Wanted: Live in Housekeeper

Position Available: Live in housekeeper needed for a loving, 5 person family. Your duties would include sweeping and mopping the floors, cleaning the bathrooms, washing the dishes, and cooking whenever I don't feel like it or am physically incapable of exerting the energy necessary to do so. Occasionally you will be required to play really fun games, such as "What's that smell and where is it coming from" (most frequently held in the boys room), "How do we get THAT stain out?" and "Shoe, shoe, who has the shoe?" Responsibilities may also include, but are not limited too, helping my children in finishing their projects before the sun comes up because they didn't know they were due tomorrow, waking up at 5:00 in the morning to drop the children off at school so that they can do their homework since they forgot their text books, and walking up and down the hallways at the elementary school playing find that lunch box. About every other week you will be entrusted with the super fun job of going to the grocery store and shopping for a family of five that includes two children who are apparently growing and therefore eat more food than a Sasquatch. Of course, the best part is that you will have to purchase healthy food, enough for dinners and sack lunches, and stay within our budget. However, my husband may be so thrilled to actually have food inside of the house (and not just pictures of food taunting him from the TV) that he may not care how much you spend or what you buy. But...you may not want to press your luck. Other little odd jobs may pop up as well such as walking the dog, reminding the children to practice their piano lessons and turning off the TV when it prevents the children from taking baths, brushing their teeth, putting their pajamas on or coming to the supper table. The pay is really not that great. After all, we are only a middle class family. However, I can promise you unlimited access to the car (even though it will often be full of children that you are taking some where), your own room, and at least $50 a week. Since we'll be buying all your food, paying all your bills, and the likelihood of you surviving for more than a week or two are very slim, we think this is an incredibly fair deal. All interested applicants please type up your resumes and call 1-800-CRAZY-MOM-ON-THE-LOOSE.

Meanwhile, I will be eating bonbons and watching Sense and Sensibility for the 500th time with the sound on the TV all the way up because I am going deaf in my right ear. If I don't answer, please leave a message.

Or Chest Ra

I have always been a very musical person. It is one of my favorite ways to express myself and unwind. I loved ballet, and I still love playing the piano. Since Carl was musical as well, it goes without saying that our children will be. Carlye and Nathanael have been taking piano lessons, and begin their 2nd year of lessons this next week.

And now, Carlye has the opportunity to be in the orchestra at school. She missed the deadline last year, so it was a hit and miss situation, but they had one violin left and she was able to join. Her first day is tomorrow, and I can't wait until she begins practicing. Thank heavens for the coming of autumn and big, roomy porches!!!

Tonight at dinner she announced to us all - "I am so excited to start Or Chest Ra tomorrow!"

Beautiful

My little sister posted this on her blog, and since I have a handful of readers that she doesn't I wanted to post it as well.

I think that it is hard raising children in todays world, but especially our little girls. They are bombarded constantly by what it "really" takes to be beautiful and self-worth is more difficult to instill in them than at any other time in our history. Our girls are turning themselves into sex symbols at a younger and younger age, while our society as a whole sits back and - at best - simply allows it to happen. At worst, it is encouraged. When our girls can't find the love and affirmation that they need at home, they begin to search for it else where. Statistics about our children are scary, but the frightening truth about our girls is that when they are not brought up with the confidence and self-worth that comes with the knowledge of who they are in Christ they will self destruct. We have no choice but to remind our girls of how much they are loved by us, but above all that they are daughters of our Heavenly Father. Children of the most high King. Princesses in training. If I could, I would give this song to every little girl that I know, and make it their theme song. I hope that it blesses you they same way that it has touched me.

Clean up on Aisle 12

Yesterday, Carl took our boys to Wal-Mart to pick up a gift for their friends birthday party. While they were perusing the Hunting and Fishing gear, Carl was continuously telling our youngest son to stop touching things. This may sound normal to most parents, but Noah has an unexplained desire to touch, push, open and try out EVERYTHING he passes, so trying to keep Noah's hands in his pockets is a full time job.

A few moments later Carl and Nathanael hear a loud spraying sound. Startled, they both look towards Noah. Finding it too difficult to resist the urge, Noah had pushed the button on a can of OFF. And the sprayer was pointed directly towards Noah's face! Laughing hysterically, Carl and Nathanael run over to him, while Noah tries frantically to cover his face with his hands. As Carl begins to inspect his face and eyes, Noah says "Good thing my eyelids are so fast, 'cause they closed afore that stuff could get in 'em! But my face does kinda burn."

Waitress

The other day we took the kids swimming at Carl's mom's house. While they swam with daddy, I made grilled cheese and tomato soup. I served it up, and brought it out for the kids to eat poolside. As I placed their food on the table Noah looked at me and said, "Hey, that's not what I ordered!"

