Spring is Sneaking In

S's babysitter took her kids and him to the huge greenhouse in the big city today. There was a train exhibit set up there, and the boys liked it.

Temps are consistently in the 40's during the day. Yesterday was sunny and beautiful, but today was really foggy this morning and cloudy the rest of the day. It's supposed to rain for the rest of the week, and, with the above freezing temps, the snow is really melting. Hopefully there won't be much flooding.

I noticed today that my daffodils are sprouting!!!!

A No-School Monday

There was no school today due to the teachers having meetings at the high school.

I took the kids in to work with me, but I only worked about 3 hrs. Then we went to Cousins for lunch and used a gift card I'd gotten for Christmas. All the kids loved it except for S. He wouldn't eat any of a sub (I was just going to share mine with him.), but he was happy enough to just drink a cup of water with a straw. I made him a pb sandwich when we got home.

I gave G and F their piano lessons today while E practiced her clarinet. Then the girls and I went up to their room and cleaned up a bunch of it. We didn't finish, but got about halfway done.

I also got all of the dark colored valances washed and put back up (except for the one in the boys' room) and dusted the whole house except for the kids' rooms. In fact, the dusting is what sparked the cleaning of the girls' room because I wasn't able to dust anything since everything was covered with toys, projects, papers, etc. The boys' room needs to be cleaned out, too, but I'll get to that.

... And, yes, my kids do clean their own rooms, but their idea of that is usually to shove things under their beds and put the rest of their papers and projects in piles rather than cull through them and toss them or find permanent places for them. The toys do tend to get put away ... or atleast make it to the family room.

A Valentine Message

We're CRAZY for you!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Basketball Weekend

Friday J and G had their yearly checkups at the dr's. Josh took them. Apparently the 2 boys were quite the comedic duo for the dr while they were there.

E had a basketball game in N. E, F, S, and I went to that E could be at the school 30 min before her game while Josh and the other 2 drove separately from the dr's office.

The other team had some 6th graders who also had to play A team basketball later in the night, so they had to take them out for part of the game. At halftime, we were down 12-2. The other team didn't play their 6th graders during the 3rd quarter, and in those 6 min, we scored 20 pts, and the score at the end of the 3rd quarter was 22-12! Then their 6th graders came back in for the 4th quarter, and we lost 29-24. It was an interesting game!

E had a basketball tournament in H today. Her first game was at 9:00 am. We lost. G was invited to go with his friend in the interim time between the girls' games, so we let him.

When E's game was done, we drove 30 min back to the kids' school for J's C team basketball game. They lost, but J scored his second basket of the season.

Then it was a 30 min drive back to H for E's second game. We ate a lunch of sandwiches in the van on the way.

Our girls won their second game, and E made her first basket during a game for the season! The look on her face was great, and it was neat because all of our fans really cheered loudly for her when she made it. In addition to that, E really played a good game, sticking to the person she was guarding, shooting alot, and not just standing in one place.

Since it was the end of E's season, the coach treated the girls to custard at Culver's. We all went along and had some, too. Yum!

Then we had to go to a ballroom in H. Josh's work's charity auction is going to be held there again this year, but the ballroom has gotten a new sound system since the last time we had an auction there. Since Josh is in charge of the sound stuff for the auction, he wanted to check out the new system, so we stopped there for about 15 min before.

We still needed to go grocery shopping for the week, so we stopped at Wal-mart in H, and did our shopping there before heading back home.

Monday

Josh was home from work at noon today because we had some guys coming to tune up our furnace. When I got home a little after 2:00 with S, Josh went back to work. The furnace guys left soon afterwards, saying our furnace was in really good condition. I'd hope so since it's only about 3 yrs old!

Then I baked another batch of valentine cookies. I didn't frost them though. Didn't get a chance to stop and get more powdered sugar yet.

G and F counted out their 100 M&M's to take to school tomorrow to celebrate the 100th day of school.

However, the 100th day of school may get postponed til Wednesday. There is a big snowstorm on the way with 12-16" of snow predicted. It's supposed to start at midnight tonight and last all day Tuesday. The winter storm warning lasts til 6:00 Wednesday morning. So we may have a snow day tomorrow. Atleast we're not getting pummelled with 2 1/2 ft like the east coast did!

Josh is gone to a town about an hour away this evening. He should be back around 9:00.

Super-Glued Kiss

After kissing S, who then proceeded to wipe the kiss off, I told him, "You can't do that! I super-glued it on!"

To which S replied, "I super, super wipe it off!"

