Which Grease girl are you?

Tonight, I'm going with some of my MOPS friends to a Grease Sing-Along. Yep, they're playing the original Grease at the movie theater and it's a sing-along. And you're supposed to dress up. I'm going with a Betty Rizzo style tonight but here is how I'm pegged in the quiz... Think they're right?

Which Grease Girl Are You? (pictures)

You're the after Sandy, sometimes known as the Bad Sandy- the sexy girl who wears black leather and catches all the guy's eyes!
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Free Flat-Panel LCD HDTV!!!

I am shameless. I want one. This would be Hubby's bestest ever Cmas present...Cmas in August.

5 Minutes For Mom and Best Buy are hosting a give away. That's right. You just post about it and you're entered. Easy peasy.

Pretty please?? I've been really good and with the rate of the rest of this house, I'm sure our TV is the next to go too. ;)

Where are you?

A good question from my loyal readers. :) Here's my answer:

Well, I have been officially running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. I realize that my CA trip over Labor Day is fast approaching. I spent the last two weekends and several evenings shopping. The last time I dressed up, it was for a funeral...and not appropriate wedding wear. But other than that, I haven't dressed up in a very long time. So I had nothing to wear to the wedding. My mother and I got to shop together so that was fun. The hard part is that I wanted something summery and all the summer stuff is on clearance now and I am apparently a very popular size so it was nearly impossible to find. I ended up with a fall outfit but it looks nice and I just hope that the evenings are as cool as Hubby remembers from his time out there.

What? What's that? You want to know how the bay window ceiling repair is coming? First we thought it was just sagging from improper support. So Hubby ripped it all out, put in some 2x4's for support and put up the dry wall and corner piece. Then it rained. And the water came through the holes. So Hubby ripped it out and decided the water was coming in from Matthew's window above. He hung out the window (none of our ladders were long enough to reach up there) and used up 4 tubes of caulk around the window. Then it rained. And water came through the ceiling. After much more inspection, he realized that the plastic sheeting against the house was put up wrong and the water was coming down between the sheeting and the house. So he trimmed off the sheeting and put 2 more tubes of caulk on the inside of the bay window ceiling. Then it rained. And water came through the ceiling. So yesterday, in a last-ditch attempt, he came up with an out-of-the-box idea. He got some gutters from the hardware store, made a trough that he attached below the drip area and then added a tube that allows the water collected to drain out the bay. Then it rained...very hard...last night. And... and... and... there is no water coming from our ceiling. I only wish I'd taken a picture of the gutter work before he put up the insulation. Next weekend will be putting the dry wall up...again...and at some point, mudding...and then painting the whole living room. Really big job but I'm happy to get rid of the green.

I've also been busy shopping some more. I joined a MOPS group last year and loved it so much that I did the craziest thing I could think of...volunteer to be in charge of crafts while I have a new baby to take care of. I can count at least 53...nope, 54...reasons why this will go bad fast but so be it...it's done. So in the midst of floor repairs (nope, still not done) and ceiling repairs and clothes shopping and excessive heat waves, I've been picking crafts and trying to find the cheapest ingredients and stocking up within my budget. So you can see why I haven't posted in a while.

In homeschooling news, we have a homeschooling group (not unschooling though) that has finally started getting together. We had a poetry 'class' and learned about and wrote haiku's. It was interesting to see what the kids picked up on. Rose wanted some help from me so I just asked her questions...What do you want your poem to be about? Cats. OK, what about the cats? What do they do? etc. Here's what she came up with...

Cat flies to Catwings
Silky wings lick flowers
Baby Rho-Rho cries so loud

After she told me the second line, she said, "hmm...one more line and something surprising." I was amazed what she picked up from the very brief instruction of the mom in charge.

Matthew wanted to use a poetry machine. You know those books that have magnetized words and you can put them on your fridge and rearrange into poems for fun? Well, we had a box full of words like that and he worked quite a while rearranging words to make his poem. I can't find it at the moment though, unfortunately, so I can't share his with you.

So, my loyal readers, please don't give up on me. If it's a while before I post again, just know that we're really busy and though I'll be trying to post every day, I'll definitely be back to my regular schedule after Labor Day weekend. Until then, enjoy the rest of your summer and for those off to school, well...stay cool. ;)

8 Random Things About Me

I've been tagged by Mrs. Pivec over at Golightly Place. Check out the CUTEST clay creations her daughter made!! I'm soooo impressed.

OK, so 8 random things about me...
1. I have holes in my ear lobes but can't wear earrings. I've tried every kind of metal and plastic and every kind of hypoallergenic pair I've seen. Still, when I put earrings in, they itch me to death within an hour. Anyone have tips for closing those holes up? :)

2. I love music. I played the flute from 6th grade until past college. I shared the first chair position out of 20 flutists in my high school band. I sang in choirs from as far back as I can remember - church, school - whenever I could sing, I sang. I'm a sucker for musicals and trips to our famous Stl Fox Theater or Muny are very fond memories. Amy Grant is my all-time favorite singer. I fell in love with her music and voice in 4th grade, believe it or not. I even lip sync'd to a song of hers in high school (talk about a scary audience!!).

