More Cakes

I haven't posted cakes in a long time. Here's a couple.

First up, Jacob's 12th birthday cake. He turned 12 right before the Chinese New Year so we rang in the Year of the Rat a little early.

Those are very bad representations of the Chinese characters for 'rat' along with Chinese keys and a yin-yang symbol. Along with 12 little fondant rats.
ZD thought that they looked a little too realistic. I made them all by hand. 12 little rats that the party guests fought over. I had to split them. Each kid got half a rat and the birthday boy got a whole one.

Ugh!

But the inappropriate cake-ness doesn't stop there. (Or it didn't start there.) Way back in October, Matthew had a Halloween Costume party complete with an

EYE CAKE! See my little Harry Potter look-alike and the flaming eye.
And then we cut that eye open and it bloomed like on of those onions at Outbacks. That's some yummy goodness right there.

a pricing question

Let's say you signed your kids up for a science class taught by a former public school teacher who was now a homeschool mom. This particular homeschool mom has a degree in biology and organic chemistry and a secondary education degree.
She also taught at well-known (in the area) science education center, developed activities for the US Forest service, and was a trained Star Lab, Project Wild, and AIMS instructor.
Let's just say that she can teach some science.

Also say that said homeschool mom was offering science classes out of her home for small groups. (6 students per class) And she planned to teach three different groups K-2, 3-5, and 6-8th. These classes would be 3 times a month and 12 classes per semester. Classes would last 1 hour and 15 minutes and the price would include materials and handouts. The 6-8th grade classes would follow an actual textbook but the homeschool mom is not the biggest believer in science textbooks even when she was a PS teacher.

Bottom line...how much would you pay for these classes?

Patrick Henry

March 23, 1775

No man, Mr. President, thinks more highly than I do of the patriotism, as well as abilities, of the very worthy gentlemen who have just addressed the House. But different men often see the same subject in different lights; and, therefore, I hope it will not be thought disrespectful to those gentlemen if, entertaining as I do opinions of a character very opposite to theirs, I shall speak forth my sentiments freely and without reserve. This is no time for ceremony. The question before the House is one of awful moment to this country. For my own part, I consider it as nothing less than a question of freedom or slavery; and in proportion to the magnitude of the subject ought to be the freedom of the debate. It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country. Should I keep back my opinions at such a time, through fear of giving offense, I should consider myself as guilty of treason towards my country, and of an act of disloyalty toward the Majesty of Heaven, which I revere above all earthly kings.
Mr. President, it is natural to man to indulge in the illusions of hope. We are apt to shut our eyes against a painful truth, and listen to the song of that siren till she transforms us into beasts. Is this the part of wise men, engaged in a great and arduous struggle for liberty? Are we disposed to be of the number of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not, the things which so nearly concern their temporal salvation? For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst, and to provide for it.
I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know of no way of judging of the future but by the past. And judging by the past, I wish to know what there has been in the conduct of the British ministry for the last ten years to justify those hopes with which gentlemen have been pleased to solace themselves and the House. Is it that insidious smile with which our petition has been lately received? Trust it not, sir; it will prove a snare to your feet. Suffer not yourselves to be betrayed with a kiss. Ask yourselves how this gracious reception of our petition comports with those warlike preparations which cover our waters and darken our land. Are fleets and armies necessary to a work of love and reconciliation? Have we shown ourselves so unwilling to be reconciled that force must be called in to win back our love? Let us not deceive ourselves, sir. These are the implements of war and subjugation; the last arguments to which kings resort. I ask gentlemen, sir, what means this martial array, if its purpose be not to force us to submission? Can gentlemen assign any other possible motive for it? Has Great Britain any enemy, in this quarter of the world, to call for all this accumulation of navies and armies? No, sir, she has none. They are meant for us: they can be meant for no other. They are sent over to bind and rivet upon us those chains which the British ministry have been so long forging.
And what have we to oppose to them? Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the last ten years. Have we anything new to offer upon the subject? Nothing. We have held the subject up in every light of which it is capable; but it has been all in vain. Shall we resort to entreaty and humble supplication? What terms shall we find which have not been already exhausted? Let us not, I beseech you, sir, deceive ourselves. Sir, we have done everything that could be done to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned; we have remonstrated; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to arrest the tyrannical hands of the ministry and Parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced additional violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been spurned, with contempt, from the foot of the throne! In vain, after these things, may we indulge the fond hope of peace and reconciliation. There is no longer any room for hope. If we wish to be free — if we mean to preserve inviolate those inestimable privileges for which we have been so long contending — if we mean not basely to abandon the noble struggle in which we have been so long engaged, and which we have pledged ourselves never to abandon until the glorious object of our contest shall be obtained — we must fight! I repeat it, sir, we must fight! An appeal to arms and to the God of hosts is all that is left us!
They tell us, sir, that we are weak; unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power. The millions of people, armed in the holy cause of liberty, and in such a country as that which we possess, are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us. Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged! Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable — and let it come! I repeat it, sir, let it come.
It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace — but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!

If Patrick Henry were here today, almost 7 years after September 11...he would be horrified by most of the politicians today.

If you ask the soldiers who are fighting this war if they want the "peace" that most of our politicians want....they would answer no.

They want others to know freedom...not peace. Peace is easy. Peace is cheap. Peace is attained by selling out. Freedom is more complicated. Freedom is worth life.

Traveling papers.

ZD got orders yesterday.
Official orders for our first duty station since he returned to the Army.
We were all looking forward to a little excitement.

Would it be the two year tour to Korea?
Would it be time in the DC area with all the great history and museums?
What about Colorado? Now that would be something brand new for all of us.

Where are we going?
Nowhere. That's right. No. where.

ZD's orders are for the very post that I've lived around for 31 years.
My life as an Army wife has been sooooooo exciting. I've been here and Ft Bragg.

It is good news though. ZD has numerous contacts at the post. He has a reputation amongst military and contractors alike.
All of our family is here or nearby. We are entrenched in the community and we love our life. And our very old dogs will live out the rest of their lives in the yard they know so well.

But........

Some excitement wouldn't be a bad thing.

Orders could change. His report date isn't until March.
ZD has had reoccurring dreams about us being in Germany. He said that in his dream that I loved it there.

Maybe next tour.

I am not ready for this.

My oldest son is growing up.

A few nights ago he and ZD were up after bedtime having "a talk." I was banned from the area but I overheard a few phrases and questions.
"How do you know if a girl likes you?"
"....always be a gentleman."
"How did you get mom to like you?"

Then oldest child started using the phone to call his friend and a girl. (2 different people) The conversation with the girl was a marathon session.
Last night he ate dinner at his friend's house. It was very strange setting the table for only 5.
It was a glimpse of our future.

