IT'S ALMOST FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my dad, my little brother, and my kids, are almost finished with the chicken coop. they had to work on it at my dad's house because, well, my brother is not allowed to leave the house. (long story, and not mine to tell) anyway, they started on it saturday, and for the most part, it's done. it just needs the nest boxes, and some stain, and i think i may put in some linolium (for cleaning). that's it! well, it needs a door, and it needs to be moved to my house.

my dad had the kids all help him. he was really impressed by zack though. he said zack was hammering like a champ. he was most impressed with the way he did it correctly (bending his wrist). how many 3 year olds do you know that can do that? shoot, i'm 30 and i can't!


alex leaves on friday for his "birthday present" trip with my stepmom. alex still doesn't know where he's going! i don't think he would ever check my blog...but i don't trust the kid so i won't say until friday where he's going.

this is bookfair week. i already have been there, and helped out. but i have to go back on thursday for the "family night" event. my sister in law and i run that. it's pretty easy. really really easy. all we do is make dinner for about 200. no sweat! we usually have about 6 helpers, and that's plenty. the money we raise goes to our library, and buying tests for the kids.

and apparently this is also the first day for the runners club at school. i thought it didn't start until next monday. i still have to send in all the sign up stuff to school. and bring clothes and snack and water up for my kids that are doing it.

that's about it for now!

ballgame, ball practices, and a couple of sign ups

i love it when everything hits at once. alex plays baseball tonight at 6, haley and josh practice at 5:30 until around 7, and we have to sign the kids up for 4-H tonight.

i sure wish i had a money tree growing out back.

oh, well.

it looks like there will be 6 children raising chickens at my house.

funny, i'm pretty sure i only have 5 kids...and only 2 that can actually raise animals in 4-H...

i told the parents of the kids i watch, and those that i used to watch that it would be ok if they wanted to raise them at my house. these kids live in subdivisions, so it's not like they can raise chickens at their houses. plus, they spend quite a bit of time at my house. plus, by the time the chicks get here, they will be getting out for summer break. plus, these kids are great kids. they are always helpful. i know that they will be responsible.

so, i am really looking forward to my dad coming home. he's been stuck in detroit (apparently people up there don't like showing up for work*) and he's hoping to get the job site to a point where he can come home...with some stuff to help us build a chicken coop.
well, chicken and turkey coop. alex wants to do turkeys too. i told him to think about guineas. they eat ticks. that would be pretty darn useful!

so i guess i will be missing alex's game tonight. he's going to miss his soccer game this weekend (him and grace both) because they will be on a float trip. haley's going to miss her volleyball game (darn, 9pm game, and i'm going to miss it). they're going to be back for haley's soccer game on sunday.


*i've never been to detroit. i'm not "hating" on it. that's just the issues my dad's had with some of the contractors up there.

weekend in chicago

well, it's official. my weekend is over, and i had a good time. we didn't get in until 9pm friday night. i was pretty tired (so was my mom) so we had dinner on our way up, and just slept after we got there.
saturday we had to be at the spa at 8:45. we went to mario tricoci's. let me just say, those people working there are so nice. we had a great time there. we started our morning with massages (hot stone one for me) and it was the best massage i have ever had. sometimes, you feel more bruised after one (especially if they have to work hard on specific muscles) but i got up feeling absolutely wonderful. thank you louisa! then on to the facial. it was good. i've had better, but she did a good job. then it was off to have an olive oil scrub. you have to take off everything, and then put on a disposable thong. yeah, laugh away. i was basically scrubbed with olive oil, plus a few other types of oil, and sea salts. it was harsh, but in a good way. you come out glowing with radiant skin. i've never had anything like that before...it was pretty cool. my skin still feels soft and smooth. then they put makeup on me. my mom said it looked great (really heavy around the eyes) but i just think it was too much. i don't really wear makeup...not unless i'm going somewhere special. so maybe it was just the fact i don't wear any that made it seem like too much. anyway, then i had a manicure and pedicure. a pumpkin pedicure to be precise. very different. but my feet are so smooth (and pumpkin smelling) and pretty right now. i screwed up my manicure when i changed my clothes (my fault totally). just one nail. after that we were done (my mom got the same stuff done that i did) and we headed back to the hotel. i washed my hair (it was pretty nasty from the oil) and we went to pizzeria uno. really really good pizza. after that we went back to the hotel and took naps (i know, how exciting.) and then went out to dinner. we went to this place down the street from our hotel, flemings prime steakhouse. oh, my, gosh, it was some of the best food! of course i had a steak. it was perfect. we both had a wedge salad with blue cheese. i've never seen that much blue cheese on a single salad before. it was more like for a salad to feed 4+ people. really really good. then i had a baked potato that was one of the best i've had in a while. butter, sour cream, cheese and bacon...mmmmmm!
sunday we went to shedd's aquarium. it was ok. lots to see. but it made me miss my kids even more. we didn't stay there for long, just enough time to see a few exhibits and pick up some stuff for the kiddos. then we drove home. it was a pretty good time. very little talk of politics (thank God for that, we are total opposites) and we got along pretty well.
the kids were excited to see me. i was so happy to be home. jeff kept me updated on how all the games went. alex's team lost their game...pretty badly. haley's team won their soccer game. she played goalie and only let one get by. they won 6 or 7 to 1. they had a lot of shots on her, but she blocked all but one. josh's team lost 2 to 1. he almost had a goal, but my MIL walked up as he was getting ready to shoot, and he stopped to wave at her. priorities! grace's team won. she played goalie for half the game, and had an assist. her little friend claudia had 3 goals. she's the size of my 3 year old, and 6 months older than grace. small but mighty! haley's team lost 2 out of 3 of her volleyball matches. she did good, they just haven't had much practice.
that pretty much sums up the weekend. well, my poor hubby was so lonely. the kids stayed the night saturday at my dad's house. so he came home to an empty home. poor guy!

