Let's Cut to the Chase

Last night there was about an hour's gap of time between when Steve left for work and when I arrived home to find GG freaking out. She and S3 had been fighting again. I thought I'd calmed the situation so I went upstairs to shower. I didn't even have the water turned on when GG pounded on the door freaking out about S3 again. I told her just to avoid him until I finished my shower and I'd deal with everyone then.

About twenty minutes later, I had everyone turn off the computers, play stations, and television and gather in the living room. Ty told me his version of events, S3 & Ev concurred and GG added a little more detail, but pretty much everyone told the same story.

For the next half hour or so, Ty, S3, GG and I discussed how things could have been done differently to avoid the arguing and crying and finally everyone was calm so I dismissed them all from the "meeting." Ev turns to me and says, "So basically I didn't really need to be here."

Special Talents

Tonight in the car, E asked me why we don't have a "family job." After some confusion, Ty translated that for me into, "Why doesn't our family own our own business?" I asked E what she thought we would do if we opened our own business. There were a lot of restaurant ideas coming from the back seat when S3 chimed in, "Let's see... What are our skill sets? Hmmm.... there's Tattling..."

The Peanut is NOT a Wimp

Yesterday I had to pick my sister's daughters up from school, Peanut and Eeyore. Since E only has a half day she came with me. We ran a couple of errands ending our running around with a trip to the grocery store. While we were in the produce section picking out an onion, Eeyore started picking on her little sister the way only big sisters can.

"Peanut is so wimpy, she can't even shut a door!"

Now Peanut is small but she's no wimp. However she is the baby and she is a lot like her Aunt Sara. She uses charm and her baby-of-the-family status to get out of having to do any strenuous work. I know this because it's exactly what I do, er, um, did. So I defended her and said, "Nah, women in this family aren't wimps. We're strong."

E chimed in by saying, "I'm strong. I can pick up a gallon of milk."

Peanut, silent no longer said, "I can pick up a gallon of milk too!"

Well a gallon of milk just happened to be on my list so we made our way to the dairy department where all three girls, striving to prove their non-wimpiness, each picked up a gallon of milk. "Er, ladies, I only need one gallon so two of you will have to put your gallon back," I said.

Immediately three voices called, "Not me!" They proceeded to play the "not me" game until finally Eeyore was the last to say it and she had to put her gallon back. We stood there for a little while longer while the two younger girls continued to shout out, "NOT ME! NOT ME! NOT ME!" in unison over and over until finally I said, "Ok we're obviously going to have to move on to Rock, Paper, Scissors."

I held both gallons of milk and stood there while the girls played the elimination game. E threw paper, Peanut threw scissors. Peanut was victorious and E had to put her gallon of milk back. Peanut was very happy with herself as you might imagine.

So as we go to walk away from the milk case, I look up finally and see there is a line of people waiting to get a gallon of milk. ROTFL! I blushed, apologized and we took off for the check-out.

We got around the corner and Peanut declared the milk was too heavy and I traded my onion for her gallon. LOL

The best part of the story though... I got home and was telling Steve about our adventures in the grocery store and once he got done laughing he said, "You do realize we have two other gallons of milk in the fridge downstairs, don't you?"

E Teaches Me About Joseph

"First his dad bought him the most expensive coat he could afford. I think maybe it was like nine bucks and his brothers were jealous. Then later when the brothers threw Joef-es in the pit and put the sheep blood on his coat, they lied and told the dad that a monster ate Joef-es. At the very end, they had a party and Joef-es invited everyone."

Diva Party

I'm going to post way too many pics. Sorry. I can't narrow them down. The girls got hair, makeup, and nails done and they got to make their own lip gloss to take home. Plus I had pizza and ice cream cake for them. Ty stayed and helped me clean up between activities (we'd leave the room and when we came back, he'd have all the dishes cleaned up from pizza, stuff like that). He also was in charge of the iPod so we called him the dj. He did a great job picking songs the girls loved and they all sang so loud I'm sure the patrons upstairs could hear them. It was by far the most fun, easiest party I've ever thrown. Plus the salon opened a bottle of sparkling wine so while the girls had soda, I got my drink on. One girl didn't rsvp and I didn't know if she was coming or not so since I already paid for five girls, E took her place. Also in one pic, G is blowing out a pretend candle on her cake. I forgot the candle.

Hannah Montana, eat your heart out!

Renovation Update

Despite what you see in the pictures, I'm basically doing this alone so it's taken me two weeks to get the living room painted and the flooring ripped up. This week I'm starting in on the dining room. I really want to have this done by Steve and E's birthday (4/4). Here's my "befores" - sorry they're all just old pics. I didn't bother taking any before I started in on the painting.



E wanted to help SO badly. She sanded and helped paint primer. It wasn't until I got to the actual painting that she decided it wasn't that much fun anymore.