Rethinking Remodeling Plans

Josh and I have been planning to finish our basement this summer, adding 2 additional bedrooms down there. Before getting our building permit, Josh had to contact someone with our county's planning dept and get their approval first because we have a septic system. In doing so, he found that the number of bedrooms our house has determines the size of septic system we are required to have. Due to the size of our septic system, we can only have 3 bedrooms in our house. If we want to add more, we have to put in a bigger septic system. Ironically, we can add more bathrooms with our current septic system. (How much sense does that make?!)

We need the bedroom room. The boys are okay in their room now, but it's tight, and as they grow older, we will definitely need more room for them.

Even though the plan was for E and J to each have their own room in the basement, G and S to share upstairs, and F to have her own room upstairs, it looks like we will have to stay with a boys' room and a girls' room.

So now, the plan we're considering is to remodel the whole upstairs so that the 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom up there are turned into 2 larger bedrooms with 1 regular bathroom and 1 master bathroom. Then, the 2 bedrooms we were planning to put in the basement will turn into 1 large bedroom for the boys.

We were all disappointed in learning that we couldn't do what we'd been planning for quite a while, but we can't put in a new septic system and add the bedrooms. It's one or the other. Although the revisions we're considering will still cost more than our initial plans, they're still more feasible than dealing with the septic system.

Last night Josh and I played around with layouts and plans, measuring things, etc., and trying to come up with a way that we could get things to work. I think we've got about half of it worked out, but Josh needs to play around with some kind of program they have at his work that can draw up accurate building plans.

New Portraits for S

I took S to Penney's today to get his 3 1/2 yrs pictures taken. (I get the kids' pictures taken every 6 months til they're 4.) He did pretty well. Once the lady told him to stand on the red spot on the floor, he was always making sure he was on it! :)

The pics turned out pretty well, and I'm happy with them. I was still able to use the smile savers card (or whatever Penney's calls it) that I got for free back when this Penney's first opened and I was one of the first 200 customers to have pictures taken there. Cool!

Daddy Day

Today was "Daddy Day" for S's class at school. The students' dads were invited to come visit the classroom from 10:00 am til the end of the 3K's school day at 11:15.

Mrs. R, S's teacher, told me afterward that S was more bouncy and talkative even before Josh arrived than he's ever been before. Daddy is his favorite person, and he was so excited about him coming.

On another preK note, Annabelle the classroom fish was missing from her fishbowl this morning. Mrs. R said she found the fish on the floor under the shelf the fishbowl was sitting on. Apparently Annabelle took the leap of death out of the fishbowl and onto the floor.

I worked concessions tonight.

Boys and Guns

First off, let me say that Josh has never been hunting. We don't own a gun. I don't have anything against those who own guns or hunt as long as they are responsible with the guns and ammo; I just want to let you know where I'm coming from. That said ...

What is it that makes boys drool over Nerf guns? Run around the house shooting each other? Set up targets in the basement to shoot at? Build a gun mount out of K'nex?

(This is the same boy who has rigged up a gun rack with hangers at the foot of his bed for his Nerf gun.)

And, just in case you think I'm being sexist by only asking about boys doing these things, how many girls do you know will take a bite out of their sandwich quarters and then shoot them like a gun without outside influence from a person of the male gender?

Honestly, I'm not worried about the boys and their Nerf guns and what it might mean for them in the future. Their heads are usually screwed on right.

It's just that there are interesting differences between boys and girls.

In Which I Earn the Bad Mom Award

E had basketball games at her school last night. It was also our night for our "compulsory volunteerism" in which we had to supervise at the games for 2 hrs (make sure there are no problems with fans or students from our school or the other team's and help as needed).

E's team lost, and when her game was done, I handed over the blaze orange supervisor's vest to Josh to wear while I went and finished proofing and printing the bulletins for Sunday since they weren't ready for me yet while I was working there earlier.

After putting the kids to bed, Josh and I watched The Soloist. I wouldn't recommend it. It wasn't horrible or anything, but it was R.E.A.L.L.Y. slow. I think it could have been a good movie, but it just seemed so drawn out when it didn't need to be. I watched the whole thing, but Josh fell asleep during it.

J had a basketball game this morning at P, H. Josh took J and S to the game while I took E, G, and F grocery shopping with me. E and G wanted to come with me and pick out presents for their friends whose birthday parties they will be attending soon, and F wanted to spend the remainder of her $10 money from Christmas. E was scheduled to have a 3 hr cheerleading practice this afternoon (or so I thought), so we had to get the errands run in the morning which meant we couldn't all go to J's game.

J's team won his game.

After lunch I took E to school for her practice. We were about 5 minutes early. Pastor's car was the only one there, but that didn't really faze me since the other cheerleaders usually get dropped off, and the coach gets there right when practice is supposed to start. I watched E open the door and go into the building.