anyway, got to get back to the kiddos!

only a couple of days left...

until i go to chicago. actually i leave on friday. i am excited, but i'm also a little worried. it's just me and my mom. we are about as different as you can get. she is waaaaay more wild than i ever was.

no, seriously.


i'm not joking.

i'm not much of a drinker. i'm not much for being pushed to drink, or whatever. so, we will see. i really hope i have some great stuff to tell.


anyway, coaching is still, well, coaching. last nights practice was cancelled. well, coach d and i cancelled josh's, and grace's was cancelled (not that she was going to go, she came home from school with a headache ) but alex and haley still had theirs. and since i had to be there anyway, well, i had a very small practice. just josh and 3 or 4 other boys. and another dad helped. he was very nice. cracked me up too. he tried to tell me he'd never played soccer before. well, he had some pretty mean foot skills, so i find that hard to believe. anyway, he was there helping me for about an hour. his little guy is so adorable. all of the boys are adorable. i'm actually surprised at how fast i've learned most of their names. the only one i still mess up (in my head) is one little guy i want to call "paco" all the time. his dad is the one that was helping me last night. and yes, they are from mexico. but that's not why i want to call him that, he actually looks a lot like paco. (rachel, you remember him? he was a senior when we were freshmen) his dad doesn't, but the little guy sure does.

anyway, i need to be off to haley's volleyball practice. she's doing really well. she's one of the few girls that can serve the ball over the net and in the court. and she can hit the ball once it's served to her. that's pretty impressive...to me. i don't know about anyone else.

sorry, i got distracted. kids are watching the cheetah girls movie.

dance me, dance me if you can!

ummm, no, i can't dance.

best vacation spot?

hey everyone! just a quick post/question. please leave a comment!!!!
we are trying to plan our vacation. it's with 3 other couples, in feb and keep in mind these other couples like to drink. we went on a cruise. that was lots of fun, but we had to pay for our drinks. while that wasn't a big deal for us, there were a others that spent quite a bit more than they expected.
please tell me of some of your best vacations. or some great spots in your neck of the woods. just keep in mind that we are talking feb. we would love some place you can drive to. (we can drive anywhere! so far we've driven to new york, canada, new orleans...so you get the picture!)
we are up for pretty much anything. most of us are coming from missouri, but one couple will be coming from new jersey.
anyway...please leave a comment or two. tell your friends, ask them to leave a comment too! so far, we are looking at colorado...but feb? not so sure that would be a great plan.
thanks everyone!

