Kingdom tomorrow. I hope the girls enjoy it as much as I have pictured it all in my head. I know the heat will play a huge part in it. We're prepared to drink lots and hit as much of the air conditioned attractions during the hottest part of the day.

So Mickey and Minnie, Cinderella, Belle, Aurora and Ariel, get ready! Your all my kids have talked about for a very long time! Be afraid be very afraid!

Better get to bed and rest up for a busy day!

P.S. Happy Father's Day!!!! I am really missing my dad today. I know he's looking over us, but sure wish I could give him a big ol' hug! He gave the best hugs. Love you Pop!

Greetings From...

2009-06-19T21:31:00.000-07:00

Tennessee!!! The 2009 Rusley Family (and Cody!) Vacation is underway!!! The loaded to the gills van pulled out of KC this morning at 0800 hrs. After a stop to fill up we were on the road. (Can you hear Willie Nelson singing? On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again...).

After a potty stop just past Columbia (and also a slight DVD repair, I think some gunk from some donut stick hands was interfering with the sensor) we were back on the road.

It was a really nice 10-hour ride. The girls were exceptionally well behaved. I packed them some PB&J sandwiches, some ham and turkey and cheese ones for us, as well as LOTS of drinks and snacks. It was so enjoyable! Jason did all the driving today.

We are bedded down for the night at a Comfort Inn and Suites in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Oh the mountains of Tennessee are GORGEOUS!!!! We were all speecheless from it all! Cody summed it up perfectly, "Whoa, the best things in life are free". It was so beautiful!

So after some pizza and salads were delivered and eaten in our room, the girls and Cody and Jason hit the pool to burn off some energy from being in the car for so long. Everyone is now sleeping and I'm off to shower.

Breakfast in the morning and then we're headed back on the road for the 2nd leg of our journey. Hopefully it goes as smoothly as the 1st leg. Next stop Orlando!

A big thanks to Becky and her crew for taking care of Cuervo for us! I hope he's behaving like a good doggie.

On a sad note today, Pete Aretakis lost his battle with cancer today. Big prayers for his family, in the traditional sense, as well as his brothers/sisters in blue. Life can be so unfair sometimes!

Announcing the arrival of...

2009-06-06T21:42:00.001-07:00

Gavin and Parker! My sweet nephew and niece were born on Wednesday, June 3rd, at 7:52 and 7:55 a.m. Gavin weighed 6 lbs. 14 oz., and Parker weighed in at a petite 6 lbs. 3 oz. They are both absolutely PERFECT!!! My sis is doing great as well! She did an awesome job growing them sweeties! We have a hard time getting pregnant but once we do, we can do a decent job!

So without further ado:

Parker:

Gavin:

They came home today and hopefully will have a great night back home as their family of five. I took them some dinner so they didn't have to worry about fixing or getting something, yet had something yummy to eat! Mallory is adjusting to life as a big sister very well!

That's about it for big news here. The girls and I went to some of Cody's games on Thursday and Friday but that's about it.

I will share pics of the girls holding their new cousins:

Another Year Older

2009-06-01T21:40:00.000-07:00

Dang it's been a while since I posted. Sorry about that! In the meantime I have turned a year older. I am now 36. Yuck! It just doesn't sound good. **Sigh** Nothing I can do about it so I might as well embrace it.

Kori ended up getting sick a mere two days after finishing up school. The Sunday before Memorial Day she started complaining of a headache, achiness, a sore throat etc. By Sunday evening she was burning up with a fever. This pretty much continued all day and night Monday so Tuesday we headed off to the doctor. Strep test came back negative. Due to the size of her glands/tonsils they sent us for blood work. The next day we received word that she has mono. Oh joy! Tuesday night Alexis and Kamryn started fevering. By Wednesday Morgan had joined them. They lounged on the couch for the day on Wednesday and were feeling better by Thursday. I think theirs was just a cold. Kamryn and Alexis are now struggling with allergies. Kori is feeling better, but still gets very tired. Not uncommon to find her flopped on her bed or the couch watching TV.

Jason, my brother-in-law and a friend of theirs from work poured a concrete extension to our patio yesterday. It was hot and hard work, but it looks nice now. It makes us have more space, which is always good. When we get the pool up after vacation it can go there and not crowd the other patio.

We are on the count down to babies! My sister is set for a c-section on Wednesday morning. So baby Gavin and baby Parker will be here then! I'm excited! Ready for some babies to love. The best kind...the ones you can give back. :-) My sister is ready to be done being pregnant but it anxious about all that comes with two new babies.

Also only 14-days until the little girls turn 3. WHAT? How int he world did that happen?????

We are also on the count down to VACATION!!!! We leave for Disney World on June 19th. We're driving half way the first day and then getting there the following day. We've rented a great house with a pool and plan on having lots of fun! We're dragging my nephew with us too. The more the merrier right? My sister keeps threatening to stow away, I better check our luggage before we leave.

So in a nutshell that's it. We're enjoying summer break! Except for going through the drive-thru on Saturday for some lunc at McDonald's, I hadn't left the house until today. Jason took us to Red Lobster for a belated birthday dinner. Yummy!

So I vow to be a better blogger. And I'll post some pictures soon!

Summer Break!

2009-05-22T22:23:00.000-07:00

Woo hoo! Today was the last day of school! It was an early release day even, so Kori got out at 12:30 (they actually came out at 12:20 but don't tell anyone). We were home at 12:30 and Kori was in trouble and in her room by 12:35. Apparently she was irritated with Alexis (already????) and decided to put a mark on her face with a crayon. **Sigh** It might be a long summer. Other than that, the day was pretty uneventful. I had a headache all day, couldn't get the stupid thing to go away.

So now summer break is upon us. We have befriended several neighborhood kids and it seems our house is the "place to be" so there's always someone coming and going. I did frown at a couple of them that decided 8am was a good time to ring our door bell the other morning. I had Kori inform them that her father works nights and sleeps during the day and he would NOT be happy to be awakened all summer with the door bell ringing. Silly kids.

Not much going on here as of late. The past week was busy with stuff. Jason working, off-duty, school things. I worked at Kori's school on Thursday to help with Field Day. It was sunny and warm, unlike last year when it was in the 50's and raining, so they got to do all kinds of fun outdoor water stuff. Good times! Kori was soaked, but had a blast. Thank goodness I sent an extra change of clothes and a beach towel. I had a pretty cush job. I was in the cafeteria with a few other ladies passing out pink lemonade and popcorn for the snack/break period. Inside in the air conditioning, easy peasy!

My girls are outdoor junkies. All four of them. They would be outside 24/7 if they could. They have been grubby little pigs every night. My bath tub had sand bits in it on more than one occasion. Jason and I can't figure out why everytime they are in the sand box they are dumping sand on one anothers heads???? Silly kids.

So pray for my sanity. I am hoping we get into a good rhythm and I don't spend the whole summer fussing and grumbling.

I had to laugh the other day. Kori asked me several things and unfortunately it was one of those times where the answer always seemed to be no. Finally she said, "Ughhh, that's all you say is no, no no" as she stomped off down the hall. It made me giggle just a bit.

Tonight we went for ice cream with my sister and my niece Mallory. The girls were being silly and noisy in the back seat. My sister kept fussing at them and after a few times, Kori proclaimed, "Man, you always stop us from having fun". It's a tough job being a mommy somedays.

Flying By Yet Standing Still

2009-05-14T21:42:00.000-07:00

Time that is. How can it be that it feels like my world stopped spinning last Wednesday, but yet it has now been over a week since losing my dad? Unreal.

I had an okay Mother's Day. We went to dinner on Saturday to beat the crowds. We got my mom out of the house and took her with me. My awesome hubby also bought me a new Canon Rebel digital SLR camera. It's a combo birthday/Mother's Day gift. I really love it! I am having fun taking lots of pics with it!

I started my housework on Sunday. I figured why not. Jason was home and could help mind the herd so I got some done. My house was neglected in the housework department so I got lots of stuff done. I finished it all up on Monday. Wish it would just stay clean. Oh a girl can dream.

Jason's dad and step-mom came down on Tuesday afternoon. They came to check in on me and do a little pampering, which I appreciate. We had take out for dinner which is always good. My step-MIL made a nice lunch on Wednesday and invited my mom and sister up too. It was very nice and so appreciated by us all. It was nice having extra people here to keep my mind from wandering. Jason had returned to work on Monday night so it was just me and my thoughts. Night time seems to be the worst. The kids are in bed and the house is quiet a dangerous combination.

Today I took my mom to the Social Security office to take care of that paperwork. Then we went on to the retirement office and got pension paperwork taken care of. Then we got a call from the funeral home director (an angel here on earth) saying that my dad was ready to be picked up. Great! He was going home, where he belonged. So many things done that allowed my mom to have a little more peace in her crazy sad live these days. My sister kept the little girls so that they didn't have to trollop along with us.

This afternoon we headed to the park to watch my nephew play in his final two games of the Jr. Varsity baseball season. They won both games, the girls enjoyed the fresh air, it was a good time.

So that's about it here. We are managing. I still feel so very sad, but am trying to put one foot in front of the other, as my dad would have wanted. I just miss him so very much.

Gone

2009-05-06T22:49:00.000-07:00

I don't have the energy to post everything, but my dad, the best, sweetest, most loving dad and papa on the planet passed away tonight about 7:20.

I am so sad. Sounds silly to use that word, but it's so appropriate. I am just so very, very sad. Sad for myself, my children, my mom. While I am sad, I am not selfish enough to wish him here just for him to suffer more. He is in a much better place. The small amount of comfort I get from all of this, is knowing that he has been reunited in Heaven with my beautiful sister.

Growing Up Is For The Birds

2009-05-05T21:32:00.000-07:00

I am 25 days out from turning 36. In my mind I am still 18-ish and my parents are still in their 40's. Not the case I know but that's how I like to think. That way I don't have to worry about my parents and their declining health and where I am going to be emotionally when they are no longer in my life here on earth.

My dad is not well. He hasn't been for a while, but it's getting worse. He has trouble eating. Has blood pressure issues. He has neuropathy and has for a while. A couple of weeks ago he went to the doctor and it was determined that really nothing else can be done for him. He has an advanced directive and it's no secret that he's never wanted any artificial interference with keeping him alive. I've known this for years, but everything in my heart screams to get him to the hospital so they can help him. Isn't that what hospitals do? They fix people.

I went Saturday and saw my dad. Took the girls too. He was up and around and told me he was "feeling a little bit better". My dad has lost about 70 pounds or so and is thinner now than I've ever seen him. that was clearly evident on Saturday. He did have a bit of an appetite on Saturday, which was good. He's been eating so little over the last couple of weeks. We have been doing their yard work, by we I mean Jason, since physically my dad can't do it anymore. He was up and around and it made things seem not quite so serious. Unfortunately on Sunday he was bad either in bed or sleeping in the recliner in the living room. Last night he started getting bad abdominal pain. He's taken some pain meds and has been in bed most of the day, except when he got up and at 6 or 7 bites of oatmeal for dinner. Everytime the phone rings I about jump out of my skin. Worried it's going to be my mom with bad news. My dad is only 65 years old, and to me that is still so young. I still have a lot of things to do in my life and I need him here with me while I am doing them. My girls need their Pop-A for a lot longer.

I am just so sad and scared and anxious and did I mention sad? I remember when my sister Margaret passed away six years ago so clearly. The absolutely horrible, gut wrenching, despair and sadness I felt. I still feel it. I am not sure I can do that again. I just don't think I can. I am a pretty strong person. Or I like to think I am. I am a 10-year melanoma survivor. I have had some surgeries here and there for various minor things. I have four kids that I tend to mostly on my own. I carried triplets to 35w 3d without bedrest or major complications. There are a lot of things I know I can do, but I don't think that this is one of them.

During stuff like this I tend to clam up. Keep things to myself. That's how I deal. How I cope. When my sister passed away Kori was only 18-months old, she didn't understand when I told her. I don't know how I'm supposed to tell my kids. I worry my girls won't remember their Pop-A. It will be up to me to keep his memory alive to them.

I know he's not gone yet. I'm hoping for a miracle, believe you me. I just feel like getting older and having to be grown up is for the birds.

Procrastinating

2009-04-28T21:25:00.000-07:00

I have a super wonderfully craptastic project that I need to do for the PTA for Kori's school. I get to trim 1000+ labels collected during the recent label drive. They get money for each label collected so it's for a good cause but it's soooooo boring. I did 2500 in the fall. Now I have two gallon sized Ziplock bags awaiting me. I've had them since Tuesday of last week. I need to just do it and get it over with. Easier said than done.

Today I ran in the book fair at Kori's school and got her a couple of books, a book for the girls, a book for my niece Mallory and three books from Kori's teachers wish list for their class. One of the other mom's told me that one of the other mom's (did I lose you yet???) was going to be getting in contact with me. Oh goody I thought. What awesome (insert sarcasm here) project am I going to get now. Apparently she just found out she's expecting twins and wants advice from me. Would it sound strange if I told her immediately after the birth she should run like hell and never look back??? Hmmmm...better not say that. As much as I feel like it somedays, it might not sound so good.

Today as I was leaving to go to the book fair and to pick up Kori, Kamryn and I were in the middle of a tiff. It's just one of many over the last few days. The girls have been super grumpy, whiny, mean to one another, it's been FUN! NOT!! Well today Kamryn didn't like the pants I picked out for her after her nap. She was wearing a red Old Navy shirt with a flag on it. I knew they were going out to play so I didn't want anything nice to get all dirtied up so I set out some black pants. Uh, that was an no go chief. She was NOT having it. So she finally picked out her own pants. Did I mention they were purple plaid??? Oh she looked like a HOT MESS!!!

I have had a headache the last two days. I woke up with it on Monday and it hung out all day. Went to bed with it and surprise, surprise, it was here again when I woke up today. **Sigh** I have some sinus issues working so I am hoping it's sinus related. Trying not to get all paranoid in thinking its the swine flu. Kidding, but dang if that doesn't give me another germ to worry about!

Well I guess I better get to trimming. I've put it off long enough. **Sigh**

A Valuable Lesson

2009-04-26T23:23:00.000-07:00

My sister commented on my lack of blogging as of late. So here I am! Lucky you guys huh?

Jason had a "guys weekend" with his buddies from high school. They came down in honor of the NFL Draft (zzzzzzz.....) which is really nothing more than a glorified excuse to consume alcohol and relive their "glory days". (zzzzzzz....) So it was all mom, all weekend. What else is new huh? I have determined that in my next life I am coming back as a man, preferably one like my husband who has such an awesome wife and mother to his children.

