Some Thursday Thoughts on Clothes

*The whiteness of my family's socks is a direct reflection of the cleanliness of my kitchen floor. Or lack there of.....


*I am completely convinced that over 25% of the clothes that I wash aren't even dirty. This is a result of the way my children "clean their rooms". And I use the term very loosely.

*Gauchos are growing on me.

*That is not my flat little tummy in the gaucho photo, as flat is not a word that will ever be used in the same sentence as "Heth's tummy" again. The girl in the photo has never given birth, her teensy little hips are a dead give away.

*This morning, as I was getting dressed, I looked across the room at Gemma's runny nose and decided against the black shirt I was holding in my hands.

This post has been edited due to my inability to successfully proofread my own writing. Thank you Nate for pointing out my many errors before I made a complete fool of myself. Now I'm olny a fool to the people using feedreaders. Husbands. You can't blog without them.

Mini MacGyver

Remember when I told you that Jack was a little Navy Seal? I give you the proof. In a desperate search for gum, Jack constructed a ladder using couch cushions and found his way into the stash. I give him fifteen points for being so resourceful. Check out those little calf muscles!

Staying In Touch With My Inner Child

Nate has been away on business for two nights and three days. Big whoop, right? Well, I'm a big wuss. When he is away, I morph into an eleven year old, which isn't so great for the kids. They already have an eleven year old brother, they don't need a pre-teen mother too. "How?" you ask.

Let's start at the beginning of the day and take a walk through. When Nate is gone, we sleep in until the last possible minute. On a regular week day, when he is home, I'm up at 5:30 and off for a morning run by 6. When Nate is gone, I don't feel like it would be very responsible to leave my children here all alone, while I am off pounding the pavement at the butt-crack of dawn. Yes, even as my eleven year old self, I retain a tiny bit of responsibility. I'll take all the extra sleep I can get, so I set the alarm for seven and the school kids get a very short 40 minutes to get ready for the bus. I just want to take a moment of silence in honor of the bus. (please join me in this display of gratitude) The bus has changed our mornings from absolute chaos, to serene calm. Ok, maybe not serene calm, but it is much better than when I used to drive them myself.

I am so sidetracked.

While Nate dines on the finest steaks and chicken strips (don't ask) with his business companions, we continue with the eleven year old trend. What fine things do I serve to my children while their father is away? We order pizza or eat mac and cheese, peanut butter sandwiches or pop corn for supper. Easy is in, healthy is out. Shame on me, but WHATEVER!, I'm eleven. Lazy? I know you are but what am I?

My true inner eleven year old makes herself fully known at the end of the day. The kids are tucked in, and I am freaking out. If you haven't figured it out by now, I am deathly afraid of axe murderers. When I'm home alone, I avoid going to bed and I stay up late into the night, killing time and delaying a reasonable bedtime by more than a couple hours. Chicken? Yes. Yellow bellied? Yep. Scaredy cat? That's me. At least I'm owning up to it. When I finally do drag myself to bed, I leave on lights, turn on music, and sleep with the phone on my pillow. These nights are the only nights that I wish we had a dog. No, I take that back. I think it would send me into orbit to hear the dog growling at the axe murderer coming through the back door. Ignorance is bliss, right?

Nate will be back this evening and I am thrilled. Of course because I love him and missed him, but mostly because I want to be twenty nine again. I want to eat real meals, go to bed at a decent hour, and have an extra pair of arms to hold Little Miss Teething Baby. Or maybe I should call her by her other name, Little Miss Velcro Baby. My friend Gretchen over at Lifenut, just survived nine days without her husband. Only, he was gone for a whole different reason. A very generous reason. I don't know what I'm whining about, Nate was only gone for two nights. I think of the widows and the single moms out there and I am completely humbled.

But it doesn't stop me from stomping my feet and sulking about Mr. Business Traveler and his five pillow bed, and breakfasts at Starbucks. Wahhhh, caramel Macchiato.

My Friend Sara

A few of you asked about the wrap that Mariah is wearing in the photo. I'll tell you about it but first I want to introduce you to my friend Sara. Sara and I met in the eighth grade and we were friends until her family moved away our sophomore year. Ok, that makes it sound like we weren't friends anymore after that. We were. We still are. We have kept in touch all of these years. Well, one of us has done a better job of that than the other. I suck. Sara has this wonderful attribute. She remembers special occasions. She has sent me cards and gifts for birthdays and anniversaries and just for fun over the years. Me? Yeah, not so much. Sorry Sara. Sara has taught me many things but I want to highlight three of my favorites.