"Soon, we'll be eating dinner alone." I told ZD.
"Thank goodness the youngest is only 4." he countered. I didn't want to remind him that the "baby" will be 5 in a few weeks.

Then, just to hammer the point home, Andrew came up complaining that his back teeth hurt and must be loose.
Nope...they aren't. He's getting his first adult molars. And he'll be seven this week.

Where is the pause button?

Water WIngs

Yes, for only $6.99 (times 2) and a pair of healthy lungs, you can can have your very own water confident child.

And even better, these roll right off the little tykes arms just like that water worm toy. (Am I dating myself? Do you know what toy I'm talking about?)
Actually, I think they are called "Arm Floats" now and not "water wings."

But who cares about semantics when you can go down the water slide with all your brothers, their friends, and several hundred strangers.

Be wary of the side effects : Cannon ball jumps, repeated wandering out into the really deep water, and big white tan lines on your biceps.

Also beware of hot metal items or you'll be shelling out another $6.99.

A visit with the Orthdontist

The oldest boy has an overbite. A week or so ago, he went to do his initial x-rays and let the orthodontist make a plan on how to fix his mouth.

Initially, she planned to to do the treatment in two stages. Stage 1 would last a year and would cost us $1000 after insurance. We never discussed stage 2. Apparently, stage 2 is a really big deal

Today, we met with her to hash out all the plans now that x-rays, molds, and pictures had been done.

Things changed...a lot.

The oldest boy apparently has a skeletal overbite and a dental overbite. The good news is that according to his growth plates, he hasn't yet had his major growth spurt. In fact, he's god another 10 to 12 months of slow growth before he really starts growing.

Both the Orthodontist and I found that quite amazing since the 12-year-old boy is already 5 feet 8 and wears a size 14 shoe.
I don't want to think about him growing a lot more.

Anyway, The dental overbite will be treated with braces. The skeletal overbite will be treated with this contraption to encourage his lower jaw to grow quicker.

Yeah....that's what I thought also. It's called a Herbst appliance. They look like the things on our storm door to keep it from slamming.

The poor boy will have to wear this and/or braces for the next TWO YEARS. And he will will most likely wear a retainer until he is in his 20's. (So says the orthodontist.)

Poor kid. He's got years of torture ahead of him. Paid torture.

How much will 2+ years of dental torture cost us?

Are you sitting down?

I would recommend it.

Especially if you have a kid with an overbite....and very little in the way of a chin.

And you know insurance only covers about $1000 to $1500.....lifetime.


Ok....you've been warned.
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$5900.00, plus $170 for all the x-rays, molds, and photos.

The boy got spacers in today. He hasn't complained but he did ask for some Tylenol. In a week he will have metal bands put in instead of the crowns in the above picture. A week after that, he'll have 4 baby teeth pulled. Then he'll be measured for his torture device....umm...Herbst Appliance.
Two weeks after that, everything will be installed. Braces, spacers, Herbst, and a few bands just to round out the event.

But it's better than the option of waiting until adulthood. Adults with skeletal overbites have to have jaw surgery.

Thank goodness he's still growing.

I wonder if the mil-pay can set up an allotment to the orthodontist. We do have three more boys coming up behind this oldest one. We might be able to fund our own treatment room.

Oh...and we'll need to start a shoe fund. We can't find many shoes larger than a 14 around here. I don't foresee his foot to stop growing any time soon.

Summer update

We're still playing baseball. Matthew's team is 4-1. Jacob's team is 3-1. Andrew's team is 2-2. And Sam's team has just discovered where 1st base is. We're having a great time though. All the families on the boys' teams are just wonderful. That makes the practices and games a lot of fun for me.

We're swimming almost everyday and the boys and I are getting brown as Indians. Um.....Native Americans. Um.....we're getting fairly tan. My favorite life guard is back for one last summer before he graduates college and enters the real world. He gets tickled at Sam's new found love of water and just shakes his head as Sam cannon balls into the big pool.

On Friday, my oldest managed to get on the front page of the local newspaper. Even underwater he's a complete ham. We didn't even know that the lady was a reporter. We thought she was just a nice lady who has a new underwater camera and wanted to try it out. (No that's not me in the background. We were out of shot laughing at the whole thing.) ZD and I were rather surprised when we saw that shot right on the fold.

We've had a run on car trouble here. ZD's car busted a manifold and my van developed an oil leak. Our stimulus checks went to the local Goodyear place. It was nice that we had the money....i just wish it could have gone towards something more fun.

Oh....and ZD has a request for orders. For the non-military people, that means that he has a new job lined up and planned for. I don't want to get too excited about it just yet. A lot of things could happen between now and the end of February. Another unit could need someone. Jobs could get shuffled. Plus the unit doesn't even exist yet.

I don't want to say too much yet but it's the ideal place for us. And we won't be going to Korea. We're quite happy.

We are here. We are here. We are here. We are heeeerrrrreeeee!

Sam wandered into our room while ZD worked on his laptop. "I need a hair cut." he said in annoyance. ZD playfully asked him if he wanted a haircut like his...a soldier's cut with a little length on top.
Sam inspected his father's head and replied, "Yeah....but without all the bald parts."
We're still giggling with each other about that one.

It's been baseball central around here. Season I is finally finished and they are now onto Season II. On Saturday we had a bit of overlap. M & A had games over at the Y and the oldest boy had a double elimination tourney at our church league.
Holy Moley! That boy played baseball all day. The first game was at 9 am and they finally lost the last game at 5 pm. His team came in second place overall, which was how they were ceded coming into the tourney. The team that won really deserved it. We couldn't have lost to a more encouraging coach or nicer man.
I spent the time managing the dugout, keeping the score book, and knitting a very orange pair of socks. Oh yeah, and working on a seriously hot farmer's tan.


I spent half an hour trying to order curriculum for next year's school year. It should have been a quick click and then type in my credit card number, but the company's system wouldn't acknowledge my address. It kept trying to assign me to the town next door. I finally called customer service and convinced them that the two town share the same zip code...though we have our very own post office.
I felt like a "Who" trying to convince the rep in some cold Midwestern place that I really did exist and that I wasn't existing in the town she thought I was.