Two days later

Last night, Noah came into our room a little after midnight. Since he is prone to sleep walking Carl cuddled him and took him back to bed. About 30 minutes later, Nathanael came in and said that Noah was crying. It took me a second to completely wake up and get in there, and I found my oldest son lying next to my youngest, cuddling him and helping him go back to sleep. I could have taken a picture, and boy was I proud. Nathanael went back up into his bed, and I curled up next to Noah, cuddling him close. He snuggled down and went to sleep, but couldn't seem to be still. A little while later he picked his head straight up, looked at me and said,
"Mommy, my tummy hurts."

"Try to go to sleep and you'll feel better." I told him.

A few seconds later he sat straight up in his bed, and said, "Mommy, I....."

BLEEEEH!

He threw up all over me. Yep. Barely missed my face. Which is a good thing, because then I would have thrown up, too.

He then proceeded to vomit twice more, while crying, "I've never thrown up before!"

I woke up Nathanael and asked him to please go and get his daddy. I was going to need some help.



Two days at school, only two days, and my son has already come home with the stomach bug.

Yippee.

First Day of School

First day of school

Well, yesterday was the first day of school.

And I survived.

There was a minimal amount of crying, but it ended quickly. Of course, there were a few random episodes during the day as well, but those, too, passed. Don't worry about me, though. I really will be okay. I have to be. Carl told me that I was scaring him and he had no idea what to do because he thought that all of our kids going to school was a good thing, so would I please stop?

On the way to school yesterday Carlye and Nathanael took it upon themselves to tell Noah all they could about kindergarten.

"You're going to hunt for a gingerbread man who hides all over the school. He'll leave clues here and there, and when you finally find him he leaves you gingerbread cookies to eat!" they told him.

"Huh." Noah said, "Well, when I find him, I'm gonna shoot him."

I have a very odd feeling that his teacher, the principal and I may know each other really well before the school year is over.



Second day of school

This morning, for the second day of school, my youngest informed me that he didn't need me to walk him to his class, so I agreed to drop him off at the door.

"What!?!?!" wailed my oldest, "I want you to walk me to my class!!"

"Me, too!" cried my middle child.

So that is how it came to pass that I walked my two oldest children into the school, and not my youngest.

Need Some Cheering Up?

Our lives were feeling pretty boring, so in an attempt to add some excitement to them, we thought that it might be fun to come up with a new way for our children to hurt themselves. Of course, no other idea seemed quite as much fun as allowing them to purchase roller skates and a skate board. Immediately upon arriving at home they put together a show for us to come and watch. It went on for over 15 minutes, but we thought that you might enjoy this highlight.

We're Home and Shoe Shopping!

We are home from the beach. We had a great time. But I am very tired! We all went non-stop for the entire week, and now I just want to crash and sleep for a couple of days. There is so much to blog about - so you will be hearing quite a bit from me for the next couple of days.








Yesterday, we went shoe shopping.

I LOVE going shoe shopping.

There is nothing quite as exhilarating as taking 3 children into a busy store and trying to find shoes that they not only like, but that they actually carry in your childs size and are within your budget. Needless to say, we were ecstatic to learn that Carlye has grown into a size 6, and her shoes are now about $10 to $15 more a pair.

Of course, shoe shopping for most people might be really difficult. Thankfully, Carl and I are blessed with truly perfect children. Since they are so perfect, they know to be thankful for any and everything that they get, so they never throw fits. Even when they are in a store and the only pair of not ugly shoes in the entire place aren't available in their size. They are just thankful to have shoes, especially since they remember all of the children that I have told them about here in America - and other countries - who don't even have shoes. It's nice to know my children listen when we talk to them, or remember where all of their old shoes have gone.

My children are also phenomenal at taking turns, and wait patiently and cheerfully while their siblings are picking out shoes and trying them on. Thankfully, it has never occurred to my children to climb the shoe shelves or ride skate boards down aisles full of people and their children. Wonderfully enough, the boys needed church shoes as well, so we were blessed enough to be able to go through the process - not once - but twice with each of our boys.

So, how was your Thursday?

The Beach

Keeping sand out of your stuff at the beach is like herding cats.
Practically impossible, and often painful.

The beach

Our family is at the beach, and we are having a great time! I'll post pictures as soon as I can!

All dogs go to heaven

Today our little Emmaline lost all 3 of her puppies. They were severely deformed, as their tummies hadn't formed around the umbilical cord, and they died in her utero. Carlye is such a good little mommy that she noticed immediately when Emmy had a strange discharge. Had we not noticed as quickly as we did, we could have lost Emmy as well. They did an emergency C-section, and Emm's is now recovering. It has been a hard day for all of us. Carlye has been crying a lot. Our vet said that in 20 years he has only ever seen this happen once before to an entire litter.

It has been a very sad day.

Look!