Babywearing. This is where the wrap comes in. When Sara and Matt had little Bella, Sara dove headfirst into baby carriers. I love that about her. She has a collection of some of the most beautiful wraps and slings and is an official consultant. She has wraps for summer and winter. Slings for teensy little newborns and for hefty, squirmy toddlers. Fabrics that go with your flip flops and fabrics to wear with your strapless black dress. She gave me a Moby Wrap when Gemma was born and I LOVE it. I had dabbled in ring slings with Jack, (see him sucking his thumb there, awww) but they put such uneven pressure on my one shoulder and although I love having my hands free, my back couldn't hack it. This wrap spreads the weight evenly across my back and I could carry Gemma in it for hours. Infact, I do. When she was tiny, she faced towards me and would sleep with her head tucked in the fabric. Now that she is older, she likes to face the world and see what is going on around her. She has been so many places in this thing. Even a Blindside show. It even protected her ears. Love, love, love it. See? We all use it.




Ok, thing number two that Sara has introduced me to. Tea. In the past, I would buy a box of Constant Comment from the grocery store, thow a teabag in my mug, let it steep, and then LEAVE THE TEA BAG IN THE MUG THE WHOLE TIME I AM DRINKING IT! I scream that because now I have been made aware of how much of a tea novice I was. Leaving my teabag in my cup. BAH! For my birthday this year, Sara sent me this little contraption from Adagio teas.

Isn't that nifty? You can't really tell how awesome it is without using it, but let me just assure you. It is awesome. Pop that baby in the microwaveto heat up the water. Throw your favorite tea in to let it steep. Then here's the coolest part. Set the whole thing on top of your mug and it magically lets your tea drain into your mug, straining out all of the leaves. Trust me, it's rad. And if you don't understand my little description, go watch this little video clip. My favorite kind of tea so far? Foxtrot.

The last thing I have learned from Sara, and I don't think she even knows this, is to wear less makeup and just love my natural face. Last time I saw her, Sara looked fabulous. Her skin? Flawless? Her makeup? Minimal. I think she only had mascara on. I admit, I feel so unbelievably naked without makeup, but since seeing my dear friend, I have re-thought the issue. I'm not going to go all deep on you all about inner beauty and whatnot. But I have ditched my eyeliner pencil, 99.9% of the time. And I usually just do mascara and some lipgloss if I'm just running around town. A night out? Tinted moisturizer, some eyeshadow, and some blush are added to my ritual. Sara's skin was just glowing that day. She looked amazing, so healthy and vibrant. Now, that could be because she eats so healthy that I can't even begin to communicate the extent of her healthiness to you. If I did it would include words like: Vegan. Raw. Organic. Etc. Me? Well, you know me and my refined sugar addiction. Maybe someday her eating habits will rub off on me too, but for now, I'll stick to the wrap, the tea and the mascara. Love ya Sare!

She's THIRTEEN!

My little sister turns thirteen today. Wasn't it just last week that I was teaching her to walk? Mariah was born when I was sixteen and a sophomore in highschool. I was so proud to push that little umbrella stroller through the mall. And now, here we are. She pushes MY kids in strollers....well, kind of:

She is an AMAZING babysitter, you should all be jealous. She can handle all six kids at once, and make a craft, play a game, and pick up the house. I'm so blessed to have her for a sister. Now if only her feet would grow a little faster so we could share shoes......

Our Little Zilla

We are in the middle of a birthday extravaganza. February and March are very festive months for our family. In fact, we were headed to a birthday party on the day that Camryn was born. My little sister, Mariah was turning six that year, we sent little Tyler and Noelle over for the party anyway. We had a different kind of party to go to. Camryn made her entrance into the world that very evening. Wrinkly little raisin feet and hands were proof of a mis-calculated due date. This little bun had cooked in the oven a little too long. But how perfect that she now shared a birthday with her Aunt.

Camryn has a giggle that brings a laugh to your own lips. She can paint a penguin like nobody's business. She is my little garden buddy, remembering the names of the flowers from fall to spring. Quiet and shy sometimes, other times bouncing off the walls, you never know with Cam. She can hum the guitar riffs to all of the best Blindside songs. Sometimes she sings the harmony, she's quite the little bird.

