The Difference Between Kids and Grown-ups

When I woke up and saw that my basement had standing water, I didn't whoop and holler for joy. I didn't have a ball splashing in the puddles in my basement. (After all, to a kid, what could be cooler than having puddles in your own basement to splash in?!) I did not go through 3 pairs of clothes playing in the basement. However, I couldn't resist a grin or two watching Justice and Clayton playing while I was shop vac-ing.

The Sun'll Come Out Tomorrow

Come on! I'm getting a serious Vitamin D deficiency! When will the rain stop?!

Animals Shocking Themselves

Chloe (our yellow lab) always greets everyone who comes to our house with a present of some kind. She picks up the first thing that she can find on the floor and brings it to whoever comes through the door. Today, when my sister in law came over, Chloe picked up a 9 volt battery. Amazingly enough, she dropped it straight away! I laughed. If it weren't for the fact that Clayton would pick them up and put them in his mouth, I'd leave 9 volts lying around on the floor more often. Maybe I could curb her over enthusiasm when we get company.

About a decade ago, Bruce and I had a BEAUTIFUL male cat named Hoth. He had long white fur with markings like a Siamese, and blue eyes. He was utterly gorgeous. The only problem with him was that he had a few habitual peeing spots other than his litter box. (It was this flaw that drove me to get rid of him.) One morning I was sitting in the living room. All of a sudden, Hoth screams and comes flying out from behind the TV stand, along with a bunch of smoke. The stupid cat had peed on the electrical strip and shocked himself! I woke Bruce up because I was afraid it would start an electrical fire. It didn't, so I laughed and laughed at that moronic cat. Served him right! (He was not damaged.)

Yes, I Too am Posting our Halloween Costumes

I do think we had some good costumes this year.

Here's Mark as Frankenstein:

Ross as a "Demond"

Me as Glow in the Dark Stick Woman
(I had a cat costume for inside, since my stick lady costume is only good outside)

Who can tell who Bruce is?

...and here's Lydia as Marie Antoinette

Justice was Spiderman, but I haven't yet managed to get a picture of him. As for Clayton, he's had an ear infection, and I never had the energy or the heart to force him into a costume. (At least not yet).

Renae Gets Taken In

Ach! I HATE wasting my money on things that don't even approximately work!
What a piece of HUD! I'm taking this thing back to Wal-Mart and demanding a refund!

Bock, Bock, Bock!

So, I've been taking some time off of the blog-o-sphere. As I was catching up on reading all of your blogs, my kids were driving me up the wall. I need a serious chill pill this morning or something! Am I just a terrible mom? I got up to check on things and found my camera on the floor (the one that we just got back from the fix it shop). I found the remains of about half a dozen chocolate - chocolate chip muffins, left over from breakfast, smashed all over the kitchen floor. I think that Clayton might have fed them to the dog. I hope she doesn't die! When I was throwing away the crumbs that I swept up, I found my stake music in the trash. While I'm taking care of all of that, Justice deleted my post that I had started. Then I had to go and get Clayton our of about a million things including opening up the cabinet and beating on the stereo system while he turns the volume UP and down, playing in the dirty dishes (I finally just took out the glass things and let him play with the rest), and literally taking apart my stove -top. I'm looking at a burner on the floor next to me right now. Does that make me a horrible mom?! I pushed his chair away from the stove about a hundred times! Argh! Just laugh it off, Renae. Just laugh it off. All too soon the house will be too quiet and too clean. It's all good.

Here are some things that I've meant to post, but just never got around to:

Things Bruce found in his shoes one morning

I can't tell you how wonderful my dog is! (who I hope is not dieing right now from eating all of that chocolate) She is so unbelievably good with my children! I really wish I'd learn how to use my camera so I could properly capture how adorable she and Clayton are together!

One morning I awoke to find Ross' coonskin hat on top of a stove burner that had been accidentally left on (on the lowest setting) all night long. I said a huge prayer of thanks that my house didn't burn down. Seriously!

Here's one of those moments that I love!

In other news, I spent the weekend satisfying the demands of a sick Justice. ( I giggle to myself at all the little word plays on Justice's name.)

