hello? anyone there?

hello there! well, it's been a busy week or so here at the zoo!

friday was our "breakfast for dinner with santa". i know, the name isn't the greatest. i have no idea why they couldn't come up with anything a little...um...snappy-er. but it is accurate. we had pancakes and sausage for dinner...and the kids were able to get their picture with santa. of course alex didn't want to go...so i didn't make him. i figured he got his "just desserts" by me not making dinner and his friends were all there having a great ol' time...and i let him know it. haley didn't want to look like a baby..even though a bunch of her friends had a big group picture with santa. i don't know what her deal was. but she was super helpful and i was so happy she was there. i pretty much talked the whole time i was there. well, until the work had to be done for the craft fair. we set up tables and chairs...we cleaned up...we brought in waters...it took a couple of hours. it probably wouldn't have taken as long if there wouldn't have been 10 kids (and one dad) playing basketball while we were trying to work. poor paul, he had been working out of town all week and came home just in time for his wife to have him come up and work setting up tables and measuring and well, work.

the craft fair went well. it looked very busy. i don't think it was as busy as we had hoped (another craft fair was going on at the same time across town...with santa arriving by HELICOPTER in the morning) but it was better than the first one we did. my sil did well with the doll clothes. i think there were other people that also did well...and there were people that didn't sell a darn thing. i got a couple of things. not much. i'm not sure i spent more that $20 but well, i can't see spending a bunch o'money on stuff i have no need for or that i can make myself. i worked there from 12:30 until about 5:30.

sunday we made cookies at my mil's house. i totally screwed up some snicker-doodles (added twice the amount of butter needed) but my sil fixed them and all was well. they actually turned out really good and fluffy looking. we cooked up there until 9, then i went home with the little guys. (hubby had already taken the older ones home) i love to make cookies. i really really do.

now i am getting ready for tomorrow...josh is joseph in his pre-k play and he has 2 lines in it. he is a little nervous and doesn't like to talk about it. the other kids were disappointed because it's at 11, and they don't get to see it. the girls are in their program on thursday too. haley is a narrator. she has more lines than any one else in the program. grace gets to sing. that is at 2 and again at 7. poor hubby, he has to miss all of them. he works 11 to close (like 9:30) and so he doesn't get to see anything. i'm going to get the video camera going and tape it (hopefully ) for him.

this friday the kids are supposed to spend the night at my dad's house and make cookies with my step mom's parents. well, haley has a girl scout christmas meeting that night. they are exchanging gifts and going caroling. so now i have to let my dad and stepmom know that she's not going to be there right away. hubby is off and i was planning on going out with him, but i'm not sure i will be able to since we may have to take haley over to grandma and grandpa's.

this sunday is the annual cookie bake at my grandma's house. it's also the day my hubby is going to chicago for training with work. i have to drop him off at 10 am sunday morning. he doesn't get back until sometime thursday evening. so i will be a single mom for almost 5 days. i am not looking forward to it. at least i will have lots of cookies to drown my sorrows in!

school confrences

well, the day of the great sickness (that's last friday folks), we also had school conferences. i had to send the hubby in my place. he doesn't usually do school stuff, but since i had been dealing with puke for about 6 hours at that time, not to mention all the other kids, well, he knew better than to just leave me and go to work. so he did the parent teacher stuff.

6th grade alex: his teacher said that he is amazingly smart. well, the standardized testing* said he was amazingly smart. he is in advanced math (basically a grade above his peers) and tested better than 98% of his peers nationally. now, as great as it is to have a smart kid, she also has some concerns. nothing terrible, just that things come easy to him. he doesn't have to work for good grades. so he hasn't learned how to study, or how to work. it is something she's been trained to look for (she's our former gifted teacher) and she's seeing some of that in alex. no surprise there, i've been a bit worried about that myself.

4th grade haley: her teacher is awesome. she said haley is a pleasure to have in class. haley also tested about the same as alex (actually 99%) and the only thing she really mentioned was that haley takes a long time with her work. at first she was a bit worried, but as she got to know haley, she realized that haley takes great pride in her work. her penmanship, the detail in her artwork, all of it she takes her time in doing. as a result, her work is something she (the teacher) really enjoys grading. haley is also in advanced math. her math teacher had no issues.