Happy seventh birthday Camryn.

Monday Mumble Jumble

A couple unrelated things. Number one. Wedding season is almost upon us and I re-stumbled across this amazing photographer's website. I found his website back in September , and just went out there today for another good cry. Wahhhh, wedding photography is beautiful. His name is David Jay, check him out. Make sure you watch all the videos in the gallery. And make sure you bring out the Kleenex.


Also, I just thought I would reveal the identity of the mystery nibbler. Jack likes his "ceeyo" with sugar on it and sometimes he likes his sugar with a little "ceeyo" on it. It was Jack who left the pile of sugarless shredded wheat on the table. You don't mess with him before he has his morning bowl. He tends to be a little shaky and growly, I know how he feels.

Caedmon let me know that other day that "I can't wait until Jack is three, then he will talk normal." Well, maybe.

Tyler

You are eleven years old today. I'm so proud of you. It must be hard to be the oldest kid, you are our debut child. It's a little bit scary, there is no test run. We are trying to figure this parenting thing out as we go. Forgive us for our mistakes, we're giving it our best shot.

God knew you would be the best big brother. I love watching you with the little ones. When you were a toddler, I would try to picture you as a big kid. What would you look like? Who would you be? And here you are. It's so surreal.

Your sense of humor cracks me up so much. A combination of slapstick and sarcasm. Some times you catch us totally off guard. Like last night when we ran into some of our friends at Sam's club. Some how the conversation turned towards money and you said, "My Dad is going to pay for half of my college." Then you looked at me and announced, "And Mom is going to pay the other half."

Sometimes I feel overwhelmed by all the things I need to teach you in the next seven years. But then I remember all the things that I have learned by being your Mom. You have taught me so much about myself, I'm not sure who's getting the better end of the deal. I think we both are.

Happy Birthday Tyler.

Healthy Cereal

The De-Frosting of the Frosted Shredded Wheat.

The chair.

I just wanted to reassure you that we aren't raising axe murderers over here Under the Laundry Pile. Yes, the office chair is a punctured mess. No, it wasn't done in a fit of anger. When I discovered the poor chair, it was surrounded by tiny little Kleenex tissues, clipped into a million pieces. Homemade confetti. The Kleenex box had been trimmed along with some paper. There was no attempt to destroy the evidence, the scissors were even left right there in plain sight. This was a case of a child exploring their cutting skills, and the office chair was just another variable in the child's experiment. I hope I didn't cause too much alarm. I just need to make sure to hide the "mommy scissors" and get the rounded tip Fiskars out. Or maybe I'll just put ALL scissors away. I don't want anymore "haircuts".

Chinese Philosophy?

Yin and Yang.

Check it out: two primal opposing but complementary forces.
Yin, the darker element, is passive, dark, feminine, downward-seeking, and corresponds to the night; yang, the brighter element, is active, light, masculine, upward-seeking and corresponds to the day.

So I guess I look better in black? I have been thinking a lot about how Nate and I completely compliment each other. Specifically, how when one of us is down, the other is up and vice versa. Say I have a completely emotional, bordering on psychotic, bawl my eyes out for no reason, type day. Not that I ever have.....yesterday. Nate is my Yang. Capable and willing to be everything I am not. When he is tired or has a grumpy day. Not that he ever does.....Saturday. I am his Ying, cheerful, energized, and taking care of business. If I'm overreacting about something with the kids, he usually sees it from a different perspective and balances me out. And I do for him. Like if one of our children takes a pair of scissors to a brand new leather (maybe it's fake) office chair, and plays "stab the chair to death". I may initially freak out and not even want to call Nate, fearing for the child's life. But in true Yin Yang style, he stays even keeled and doesn't bat an eye. Not that any of our kids would ever stab a chair with scissors over 45 times.

I really am in awe of how perfectly God fit us together. He sure knew what He was doing.

Because I'm a copy cat...

I saw this over at Mom to the Screaming Masses. It's called Johari and it looked pretty interesting. I don't really know what it has to do with anything but whatthehey! I'm a sucker for quizzes and polls and all this kind of junk. So go check it out and then make one for yourself too.

http://kevan.org/johari?name=LaundryLady

I am alive.

