Mission Exemplary

Sometimes you have to be reminded of your mission...

Our theme this year at school is "Mission Exemplary." We KNOW what our students are capable of, and we are DETERMINED for all to see how exemplary they are!

Yet, as in life in general, it is all too often that we loose sight of that mission...and sometimes it is the failure to keep tact of or to honor the goals of your mission that ultimately leads to the demise of the plan you had once been so passionate about.

While I do not know that we have in any way lost sight of our mission at school, I do believe that it had not been honored in the manner it should have been in the past few days/weeks...We had become a little complacent...a little too lost in our our personal agendas, the weariness of the adhering to the game plan and the emotion attached to the goal to be able to keep our true mission in sight.

Yet, yesterday evening's Family Fun Night was a shot in the arm perhaps very much needed. It was a valid heart-warming reminder of our ultimate mission this academic year.

I have way too many pictures of the event; however, I hate to post without student permission...so...But, here are a few of us...

G REALLY won a soda at the a science ring toss. He is showing me what he won...thus is why we cannot see his face!

This balloon was my ONLY nemesis this evening...I ended up popping it on purpose to prove a point to a three-year-old that when I say to do something I mean it.
Me and Melissa...who so graciously attended to G and his wild antics. Her patience is far greater than my own with him, and even he know it! He told me in the car, "I want to go with Maddi's mom...she is nicer!" I agree...she is! :)
Lisa and Cinderella...Poor thing was starving for most of the event, but I was so caught up that my principal fed her as we ended! Sad! I AM the mother-of-the-year! :) Ha!

Happy ? Birthday K-Dan!

Yesterday was my dad's ? birthday.
Of course, we had cake...and LOTS of food. This is the only way we celebrate in our family! Yet, G was ONLY interested in the cake!

We also blew a few bubbles...
We are quite the party animals! Ha!

So today, we have been doing homework and laundry and taking long naps...

Finding time...

It is Sunday, and again, I am dreading the upcoming week. It is not because I am stressed or because I cannot handle what I am doing... it is simply because I know time is not on my side.

A typical day in my world...
Between 5:00 and 5:30 - Wake up to feed Ballerina
6:00 - Begin getting ready for work/school...wake up kids, get kids dressed, make bottles, get breakfast for all, fold a load of laundry, etc.
7:00...and no later than 7:00, leave for school
7:40 - hopefully I have made it to school! Sometimes I struggle...one or both of them cries as I leave, I forgot it was picture day, one of them is running a temp so I stop for medicine, etc.
Once I am at work, there is a sense of calmness. I can handle work.
4:50 - I leave a meeting that I feel guilty about leaving to go and pick up the kids...I have no other options
On the way home, we run by Wal-Mart to get some things for the science teachers, we hurry to make a church meeting I am already late for, I stop for gas, and I swing through McDonald's to grab a diet Coke for me and a snack for the kids.
In route, I make several phone calls trying to catch up on the work meeting I had to leave early, making plans for the weekend birthday party, arranging who will pick up the older two the next day, who will pick up the younger two when I have class, etc.
I set up all of the kids with homework, Leapsters, etc. while I attend the meeting; however, their entertainment is short lived...
By 7:45 they are burned and hungry...again, I leave a meeting I feel guilty about leaving.
I head home.
8:00 we get home. We immediately begin baths, homework/backpack review, tending to the animals, etc. while I start cooking dinner.
I can get them in and out of the bath in less than 20 minutes...Dinner is on the table. We all sit and eat...well everybody eats but me (I feed Ella).
Then it is a mad rush for story time, brush teeth time and bed time.
By a little after 9 all but Ella are in bed.
I grab dinner as Eric walks in...We eat together.
9:20ish I begin my homework.
I usually work on my homework until at least midnight. I have articles to read, statistics to figure out, etc. Somewhere in the middle of my homework, I also feed Ella and put her down, start another load of laundry and bake a casserole for the next morning.
A little after midnight I head to the shower.
After my shower, I make sure everything we need for the next morning is set out, pick up the house a little, empty the trash, etc.
Sometime around 1 or 1:30, I head to bed. I read articles for class until I fall asleep.
I wake up to feed 1 or 2 times...and then start all over the next day.