On the way home, I had to stop at Piggly Wiggly to pick up a couple of things that they had really good deals on.

When I pulled into the garage, Josh came out with the phone in his hand and said that E was waiting at school and didn't have practice. Oh, no!

I drove back and picked her up, but I went into the office and checked on my computer there. Practice was scheduled for 1:00-4:00 NEXT Saturday afternoon!

I felt so incredibly horrible! Bad mom award for the day? Yep, that would be mine. :(

At home once again I spent over 2 hrs cleaning the house and folding laundry. Not fun, but productive, and now the house looks much better.

With our permission, J has started reading the Harry Potter books. Someone at school is reading the first one. Because it wasn't in the school library, J started with book 2. When we were at the community library this morning, I checked for book 1, but all the copies there were checked out there, too. Guess I'll have to put it on hold for him.

J just started reading the Harry Potter book this past Wednesday and is already almost done. Pretty good for a boy who mainly enjoys non-fiction!

Bubble Bath

aka - future blackmail pics ;)

Just look at those cute little toes that are getting too big to fast!

After the Snowstorm

Our town ended up getting hit the worst in the area with the snow totalling 12". Thankfully for those shovelling and snowblowing, it was a light, powdery snow instead of heavy and wet.

Because the roads still weren't in great shape on Friday morning, school was delayed 2 hrs. I was able to work it out with S's sitter that, since I went in 2 hrs later, he could stay til the end of the school day when I would bring her son home from school when I picked S up. I took our kids to and from school Friday, too.

Josh had the second day of his conference on Friday.

Friday evening E's basketball team played in G. Her team lost 24-20. It was a pretty good game against a good team.

When we got home after E's game, I headed over to the high school to work concessions for Thursday's make-up game. We weren't very busy. I got home a bit after 9:00.

This morning E had group band practice at the high school again. When she finished, we all left for J's basketball scrimmage. It was supposed to be a game, but the team they were supposed to play didn't have enough boys at that level to field a team, so J's team scrimmaged against itself. They played 5 quarters because there was time before the C girls' game. J's team lost after 4 quarters 10-8 but won 12-10 after 5 quarters. J did a good job of getting into the action, getting the ball, dribbling. He even got off a shot or two (which unfortunately didn't go in).

From there we went to WB to go to the library and grocery shopping. We'd gotten some Applebee's giftcards for Christmas from Josh's parents, so between Aldi and Wal-mart, we all went to Applebee's for lunch. Thank you, Mom and Dad! :)

Josh is gone tonight at something for work, so I'm home with the kiddos, overseeing bathtime. Josh won't be back til late, and I'm debating whether I should cozy up with a book or watch another episode of the Love Comes Softly DVD's I've been getting from the library. I've watched the first 6 so far, and Josh has been watching them with me, so maybe I'll just wait.

Early Release

Monday was the first day back to school after Christmas break.

Tuesday was the first day back to working concessions after Christmas break.

Today was the first day of early release from school due to snow after Christmas break. :)

It was snowing when we got up this morning and hasn't stopped all day long. It was lighter and heavier throughout the day. The roads weren't good driving in to school/church this morning since they hadn't been plowed yet, or atleast hadn't been for quite some time. I even beat the bus to school! When S and I were walking across the parking lot to go into school, the bus pulled up. Wow! (It was about 15 minutes late arriving.)

It was decided mid-morning that school would end early at 1:15. I took the kids home with me. All after-school sports practices were cancelled, too.

Josh and a co-worker of his were at a conference about an hour away today. I was worried about him since some of my co-workers were saying about how it took their spouses 45 min and over an hour to get to work, drives that should have taken them 10-20 min. I emailed Josh since I figured he'd have his computer with him, and asked him to email me when he got to the conference site. He did and said it only took them about 10 min longer than anticipated to get there. (The place where the conference was held is north and west of where we live, a location that wasn't supposed to get hit quite as badly with snow.) He arrived home safely just after 4:00, too.

I was supposed to work concessions tonight, but the basketball games have been postponed til tomorrow night.

It's 8:50 pm right now, and the snow coming down much harder now, and it looks like the wind has picked up. The tv just said that there are near white-out conditions outside and the snow is coming down at 2" per hour. We're supposed to end up with 8-10" total when all this is done.

New 'Do, Take 2

At the risk of appearing narcissistic, I took another pic of myself with my haircut today. It looks better today since I did it rather than just taking a pic after getting it cut. (My hair never looks the way I would do it after coming from the salon.)

I can't believe how curly it's gotten! All of the waves/curls in the above pic are natural and are from letting my hair air dry this morning after washing it. (By the way, the "M" pendant was one of my Christmas presents from Josh this year. More on that in another post.)