Okay, enough of that. Today I was a bonehead. There's really no other way to say it. I cooked a big breakfast for Jason's step-brother Brock (he was down for the Beer Fest, uh I mean NFL Draft get-together) and was heading back to Iowa this morning. So I cooked breakfast before he left. After that the girls got dressed and ready to go outside. Jason was going to do yardwork today before more rain moved in. I decided there were some things I wanted to piddle around with as well. So I did some stuff and then decided that there were some grassy issues in between our landscaping rocks that were bothering me. Sooooooo...I fired up the weedeater. No problem! It's not my first weed-eating rodeo. I've used one before. I should have known that God was sending me a "your wearing improper footwear signal" when a piece of the string broke off and wacked me on the top of my foot. I had to have Jason fix the spool and he pointed out my poor choice of footwear too. I assured him I was fine, that I was just doing a spot or two and all was well. Dumb move! So I'm a weed eating fool and all was going well until...I got my big toe on my left foot. Oh man it hurt soooooooooo bad! I thought I was going to pass out so I quick turned off the weedeater and set it down. Then I was afraid to look down at my foot for fear that I would see my toe missing and thrown somewhere across the yard. I managed to sneak a peek and was relieved to see it still attached with the other toes. I was not thrilled to see it looked like something out of a Freddie Krueger Nightmare on Elm Street movie scene. It's all hacked up. Not good, especially now that flip flop season is underway. So it's been cleaned and bandaged. I have learned a valuable lesson. No weedeating in flip flops! They just don't mix!

My children played outside for six hours straight today. They didn't nap. You'd thing at bedtime they'd just give up and to go sleep right? Nope. Kamryn gave up sooner than the other two. They were still goofing off. I was talking to my mom on the phone when all of a sudden it got very quiet. Further inspection of their bedroom premises revealed this:

Of course before moving them I had to grab the camera and take a picture or two. I took a picture with my camera phone and sent it to Jason at work and he commented that they looked like drunks that had passed out. Well I'm sure they felt like it too. They woke up at 9am, 6 1/2 hours outside, no naps, I'm surprise they made it as long as they did. I think it kind of resembles a crime scene photo or something similar. Silly kids!

Yesterday the girls didn't nap either. We played outside in the afternoon for several hours, and they had been out earlier in the day with the sitter (Jason and I went to a wedding) so they were pooped. I was talking to my mom on the phone and noticed Kamryn missing. I called for her and she didn't answer right away like she usually does, especially if she's doing something she's not supposed to. So I did some investigating. I found her asleep in her bed. Apparently she'd had enough and put herself to bed at about 7:45. She then slept until 9:30 this morning. Silly girl! So cute though!

Kori had a school program last week. It was a mini-musical and was very cute! Here's a picture of my sweet girl:

She was rehearsing for the musical in her room the night before the big performance. I couldn't help but giggle as I heard coming from her room, "My country disagree". So funny!

Okay, so in a nutshell that's been our life for a while. My dad is having health issues which is causing me great stress and anxiety, but I'll safe that for another day. It's bedtime!

Alive

2009-04-25T21:31:00.000-07:00

I am here, and we are alive. The weather here has been so nice and we've been outside a lot.

Things of course are crazy busy as usual. My dad's health has been giving him issues, so there's been added stress with that.

I will update (hopefully Sunday) and add some pictures too!

Donuts And Milk

2009-04-16T09:30:00.000-07:00

Sounds harmless right? Well to normal people in the normal world, yes it does. In my crazy chaotic world, not so much.

This morning the girls had powdered sugar donuts and milk for breakfast. While not the most nutritious breakfast I know, they like them so they have them every now and then. They eat enough veggies and such, and are generall good eaters, that I don't fret over this kind of stuff in moderation.

At any rate, I set everyone up with their breakfast and then went down the hall to Kori's room. I take Kori's sheets off her bed, put on new ones and put her old ones into the washer, start the dryer for clothes that were still drying and return to the kitchen.

What do I find there you ask? Three red headed two-year olds with milk in their hair. Apparently it was a GREAT idea to take their sippy cups full of milk and shake them on their head. So little drops at a time they now have milk covered heads.

So after not even being awake for 40-minutes, it's bathtime already.

Hope today isn't going to be one of "those" days.

I have Easter pics I need to post, maybe later. For now I'm off to wage battle with the two year olds and keep them under control. It's a never ending battle by the way!

Good thing you can pick your friends...

2009-04-09T22:13:00.000-07:00

since you can't pick your family. Whew, somedays family can be exhausting. I guess my husband mailed out an email he got the other day.

(Here is the text of it)

Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul , Minnesota ,
points out some interesting facts concerning the Presidential election:
Number of States won by: Democrats: 19 Republicans: 29
Square miles of land won by: Democrats: 580,000 Republicans: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by: Democrats: 127 million Republicans: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Democrats: 13.2 Republicans: 2.1
Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Republican won was mostly the land
owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country. Democrat territory mostly encompassed
those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy"
phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's
population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals
and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years. If you are in
favor of this, then by all means, delete this message.

If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake,
knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.

My husband is a Republican by the way. While I tend to vote Republican, I don't always 100% agree with everything in the party lines, politics really isn't "my thing". It was received from him as a forward from someone else. Jason sent the email on to several people including his brother and sister-in-law. I skimmed through it and deleted it. It wasn't super interesting to me so I didn't dwell on it.

I hadn't given it a 2nd thought until I had an email this morning from Eric that was bashing us for sending the email to them. Stating "you guys" "your views" "idiotic and misinformed" etc. etc. etc. Whoa, wait a minute. I didn't have ANYTHING to do with the email. Jason and I maintain separate email accounts, we don't share. It boiled down to they didn't appreciate the email (apparently they are Democrat and VERY Liberal) and please stop sending that kind of "crap" to their email. It went on to state that the email was borderline "racist and hill billy". WTF? Huh? I may be from the midwest but I'm not hill billy, nor a racist. Grrrrrr! I was not happy.

I sent off an email making sure they know that I didn't have anything to do with it. I find that family isn't the place for discussions on religion or politics. Jason is in law enforcement his brother is a public defender...it makes for some interesting conversations to say the least. I am totally okay with agreeing to disagree on most things and leave it at that. I didn't like being lumped in along with idiots, the misinformed, hill billy's or racists. It stung.

The email I received in return was that "The reference to "you guys" was to Jason and the people who e-mail him these e-mails" and the fact that he doesn't want to receive these types of email from "those people" anymore. Uh okay. But what if the group of "those people" just get them as forwards just like I did, and they did for that matter, and they chose to delete them instead of calling people names? Now you've offended a whole group of people? **Sigh**

So I guess it's a good thing that they live in Las Vegas and we're here in Hillbilly-ville. I would hate to hear the heated discussion that would have resulted.

So much drama. Way more drama than I have time for. I have four kids, three that are very busy two-year olds, laundry to wash/dry/fold/put away, meals to prepare/clean up from, a house to clean, errands to run and other things. Way too little free time on my part for this. Next time I'd just like to be excluded from it all thank you very much.

Oh well, tomorrow is a new day. Hopefully it will be sunny and politics free.

Trouble

2009-04-09T22:05:00.000-07:00

In the event anything ever happens to me, my kids are in TROUBLE! Of course I've always know this, but sometimes I get some more proof. :-) On Tuesday I left the girls with Jason for a bit so that I could go to my nephews high school baseball game. It wasn't until almost five o'clock and it wasn't super warm that day. I knew it would only get cooler so I didn't want to risk the girls getting sick from sitting out in the cool air. So Jason said he'd mind the store. I picked up my mom and off we went. So nice to get away alone for a bit. It's a rare thing, especially if I'm not going to the store or doing boring errands like that.

At any rate, before I went I got the fixings together for Jason to make some meatball subs for dinner. Easy peasy right? Wrong! I had pre-made meatballs, jarred sauced, hoagie rolls and grated mozzarella cheese. I also had some smiley faced fries that the girls love. No problem! **Sigh**

I should add that my cell phone broke a couple of weeks ago. Jason needed a new MP3 player and was waiting for our cell contract to be up later this summer as he was going to get a cell phone with a built-in MP3 player. Well since mine broke, I told him I'd just take his phone and we'd switch my number to it and he could get a new phone/MP3 player thing. (I know, I'm a super nice wife). So I'm not used to the ringer he has and I haven't switched it or downloaded a new one. I guess he called a few times with questions about dinner. He left me FIVE voice mails before I even realized he'd called. The voice mails were hysterical! In the 2nd or 3rd one he started just talking and saying, "Hey voice mail, it's me again. Haven't talked to you in a few minutes". Stuff like that. Do I use both jars of sauce? Do I use all the bags of meat balls (there were 3 -- they weren't huge), what kind of cheese do I use? Do I put them in the oven to melt the cheese? Holy cow! I left an easy dinner and he had to call me five times to figure it out? My poor children. At any rate, they survived and had dinner so that was good.

I kept the voice mails for a bit because they are too funny! I was listening to them as I was driving and they were totally cracking me up. He thinks he's funnier than he is most of the time. This time though he was pretty entertaining.

A Blah Week

2009-04-03T18:16:00.000-07:00

Dang if I haven't been in a blah mood this week. So very uninspired. Not like me, but this is how it's been. There were a couple days it was gray and cool and rainy, definitely not good for dealing with the blahs, but I could not convince the three youngest members of my family that napping in bed all day was as GREAT of an idea as I was making it out to be.

Today was sunny and warmer, thank goodness. While it didn't help my mood much, it was nice to see the sun shining. tomorrow it's supposed to be even better. Then Sunday more cold, more rain, more snow possible. Seriously? Really? Hey Mother Nature...IT'S APRIL!!!! Oh well, maybe this means we'll have a nice mild summer. A girl can dream huh? I remember the summer of 2005 so well. I think we only had a couple of days all summer that it got above 90. It was HEAVENLY! Keeping my fingers crossed for a repeat of that year.

Jason and I did some quick math the other day and figured that we've bought diapers for approximately 5 years and 4 months of our lives as parents. We are thrilled beyond belief to not have to buy them any more. I think I will start going pull-up-less at nap time and then hopefully at bedtime before too long. They are pretty much always dry after naps. Probably in a weeks time there are 1-2 wet pull-ups after bedtime, not too shabby! We celebrated our diaperless lifestyle on Monday by taking the girls and going to Texas Roadhouse for a celebratory steak dinner. It was yummy!

Kori is spending the night with Becky and her family tonight. They are going to see Disney On Ice tomorrow afternoon. I hope she behaves and they have fun. She was excited to go, must be time for a break from the chaos here.

Other than that, not too much happening. I have been doing some reading lately. A lot actually. I have read TWO books this week! Woo hoo! One was easy, it was Disney On A Dime, in preparation for our upcoming Disney trip in June. Thought I'd see if there were any money savers I didn't already know about. There wasn't. Then I read "Between Sundays" by Karen Kingsbury. It was VERY good and went very fast. I am currently reading Multiple Blessings by Kate Gosselin (you know Jon and Kate+8). It's pretty good too. Better her than me.

So that's about it from the Rusley Ranch. I leave you with a few pictures. First will be Kamryn, Morgan, then Alexis. The group shots of all 3...from LtoR in those pictures it's Alexis, Kamryn and Morgan. Enjoy!

It Is Possible

2009-03-25T21:47:00.000-07:00

To get permanent marker (black of all colors) out of off-white carpet. Somehow Morgan got her little paws on a black marker tonight. Jason and I were getting dinner cooked and turned around and she was gone. Since she's mischevious and has been getting into lots of stuff lately I've been making her stay close by so I can prevent these types of mishaps. Well I turned around and she was gone. Unfortunately she left her mark on the carpet in the family room. Jason was none too happy about it. I got the hair spray out and it worked some but not great. I got online and did some research. Rubbing alcohol was also mentioned. Now I don't have any of that (I need to get some next time I'm out), but I did have ear cleaning solution from when the little girls got their ears pierced. It's mostly alcohol so I went to work on it. Well after soaking and dabbing and soaking and dabbing, you can't even tell there was once a lovely Morgan inspired drawing there. I think she was drawing on paper and it bled through. It was a weird random pattern, but thankfully now it's gone. My husband has often wondered why I want to wait until the girls are older to replace this carpet. This one reason why.

Today was better yesterday. No attempts to have strange concoctions of mixed drinks tonight. I woke the girls up earlier than usual this morning. They weren't thrilled about it, especially since they goofed off until 11:30 last night. Oh well, I was a mom with a plan and I wouldn't have it derailed. They were also not thrilled when I said no TV on during breakfast. They took an earlier nap and I put them to bed at 8:10 tonight. I would love to say they went to sleep in a decent amount of time, however that would not be the case. I finally went in at 10:15 when I could hear them jumping from bed to bed. I turned off the night-light. No need for them to illuminate their foolishness and plopped my big ol' behind on the floor. After only a few minutes they were sleeping. I have since returned to cover them all up and turn the night-light back on. I really, really hate bedtime.

Tomorrow I need to run some errands to get ready for my sister's baby shower this weekend. I am hoping they are cooperative so I can get them done. If not you'll be hearing about the weeping lady pushing the screaming toddlers through Sam's on the news.

Since I'm making everyone get up earlier, I need to get up earlier, which means I need to get to bed earlier.

Wondering...

2009-03-24T22:29:00.000-07:00

If Sunny D and vodka would taste good together. A lightweight version of a screwdriver maybe? I don't have any OJ and it was one of THOSE days today.

I should have known it was not going to go well when Kamryn through a major size fit this morning over...her milk being in a purple cup NOT in a pink one. Oh the shame! How dare I commit such a crime. I informed her that it was going to stay in the purple cup and she could either drink it or do without. She informed me "I not dwinking milk in pewple cup, I going to my woom." I told her that would be fine and off she went. She returned at 6.7 seconds later and informed me the "pewple cup will be fine, I have my milk now".

It went down hill from there. They were all grumpy and grouching at various times throughout the day. They took a nap which was good. I'd like to say that it improved everyones moods, but that would be a lie and like George Washington, I cannot tell a lie.

Alexis through a fit after nap because she wanted to keep her Dora pull-up on and not put her Minnie Mouse panties back on. **Sigh** Such important things we fuss about some days. I won by the way, the panites went back on.

She then through a fit because daddy ate ONE of her M&M's out of a small bowl that I had given her. He staved off the flow by getting one out of the bag and replacing it.

