Kitty Baths

Is there anything more embarrassing than your mom giving you a kitty bath in front of the school?! Well we were still in the van, so I'm pretty sure no one saw us. Still my boys were not happy with me.

I tell you what though, I need to start doing daily inspections before I drive off to school with these kids. We pulled up to Ross' school and I noticed that he hadn't brushed his mane, and that he still had dirt on his nose. I looked all over the van for a brush, but I couldn't find one. I did a spit shine on his nose, which he HATED! I cringed as he went into school with his hair a mess.

Next we pulled up to Mark's school and I realized that he still had residue of red marker all over his face from where he and the two younger boys had drawn beards so that they could be "dads." They also drew tattoos on themselves for that same purpose. Their dad does NOT have any tattoos; I think it's just another excuse to draw on their arms and legs.

"Mark! Didn't you wash your face?!"

"Yeah, I did but this stuff wouldn't come off."

Another kitty bath ensued under MUCH protest. I couldn't make a difference. "Well go straight to the bathroom and scrub your face." More cringing as Mark walks into school. Gosh what are these teachers going to think of me? Oh well, I guess that's what I get for trying to squeeze so much into my morning.

Boys

Don't you just love it when the two year old gets ahold of the phone and calls 911 while the four year old is screaming at his eight year old brother. Reminds me of The Secret Game

Lately Justice has been yelling "Peanuts Mark!" a lot. At first I thought he was calling his brother a naughty word. After some inquiry though, I found out that "Peanuts" is a signal for Ross (the oldest boy) to beat up Mark (the boy in between Justice and Ross). It's like in the cartoon when Jerry (mouse) makes friends with the bull dog who protects him from Tom (cat).

Alright, alright! (Hair Cut Pictures)

My Wonderful Hubby

I mentioned that I could really use a break to Bruce the other day. I should have known, and I was certainly suspicious when my mother called and said that she was kid hungry, and asked if she could borrow mine. Now, that is not all that unusual, Mom likes to borrow my kids from time to time. However she asked if she could have all of them overnight. THAT is NOT normal. However both she and Bruce swore that they weren't in cahoots. Now you know that I'm not going to turn an offer like that down! Here's the kicker that I don't think Bruce was expecting, I had signed up to have the missionaries over for dinner last night. That stinker even went so far as to cancel with the missionaries behind my back, and have them call me that day to confirm, just to hide his scent. The turkey! Luckily for him I chose an easy make ahead menu. I went to the grocery store, and cooked an entire meal for company that was not coming. His reasoning for that is "Well, now you have dinner ready for another night." Anyway it worked out well for him that I decided to go and take Ross to get hair cuts while I was dropping the kids off at Mom's for the night. (I have just had the most drastic hair cut that I've had since I was 12 and had to cut my hair off because it turned green. I really think I like it though.) While I was gone he packed things up and was all ready to take me for a camping trip. I rushed backing thinking I was late for our dinner with the missionaries only to find out that they weren't there. Unfortunately for him, I had just paid to get my hair styled because I was planning a hot date as soon as we ditched the missionaries. He was a very good sport, and we did not go camping, we had a nice evening out. Now we are headed off for a long bike ride. Then we are going to get our kids back and paint the garage. I love my guy!

A Fun New Game

My sister Ashley, Mark and Justice

Cooking with Clayton

Ingredients:

1. half a jar of honey
2. 2 handfuls of cocoa
3. a handful of cornstarch
4. uncooked pasta
   
5. a smattering of salt and pepper
6. 1 cup leftover waffle batter

Instructions:

Dump the honey, cocoa and cornstarch on floor. Mix in the pasta decoratively. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Follow with a splattering of waffle batter on the walls and counter-top.

Yield: A few minutes of fun for you, and one big, but rather unique, and inventive mess for Mommy to clean up.

The Joys of Life Rediscovered in a Walmart Parking Lot

Walking toward the check-out counter at Walmart with my two youngest boys, I realized that a storm had rolled in while I had been shopping. 'Dang! I never have an umbrella when I need one!' I thought.

"Oh I am going to get soaked!" I whined to the check out lady.

"Yes you are!" she readily agreed.

As we were walking to the door, Justice turns to me with a huge grin and says gleefully, "We are going to get wet! I love getting wet! I'm gonna find a big puddle to jump in!"

"Wain! Wain!" chimes in Clayton happily.

I smiled and wondered when I had lost all of my sense of fun. Running through the downpour, toward my van, Justice and Clayton are laughing and having so much fun that I decided I didn't really mind the rain after all. As I buckled Clayton into his seat and loaded the stuff into the van, Justice was happily splashing. It just so happened that I had parked next to one of the parking lot's drains, so there was a river flowing in from all directions right close at hand. I stood there half in the van and half out for a minute, thinking about my one hour of quiet time when the two little boys take naps before the older kids come home from school. Then with a smile I unbuckled Clayton, took off his shoes, rolled up the bottom of my jeans and we joined Justice for the happiest seven minutes of my day.

Miraculously both boys fell asleep on the way home and I sit here in total quiet bliss, that is until Ross and Mark come home from school in ten minutes.

Congratulations are in Order

Remember, you heard it here first:

I folded ALL of the socks, two weeks in a row!

I'm Raising a Couple of Monkeys

I couldn't convince him to put on some actual clothes, but at least he's wearing shoes and a helmet! Oh well, he'll get dressed sometime today.

Just a Couple of Pictures

I'm sitting here waiting for my pictures to upload. My three oldest kids are back to school. Life is getting back to a routine. That is good. I like routine, plus I like a little bit of quiet time to practice my piano. I'm back to running with my group, and I love that. It's too hard to get up at 4:30 during the summer, so I was just running on my own. Come ON pictures... where are you? Finally, here they are! Later folks!A funny picture

A sad picture.