3. I love working with my hands. I wouldn't consider myself an expert in any one craft but I have a wide range of crafts that I've dabbled in. Someday I hope to master one. ;) I loved shop class and am always trying something new. This love of working with my hands probably spurred my love of typing...and blogging...and writing.

4. I was interested in sign language at an early age. I'm not sure if Sesame Street was the culprit or not but I've always been interested in it. When I was 15, I snuck into a college signing course (I was technically under age). When the class was almost over, the college decided to extend the class into an "advanced" course. It was the only time they ever did it. The next year in my school, I met a girl named Camille. She was deaf and we became fast friends. I'm convinced that God put us together.

5. My ears are highly sensitive. I've always wondered why God would call me to be a mom and give me ears that literally hurt when they hear yelling and running feet on the wood floors. Hmmm...

6. My favorite foods are chocolate and ice cream (but I don't much care for chocolate ice cream...hmmm).

7. As a little girl, I wanted to be the next Nadia. I took one day of gymnastics. I was three and because they had one-way mirrors into the room, I couldn't see my mother. I am told that I sat in the corner and cried and embarrassed my mother so much that I never went back.

8. I'm headed to Cali for my first time ever. It'll be a short weekend trip, full of a wedding, but I'm excited to see the ocean!! Living in MO all my life, ocean views are quite rare. I've only ever seen Florida ocean (and Lake Michigan, if that counts). I'm very excited to see my family and add another state shot-glass to my collection. ;)

I'm tagging Jean at Happy SAHM and Jen over at Sunny With A Chance of Clouds.

Surrounded by weddings

I have two older brothers. One is 3 years older and one is 8 years older than me. They didn't have much to do with me. The middle sibling and I butted heads a lot and, let's face it, our older brother was just too old to play games with me. ;) We lived on a gravel road with 11 other houses. They were big lots of land and there was only one other girl on the road who was my age, but she went to a private school so I was lacking in playmates.

I was also the youngest cousin on my father's side and the girl cousins were all older than me, not that I saw them enough to really matter. A couple times a year. My mother was an only child so there were no cousins on her side of the family for me but her father re-married and they had a little girl, Patti, just a year younger than me, who was also an only child.

Patti and I were inseparable when we got together. I think we were both the sister the other didn't have. Though she had two half-sisters (one being my mother), they were grown and out of the house. I remember being hardly able to contain myself on the 2 hour drive to her house. I remember being in trouble for jumping on the bed. We spent many hours walking in the woods and swimming in the pool and fishing and chasing the cats and dogs around. We snuck into the kitchen to get extra desserts at Thanksgiving and Christmas and spent hours upon hours playing with her huge collection of Barbies (of which I was so jealous), though our favorite game was, "House". In this game, she was always 3 and I was the older wiser sister. ;) When we got too old for Barbies, we started singing and lip syncing and making dance routines. My grandpa (her father) used to have the biggest house parties. There would be gobs and gobs of people around. I liked the chatter of all those people around...and they were great insulation for masking the sounds of the bed springs as we jumped. ;)

We're both older and don't see each other very often at all anymore. But I think of her fondly and I'm so glad she was there for me as such a good friend growing up. So today, when I got her e-mail that she eloped, I'm drawn back to thinking about what a great time we had together as kids...and I wish her all the happiness in the world. Congratulations, Patti!

The foolish man

The foolish man built his house upon the sand
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
The foolish man built his house upon the sand
and the house on the sand went SPLAT!

I remember joyfully singing that song at VBS and Sunday School and even at church camp growing up. It was fun to think of a house going, "SPLAT". Now it's not quite so funny.



You might think this is an old picture from a few posts ago when Hubby fixed the ceiling. It's not. It's a brand new picture. :(

Today we had a wonderful thunderstorm move through - fast and furious. Lots of wind, lots of rain. It cooled us down 20 degrees in 20 minutes. I enjoyed it so much that I stood on the porch, enjoying the light show and the beautiful cloud formations that changed so fast. After I came back in and was sitting down for a minute, I realized there was a drip...drip...drip...drip coming from the ceiling section Hubby fixed recently.

The good news is that he hasn't mudded that section yet. (His time is totally tied up right now with studying hard for his upcoming certification test.) So down came the bay ceiling again, down came the stuffing...I mean insulation. Hubby came home immediately and tracked the water, we think, to a spot near the window in Matthew's room. After much caulking, we think it's fixed. He's going to let the caulk cure and then try spraying the hose at the house to see if it is indeed fixed. Then he can replace the insulation and drywall...again. But then again, someone has to keep Home Depot in business...I guess it's our year. Who wants dibs on 2008?

Linnae has found her voice!

Wedding Bells

My brother is getting married! While he lives out of state and I haven't seen him in several years, I can tell from his emails that his fiance is a very sweet woman and I wish them the very best. Here are me and my brothers...a few years ago. ;) I'm the youngest, the middle one is the one getting married and our oldest brother is in the back.