At that point I was happy to escape to go and pick up Kori from school. I briefly contemplated continuing to drive until I ran out of gas. Thankfully saner heads prevailed and I got Kori and returned home.

Jason left them in the family room playing Barbies to shower and get ready for work. I checked on them and then returned to finished mopping my kitchen floor. Kori went to let the dog out not FIVE minutes later and they had taken the hot tub insert out of Kori's Barbie RV out of it and proceeded to fill it with water in the bathroom sink and then spill it all over the floor. ***S-I-G-H*** So I sent them to their rooms and mopped it up.

Thankfully bathtime followed and then the bedtime fiasco began.

I am OVER bedtime. I can't get them to get in there and stay in bed and go to sleep. I have tried EVERYTHING! Readers if you have any suggestions, I am open to any of them. Bedtime causes me so much stress and anxiety. I wouldn't care if they goofed off, except I don't want them keeping Kori up. Tonight they horsed around until 11:30. Tomorrow night I think I will put them in there at 7:00. They can goof off for their required two hours and then be asleep by 9:00 just in time for Kori to go to sleep. Ha, if only it were that easy. It would help if my husband were here in the evenings to help. An extra set of arms/hands/ears/eyes etc. is NEVER a bad thing. Oh well, that's like beating a dead horse, so I won't go there.

Okay, so that's it for me. I am glad this day is over. I will be singing a rousing rendition of Gloria Gaynors, "I Will Survive" tonight in the shower, upon which I will lull myself to sleep with my ever faithful chant, "Tomorrow will be better, tomorrow will be better, tomorrow will be better..."

Miss Bossy

2009-03-23T22:29:00.001-07:00

This is Kamryn and Morgan playing. Have I mentioned how bossy Kamryn can be???? It's a little dark, but you can hear her just fine. The girls were playing in the diapers and Kamryn decided she was going to change Morgan, unfortunately Morgan didn't cooperate as much, or as quickly as Kamryn would have liked. You can hear Alexis pipe in a bit too when Kamryn takes a diaper from the line she worked hard to line up just right.

Ahhhhh...

2009-03-23T21:54:00.000-07:00

The house is quiet and the rain is falling, good times! It's certainly been a long time since my last post. I'm sure I've cleaned something, washed something etc., since I've been gone.

Kori was on Spring break last week and man it was nice to not have to go anywhere unless we wanted to. Back to the grind today. I wasn't looking forward to it, but Kori was ready to head back. The girls missed her terrible even though she is sometimes so bossy to them. I guess they don't mind too much.

Friday Jason proclaimed it was "Family Fun Friday". What did that entail you ask? Some shopping, with all 4 kiddos. We were in search of Spring/Summer duds for the girls and some new shoes. The girls got some new crocs and some clothes, but I'm still in search of the perfect tennis shoes and sandals. Now shopping with all the girls was interesting. They did good for the most part, but sometimes (like when he was taking FOREVER at Dick's getting new grips for his golf clubs) it was like slowly being pecked to death by a pack of birds. We had an early dinner out and then did some more shopping before returning home. I was glad to have survived it all. The girls like shopping, so I guess that's a good thing. They just don't always love riding in the carts, which can be interesting.

Saturday Jason played in a charity dodge ball tournament. The girls and I went to cheer him on and watch. It was a good time and the girls were good for the most part. I considered the day a success.

Sunday was park day! We took the girls to the park to enjoy the nice weather before the cooler temps and rain move in.

So I'll leave you with some pictures of our park time:

The hole Kori dug...she was quite proud of it:

The digging process:

Morgan:

Alexis:

Kamryn:

Spring Break

2009-03-16T23:47:00.000-07:00

No getting up and having to be anywhere this week and I am soooooo enjoying it! Kori got out of school 1/2 day early last Friday and doesn't go back until next Monday so we are enjoying spring break. Not doing anything special, just relaxing at home.

Potty training is going GREAT! A minor accident here and there (which happens to be only when daddy is in charge) and that's it. Lots of mornings the girls wake up dry after sleeping all night. They are dry after naps too. We're going to stick in pull-ups for a while during sleeping times, but otherwise we're all panties. Morgan is still hit or miss. Some days she's in a pull-up and does great, other times she is sooooo not into it. We're working on it and I am sure we'll get there.

We went to dinner Friday night and then to the mall for some shopping. Alexis and Kamryn both wore panties and did awesome! I tote an extra set and some extra clothes, just in case, but we didn't need them. Woo hoo!

Saturday Kori and I ran some baby shower errands. I am hosting my sisters baby shower on March 28th and since Jason had this past weekend off, I thought I'd take advantage of it and get all my errands done, with the exception of my grocery shopping. Saturday night I sat down and made my first diaper cake. It turned out so cute and I'm very proud of myself. Kori "supervised" me while she colored at the table as I was rolling up the 58 disposable diapers I would need. After I got it all done, she proclaimed, "Your sister is so lucky to have you!" I couldn't agree more! :-)

Kori doesn't usually go on errands like that. She used to but as she's gotten a bit older she finds it boring and would rather play at home and stay with daddy. I was shocked on Saturday when I asked if she wanted to go and she said yes! We had a nice time, just the two of us. It's nice to do that every now and then.

Sunday we went to visit my dear friend Liz, and her daughter Christy, who was in town from North Carolina. It was a great visit, and with the exception of Alexis stepping in her plate of chips and dip, we didn't destroy much. The girls did pretty good and I was proud of them. Going to other peoples homes makes me so nervous. Even to my parents. I feel like we just shatter any quiet or solitude there might be. We're like a hurricane or other natural disaster. Liz assured me all was well, but I'm certain she gave a great sigh of relief when we left. The visit was great and that's what counts. It was nice to see Liz's new home. It's gorgoeous! I've missed other opprotunities to go so I was glad I could get out there this time. She is a great friend and I love her and her family so much! They are wonderful! Jason and I were talking tonight and he said that Liz is just the person he'd handpick for a mom if given the chance. Awww! It must be an Iowa thing, right Liz?

So that's about it from here. I will try and post a picture of my diaper cake soon. I was so proud of it, you know I took a picture.

Becky and Mallory are playing hooky from work/school tomorrow since the weather is supposed to be nice. We might take a picnic lunch and head to the park for some playtime. I am so enjoying the spring weather and so are the girls!

Chaos

2009-03-10T21:50:00.000-07:00

So I am trying to get out of laying in the floor with the girls at bedtime. I am trying to get them to go to bed by themselves without a chaperon if you will. I did this with Kori too for a while and then it would be HOURS before she'd fall asleep. It's getting that way with the girls as well. What used to take 20-30 minutes now takes 1 1/2-2 hours. Way too long! I have things I could be doing instead of laying in the floor playing Bookworm on my cellphone.

So last night they gave up at about 11:15...pretty standard. That was the time they would give up if I was in there too. I kept going back in and shutting down the party but they'd restart it pretty quickly after I left.

I've threatened and grumped, raised my voice, you name it...it doesn't work. Tonight Alexis finally fell asleep about 11:00 or so. Morgan and Kamryn finally waved the white flag of surrender at about 11:30. **SIGH** I wish there was a magic answer I could figure out to make it easier. No such luck.

Sooooooo, I was thinking. Home delivery liquor service. You know, kind of like an ice cream truck, but with adult treats instead. Think a mobile frozen margarita or daiquiri machine. Huh? Sounds good no? Oh drat, maybe I'm the only one who feels compelled to have liquor delivered at the end of busy, stressful, hectic days.

Good news too, with the passing of February, Jason reached another milestone at work. TWO YEARS of having a transfer in to Days. Still no movement. I hate the night shift now. Over and done with it for a while. It will be 4-years this coming May. Bedtime chaos would be easier with an extra set of arms/ears/eyes/hands/legs etc. around.

Oh well, enough complaining. I am off to finish cleaning the playroom, family room and extra bathroom and then my housework is D-O-N-E! It got a little behind due to my illness, but is looking good once again. Tomorrow it's "Laundry Wednesday" -- woo hoo!

Whew!

2009-03-08T22:38:00.000-07:00

Strep throat as an adult is ROUGH!!!! Finally on Saturday I woke up and didn't feel like my throat was swollen shut. It has been awful! I hope to NEVER get it again! I used to get it a lot as a kid and I never remember being that miserable.

Saturday we went to visit my parents. Due to all of our illnesses we haven't seen them since the end of January. The girls were missing them something awful! We went to dinner at Culver's and had a nice time. All the girls were well behaved which is always a plus! Alexis and Kamryn are doing GREAT on the potty training! We have an accident here and there, but they are in panties all the time with the exception of naps and bedtime. Morgan is a bit more stubborn. Yesterday she wore a pull up and stayed dry all afternoon/evening so that was good. Taking them to eat and then having to take them to the bathroom (at different times of course -- they never had to go when I was already making a trip with one or the other) makes for a busy time, but I am okay with it. I am happy to have most of my diaper buying days behind me. Now that I am feeling better I am going to concentrate on getting Morgan broke. We had a nice time with my parents and headed home before the thunderstorms rolled in.

Today we were suffering from the "Daylight Savings Time Blues". Morgan and Kamryn were soooooo grumpy. Kori had her moments. Thankfully Alexis was in good spirits. Jason was also grouchy when he got up. It was a long day for me being surrounded by all the grumpies. I escaped to the grocery store for a bit. Sad thing was I enjoyed the break. Not sure what was up with Jason but I was over it by the evening. He informed me Kamryn had an accident in her panties. Uh okay, thanks for sharing??? He informed me that she pooped in them, then asked me, "What am I supposed to do with them now?" Uh how about rinse them out and put them on the washer. Then he actually grumped to me about someone always getting into something that they aren't supposed to. REALLY? To ME, of all people, you just said that to? I informed him that it was a good thing he isn't home with them everyday. Either him or one/all of the girls might not survive it. Men!

Tomorrow I need to tackle my housework. It has been neglected since I've been sick so it's in need of some TLC. Thankfully it was super clean as I got sick so that's good.

Hopefully my family will be in better spirits.

So I am back and finally feeling better. I am hoping that was the last illness of the cold/flu season. It's been non-stop since the middle of January and I'm over it.

We've had some nice weather lately. Some colder weather is coming and I'm bummed about that. I am ready for the spring weather! So are my girls! They have enjoyed being able to play outside again. We made an impressive dirt ring in the tub Friday night. Better stock up on the cleanser again!!!!

A Phone Call

2009-03-04T22:33:00.000-08:00

While waiting in the car line today waiting to pick up Kori my cell phone rang. Hmmm...that looks like the hosptial phone number. I pick it up.

Lady: Hi Melissa?
Me: Yes?

Lady: This is Stephanie from NKC Hospital.
Me: Uh huh.

Lady: I'm calling in regard to your throat culture from your visit here on Sunday.
Me: I have strep throat don't I?

Lady: Uh, yes. How did you know?
Me: Well my throat is ZERO better and I still feel like death warmed over.

So I am know on antibiotics FOUR times a day. I am hoping to be feeling human again soon. I fevered all day today. Sooooo annoying. I tried to be more productive, but other than some laundry and changing sheets on the girls' beds I wasn't as productive as I would have liked. I did manage a nap when the girls napped. I wasn't going to but I felt too bad.

So here I sit, burning up with fever, my throat feels like it's closing and it hurts so bad. I had strep a lot as a kid, I don't remember feeling this bad. Must have been the resillency of kids cause as an adult I am getting my a** kicked!

Off to bed!

Checking For A Pulse

2009-03-02T21:39:00.000-08:00

So I think I mentioned in my last post that I thought I was getting Jason's sore throat. (If I didn't mention it I meant to and probably just forgot -- it happens a lot!) Well Friday I woke up and felt semi-yucky (that is a technical medical term). I went ahead and went to Walmart because Jason had off-duty and then on to regular work both Friday and Saturday. I got back and then headed off to get Kori from school. While waiting the in car line I began to feel achy. I got achier by the minute. I struggled through dinner for the girls and got everyone bathed. My sister swung by real quick to drop something off for me and I made her stay in the car because I truly felt like I had the flu. Not the stomach type, the bad kind you get immunized for.

Well I made it to bed time and in the process of getting the girls down I started to get the chills. I shivered so much I thought I would my teeth would shatter.

By eleven o'clock I gave in and called Jason to come home. I was soooo weak and achy and just felt AWFUL! I worried that if the girls needed me I wouldn't be able to do anything. He came home and I showered and crawled into bed where I stayed all day Saturday and most of Sunday. I ventured out of bed Saturday night around 10 o'clock for a PB&J sandwich and was hopeful that I was going to feel better on Sunday.

That was not to bed. Felt as awful Sunday as I did Friday night. I gave in and drove myself to the ER for some sort of help. Flu culture...negative. Strep culture...negative. Mono blood work...negative. Good news Melissa you either have one of the strains of flu we don't treat with anti-viral or you have one nasty viral infection that is kicking your butt. The doctor felt so bad for me and knew by looking at me how sick I was. She gave me a script for pain meds to help with the achiness and then prescription strength ibuprofen. I sent my husband back to work and managed the girls for a couple of hours before bedtime.

I managed okay today. Still achy and such. I wish this dang sore throat and ear pain would go away. I am hopeful that I am going to feel better sometime during the month of March.

On a good note I am declaring Kamryn potty trained. Well except for bedtime. She is staying dry during naps and anytime she's up. She poops and pees on the potty without prompting from Jason or I. Alexis is doing great too. She hasn't had as much success in the poopie department but I expect that. She had one pee accident during dinner tonight. She was a bit stressed about it, but hey a girl has to eat huh? No time to break for a potty stop. She is hit or miss with staying dry during naps. I am hoping that I have purchased my last case of size 5 diapers.

Morgan asked to poop on the potty today...I was shocked that she asked and she actually did it! Woo hoo! I put her in training pants after nap and she did okay for a bit and then got busy and had an accident. Once I am feeling better I am going to work harder with her. I am ready to be done with diapers!

Once they were more ready than me it's gone rather smoothly.

So that's it from Germville...I'm going to crawl in my warm bed now. It's my best friend these last few days.

Some Ramblings

2009-02-27T09:03:00.000-08:00

Mark your calendar, on Wednesday I actually ran out of things to do. (Well except for some inroning). I cleaned house on Tuesday. Got my laundry 3/4 done. Finished it up Wednesday morning. Had the laundry in baskets put away, made beds. Heck, I even got dressed in pants that didn't consist of flannel or sweat shirt material, and put on some make-up. It was a great day! The weather was gorgeous too so we got some play time in out side. So nice to see the girls running around and burning off some energy!