A happy picture.

Yeah, I rock!
(Well sort of. I was actually slower than last year, but oh well.)
I have to post this picture because Clayton already broke my trophy.

Justice getting ready for bed last night. He didn't quite make it.

Awesome Hanging Out Times

We went on vacation to Santa Claus, Indiana with Bruce's family, and that was a good time. Actually Bruce, Clayton and I went down two days later than the rest of the crew. We spent two days at Holiday World. We had enough grown-ups so that I just had to keep track of one kid most of the time. We let Lydia and her two girls cousins (one of which is 15) have the run of the park with no more adult supervision than a cell phone. How crazy is that?!

In an effort to atone for leaving all my children with Bruce's family for two whole days without me, I volunteered both days to be in charge of the youngest child (Clayton). Looking back, I think this was a mistake. I didn't hardly see my older children the entire vacation.

Through one thing and another, I ended up walking around the park by myself for an hour and a half looking for my father-in-law who had Justice while my mother-in-law took a break with Clayton who was napping. During this time I realized that they didn't REALLY need me there. I had just spent two days with only one child, and here I was at an amusement park all by myself with no one really hunting me down. I was at an amusement park with all kinds of rides and shows and shops all by myself. I could enjoy it to my heart's content, and no one would really care. The curious thing is that in both of these situations, I didn't really know what to do with myself. What the heck fun is a ride without a kid to share it with? What do I want in a shop full of silly souvenirs? I'll admit that catching a show was a tempting idea, but I preferred finding my kids to hang out with. How funny is that? I spend loads of time wishing for just a bit of peace and quiet, and just a minute to myself. Here I was with just that, and I don't even know how to enjoy it. Is this what they mean by losing one's self in the service of others?

Anyway after walking aimlessly around the park for over an hour and a half I finally found Terry and Justice. I rode a couple of small rides with Justice and sat there while he ran around playing at a huge tree house thing. Toward the end of the day, I pawned Clayton (who had come back after his nap) off on Bruce and I rode a ride with Ross. That was really fun! I think that 2 minutes with Ross was my favorite of the entire vacation.

Whenever I take my kids anywhere, I spend so much time and energy trying not to lose the youngest two that I hardly get to interact with my three oldest at all. It's a shame. Usually I end up wanting to scream and pull my hair out because it is just that stressful going anywhere with the two little ones, so it kind of ruins it for everyone. I love my two little guys, and I love hanging out with them (though both at once is a bit stressful in public). But I need to not miss out on the three older ones.

ANYWAY, I took Ross and Mark to the movies the other day, just the three of us. That was a good time. We laughed and hung out. It was good.

This last paragraph was so great that it REALLY deserves it's own post, but I'm too lazy to do it that way. In the middle of the night last night my parents, my sister, Bruce, the kids and I all drove up a cliff in a park out of town to watch the annual meteor shower. I hadn't done that since I was a kid. We spread some blankets out, had some snacks and watched the shooting stars. It was just the greatest thing! Justice and Clayton were both asleep in the van for pretty much the entire thing (which was good). Since it was in the middle of the night, we were all pretty slap happy and we just laughed over the silliest things. I definitely want to do this again next year! We didn't get home till almost 2:00 in the morning. Clayton woke up at 6:00 a.m. which wasn't happy, but I begged Mark (bless him!) to watch him and went back to sleep.

Okay so this is the last paragraph, I promise. I find it just a little sad that there is a piece of bread AND a piece of lunch-meat sitting unguarded and unwanted on my floor. *Sigh* I miss my doggy vacuum cleaner.

Somehow, I Don't Think So

I sat down at the computer last night to be confronted with a game that one of the boys had left running. It was one of those games where you shoot stick bad guys and they bleed a lot. The point was to kill as many bad guys as you could with one shot. For being just stick guys it was pretty gruesome. I played it for a few minutes. Justice kept telling me that it was "his game" and that he wanted me to quit. His repeated argument cracked me up though.

"Jesus made that game for me, Mom! Jesus made that game for me!"

Thus Passes The Best Dog That EVER Lived

I think the saddest part was as we were leaving the office where we had Chloe put to sleep. Clayton asked "Where Doey? Where Doey?" and refused to leave without her. Did I mention that this was the first time I ever heard Clayton say her name?

Things Kids Draw at Church

In an effort for some semblance of peace during sacrament meeting, I brought crayons and paper to church today. Here are some of the things that my children drew.

Lydia drew a nice picture of Joseph Smith.

Ross drew a nice picture of a monster.

Mark drew a picture of a Goosebumps monster

While they were passing the sacrament, I overheard my wonderful Lydia telling Justice to draw a picture of Jesus. His response was "No, I'm drawing Harry Potter." (Unfortunately, I did not scan that one in, and I don't feel like finding it and starting the process all over again. So instead you can enjoy ...)

Justice's picture of a Goosebumps monster.

Clayton drew this scribble,

and Ross drew this on the back of Clayton's scribble.

The kids also bring drawings home that they do in their Primary classes. Here is what Mark brought home today. (And I'm pretty sure that by "Boms" he did NOT mean "Books of Mormon.")

It's a picture of a policeman sharing a bomb with a person in jail.

On another couple of notes, a couple of weeks back, my niece and nephew came over for a sleepover. Mark loves to play with Jonni (my niece). They were sitting together on the couch, and Mark was telling us all how all girls have cooties. "...except for Jonni. She killed her's."

And here is what happens when your kids put half a bottle of the type of dish soap that you use for washing dishes by hand, into your dishwasher. Believe it or not, this was the third time since I'd started the dishwasher that it had overflowed with bubbles. I kept having to open it and scoop out all of the bubbles. I eventually got the shop-vac and sucked it all up. Silly kids!