Wonders of Wildlife

So I bet you're all wondering how my trip with 4 little ones went the week they did the floors. We decided to visit my SIL in Springfield, MO (and check out the cute pic of Linnae that she posted!). It took us about 4 hours or so to drive there, including lunch and a few pit stops. The kids kept themselves busy with movies and books on the road. It was really a pleasant trip. Many moms on the message board I frequent worry about the actual car travel. Not me. That's the easy part - they're contained, the little two might actually nap, and our DVD player in the van is a pure blessing for us all. My worries start when my kids are totally out of their usual routine, staying up late and missing naps...that's when things get hairy for us. ;)

On Monday, we let the contractors in and we left. It was so early that we stopped at McD's for breakfast before we left town. When we arrived in Springfield, we stared in horror at the fleabag hotel we'd booked decided to change our reservation to a different hotel for various reasons. Our new hotel suite was so nice! Expecting just a room with two beds, I got that with a door that opened into a living room will pull-out sofa and a kitchenette. It was a real treat for me (yes, does that tell you anything??). The first night, I had Rose and Matthew in one bed and me and Jade in the other bed but Jade pummeled me all night with her feet and I woke up with her feet actually kicking my head. Though the bed was extra comfy, I decided to use the pull-out couch. This way, I'd also get to unwind a bit by myself before I went to bed each night. That was nice though the bed wasn't that great..but what could I expect for a pull-out?

SIL and her family (also 4 children - but she was smart and had a nice age gap between #2 and #3 so she now has babysitters. lol) take advantage of summer by sleeping in quite late...they also stay up quite late. Given my druthers, I'd do that as well but when you have 3 kids whose internal alarm clock goes off at 7am regardless of when they went to sleep, you teach yourself to go to bed earlier. Maybe when they're older and can better fend for themselves in the mornings. ;)

So, because they like to sleep in, on Tuesday morning the kids and I went to the Wonders Of Wildlife Museum, next to our hunting-family-IL's mecca Bass Pro.
On the way in, we saw a baby duckling by their pond. He was so cute and the girls were tickled watching him jump into the water after his mother.


The museum was so much nicer than I'd expected. The majority of the museum was dedicated to Missouri wildlife. They had large stuffed animal exhibits.


They had huge aquarium habitats for all kinds of fish.



In one area, the aquarium was about 15 ft high from the floor where we were standing. Just a nice piece of glass between us and sharks. It was breathtaking. On the opposite side of the room was a touch tank. They had some urchins, a horseshoe crab, and various other creatures. There were two employees who were sitting there to answer questions. But they ended up just agreeing with everything Matthew had to say. I was especially impressed with his knowledge of the creatures especially since he knew more that I did.

Rose was enthralled with the sea lions and bobcats


Learning more about our wildlife was a great little field trip for us. The kids and I thoroughly enjoyed our time there and we learned a lot about wildlife.


And we close with a political statement from Jade:

Tuesday pics

Finally, some long awaited pics!

We'll start with the cutest picture *ever*...
Baby Toes


And for those interested, here is my new bathroom floor


Today we met up with some friends. My kids are in the back...Matthew on the back left, then Rose (orange shirt) and Jade (kind of in front of Rose, wearing a blue shirt). The three kids in the very front (aren't they cuties??) are our bestest buddies. When they were younger, Matthew and his buddy, sitting in front of him, used to get confused for twins. They don't look so much alike now but ahhh, the memories. ;)


I actually caught Linnae smiling here.


And this one is her famous deer-in-the-headlights look that she gives when my flash unit goes off. ;)


And yes, pictures of the bay window that Hubby is working on. All that's left for this weekend is taping and mudding, which I hear is incredibly easy and fun. I'll be sure to take more pictures.
The best news about the bay window ceiling issue is that I can finally re-paint the living room. I originally wanted a very light green in there. Hubby talked me into the dark green that you need to almost brace yourself for. He also talked me into the lighter green of the bay windows. Now this may be his idea of a perfect color scheme but for me, it's just too dark. But I agreed to give it a good ol' college try and now, almost 4 years later, I get to change it. YIPPEE!!! I tried, I really did. Our furniture is dark, our decor is dark...we need light walls to balance it out. So I'm actually thrilled with the ceiling needing a repair (but please don't tell Hubby!).

They used to call it "Strong Willed"

Matthew is what Kurcinka would call, "highly spirited". In her book, Raising Your Spirited Child: A guide for parents whose child is more intense, sensitive, perceptive, persistent and energetic, Kurcinka describes my son in detail. From the moment he was born, he has been highly persistent. From the moment he was delivered, he began screeching about everything. He screamed bloody murder when I unlatched him from nursing. He flat refused to sleep on his own. He gave baby contraptions such as the swing, the bouncy seat and high chairs full on screaming fits from the moment I set him in them. Daily showers for me were agonizing for him as he required constant human touch; those 15 minutes he was on his own was too much for him and he let me know it.

As he's gotten older, I see he rates about a 10 on each scale in her book. Her opening paragraph sucked me right in:

The word that distinguishes spirited children from other children is more. They are normal children who are more intense, persistent, sensitive, perceptive, and uncomfortable with change than any other children. All children possess these characteristics but spirited children possess them with a depth and range not available to other children. Spirited kids are the Super ball in a room full of rubber balls. Other kids bounce three feet off the ground. Every bounce for a spirited child hits the ceiling.

My mother said tongue-in-cheek, "They used to call it strong willed". Whatever the term, I've been long convinced that Kurcinka is the only woman alive (aside from me) who really gets my son.