We found an old memory card from a camera and it had the cutest pictures on it! I had to share one with you! This is from Easter 2004! Noah was going through his Dick Cheney era. Haha!

I have

This week my husband and I:

Have had my niece and nephew, Cassie and Colton, at my house since Sunday
Met my beautiful new niece, Chloe
Spent a bazillion hours at the hospital waiting for her to be born
Left my amazing husband in charge of five children during the bazillion hours I was at the hospital
Have taken our dogs temperature rectally 3 times a day, every day in preparation for the puppies
Added Victoria to the mix on Tuesday night (what's one more when you have 5 kids?)
Took 6 kids swimming Tuesday night
Then made artichokes for 6 kids - and added hot pockets because they were all still
starving
Put 6 kids to bed last night
Woke up to 2 boys LOUDLY sword fighting in the living room (every morning this week)
Have another one spending the night tonight
AND have two more spending the night Saturday night

The hope is that Cassie and Colton will get to go home before we add all of the other children but you never know.

This week my husband and I have not:
Shopped for school supplies (that's right, my kids have nothing)
Had any time alone
Gone running (well, Carl has, but I haven't)
Slept well
Cleaned out my car for our trip to the beach
Packed or even prepared for our trip to the beach - and we are leaving on Sunday!

Chloe Sage

(picture is of Chloe and big sister Cassie)

8/9/10

Chloe Sage
7 lbs 4 oz

My beautiful new niece.

Congratulations to Mom and Dad, and to Cassie and Colton on the arrival of their beautiful baby sister! We are so happy to have her here!

Family Visit

Well, I haven't really blogged yet about my family's visit. It was wonderful having my mom and dad and my little sister, her hubby and the kiddos with us. I have actually had a really hard time since they've been gone. I'm really close to my nieces and nephew that live here, and it makes me sad that I have three nephews and three (going on four) nieces so far away. We had a great time. I loved getting to know the little ones, and their personalities are hilarious. I could spend all day long with each of them and never get tired of them. We spent a lot of time celebrating Anneke's birthday, but I tried really hard to make sure that Marcus enjoyed himself too, either fishing at the creek or at Gatti's. He is so easy going about everything that he always seemed happy, even when it might not have been his first choice of something to do. I overheard him tell Carlye that he wanted to come back during Christmas break so that we could celebrate his birthday here! And of course, Aunt Cari would love that!!! Luke was fun, too - especially when he was trying to get Carlye to help him find his rolypoly named Jack. Anneke and Noah were connected at the hip, and Marcus played well with everyone, but Carlye felt like she was the only one that could take good care of Luke (especially at night) - and she loved every minute of it.

Here are way too many pictures that you probably don't care to see but that I'm posting anyway because I love them!

One of my baby sister and her husband


My oldest nephew


Heidi and Bailey


Luke and his Daddy


Niki Sue


Luke


Mom and Dad (I had Jodi take some pictures of them, and they turned out GREAT!)


Pedicures and manicures


S'mores by the creek


Jumping into the creek


All the cousins


Queen Bee's

Awwwwww

It's always so hard when you grow out of your clothes.

Our Emm

Well, today our little Emmy had her sonogram. And.......

There are only 2 puppies!!!

Apparently one of them is a big ole guy, and there is only one other pup in there. There is the slightest chance that there is one more, but we won't know for sure until she delivers.

Meanwhile, Noah was trying to look up her bum to see the puppies, because the sonogram wasn't clear enough for him.

I love taking my children to the vet!

Back to 'Normal'

Today I had several signs that told me my life is finally calming down and getting back to normal.

For the first time in over a month I woke up bright and early and went running. It was still cool outside (68 degrees, thank you very much!), and it felt GREAT to be running. I only made a mile, and I did it in 10 mins and 37 secs, which was a little bit depressing to me, but I did it. Hopefully soon I'll be able to run on concrete again.

After my morning exercise I made a quick trip to the grocery store. While I was there I realized two things. One, grocery shopping in the early morning with absolutely no children is almost like going on a vacation. Two, I think I may be losing my hearing in my right ear. I had my ear buds in and my iPod turned up pretty loudly, but when I pulled out the left side so that I could still hear what was going on in the grocery store I couldn't really hear my music very well. Assuming it was the ear buds and not me, I switched my ear buds to different ears. Sadly, this still didn't work. The downside is, I will probably be saying "what?" a lot more frequently when people are talking to me - and I might actually misunderstand whole entire conversations and not know that I am. The upside to this is that if I put my kids on my right side when they are whining and fighting I will probably enjoy my days more.

As I pushed my cart to my car I was reveling in the joy of a peaceful and productive morning. I unlocked my car and opened up the door in the back to place my groceries inside when something fell out of the car and landed on my feet.

And then, well, then I realized that everything really was back to normal.

After all, there is nothing more normal than chasing a pair of little boys "Cars" underpants across a parking lot.