I'm just about to start the planning for next year's school year. I still have to order a new microscope and decide on a logic program. The basics are all done though. We're sticking with MCP math and Singapore math for the younger ones. Oldest boy will be using Lial's Basic College Math. Everyone is using Rod and Staff English, Spelling Workout, and Wordly Wise.
Oldest boy is reading short stories and poetry this year. We'll sprinkle in a few good novels and introduce Shakespere. But for now he is content to work through an Edgar Allen Poe collection.
Matthew has a school literature book and a whole shelf of biographies to read. This weekend he started with the biography of Albert Einstein. (Who, according to M, left his wife for his cousin. He was quite outraged by that.) The two younger ones will continue with Hooked on Phonics and Explode the code.
History is way off the classical method. Sam will be covering stuff through Five in a Row. A & M will continue with the Core Knowledge History and Geography series. Oldest boy is happy with a Geography and cultures textbook. (We had an interesting discussion about GDP this morning.)
For Science we're using Five in a Row, Harcourt Science, and PH Science Explorer Life Science.
Oh....and we're returning to Latin this year. I've ordered Latin Prep from Galore Park for my oldest. He plans to study it on his own. I think he can knock himself out on that one and I wish him well.
Now I just have to schedule everything to make the upcoming year as smooth as possible....especially since we'll have to move in the middle of it.


The pool opens this week. It's the last week of public school. So either way, my peaceful mornings are over.
If the kids don't bug me about going swimming, the neighbor kids will be ringing the doorbell at 8:30 in the morning.
On a positive note, the ice cream man hasn't been seen in weeks. Maybe he's moved on to more fertile pastures.


Last bit o' news. J has started his road to cosmetically straighten teeth. We start "stage 1 intervention" tomorrow. Let's just say that neither none of us is filled with joyous anticipation. Thank goodness for that Health Savings Plan and the fact that he could walk home from the orthodontist if he had to.

Enjoy your pearly whites, straight of not.

What if God were one of us?

At the baseball field on Saturday.
Sam runs up to me and hands me a book mark with images from Jerusalem.

"Don't 'woose' that. I got it from Jesus." (pronounced in a way to rhyme with Cheese-its.)
Really? From the Man himself?
"Yeah, so don't 'woose' it. It's my Jesus thing. Jesus gave it to Coach Bobby and Coach Bobby gave it to me.

Well, that clears things up a bit.
The book mark from the Jesus has been quite the favorite thing around here. Of course in Sam's eyes, Coach Bobby ranks as pretty important too.

This makes us all crack up laughing.

It's got all the cuteness. Momma Panda, baby panda, and a sneeze.
We laughed to tears.
Turn your speaker up first. Nothing will jump out and scare you. My kids have watched this a dozen times and we still can't stop laughing.

I need a swift kick in the rear.

I have to finish painting the "big yellow thing." Its the buffet and hutch that needs to be a big green thing. The base is done.
And that is all.
The drawers...not done.
The shelves...not done.
The doors...not done.

And the hutch itself...it hasn't even been primed.

All the stuff that used to be in the big-yellow-soon-to-be-green-thing is in totes in my dining room and on the dining room table.
That means that the "school area" is now my kitchen table. Which further means that laundry must be folded....somewhere else. So I'm not doing laundry as promptly as I should.
When I see the pile of laundry, I feel guilty about sitting out on the sunny deck and painting.
(sigh)
It's a "hole in the bucket" situation here at the zoo. (Dear Liza, Dear Liza.)

Somebody give me permission to paint!

Test time

Yep...it's high season of the all-important-state-standards-test here in the Peach State. It is time for the CRCT. Which means the school year will soon end.

My kids have been attending speech at the local elementary school for....4 Springs now. And I have been looking at the same CRCT posters each and every year.
Up and down all the halls, are signs reminding the children to "read carefully" and to "reach the stars."

My not so favorite posters, however, have been conspicuously absent this year. (The Rosa Parks and MLK ones.)
That's an improvement in my book. But sadly, my other ideas have not crept into the school's head. The art displays are still without any educational merit. (But they had some pretty neat artwork this year. I do have to give credit there.)

It's very ......um....interesting for me to visit the school each week. I get a glimpse of what most homeschoolers do not.
And it doesn't change my mind about wanting to homeschool.

Sure, I get a little wistful when I watch the school plays. (We get to see the ones on our speech days.) The Principal is exactly the type of person that I would want as a principal and the custodians are the absolute nicest people I have every met. And the students are happy to be there. I don't think I have ever witnessed a major bad behavior. The music teacher is downright phenomenal.
And they conduct a very quick and thorough fire drill. (We've been there for two this year.

But I'm not tempted. No....not at all. Sometimes I am impressed by the level of work shown but I don't for a minute think that they maintain that level of work day in and day out across all the grades.
So I don't feel that I am dropping the ball with my sons.
I don't see that they are missing out on enough to justify enrolling them. Or to justify them missing out on the stuff they get here at home.

But my kids are a bit odd. My oldest is highly self-motivated and is an absolute dream student .... at home.
Around friends, he metamorphoses into Mr. Social. In a classroom setting, he would be every teacher's nightmare: the kid who does all his work quickly and correctly then chats with his buddies who haven't finished their work.
He would be like me...in class until he finished all his work and being sent on errands for the remainder of the school day.

My second and third would not be able to handle the distractions of a class room setting. The would come home every day with unfinished work that they were completely capable of doing. Another type of teacher nightmare: the one's who can but don't.

And then the baby would get into the worst possible mischief and flash that dimpled grin to get out of all repercussions. You know that kid from your own school days. The Teflon Don of the elementary school.
That grin works on works on everyone else...but I am immune.

Nope....I can't see it working for the boys. At home, they get more than what the school can provide them.

Except those school plays. That place can really put on a show.

A question from the Nine-year-old.

Momma, does the President get to pick the price of gas?

No, he doesn't.

Then why do they blame him on the news? They always say that the President needs to do something about the price of gas.

Yes, they do. But the President doesn't have anything to do with the price of gas.

Who does?

The people who sell the crude oil to oil companies and the companies that take the oil and turn it into gas. Plus the people that sell the gas too.

Well, why isn't anybody on the news blaming those people?

I don't have the answer to that one.

I think someone should let the news people know so they can start telling the right people that they need to do something about the price of gas.

Have

I have a floor. It is wondeeeerrrrrfuuuullllll.
I have a new cabinet too.
I have paint on the trim and the new cabinet.
But I have to paint the buffet and hutch some other color than the yellow it currently is.
I also have a big mess of clutter to put back where it belongs.
I have to put all my decorations back up.
I have to hang curtains too.
I would post a bunch of pictures
But I also have a dead battery in the camera and I cannot find the charger.

Until then want a peek?
Here's the replaced cabinet.

Yes, I have green cabinets. The color is actually "Outback" by Behr paint. The dining room is this same green.
Zd and I are partial to the green.

The floor....it is vinyl. A thick vinyl tile.
It's Adura Flooring from Mannington.
I have the the Sicilian Stone. Apparently it is indestructible. Or darn close to it. I wiped up a crayon mark. I wiped it up. With a paper towel. And plain water. Red crayon. Like I was cleaning up spilled milk.
That is so awesome! I opted for the solid surface installation but you can also get it with grout. I thought that the grout would just add to the maintenance and I wanted as little maintenance as possible.



