Sunday Mornin' quiet has blanketed the house

For some very strange reason ( I hope no one is sick) the house was still very quiet at 7:10 am. Hubby just woke me because he has to go shopping for cube steak for the chicken fried steak his restaurant has on their menu. He's the Exec. Chef at a very busy restaurant in the KC area. Can't say it's the first time he's had to head out on his day off...... Back to the quiet, I'm awake with my precious first cup o' coffee of the day. I hear my cat purring at my feet, my dog snoring and................... nothing else. Peaceful, quiet, still!!! It's so unusual with five children in the house normally the minute my eye lids open, alarms go off inside my children's heads and they're by my side in seconds. Just like shutting the bathroom door or locking my bedroom door sets off alarms in their heads too. Somewhere around 7:40 I heard the pitter-patter of A2 heading this way, close behind is D and A1. OK, I have to admit I love having my children in bed with me, sleepy faced and cuddly. How does one adult, three children, one cat and a 100 lb dog fit on a queen size bed??? Perfectly!

First Official Pool Use of the Season!!

The weather cooperated with my children's wishes and it was warm enough to swim~kind of. K, A1, and D1 were brave (or stupid) enough to actually go in and swim. They all seemed to be having fun and they didn't turn blue, much to my surprise. A2 decided she was going to stay in the sandbox and play all by herself. Because I couldn't remember where I had put all the sand box toys at the end of summer, she had to resort to filling her shoes up with sand and dumping the sand out over and over again. We did manage to play outside all day without any potty accidents......HURRAY! That is a huge feat for us. A2 has to trek all the way across the yard, up 13 stairs, go through the kitchen before she can even see the potty. We normally have an accident somewhere around the 8Th stair. I can't believe our vacation is getting so close... it's exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. Getting things packed for 4 children and myself is NOT something I'm looking forward to. My hubby is on his own as far as packing goes. Well, off to bed.... no one in this house sleeps much later than 6:45, the older I get the quicker that comes.

School's Out For Summer..... HELP!!

Friday, May 22nd...eight fourty two pm........... almost everything in the house is quiet. The radio is one, three of the four children home are in bed, and two of the three dogs have put themselves to bed too. Quiet is a little difficult to come by in this house until it's 10pm, now that J2 is home from college, it's even noisy until after midnight some nights. I have to admit hearing the constant "bling" of her text messages and the tapping of her computer keys is comforting. I know she's safe !! When she was at college, it wasn't easy at first sleeping not knowing...... One of these day's I really need to let that go. Finals were this week for D1, she did really well. She's going to be a sophomore in HS in the fall. And, may god protect us all, driving!! 2009 is the year most of my children roll into the "odd" ages.. 3, 5, 7, 9, and 19. The only "eve" ones are 16 and 24 this year. I'm not sure if that means anything... probably not to any one but me. Last day of school..... Yeah and Drat at the same time! We're taking our first vacation in a few years. We're goin' back home to AZ for a little while. It's nice to visit, so far when we have visited I have no desire to go back. Everyone and their damn mother have to ask me when I'm going to come back, but I'm not ready. I managed to get all my pre-k students off to kinder... I really miss them when they leave. Most I don't see very often after they leave. Some stop and visit here and there. I need to figure out a way to let them go too. I'm glad school is out for awhile, I need to find my house under all the little messes around it. Working full time took more of my home time then I thought it would. Not to mention soccer and t-ball. Oh well, when you have as many kids as I do what the hell should I expect?? Well, I'm off to watch BRIDE WARS and eat ice cream. G

Tuesday... another long week. It's the last week of preschool and we have too much celebrating going on!!! We've had two days of water day/picnic days LOTS of fun.. LOTS of tired kids afterwards. Summer is almost here, school is almost out, vacation is close!! We are all yes the 8 of us flying back "home" to AZ for about a week. We keep coming up with different things we want to do while we're there like we're going back for a month. The little ones don't remember going to AZ and the youngest one has never met most of the family. I can't wait to go back. I always miss it more when we return. I still like our little town where everyone knows everyone else. Have to run.... it's pre-k graduation night at school!!! G