*********************
Tonight was the first night of Vacation Bible School (I had to spell that out for my Aussie friend but here in the US, it's known as simply VBS). The kids went with Grandma and Grandpa, who were teaching one of the classes. This is Matthew's third year attending so it's a familiar place and his sisters and grandparents were all there as well.

The kids happily drove off with Grandma at 4:30pm. A rare moment for Hubby and I to be alone, we went out to eat. Around 7pm, I get a call. It's Grandma. She says simply, "Can I talk to my son?" I could tell it wasn't her "happy voice". Apparently Matthew was having a major melt down and Grandma needed some backup. I've seen many of these melt downs. Remember, my child is more. So any meltdown is a major one. Hubby tries to talk to Matthew but he just keeps repeating, "I can't understand you. Can you stop crying and try to tell me what's wrong?" Grandma isn't sure what the meltdown is about either. I finally get to talk to him and he gets out through tears, "I just wanna go hooooooooome". But he can't tell me anything else. Grandma gets back and while she's troubleshooting with me to find the cause, she says, "I told him to go with Mrs. Parker...you know, like Peter Parker's mother (score for Grandma to come up with a Spiderman gem!) and..." Matthew says, "But they told me to go with the other class." Grandma gets him to the right class and he did better.

I'm sure, to a parent with non-spirited kids, they can understand the confusion and maybe disappointment he felt that caused him to break into tears and want to go home. What you missed was the meltdown over his name tag getting torn, the meltdown over not being in the same class that his sisters and grandparents were in and who knows what other meltdowns that I wasn't even told about.

He gets over stimulated easily. As a baby, he would never go to sleep in his car seat. Screamed as loud as possible on each and every trip in the car. Yes, even as a newborn. The only time I remember him sleeping in his car seat was the day he broke his leg and I think he slept out of pain control. Loud parties send him up 10 notches and remember that he's already a Super bouncy ball.

The singing and cheering at the beginning of VBS, meant to get the kids excited about being there, over stimulated my Super bouncy ball and put him into Super Mega Overdrive. And then they sent him to a room with people he was unfamiliar with (slow to adapt/uncomfortable with change). Then he realized his sister wasn't going to be in his class with him (slow to adapt). Then his name tag ripped (he's also a perfectionist). And his shirt tag was probably itching and it was too hot/cold for him (sensitive). All this added up to meltdown after meltdown, I'm sure. God Bless those seemingly tireless VBS workers! They got him through it. By the time I arrived to pick them up, he had survived the singing and cheering closing ceremony (have you ever noticed how looooooong a Super Mega bouncy ball can keep bouncing?) and met me with a t shirt wet with tears. They might not have realized it but he was so happy to see me that he almost cried from relief of knowing the night was over...but he was working very hard to not cry again.

We loaded the van up (after the teacher fixed his name tag situation for tomorrow night) and Matthew happily chatted with me all the way home. I couldn't imagine that he would want to go back or that he got anything out of his time there. But I forgot for a moment that my Super bouncy ball is also more perceptive. He told me that he indeed did have fun and does want to go back tomorrow night. "Oh Mom, we have to wear shirts that can get wet tomorrow because we have a water game...and we have to take a dry shirt to change into." Matthew told me the Bible verse was, "Care about others as you care for yourself." I asked him what the meant to him. "It means just what it says Mom!" I asked him how he could show Rose that he cared for her as much as he cared for himself. He was quietly thinking to himself and Rose injected, "And tell me how I can show Matthew that too." Matthew pipes up immediately and says, "Rose, you show me that all the time. You clean up my things when I don't want to. That's very nice of you. Thanks for doing that all the time." I was so touched that it took several minutes before my voice returned.

When we got home, he told me that they are collecting pennies for VBS. He said they're trying to get enough pennies to make a whole mile. And when they get that many pennies, they will send it to "ohhh..I forgot the name of the country" so they can dig a deep well and have fresh water to drink.

So in spite of all the things that went wrong for him, he grabbed hold of most everything. My Super bouncy ball is very perceptive.

As Hubby was putting the girls to bed, Matthew followed me closely into my room. He grinned as I plopped onto the bed and patted for him to join me. He snuggled in tight and sighed deeply. And I swear it was the same sigh I used to get when he was a baby after I'd pick him up and hold him close. He nuzzled his head into my neck, just as when he was so little. He was home. It was quiet. Snuggling with Mom, all was well with his world again.

On the good days, being the parent of a spirited child is astounding, dumbfounding, wonderful, funny, interesting and interspersed with moments of brilliance...The dreadful days are a different story.

The 7 Year Itch...

Not for our marriage, which by the way is in it's 14th year, but for our house.

June 17th marked our 7th year anniversary of being in this home. It was the first home we had built to specifications and we haven't been *totally* happy with some of the construction "flaws".

But in May, we had the major floor damage due to the ice maker dying. This is STILL a sore spot for me and probably why I haven't posted in a long time. This month has been totally nuts. I'm not sure if I'm coming or going anymore. The very condensed version is this...hardwood floors got put in while the kids and I had a visit with my SIL and her kids. The vinyl floors were put in as well but that contractor had some issues and my laundry room/pantry will have to be redone. The hardwood...well, that's a tricky one. Hubby and I aren't very happy with the installation. Either we had exceptional installers the first time around or we have bumbling idiots now. And we haven't totally decided which statement is true yet. There's a bubble in the kitchen floor and they've agreed they will have to, at the very least, take up half of my floor again, which is what started the whole thing in the first place. But we're so dissatisfied with the installation and new floor that, if we have our wishes granted, the whole thing might have to be redone. We'll see what the manufacturer says.