Here's the back door. Please ignore my unattractive laminate counter. That's the next thing on my wish list.
Notice how the floor is 'dirt colored.' Yesterday, I swept up a pile of dirt and then walked away to find the dustpan. When I came back....I couldn't find the pile of dirt.

That is impressive.
Check out my white door. That used to be the home of the flat frog. He's gone now and the door is now glowing white.

That's my new wall color also. "Malted Milk" from Lowes. I really love the new wall color. I've been gushing over it since I bought it.
ZD is amused. He says, "It's just off white. Wasn't it off white before your painted it that yellow color?"
Maybe....but it wasn't that particular off white.

He likes the new look though. Last night I caught him standing in the laundry/utility room just staring with this approving expression on his face.

I do the same thing.

The email that cuased bad words to fly out of my mouth...

ZD messages: "There is a one in four chance that I will get this."

The attached message about a position that must be filled by one of the 4 people in his course (counting himself)......24 months command sponsored.......in Seoul.

Wonderful.

Holey Moley.
Our mothers will kill us if we try to take the grandsons with us. They will.

Any good yarn stores in Korea?

Updates

The painting is finished. Well, the walls and trim are done. The cabinets need a some work and the "big yellow thing" is going to become the "big green thing." (It's a buffet and hutch that are normally in my kitchen.)

The middle children go to the developmental Pediatrician today. That's always a fun filled life affirming trip. Then we have OT and after that, second child has a baseball scrimmage.
Tomorrow....my floor arrives. I will take pictures.

ZD did call the man who was so very annoyed at me about his problem. His conversation went like this.
"I was told that you had a conversation with my wife. I'm not happy about the tone of this conversation. You will not have any further conversations with my wife."
That was it. ZD was ticked off.
The guy was very contrite. His response was, "That's understandable." No apology was offered but ZD didn't ask for one either. He didn't want so I didn't need it.
So that is done.
I thanked the guy for standing up for my honor. My brave knight... slaying dragons and fielding phone calls.

Other stuff, there is knitting again.
I was so busy with the dang painting that there was no knitting. But that has changed.
I'm not happy about the knitted object so far so there may be frogging soon.

I'm off...I have to call a concrete guy. Can you believe that the county only offered to pay for half of the torn up section of the driveway. They seem to believe that we are half responsible for letting them in driveway in the first place.
They also feel we should have cut the tree roots ourselves. (But our insurance company begs to differ.)
I guess they live in an alternate reality where they are responsible for anything except the new library and a sports league.
ZD is meeting with legal tomorrow to see who is right in this situation.
But I need to start getting estimates on a new driveway.

Always some sort of action here in the Zoo.

This post is fueled by Paint fumes

I am painting the kitchen/utility/laundry room. The kitchen walls are painted and all is good. The utility/laundry is half done. Well, actually a quarter done. Half the walls have one coat. The washer and dryer are blocking my path to the other two walls. And the small mountain of laundry is helping block the other wall.
My plans to finish all this by Friday night were sadly derailed by the new eye drops that I have to take. They are very freaky...but this is my post about painting. More on the eye drops later.

In the kitchen, the 1st coat of trim is done. I am dawdling. I really don't feel like doing the second coat.
Oh, and if you have visited me before....the squashed tree frog in the door jamb of the back door....he's gone. It was surprisingly easy to remove his flat and very dried up remains. Then I painted over the crime scene.

The new paint color is "Malted Milk." It looks just like the inside of a Whopper candy. Quite nice. The children have stopped asking me if this is a base coat or if it will change color when it dries. I guess they've given up on the color becoming something more exciting than the creamy very light tan that it is.
The new floor is supposed to go in on Tuesday. I sure hope it looks good with the new paint.
After that, we can finally start getting back to normal. It will be nice to get the refrigerator out of my dining room hallway. The whole house has suffered with our house's heart in such disarray. It'll be nice to be able to find the cleaning sponges or the cookie sheets.

My to-do list for tonight and tomorrow:

1. Finish trim in the kitchen
2. Paint walls in the utility/laundry
3. Paint trim in the utility/laundry
4. Hang curtains in the kitchen
5. Hang blinds and curtains in the utility/laundry
6. Wait patiently for the new floor so I can put all the junk back into place and get all the stuff off the deck and out of my dining room.

$%%&#&*!!!

I hate people who chew me out.
I especially hate people who chew me out over the phone.....at seven o'clock in the morning.

People who are mad at me because they made a mistake and now they have a problem.

I really hate people who chew me out even when I am trying to solve the problem that they created. When I am going above what is required of me and trying my very best to help them out.

People that do not appreciate my very best. And feel that I should be doing way more them to fix the problem that they created...thusly chewing me out at 7 in the morning.
And if this "person" is someones husband with whom I've never even spoken to before....I will take it the wrong way.

According to him, I "dropped the ball."
According to me....The deadline was March 28th. I'm doing you a favor please act accordingly and stop telling me that I need an attitude adjustment for pointing out the time of your call.

ZD plans to speak the very unappreciative man. He feels that a man picking on a woman is a coward.

About the deck

**This post will be pretty boring for anyone who is not Dy or is not contemplating building a new deck. Sorry**

A few years ago, our deck fell off the house. It really did. It was nailed to our sill with flashing what-so-ever. The sill rotted. (That wood was supposed to hold up the whole house) and the deck came loose. Thankfully, it was only a 4 feet off the ground. That's when we discovered that not only did the deck not have footers but that the posts were just sitting on the ground.
ZD picked up the deck and moved it.

Very scary after the fact.

So we built a new deck.
After the house was jacked up and 18 feet of double sill was replaced.

New deck:
No nails at all. We used only bolts and screws. Each part of the deck is removable.

18 feet by 20 feet.
Completely over engineered. . Bolted to the house (not nailed) with 24 six inch lag screws. Flashed with nice big washers to make sure the holes do not strip.
We made sure that the joint across the span was not at the door that we use to get on the deck. (Previous deck had a joint at the high traffic area...bad plan.)

Double joists every 6 feet for the decking to sit squarely on. 1 inch deck boards with way more screws than needed.

We did two beams with four posts per beam. The beams are double thickness.
All posts have poured footers and are bolted in with galvanized post holders. (We set a j shaped bolt in the concrete and then attached the post holders.)

Then the entire deck has a 2 foot cantilever. This allows me to plant under the deck and hides the posts holding it up. The only problems with this was the railing. The posts holding the deck are not part of the railing in any way. (I see that Dy's old deck...the posts are part of the railing. Our posts are way under the deck.)

But this made installing the decking really easy. No posts to cut around.
The posts for the railing are bolted onto the deck and the rails were screwed into place. The rail was designed to have a 6 inch wide cap on it but .... well....that has happened yet. It will happen though.