1st grade grace: grace's teacher is so happy with grace. she said she wants to have grace tested for the gifted program at the school, and also thinks she would benefit from the special gifted program at our local public school. it's a one day a week, all day program that runs through the school year. um, not so sure i would want to do that. i know she's smart. i'm not so sure the benefit would be enough to make it worth the extra school work, and missing time with her friends. i don't want to burn her out on school and learning. i would have to talk to some of the other parents that have kids in the program before i would make that decision. oh, grace is also a wiz at math. the teacher is actually worried that she's going to get bored with the work.

i'm glad hubby was the one that got to hear all these good things about the kids. i wonder sometimes if he thinks i make all the good things up. it was nice to get some really good and positive info on my kids...especially on a day that i really needed it!

*i don't necessarily think that testing is perfect. believe me, i've had my own issues with it and my kids.

math? isn't that for geeks?

my kids started back at school today. *happy dance* i picked them up at 11 am. i know, why bother even starting the day if you are going to be out in just a few hours? this was the question my kids asked me. well, a school day is a school day. that's it. period.
alex asked me if i knew who his math teacher this year. well, duh...the same teacher you had last year, right? nope. guess who is in the accelerated math now. that's right. so i have 2 math whizzes. at least 2 so far. grace is no slouch. i have told my kids that math is pretty easy. well, maybe easy isn't the right word. math is constant. 2+2=4 that will not change. once you understand the principle, that's it. i wasn't a math genius, but i did alright.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm i smell brownies.

oh yeah, that's right. i'm making brownies with chocolate chips in it. i'm celebrating my pounds dropped. a whole 3 pounds.
i'm going to pack them all back on!
hahahaha

i talked to the guy in charge of soccer. guess who volunteered to coach the prek/kindergarten boys soccer team. that's right. yours truly. haley's team is joining up with my niece's team. neither team had enough players. so it actually works out better for me. if i need to send haley with someone for her game...i just send her next door. perfect! hubby's boss is still alex's coach. i 'm not sure when they start practices, but i hope it's soon. he's going to be one tired little pup. with soccer and fall baseball, he's going to be tired.

josh is so happy. he gets to start school next week and he gets to start soccer too. i'm actually excited about coaching soccer this year. the first year or two are easy to coach. at least for me they are. i just cover the basics of the sport. i don't have to come up with plays. i have my whistle. i can yell pretty loud. i handle little guys all day long.

alex leaves for his fishing trip today. he's going with my mom. they both sound pretty excited about it. i need to talk to my brother though. i heard that my mom may have been saying unkind things about my dad and stepmom within earshot of my kids. or directly to my kids. if that's the case, well, we will be changing the amount and how my kids spend time with her without hubby or myself present. if it keeps happening, well, let's hope it's not happening at all. my kids come first. my kids love my dad and stepmom. i will not let her damage that. end of story.

and that, dear friends, is the end of my bloggy free time. until the next time!

field trip mix up

grace is in kindergarten. her teacher has been teaching for, well, i think this is her second year. she's a nice girl...she just didn't realize what she was signing up for when she signed the kids up for a field trip to orscheln's. you see, she thought it was a farm...not a supply store. they do have chicks and ducklings and turk-eh well, what do you call baby turkeys...hang on whilst i google...poults. the field trip was only supposed to last a couple of hours...but how long can you keep 25 kindergartners focused on a couple of chicks, ducklings, and poults..oh wait they do sometimes have a couple of baby rabbits. but seriously, they won't be able to hold any of them, and let's face it, what fun is looking anyway? thankfully, a mom heard about the supply store field trip, and offered to let the kids all come to her house. they have chickens, chicks and cows. i actually just got off of the phone with grace's teacher because she was hoping i could bring the pig over there too. sure, what the heck! she needs to learn how to travel anyway. the other mom is hoping to get some sheep from across the street too. that should cover the bases when it comes to having animals from a farm...even if the pig lives in a house.