Shoot, this day is pretty clam...throw me having to go to class, a school event, soccer practice, skating lessons, gymnastics, me taking an exam, etc. in to the mix...and that is when it gets a little hairy. This is a NORMAL, SLOW day...a day when I do not have anything really going on...

Is anything about my day particularly stressful? No
Is anything about my day something I cannot handle? No
Is anything about my day out-of-the-ordinary for parents? No

So why am I so tired?

I always feel as if there are simply not enough hours in the day, and while I find joy in everything I do, I struggle and worry that I am not being the best I can be at anything I do.

I am told that I need to take time for myself. I am told that I need to work out...that I need to sit in the tub for a while...that I should go to the spa...that I should have quiet time alone..that I should read a book for pleasure... These are all fine ideas that I am interested in doing, but when?

Funny thing...when I think about what I would REALLY do if I had more time...I would read another story to the kids, we would go to the park, we would take the dogs for a walk, we would plant a garden, we would ride our bikes, we would play a game, my husband and I would do something together...these are the things I would do if I really had more time. I do not need more time for me...I need more time for us.

My resolution for 2008 was to create more "us time"...but as of right now, I am not doing too well! :) I guess I need to reevaluate my plan.

Until I have more time...

Animal House

We live in an animal house...a crazy animal house! And, lately I literally feel the animals have been running the house!

This is Maggie, and she is the self-appointed queen of the house. This mutt views herself as being far superior to all of the other dogs. Funny thing about Maggie...I was told when I adopted her that she was a full-blood black lab...and that I could have her "papers!" I want those lab papers now...for all 22 lbs. of Maggie!
And then there are Stiffler and Blue.

NO, I DID NOT give Stiffler his name. And, yes, he acts like the infamous Stiffler...enough said.
Blue is the most lovable of the bunch. However, he has NO LOYALTY...he loves EVERYONE.
Our last two of what we call the "regular" pets are Nemo and Bait. Nemo is the King. He RUNS THE HOUSE! I am not ashamed to admit that he runs me too! All of us succumb to Nemo's orders...and are slightly afraid of his wrath!

Bait is the longest living beta in history...I confess that I am a "fish killer." I have accidentally put too hot of water in the bowl and boiled them to death, dropped them down the drain, squished them in the rocks...but this fish takes a lick and keeps on ticking! That reminds me...I ahve not fed in in a week or so...
And last but not least are the kids...all of them! :) True animals!

Fits!

This is how G is acting what seems to be so frequently these days. We THOUGHT he was growing out of this "fit throwing stage." However, from the looks of it, he is still fond of them!

This is what typically happens pretty much any time we decide to correct him (especially if he is tired).

Mommy's patience with fits? ...I have little to none! Pray that I get some!

Money Matters

G received some "cash" yesterday from his PawPaw Arnol. Once I learned that he had received such a gift, I, of course, went to work "teaching" him all of the great lessons a 3-year-old needs to know about money.

However, as I was talking to him I recalled my last $ lesson I had with a child of ours...

On a cold evening last winter, Gunnar and I went to the store to buy a cake for a baby shower. On our way to the store, Gunnar begins to rummage round in the pockets of the giant puffy coat he was wearing...He "looked" in the pockets for a good four or five minutes before a Velcro wallet appeared.

"Look, I got money!" he proclaims.

"That is great baby," as I look over to discover he has a HEAPING wallet of money- a good bit of it in quarters that seem to be falling from every pocket in the wallet, "Where did you get all of that money?"

"Just around...you know, from a lot of places." (I did not want to go into this with him...I decided in that moment I needed to dig further than finding out what he was doing with all of this money!)

"Oh, how much money do you have?" I asked as we pulled into the Kroger parking lot. I figured at that time that he was well stocked in change and nothing more, so I was not real concerned.

"I do not know," he states, "I have this (showing me the two handfuls of change he has gathered from ever crevice) and some dollars."

"You have some dollars too?" I should have known! "Let me see..."

So sitting in the parking lot of Kroger, I count Gunnar's money. $20s were crumpled in credit-card holes, there was a ripped $10 and more...He also proudly proclaims at this time has been taking this money back and forth to kindergarten daily! Anyway, when my counting concludes, I come to a grand total of $65.45!

Somewhat flabbergasted, I started to drill him with questions...

"Baby, what do you do with this money you carry with you all of the time?...Why do you need this much money?...Why do you not put it in your bank?..." You name it, and I asked!