Oh...on our railing....the bottom rail lets the pickets float above the decking. There is a 3 inch gap between the bottom rail and the pickets. That's so I can blow off the deck without all the crap getting caught by the pickets. You have to make sure the rail is set in though....or the kids will try to fit through that little gap.

Thing I wish we had done differently:
I wish we had left the rail posts higher than they are. That way we could put a nice decorative top on the post and put the cap rail between the posts.
I wish we had left a few posts very tall for a bird feeder or hanging plants. (To over hang the deck.
Also, I really wish we had not waited to stain it.

But I do love our deck.

Any other questions? Anybody have any other ideas for Dy's new deck? What about your own deck. What do you like and what is a really bad idea?

I have no floor

Well...I have floor. It's just really ugly. I was supposed to get a new floor yesterday but my new floor is in Florida. (Which is oddly apropos.)

My new floor will get here tomorrow and will be installed on Tuesday.

Until that time, my refrigerator will remain in the hall of my dining room blocking access to my kitchen. Thankfully, we can just walk around through the living room. So we can have cold food but we won't have ice. The supply line that caused all this mess in the first place, won't reach into the dining room.

So what do you do on Spring Break week and you kitchen is destroyed?
You paint it of course.

I've got one coat on the entire kitchen and today I'll finish that off and do the laundry/utility room. I may even repaint the cabinets before the guy shows up to put the new floor in.

Kids are being kids. Sam's foot looks better. He still screams and fights about the eye drops. Matthew's eye looks pretty good. He still has the redness and swelling. He's been awesome about the whole thing.
Andrew managed to miss the whole cold thing. So the nebulizer is back in the closet.

ZD however, did not that bus. He is one miserable Army guy. But he can't smell the paint fumes so he isn't complaining about them.

In which Sheila officially throws in the towel

The boys were supposed to go down to Grandma's farm today. They had planned to spend Spring Break down there. That was going to be a good thing because today is the day that the contractors are coming to tear out the water damaged cabinet and rip up all the flooring. (We had a refrigerator supply line leak.)

Tomorrow they will replace the flooring and then Thursday will be the grand replacement of all the things that they drug out.
My kitchen will be out of commission for 3 days. Hopefully, only 3 days.

Hopefully.

But the boys won't be at Grandma's. Nope.
M's eye are healing great but he has one medication he receives three times a day, another is 4 times a day, and then an eye ointment at night.
Thankfully, he is very compliant.

Just to add some excitement, the baby developed cellulitis in a cut on his foot. That means soaking his foot twice a day and antibiotics three times a day. Oh....and he also has some serious allergy conjunctivitis. So he also has eye drops twice a day.
Let's just say that he is not the best the little patient in the world and leave it at that.

To round out the troubles, A is developing a cold. Unfortunately, he also has asthma so any cold leads to croup and days on the nebulizer. I'm just waiting for that to start up.

So I made a check list of what to do for which kid and when.

Which will be fun ..... without a kitchen.

If you see me this week and I have that maniacal look on my face... you'll know why.

Third time's the charm

Today I'm sharing some pictures of my son, Matthew. I'm usually quite careful to make sure he looks his "best" for pictures. So some of the things that I am pointing out may not be so evident in these pictures. Plus M has learned to accommodate his eye alignment by turning his head or looking at us from the side.

Matthew has a myriad of eye alignment issues. Basically, he has strabismus. (lazy eye) He has had glasses since he was three years old. He's done patching for 10-12 hours a day for months. He had two previous eye surgeries.

Patching at age 5 to strengthen eye, 12 hours a day for 6 months. Second pair of glasses. Left eye went from 20/80 to 20/30.

He's always been very stoic about his eye problems. He has never complained about wearing glasses or not wearing glasses. He was patient and willing during all that patching. He trusts us and his doctor about surgery. He's just been wonderful patient.

Oct 2005 Age 7, first lost tooth, no glasses because he is working on strengthening eye muscles after second eye surgery to correct right eye going outwards.

Yesterday, he had his third surgery. This one was tough to recovery from. He cried in the surgical recovery room. His eye hurt so much that he needed three doses of morphine. This same kid cut his finger to the bone and needed 7 stitches...and never cried at all.

Nov 2003, age 5. Here's what it looks like when the patch is off. This was a few months before 1st surgery.

We got home from the hospital about noon yesterday and the poor little guy slept for the rest of the day.

April 2003, age 4 1st pair of glasses are 1 year old. Left eye starting to cross again.

Today, however, he's back to his normal self. He just looks terrible.

He has to take it easy for a few days to keep the swelling down. And he has eye drops and ointment several times a day for the next month.

Summer 2007, age 8. Left eye is going way outwards. Planned surgery for September 2007 but postponed because of ZD's deployment.

But his eyes look straight, to me at least. He has his first post-op visit on Monday.Cross your fingers....but not your eyes. But feel free to cock your head to one side.

World Autism Day

Autism Society of America

Autism: The Miracle Project trailer One of my own sons is very much Like "Henry."

If you have HBO, try to catch the documentary "Autism the Musical." But bear in mind, having a child with Autism is not all gloom and doom.
Not all families are torn apart and some even learn to embrace their children just the way they are.
We have.

Our boys play team sports. They get invited to parties. They have friends. They do well with their school work and plan to go to college.
They even have career goals. They plan to be husbands and fathers.
And Matthew can cook a mean grilled cheese sandwich.

In fact, we frequently get my least favorite comment, "Really? They seem so .... normal."
That's due to a lot of things. Wonderful therapists. Early intervention. Sensory Therapy. Sports groups that don't exclude "kids with special needs." Patient swim coaches. The world's best pediatrician.
And ZD and I have to take credit for our work. We try to be consistent in our rules. We teach the boys coping techniques. And we try to keep them in situations that they can tolerate. (Due to M's generalized anxiety...we won't be PCS'ing to Hawaii. M is a bit scared about living on a volcano.)

Sure, it isn't always smooth sailing. It does wear me down some days. But it's not some death sentence.
Sometimes it's even a good thing.

laugh

ZD is down right funny. He's so deadpan and sardonic that most people don't appreciate (or get) his sense of humor. They think he's serious.

So...ZD discovered that his credit card magnetic strip is no longer magnetic. (Most likely from his extended vacation to the desert.) He called the bank to request a new one. Now, ZD is not the type of person that enjoys the automated phone system. He really has no love for that particular bit of technology.

He finally got a real live person and explained why he needed a new card when the old one had neither expired nor was lost. (Automated system didn't have an option for "My magnetic strip is fried by all the sand and static.)

Bank person asked him what designed he wanted for the front of his new card.
Without a moment's hesitation, ZD replied, "Do you have one with little puppies on it?"