Tuesday night I noticed Morgan was getting a runny nose. (Not surprised? Me neither!) Wednesday she just wasn't herself. Very mellow and complacent. Even outside she didn't act like her normal crazy self like she usually would. Well dinner time came around and she refused to eat. What? This is my 38-pounder. She loves her some food. Nothing doing for her this night however. She was a bit warm too. We played "LIFE" on the Playstation II and she just layed in my lap, or Jason's the whole time. At bedtime she was the first one asleep in about 2.5 seconds. She's always the last one alseep and it usually takes her at least an hour to fall asleep. She had a restless night. Must have been the fever. Up and down and not resting good. Me neither. Happy to report my hubby slept through it all. In the few occasions I was able to fall asleep his loud and obnoxious snoring (he has a cold) kept me awake. **Sigh**

This morning I have 3 of the 4 kids (all the little girls) with runny/congesty noses and coughs. I also woke up with the aches and swollen glands and a sore throat. Thanks for sharing honey! That's such a great thing for you to do...not! I am hoping it's fast moving and doesn't turn into anything else.

I was whining to my mom the other day. I don't know where it comes from. My house is clean and it usually is (my mom passed a bit of her OCD on to me), we eat good, lots of home cooked meals and veggies, we take vitamins, get lost of rest (well everyone else does but me). I just don't get it. I am really over it all! I am ready for warmer, less germy weather.

Jason heads back to work tonight and has off-duty before work both today and tomorrow. Good times! I hope I pep up a little or it could be a long couple of days!

At any rate, I had a great day on Wednesday. That counts for something right???

This Day In History

2009-02-23T09:46:00.001-08:00

Today, February 23, 1969, my sister Margaret was born into this world. Sadly, 34 years later, her legacy here on earth ended.

I miss her so much ever day and while I know that she is in a better, pain free place, it doesn't lessen my grief.

She would have been 40 today. She would NOT have been happy about that. Knowing her she would have still looked much younger. She had good genes like that.

Here are a few pictures. She truly, truly was my best friend. What I wouldn't give for one more minute, hour, day, week, month, year, years. I'd be selfish like that.

Happy Birthday Mags!

OLD school:

Margaret at work:

Margaret & Kori:

Sisters (Becky's wedding reception):

You HAVE To Be Kidding Me!

2009-02-22T22:51:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I was having a very "on" day. I wasn't dragging and feeling tired like I usually am. Kori stayed the night with my sister the night before so it was just the little girls and I until daddy got up.

I made a cake and homemade butter cream frosting. I started cleaning the house. I made ham, twice baked potatoes, baked beans, carrots, green beans and dinner rolls for dinner. Got all the girls bathed and p-jammied up. Got everyone down for the night and was continuing my housework when I heard Kamryn yelling.

I went into their room and she informed me, "I burped in my bed". Uh, that's NOT a burp baby. Needless to say she had thrown up. It was contained to her blanket and her jammies, so that was good. I got her cleaned up and got her bed changed. Prayed it was a fluke and maybe she had just got choked or something. Got her back in bed and she promptly fell asleep. About 30-minutes later, more burping in the bed.

So I stopped my cleaning. I got her cleaned up and sat her in the bathroom with me while I jumped in the shower quick. We got settled into our bed where the vomiting resumed. It happened about once and hour until 4am. Then it turned into the "big D". Oh those diapers were sooooooooooo gross! It was not fun! Jason was working so I was solo on puke duty. I prayed hard, several times, that everyone else in the house be spared from the evil germs.

At 4am she settled in and slept until about 6am where she promptly blessed me with two more yucky diapers. Got her changed and back to bed when daddy got home. He snuggled in with us him and her were asleep quickly. I finally fell asleep about 8am...only to be awakened about 9:30 by Kori and Morgan who were awake.

She seemed to be better today. She is drinking good and eating only a bit, but that's okay. She plays for a while and then chills on the couch for a bit. The yucky diapers continue, but not puking since 4am.

I am hoping the rest of us are spared. It's been a rough couple of months for us. It started at the end of January with RSV that turned into severe Bronchiolitis. It was followed by a sinus infection for Jason. A sinus/upper respiratory infection for me. Kori had viral strep throat. Then all the girls got pink eye. Now this. I am really quite over it.

Perhaps God thought I was a bit cocky yesterday with all my productiveness and just wanted to bring me back down to earth. I was dragging today let me tell you. I managed a half hour nap today while the girls napped before I started dinner.

The funny thing (using the term funny very loosely) about all of this is that two years ago to the exact day, everyone in the house except me, had the stomach flu for about 36-hours. It was awful and a period I will NEVER forget if I live to be 100! Hope we don't have a rerun of that!

Now Monday is here and the rat race starts all over again. **Sigh**

So tomorrow I'll finish my last part of the house and revacuum all the floors. Jason is starting days off and I will enjoy some extra hands here in the evening.

Potty Training -- Take 2

2009-02-21T00:17:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I decided to tackle potty training again. We tried it a while back and had not so great results. So yesterday everyone went into a pair of pull-ups. I won't be using them everyday, but it was how I determined who was serious and who wasn't.

Kamryn will sit on the potty every 5 minutes. She doesn't always go but she'll say she has too and head in there. She was dry through her nap and headed to the potty right as soon as she woke up. Success again! Awesome! She stayed dry while we were in the car line to pick up Kori.

Morgan and Alexis were doing good staying dry, but not wanting to sit on the potty. By 5:30 or so they had both peed in their pull-up so they went back to diapers.

Kamryn kept hers dry all day.

Today we moved on to padded training pants for Kamryn and diapers for the other two. One at a time might be the way to go at this.

Kamryn stayed dry all morning. She peed a few times and around 11:30 she did a gigantic poopie on the potty. I sometimes question the excitement in my life, but hey it was a big deal. So we danced and cheered and passed out M&M's.

She wore a pull-up for nap time as we weren't feeling that adventurous.

This evening we had a few errands to run. She didn't want to wear a diaper or a pull-up so she stayed in her panties. I took extra clothes just in case. She did great! She went potty at dinner (we ate out) and then again several times when we got home.

Alexis was inspired this evening. She got a pull-up on and then went pee twice on her own! Woo hoo! I am soooooo hoping my diaper buying days are coming to an end.

Tomorrow we may move Kamryn to her beloved Cinderella panties and Alexis to padded training panties. We'll let Morgan determine her course of action.

Kori is having a sleep over tonight with my sister Becky and Mallory and Jason. I talked to her earlier and she was having fun. We missed her here, but it's good for her to get a break.

At any rate, potty training is in full swing and I am sooooooo hopeful for success!

Still Here

2009-02-17T12:53:00.000-08:00

We're still around in case you were wondering. Still battling back from the coughs and sneezes. Kamryn also decided last Friday to develop a case of pink eye. Some drops in her eyes started to work quickly. Keeping my fingers crossed that no one else gets it.

I volunteered last Thursday for Kori's class Valentine's party. It was a nice time and it is always good to see the kids having fun! Kori got lots of Valentines and treats. Fun times! Stupid me, I forgot my camera. Oh well, next time!

Kori didn't have school on Friday due to "Staff Development" and on Monday for President's Day. Friday was housework for me and playing and such for the girls. Saturday (Valentine's day) was pretty laid back as well. It is not a favorite of mine so I always let my husband off the hook easily. I don't want him spending tons of money on flowers. Chocolates I don't need. So he brought the girls and I a heart shaped chocolate chip cookie "cake" and he got me a nice card. Good enough!

Sunday was another laid back day. Kori loves it when she can just hang around the house and play without having to go anywhere. (She's like her momma!)

Yesterday Kori and I had a date. We went to see Hotel For Dogs. Very cute movie! It brought us to tears in a couple of places. It is always very surreal when I think about doing stuff like that with her. Well with any of the girls. For so long it seemed that being a mommy wasn't in the cards for me. Then there I was in the theater, with my arm around my beautiful daughters' shoulders, sobbing away with her. God is good!

We went out for pizza for dinner and then got ready for the weekly grind to start again.

Jason is working off-duty today so it's just the little girls and I. We went to the Credit Union, post office and then to get gas. Everyone did well so we brought home some McDonald's for lunch. Easy for mommy! Woo hoo!

So that's about it for us. I am finishing up 14-days of antibiotics, but I'm still congested. I am hoping it doesn't come raging back after I finish the last pill tomorrow.

I've been sick for three weeks this coming Friday. I am hoping that's it. I am ready for Spring!!!

Sniff Sniff

2009-02-07T21:51:00.000-08:00

Still congested and feeling poorly. Thankfully the weather was really nice today. Everyone got some much needed fresh air. The garage got the salt and grime powerwashed out. It really needed it!

Today was court warming for my nephew. I had to deliver his clothes to him. He doesn't like to keep them at home because my brother smokes in the house and Cody hates smelling like an ashtray. Can't say I blame him. So I ironed everything and delivered it to him. He looked so handsome! His girlfriend looked adorable too. They went with one of Cody's friends and his girl friend. A handsome group for sure!

We had dinner out at Red Robin. Yummy! No cooking for me which was even better!

Kori is complaining of a sore throat and her glands feel huge! Rats! Jason and I are supposed to go to lunch and a movie tomorrow, but we'll have to see how things go.

Anyhow, I leave you with a few pictures:

I Caved

2009-02-06T08:47:00.001-08:00

I felt so awful yesterday I caved and went to the doctor. So I have a sinus infection, an upper respiratory infection and possibly strep throat. My throat was very red but not pussy. He didn't culture it because he was giving me antibiotics anyway. My ears "didn't look too bad, but I can see why they are bothering you". Whatever that means.

So I feel like doggy doo today. My throat is REALLY sore and I just feel bad overall. I am counting down the hours until the girls nap time. By girls nap time, I mean our nap time.

On a good note, the weather is warmer and the sun is shining. Just wish I felt better.

Seriously?

2009-02-03T22:11:00.000-08:00

It's been two weeks for the little girls, and almost two weeks for me and we're still snotting, coughing, sneezing and a few other words that end in i-n-g I'm sure. I am really over it. I was feeling better and then last night, not so much. I am wiping Alexis and Kamryn's noses non-stop now. Kori is coughing and snotting. Jason woke up today and announced, "I'm congested". My response? Welcome to the club! I was probably a bit grouchy about it, but it's ran it's course as far as I am concerned.

On to better things. Jason was SUPER thrilled his team, the Steelers, won the Super Bowl. We had some people over, mostly people that work for Jason, and a few he worked with in the past, and their spouses, kids etc. I made a big pot of chili and people brough appetizers/desserts. It was a nice time and a good game so things went well. Afterwards I cleaned everything up and wiped the bathrooms down again. Party? What party? Everything back in order, just how I like it. It's the OCD in me.

Today the girls had their developmental screening through Parents As Teachers. I am always fascinated to watch them interact with our parent educator Pam. Very cute! Developmentally they are on schedule and in some areas ahead of schedule. Glad to hear that! I think they do okay, but it's nice to have someone else's opinion.

So that's about it from Germville. Spring? Spring? Where are you Spring? I could use a nice visit from you now. It's too early I know, but a girl can dream!

Perhaps...

2009-01-28T22:02:00.000-08:00

They sensed I was clinging to my sanity by the tiniest thread. Today they were much better and acted more "normal". Not too much fighting amongst each other. If they took a toy from someone else they gave it back when I told them too, not after I said it 5 times and chased them around the house to get it back.

When it was time to pick up the toys tonight they were so efficient and helpful. Man was that nice. I said it ONCE, only ONCE, "Come on girls, let's go pick up the toys" and off they went. Oh it was nice!

I fear tomorrow I will get my parental butt kicked. But for now I am thankful and savoring it, in case it all fades away tomorrow like a beautiful sunset.

Kori had a playdate today with a girl from school today (we'll call her E). She came home with us and had dinner with us and her mom picked her up just a bit after 7:00. It was nice, and Kori enjoyed having someone her own age to play with. E only has a much older half sister so she was quite enthralled with the little girls. As we were eating she sighed and said, "I wish I lived here with you guys". Kori promptly informed her it isn't always as fun as it looks, especially when the girls get into things their not supposed to. E told her she was lucky and she'd live here in a minute. That felt nice.

So it was a nice day. I got some of my housework done and will finish the rest tomorrow. Can't believe it's almost Thursday already. Where has the week gone???

Why Must I?

2009-01-27T21:09:00.000-08:00

Repeat the same things over and over and over and over and over and over (you get the idea I'm sure) a million and one times a day?

My children are stressing me out. Today was definitely one of "those" days. I am beginning to question where I am going wrong? Why don't they listen when I tell them 50 times a day to NOT JUMP ON THE FURNITURE?!? Or not mess with the poor cat who is minding his business and sleeping? Or to actually SIT when they are eating a meal? Why must every meal be a 3-ring circus? Where am I going wrong???? Any ideas? Any one? Any one? I'm open to anything and everything. I have tried being diplomatic and explaining why we don't (insert wrongdoing here). That didn't work. I've tried fussing and grumping. Didn't work. I've tried a light swat. It was a no-go. We've tried time out. If it were one kid I could handle it, with 3 I can't sit and make sure the offender stays put. I have other things to do with the remaining kids who didn't do something they weren't supposed to. I've sent them to their room. Then they jump on the beds.

Tonight Kori was finishing up dinner when Kamryn walked up behind her, reached through the spindles of the chair, and yanked a big section of her hair. Why you ask? For NO REASON AT ALL! **SIGH** Morgan walked by and knocked the remote for the television off the railing in the kitchen so that it fell behind the sofa. **SIGH**

I just don't get it. They are soooooooo stubborn. They feed off one another and the naughtiness. I just wish I knew where I was going wrong and how to fix it.

Today I did not like being a parent. Alexis was the best of the 3 little ones with only one screaming fit this morning. Kori was thankfully well behaved (she probably saw how tired and frazzled I was and thought it best NOT to push my buttons).

I feel like I am failing and I don't know how to right it. Don't get me wrong, they're not always like this. But the last few days they've been especially stubborn. I am sure part of it is cabin fever. Another part is I am sick, and we all know mom's don't get any sick days. So my patience probably isn't 100%, but part of me is just feeling frustrated.

I'm sure other triplet moms with older kids are giggling about now. Reminiscing about "these days".

I will survive, I will survive, I will survive.

Get ready kids, tomorrow's a new day...and I'M STILL THE BOSS!!!!!

