Imaginations

I took this picture today while listening to Christmas music coming from Belle's room, Spiderwick Chronicles blaring on the the tv behind me and the quietness of concentration. What you can't tell in the picture is Brady is trying to put the head of a lego man into the hand of the rescue hero. I was hoping to get a picture of the rescue hero trying to squash the lego man by jumping on him but Brady had moved on to this by the time I got my camera ready.

Ernie has finally decided to give Gracie a chance. Before today if Gracie moved anywhere in the vicinity of Ernie, Ernie would jump up onto the nearest piece of furniture. Today she decided to go with the flow and play with her.They spent a good bit of time tonight playing like this. It was nice to see that she finally realized she had a playmate and not an enemy. Ernie will also spend a good lot of time chasing a red laser light around the room. Zeus does not find this at all fun. He's determined how it all works and thinks he is better than our amusement.

Meet Gracie

We couldn't find her a home so we gave her a name. Gracie loves being outside, is full of energy, and positively loves the cats even though they don't have the same feelings.

Habits

I've been noticing more and more lately how I keep returning to the same patterns. I wash my hands often, especially if I have been dealing with the animals, cooking supper, cleaning up the house or dealing with meat. I try to keep the kids on a semi-regular routine so that they know what to expect. I've also noticed a regular occurance at bedtime.

Every night, I tend to do the same things. I let the dogs out one last time before I put them to bed. I walk through checking locks and turning off lights. I have the kids lunches started if they are taking them the next morning. Then after I've brushed my teeth and changed my clothes I climb into bed and turn on my alarm. Now when I turn on my alarm, I have to press the button to make sure the time is set correctly. Not long after I've laid down, I doubt whether or not I set the alarm and have to look at the clock one last time for the red dot that shows it's set for morning. I will even check it even if I'm absoutely certain that I set it, because I took the time to remember setting it. Unfortunately just wondering about it has put doubt into my mind that maybe I didn't so I must check and make sure. I cannot sleep until I have looked at least once for that little red dot. If I'm lucky, one time will be the limit. I hope.

Four Months

School has started, homework full force along with cheerleading and strings practices. What else do we need to add to this busy season? Christmas music.

My kids are all music freaks. We love to have radios going a good part of the time. Belle even got a karaoke machine for Christmas a couple of years ago. She decided it was time to break it out and use it today as a cd player and her music of choice?

Conventional Christmas tunes. And she didn't just play them. She blared them.

Now I love Christmas and traditional Christmas music. I love to play it and sing it. But not four months to the day before Christmas. I'm going to have to break out something else to get the running tracks out of my mind.

On a side note - Got your shopping lists started yet? I don't.

Harsh or No?

The kids school has a rule implemented, mainly for the third grades and up, that if the students don't complete their homework or misbehave enough times they get a check mark against them. Three check marks will earn them an after school detention (ASD) for an hour where they can not speak during that time and are given a homework packet by their teacher to complete. These marks are reset at the end of each nine week period so if they have two checks at the end of the term, then they get a clean slate next nine weeks. Bryce has had four check marks over the last three weeks because he has forgotten to bring his homework home resulting in his first ASD for this year. He had one at the end of fourth grade and one in third. Hubby believes that it isn't right for the school to impose this rule at this level, that the check marks should be restarted at the end of each week and not every nine weeks. I say that the kids are very much aware of this rule as are the parents - the parents sign forms explaining the rule each year - and if they choose not to do their homework or take the time to remember to pack their homework then they should pay. This is the schools way of ensuring the kids realize that behaving and completing homework is an important part of growing up and ensures they become more responsible as they grow older. Am I wrong in believing the kids should be punished for not completing homework on a nine week basis?

Manure

I've been having fun this week (there's some serious sarcasm in that sentence, be sure to catch it!). Belle has decided to become a cheerleader and practice started this past Monday. I paid a lot of money for her to attend 5 regular season games, 3 possible tournament games and a uniform. Yeah. I've still got to get her a pair of shoes, socks and a ribbon for her hair. She also started the strings program and yesterday was her first after school practice on the viola. When Belle started practicing when she got home, my mom was on the phone and she handed it off to Dad who were both glad that Brother and I couldn't join the strings program in school. Bryce's violin practice starts today after school so I will be driving to pick him up as well. Bryce is a second year strings student so his practice is on a different afternoon than Belle's. Fun.