The other day Justice asked me about his "naked." He asked, "Is it a little tail?" -lol!

A while back, Bruce set up the tent in the back yard and the kids slept in it for over a week (when the weather was still nice). They loved it! I cracked them up one morning by waking them, singing this song from our childhood (I think Brad taught it to us) - to which I had just made up a new verse (the last one):

I love you, I love you,
I love you so well
If I had a peanut
I'd give you the shell

I love you, I love you
with whole heart and soul
If I had a dough nut
I'd give you the hole

I love you, I love you
I love you so much
If I had a hammer
Your face I would touch

I love you, I love you
I love you, it's true
If I had a swine
I would give you the flu

Lastly, can you believe it? My daughter stole my skirt to wear to church yesterday! When did I get a child with whom I can share clothes? (True, it was rather long on her, but still!)

To the Tune of Les Miserables' "Lovely Ladies"

I smell poo-poo,
smell it in the air!
Think I'll change a diaper
on that baby over there.

Stinky babies,
smell 'em all the day.
Just the mere suggestion
makes my husband run away.

Even mommies need some time to play!

(Sorry if this topic is WAY over done in my blog. It's just a fact of my life right now.)

At Last...

after several batches of salsa, a double batch of grape jelly (that took FOREVER), and lots of green beans, I am finally done canning for the year! YAY!!!

This and That

We went bowling last night for Family Night. The kids always like that. Except for Bruce, who is a decent bowler and beat everyone, our scores followed reverse age order. Justice scored 101, Mark was next with 97, Ross followed with a 95, then Lydia with a 93. I was the biggest loser with a 91. Actually a 91 is pretty good for me. I'm a terrible bowler. No lie - I once bowled a 19! The thing about Justice getting such a good score was partly some kind of uncanny luck / skill thing going on. Bruce was having an off night, so while he bowled a bunch of spares, Justice (the 3 year old) was the only person the entire night to bowl a real legit strike. Go figure. There were several other "strikes" on our score card, but those were all because the kids don't throw the ball hard enough for the lane to register that a ball had been thrown. Hence the kids got a LOT of extra balls, another reason for Justice's high score. Anyway, it was a good time.

Here are just a couple of things that amuse me, recorded for posterity:

Mark wants to be a "Jet-Pack Ice-Cream Man" when he grows up. I'm not sure how the logistics of that are going to work, but what ever.

You know how little ones tend to lag behind when you are out and about anywhere. They are always dawdling, walking on the sidewalk curbs, or stopping to look at every little thing, always stopping to smell those darn figurative roses. Sometimes that's all good and well, and I try to stop along with them, but sometimes (okay a lot of times) I'm running behind schedule, and I just don't have time. Anyway, I've discovered a GREAT way of keeping Justice up with me. All I have to do is say "ACCELERATE!" (It's a Ben-10 Alien thing - one of his current favorite things on the planet. He has a "Ben - 10 Watch" otherwise known as an "Only Tricks" (Omnitrix is the real name) that he wears pretty much everywhere.) Anyway, all I have to do to hurry Justice along is to holler "ACCELERATE!" and Justice will mess with his watch for a second and then come running. It works almost every time.

Clayton Asleep in a Toy Box

Mark Trys to be Sneaky

Once Bruce and I had just come home from a long bike ride. Bruce was in the garage putting our bikes away, and I was still sitting lazily in the truck. Mark ran around the corner from the backyard, to the side of the house (right in between me in the truck and Bruce in the garage). After a peek over his shoulder to make sure that the other kids, who were still playing in the backyard, couldn't see him, he pulled down his shorts and starts to pee right there in front of the truck. He evidently hadn't noticed me sitting there, nor his dad right there in the garage. Bruce and I both called out "Hey Mark! What are you doing?!" He was so embarrassed! It was funny.

Challenge of the Bluffs 09

I came in 2nd in my division. It's a small race, so really whoop-dee-doo. I beat my PR by about 4 seconds. It's a hilly 5 mile race, and I ran 8:30 minute miles. Summary, I did okay. My brother Trent did GREAT!! He came in 2nd over all! Go Trent!!