Mostly Healthy

2009-01-25T22:59:00.000-08:00

The house is mostly healthy. The girls still have a cough and some runny noses, but they are MUCH improved. I on the other hand have an incredibly sore throat and a nasty cough. I can't get this dang throat to feel better. I am over germs, sickness, cold weather, Winter, etc. etc. etc. I am concerned I have strep throat, but after getting C-diff from my last round of antibiotics I will pass on seeking any medical treatment for now. That was awful and miserable and I don't care to repeat it any time soon.

I had to laugh the other day Kori got in the van after school. We were talking about Daddy and that he was going to take her to school the next morning because he had a dentist appointment that morning anyway. So we were chatting and she says, "I've been meaning to ask you something. Are these bald spots back here (she sticks her finger in her mouth and points to the very back of her gums) going to grow teeth eventually?" I about died! I couldn't help but laugh at her using "bald spots" to describe her gums. It was funny!

Kamryn's favorite phrase right now...NO WAY!

ME: Kam let's pick up and get ready for bed.
KAM: NO WAY!

ME: Stop hitting your sisters.
KAM: NO WAY!

ME: (Insert anything here)
KAM: NO WAY!

Awesome, just awesome!

The little girls are like little miniature Ultimate Fighter people. They are constantly whacking, kicking, biting, smacking, hair pulling...it's exhausting! I don't know where it comes from. I am constantly saying "Say your sorry, we don't hit. That's not nice! No biting!" Exhausting!

We did enjoy one day of really nice weather last week. The girls got to be out for a little bit and burn off a little of the cabin fever. Some fresh air did everyone good I think.

Jason is in training this week so he'll work 2pm-11pm Mon-Thurs. The little girls will enjoy having him around during the day, but Kori will only get to see him when he comes home for dinner around 6pm. Thankfully the academy is VERY close to our house so he can come home and eat and catch up with her then.

I think I forgot to mention, that my sister and brother-in-law found out last Friday that they are having one boy and one girl. My nephew is SUPER excited to not be the only boy for too much longer. Kori was happy to hear there was at least one girl in the mix. My Jason has offered to school the little guy on all things sports related if need be.

Also...my nephew got his driver's license this past Friday! He scored a 95! Woo hoo! I am happy for him in one aspect, but in another...seriously? He's 16??? Already? He has a driver's license? In the words of Kamryn...NO WAY!

On Friday the girls were begging to watch Cinderella. They were still in their jammies and had some major bed head. They insisted on piling in the chair together instead of on the couch where they would have fit more comfortably, but whatever. They used to fit in here nicely when they were smaller. At any rate, I leave you with this picture...it is so funny to me! In case you don't know from left to right it's Alexis, Kamryn and Morgan. Enjoy!

Holding Pattern

2009-01-20T09:34:00.000-08:00

Things at our house are pretty much the same. Kori seems to have rebounded from her sore throat etc. rather quickly. She is at school today and said she felt fine, so that is one good thing.

Alexis went back to the pediatrician yesterday. We are striving to be Patient Of The Month this month I think. Maybe we'll get our own parking spot or a chair with a plaque with our name on it in the waiting room?? Oh a girl can dream!

All kidding aside. Alexis' oxygen levels were a bit lower than they like, but given the illness she has, that wasn't completely unexpected. She is also slightly dehydrated. So we made a promise when we left to push fluids and popsicles and see if that would help. Her heart rate was slightly elevated due to the dehydration, but that is also not uncommon. We are to go back later this week if there is no improvement. The next step would be hospitalization for IV fluids and then a deep chest suction. Yes that is as bad as it sounds. It is terribly traumatic for older kiddos and she is trying to avoid doing that if she can. We are so hopeful that doesn't happen.

I have decided that it's a good time to get some sinus issues, aches and a sore throat as well. **SIGH** **SIGH** **SIGH** Oh well, it is what it is. Mom's don't get sick days anyway so we keep going.

I am hoping that we are at the top of this hill and will be going over the other side to "Healthy-ville" soon. Real soon!

Not So Priceless

2009-01-18T00:26:00.001-08:00

Unlike the Master Card commercials, my Saturday was not priceless. It went something like this:

Two kids to the pediatrician: $20.00
Two kids to the children's hospital for chest x-rays: $15.00 (lunch on the way home)
Bottle of Motrin for fever reducing: $5.00
Two prescriptions for nebulizer machine: $90.00

Having kids diagnosed with RSV and severe bronciolitis: AWFUL!

Kori also informed me that she is getting a cold. She has a stuffy nose, light cough and some sneezing. Great! Awesome! Super! Just what I need!

What I do need:

A vacation -- alone -- without germs.
A husband who isn't on nights and sleeping during the day.
Warmer weather.
Insomnia to HIT THE ROAD!
Longer days -- these 24 hour ones aren't all they are cracked up to be.
A few extra arms/hands.
A bigger lap -- mine isn't big enough currently with all the sick, clingy, cuddling of sick kids I need to do.

It's been a rough few days. I am hoping it gets better soon. Do you ever feel like your alone, even though your not? I know I'm not, but in a sense, it's all me. It's like running up an icy hill in flip flops, you never seem to make any headway. Oh well, this too shall pass and will soon (I hope so) be a distant memory.

So for now, it's breathing treatments every four hours. AWESOME! I have absolutely nothing else I could be doing!

A Survey

2009-01-17T00:00:00.001-08:00

Totally stole this off my friend Amy's blog. Thought it was cute:

Just copy and paste this to your blog and bold the ones that you HAVE done.
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given to charity.
7. Been to Disneyland ... and Disneyworld!
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Made a prank phone call.

New Layout -- Sick Kids

2009-01-16T23:52:00.000-08:00

Finally a new,non boring layout. Enjoy, it's in honor of the fast approaching Valentines Day. The most commercialized holiday on the planet. It's not a fave of mine. I love my sweetie every day, not on one specific day of the year. I have warned him for many years that if he buys me $200.00 roses I will kill him with my bare hands. Happy Valentines Day...nothing says I love ya like the threat of death.

Germs -- GO AWAY! Morgan started coming down with a cough Sunday night. By Monday she was miserable. Feverish, coughing, snotty, whining, clingy, overall just sad. By Wednesday, she was better, still coughing and having a runny nose, but better. Wednesday night Kamryn started coughing a bit. By Thursday night she was clingy, fevering, aching, had a runny nose. She was super pathetic.

Today I awoke to Alexis feverish and moaning. She spent the majority of the day on the sofa, a rare thing in my house.

Kori and I have made a pact to stay healthy. Here's to hoping it works!

The weather has been brutal lately. Cold, windy, cold, freezing, cold, miserable, cold, awful. Did I mention cold? Jason and I agree we need a warmer climate. I never used to mind it, now it's just awful.

Snow this morning. Not much but enough to make the dolts on the road drive even worse than usual. The freeway I usually hop on to take Kori to school was a parking lot so we diverted and snuck in the back way. I personally didn't have any trouble, but there were TONS of wrecks everywhere else. I don't know why people can't just slow down and exercise a bit of common sense and good judgement. It really can go a long way.

Jason was off the past 3 days and it was nice. The house got super cleaned. Laundry was caught up (notice I said WAS -- when the weather gets warmer I'm having the 1st Annual Naked Day. I want to know what it's like to have an empty hamper for 24 hours. Never fear I will give advance warning on when this will take place so everyone can stay clear. I speak only for myself when I say IT WON'T BE PRETTY!)

He returned to work tonight and had off-duty before so it was a girls evening. I made a casserole which did not turn out so the girls and I got some drive-thru take-out. A 54th Street salad for me and KFC for the girls. At least the kitchen clean up was easy.

Alexis is floppy and restless tonight. I hope she's feeling better tomorrow.

I'm ready for warmer, germ free weather!

Boring

2009-01-10T23:26:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the boring layout but the site I currently use is down so I have to use one of this pre-made ones that are provided. Kind of boring, but the Christmas one needed to come down.

Not Easy

2009-01-10T23:09:00.001-08:00

If someone asked me to explain my life in two words, these are the two that I would use most often, NOT EASY.

Let me start off by saying that I love my kids with all my heart. However, my life is not easy. I have insomnia. I haven't slept great since the girls turned one. I have continued to go down hill in this area over the past several months. It is not uncommon for me to still be awake at 5am. It is for the birds! I can outlast sleeping pills, 1, 2, it doesn't matter. It is so frustrating! During the day I am dragging, at night when I should be sleeping...WIDE AWAKE! I am sure that adds to my level of frustration at times.

So I have decided that potty training needs to get going. We did a few hours of panties after Christmas when the girls wanted to wear the new Dora, Elmo, Cinderella etc. panties that they got in their stockings, as gifts, etc. (Apparently I'm not the only one that can't resist the cute little things!) These times usually ended up with pee running down someones legs. This freaked Jason out a bit because, and I quote, "I don't want the house smelling like pee". Great neither do I. So anyway with travel for the funeral etc. we put it off.

Today I decided we would hit it hard. Now I should preface this with the fact that the girls woke up grouchy today. Kamryn greeted me with a "don't look at me mommy" instead of her usual kiss and a smile. Uh, good morning to you too. I should have taken that as a sign. Not easy.

She decided she didn't want to wear panties. I should clarify that she let me know this while screaming at the top of her lungs and running away from me...fast. Morgan and Alexis were more accomodating. They were all about the panties. I have put away the cute, thin and incredibly unabsorbent character panties and have replaced them with the not as cute, much thicker and more absorbent training panties. They aren't as thrilled with the selection of patterns, but oh well. About every 20-minutes or so we'd head to the potty or I'd at least ask. We did some sitting here and there and I got a few "I don't have to go's". Well lets just say Alexis went through 3 pairs of panties and Morgan 2 before naptime. Not easy.

In the middle of all of this the little girls were fighting, hitting, shrieking, yelling, screaming, bickering, grabbing, taking, arguing, crying, sobbing, smacking (and many other things that end in I-N-G that I have probably repressed). It was a rough day! They stayed up a bit later last night and woke up a bit earlier than I think they needed to so that didn't help. Finally at about 1:30 I had reached the limit and off we went for naps. They fell asleep quiety and quickly, which is always a good sign. After a two hour nap we started more potty training. Daddy was awake now and could help with the bathroom runs.

Alexis opted out of the panties this time and decided she would wear a diaper. Whatever. I prefer to do one at a time anyway so no worries from me. Morgan woke up dry from her nap. Took off her diaper put her on the potty and got nothing. Oh well. We'll try again soon was my thinking. Imagine a mere less than 5 minutes later when she comes walking in the kitchen looking as if she'd just gotten off of a very long horseback ride. **Sigh** She informed me "I need dry panties". Not easy.

So Kamryn is doing good anyway. She kind of takes it to the other extreme. Every 5 minutes she's giving a big "I gotta go" as she's blasting down the hall toward the bathroom. She goes about 3 dribbles and proclaims "I done, I get jelly bean now". This goes on about every 5 minutes, sometimes even less, but we don't want to discourage her.

Kori was less than thrilled when Morgan let loose in her room today. Thankfully it didn't get on anything (those are some mighty absorbent panties!) but she wasn't happy that Morgan chose her room to do it in. Not easy.

So the count today was:

Alexis - 3 pairs of panties
Morgan- 5 pairs of panties
Kamryn - 1 pair of panties.

All panties have been laundered and are ready for service again tomorrow. Oh goody!

The crabbies were still around even after their nap. Hopefully a good nights sleep will help and everyone will be back to normal tomorrow.

For now I don't heart potty training so much, but I am hoping it catches on soon!

Law and Order

2009-01-08T23:49:00.000-08:00

I should be sleeping, but I can't and that's nothing new, so here I am.

Today I met Jason at the car dealership after I picked Kori up from school. The paperwork was pretty much ready and just needed my signature. Didn't want to have to chase the girls all over again so he went before me and got everything else taken care of.

As we pulled up Kori said, Mommy two policemen just went into the building. I look and sure enough, a van and a police cruiser. Hmmmmm. So I go in and meet up with Jason. I asked him if he knew what was up and he said no. No disturbance or anything obvious.

So a well dressed, middle aged female walks up and the officers ask her, "Are you Mrs. So and So? (I wasn't close enough to hear her name). She nods yes and they ask her to step out into the entryway to talk for a minute. Now, since Jason is an officer, I know from past stories etc. this usually doesn't turn out well. Well another of the dealers came over and we were talking about how freaked out we would be etc. I looked up again, just as they were putting the pretty silver bracelets AKA handcuffs on her. Holy cow! Right there at her job! Oh man, how embarassing! They plop her into the wagon and away it goes. The officer in the car comes in and gets her jacket and purse and leaves. I'm assuming she had warrants or something but it sure was weird. I'd be soooooo embarassed.

So that was the excitement for the day there. Everyone was a buzz about it.

I got my new van. I'm the proud owner of a silver 2009 Honda Odyssey with gray interior. Mind you I just turned in a silver 2006 Honda Odyssey with gray interior. Besides white it was the only van they had on the lot. They could have gotten me a light blue one, but it would have taken several days and with Jason's crazy schedule this week it would have been more hassle than it was worth. I like the silver color. It doesn't show dirt much. It's pretty much the same car, only with the new car smell. And it only had 9 miles on it. So I'm set with a new lease until 2012. At that time I hope to get a Honda Pilot.

New Car Shopping

2009-01-07T21:55:00.000-08:00

I hate it! Let me just say that right now. It's my least favorite thing to do. That and buy/sell a house. Yuck!

My lease on my van is up so it's just a must. I am torn between leasing another van (I have a Honda Odyssey and I love it!) and getting the newly redesigned Honda Pilot. I currently have one in my garage. It's sooooo pretty, and sporty and not very great for getting the kiddos in and out of easily. So as much as I love how it drives like a car and makes me feel less frumpy, I will be getting a new van tomorrow. I'm going with light blue this time. The Pilot is black and I really like it, but they don't have any black vans in stock and since Jason has a black car, I'm mixing it up a bit. Woo hoo! Look at me living dangerously! Jason is going to handle as much of it as he can. When I have to sign some paperwork I'll show up. I had to go today for a bit and chased the girls out of everywhere they weren't supposed to be.

On a funny note we were in the play area with the girls waiting for our sales man to "crunch some numbers". There was an Asian man in there with his young daughter as well. A lady that worked at the dealership walks in and says, "Mr. and Mrs. Ming?", and she's looking directly at Jason and I. Not the man who is less than a foot away from Jason, who clearly looks more like a Mr. Ming than the clearly nearly albino, red headed couple standing in front of her. (No offense to you Mr. Ming whatsoever!) It was so funny, I had a hard time controlling my giggles until they left the room.