The real fun came yesterday afternoon though. After driving out to the middle school to get Belle, we were driving around a bypass to skip going through town. After reaching the halfway point of the bypass, the line of cars I was in were met with drivers going the other direction flashing their lights at us. So I assume there is an accident ahead or a cop looking to help boost his quota for the month. My assumptions could not have been more wrong. It turned out that a truck was driving a little ways ahead of us had lost his load. Manure. All in the street. Not only was it thick in the street but there was quite a bit on the shoulder as well. So the cars did the only logical thing they could do and drove through the least amount of it on the shoulder. I had to come home and rinse my van down. The van that Hubby just washed this weekend. I don't think he was impressed with the story.

The kids are also doing very well at their new school year. The seem to like their teachers, are enjoying the classes and are having fun. Unfortunately if Bryce forgets to bring his homework home one more time, Hubby is threatening to tattoo the word HOMEWORK to his forehead so he will remember it. We'll see what happens there. Brady is the only one of the kids who is currently not involved in extra-curricular activities. Bryce will be playing basketball this fall, Belle is on the original sign up list, I may remove her because she's already involved in two activities, and Brady is determined not to play basketball. He wants to play soccer and I will probably sign him up for that in the spring. He's already informed us that he wants to play in the strings next year as well. I'm also struggling with the fact that in less than a month, my baby will be 8 years old. He's already come up with a list of things that he thinks he needs for his birthday.

Also, the puppies owners have claimed the two brown puppies, now known as Buzz and Mitzi. So Baby Girl is the only puppy I have left at this point. In traditional puppy form, she is a whiner. Tuesday morning, I was awakened at 4am by this loud, treacherous howl-whine. She was having a hissy fit that woke not only me, but both of the boys. This morning she allowed me to sleep in. It was 5:30. Not only am I awakened from a very sound, satisfying sleep, but I am unable to go back to sleep afterwards. That leaves me confused about what it is I'm doing. That brings me back to this incoherent post.

Oh and Ernie? Doing very well in her new surroundings. She lets the dogs know when they are too close, now plays with Zeus and is doing very well with her litter box. She seems to be constantly playing and is quick to purr when she gets attention. She has also staked claim to a small stuffed dog of Belle's as her new toy. It is just the right size for her to carry around in her teeth, kick it with her hind legs and throw. She loves to walk across my keyboard, too. Usually at times that are not the best. My only complaint? Why is it that the adult pets (Sophie and Zeus) feel the need to eat the puppy/kitten food instead of their own and the puppy and kitten feel like they need the adult food? That is driving me completely crazy!
She looks impressed, doesn't she?

Delays

It doesn't take much to build up excitement in this household. A date night with Hubby will have me giddy with anticipation until the time I drop the kids off. It didn't take much time for me to get excited because Harry Potter was being released on Nov. 21!

However.

An article ran this morning informed us Potter-addicts that our wait for a much anticipated movie has been extended. That's right. The release date has been delayed until July of next year.

I almost cried.

So that movie makers and such can make a few extra bucks by running it on a big opening summer weekend, the movie we have been waiting two years for has been pushed back another. eight. months. If I didn't want to see it so badly, I might consider boycotting it just because of principal. We were promised November and they should be punished for their greed! But you've got to feed those addictions and I am weak. I won't be there opening weekend probably but I will be there. Eventually.

Green Water and Cell Phones

Sunday was a busy day here in my household. I had to have Hubby back to his truck around 10am. Belle had spent the night at one our neighbors house and was told to be home early and she was for a change. Right around noon, my other neighbor knocked on my door. She said that she needed to drain her pool and that I should check out the new split in the liner in her pool. (She was telling me because draining her 24' pool floods areas of my yard and it was half full ). We knew that she was due for a new liner, especially since she got up one morning to a six foot split in her liner at the beginning of the season. Some duct tape and pipe glue managed to keep it sealed until this past weekend. She had even purchased a new liner earlier last week because she had a slow leak somewhere in it. When I got to her house, inspection showed a second split, running around the side of the pool about 8 foot long. She and I were trying to submerge the vacuum hose so that we could drain the water out of the pool (her in the pool and me on the deck) when I heard water running and running fast. Walking around the side of the pool, I found water bubbling out from under the bottom of her pool washing sand away. Turns out her liner finally sunk down into the water and water was rushing between the liner and the pool wall washing away the sand underneath. I let her know that we had to hurry, climbed into the pool jeans and all, so that we could hurry and get the pool draining. I did take 15 seconds to shed my Sketchers first, because after all they are Sketchers and would a pain to have to replace. Jeans are washable. A minute later, she and I were both holding sections of the liner up out of the water while feeling the damage with our feet. You could feel the concrete bases through the liner as well as ruts, some almost a foot deep, where the sand had washed away. She quickly made her way across the pool to retrieve her cell phone to call her parents (who were coming later anyway) for help. Went she went for her cell phone, it occurred to me that I had gotten mine that morning so I would have it when I took Hubby to his truck. It was in my back pocket and I was waste high in green-looking water. (The water itself was pretty clear but the pool had algae on the bottom where her vacuum had broke.) I pulled the phone out of my back pocket to find it dead. I have now managed to submerge two different cell phones. We waited almost forty-five minutes for her parents to come to our aide. Forty-five minutes of holding a liner. Yeah. They showed up with nieces that we quickly put to work and her sister and brother-in-law showed up a couple of minutes later. My kids were swimming at the other neighbors house and I quickly put them to work when they got out of the pool. The six adults were (and occasionally my three kids) were using buckets and a small trash can to empty water faster out of the pool. Around six hours later, we had completely emptied the pool and removed the liner.