speaking of pigs, i started walking again. yesterday i was up before the crack of dawn (5:45) and walked a whole mile. yes i realize how pathetic that sounds. i am sore today. yes, i realize that sounds even more pathetic. my oldest said he wanted to get up and walk with me, but come time to get out of bed, he opted out. i'm kind of glad he didn't go...i would have felt like a complete fool, you know being exhausted after a measly mile, not to mention that i was doing lunges and swinging my arms like a fool too. i'm sure the 2 people that drove past me were thinking the same thing. did i mention i'm a little bit sore today? not terrible or anything, but i can feel it in my calves and my back. why my back? no clue. the one thing that isn't sore, that i was really worried about, are my feet. thank you Jesus, my feet are better! those surgeries actually worked! i can't tell you what a relief it is, knowing i won't have to crawl around on my hands and knees because i walked in the morning and my feet hurt so bad in the evening. so if you live in the greater st. louis area and are in need of a good podiatrist, let me know...

by the way, i didn't walk today...not because i was too lazy to get out of bed, but because it was pouring down rain. i have been walking around the house and doing some stretches. i am going to try to get some crunches done today too. i seriously don't want to be this big going into my thirties. i am trying to figure out a good challenge for myself. i told my husband i would like to lose as much weight as the pig gains...but he said 14 pounds a week is unhealthy. so now i have to think of another one. maybe just walking 5 days a week? i don't know.

i will try to get an american idol post together, i was going to yesterday, but ended up not really feelin' it dawg. too much sadness to think about paula's "boobage" (to quote a good friend).

how i named my blog

i saw someone else's post about how they named their blog, then a friend of mine renamed her blog (with the help of some bloggy friends) and it came to me...a post about how i came up with the name. the story may be long, and cover many years of my life, but i think it will be somewhat interesting. you may learn things you didn't know about me, and things you may have wished i kept a secret, but my history is part of me. it doesn't define me, but it shaped who i am and what i hold dear.

when i decided to start this blog, i tried to think of something witty to call it. being that i am not humorously inclined, i failed. we had just had a 10 year high school reunion, and i thought "hmmm, what did most people think when they saw me?". to understand where i am coming from, you must know how i was.
when i was 13, my parents went through a nasty divorce. my mom actually left my dad 3 weeks before my birthday. it was a pretty tough time for me. it left me a little unsure of myself. ok, who am i kidding, i was way unsure of myself. i was shy to begin with, but changing schools made it worse. i had a mom that thought school should teach her children to put condoms on bananas and that high school was for "experimenting". it didn't matter if that was drugs, or alcohol, or sex. i was always a good student. that never changed. even after i started smoking pot my sophmore year, or when i started doing some stronger drugs my junior year. i never tried meth, or coke or heroin. i did try pot, lsd, hash, well, and some pot laced with stronger stuff. i used them pretty regularly on weekends, and my junior year, when a friend had a car accident and died, i started using them more often. in fact, i smoked pot everyday from march through may. i couldn't handle not being stoned. it is pretty sad to think about how i felt so out of control. the summer between junior and senior year i met my hubby. we both had moderate drug issues. i decided, a month into senior year, i was going to get clean. no more drugs for me. well, i wasn't perfect, but i was doing better. it amazed me how blue the sky was and how green the grass was. i felt like a hazy mist had lifted from my eyes. i was totally clean by december.
now let me back up a little. when i met the hubby, we became "physical" within the first couple of weeks. i don't know how serious we were about our relationship. well, i know i wasn't all that serious. i was planning on going away to college. i didn't want some majorly serious relationship messing that up. he was a really nice guy, but he wasn't going anywhere. he was 19, he didn't go to college, and was working at a convenience store. so i was pretty guarded with my emotions. flash forward to december. in december, i missed my period. no big deal, i had friends who missed theirs pretty often. just because i was like clockwork all the time, didn't mean anything to me. then january came, and still no period. i decided to take a pregnancy test, just to show myself i wasn't pregnant. well, no such luck. i was. i was 17 years old, a senior in high school, and pregnant by a guy i had known for roughly 6 months. yeah, every parents' dream for their child. i had to tell my parents, my teachers, the school nurse, school administration, my friends, my boyfriend, his family, his friends...yeah, it still hurts to think about.
now, i still had several months left of school. i had decisions to make about the fate of my baby and myself. abortion was never a factor. i never believed in it, and getting pregnant at 17 didn't change that. adoption was a possibility, but i wasn't ready to look at that. i felt lost. not to mention the kids at school who said things like "you should give it up or have an abortion because you'd make a crappy mom". really positive and uplifting things like that. not all the kids, just a select few. a select few that i had been close to up until that moment...and then distanced myself from pretty quickly. i also had some shining angels that made it ok. my friends joe, molly, jeremy, and nike made me feel like i was the same person. they didn't treat me any differently.
now, here i am, 11+ years later, with 5 kids, a great husband, and a life i never would have thought possible. i went to college before and after alex was born, but it only lasted a semester. i wanted to focus on being a mom. my hubby asked me to marry him on my 18th birthday (30 days before the baby was born) and we were married the following may. life fell into place. i can honestly say, i haven't wanted to do any drugs since i gave them up. when i became a mom, all that was in my past. those wonderful friends fell away, but i still love each and every one of them for what they did for me. i don't think they even realized how much it meant to me.
and that is why i gave my blog this name...because "who'd of thought" my life would turn out like this!