I think I figured that he was using the money for ice cream at school, saving it for a toy he really wanted...but I was WRONG.

When I asked about the venues in which he was spending he money he says, "...yea, I sometimes buy a snack or something, but mostly I use it when I need to pay Cannon."

"Pay Cannon?...Why do you need to pay Cannon?" (Yes, his brother!)

"Well, you know...sometimes he has to do chores. When he does not want to do a chore, I will give him a dollar and then I will do the chore for him."

"Oh, so when you do not want a chore, you give Cannon a dollar and he does them for you." I figure he had it backwards.

Looking at me as if I AM CONFUSED, "No, when he does not want to do a chore, I pay him a dollar, and then I do it."

Still thinking that he must have it backwards..."So, when Canon does not want to do a chore, you pay him a dollar and then YOU do the chore for him?" I ask him in a somewhat disturbed tone...

"Yes!" he says profoundly...proud that I FINALLY understood!

Do I dare ask another question? "What other times do you pay your brother?"

"Well, if I want something he has I can pay him, and he will give it to me."

"Like what?"

"Well, there was this football that we had and then Zoe ate it, but we still used it. I gave him five dollars, and he let me have it."

How does one respond? Yes, his story is that he gave his brother $5 for a ball they both already owned!

"Don't give your brother any more money for any reason."

Since then, I have decided that I want Cannon to handle all of my finances. :)

A Whole 1/2 Year!

Ballerina Toes is 6 months old!

It is somewhat of a tradition in our family that you mark a baby's first 1/2 year with the child's partaking of their first piece of cake!

Yesterday was ballerina's 1/2 birthday, so of course, we partook in cake...and she partook like no body's business! She was wild with the cake! It may have taken her a few minutes to understand, but once she caught the hang of it, she was a crazy cake lady!

And, when she was finished, she dipped her paci in the icing for an added kick of decadence!

Even the dog, Maggie, got a taste of the sweetness!

And then, we headed to the bath!

And growing... and growing...and growing...

When you have four siblings you have got a pretty big family! And we are so blessed that we keep growing...and growing...and growing...

By this time next year we will have at least to more in our circle! Both my dear sisters, Ragan and Cambrey, are expecting! (Nope...NOT US!!!!!!!!!)

We could not be more excited! Not only for the two of them and their immediate families (I know how deeply these two little ones were wanted), but also to have more cousins and nieces/or nephews!

It is amazing that we were able to be raised together...and that we are so close; however, it is a different kind of amazing to be able to raise your children together.

We look forward to meeting our newest family members!

Ringing in 2008

We quietly rang in the new year at home. At midnight we were all snuggled on the couch watching a movie, and I do not think that I could have dreamed a better start to the new year!

Earlier in the evening Daddy and G spent some "boy time" playing with fireworks...Because I struggle with things I do no deem safe, I took my pictures from a distance and then came back into the house!

But, today we celebrated the new year with "the street." We spent the day in outside grilling and playing...and as the day turned to evening, we gathered inside to eat!

The men EARLY in the day...some of them anyway...

The little boys "teaching" Ella...I am not so sure what they were teaching, but they were very concerned!

My Stunts!

So, Ella has some new stunts! She was crawling before Christmas; however, since then it has become much more "on-the-go!" She is ALL OVER this house, and truly believes that there is no place that she cannot go...in the cabinets, under the bed, in her closet under clothes! She is getting wild!

She will crawl into a corner and then sit and play with a toy, and when we walk over she will crawl with the toy to a different corner to play with it. It is a riot!

Right now she travels pretty slow, so when she is wanting to get somewhere in a hurry she reverys back to the commando crawl she was mastered so well!

She has also decided that she wants to eat "big people" food. Yep, she loves refried beans, banana pudding, baked potatoes, pears...however, her favorite food is frozen waffles! G also loved them when he was little ( I think they feel good on their teeth), but Ella gets all sorts of worked up when I go to the freezer to get one!

Yet, her new talent is somewhat more concerning to me...

She has become quite good at pulling up. :( Grayson was not real interested in such antics until he was ready to walk, but Ella...You set her down in her crib, give her 5 minutes, and she will be standing there waiting on you! Right now I am sitting on my bedroom floor as I type and she has pulled ho on this little chair and is banging on it with a toy hammer. Wild I tell you!