Monday a new week... Thank God

I can't believe it's Monday again all ready. Where did the week go? What about the month? Last week was a blurr. D had a very bad week. Every time I turned around he had his hands in something he shouldn't (sometimes literally). In one day at school, he hit 3 people, hid from his teacher almost giving her a heart attack, jumped down the flight of stairs, almost hurting another child in the process. His a child with blocks, and a book. All because "He wanted to." The next day when he was supposed to be washing the 3" thick blanket of mud he had on his hands, he climbed up the bathroom counter, got his fathers electric razor, jumped down, and "made" his 2 year old sister shave his head. Yep, right down the middle.... All this took about 5 minutes..at the most! Then he tried to blame it on his sister that was at t-ball practice. I didn't think the week would end. Then Sunday came, and he has been in the best mood. Granted we're only 48 hours or so into the new week, but it's been a good 48 hours. K got her hair cut today, she likes it. I think we should have put more layers in it, but its her head. She likes it and it's easier to comb. A1 had pink eye on Sunday, our first ever round of pink-eye in the house. You'd think with 7 kids, we'd have dealt with it earlier....NOT! Lucky us! She's handling the drops like a trooper. A2 has not napped very well at school lately. She's sleeping about 45 minutes or so. Then she's crabby the rest of the day!! She's ready for bed by 7pm but that doesn't give us enough time for bath and breathing treatments. I've rambled, I think I'm done. G

Tuesday somehow it seems like it should be Friday all ready. I think for the ladt three weekends, someone has gotten sick and I've missed Monday's. Today I rented THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON from the Redbox. So far I love it. It's an interesting idea. Growing younger instead of older...all the knowledge of a life time when you're in your 20's. Interesting..... How many of us have said "If I knew then....." Being young with your children.... When do you tell your children "secrets" of life? Every family has a story, a secret, something difficult to discuss. In our family when to tell your children they're adopted was always "the" subject. It seems for some reason our 9 year old always knew. I think it's because she saw others coming and going while we were foster parents. Our 6 year old A knows she's adopted, but doesn't know her entire story. She has a younger sister, half sister, somewhere. We lost contact with her when her father got remarried and started his life over without any DFS interference. We don't know where they are. I feel terrible telling her only part of the story. I know all the questions she asks will be answered without any real answers. Some days I feel sorry for their mothers especially this time of year. Most of the time I am just thankful they're mine. Some days, like today they make me crazy and make me doubt. Tomorrow will be another day, new sun , new sky, fresh sleepy faces. It's always a new day, to start over and be thankful again. G

What a beautiful weekend it ended up being! The sun finally won it's fight with the clouds and rain and decided to shine on us. We spent most of the day at the park. My daughter K had a soccer game and my daughter A1 had her first t-ball practice. I've forgotten how funny t-ball can be. She celebrated after every catch of a ball. When she hit the ball off the tee, she'd watch it until it stopped then run!! Everyone had fun, parents and children enjoyed themselves. Come home to find out A2 had once again peed in her panties while playing outside. I don't think she tried to go in the potty today. That would have meant leaving the outside and coming in. She waited until someone tattled on her about the wet pants. My oldest daughter J was home for the weekend, well she was actually working. Her friends all came by for about an hour, I forgot how much I miss that. I miss her... I guess it's something I better get used to. I though having her leave would be a little easier than when my son left, but it's not. I have three years to brace myself for my daughter D to leave for college. We work to get them to 18, be independent, and strong. Then when they actually ARE, I mourn their leaving. I still have 5 children in my home, you'd think I could let two of them go more easily. Oh well........ Off to bed to sleep before my day starts again at 5:30am.

TGIF!!! I don't know if it's the gloomy wet weather we've been having or what. This has been the looooooooooooongest week ever!!! It was the week than never ended! Now the sun is peeking out just a little bit and the four younger children are all outside playing with the 3 dogs! A has shed her shoes and braces and is on the trampoline with the rest of them. The CP does not stop her from doing anything...she may not be an Olympic runner, but then neither am I. The house is quiet, two older girls not home, one is babysitting the other has not returned for the weekend from college. Hubby at work....all by myself in the kitchen..it's a small miracle.(I probably just jinxed myself) Cooking, blogging, talking to myself. The only thing that could make this better, is a cold margarita!!! Ok... here they come