The bank person was quiet until ZD informed her that he was kidding and the plain gold front would be just fine.

I, of course, was cracking up.

Aren't you jealous!

My four children are all in the living room arguing quite loudly.

They are fighting over which one will clean up the carpet stain.

I kid you not.

I'm not sure if I should go break up the fight or just let them divvy them all up between themselves.
I'm thinking about starting a dusting war or maybe a window washing competition.

Words from Sam

I was whistling while I was knitting. I guess I don't whistle much since Sam was impressed by my ability.
"Mom! You can whistle..........with your mouth!"

Huh? I was genuinely perplexed.
"Honey, what else would I be whistling with?" I asked because I just had to know how he would answer me.

He looked at me with that "oh you poor foolish woman" look and he sighed at me.
"With a whistle." he answered. The boy is convinced that his mother is daft.

That's why the Army guys love them.

Littlest guy Sam came running downstairs after dressing himself.
He was was wearing a pair of tan cargo pants and a red shirt and we was really excited.

"Mom....Mom...Mom....Look!" he yelled to me, pointing to the pockets on the legs of his pants. "I've got TWO extras. Two! See." He pulled apart the Velcro holding the pocket and immediately began stuffing little Star Wars figures inside.

Apparently, when you're a four year old boy, having extra pockets is one of the best things ever.

Because we love excitement around here.

These are not my trees. They belong to the county. They county's property butts right up to mine. They removed these trees at our request because the pine tree was a. leaning towards our house and b. tearing up our driveway.

The Bradford Pear was a favorite tree for climbing. Most days, there would be at least 5 kids up in the tree. They even named all the branches. But it had to go because it would have been destroyed when the pine tree came down.

The pear came down fairly easy. The county folks knocked down my cable wire and tore up the corner of my siding. (I have that on my list of things to complain about.)

Then the pine removal began.

That's an 85 foot bucket truck. It wasn't tall enough. Notice the lean. This is the best angle to see just how non-straight the tree was.

That tree was a house killer. The boys had to sleep downstairs during heavy storms.
The roots grew under my driveway and pushed up the concrete...and grew into my sewage line. Can you tell that I have no love lost for the giant pine?

The view from across the street. This is after most of the limbs were removed. We left the house early and missed the initial action. This is what we found around 10 am. That's my driveway where the bucket truck is. There were another dozen county vehicles in the road. Wood chippers, backhoe, dump truck, fuel truck, and then various pickup trucks. They pretty much blocked the entire road.

While two guys from the power company cut down the big pine tree, another 10 county guys watched them. The work started at 7:30 am and they didn't finish up until after 4 pm.
And look what they left me with. I had no idea that they could possibly tear up my driveway more than it had been... I underestimated them. The funniest part was, they used leaf blowers to clean the debris off the driveway. I told them that that was an exercise in futility. (click on the pic to make it bigger. The expression of confusion on Andrew's face is hilarious. Ignore the ugly trailer. It's there temporarily.) Of course, the first thing I complained about was the oil stain. That set ZD off. "Well that's just the last straw....An oil stain. Now the driveway is completely ruined."

Here's another shot. For reference, those are ZD's size 13.5 feet. Notice the huge chunks of concrete sticking up. Lovely, huh?

And to add insult to injury, they left the two giant stumps. 50 year old pine trees leave a very big stump. I swear, my kids do own shoes. They just don't like to wear them.

ZooDad has already drafted his next letter.

And that's not all. Next post.....Water damage in the Zoo.

Guess what my children and the neighborhood gang are doing?

They are making origami water bombs, filling them with water, then climbing as high as possible in our Bradford Pear tree....and finally dropping them down on the driveway to see what happens.

Thankfully they aren't pelting the dog walkers with them.

This is apparently big time fun for the neighborhood gang.

Honestly, he really loves animals.

I walked into the house from homeschool PE and found that ZD had set up a table in the living room. And he filled it with file boxes from the attic.

This wasn't done on a whim, he needed copies of orders from 1985.
I'm not kidding.

Even more amazing was...he found them. I don't think I own any paperwork from the 80's except my high school diploma.

After about 10 minutes in the house, the sound finally registers with me.

"merow.....merooooooow......meeerrrrroooowwwww"
"Is that Mango meowing?" I asked when no one reacted to the very loud plainative cry.

"Oh, yeah" ZD piped up as if he just remembered something. "Mango might be locked in the attic crawl space."

She was.
She sure was glad to get out of there. At least the kids know where the saying "Curiosity killed the cat" came from.

We've been very busy

The last few days have been....welll...a little crazy here at the zoo.

I'll see if I can catch you to speed in a series of posts.

Let's start with Friday.


On Friday, I went to my special "old eyes" opthalmologist. She needed to check the little holes that she burnt into my irises, were still open. (I have narrow angle glaucoma and Fuch's endothelia dystrophy. I'm 37 years old and I have the eyeballs of a 60 year old.)

One of the holes was not doing it fair share of the pressure reducing work. So it will need further prodding along. Actually, I have to have some other laser procedure that will flatten my iris a little to help the hole stay open.
(The procedure was supposed to be today....but I had to rescedule. More on why later.)

When I came home from the doctor, I explained all this to ZD, who reacted by deciding that he needed to go ahead and sign in for duty.
(That's means he went and joined up with the Army again.)

He really did. He threw on his uniform, we packed up the kids, and we headed on post with a crate full of paperwork. By noon, we were an Army family again. Offical and everything.

We had lunch at the PX and then went to get ID cards. (For the experienced, it was not bad at all other than a DEERS issue. And the ID people were helpful and courteous. I was as surprised as you are.)

By 3 o'clock we had done all the work we could and then headed home. The kids played outside with friends while ZD and I kind of took in what we had just done.

Wordless Wednesday

Because it's better that I keep my "words" to myself.

We are really classing up the neighborhood this week.

12 years

I'm a little late. But so were you. You had to be forced into the world. And we weren't quite sure what to with you when you got here.
You threw us for a loop at the very beginning. By the time you were four weeks old, you had transformed me into the 'Mama Bear' I am today.
You taught us to be strong advocates for you and your brothers. Pyloric Stenosis. That was scary. Pneumonia. Every scarier. They made the occasional bouts with croup seem like sniffly nose.
You convinced me to quit work and just stay home. It was a choice to keep you healthy and to watch you grow.

And boy you grew. I feel like it was just yesterday that you learned to walk. How did you get so big already?

From the get go, you were always the funniest thing we'd ever known. You have brought us so much laughter. Kid, you are a hoot. You have always been our entertainment.
It was because of you that we started homeschooling in the first place. We just wanted the best for you.
You were patient and you taught us how to be good parents.