In a brief moment of idleness last night after dinner, Hubby was snuggling with Rose and Jade on the couch. He noticed that the ceiling of our bay window has drooped...a good 3 inches. After poking around and using stud finders and finally cutting a hole in the ceiling, he discovered that the builders never put studs up there. So he contacted a hunting buddy who works with dry wall and got some directions over the phone on how to pull out the whole ceiling part of the bay, install studs, reinstall dry wall, tape and mud. The good thing? I've been wanting to repaint this room for several years. ;) The bad news? We've never done this kind of work before so it'll be quite interesting to see how it goes. Hubby also is studying for a new certification and his testing date is set already. This job will eat up this whole weekend at the very least.

I feel like my life is the epitome of the bucket in that song "There's A Hole In The Bucket". An old folk song that tells the story of a couple trying to fix a hole in their bucket, the tale starts out needing straw, to needing a blade to cut the straw, to needing to sharpen the blade, to needing the stone, to needing water for the stone, to needing the bucket to wet the stone, coming full circle to saying, "But there's a HOLE in the bucket!"

Wish us luck. And I'll send pictures soon. ;)

Edited to add that I'm submitting this entry to TopBlogMag. This week's topic was "Choose a song whose lyrics relate to something in your life and then tell us about it". Though I've never seen the site before I wrote this post, Jen encouraged me to send it in. Neat site! Check it out!

Photo Blog

Nana, Hubby's grandmother, passed last night after a long battle with cancer. This picture was taken in April '05 when we celebrated her 80th birthday. She had full life and we're grateful that she is peacefully and painlessly resting now. We love you Nana.


A couple pictures I've been meaning to post...
I was in the middle of something when Linnae started crying. After you have 2 kids, you realize that the baby doesn't always get tended to as quickly as you did the first child. So she was fussing for a bit while I finished up my task. When I had finished, I went into the living room to find Matthew burping her over his shoulder. He's never even picked her up on his own before and he'd picked her up and got her positioned right too. She was very content and quietly alert. A precious sight for Mama. ;)


Rose has always loved music. As a toddler, she'd beg for "just one more song" before bed every night instead of the "just one more story" that I always wanted at her age. So I got some CD's from the library and she is in LOVE. She sat listening to the CDs for at least an hour the first day. And here she is right now by my side, asking where the CD player is. ;)


And, just for you, Mrs. P, since you so nicely asked...here's my gang. I'm makeup-less and probably going to hack my hair off short soon but here we are at the moment. ;)

Anyone need a fund raiser?

Yesterday we went to our usual hang-out, Walmart. OK, it's not our hang-out but many weeks it definitely feels like that. I'm sure most of you moms know what I mean. My friend in Alaska used to tease me about how much I love to go to Walmart. But since she lives on a 5 mile island with no 'super center', she doesn't understand that I go there because it's cheap and it's convenient. It's not that I love Walmart or think they have the best items/craftmanship, etc. It's cheap with mid-range products and convenient (One-stop shopping is very important when you have 4 kids to get in and out of car seats. My mom says if she had to deal with car seats, she'd probably never have had three kids...and I wouldn't be here to amuse you today).

After we had done our shopping and grazed through the samples/demos of the day, we headed to the checkout. While we were shopping, we heard various announcements on their music system. A local radio station was there, doing a fund-raiser for the Children's Miracle Network and, more specifically, our local children's hospital. Walmart had given them some big shopping sprees in the toy section and while we were looking over the new Transformers and picking out a b-day present, we heard them in the next aisle picking out various toys. Just in front of the checkout area, they had a big table set up where they were accepting donations and giving out pieces of cake. The kids eyes glazed over as I shook my head for them to go get some. I was wrapped up in paying and then the cashier forgot to add an item and I had to go through the paying process twice so it was a few minutes before I caught up with the kiddos.

They had set up camp on a chair next to the table. They had their plates sitting on the chair and they were kneeling and standing next to it, eating. As I walked nearer, Matthew said, "Oh and I see that you have some punch - may I have some of that too?" Cake-serving Man said, "You sure can" and poured them some. I arrived and picked up a piece of cake to share with Jade, who was in the front of the shopping cart. Matthew told me that the man was taking donations for the Children's Hospital. I wonder what else the man had discussed with him in the time it took me to arrive. Cake-serving Man stepped away to the Customer Service counter and the table was left unattended for a few minutes. A customer, on her way out, stopped to grab a piece of cake. Matthew jumped up and commanded to her, "Don't forget to make a donation!!" She, looking sheepish, went back to her purse and dug out some money for the jar.

The mom in me wanted to shush him and explain that it wasn't his business if the woman was donating or not. But was it? How could I explain that it was ok for her to take free cake and not drop a donation? Because while a donation wasn't required, it was expected. So what was wrong with him saying it out loud? Why do we, as adults, feel so inhibited that we can't say the same thing? I realize that she could have been someone who's already written her donation checks for the year or any number of reasons (which we did discuss later). But the big picture is that adults laugh at the brutal honesty of children. Why do we do that? Maybe part of the reason we're given children is to learn to be more honest as adults.