Wiping the ceiling down to get it ready to paint:




Pulling the staples out of the padding (there were like 3,000,000 of 'em)




Scrubbing up dirt and stuck-on carpet padding:


You can see what the floor looks like without carpeting. It needs refinished. We're hoping sometime this summer...

Bring Out Your Dead! But I'm Not Dead Yet!

Wow, talk about the plague. Between pink eye and the stomach flu, I don't think I'm ever going to get to leave this house ever again. So far E and G have been home with pink eye and the day after E went back to school from that, she came home with the stomach flu. Now Ty is home with it. Thankfully Steve came home from Missouri yesterday and I got to slip out to the library for a half an hour. I was running low on reading material.

Not much else to say here. It's been a heck of a week.

Learned Something New Today

After church I needed groceries so the kids and I quickly changed and headed out to Sam's Club. We were all in a pretty good mood; our bellies were filled with cheeseburgers and iced tea and we were ready to shop.

As we walked in the front door we saw this cool game set up called Rock Band complete with two guitars, a drum set and a microphone. Steve is in Missouri and since we didn't have to rush through shopping and we didn't have anywhere we needed to be, I gave my go-ahead to the kids to check the game set up a little closer. Ty immediately sat down at the drums, G grabbed a guitar and E gravitated toward the microphone. I cajoled S3 into picking up the second guitar telling him it would be fun.

So it seems like Ty on the drums is in control of the selections - music and etc. - so he starts trying to figure out what pad to bang on to get the result he wants (the next screen) and every time he manages to figure it out, G would push a button on her guitar and send them all back to the main screen. Rinse and repeat about five times until finally I said, "G! Do NOT TOUCH another button on that guitar until I say so."

Ty gets to the next screen (finally!) and now the instruments have to pick their level of play. Two of them choose "easy" and S3 is trying to figure out how to be a bass instead of a guitar when G pressed that button again and sent them all back to the beginning. Rinse and repeat about five more times until finally I got Ty to just push everyone through that screen and the music finally started.

Well they must have picked the hardest song ever to try to play and besides that, both the girls just stood there dumbfounded, not understanding the point of the game at all and very quickly they all four failed to perform and the game was done. All of this took about 15 minutes or so and it looked as though other people would like a chance to try to fail so I declared our time with the game to be at an end.

G and E cried and whined. Ty was just about pulling his hair out in frustration - over the game set-up, over failing at the game, and worst of all over his older brother who was having himself a FAN-tastic 13 year old pissy moment (silent mind you. It's all in the body language).

"So what did I learn today?" you may be asking. I learned why Steve always says, "No."

Totally Random

In the car on the ride home tonight, out of nowhere E says, "Wouldn't it be funny to tape a duck?"

Hi. Didja Miss Me?

Don't even ask where I've been. Lazy I guess. I just haven't blogged. I was surprised to see it's been since December 5th though. I thought I'd blogged at least once in January. I'll try to give you a quick update.

- Steve is still hard at work. They found some way to do a remote start-up with one of their factories so thank you God, he's been home these last two months and not in Korea.

- S3 is finishing up a looooong, boring basketball season. Basketball is not my favorite sport nor is he exceptionally good at it. He is athletic so he does well but it's not like watching him play soccer or baseball where he's usually one of the best players.

- Ty is a reading machine. I'd have never guessed he'd be my reader but let me just say I'm so glad we re-found the library. Does anyone know of any good youth stories about spies? Spy stories are his favorite.

- G is still playing soccer. She's finally on a team of girls her own age (rather than one and two years older!) and she's regaining her confidence. It's good to see. She's growing her hair back out so it's kinda scraggly right now but it grows fast.

- E cut her hair for LoL also (I don't think I ever told you guys that) and at first I was upset we'd cut off all her beautiful curls but it's so cute, it's ok. She's doing great in kindergarten and all my worries about her motion sickness and the school bus seem to be for naught, thank goodness.

- I am hunting for a new job. I've been working at the facility for 2.5 years now and I'm getting worn out. I wanted to be able to help and to give care and I feel like I'm so rushed and stretched now that I barely have time to do the minimum for my residents. I'm now looking for home health. I think I'll like the one-on-one much better and I'm hoping to time it right that I'll still be able to study and watch the kids' sports games.

I think that's about it. It's good to be back :)

Enough Already!

Look, wasn't it enough that my BABY went to school? Did she have to go and lose teeth too??? What is with all this growing up stuff? A mom can only take so much here.

First one came out...


Then a second one. Now a third is loose.


"Mom, enough with the mouth pictures already."

Two Quick Stories

I gotta run to a doctor's appointment in a minute but I have to tell you these two quick stories first.

Last night S3 had left for puppet practice (VBS this week at our church), the girls were at the table doing crafts and Ty was supposed to be doing some dishes in the kitchen. I was reading a book. At some point a hissing noise pierced my concentration on the book but it sounded to me like Ty was playing with the sink hose or something and I didn't think much of it. A few moments later G said, "What is that?!?" which completely pierced my concentration so I looked up. Oddly enough there was a flashing light accompanying the hissing noise in the kitchen. The girls and I went to investigate and found Ty quickly throwing a cup of water on something on the other side of the bar.

