Back To School, Lonely Littles and A New Assignment

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

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

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

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

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...

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...

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!