And we can't even claim credit for your level of awesome-ness. I don't think we had anything to do with it. We just got lucky. You're so smart. You're creative. You work hard without prodding. You're kind. You're polite. You're the best big brother that any kid could ask for.
I'm so impressed at with the young man that you're turning into. I'm proud of you and I'm proud to call you my son. I don't what I did to deserve such a great kid. But I am thankful.

We have such great faith in you. We know you'll be able to do anything you ever want too. You'll approach every new thing in your way....with hard work, sweetness, determination, creativity, and a good bit of humor.
I don't know what your future holds. You have your own plans and we will do all we can to help you all that you want out of life.
Our first born.....
may you always be content. May you always seek to learn. And may you always love.

News

MIL's surgery went well. She's up and about. She even insisted on spending tonight on her own. I guess she's gotten sick of being "watched over." ZD has to go back down there tomorrow to take her to for her check up.

But today he was home digging a hole. A really big freaking hole. A hole so big that Sam fell into it and couldn't get out.

We look like we're on our way to having a moat. Actually...we kind of are since it is filling with water.
You see, we have a root that has made it's way into a pipe. My sewer pipe.

UGH!

The county came, cleared the line, and stuck a camera in there. That's when we discovered the root.
ZD decided that he would tackle this problem himself.

Of course, ZD had no faith in the County guy's spray painted mark. Noooooo....he had to dig a 6 foot long trench and then take it down 6 inches across.....back and forth.

Where did he find the pipe? About 4 and half feet down...right where the county guy said it was.

sigh

Today he dug the hole and bought the materials. (And griped about the fact that there is 4 inch line and 4.5 inch line. And how you really can't tell the difference without cutting the line.)
Tomorrow, he's cutting the line and hopefully....cross your fingers, pray, sacrifice a chicken for me...he'll get the line repaired.

The Spectrum

Disclaimer: I typed this after watching some TV footage that was emotionally raw for me. The following is just random. Please just bear with me. I try not to be so fatalistic.

I watched Nightline's spot about girls on the Autism spectrum. ABC news will show it again tomorrow at 6 pm EST if you'd like a glimpse of what I'm talking about.

The little girl that they spotlighted was so very much like my son Matthew. I knew immediatly what her mother was feeling. I saw in her so many of the things that I see in him.

The desire to be friendly but the lack of understanding of how to do so. The rigidity. The inflexibility. The world of absolutes...no shades of grey.

Sometimes he seems bossy. It's his way or the highway. But it's just his need for predictability and order. He can't take the chance that something "unknown" might happen.

He tries so hard. Too hard. And then he gets slapped down.

Each time he fails...each time he is hurt....makes him less likely to try again.

But without practice, he'll never figure it out.

It's a vicious cycle.

Some days, I wonder how I can help him and his younger brother. Some days, I wonder if they will ever live a "normal" life. Many days, I feel like a failure and wonder what was going on in mine and ZD genetics that caused this.

Other days, I wonder what the big deal is. I'm oblivious to their faults. The daily things we do to accommodate their needs just blends into our regular day. And I justify my activities by saying that every parent deals with these sort of things.

But that's not true.

Most parents don't have chewy tubes and speech practice books.

Most parents don't buy weights for shoes.

Most parents don't have to feel the bed sheets to see if they are tactile correct.

Most parents don't have to give details of every single activity for the day.

Most parents don't own therapy equipment.

Or buy glasses based on their finger grips and weight.

Or have to reconsider silverware because the shape might be cause someone to be orally defensive.

Or not buy shirt with collars because collars are detestable.

As are shirts with embroidery or patches.

But....right when I'm feeling down I remember that some parents have children on the spectrum are profoundly Apraxic. Some never speak.

Some have severe behavior disorders. Some can be violent when they have tantrums.

Some can not function on grade level. Some can not play baseball on a mainstream team. Some will never learn to ride a bike or drive a car.

So I try to remember to be thankful. That things are not as bad as they could be. And I try to remember that progress has been made. Hope should not be abandoned.

Small steps.....very small steps....will lead somewhere, someday.

And while they will never, ever...ever...be "cured." They might someday be happy. Really happy.

Edited to add: I'm fine really. Every now and then, the big brick wall that I have supporting me finds a little weak spot. Then I'm just left vulnerable for a bit. I've found that if I keep soldiering on...I'll be back against that nice strong section again.

ZD is off again for a few days

His mom needs emergency surgery. I packed him up. Which was quite easy compared to the last time I packed his stuff. Then I sent him on his way.

As he said goodbye, we both had flashbacks to his other departures.

"Just four days," he said...to reassure us both.
"Four days is nothing," I tried to convince both of us.
"You'll be fine, right?" he questioned.

I couldn't help but laugh. Yeah, Hon. I'll be fine for 4 days without you. We're still trying to get used to him being around. 4 days away will be like a little vacation.
I feel guilty but I have to admit that I'm looking forward to a return to the normalcy that we created while he was gone.

Very guilty.

Prayers for MIL, please.

"You're knitting socks!!!"

"Boy, you really don't have anything better to do, do you!"

This was said to me yesterday at my great-nephew's birthday party**. And it wasn't said in a "Wow, you sure are inspiring way."

There were many retorts I could have made about the activities that the speaker chose to do in her time. Most, well all, would have be cruel. So I said nothing except, "I enjoy it" and went back to my knitting.

I found this comment odd since the speaker knew that I am not a sit around kind of person. She knew I homeschooled my four children. She knew that I have 2 children with Asperger's. She even knew that I made the birthday boy's cake. But she felt this need to belittle me for knitting a pair of socks.

So I paused my knitting to check on my four boys and then think about any possible reason she say such a thing.

Why?

Was she offended by knitting? Maybe had some repressed fiber trauma that just exploded out at the sight of my partially finished socks.

Does she have a long term memory issues? Perhaps she actually thought that all I did was sit around knitting.

Maybe she was jealous that she didn't bring anything to do? With no other distractions, she was forced to talk to other adults while ignoring her small toddler who kept wandering off.

Maybe I just offended her? I try not to put some air of "being able to do it all." Because I don't do it all. I just do the things I want to do and few things that I have to do.
My priorities are different.
I care more about baking birthday cakes than I do cleaning my sink for the 5th time in a single day, or cleaning my oven. I am more interested in knitting socks for all my guys than getting my nails done. I'd rather homeschool my own children than spend my days in a classroom teaching a group of children.
I pick to read a book over watching some old Western on TV. (DH doesn't care if I read while he watches TV...as long as we are together.)

These are the my choices. My choices don't automatically negate other people's choices. I honestly don't really care how other people spend their time. I figure that they too make choices of things they want and need to do. And that all those decisions fill up their day just like my choices fill my days.
I can't even say that either one of us uses our time more wisely. Because I don't have any clue. Now, if they start griping about their choices, I may form an opinion. But until then, I'll just assume that you can manage your time planner as well as I can.