last night

in case i haven't said this before, i am not a basketball fan. i've never played it. i never really enjoyed watching the pro's and i didn't really like watching my son play the first couple of years. now, that being said, i do actually find myself getting really involved and interested in the games now. my oldest daughter is going to start playing this year. basketball has been in my family for a long time. my uncle had a basketball scholarship to college (he is only 11 years older than me) and my aunt played when she was in high school. i remember going to watch them play. i was never really coordinated. i still can barely get from point a to point b without tripping. so i never played any sports.
ok, that being said, i went to a high school basketball game last night. my sister in law is the assistant coach for the local catholic high school girls' varsity basketball team. she is also the head coach of the jv team. the girls are playing in the districts. they went to state last year and took 4th. we are hoping that they make it that far again. a friend's daughter is one of their star players. she is a very sweet, very talented, very beautiful girl. her little sister is one of haley's friends. i got to say, i was really into the game. it was amazing. the people who turned out to watch these teams play. the gym was packed (and it's a big gym! troy's gym) and most of them were cheering for our team. it was a great time. we brought the 4 younger kids (alex had his own practice that night) and haley was the only one interested in the game. but even she was distracted from it. she had about 4 girls from her class at the game to hang out with. the gym was filled with alumni-most of which didn't have a kid on the team...they just wanted to support their school and team. it was a really cool experience.

*their was one girl on the other team that reminded me of you rachel. she was 6ft 2inches and a really cute girl. her team lost though. so since i don't think i ever saw you guys play, i'll stop the comparison there.

so to summarize, i will no longer talk about my dislike of basketball. i have been made a fan.

august in summary

wow, has it really been that long since i posted? sorry rachel! (i think that you are the only one who reads this)

we went to branson/tablerock lake the first weekend in august. we had a great time. we went boating on the first two days and the third day we went to branson and played with the kids. i think we all had a pretty good time. the boys had fun playing mini golf. (if you haven't taken 7 kids between the ages of 10 and 2, you haven't lived!) grace actually got a hole in one. haley got 2 i think. i don't remember much about it except that i was constantly chasing zack and dodging the club when i picked him up. we turned our 4 hr drive home into a 10 hr drive by stopping and sightseeing. we went to the bass pro shop in springfield. it was so cool. they have a wildlife museum and the aquariums were spectacular! we also went to lambert's cafe for lunch. (the home of the throwed roll) the kids love that place, and the food is pretty good too. it's home cookin' and they give you alot. i mean alot! i had porkchops. i could only eat 1 because they were HUGE. anyway, we also hit meremac caverns. we all had a good time there...well except me, i had to hold a very poopy very stinky little boy. since he went after we had entered the cave, we had to finish the tour. he was very funky by the end of the tour, let me tell you! we finished up our day with dinner at stephanina's. great pizza. long long long day. that was our vacation.

today was the first day of school for my kids. grace was nervous about today, but it worked out ok. she knows alot of kids in the class, so it made it so much easier. alex is in "middle school" this year. basically it means they move around the hall and change classes. he is still in the same school, in the same class as always, but he gets to go to different teachers for english, science, and geography. tomorrow is the first full day of school. i can't wait!