what's the haps

while we were gone on our vacation, 8 or 9 inches of rain fell...in one night. it caused major flood damage pretty close to our home, and we actually had a little bit of water come in our basement. several houses were moved off of their foundations by flood water, one only just around the corner from us (maybe quarter of a mile "as the crow flys") and a couple of miles down hwy P, the highway completely washed out. an 8 foot sized section just washed out. this is right by my hubby's uncle's house. his house is fine, but several houses a little lower than his washed away. like 50 feet away. one of the homes belongs (ed) to a friend of my mother in law. she was in her home with her two daughters (one of which is disabled). they escaped it when it came to rest, and had to drag the disabled daughter to safety. she lost her husband just a year ago, and has now lost her home and her car. please keep her in your prayers! i don't know if they had flood insurance. if they didn't, they are totally screwed.
i don't think we had much water in our basement. the rug down there is shot. it was pretty wet when we got home. we had 2 boxes that got a little wet, but for the most part, we got away pretty clean.
while we were in florida, my oldest 2 stayed with my dad, stepmom, and little brother the whole time. they usually go with them for a couple of days or a week in the summer...or the school year. they really love going on vacation with them, and they are able to go places that...well, we can't afford to take them. they've been to mexico a several times, aruba, jamaica a couple of times, and to florida several times. most of the time, the rest of us stay home. grace has been able to go the last couple of years. she doesn't go with alex and haley though, she goes with my neices...they are about the same age (they'll be 8 and 7 the end of june).
alex caught a 10 pound flounder, a couple of 4 pound mackeral, and a stingray. he was the only one to catch anything while we were down there. my dad has been there since march, and has been fishing the same dock (since march) and hasn't caught anything. alex caught 3 of the 4 fish from this dock. the kid loves fishing. he reminds me of myself. i loved fishing, and getting into the creeks and rivers, and lakes...you know, catching minnows, or turtles, or tadpoles...whatever i could.
my kids are out of school! yeah, yippee...for now. until the start to wear on my nerves...then i will be counting the minutes until they go back. they get awards the last day of school. this would probably mean more if it wasn't an "every kid gets x-number of awards" ceremony. if it was based on actual merit, well, i would be totally stoked about the both of them getting 4 awards. with that said, haley got an award (voted on by her classmates) for being the "most understanding" in her class. very cool. she also got an award for being in the excelerated math group. also very cool. alex got a reading award (he better get that award, the kid finished his reading goal 3 weeks into the quarter), an a couple of other english type awards. really cool, considering boys are usually better at math. i guess my kids switched. not that they aren't good at the other, haley especially.
this monday is the last day for the rest of the kids. we really need to get the pool cleaned out. otherwise these kids are going to drive me batty!

hello? is anyone still there?

sorry for the long hiatus. i was celebrating the cook win on american idol!!!!!!

ok, not really. not that i wasn't happy about him winning, believe me, i was overjoyed! i was actually really busy on tuesday and wednesday, and then left on thursday for florida. in fact, i got home last night at about 10 til 12. it was a very long drive (we left at 9 am), but the kids were fantastic on the ride.

we left thursday evening at about 8pm. we drove from our place to sam's town in tunica. we spent the night there (we got there after 12). we were up and on the road by 11, you know, after a nice buffet breakfast. the ride from tunica to the beach took forever! my youngest niece had to pee every single hour. she fell asleep, and then peed in her seat. zack was pretty good, we had to pull over for him once, and he peed on the side of the road...we had left the gas station like 20 minutes before, he had gone there, and then peed for like 5 full minutes. then, when we got to mobile alabama, we hit rain. not just rain, but a torrential downpour. the storm drains were at least an inch or two under water. it was so hard, we had to drive 40 mph to get through it. it slowed us down a lot. we got to the condo after 9pm. i think we had a total of 15 hours just driving (according to hubby's new toy...gps) on a trip that was supposed to be a 12 hour drive.

the first day, we went to the beach. oh, did i tell you my nieces are fair skinned? well, two of them are. did you know that 30 spf is really not enough for fair skinned kids? or their dad? yeah, well, my brother in law was red. like lobster red. my oldest niece burned so badly that she had blisters on her shoulders. blisters covering her shoulders. not just one little blister, these were big, and clustered on the tops of her shoulders. she had close to ten, the biggest was the size of a dime. she's almost 8. the poor thing was miserable. i felt so bad for the kid. i got burned too, but nothing like her. just the tops of my feet and my chest...oh and my shoulders some, and the top part of my arms. it's almost gone already. we went to the dog track that night, the kids had a great time watching the dogs race, and my dad won a hundred dollars on a trifecta (?). we all got to meet the girl my brother met...the night before. she seems like a nice girl. her entire back was one big tattoo. entire back. big tattoo. very smart girl, she's looking for a school to get her master's. she was visiting her brother (he's on the airforce base there). i actually liked her. she reminded me of the redhead from american pie (the movie...you know band camp girl).

we didn't get to the beach the next day. the kids kind of stayed inside and then we took them to the gulfarium. very cool. they had dolphin and sea lion shows, and a show with 2 dolphins and a sea lion. they had gators, and a big sea turtle, and otters, and sharks. the kids had a great time. i had a great time. we ate lunch at fudpuckers. the kids had their picture taken with a baby gator.