Oh, right, I almost forgot my other high point of the day. I had my yearly OB/GYN appointment today. Right on schedule, only 5 months late. (Insert eye rolling here!) I tried to get in a little earlier (making me only about 3 months late) but my doctor is super busy and always booked up.

I haven't seen him since Aug. of 2007 when the girls were just over a year old. He was tickled to see new pictures and wanted to hear all about them. I just love him! He is soooo awesome! However before our stroll down memory line I had to wait to see him for 2 1/2 hours! This isn't uncommon. Once when I was pregnant with the girls my appointment was at 12:30 and I didn't get seen until 4:45. (He was at the hospital on an emergency). Due to my high risk nature I couldn't leave so I had to stick it out. Today he was delivering twins. I know that there's the chance I might have to wait so I came prepared with a book and a bottle of water. If I had thought twice I would have brought a granola bar since my appointment was a lunch time. Oh well, next time.

Let's see, what else has been happening. I've been a bit lax in my posts. Sorry about that.

The girls are great! Kori is back to school as of yesterday. Monday was "staff development" so she didn't return until Tuesday. She was fine with going back which was good. The little girls missed her a lot!

We journied to Iowa Friday for Grandpa Marvin's funeral. The service went well and the little girls cooperated. (That could have something to do with the box of bribery, uh, I mean fruit snacks I had in my purse. I was happy they did well. I was a bit stressed they would be disruptive.

The weather on Saturday turned a bit yucky (it is northern Iowa after all!) There was some sleet/freezing rain during the cemetary portion and that continued on our drive back to Jason's dads house. What normally would have been about 45 minutes took about an hour and 45 minutes. Jason's stepbrother and his wife headed back to Des Moines afterwards and said there were lots of cars off the road, in ditches and overturned. We gave the salt/sand trucks a bit to get out and then headed out. It was slow going at first but we did okay. There were lots of cars all over and upside down. Scary! The girls traveled well and Kori had a good time with my folks. It was nice to be back home and in my own bed though. I sure miss my bed when I'm gone.

Well I guess that's about it for me.

I shall post more soon!

Heading To Iowa

2009-01-01T22:14:00.000-08:00

We are leaving tomorrow for Iowa to go to Jason's Grandpa Marvin's funeral. I hope the weather cooperates. We are taking Jason's car for a change since Kori has boycotted the boring road trip to Iowa and instead is staying with my parents.

We'll be back late Saturday!

Whew!

2008-12-30T22:47:00.000-08:00

The holidays are over and I can catch my breath. I think. I hope.

Christmas was GREAT! The girls had a great time. They really got into it and it was cute to see. Kori had a blast and enjoyed sharing it with her sisters.

We spent Christmas Eve with my family at my mom and dad's. Great food and good times! It was awesome! I worry my mom's going to "retire" this tradition soon. I just love it!

Christmas day was spent here at home with just us. We spent the day in our jammies and had a great day! I made a ham and all the fixin's for dinner. It was so nice and relaxing!

Jason has been off for the last week and we've gotten so much done! Our sub-basement has been cleaned out and organized and it looks great! Our trash guys are going to hate us in the morning. There is a BUNCH of bags and boxes out there. Thank heavens for the 2 times a year it's unlimited trash! Woo hoo!

Sadly, Jason's grandpa Marvin passed away on Saturday. We will travel to Iowa on Friday for his funeral. Kori has opted to pass on the long drive and short trip so she'll be staying with my parents.

Well tomorrow is New Year's Eve. My nephew is here with us and Jason goes back to work tomorrow so we'll just hang out. I'll make us a yummy dinner and we'll ring in 2009 in pretty much the same lame fashion as years passed. I'm okay with that. I'm safe and sound with my family, well most of them, in my home so that's okay.

Happy 2009 to you all!!!!!

Holiday Greetings!

2008-12-23T22:41:00.000-08:00

Man oh man, things have been busy around here!!! We had a great visit with Jason's dad and step-mom, and his sister and her family. Truly wish Janean and her family lived closer! We will be going out to visit them in Cincinnati this summer for vacation. (This is a warning to them that they better reinforce their home because Hurricane Rusley is coming!!!)

We did presents and I made tacos and chicken chimichangas on Sunday for dinner. We also had birthday cake and ice cream for Jason's dad and Kori. We went to Longview Lake to see the lights at Christmas in the Park. Another beautiful display. It was a LONG wait but the kids all enjoyed it.

Today I did some baking. I made chocolate chip cookies, Amish sugar cookies. pretzel/rolo/pecan candies, fudge, peanut butter cookies with Reece's peanut butter cups in the middle of them, pecan balls and white chocolate covered pretzels. I do a platter every year as a gift to my brother and his family, my sister and her family and my parents. Hope they like my baking, otherwise it's not such a great gift huh?

I do enjoy baking. The girls were cooperative and Jason was available to keep an extra eye on them so it went well.

Tomorrow we do Christmas with my family at my parent's. We'll have spaghetti (or Basta as we call it) and meatballs, Italian sausage, garlic bread etc. I am in charge of the salad so I have to cut that up tomorrow. It's alwasy good food and a good time so it will be fun. The kids will surely love it. While Christmas isn't my favorite holiday, I always found it more fun with my oldest sister around. Since her passing five years ago it has lost so much of it's luster. If not for my kids I would stay in bed and watch movies and maybe eat ice cream or something. This was her most absolute favorite holiday. She loved spending it with family. It just always feels like a huge part is missing, and rightly so.

Tomorrow night I should tackle some gift wrapping as I've done none of it. That's right, not a single thing. How pathetic am I???

We got sad news today that Jason's grandpa Marvin has been hospitalized after a fall and also has pneumonia in both lungs. His health and been in a steady decline for months and things aren't looking so great right now. We hope he improves and we can get back up there soon to see him. He gets sooooo much pleasure from visiting with my girls.

At any rate, I wish you all a wonderful holiday!!

Glutton For Punishment

2008-12-20T23:53:00.000-08:00

I often times ask myself "what were you thinking???" It is usually after I've done something without thinking fully of the ramifications it will have. Several weeks ago I received a call on my cell while I was waiting for Kori to get out of school. It was from a parent of a student in the class. She was the coordinator for the "Winter Party" and was getting things set up. Great! Could I help? You betcha? A craft? A game? What do I say you ask? I reply, "Whatever you need me to do, tell me and I'll do it". Why I didn't pipe up and offer to do the game I don't know.

At any rate I began my quest for the perfect craft. I scoured Walmart, Michael's etc. All of the pre-cut kits in the craft foam were Christmas trees and Santa Claus. That violates the terms of the "Winter Party" guidelines. It has to be non-denominational for those that don't celebrate Christmas. Okay, no problem. Snowmen are easy. Uh, yeah, only there weren't any pre-cut snowman kits. So I poured over the web to see what I could find. I finally found a cute little snowman idea and figured I'd poke a hole in the top and thread a pipe cleaner through and it could hang up for an ornament, door hanger etc. No problem!

I buy the foam. I figure it would be easiest to to ahead and pre-cut the pieces so there wasn't a lot of scraps, mess etc. It was a project that ideally should take about 10-15 minutes of the class party time. Life has been a little crazy and I didn't get an early jump on getting the pieces cut out. I prayed for snow and lots of it to get the party canceled. By Thursday I figured that wasn't happening and I better get started. I get my little template and cut out 26 snowman head circles (25 for the students in the class and 1 for my display piece). Then I cut out 26 black top hats. Then 26 carrot noses. Then 26 hat bands. Then 26 hat buckles. By now I have a serious cramp in my cutting hand, not to mention a pile of static charged foam pieces that stick to everything!!!! I passed on the 52 holly leaves and 78 tiny holly berries that were to further adorn the hat. Those would have been brutal. I've now had to stop to fix dinner, clean up dinner, play with kids, finish homework, bathe kids, get kids in bed. Shower myself. **Sigh**

It's now 11:30 p.m., back to cutting. The 52 eyes I have to cut took forever! Ideally the mouth was to be comprised of 4 small (dime size) black foam circles. At this point it's after 1am, I am tired. I am dang near crippled from the 7 hours or so of cutting I've been doing and really to be honest, I'm over it. I have proclaimed loudly to myself that I hate snowmen! If I EVER see one again it will be too soon. These F-ing things are for the BIRDS!!!!! Once I pull myself together, I decide that these snowmen will have red pipe cleaner mouths. My husband told me the dot mouths looked better. After I not so politely told him that he could come home from work and cut them out his own d@mn self, he decided the pipe cleaners smiles didn't look so bad after all. What a good idea.

Did I mention I put glue dots on all the pieces so the kids didn't have to go all glue crazy like they did at the Fall party. 25 first graders with Elmers glue...wow! We're lucky we weren't all stuck there until the Winter Party. The glue dots worked great, but added to the teadiousness of the whole thing. Anyway, I packed everything up and crawled into bed at about 2:30 a.m.

The crafts were a hit. The party was done. Winter break has begun! It was a half day too so that was even better!

Jason's dad and step-mom are here from Iowa, as well as his sister and her family from Cincinnati. We'll celebrate Christmas and Kori and Phil's (Jason's dad) birthday tomorrow. It is FREEZING cold here so we'll be hanging out here. With wind chills -30 it's too cold to do much of anything else.

Guess I better wrap some presents this week too, since I've done NONE!

Seven Years Ago Today

2008-12-16T22:44:00.000-08:00

On, Monday, December 17th, 2001, at 5:00 P.M., my sweet, precious, much anticipated, perfect, red headed little bundle (well not so little at 8 lbs., 10 oz., but you get the idea) was born. Seriously? SEVEN years???? Oh man where has the time gone. She is now more often sassy than sweet. She has three little sisters and one tired and haggard mom.

For her birthday she got a room redo. I will post pictures soon! It turned out really nice and she loves it very much. We also got her an outfit and little sisters got her some new Play-Doh. She got a new paint job, a new lamp shade, new comforter and sham, new rug, new sheets, new curtain, decals for the wall. It is now a sweet shade of periwinkle and very suited for her. I just can't get over her being 7!!!!

Today was a self-imposed snow day. The weather was awful this morning at 7am. We already had at least 2 inches, but for some reason her school district hadn't canceled. Jason worked a 15-hour shift instead of the normal 10-hours due to the day shift being short. We discussed it, and we decided it was a snow day for us. I would have had to drag the little girls out and I had a feeling that it would be a short day. I figured as soon as I got her there, in a few short hours I'd be turning around to go and get her again and that was the case. At 10am the phone rang and it was the pre-recorded message stating that the district was following it's early release schedule. Glad I went with my gut. No reason to risk it. I don't condone missing school for a few flakes but it was snowing a lot and had been for a while I didn't figure it would get any better.

Jason got home about 12:45 just as I had finished shoveling our driveway and walks. Our driveway is HUGE when it needs shoveled. My back is definitely feeling it. I am soooo over winter and it isn't even officially winter yet. Blach!

I had to venture to Sam's today to pick up cupcakes for Kori's class in the event there is school tomorrow. I made it there relatively easy. The littles were sleeping, as was Jason and Kori opted to hang out at home and veg with some TV and coloring instead of braving the roads with me. It wasn't too bad. Getting back was a bit trickier since the highway was a parking lot. I had to detour and take the long way home but did it relatively easily.

There is an ice storm on the way for Thursday. I am hoping school is canceled Friday since it is a half day and I'm in charge of the craft for the class winter party. Can you tell I'm dreading it???

At any rate, happy birthday Kori! Mommy and daddy love you so very, very much!

Viruses, Toddler Beds & Insanity

2008-12-12T09:01:00.000-08:00

I apologize for my absence. It seems that we contracted a nasty computer virus. So last Friday the computer went off to the computer doctor who assured me it would be returned on Monday. Then Monday turned into Tuesday morning. Which then turned into Tuesday evening. Then Wednesday morning. Then anytime after 2pm on Wednesday. Imagine my surprise at 2:40 when I showed up to get it and no one was at the shop. He finally returned and it seemed the smartest choice was to send Jason in. I was a bit miffed at this point and didn't want to say anything snarky. Imagine my irritation when my husband emerged after a few minutes empty handed. Seems the computer guy inadvertently erased something and it was going to take another 30-minutes or so to reload. Well finally at 5:30 my computer was back home where it belongs. Do I ever miss it when I don't have it!!!

On to the toddler beds. Oy! Oy! Oy! It is a challenge, to say the least. Alexis and Morgan were in crib tents but after well over a year they were falling apart. Alexis' seams were ripped out at the zipper, Morgan had a big hole in the sides of hers (dang destructive kids!) and Kamryn was starting to climb out of her un-tented crib. I could either invest another $240.00 for 3 new crib tents or move to the toddler beds I already had. We opted for choice B. Now if I could only get it through their stubborn heads that the beds are for sleeping, not party time. I have found if I camp out in there with them for a few minutes it puts an end to the foolishness. I am hoping that this end soon and nap and bedtimes will return to normal. What is normal with two year old triplets anyway?

I am ready for December to be over! It's been crazy so far and it's just 1/2 way through. Tomorrow I am taking Kori and 4 school friends to Libby Lu for a makeover birthday party. I ordered decorated sugar cookies instead of cake/cupcakes and after the party we're going to Applebee's for lunch. My sister volunteered to help me chaperone. I am hoping it goes smoothly and the girls have fun.

Tomorrow evening I will begin priming Kori's red wall in her room. Sunday I am painting it a nice sunny yellow. She requested a room re-do for her birthday so we obliged her. I just finished painting the playroom a month or so ago and now I'm starting to repaint rooms I've already done. Oh joy!

This week is Kori's birthday, treats for class, birthday dinner and cake, her 7-year well child checkup, family in from out of town for the weekend. **Sigh**

Is December over yet???

Allow Me To Embarass Myself

2008-12-01T23:21:00.000-08:00

I'm going to embarass myself here. I am doing it for you all. I know you will enjoy it, so I am taking one for the proverbial team if you will.

I take Kori to school in the mornings. Someday maybe she'll ride the bus, but for now I take her. It is not uncommon for me to do so in my pajamas. I don't wear skimpy nighties or anything like that. Mostly pajamas. You know cute pants with kitties or polar bears, stars or moons, things like that. (I know, I know, I'm lucky I have kids at all huh?) They have matching shirts that look like t-shirts. My favorite is the one that goes with the pants that have penguins and igloos on them and the shirt says "Your Igloo Or Mine". Where was I? Oh right, taking Kori to school. (Sometimes I suffer from a mild form of adult A.D.D. I believe). If the weather is nice I don't mind throwing on shorts or what have you to go. It's when the weather is cold that I hate taking off my warm thermal or flannel jammies. It just seems so unfair! Kori has made a few comments, mostly in the beginning of winter last year.