Cake man came back and I told him that Matthew was working the table for him and I explained what he did. The man and the cashiers standing around all had a good chuckle. Cake man asked if Matthew could stay the rest of the day... "He can have all the cake he wants if he'll keep that up!"

Here's hoping we all have a more honest day than yesterday.

A quick update

I may be giving brief updates for a few days to get back into the blogging routine. Having a baby sure can mess up regular blogging! I saw a woman at the zoo a couple days ago who had 7 children. I told her I was stopping at 4. She shrugged and said, "After 3, it's just noise." I said, "Yeah, that's why I'm stopping at 4." ;)

So my floors now look exactly like they do in the pictures below. No change. Why?? Well, the manufacturer of our floor has changed and it took a while to track them down. Also we've had to pick out colors and new vinyl (man is THAT a chore!) and we've decided to do the bathroom too while we're at it. So now we'll be replacing the entire first floor. The run-down is like this...they'll order the flooring, it'll take about a week to come in, then it has to sit in my house to acclimate to my humidity and temp for two days. I can't imagine how fun that will be - we're talking about a lot of wood here. Then a contractor will come out and pull out my kitchen cabinets and disconnect plumbing - I'm assuming 1-2 days though I haven't been told yet. And THEN they can start ripping up the floor and laying down the new one, which will take 4-5 days or more. Fun! With our current calendar, I don't think there's any way we can get this started until the end of June. So I'm stuck with the hole in my floors for a while.

I have figured out a work around for this month though. I'm so worried one of the kids will get a splinter (they're not little splinters and hey, when you have 4 kids, *every* doctor's co-pay counts!) but I pulled up a rug I had in the kids area of the basement. It's one of those large ones that has roads on it so you can run Hot Wheels on it, like this, (so it's very fashionable) but it almost completely covers the area and has solved my problem for the time being.

Meanwhile, Matthew is reading his way through Tolkien books. He read Roverandum yesterday and said, "Even though I'm not very interested in dogs, it was a good book." We're now anxiously awaiting Bone, which was recommended in the Relaxed Homeskool blog that I stumbled across yesterday. I guess we need to get The Book Of Three for him as well. I have fond memories of my brother reading that series to me when I was young.

Rose seems bored and she almost seems to be asking for some direction. She's doing very well with letters and writing but isn't quite there yet on reading. I'm in no rush but it does limit her somewhat. So at the library yesterday, she picked out some horse books and I picked out some cheetah books and we'll go through them and see if anything leads us out of boredom. We spent quite a bit of time yesterday cleaning and organizing her room, which she seemed to enjoy quite a bit. Maybe I'll suggest she work on the basement...teeheehee.

Jade pretty much follows the other two around. I can tell she's a people person already. She flirts with anyone - and I mean anyone. Elderly gentlemen are especially swayed by her charms. Her language skills are getting better every day. I'm sure she'd be more understandable if she wasn't a thumb sucker but, as with everything else, I'm in no rush. It will end some day on it's own.

Linnae is doing great. She's looking pretty chunky now and the reflux meds have helped her a *lot*. She's smiling at us now and it just melts all of our hearts each time.

It looks like we're getting a homeschooling group started and we're anxious to start meeting with them and making new friends.

What does Unschooling look like in your home currently?

Unschooling Voices asks us to post some pictures this month of what unschooling currently looks like in our house. Here is my response...

We've been busy with crafts...like the birdbaths the kids made. Matthew dug up an old frisbee, filled it with water and added some large rocks. Rose, on the other hand, filled a bucket with water, grass and rocks and left her frisbee on the ground next to it. She then gave me orders to tell her when a bird came to take a bath. "Sure. Why?" I asked. She said very seriously, "So I can put the lid on it!" So Rose made more of a bird trap instead of a bath but she gets bonus points for creativity and uniqueness.


Matthew also made an "ant trap". The tape from the floor to the container was so they could climb up the sides and eat the Rice Krispies, cleverly disguised as ant bait.

Rose's approach was again unique...she added mini marshmallows to further lure them into her container. Then she added water "to drown them when they go down to eat the food," she said with glee in her eyes.


We went to the zoo on Memorial Day. We learned that day that we don't much care for heat and humidity combined. Well, I already knew that one but I think the kids learned it well that day. I did get to learn more about my fantabulous Olympus E500 though...enough to capture this (and it's prettier at high resolution which Blogger won't let me show...spooty Blogger)...

We also have some new baby cheetah cubs at our zoo and the kids had fun at a side information table. They saw a cheetah skull and felt cheetah fur, as well as ask all kinds of questions about them. The kids have recently been pretending they are cheetahs so I feel almost as if we're in the middle of an impromptu unit study. Those are the kiddos in the tie-dye shirts (we wear those to the zoo because it's easy to spot each other in a crowd). And check out Rose's new stack haircut! It's so much cuter from the front. I'll post a pic soon.



Matthew made a spider with his sandwich makings one day...


