wrap that hoe in a towel...

or how i got spaghetti sauce off of the porch ceiling.

how'd i manage to get spaghetti sauce there? well, i was throwing a couple of leftover meatballs to the cat...and it was cold outside...and he is always trying to get in the door...so i tossed them out the door. unfortunately i was trying for some distance...and well, the balls hit the ceiling and then rolled off the porch.

it's been like that for a couple of days.

man it was cold outside. i'm not going to try to get frozen spaghetti sauce off the porch ceiling!

today it's actually kinda nice out. so i figured i'd get to that sauce, you know, before the hubby sees it and goes ballistic.

but i don't have a ladder, and the chairs outside left me about 2 feet shy of touching, so i sprayed it with some cleaner from the chair, and got out the good ol' hoe from the garage and wrapped it in a wet towel and went to work. and it worked...for the most part. it got most of the sauce off. then i came inside, instructed my 4year old on how to dial 9-1-1 in case mommy falls, and took a bar stool out and finished the job. it worked well. and i didn't fall.

but i came close when i heard my boy repeating 9-1-1 over and over under his breath.

so lesson learned! no more going for distance!

free day

today was supposed to be a pretty light day for me. just one family. the others were all going to be out of town or parents were off of work for one reason or another (woohoo!). anyway, the only family i was supposed to have has a sick child and so the mom took off work to stay with them. so it's just me and my own kiddos!!!
what to do, what to do? well, right now, grace is killing some of the flies that have invaded my house. with so many kids running in and out all day, well, some obnoxious little buggers got in. (the bugs, not the kids) so now she is running around smacking them with the fly swatter. i think she gets 1 fly for every 10 swats, but she's the one doing it, not me. so who am i to complain.
alex is up taking a shower. haley is waiting for her turn. they are going with my dad and stepmom to the horse races. they have been cleaning all morning so they can have friends over this weekend. (works for me!)
josh and zack went with me to sign josh up for pre-k. he is so excited about starting school. sure, it's only 2 days a week, but he's in a class, making friends, and learning something. the poor kid has been asking when he can have friends over like the big kids. well, you have to actually have friends before you can ask them over to play. i don't know anyone with boys the same age as josh. soccer starts soon too. he'll have friends coming out of his ears.
zack has taken his second shower for the day. he had to get in when i was taking one this morning, and then had to get in with alex too. he may be the cleanest kid in the house.
so, i am hoping to figure out something fun for lunch. maybe we'll head to the park, or get some pizza or something. something different. i want to be able to sit back and have a good time with my little monsters today.
ok, scratch that...the older two were picked up a little earlier than originally planned. so i am getting papa john's pizza (mmmmmmm!) and then we are going to figure out something fun that they will enjoy. maybe grace's friend will spend the night, maybe we will play some parcheesi, maybe we'll go swimming. the choice is theirs my friends!

now, i am going to play with my kids! have fun today (it's beautiful here!)!

works for me wednesday

i actually thought of something that works for me! no laughing, i know it's only taken me months of racking my brain to come up with something...and in all fairness, it has only recently started working for me...so there!

towels. i have five kids. five kids that constantly fight over what towel belongs to who, and someone used their towel, and who took my towel!

so what did i do? for a while, i just yelled....then i just stopped listening...finally i actually did something.

i bought more towels.

not just any towels, my friends. each child has their own color. my oldest has red, cardinal red (like his room), my second oldest has yellow...perhaps not her favorite color, but it matches her room. my middle child has a pink towel (to match her room) and also a hannah montana towel (because it was like $3). my two little guys were a little tougher. they share a room. the youngest decided his fav'it color is gween, and joshy's is bwue. problem solved. now josh has a blue towel and a cars towel, and the youngest has a gween towel and a spider-man towel.

everyone knows which towel is theirs. they can keep track of them, the older ones wash their own towels, and they hang them up on the hooks. why do they do all of this? well, now mom can tell for sure which towel belongs to which kid. it makes yelling at the right child much easier! bonus!

i hope this helps someone!

ok, so i didn't get around to posting last night...sorry. after getting home at 8, i had to fix dinner, help some kids with homework that should have already been finished, and watch american idol. come on people, i have priorities! anyway, i was sorry to see brooke go. i really liked her. she seemed so genuine, so pretty, and so nice. in the beginning, i thought she was the one to beat...well, i was wrong. it's a real shame. i think she could go on to have a good career anyway.

anyway, alex's hair looks so much better. when jeff got home from work, he said it looked like alex lost 10 pounds. i said "yeah, it was all hair too!". the kid doesn't have curly hair (as i'm sure you can tell in our family pic) but the longer it gets, the bigger it gets. he looks like he has a hair helmet.

my dryer is broken. not that it doesn't dry clothes, it does...just not all the way. when you look in your dryer, there are like 3 or 4 little wing things in there (at least there are in mine), and one of those things fell off. i took it out, but now there are like 6 holes where it was attached and i guess the heat is escaping from there. why couldn't it have been my washer that broke? i want a front loading washer so bad! maybe i can talk jeff into using it to buy me a front loading washer and dryer... ok, how pathetic does it sound that my biggest dream is a new washer?

we started our garden...well, we started some seeds in the garage. i'm not good at telling weed from wanted plants, so i start my seeds, or buy the plants. we had about half of them sprout. the kids kept watering the seeds that hadn't sprouted, and i think they are dead. so today i planted some more seeds (to take the place of those that didn't). the kids helped, of course. they are so proud of the plants that are growing now. all of our lettuce seeds sprouted, 2 bean plants, a zucchini, 3 tomato, and no watermelon. i felt bad for josh, he was the one that wanted the watermelon. he would go out everyday and look to see if any of them started to grow. so we planted some more today. i hope some of them grow!

i love spring time. i love to look out at all the trees and plants, and watching them turn green and bloom. it's amazing to watch. don't get me wrong, i love all the seasons, but i love watching the babies animals, and they are around so much more in the spring! i love opening my windows and letting the fresh air in. i love smelling people grilling, and flowers, and just clean fresh air wafting through my open windows.

bacon bits is doing well. she is loving being outside now. it's so funny to hear her when she sees the kids out playing. she runs to her pen door and grunts at them! she loves to be washed with a wash cloth, and have her back rubbed. the only complaint i have is she's getting spoiled. she does what she wants when she wants to do it. that won't fly with the judges at the fair. so i have been trying to get alex to work with her more. i'm not sure what i should be doing, but i'm hoping we are doing it right. i think if we want her to have any shot at her being something other than sausage, we have to get her to listen and listen well!

we are going to Florida this month. my dad has been there for a few months for work, and he wants us to come down for memorial weekend to visit. the only bad thing is we are going to miss grace's kindergarten graduation. that bites! she's ok with it. i just hate missing stuff like that.

jeff had a good april. he sold more than 10 cars, that earns him a bonus, plus he is tied for first place sales for the month (another bonus). i'm really proud of him. selling cars isn't easy, especially for someone like my husband. i don't mean to make him sound like he's not a good salesman. he is. it's just that he wants to make sure he gets a person a great deal on a car they are going to be happy with for a long time. not as easy as it sounds, unfortunately.

that's about it for us. at least that's about all i can remember. happy may everyone!