My hair has always had a bit of wave to it, but I think it was when I was pregnant with S or Grace, it started to really curl. It seemed to be getting more curl in it recently because I was starting to even get ringlets when it was long, but I was afraid that they'd disappear once I got it cut shorter. (I had curls as a toddler til my hair was cut, and the same happened to E and F.) I'm glad to see the curls and big waves are still there.

Yesterday I said I'd gotten about 5" cut off. After comparing the above pic to this one E took of Josh and me on Christmas Eve, I think it may have been even more.

6"? 7"? I'm not sure, but it looks like a lot.

Hosting Christmas

As I mentioned yesterday, today we hosted a Christmas celebration at our house with my brother and his family, my parents, and my sister.

All 5 of the grandsons received remote control cars from Grammy and Grandpa (my parents).

My dad putting batteries into one of the cars

Once the batteries were in the cars, our family room became the open road ... or maybe the demo derby arena!

Since the 4 older boys' cars were all the same except for the color, the controllers would make more than one car move. At one point, there was a car up in the living room that someone had forgotten to turn off, and it was driving around because someone was in the family room driving another car.

Brother J and nephew E putting together E's Lego gift

The whole clan (except for me) just before eating

Grandpa and Grammy with all 9 grandchildren

A pic of the whole crew (including me since we used my camera's timer)

Father and son

Sis R, E, and SIL L playing Bananagrams. E got the game from my parents as a gift.

(It appears I got off on my numbering for Project 365 somewhere along the line since this should be Day 363, but I've only got it as Day 361 in my sequence. However, since I've got plenty of pictures in this post, I'm going to count this as Days 361-363 to get back on track.)

Let the Christmas Parties Begin!

Yesterday we all went to my grandparents' house to celebrate Christmas with lots of extended family ... aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, parents, great-grandchildren ... Lots of fun!

Then, afterwards, my brother J, SIL L, and their 4 kids came to spend the night at our house and stay a few days.

Today Josh, bro J, and 8 of the kids went sledding. The aftermath ...


J and L's kids and ours always have a blast together. Their oldest 3 and our youngest 3 were all born within weeks of each other. For a while, my mom said her grandchildren came in pairs!

Nephew E brought along his new stuffed Yoda which has been a hit with our boys as well. Many of them have been seen throughout the day carrying Yoda around on their shoulders, pretending they are Luke Skywalker.

(Day 360 of 365)

Tomorrow my parents and sister come over, too, and we celebrate our smaller extended family Christmas with them.

Christmas Eve 2009

(My 3rd entry in the Christmas Journal photo challenge -- I try not to use the flash so much indoors because I don't like the shadows it casts, but then my pics tend to turn out yellow and grainy in the low light. Any helpful ideas?)

We went to DS's Christmas Eve service where Josh did the A/V for them once again. It had just started to rain when we left home, and when we returned, the rain was coming down pretty hard. Temps were about 35 degrees, but the roads weren't too bad.

Once we got home I took our traditional pic of the kids next to the tree on Christmas Eve. It turned out really well (on the 3rd try)!

As our family has grown, it's gotten harder to take a good picture with everyone looking and no one having a goofy look on his/her face. However, I've learned that the trick is to bribe the kids by saying that if I can get a good picture of them, I will take a picture of them in which they can act as crazy as they want.

Here's the bribery pic of the kids hamming it up.

E took a picture of Josh and me.

After we changed clothes, we set out our supper of sausage, crackers and cheese spread, apple slices, and Christmas cookies, milk and wine, which we ate and drank as we opened gifts.

E was very excited about her new digital camcorder.

Buy Josh tools, and he's a happy man! Actually, he asked for this heavy duty ice chopper.

J has decided he doesn't like getting his picture taken anymore, but I got this one of him with his Lego Millenium Falcon.

G really, really wanted Anakin's Y-wing fighter. He got it!

He was pretty happy about his new Lego Star Wars shirt, too!

E's godmother sent her the cloak for her Elizabeth American Girl doll.

S was super excited to find that he'd gotten some Star Wars Galactic Heroes.

(Are you catching this year's pervasive Star Wars theme?)

But almost nothing can beat stomping on and popping bubble wrap!

F wins the prize for the best expression captured on camera!

She's been saying for weeks and weeks that she wanted an iPod (something to play music). We got her an MP3 player, and she was beyond thrilled! F spent much of the night walking around with the earbuds in, dancing and singing. (I'd asked her the other day what some of her favorite songs were, and last night Josh downloaded a bunch from online to her MP3 player.)

After all the gifts were opened

I love this one of the girls together. E is showing F her camcorder.

Hard at work already

(Day 356 of 365)