But Rose's love of crafting has eased her into becoming a federal law breaker. Yes, that's her inner artist hard at work here. And yes, that's a $20...does anyone think I *shouldn't* have told her they were going to take her to jail for this? ;) I just wonder when I ask the bank to replace it, will they laugh or fine me? Either way, it's definitely something new to learn...and that's the whole point. ;)

Promises, promises

Yes, I promised more frequent posts. Sorry. But I did have the very best of intentions though. ;) You won't believe the craziness that is my life. First, the every-other-day dr visits have finally tapered off (I'm actually scared to type that out loud for fear that they'll start again).

Rose has FINALLY gotten some allergy meds that have dried up her constant, year-long drippy nose. At last she's not one of *those* kids who always looks sick and is always on antibiotics. Not one sinus infection since she started her new meds. For those who are wondering, it's a nose spray combined with Allegra-D (recently approved for kids). Though, with the disappearance of her runny, stuffy nose we've seen the appearance of the "4 going on 16" attitude. Wow. Eye rolls, back talking - Grammy was shocked the last time she babysat. Lord, help me make it through this year!

Nothing too extra exciting going on with Matthew these days. He and Hubby have gotten to the final levels in Crash Bandicoot though...does that count? :)

Jade is expanding her vocabulary but I think she might need some help from my ex-speech therapy friend. I'll give Jade 6 more months before I call on her though. She is baby-obsessed and is constantly trying to sit with me while I'm nursing the baby...and kiss the baby...and hug the baby...and put blankets on the baby... She's a good mini-me. If only she could nurse her a couple times a day. ;)

Linnae is gaining weight very slowly but Rose did that too. Linnae's reflux meds seem to have helped her quite a bit...in fact, she had her checkup today and she has gained 9oz in the last 9 days so that's GREAT. She has a rash on her face but we think it's the normal 6wk hormone rash that babies pretty typically get...she just got hers at 4wks.

And that brings us to me. My MS symptoms have returned. Just sensory issues...you know that tingling feeling your leg has just before it goes to sleep? I have that moving around my torso and upper thighs, as well as a burning sensation that moves around. But nothing serious at this point.

All sounds pretty normal, eh? But I bet you won't guess what we've been up to behind the scenes. First, our subdivision is having a garage sale next weekend and I am trying, in between all the other goings-on, to get some stuff together for it. Last week on Thursday morning, I went downstairs to start sorting through our storage boxes to find junk good used items to unload sell to unsuspecting pack rats bargain hunters. ;) I decided to start in the back of the basement, which is unusual for me, only to find water. Lots of water drips coming down from the ceiling and pooling on top of boxes, furniture, and my wrapping paper container (yep, all my wrapping paper is ruined). After about 90 minutes on the phone with Hubby, trying to track the source of the water, I finally gave up, deciding it was a burst pipe in the walls. I had checked and double checked everything in that area - washing machine, bathroom - I even went up to the 2nd floor bathroom to see if it was dripping from up there. I couldn't find one spot of water anywhere. The water in the basement ceiling was a 5 ft long row of drips and I couldn't pinpoint where it started and where it was just run-off. We decided to call a plumber.

The plumber showed up Thursday afternoon. He went straight to the basement, looked at the water for all of 30 seconds and said those fateful words, "Do you have an ice maker?" Dread crept over my face as I slowly nodded.

He moved the fridge and found a strong leak coming from the *Saddle Valve* and plastic tubing. It apparently had found just the right crack in my hard wood floors so that it went straight down onto the subfloors instead of making a huge puddle on top as it did before. He started walking all around and found a large area that was wet. He moved my trashcan and found wood planks that were already warping. So who knows how long this leak had gone on? We shucked out $500 for him to replace the now very famous *Saddle Valve* and plastic tubing with a nice copper pipe, guaranteed to fix the problem once and for all. As I mused with Hubby on the phone as to what to do about the floors, the plumber said he's done lots of work for insurance companies and we should make a homeowners claim about the floor.

Hubby made lots of calls and at 10am on Friday, there were workmen out at the house looking at the water damage. After a couple hours (and my own muffled guffaws when the guy muttered something about 'they might have to replace the entire floor'), my kitchen now looked like this:


And viewing from the kitchen into the laundry room/pantry:


They also set up two huge commercial fans (read: EXTREMELY LOUD) to dry the sub floor up here and two more downstairs pointed at the ceiling. They also sprayed mold killer since the water damage has been going a while.

The fridge, as you can see, is directly in front of my oven and microwave and the cabinet I keep all my stove top cooking pots and pans in. And with it's new pretty copper piping, the fridge can't really be moved much. So we've eaten out...lots...this weekend. A great Mother's Day weekend, all in all. Monstrous headaches from the deafening roar of the fans, sniffly noses at the dust and wind tunnel and mold spores flying around, crabby kids who are "tired of eating out", etc. Though I do admit, I had far fewer dishes to wash this weekend. ;)

So on Saturday, in an attempt to get away from the roar of the fans, I went to the basement. Everyone followed. I started sorting through our storage stuff, still determined to get things ready for the garage sale this coming weekend. Hubby came down, bless his soul to the very fiber of his being, and took loads and loads of trash (and sorted out recyclables) to the garage for disbursement to the city. The kids had fun puttering around after us and doing bubbles in the yard and pulling each other around in their wagon. Hubby even cut one of his heavy weight shelves in half so we now have somewhere to place plants (and the herb garden I started) on the front porch. So it ended up being a very productive day.