I looked down and there was a tiny blackened plastic cup and a huge puddle of water. I looked at Ty and said, "Ty did you set off a firework in my kitchen?"

Now mind you, the smoke in the kitchen is so thick I can hardly see him. The smell was overwhelming. There was a blackened cup sitting in a puddle of water on the counter and do you know what that child said to me?

"Sorta."

He sorta set off fireworks in my kitchen. Sorta.

-------------------------

Story two:
Last night after VBS the boys were really wound up so they were wrestling on my living room floor while E danced around them, giggling. At one point S3 had pinned Ty down and he called to E, "Give him a wedgie! Give him a wedgie!"

E turns to S3 and in a disgusted voice says, "Ewwww! I'm not touching his underwear!!!"

Day 5

Our last day to enjoy the parks... The kids wanted to go to Downtown Disney one last time so we did that in the morning. Steve spoiled them with fudge and chocolate covered marshmallows.


And then we skipped back over to MGM. This time we got a better hang of how to manage the crowds and use the fast pass to our greatest advantage and we got to see a couple of cool stunt shows and a couple of 3D shows.

I thought this was the coolest illusion. The buildings in the background are just painted.


Herbie was there!

We all got in line for a quick ride before we saw the car stunt show and just as we were getting ready to get on, E decided nature was calling and she couldn't ignore the phone so she and I skipped out to find a bathroom. When she discovered everyone had gotten on the ride without her, she bawled. She was inconsolable.

Steve and the kids got off the ride and met us for the stunt show and E promptly did this:

That explained all the crying. Poor Steve had to carry her up a million stairs... really, I wish I'd taken a picture of the stands. It was a lot to climb with an extra 50 lbs to carry. He was understandably a little hot by the time we got to our seats.


Maybe you can tell how high up it was by looking at the stage we were watching:


Anyway, after MGM we went back to the hotel for one last swim and to pack up. The next morning we headed out early for the airport. I think we all needed a week of sleep to catch up with all the sleep we gave up to play while we were there.


Hope you enjoyed our vacation! I know I sure did LOL!

Day 4

I'm sorry for the long delay between days. We got home and Steve left right away again and I'd been uploading pics to his laptop.

Friday we started out in MGM trying to take advantage of the EMH (extra magic hours) in the morning but other than the Tower of Terror, a Star Wars Parade and the High School Musical pep rally, we didn't get much done. It was hot and it was crowded. I think it was the hardest morning of our vacation.

We had reservations for lunch in Epcot with the Princesses so the girls got all dolled up and ready for their date.

Then it was off to MGM for a few hours. Now you might think I'm nuts for letting my baby ride the Tower of Terror but she did really well on Big Thunder Mountain and she really wanted to ride it so she did. Steve said she was fine when they dropped her the first time but then the ride goes back up and opens the doors so you can look out over all of MGM. He said she looked out those doors and it was like, "Ok, this is serious!" She cried when the ride was over and the entire rest of the vacation if anyone said, "Tower of Terror" she would go, "I don't want to ride the Tower of Terror! It was really scary!"


It was Star Wars Weekend in MGM so we were treated to a lot of Star Wars stuff, including a parade with storm troopers and Jedi Micki. Steve is a big Star Wars fan so he was thrilled.

This picture is for my sister. She knows why.

This was the worst moment of the vacation. I'm sure the girls loved it but it was HOT and it was PACKED with people. I didn't wear much makeup on vacation but by the end of this show what little bit I had on, melted off my face. Literally. It was HOT.

They invited the kids up to dance with the cast and I think E was the first one out of her seat.
Our Princess lunch was in Epcot so we gave up on MGM and hopped a bus on over there.


I don't remember what E was pouting about but I've titled this picture, "The saddest little princess in the land."


We had some time before lunch so we hit a few countries. The boys are watching a glass blower in Mexico.

We parted ways - the boys were off to find more adventurous rides - and sat down to wait for our lunch. They were running about a half hour behind in their reservations and while we waited, E fell asleep sitting completely upright. I pulled her down on my lap and she slept until our name was called.
At the table, waiting for the princesses to appear.

All the princesses were there. We saw Belle, Jasmine, Ariel, Aurora, Cinderella and Snow White. I won't bore you with all the pics we took but Cinderella is our favorite and Snow White was the best Snow White I've ever seen. She even sounded like the girl in the movie.



After that we went to the hotel for a couple of hours and then hit Magic Kingdom to take advantage of the EMH there. We saw the electric light parade and the fireworks and then we rode a bunch of rides until about two in the morning. Yes, you read that right. Two A.M. It was awesome because during the day you'd stand in lines and even with the fast passes you'd maybe only get three or four rides in but at night the crowds are down by probably 3/4 of what they were during the day and there isn't a single thing we waited longer than ten or twenty minutes to ride.