Ah Hah!! So You're The One?!

I got onto Ross and Mark for this one. My house was set at 84 degrees yesterday. I honestly didn't think he could reach that. He's standing on two buckets stacked on top of each other.

Take Five

You know they say the surest way to get pregnant is to get rid of all of you baby cloths.

Waging War

Okay, I've been slightly embarrassed to post this, but it's soooo all consuming, and I need to vent. One of my lovely children brought home head lice from school and infected us all. It's the most horrible thing! I've spent probably about $150 on head lice products (and I still have to retreat everyone in a few days). We've done more laundry than I've done in the whole of my married life. Well, I'm sure that's an exaggeration. I've been rewashing everyone's bedding every single day. I'm going through everyone's closets and drawers and removing everything. Some things I seal up in a bag for a month, everything else I wash, then I spray out their drawers with cootie spray. I've been treating everyone's mattresses over and over, we'll probably all have cancer when we're done with this. I've been spraying and respraying the couch and carpets. Vacuum, vacuum, vacuum. I've spent hours upon hours upon hours picking through everyone's hair for nits and having my hair picked through. I spent 5 hours the other day just getting my hair picked through, and yet there were still nits in there! The first couple of nights, I spent about 5 hours going through my families hair. Mark alone took 2 hours. We've given all of the male members of the household short haircuts, this helps. I'm seriously tempted to cut my hair off chin length and just let someone professional fix it when all this is over. The kids and Bruce have been clean for a few days, except for an occasional nit that I had missed before, but my stupid long hair keeps turning them up. I've treated my head three times in the past four days with different kinds of products. I'm pretty sure that there is nothing alive in there anymore, it's just a matter of finding all of those nits. It only takes one to hatch and then you start all over. Bruce has gone to the laundromat twice because we can do a bunch of loads at once. We've spent about $60 at the laundromat, not including detergent. Then of course, I haven't had time to cook, so we've spent money buying food. I haven't been to the grocery store in forever, so we have nothing to eat. And I still have so much work to do to rid this house of the pests, that I don't know when I'll ever get it done. Then when that's all done, I'll have to fold all of that laundry. It makes all of my other laundry mountains look like a cinch. Oh my heavens, NEVER EVER get head lice. It's a bloody nightmare!

Relay 2007

This last weekend, John, Bruce, Terry, Todd, Ashley and I all did a relay race as a team. It was a lot of fun. (I can say that now, I didn't think so toward the end of the race). We each took turns running approx. 3.5 miles, three times. It worked out that we each ran about 10-11 miles total. The race was 62.5 miles long.

Here are some of our pics.

Todd Running

We all thought it was funny that this car (the Coroner) was driving around at the race. I think he was one of the race officials.
Here's the flying nun and I waiting to run.
Miss Ashley kicked some major booty. She ran first and put us into second place. It didn't last forever though. (Eventually I had to run -ha ha!)
Bruce says this is a horrible picture. Here we are hanging out in the van while someone else is running.

Before
After. Can you tell who ran the last leg?!

(He's holding the baton, and looking distressed).

Here's John trying to hand off the baton about 2 miles early.
You can't tell it in this picture,

but this is "Killer Hill." He's actually going up it. Steep, and long

Someone wrote this on "Killer Hill." We all had a laugh, and agreed.

That's about what I felt like. (It was my last leg.)

A Tribute To The J-Bird

You have to understand, I'm laughing about this as much (probably more) as anyone else. I don't post these to bemoan my tortured life; I think this is great fun! So, here I am with my tribute to Justice. (This really may seem like favoritism, but it isn't, he just has more photo opps at his age. All these pictures needed a thing to pull them together.)

How Could You Possibly Get Mad At This Face?

This is what I woke up to this morning
Here's my toaster. I think he was trying to make toast.

Our National Anthem, According To Ross

It's amazing to me how a song that the kids hear every single day at school can be learned so horribly wrong. Ross was singing the Star-Spangled Banner (or the Pledge of Allegiance as he called it) on the way to school today. Here's how it went:

Oh say can you see

by the dawn surly line

what so proudly we hail

at the twilight's asking me.

Whose got stripes and bright stars?

through the perilous fight

for the ramparts we watched

were so down and please stream me

And the rocket's pledge where

the bombs bursting in air

gave through be line night

that our flag was still there

Oh say does that star spangled wanner yet pledged

For the land of the free

and the home of the pledged.

Bad Babies

Mark was just singing this song, and Justice started singing along. It's no mastery of video making skills, but it's Justice's first song that he's ever tried to sing. (I think anyway)

Read it and Weep

(This is why I love small races!)

Kindergartener's at the Pumpkin Farm

I got to go on Mark's field trip to the pumpkin farm. I always try to go on field trips if I can, such a good time.

There was a large corn maze there. I let the group of kids that I was with do all of the navigation, so we were the last group out. All of the other kids in the class were at the end waiting for us to come out. They all cheered and ran up the path to greet/hug us when we came out as if they were glad that we were still alive. It was cute.
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The Perfect Portable Stepping Stool

Chloe and Blaine

I have 2 extra boys that I watch both before and after school every week day. Dax is seven, and Blaine is 5. Blaine is mildly autistic, and he rides a different bus to school than the other kids. His bus comes about 20 minutes later than theirs. He likes to walk Lydia, Ross, Mark & Dax down to the bus stop with me. I've taken to bringing Chloe along. This makes it easier to get Blaine back home. He doesn't like that he can't ride the bus with Dax, so he occasionally gets contrary when they leave, and I've had to carry him back to the house kicking and screaming. Chloe solves this problem nicely because he likes to hold her leash, and thus he goes back home nicely. The funny thing is that Chloe doesn't seem to want him to walk her. I don't know why, she lets my children walk her all of the time, and seems to enjoy it. She does okay as long as Blaine stays close to me, but as soon as he starts to get any distance ahead of me at all, she refuses to go until I catch up. She's even started getting ahold of the leash and yanking it out of his hands when he strays too far ahead. I wonder what is going on in her brain. Does she know that he is different and needs to stay with me? Is she afraid that he will steal her? Does she just not like to be walked by him? Or is she just asserting her dominance over him? She clearly sees herself as higher up in the pack than Blaine. I don't know, it is funny though.