Add to this the fact that I almost always wear flip flops. Even in the winter. I keep the heat on my feet so it's all good. Well today I wore my gown. I don't often wear gowns but this one is particularly warm. It comes to my ankles and is super cozy and comfy. I threw on my gray sweat shirt jacket thing (Jason LOVES this jacket...NOT!) and my trusty flip flops and off I went. Well I tried. Kori gave me the up and down look a few times before saying, "Wow I am so glad you don't get out of the car in the mornings". Like I ever would. I'd die from embarssment for sure!

On the way to school I had her convinced that I was going to jump out and scream "Good by Kori, mommy loves you so much!" She was MORTIFIED! It was funny to see. As we pulled the line to drop her off at the door I said okay are you ready and I opened my door. Her face was classic. It was worth it! She told her father this evening, "You should have seen the get-up mom had on this morning when she took me to school, yikes!" Maybe that bus riding thing will be coming sooner rather than later!

Another embarssing moment, but just a glimpse of how my life can go. It was one of "those" days today. Just not good. But hey they happen huh? Well anyway I retreated to the bathroom today (don't worry I'm sparing any gory details). It was sooooo nice and quiet I thought about staying for an hour or two but knew I would surely be missed. Not 45-seconds after I got there, I hear clumping up the stairs to our bedroom/bathroom area. Kori you ask? Nope! The littles? Wrong again! My husband. Who decided at this very moment he had the most important thing in the world to try and tell me through the bathroom door (I turned on the little exhaust fan thing to drown out the kids screaming and fussing downstairs -- it was ruining my quiet time). So I turn off the fan to hear what just couldn't wait. Wanna know what it was? Sure you do! Someone at his work was selling Girl Scout Cookies and did I want any. Really? Really? THIS is what was so earth shattering that you had to pick THIS moment to come and share with me. We had been sitting in the same room for a couple hours without so much as a mention about it. I opened the door (flung it open would be more accurate if your splitting hairs) and told him I'd LOVE to give him my order for cookies...as soon as I was done! I know where my kids get it now. I know why my dad tried to intercept us before we could interrup my mom's "toilet quiet time" as kids. I totally getit now. I appreciate it now!

Tomorrow is a new day...tomorrow is a new day...

For Christmas I'd Like...

2008-12-01T23:08:00.001-08:00

My children to be equipped with MUTE buttons. **Sigh** For so many years I longed to be called mother. These days I'd like to hire a hypnotist to deprogram them from saying mom, mommy, mother (thanks Kori), ma, madre, mami and any other derivitives I've failed to mention. Morgan likes to say it just to say it. Today while I was cooking dinner she kept coming in and saying "Mommy" and then she'd run off. She did this about 25-30 times. She was way more amused than I was.

Kori used my favorite version "muuu-ther" (said in a VERY exasperated manner)on several occasions today. I'm sure it was during the several times I was also "ruining her life". **Sigh**

Kamryn had a 30-minute scream fest (really it was SCREAMING) over things she didn't want to watch on TV. First it was the Tinkerbell movie that Disney was playing. So I flipped it to Dora the Explorer, that is a favorite. Uh nope, not today. Great, further channel surfing revealed Wow, Wow Wubzy! (not a favorite of mine) and apparently not a favorite of hers today either. Nothing I found would silence the screaming. I eventually put her in her crib and closed the door. My head couldn't take it. After returned from Crazy Land where she thankfully bought a round trip ticket she enjoyed her lunch and took a nap.

Alexis was good today. Until around 8:00 when she decided it would be fun to get really mad and scream (she has a set of lungs!) in the playroom. It just kept bouncing off those 4 walls. Poor Kori finally kicked her out. The thrill of it was lost as the shrill shrieking didn't bounce off the walls in the family room like they did in the play room.

Kori melted down about 8:30 when Morgan accidentally crumpled up a paper of hers. Apparently it was her pride and joy scrap of paper because she wailed and bellowed for so long I finally made her brush her teeth and go to bed.

I put the littles down around 9:00 and then waited for the jumping, singing, talking, dancing, giggling, shrieking, etc. to die down and for peace to envelope my home.

I celebrated with some ice cream. Super Cookie Dough Chunk or something with crushed Xanax and whipped cream as a topping (we were out of Chocolate Vodka Crunch dang it!). I'm kidding, about the Xanax that is, not about the ice cream. I did enjoy some ice cream. Alone. In the living room. Where it was Q-U-I-E-T!

The movie theaters are right...Silence is golden!

Thanksgiving, Pictures and Santa

2008-11-30T22:14:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! My sister and her family did not fair as well. Mallory spiked a very high fever and after a trip to the ER in Iowa it was believed she had Sixth Disease so they came home without spending any time with the family they intended to. They had dinner, via Hyvee, in the car on the way back to KC. How sad is that? At any rate Mallory is feeling better and that's most important.

With help from my mom I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for 12 at my home. It was nice. The food was yummy! What more can you ask for!

Friday we went for pictures. Mostly for Kori's 7-year birthday pictures (seven already!) but I figured we'd throw the little girls in there too. They day was off to a great start. Morgan and Alexis were unusually quiet and clingy. I worried they were getting sick. I gave them juice for breakfast, just in case. Milk coming back up is never good. They perked up after some breakfast which was great! Got everyone dressed and such. They looked great, all 4 girls. Everyone cooperated with hair fixing, except Alexis. Nothing in the world was going to convince her to have ponytails in her hair like her sisters. I choose not to make an issue over something silly like that so she won that round. As we were getting ready to leave she threw up. It isn't your normal throw-up (probably TMI here I'm sorry). It was mucousy and just something she couldn't process so it came out. Nothing on the clothes which was good. We cleaned up and were on our way after she proclaimed, "I feel better!" My nephew was staying with us so we had an extra pair of hands, which is alwasy good. Jason grumbled as we were trying to find a place to park. He wondered why "anyone would take pictures on the day after Thanksgiving". I pointed out we've done it for the last 3 years. We finally made our way in and got taken right back. Jason had to run back home to get my who gets what picture list (I can't function without it). Kori did her pictures and did GREAT! No surprise there! Add in the little girls and there wasn't a smile in the house, except for Kori. We muddled through, picked the best shot of the 4 of them (NONE of them were great). Seriously not a smile from any of the little girls. At any rate the pictures were done thank goodness.

After pictures we headed off to the mall to see Santa. It's the same Santa Kori has seen every year. He's great! The girls walked right up there and plopped up there for the picture. Not huge smiles but no one was screaming or freaking out so that's good.

Today was my niece Mallory's 3rd birthday. Man that went by fast! We went to their house for pizza and cake and ice cream. Her party was supposed to be Saturday but with the illness it was canceled. My brother-in-law's grandmother is in the final stage of her battle with lung cancer so he was in Iowa visiting her for probably the last time. It's very sad as she is a super lady. That being said she has lived a very happy and wonderful life! Many prayers for the whole family. The "party" was nice, just my girls and I and my parents but we made the best of it. Mallory had a great time and that's all that matters! We wouldn't have missed it!

So now it's a new week. Back to school. Back to routines. Back to life. Ugh.

Here's our santa picture...enjoy!

More Volunteer Work

2008-11-24T23:48:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow (well today since it's 1:45 a.m.)is Grandparent's Day at Kori's school. I will be working there in some capacity all day tomorrow. Jason is minding the herd, uh I mean keeping the girls. It should be fun. I am prepared. I am taking some kleenex and also some hand sanitizer. I'm winging it on the rest...wish me luck!

Color Funny

2008-11-24T10:48:00.000-08:00

I was sitting at the kitchen table Saturday night making up one of my countless lists for this week so I can attempt to stay a wee bit sane with all I have to do. At any rate Kori came with her crayons and coloring book to join me. She was chatting and such and having a grand ol' time. She then proclaimed, "Mommy I think this is one of my favorite colors now". I asked her which one and she said "Muleberry". Huh? I had her spell it, well it turns out muleberry is actually mulberry. It made me giggle. Once I explained it to her she chuckled too. Hey she's only six. I told her she was in good company because her aunt LOVES the color M-A-G-N-E-T-A. You know the one, only for the rest of us it's M-A-G-E-N-T-A.

It's Baaaaaaaaack!

2008-11-21T22:17:00.001-08:00

The fussing, the fighting, the bickering, the grumping, the sassing, the tattle tailing...CALGON TAKE ME AWAY!!!!!! And this was all after Kori joined the mix after school. The littles were pretty good today, but by evening, all four of them were beasts!

Tomorrow will be better, tomorrow will be better, tomorrow will be better! Where the heck is my ice cream??? (Kidding!)

Volunteering

2008-11-20T22:38:00.000-08:00

Today I was a volunteer at Kori's school for their book-fair. I got there and there were a few of us working. After a few minutes the PTA stand-in President informed me that after 11am I would be flying solo. Huh? What? Oh man! All in all it worked out fine. I got to eat lunch with Kori so that was cool. It wasn't cool that they changed the menu at the last minute. It was supposed to be their Thanksgiving lunch but they decided they should move that to next Tuesday in honor of Grandparent's Day. Great! People will have turkey on Tuesday and then again Thursday, while I on the other hand was forced to choose between the hot dog or the shrimp poppers. Both great choices huh? I chose the hot dog and also got corn and fruit cocktail. At the time they were out of fries and I didn't have time to wait, and it didn't sound too appetizing either. A little butter and salt and pepper on the corn would have been nice, but maybe that's just me being spoiled and over critical. Elementary school kids probably don't notice and/or care.

During lunch Kori got to pick a classmate to eat with us. She picked a girl I will call "E". "E" has a slight speech impediment (not poking fun as I had a severe lisp until around the 2nd grade, not to mention both a brother and sister who suffered in the "Speaks Clearly" category -- sowwy Wabecka. :-) ) Any way she calls Kori "Tori". Kori told me a couple of the boys make fun of her so we discussed how everyones different and that's okay. "E" was eating and unbeknownst to her was completely GROSSING me out!!! She had enough ketchup on her hot dog to supply a small restaurant for a while. She proclaimed to me "I just looooooove ketchup!" Really? I hadn't noticed, it's dripping off your hot dog. Then there was the eating the corn (not on the cob) with her fingers. Swiping her finger through the ketchup lake and licking it off, amongst other things. I was doing okay with it, my palms were a bit sweaty, but I kept reminding myself "their only 6, their only 6, their only 6" over and over. Finally it was time to go. But not before I pointed out she had a big glob of ketchup on the front of her shirt toward the bottom and also on the sleeve. At this point she licked her sleeve, pulled her shirt up to her mouth and sucked off the glob of ketchup before proclaiming, "No problem, all taken care of!" At this point I think I threw up just a bit in my mouth before declaring "Time to go, I'll walk you guys back!" In my head I had to remind myself to quit thinking about the germs that were clinging on to the ketchup for dear life. My stomach was already churning...no need to make things worse.

After a stop in the bathroom where I thoroughly washed my hands and took a minute to catch my breath, I returned for the rest of my volunteering shift. I was greeted with a cute little guy with a book and the money to purchase it. I told him his total and then about passed out when he took the money from his baggie, wiped his nose with his hand (same hand holding the money) and then gave it to me. Oh goody! Where is my hand sanitizer!?!?!?!?! It reminded me of the days when I was a clerk at the police station and we would get bond money from people bailing out their family, friends etc. Sometimes the money came from purses and wallets, often it came from bras, pants, shoes etc. There were crinkled bills, ripped bills and my personal favorite, wet ones. Those trips to detention were followed up with LOTS of hand washing. I believe this is where my germ issues started to manifest.

Anyway time went by quickly and I managed to not screw anything up! Bonus! I chipped in extra change of my own here and there because I just hate to tell the kiddos they are short money, especially a little bit of change and can't get their book(s). So I went with about $4.00 and came home with about 30 cents. Oh well, it made someone smile I'm sure.

Jason kept the little girls and did a great job! Thanks daddy, you rock!

Next week...voluteering for Grand Parent's Day! Bring it, I'm ready!

POOPAPALOOZA!

2008-11-19T21:11:00.001-08:00

Holy cow! I changed 8, that's right, 8 poopie diapers today! (Have I ever mentioned how glamorous my life is???) My hands are raw and cracked (well moreso than usual) from all the hand washing. Yuck X 3!

I was glad that all had handled their business before nap time. They typically use a nice poopie to stall the nap process. I thought we could get down to the business at hand a just go to sleep.

Nope they all had to do it again. And again, and again. Oh my stars, I've seen enough dirty diapers to last me for quite a while.

I get to work at Kori's school tomorrow at thier book fair. I have warned daddy since he'll be in charge. That could be interesting.

So this has shoved me further over to the "potty training darkside". We'll begin in earnest next month. They will be 2 1/2...no time like the present.

I Think...

2008-11-16T22:24:00.000-08:00

I scared them! They have been acting SOOOOOOO much better! Saturday was just downright blissful! Kori played in the living room with her Barbies ALL day and was perfectly content. She didn't yell when any of the little girls walked withing 50-feet of her, which usually would set her off about them "messing up her stuff". It was great! It was cold and windy and yucky out so we stayed in (well I ventured to the store later in the evening but everyone else stayed in). I even managed to doze on the couch for 20 minutes or so (I had an AWFUL headache) while the girls were in their cribs for what should have been nap time. Alexis napped the other two, not so much. Oh well, at least they were in good moods at any rate.

Jason threw the littles in the tub Saturday evening when I went to the store. I soooo appreciated that! After the girls went to bed Kori proceeded to beat me 2-1 at the game TROUBLE. Dang! Oh well, it made her happy and we had fun, that's all that matters right? To heck with my wounded pride!

Today was another relaxing day. Our VCR in the playroom ate our Beauty and the Beast tape...that sucked! Jason played basketball this morning after work so he slept a bit later than usual. Kori did more Barbie playing etc. and I took the girls to the drive-thru for some McD's for lunch. It was easy and I didn't have to think of what to fix. Everyone deserves a break every now and then!

I spent the evening after the girls went to bed going through old pictures. They sure do bring back lots of good memories. I had a lot of uh, different looks. None of them particularly good, but oh well. So many of my sister Margaret. Made me miss her that much more! Life is so unfair sometimes.

At any rate, the house is quiet. Jason is working his last night and I am off for some more reading.