(as i'm sure you saw above) they are niece #3, alex, josh, grace, niece #2, niece#1 (her burn didn't show), haley, and zack at the end. they had a great time at lunch. after the day out, the sun was going down, so we took the kids to the pool and grilled some chicken and hot dogs. dinner was great.

monday, we hit the beach again. yes i am a glutton for punishment. i didn't get any redder (is that even a word?) and we had a good time again. we went to this place called rick's crab trap...i had the BEST steak ever. seriously, i don't know what they used on it, but it was awesome. my sister had a crab sandwich. it was a crab on a bun. literally, a crab, deep fried, on a bun. i almost gagged when they brought it out. she actually ate it!!! nasty! how we are related, i will never know.

as we were getting ready tuesday morning, we got a call from my stepmom. alex and haley were supposed to be flying home with her and my brother, but the flight had been cancelled. they still have school, so we made them ride home with us. grace got to stay and fly out today instead. the ride was pretty uneventful. we ate dinner at lambert's cafe (throwed rolls....with molasses...yum!) and got home before midnight.

i am rested and ready to deal with kids. i don't know who i missed more, the kids i watch, or the pig.

i'll update more later...you know, about the flood while we were gone, the nephew back in the hospital, and alex's fish he caught.

I WON! I WON I WON I WON!

whoooo hoooo! i never win anything, and yet i won a $10 gift certificate to claudiasimagination's etsy shop. i won #149 from the ultimate blog party! i chose the midsummer's night dream earrings. they are little dragonfly earrings and adorable. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5579967 i believe this should take you straight to her shop. she is one talented lady! thank you claudia!

ok, next in my line of updates is one of the families' that i watch just added to their family on saturday. baby natalie was born at 4:03 pm and was 7lb 8oz. i will hopefully get over there to see them this week. i love love love newborn babies. the size, the smell, the sounds. everything about them!

alex's team finally won an indoor soccer game. most of the teams they are playing are 12 year olds. now, the kids on alex's team are 10 and 11. so these teams they are playing are usually bigger. this past sunday, they played a team that was the same size as our boys, and they had a girl on the team. i would never say that girls can't play the same game as boys, but seriously! she wasn't really big, she was the same size as my boy. and the only thing i could think of, when i saw her out there was "please don't go by alex, he will lay you out!". and while he did pull back a little because she was a girl, he still plowed into her. it's not fair to the boys she plays against. they don't want to hurt a girl. it makes them think twice about what they are doing and they shouldn't do that in a game. they should be going for the ball and defending the goal. (i can't believe i'm saying that.) now, i wanted to play football when i was a highschooler. the boys i talked to thought it was a great idea...as long as i still had to shower and change with the team. yeah, like that would happen! but with football, you wear helmets and pads. you can't see the person you are tackling is a girl. therefore, you don't have to think "am i going to hurt her?"
ok, enough with the soapbox.

this week, my kids are on spring break. because of factors out of my contol, i will only be watching one family. these kids' don't start spring break until friday. then they are off the week after easter...when my kids are back at school. should be a fun filled 2 weeks.

happy st. patrick's day all!

we have returned!