On Mother's Day, we had dinner out and because it took so long for it to arrive, we got free desserts with it. I put mine in a doggy bag because I was meeting my mother for ice cream afterwards to celebrate Mother's Day together. Rose made me a couple of beautiful scrapbook pages (she put sticker borders on them) and Matthew made me a cute little note pad on top of a ceramic tile that is easy to move and not easy to lose. :) I also got some gift certificates to Michaels and since I love crafts, it was a great gift! FIL brought by some items they want to sell in my garage sale so the garage is crowding quickly.

Monday morning, the insurance adjuster and a guy from a local flooring place came by. The short of it is this...I have an open floor plan. So there aren't any doorway openings, flooring wise. No good place to seam the floor. And it's apparently almost impossible to match the color of hard wood floors. So they have to replace the whole floor...the ENTIRE FIRST FLOOR, minus the linoleum in the bathroom. And it's going to take about 4 days. Four days of no kitchen. The floors go under my kitchen cabinets. They go under my pantry and washer/dryer. My computer, huge heavy dining table, living room couches...fun. Four days. Four days of no way to cook and limiting kids to our bedrooms? Uhhh...I don't think so. Plus the guys who pulled up that small section that you see says it's nailed down very very well. They're gonna have a heck of a time getting the floor up. I assume the 4 day quote will be at least 5...and you know contractors...they're never really in a hurry.

Yesterday, the guy who dropped off the fans came by - he was supposed to take them out. Nope, the floors were still damp. So he turned the ones up here to low and the ones downstairs to high, with promises to retrieve them today. He also took out a big chunk of insulation that wasn't drying out. Last night, I gave Linnae a bath before bed. By the time it was over, there was an awful smell coming through the air conditioner vents. It smelled like burnt plastic. Hubby took his carbon monoxide detector and flashlight to the basement and looked all around. After *much* inspecting, we still couldn't find anything and the smell went away. Today, our water is luke-warm at best, I found out during a *very* quick shower. After more inspecting, I found that the pilot light is not lit in the hot water heater anymore. My best guess was that maybe a piece of the insulation got caught under the hot water heater from all the fans blowing around and burned out the pilot light.

So...the fans are supposed to leave today, thank GOODNESS! My head is about to burst open at the seams, despite all the staying out of the house that I've managed. It'll take "about 2 weeks" for the flooring to come in. And when it does, I'm planning on going to visit my SIL, four hours away. Her kids are dying to see Linnae anyway, we always have fun together and the gas & food money is cheaper than a hotel (bless your soul, SIL!!). Hopefully the timing works out to the week her kids end school for the year and before a couple of them go off to camp.

But don't worry - this is my MO: something big happens then something else happens and just as we're recovering from that, something else happens. And it's usually while I'm in the middle of a huge project like painting or a garage sale or having a baby...or all three. We'll recover. Until then, enjoy the tale and I'll keep you up-to-date. :)

More math by association

While my days have quickly changed from being so tired from pregnancy hormones that I could hardly make it through the day to doing nothing but sitting on my rear holding a baby who REFUSES to sleep (or not cry) unless you hold her, I have found myself watching a lot of Food Network lately. Trying to avoid soap operas and talk shows, afternoon TV viewing is QUITE lacking in the kid-friendly arena. However, I stumbled across a game show today called "Cash Cab" - basically this guy drives an unmarked taxi around NYC and whoever jumps in gets a chance to play his general knowledge trivia game while on their way to their destination. Best case scenario they get lots of money, worst case - they get kicked out on the curb whenever they miss 3 questions but they also get a free cab ride to that point so it's not too bad.

Anyway, Matthew is watching this show with me and they have a running tally of money in the corner.
After watching 2 different "games" quietly, he says, "Oh, so 25 + 25 is 50".
I nodded in agreement.
He says, "So that would mean that 25 is half of 50."
"Yep, so how many 25's do you need to make 100?" I pry.
He doesn't bat an eyelash..."Four".
Math. Learned without drills or charts or doing thousands of computations on a piece of paper. Hmmm...

OK, the crying little seal has had her 10 minute limit in the swing and now I must away to hold the little princess...

All the kiddos

Another hospital pic but it's the first "all the kids" picture we have. Awww...so sweet...even if Linnae does look like a garden gnome. ;)

Be back soon!

I'm hoping to get back into the blogging routine VERY soon. I miss not only telling my readers about what's going on in our lives but it's also a great way for me to keep tabs on us as well. So hopefully I'll be back very soon.

The baby (now called Linnae from here on out) finally got her bili levels dropping. She was cleared last week from further testing. She does have a cold (with lots of congestion) that we're keeping a very close eye on though. She was also having a hard time gaining weight but as of Saturday, she'd gained 6oz in 5 days so that is great!

Her siblings are very much in love with her still and they constantly (almost too much) try to kiss, hug and hold her. This recovery has been the slowest for me but I just haven't really had time to stay in bed for several days - dr appts, bili tests, allergy testing for Rose, sick appts for Jade...it's just ongoing craziness. Not that I didn't sign up for it though, eh?

Hope to see you soon!