Another busy week this week! Calgon take me awaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Survivor

2008-11-14T21:32:00.000-08:00

Nope, not the television show (although I do enjoy it when I get the chance to catch 5 uninterruped minutes of it), me. This week, that describes me. After surviving the past two days, I celebrated tonight by eating some Rocky Road ice cream straight up. Yep that's right. Right out of the container. Just me, my spoon and some Rocky Road love. (It's okay no germ contamination I'm the only one in the house who likes it)

My 2-year olds are refusing naps or falling asleep 20-minutes before nap time is over and the either way they are grumpy from around 6pm on. Do they give up at bedtime and just go to sleep? No way! That would be way too easy! We must stall, giggle, cry, scream, jump, dance, talk, you name it, they do it. **Sigh**

My 6-year old is sassy, surly, lazy, grumpy etc. etc. etc. Today I found the boots she wore to school yesterday shoved under her bed. Upon questioning her about how they got there and not in her closet where they happen to belong she replied: "Oh yeah, they must have fell under there." Uh excuse me? Are you trying to convince me that your boots "fell" under your bed??? I don't think so. You can package it however you want sister but I'm not buying it! Perhaps they were sucked under there by the Crap Monster that was inhabiting under there before I made her clean it out. Oh my goodness that room was a M-E-S-S! While she protested the cleaning and once again reorganization, afterward she proclaimed, "Your right mom, it does look much better this way then when it's all junked up!" She then thought I was nuts as I raced to the kitchen for a pen and paper to record this date in history where someone in this house proclaimed me to be right about something! I'm quite certain it won't happen again, so I thought I'd better record it so I'd never forget. Also I don't want her to be able to deny it in her teen years (if she lives that long -- totally kidding!) when she tells me everything I am wrong about.

My husband, oh lord don't get me started. Today was one of those days where I wanted to help him get his stuff ready and get him out the door as soon as possible. I thought about calling from my cell phone from outside and pretending to be a high ranking police official and act like there was an extreme emergency that he was being called in early for. **Sigh** He grumbled about EVERYTHING! The economy, politics, the weather, work, his boss, work, news anchors, work, taxes, work, you get the idea right?

By the time the house was quiet for the evening I wanted to stitch my bloody ears closed and retreat to a dark corner of the house. Instead here I am, to retell it all for you. Hey, no reason I should suffer alone right???

So I am hoping after the last couple of days that tomorrow will be better! It HAS to be better! It just has to! God are you listening...it must be better! There isn't enough Rocky Road ice cream (topped off with a touch of Cool Whip from a can) to make it better for too much longer.

Off to read some more of book #2 from the Twilight series...soooooo good!

Apologizing

2008-11-13T19:19:00.001-08:00

For my absence. I was gently reminded that my blog was not so up-to-date. It has been a typical normal crazy week or so around here. By the time I am done for the evening it's late and I'm pooped. Not to mention those darn Twilight books are taking up some of my time. Reconnecting with old friends on Facebook. Chasing 4 kids. Keeping up laundry/housework/cooking. No wonder I lose track of weeks at a time.

Monday was Jason's 38th birthday! He requested manicotti for dinner, and I obliged. We had fruit pizza for dessert and kept things low key. Birthdays lose a little luster the older you get.

Tuesday my sister made me go to see the New Kids On The Block. That's right you heard me right. NKOTB! It was like going back in time. Lots of eye makeup, leg warmers, side pony tails, crimped hair. It was a bit surreal. I survived, it wasn't too awful and I will post pictures soon.

So once again, I will try and keep things rolling along and not stalled. Thanks Liz! :-)

Allow Me...

2008-11-13T19:07:00.000-08:00

To entertain you. Let me tell you a couple of the reasons why on many days I feel more than a bit crazy:

My little's are on some sort of self-imposed nap strike. I did not okay this! I was not consulted about this. It is not okay with me in the very least! Nap time = mom gets a bit of sanity back. At any rate, whether they choose to sleep or not is up to them. They go in their cribs, where they remain until what should have been a good nap (no less than 1 1/2 hours) is up. At that time if they aren't asleep then they are released for their cells, uh I mean cribs. Of course that's what I meant. :-)

I have a very small laundry room. Far to small for six people. At any rate, I must make the best of my closet that holds my washer and dryer. There are some shelves and a rod that I hang up all my stuff on. On occasion I set a basket of folded clothes on Kori's vanity. That was the case one day last week. The basket was blocking the sink. I sent Kori to brush her teeth as it was bedtime. I noticed afterwards that the basket was still there. I asked her if she moved it and got a firm "Nope". Okay, how did you rinse etc I asked? I got, as a reply, in her best "duh mom" voice, "I squeezed my hand around and filled up my cup with water I spit it in the toilet". Okay, no problem I thought. I then had to go one step further. Did you rinse your brush and put it away? "Yep (same duh mom voice)I rinsed it in the toilet and it's on my shelf". WHAT????? I replied, "Oh Kori you didn't?" She assured me that she did. Thank goodness it wasn't her new toothbrush from the dentist she'd just got. No it was her nice battery operated Hello Kitty one. It promptly went into the trash, with some protesting from her. I promised we'd get a new one, but that one was now out of commission. YUCK! YUCK! YUCK! The germaphobe in me kicked into high gear. Sweaty palms, queasy stomach...blach!

Those are only a couple examples. I should keep a running total. It wouldn't be pretty, but you would all understand why I am so insane.

Mixed Emotions

2008-11-05T10:18:00.000-08:00

While I am not glad that my candidate lost, I am glad that I don't have to see/hear anymore political ads. I don't have to hear anybody approving any messages. Well until the next election anyway.

Whether you are Democrat or Republican, you can't help but realize what a hisorical election this was.

I am a bit scared for our country, but will put my prayers in God's hands that he will lead our country out of this mess we are in.

I did watch some of Barack's speech last night. I found it sweet when he mentioned his love for his children and how they earned the new puppy that would be going along with them to the White House. That was sweet and cute.

I didn't need to see Oprah's big face so many times. That woman rubs me the wrong way as of late.

At any rate, it's over and I am glad.

I celebrated our defeat by cleaning the master bedroom and bathroom last night. Nothing says defeat like scrubbing away some soap scum and ridding the house of some dust bunnies.

I will post more later because I have pictures from Halloween, which was GREAT! And also pictures from our trip to the zoo on Saturday so please stay tuned.

Keeping It Short...

2008-10-27T21:15:00.000-07:00

I am sorting through mounds and mounds of toys because we finally got the painting (by we I mean I) done in the kiddos new play room. Now I'm in charge of sorting and placing the toys in a neat and orderly fashion in the new room. Yay me!

However, I wanted to share something. As you all know my sister is expecting again. Well apparently my aunt total will go up from 11 to 13. My sister found out today that she is expecting TWINS!!!!

As a MOM I am getting a good chuckle out of it all. Seeing the shocked/dazed look on her face. Hearing the disbelief in her voice. Been there, done that, with one additional. All will be fine and in June we will welcome two new babies to the family!

That being said...so glad it is them and not Jason and I!

Extended Hours

2008-10-22T21:08:00.001-07:00

If I could have more hours in my day I could get so much more done! Well Fall is definitely here. It feels a little winter-ish too. It's very chilly and rainy. It's quite cozy if I do say so myself.

Glad we got our pumpkin patching in last weekend. We ended up at one close to my nephew so I called and invited him to come along. He's a trooper and he came and we had fun. Kamryn started fevering afterwards while on the drive to a restaurant for dinner. After a couple of hours she snapped out of it and was totally fine from them on. Weird! At any rate, we got pumpkins and some apples and had a great time. It was a gorgeous day!

It's been one of "those weeks" around here this week. Jason went back to work Sunday night. Monday he had court then off-duty, then on to training. The girls and I decided to take advantage of the semi-pleasant weather before the cooler temps and rain moved in so we went to Cody's high school foot ball game. It was close to Kori's school so it was super convenient. It was a good time and they won 22-0! Then Tuesday we had parent/teacher conferences. I chuckled getting ready for it. It's always like I'm playing dress up and pretending to go. I sometimes fail to remember that I am somebodys MOTHER! Scary for me to, trust me. :-) I made a bit batch of chili and a home made Swedish apple pie (thanks Liz, Jason has dubbed it "the only apple pie I will ever eat for the rest of my life" -- guess that means he likes it)before we went. My parents came up to watch the little girls so both Jason and I could go so I figured some dinner for them would be a nice way to say thanks! Kori got a glowing report and is doing great! We are so proud of her. She also got a fantastic grade cards. Awesome!

Today Jason had off-duty before work, then work. Tomorrow is a half day for Kori and they girls all go for flu shots later in the afternoon. In the evening Jason has off-duty. Thankfully he's off and won't go into work tomorrow night. He has off-duty Friday during the day and then nothing for the rest of the weekend thank goodness. I need time to regroup. My girls have deciding that napping is not for them. Why you ask? That is the million dollar question. I still put them in there every day but it usually just turns into a fun-fest. Whatever, they stay in there for a while and "rest" while I regroup and prepare for the 2nd part of my day. I also made about 4 dozen chocolate chip cooks to take to school tomorrow for the staff/teacher appreciation luncheon that the PTA is putting on.

I am hoping that this weekend I can get the playroom painted. It's a mess now and I'm tired of the mess. I've been waiting for a day or two when Jason is available to handle the girls. It's a bit tough to paint with three 2-year olds running wild.

As I said Kori is doing great. The little girls are great too. Feisty and busy and silly but great. Morgan is currently cutting three new teeth on the bottom. I know she's 2 1/2 but she only has 9-teeth. She's so pokey in the teething department. Kamryn is still talking up a blue streak. She is so funny! Still dramatic at times but funny too. Alexis, still so small and mighty! I swear that kid will never grow! Both her and Morgan are doing their best to compete with Kamryn in the talking department. Some of the things they come up with totally crack me up! To hear them talking during nap or bedtime can be a complete riot!

Well that about sums things up around here. I need to be better on keeping my posts up to date. I know I forget some stuff I usually try and remember to post. The ol' memory ain't what she used to be!

And now a few pictures...

Huh?

2008-10-16T22:34:00.000-07:00

Did the stars align perfectly last night or what???? The little girls awoke happy and ready to go this morning. Jason had off-duty so they had to tag along on the ride to take Kori to school.

After breakfast I started doing some housework. I've done a great job keeping things picked up and de-cluttered this week so it was pretty easy work. I thought I'd do a little here and there and then try and tackle more at nap time. I was able to get the main floor done before nap time, as well as do 3 loads of laundry.

The girls played together so nice, well except for Alexis hitting Kamryn in the face with a Barbie that resulted in a small scratch and some hurt feelings. That was quickly behind us and the free love and fun playing continued.

After lunch I put the girls down. After 3 minutes it was VERY quiet in there. Literally 3 minutes so I thought I should investigate. What did I find you ask??? THREE SLEEPING CHILDREN!!!! Huh? Seriously? NO WAY!! I called my loved ones and informed them I was running away from home because surely the apocolypse was coming and things after nap time would NOT be good. I thought I should get while the getting was good. I was kidding of course but an easy nap is a rarity. Heck some days a nap is a rarity. They slept until Jason woke them up...at 3:40!!! WHAT? We haven't slept that long in ages. I am hoping they aren't coming down with something that would stink!

So anyway the rest of the evening went well. We even added one to the brood as I kept my niece Mallory for a bit for my sister. No major melt downs etc., easy bed time. Hmmmmm, I'm suspicious.

So it was a GREAT day! I needed one of those, that is for sure. My house is spotless. My laundry is 3/4 done and I can enjoy the rest of my weekend. Life is good!

Pumpkin Cake

2008-10-13T13:34:00.000-07:00

After the little girls went to bed, I decided Kori and I were gonna do a little project, just the two of us.

It turned out pretty good, considering this isn't "my thing".

Most important we did it together and we had fun. Oh yeah, it was yummy too!

Saturday at Sam's

2008-10-13T13:10:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I went for my flu shot. Jason worked the night before and was sleeping so of course i had to take the girls with me. Thankfully the girls were cooperative and we were in and out in a flash.

On to Sam's Club. Not exactly how I wanted to spend the early afternoon part of my Saturday, but we were in desperate need of diapers so we really didn't have any choice in the matter. Kori assured me that she would be a help to me, and not antagonize or anger her sisters in any way. (She was true to her word by the way!)

We made it in without incident, which is always good. I chuckled as we passed the electronic section. There were several big screen TV's set up with various shows playing on them. In front of each of the ones set up in the middle (there were five or so) there was a man standing in front of it, eyes wide, mouth gaping, completely entranced. That made me giggle quietly on the inside. Men, they're all alike.

So we were making quick work of our list. Of course once we got our diapers and headed to the food area things slowed down a bit. The sample ladies were out in what seemed like every aisle. These ladies bring out the absolute WORST in everyone. People act like it's an all you can eat buffet instead of a way for you to sample things to see if you like them, and perhaps might even like to buy the sampled product. It's not an after breakfast or before lunch snack, it's certainly not lunch or dinner. No need to hoard around the poor ladies as they hand out their wares.

The germaphobe in me will not allow me to sample the wares. I don't like to think about who might have slobbered, snotted, touched, breathed on, etc. on the peddled items so I pass. Kori will occasionally see something she likes and she tries it.

We muddled through and were making our way towards the last part of the grocery section. The light at the end of the tunnel was getting brighter! Oh no! There's a nice lady giving out samples of pizza. I watched one guy (as I was bogged down in traffic) get a sample. We walked around the corner, comes back with one of his sons and says, "Look buddy pizza!", as he takes another piece. Around the corner he goes, returning with another kiddo of his (I assume, unless strangers were willing to loan out their kids so that this man could scam some free pizza samples). I chuckled as I watched. This time he says, "Oooooh look (insert kiddos name here) pizza! Do you want to try some?" So they both take some and off the go. Thankfully he was out of kids, and perhaps loaners so his pizza consumption was coming to an end. Too bad for him, good news for anyone else who might want some. I can't believe this grown man thought he was actually fooling anyone. Well, the sample peddler was rather advanced in age (mid 80's I believe) so maybe she didn't notice. But myself, as well as a few others who were bogged down in traffic with me, sure did.

Long story short, we finally made it out. No one cried, screamed, broke anything, needed diaper changes, created unwanted attention etc. so it was all good. We celebrated by getting gas for a mere $2.70 a gallon and taking the car through the car wash.

I am amazed sometimes by the amount of excitment my life is brimming with.