hello all! have you missed me? we had a great time on our cruise. i would recommend carnival cruise lines to anyone! this is actually the second time we have traveled with them. the staff they have is the nicest and hardest working bunch. we met people from Indonesia, India, Belarus, and many other countries too. it is amazing when out of the 2600 guests on the cruise, they know you by name...and that's half way thru a 5 day cruise! we did get sunburned (some more than others) and we had bryan getting sick 2 separate nights. well, then jeff was sick the whole ride home. yes the entire 10 hour drive home. it was great getting to reconnect with bryan, and getting to know michelle better. bryan actually enjoyed dinner, and had *gasp* compliments for the chef! believe me, he is very picky about his food (being a chef, that's understandable), so the fact he called several dishes "fabulous" was pretty high praise indeed! we had 2 stops, one in progresso island(?) which was ok. there wasn't many shops, and there didn't seem to be a lot to do. granted we just went to a beach party, but we arrived at 9 am and had to be back at the boat by 3. it just wasn't enough time. nathan took a pretty nasty chunk out of his foot trying to climb a telephone pole for a bottle of tequila (contest on the beach). the man who actually won was like 50 years old, drunk as a skunk, and went all the way to the top. of course on his way down, he tore up his foot and his shin. we saw him a couple of nights later, he said he couldn't even sleep because of the pain. anyway, cozumel was really fun. we went on a dune buggy tour of the island. our tour guide was awesome. he was so knowledgeable about the history of the island. we got to see some crocodiles in the wild. they built a walkway and observation tower out over the water. we saw around 5 crocs close up, and they were around 6 to 8 feet long. pretty cool! after the tour, we hit carlos and charlie's and senior frog's. lots of fun there! and we got to do some shopping. it still didn't seem like we had enough time. we left the boat at 9 am and had to be back by 4. the entertainment on the ship was good. the comedians were funny, and the singer they had by the casino bar was amazingly funny, or we were all really drunk...one or the other.
i have a different opinion of new orleans now. the first time we went (last year), it was smelly and you wanted to take a shower after being down there. this time was much more fun. we hung out on bourbon street sunday night ( the same night as the NBA all stars game) and had a great time. when we got off the ship yesterday, we went back down to the french quarter and went thru their market place. it was really fun. we would definitely go back.
now, we came home around 1am, and their is snow and ice everywhere. the kids had 2 snow days while i was gone. ( ha ha) the kids were good, and no one had any major problems...well except for the fact alex and haley argued quite a bit while we were gone. (no surprise there)
i think we are definitely going to do this again. in fact bryan and michelle want us to start planning another one for next year!
ok, this has been long enough...and i don't want to make anyone too jealous!

today i have been bummed about the stuff i will be missing when we go on our trip next week. we are leaving at like 5 am on sunday. so that means i miss grace's soccer game. that monday is josh's birthday, and president's day...which means my kids will be out of school, and i won't be there for my boy on his birthday. tuesday is the day i volunteer to do recess duty, i'll be missing that too. thursday, haley and alex both have basketball practice and a 4-H meeting. grace and alex both have games saturday that i will most likely be missing.
we are celebrating josh's birthday on saturday. we are all going to the monster truck show downtown. yippee. my girls and i are not big into the monster trucks, but josh loves them. so, we go. my boy is going to be 4 years old. it is crazy to think that 4 years ago i was waiting for my inducement date feeling like i couldn't wait for it to be over, and yet really really sad that it was going to be over. we had planned on josh being our last baby. well, jeff planned on him being our last baby. i wasn't sure i didn't want anymore kids. (did that sentence make sense? double negative is bad right?) then 9 months later i found out i was pregnant with zack. i still wasn't sure i wanted him to be my last baby. jeff was though. so any kids for us will be adopted.
with josh, i was induced 2 weeks early. he was born feb 18th, but i was actually due on march 3rd. my doctor was worried about my baby being too big. haley was almost 2 weeks early, and weighed 8 pounds and 15 ounces. she's my only baby that wasn't induced. grace was a little more than a week early and she was 9 pounds and 2 ounces. my boys were smaller. alex was almost 2 weeks late (my oldest) and he weighed 8 pounds 4 ounces...but was 22 and a half inches long. josh was 2 weeks early, and 8 pounds 2 ounces, and zack was 1 week early and 8 pounds and 8 ounces. i had bleeding problems with my bigger babies. well, the girls and zack. more about that some other time.

well, off i go to clean my house. 20 things!

between the laundry loads

cleaning challenge
i have been keeping up with the house work. this is a huge improvement for me. i won't say i have been keeping the house clean every day, but it is way more clean than it ever has been. i have been trying to do the 20 per room, but it takes me more than that to get my rooms clean. but it has been a starting point for me. what i mean to say is, i start with the 20, and look around and see i only have about 15 more things to pick up...it's so much more managable for me. instead of looking around and seeing only chaos, i see a starting point. and i can use it for the kids too. i tell the little guys to pick up 5 things, and the bigger guys 10 or 20, so i can sweep or vaccum. it actually works. thanks martie for the starting point.