So now I am now in the market for a new cell phone. Turns out that I am due for an upgrade (a long overdue upgrade - another story for another day). I have considered a Razr v3xx (I prefer purple but Hubby found a red one, too), a Blackberry, and a Sony Ericson Z750a in purple. My phone has since dried out and is currently working, but I have hated it since I took it from Hubby when he got his new phone and will use any excuse to upgrade. And so I shall. Eventually. Soon.

Jealousy

There's no jealousy here!

Introducing Ernie!

I mentioned a little while back that I told Hubby I wanted two female cats just so I can name them Bert and Ernie. A friend of mine from school sent me a message a couple of days ago and said she had a Bert and Ernie for me! She brought Ernie to me today and she's made her way into the hearts of the kids. Ernie is three months old and just as sweet as she can be. Zeus is tolerating her while Sophie and Cheech checked her out and decided she was ok enough to ignore.

Now Bert is still at home with her Mom. Bert is an outside cat who I want to bring inside (so that she don't try to find her way back home). When she was brought inside, Bert pitched a pretty good fit. As of this morning, she was hiding from my friend but had been spotted by friends hubby. She's going to keep working on Bert and maybe I'll have her soon.

I told Hubby now that I blogged about wanting a Bert and Ernie and it's in the making. Next I want a child on 09/09/09 at 9:09 that weighs 9lbs and 9ozs. Think I can be lucky enough to get that too?

Advertising

I'm not one who usually watches commercials. Usually because there is so much other stuff I need to be doing. Like laundry. And dishes. And sleeping. Bryce came to me Saturday night and says, "Mom! Football is on tv. You're Colts are playing." Well, the mother in me kicked. It went through one ear and out the other. I assumed he was talking about a commercial or news program. Turns out the Colts were playing a preseason game against the Redskins. At some point I caught a commercial when I walked through the room and just had to stop and enjoy it.

I love watching the Manning brothers in commercials together! It has now become one of my latest favorites.

They Survived!

The kids have officially survived their first week back at school and no one is more proud than I am! Tuesday, I drove them to school so that they didn't have cart backpacks, lunch boxes and Wal-Mart bags full of stuff on the bus, even though they would've much rather rode the bus. I came home only to hop into the car with my Mom. She had been to the optometrist last week and needed to have her eyes dilated and checked so I was the prime candidate to drive her back to town afterward. In return, she fed me lunch at Dairy Queen. Wasn't ice cream but it wasn't a turkey sandwich either! So I did what any stay-at-home mom would do when I got home. I took a nap. A long nap. I slept so hard that the kids school bus is the only thing that woke me when they got home. Oops.

Wednesday I was productive. I washed clothes. I shampooed Belle's carpet. I skipped the nap. Production. Thursday I was equally productive. I spent time at my neighbors house and caught up on my C.S.I. dvd's that I received in the mail. Then came today. I had to grocery shop today (something I'm starting to hate doing). Did you know that cat food is supposed to cost $1 a pound? Me either. I learned that today. I came home, put away my groceries, washed a couple of loads of laundry and watched more C.S.I. I have been through the kids Friday folders, helped them fix sub sandwiches for supper and sent them outside to play just as the weather cooled off nicely. In the middle of all that, I decided to get antsy and motivated. I shampooed my couch.