And while I'm at it with the venting about comments. "I just don't know how you do it all," is my second most hated statement. (Second only to "Four boys....when are you going to have a girl?") I'm no super woman. I don't do anything special. Please don't make me feel like a freak because the things I chose to do are not the things you choose to do.

One day I'm going to just going to lose my last strand of sanity and I will say, "Well, I don't know how you get all the kids up at 6:30, feed, pack their lunches, and dress them, get dressed yourself, get to school by 8 am and then leave your kids with people you don't even know. Then go to work away from your family all day, pick up the kids from afterschool day care, help them with their homework, cook dinner, clean the house, do laundry, watch TV all evening while your kids watch TV in their rooms away from you, and then go to bed knowing that you'll have to do it all over again tomorrow.
How in the world do you do it all?"

But that would be vicious.


**Great Nephew's party was at one of the indoor, inflatable jumper places. The kids were all buddy-paired and no adults were near me for conversation at that time. My choices were knit in peace or gawk at children who were not mine. I chose to knit.

How do these colors look?

Do they hurt your eyes? Darker background? Lighter background? Lighter lettering? Darker lettering?

My screen colors are a little whack so I do quite see what others do.
Font change? bigger? smaller?

I like the black/green/red for now. Things change. We're fluid.

But what do you think?

R.O.U.S.

Rodent of Unusual Size once roamed the Earth

It’s definitely not a rodent you’d want to wrestle with. A fossil found along the South American coast hints that a beast weighing more than 1,000 kilograms once roamed there. Researchers say that it is the largest rodent known to have existed.

No word on whether they lived in the Fire Swamp.

Nag

Pick up your knight stuff.
Stop chasing the cat.
Quit walking on your toes.
Where are your shoes?
Who left this milk on the table?
Why are there Lego's everywhere?
Quit walking on your toes.
Have you brushed your teeth yet?
Whose book is this?
Did you let the dogs out?
QUIT walking on your TOES!
How did all this stuff get under the couch?
Are you finished with those math problems?
What was that noise?
And quitwalkingonyourtoes!
Don't let that cat do that.
Don't do that to the cat.
Ewwww.....clean that up.
Heels! Heels! Walk on your heels!
Please stop talking so loud.
Why aren't you dressed yet?
Have you brushed your teeth?
No toes! Stop that walking on your toes.
No, you can't have a snack. We just had breakfast.
Is that a dirty shirt?
Are you still working on those math problems?
HEELS!
Don't run in the house.
Whose bike in out in the yard.
No you can't play your DS. You haven't even finished your math.
Heel, toe! Heel, toe!
Don't sit on your brother's head.
I don't care who started it.
How did this get broken.
DON'T WALK ON YOUR TOES!


(sigh) I have become a nagger.
One toe walker was bad enough but now the youngest (with no sensory issues) has picked it up as habit. If this keeps up both will end up at the orthopedic for leg braces.

What constitutes fun at our house.

Hey....there's a nice shot of my horsebutt....Um.... "Ponytail" paint.
That lump under the passel of boys is ZD. I believe he was trying to take a nap before the melee broke out. I'm not sure what the carrying capacity of my couch is....but it had to be very close to maxing it ou when I took this shot.

I am so blessed to have a husband like mine. He is such a good father and mentor. He's a little lax on discipline but he more than makes up for it with his dedication to providing for us. His whole world revolves around us and we know it.

However, don't take him shopping with the boys. I can take him or the boys....but not all of them. ZD behaves quite well in public...by himself. The boys follow rules obediently....when Dad is not around.
But put them together.....and I have to stop, put my hands on my hips, and lay down the law.
When this happens in the very crowded canned food aisle of the commissary, the little gray-haired, retiree wives get tickled at my outright annoyance.

"Bless you honey....they won't be young for long."

Yeah....But it's the biggest one causing the most trouble.

Priviledge

Bold the ones that are true for you.
The list is based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. The exercise developers ask that if you participate in this blog game, you acknowledge their copyright.

If you post this in your blog, please leave a comment on this post. To participate in this blog game, copy and paste the above list into your blog, and bold the items that are true for you. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to post your responses in the comments.

Father went to college
Father finished college
Mother went to college
Mother finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Were read children’s books by a parent
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively-I'm from the South...this will never happen in my lifetime. We are the last condoned prejudice. No one thinks its offensive to make fun of us.
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Went to a private high school
Went to summer camp
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels-we went to Disney World once.
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down
There was original art in your house when you were a child
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
You and your family lived in a single family house
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
You had your own room as a child But I didn't have any siblings at home
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Had your own TV in your room in High School
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up-only school related trips
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family


Now to answer for my kids. Some answers are predcitions
Father went to college
Father finished college
Mother went to college
Mother finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers since we homeschool. ;)
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Were read children’s books by a parent
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively-Poor Southern boys.
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs They have college funds
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Went to a private high school
Went to summer camp
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down
There was original art in your house when you were a child
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
You and your family lived in a single family house
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
You had your own room as a child
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Had your own TV in your room in High School
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family

Interesting.

Funny from Sam

We went to visit this place. It's called "Lights of the South."

Just imagine a wooded forest filled with this sort of stuff and then hay rides, hot chocolate, roasted marshmallows, and a house to visit Santa.

It's the ultimate in Christmas lights.

Anyway...when we paid admission, we discovered that children under 5 were admitted free.

"Sam, you're free." I told the littlest one in our bunch.

"No," he yelled with an indignant tone, "I not 'free,' I'm FOUR!"

Oh....he was so offended that someone would suggest that he was "free."

The lady at the ticket counter got so tickled about he that she laughed loud and long. We're still laughing about it too.

The boy was free and four at the time. Don't bother explaining it to him though, he won't believe you.

I bet you thought I dropped off the face of the Earth didn't you

I didn't.
I'm still hanging on.

Christmas has come and gone but you can't tell from looking at my house. In fact, if you were to visit me, you'd think we were at the scene of a Toy Store/Laundromat explosion where a bunch of people apparently had a big dinner and did not clean the dishes before leaving.

Yeah....that sums it up.

The holidays were wonderful. Better than I could ever hope for. I think it was my best Christmas ever. Or as good as I could have without my Dad around.
We hosted this year and ZD's entire family came to visit. That's a first.
And we all had a great time.

We visited the big Christmas light place, we caroled, we made crafts, we got everything we needed and wanted...it was a great season.

And it was just what I needed. I feel renewed.
Now I'm ready to tackle a new year. I'm ready to pull up my britches and get back to my daily fight.

And I'm ready to relax finally and let myself have some fun.

Happy 2008! May you feel renewed, ready to fight the good fight, and have a little fun too.