do you have an aldi near you? i love ours. i never ever thought i would hear myself sing their praises, but here i am! not that i didn't like them before, we never shopped there when i was a kid. my mom hit the big stores. my kids love their frozen pizza. it feeds atleast 3 or 4 of my kids (that's saying alot) and its only $1.99. yeah, that's right. i bought their brand of mac and cheese (mostly because the lunch crowd at my house loves mac and cheese) and found out that my kids and hubby like it better than kraft. they said it's cheesier. it was only $.29 when i was there yesterday. their milk is always almost a full dollar cheaper, and their eggs and bread are cheaper too. if you spend $100, you are coming out with a cart full of food.

i finally finished the pink afghan i was making for a friend of mine. her baby is only a month old. now i am trying to get one going for one of the family's that i watch. the mom is due the end of march, but doesn't think she'll make it that long. yeah, nothing like working with a shrinking deadline! this one is tough too. it is a granny square blanket, and has like over a hundred little squares. i have never made a granny square one before. i've made a couple big stitch sampler afghans that turned out really pretty, a lot of baby blankets (2 filet, ripple, shell, 2 sweet dreams, and a rose bud) and i've made a few other full size afghans, but the connecting of the granny squares together always scared me a little. this one is really cute though. i hope it turns out good. i plan on taking it on the cruise with me so i can work on it on the ride down and back..and any down time i get.

i have been up to...

one week from tomorrow and we (meaning the hubby and i) are leaving for new orleans. then the following day, we leave on our cruise. let the countdown commence!

yesterday, (being friday) alex had a tournament basketball game at 9 pm against one of the other teams from his class. (there are actually 3 teams) tomorrow at 6pm, he plays against the other team from his class. this one for the championship. it's pretty cool seeing how competative these boys are on the court (and before the game), but after the game's over it's like all of the competativeness was left on the court. in fact 3 boys from our team went home with 3 boys from the other team. oh yeah, we had to play them again this morning. we lost that game.

grace played goalie in soccer today. atleast for the first half. well, playing goalie is what i like to call it...what she actually did was play in the net, twirled around, and danced a little. her team won. i think she may have touched the ball once as goalie. the second half she was out running the field.

haley has been a huge help with her younger sibs. she watched them for me most of the games. that way i can actually watch the games. she starts her games soon i think.

josh woke up this morning having one of his "it's not asthma" attacks. i had to give him a breathing treatment, and it cleared up pretty well. last time i took him into the dr's office, she told me it was croup. (not my dr, one of her partners) it's not. i know it's not. although, i'm not really wanting them to call it asthma either. he's fine now.

zack was running a low grade fever last night. it never went above 100.2. he never complained about anything. he just felt warm to me. i hope that's all it ends up being.

the hubby has sold 5 cars so far this month. for those who don't have husbands that sell cars, that is really good. really really good. especially when said hubby will be out of town for a week.

i have been keeping up with my cleaning. i seem to hit it every other day. i don't know why. i guess i just need to get into the swing of things first.

*rachel, with my kids, i always wiped for them. when they learn as young as 2 or young 3, it's hard for them to get themselves clean enough. atleast their behinds. that, and the fact my kids all have very chubby bottoms, and that makes it even harder for them to do a good job. usually around older 3 to 4 years is when they start doing for themselves all the time. atleast that's been my experience. i will let them try first, but usually they just make a bigger mess.

hey mom!

today, when my 3 year old son came out of the bathroom, he ran to me saying, "hey mom, my butt don't stink anymore, i brushed my teeth!".

ahhhhhh, the wonders of having a 3 year old.

apparently what he really said was breath, not butt. (but right now i am happy neither stink).

he also told my brother-in-law, jason, that he had dingleberries hanging from his tree. jason, who is 26 and has no kids, found this hilarious. so did my husband.

i am going to be very busy tomorrow with the bookfair dinner. my SIL (sisinlaw) and i have been in charge of this for the past 3 years. family night at the bookfair is also a "see the teacher/sign up for conferences" night. i am really glad i finally talked them into doing a dinner. we have been in charge of it for 4 years, but all i could talk them into the first night was some snack type stuff. i thought it was kind of ridiculous that we have this family book fair night right at dinner time, and offer nothing for families to eat. so now my SIL and i get to make chili and hotdogs and tatertots for about 150 people tomorrow. good times.

i have been thinking more and more about polygamy. i really hate housework. maybe if i had a sister-wife, we could divvy up chores to make it easier on us. i get to take care jeff and the kids, she gets to clean the house, do laundry, and make dinner. i think i need to do some more research on this subject, get jeff's input, but it just might work.

jeff has started working out...(did he see that i was thinking about getting another wife?) i am not going to let him get skinny before i do. i want to be in shape for our vacation in feb. we are going with the freeman brothers, their wives, and nathan and whoever he brings. i am going to be the youngest woman (by 5 years) in our group. but i am also the one with the most kids (bryan's wife has 2, and mike's has 1). i don't want to be the "fat one". so i am going to lose weight, and tone up. believe me, i will never, i mean NEVER, be in a bikini again. i just want to not scare small children when i get in a one piece.