I really should've taken before and after pictures of all the shampooing that I have been doing as of late because the after pictures would've been amazing. Truth be told, the before pictures would be very embarrassing. Embarrassing because I have let my carpet get to the point that I honestly don't want people visiting. I can't tell you how many times that I have told Hubby I just want to rip all of it out so that I can put down hard wood floors in my living room and I don't have to look at it any longer. I am willing to settle living with sub-flooring until I put down the hardwood if it means I don't have to look at the carpet. It's a carpet that I absolutely hated when we first moved in but one that I could deal with if it meant that I had a house of my own. I guess I was spoiled when the previous two rental properties we had each had new carpet when we moved in. I'm sure that has absolutely nothing to do with it. I also found that my couch is a color that is much lighter than what I started out with. I guess I hadn't realized how much stuff three kids can spill on a couch.

I really wouldn't mind it at this point if the gentleman that stopped by my house last fall (and woke me up from a nap mind you) to demonstrate a Kirby vacuum came back by. The same man who stopped by the house just a couple of weeks ago wanting to sell me the exact same vacuum. One that usually costs like $1500. The same one that when used on my carpet I found two small circles about the size of a softball in the original two tone color that it is. I want to demonstrate that the Hoover that I borrowed from my parents has actually found the two different colors in the kids bedrooms (not in the living room because I haven't shampooed it yet.) It didn't find two small spots in the rooms, but most of the carpet in those rooms look like it should look.

Moving on. I hope by Monday evening to have the rest of the carpet shampooed along with my love seat. That's my goal. We'll see. I am currently waiting, at 11:45pm, for Hubby to make it back to his local terminal so that I can drag three kids out of bed to go and pick him up. Then I can bring them home and put them back to bed so I can drag myself to bed. I am so ready for bed.

Starting Point - Again

Things have been crazy here. As always. I don't think life with three kids is ever not crazy. The kids have been trying to keep busy on the last few days of their summer vacation. I never did get a picture of Bryce simply because if he did get up to do something, I was never close to my camera or was in the middle of something and couldn't get to it. I did get pictures of Belle and Brady flipping on the trampoline.That is one of their favorite things to do. I finally set their little pool up only a month after I took it down before we left on vacation. They have spent a little bit of time in it and took enjoyment in trying to hide from the camera.We also had issues with accidents last week. One night, as I was putting the boys to bed, Brady decided he needed to stand up in his bottom bunk and push the mattress up on the top bunk. With his head. Well Bryce went to go to bed and climbed up without realizing that Brady's head was under the mattress and the outcome was a nice bruise on his cheek.The same morning that I took that picture I found this bruise on Belle's chin.Apparently, the neighbor and she were playing and Belle got whacked with a toy on accident. I didn't realize this until she got up the next day and found that bruise. Four days before school started. Have I mentioned that the kids school tends to take individual pictures early? As in the second week of school? I failed to mention that, huh. If I'm lucky, they will have healed by picture day.

I finally got pictures taken of my flowers so that I can show the big blooms on my violet and my nicely blooming crepe myrtle. Shows that my thumb is not completely black. I was so excited to see my pink blooms since my neighbors bush bloomed over a month ago and has already started putting out a second round of buds. I just wanted mine to bloom once!

Not only can I grow flowers but I can grow puppies too! I got the pictures taken now that they've gotten bigger, have their eyes open and can walk and run. They're 4 1/2 weeks in these pictures and had just had a bath.The black one is the only one we have not gotten a home for yet and if it was up to Brady, we'd be keeping her. He positively loves her. She has wrapped herself around each person in this house, including and especially Hubby. She doesn't have a name yet but the kids are determined to call her Cutie Pie. The brown puppy on the top row is the little girl that is going to my neighbors sister. She hasn't been named yet either but I refer to her as baby girl. She has got to be my favorite. I just love to hold her! The other brown puppy is going to my neighbor's mother who has decided to name him Buzz. I just refer to him as Chunky Butt since he is by far the biggest of all the puppies. I hate to have to give them up but I can't handle anymore pets right now.

In the middle of trying to keep the kids occupied, I finished putting their school supplies together, tried to keep the house picked up and decided that I had to shampoo the carpets. So I called Mom and robbed her of her carpet shampooer. I've almost finished the boys room (waiting on Hubby to come home and move their bed) and have about half of Belle's room finished. While doing all of this, I decided I needed "last day of summer vacation" pictures.Our neighbor was helping Belle move stuff off of her floor and onto her bed so I could work on her floor. Bryce was busy making sure that he was getting in some good drawing time and Brady was playing with his new slinky. I didn't realize until after I had downloaded them that Belle had been taking pictures with my camera yesterday and must have touched the lens because they all had blurs on them. That has now been fixed. And then there was final picture this morning before I drove them to school.They look ready to impress their new teachers, don't they?