the ever expanding zoo

yes, that's right. the zoo has grown again. it now includes 5 baby barn swallows. great news, i know. how did this happen? well, alex got a wild hair about wanting to take care of baby birds. being the naive mom i am, i told him about how i took care of baby birds when i was younger. of course mine all died. most because i was not prepared for how much of a responsibility it was. i guess the fact most of the ones i found had taken a 2 story fall from the top of the barn to the concrete floor below didn't help their cases. and of course there was the baby bird i caught and my mom told me to put it back. i did, and it jumped off the branch into the waiting mouth of skipper, the springer spaniel. not a great day, let me tell you.
but i digress. so alex went out and started looking for orphaned baby birds. where do you find those? well apparently in the barn. oh yeah and the chicken coop. he found 3 babies on the floor in the barn, hiding in a corner. the other two he found in the coop, being pecked at by chickens. apparently they had already killed the 3rd in the nest and were going for the other two. now we are feeding these baby birds formula (the baby bird kind), and they have to be fed every 30 minutes. (this hasn't happened by the way). alex has been good about feeding them...when he is home. today is the last day of school and he will be home to do it more. haley has been helping out with them too. so far they are still alive. this has been day 3 i think. so far so good i guess. alex is looking forward to them flying. i don't know why, but he is. i am looking forward to them flying too, but flying away from here to a new life.
zack likes the birds too. i was having a heck of a time keeping him out of the cage. then of course he grabbed one out and tried to feed it to the dog. thank god the dog didn't know what it was and didn't do anything but smell it. that would have been fun explaining it to alex. "hey, your brother thought the dog needed a snack..." baby birds are incredibly resilient. they have withstood several days of being "held" by the kids, all five kids. so now instead of bunny news, i will be providing birdie news. hopefully this will have a much happier ending.

school is out. kids got their awards after mass this morning, and we were done by 9:30. not bad for a last day. haley got awards for excellence in reading, creative writing and music. alex got awards for excellence in science, english and art. i think every kid got at least 2 awards. i don't know how all the kids feel about this last day of school. i know most parents think it's a waste of time. it is, but i don't really care either way. have it or don't, it doesn't matter to me. i don't know how effective this day is. i always felt awards are for kids who deserve the recognition. not that these kids don't deserve it, but when the teachers are just trying to make sure everyone has "X" number of awards, it loses it's meaning to me. but like i said, i don't care either way.

i miss having a baby around!

today was "mission carnival" day at school. basically, for a couple of hours, the kids play games (for prizes like candy) and try to win raffle baskets, you know fun stuff. all the money goes to whatever mission they are raising it for. i believe one year it went to a priest in africa for building schools, this year they are deciding between several different ones. the kids had a blast, haley won a cake at the cake walk. good time all around.
anyway, my friend jen was there with her little 6 week old girl meghan. i haven't seen her yet, and i couldn't believe how perfectly she fit in my arms. now you would think that after being pregnant 5 times and having 5 babies, i would be tired of kids. WRONG!! all of a sudden, i totally regret telling jeff it was ok for him to have a vasectomy. it is crazy to see so many of the moms at the kids school that didn't even start having kids until they were the age i am now. i would say a third of the parents in alex's class are old enough to be MY parents. in fact 2 of them have kids that are only a couple of years younger than i am. in haley's class, one of the dad's have 2 kids that are in their 30's!!
a little off the subject but bear with me, this reminds me of when alex was in kindergarten, one of the men at school (the janitor actually) said i looked very familiar, what was my family name etc. then asked what high school i went to. i said FZN, and one of the mom's overheard us, she asked what year i graduated. i said, " you don't want to know". she kept on asking said " we might know some of the same people". so finally i told her 1996. she answered "oh". one of the other mom's starts laughing, asking what year the other mom graduated. "1986, we don't know any of the same people". i can laugh about it now, but honestly, then i was so embarassed. i figured i would be one of the youngest mom's in alex's class, and haley's too. but i felt like i had tatooed "was pregnant in high school" on my forehead. it wouldn't be a big deal if the kids went to public school, but since they go to catholic school, i guess i was worried about people looking at me funny. i shouldn't have felt like that. i guess i was always one of those kids that felt like i was outside looking in.
ok i am getting a little depressing. i will try again later.