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!

mixin' it up

haley and i will be leaving for columbia on friday morning. she's playing soccer in the show me games. she is sooo excited about it too. she's playing up with an older team that has been undefeated since kindergarten. so there is a little pressure to play her best too. she plays 2 games on friday and then 1 for sure on saturday. i guess, depending on how they do with the first 3 games, they may play on sunday too. and this is just haley and i. no other kids. no jeff. just me and haley. i am a little nervous about this too. i know i am going to sound like a dork, but i have not done anything like this before. i mean, i have never been the "adult in charge". jeff is usually with me. i have never been the one checking into the hotel, driving long distances, basically i haven't been a "real" grown up yet. i find it kind of funny, i am on the cusp of being 29 and i still don't feel like an adult. sad to say, but i still feel like i'm babysitting my own kids sometimes. weird, i know.

zack's birthday went well. we didn't do anything. jeff put up the swingset yesterday. well...most of the swingset. so far, it has been a 2 day job, with one more to go. he has done an awesome job though. i helped some, but i am not exactly handy. so basically my job was to hand him the screws, or the hammer, or hold something for him. oh and my personal favorite, the "get me a drink" girl. (he says please) anyway, zack loves it. he was on the slide like 50,000 times last night.
zack's party is next week. i guess we are having jeff's family over on sunday. we are going out with my family (adults only!!!!) on sat night for my birthday. i love this new tradition we started. on adults' birthdays, we have an adult only dinner. the kids hang out at my dad's with a sitter, and we hit the town. it may not sound like much to the average person, but the average person does not have 5 kids. so i get my little snippets of freedom when i can! after that, the following week, we head to tablerock. vacation with the family...mine and jeff's. should be fun, i hope!

4 anniversaries, a wedding and a mother's day

jeff and i left on the 10th for nebraska. the tenth being our tenth anniversary. it was actually his great aunt and uncle's 60th and his aunt nancy and her late husband's 38th. (i used to email her or call her that day, just to let her know we were thinking of her that day, but then i learned that it just depressed her more. ) the 11th was jeff's brother john and sister in law julie's anniversary, and it was the day aunt nancy's son decided to get married on. so those are the 4 anniversaries, and the wedding. it was a lot of fun. we got to hang out with jeff's older brother jim and his wife kim. jim is the quiet type, kim is really funny.
being a family function, family stories were told. this one i have to share. jeff's ancestors are the first to settle in st. paul. they came over from germany. it was a man and his 2 sons. the older son was married and had several children, but unfortunately died. as was the custom, the younger brother married the older brother's widow, and had several children with her. the children with the younger brother are jeff's immediate ancestors. i guess that's how you would phrase that. any way, my sister in law and i were discussing this, basically laughing about who we could have gotten stuck with had this still been the custom. i found it pretty funny, gross, but funny. i wonder if women back then checked out the unmarried brothers...you know "just in case". i told jeff about this. he seemed to take offense to the fact i found 2 out of 4 of his brothers physically repulsive. it's amazing the kind of stuff i find funny.
i really like getting away from the kids for a few days. i love them, but when i get away, i come home feeling like i'm 28 not 48. i think i have gotten away from them more the past year than i have in the previous 9. thank you dad and diane.

i have been taking a look at my outlook and the way i communicate lately. i think i come across very negative at times, almost like i am constantly complaining. i guess i don't know how to deal with compliments. most of the time when people comment on my kids, hubby, family, whatever, i try to down play it. i don't want to come across as a whiner. believe me, i know i'm lucky. i just feel guilty about my life being good sometimes. why is that? my mom would say it's "catholic guilt". i don't think so. i have been like this for as long as i can remember. i have only been catholic for a few years. anyway, i am going to try to be more positive. less complaining and bellyaching (as my dad would say).