I want a t-shirt that says "I survived The Fever". It wasn't pretty, that was a nasty bad little virus. Seriously. Jack is still trying to beat it. He still has a pretty bad cough and wakes up every half hour all night long, asking for his Daddy.

Yeah RIGHT!! Of course he only wants Mommy. Jack and I end up sleeping all over the house. From the futon to the couch to the bed to the couch to the futon. It's musical beds, not a game I am thrilled about playing. And Gemma still feels the need to eat at least once in the middle of the night, thank you Gemma. Is nine months old enough to take Nyquil? KIDDING! maybe

If you see me around town, don't run screaming in the other direction. It's not a zombie, it's just me. In an attempt to get some fresh air and to leave the house after too many days inside, we all piled in the van to run a few errands last night. I'm pretty sure I scared the whole town with my pasty white make-upless face and my hair all tucked up in a baseball hat. The mouth breathing was attractive. I was looking so Glam.

So there's a whine for ya. Come on over to my blog and listen to me complain. Good times.
This year, for every holiday that involves gifts, I'm going to ask for sleep. Can I just put that on my Christmas list? Heather wants sleep. It might be a difficult gift to wrap, but I don't mind if you wrap it in the Sunday funnies, I'll take it.

A Filler

I'm catching it. The watery eyes, the runny nose, the congestion. I'm sure by this evening it will be the full blown Fever. So no funny kid stories, nothing profound. (not that I have ever written anything profound) I give you a filler. The infamous Google game that answers the difficult questions of life, one being, what does Heather need? (yes, my name is Heather, not Heth) I just typed the words "Heather needs" into old Google and quickly found out. This cracked me up.

1. Heather needs men....now!
2. Heather needs two therapists.
3. Heather needs a rest.
4. Heather needs a childhood.
5. Heather needs to stick with her career as a country artist.
6. Heather needs veggies.
7. Heather needs to find the right balance between emotions and logic.

I'll take number three, which to me, screams nap. But I'm not so sure about the rest of them. What do you need? Go Google it and find out.

They're dropping like flies.

The Fever has taken over our family, one by one. And can I admit this? Sometimes I like it when my kids are sick. Of course I don't like it that they feel horrible. But I love the rosy little cheeks and glassy eyes. I love the quiet that falls over the house when Jack is lethargic on the sofa. I love holding them. I love that they sit still and let me hold them. I love laying my cheek on their fiery little foreheads.

Noelle spent two days home from school, sleeping on the couch. It was a special time, having her home with the three littles. A different dynamic. She let Camryn in on the perks of being sick. "You get to watch TV all day, and eat chicken noodle soup, and be with Mom." Awwww. Melts my heart.

Jack was blindsided by The Fever yesterday afternoon. He didn't particularly love the watery eyes that afflicted him. Infact, he would scream "MY EYES!" But a little cuddling would put him right to sleep, and he also spent the afternoon on the couch.

Last night, Nate could feel The Fever coming on. "Why is our house so freezing?" Um, it's 70 degrees in here. After dinner he retreated to the couch to snuggle with Caedmon who's face was flushed and was also beginning to show signs of The Fever.

As soon as the American Idol theme music started playing, I claimed my cushion on the couch and was immediately swarmed by feverish children. One of them being little Gemma, thumb in her mouth and head resting on my chest. You know, a sick family doesn't need to stock up on Tylenol or chicken noodle soup. What they really need are more Mommies. Last night I was wishing I had six more arms and a couple more laps. I wanted to hold each one of them and stroke each little sweaty forehead. But I'm sure, with more than two Feverish children on my lap at once, I would have spontaneously combusted.

Today, Noelle is back to school. Camryn and Tyler are healthy. Jack is up to his antics again, and Caedmon's bout seems to be short lived. But Daddy is knocked out on the couch, and Gemma's little cheeks couldn't be redder. Can I just sit and hold her all day? It's a good thing laundry doesn't have a voice, or it would be screaming at me right now. And I would continue to ignore it. Clean clothes are overrated.

The boys, the boys.

This is quickly becoming the Caedmon and Jack show. Do I even HAVE any other children?

A quick follow up on the chocolate syrup incident of 2006. My magical, mystical, miracle-working, carpet cleaning machine saved my gluteus maximus, once again. I spent two hours extracting brown sludge from my carpet, but it looks better than ever. I also peeled the covers off of the couch cushions and gambled on putting them in the washing machine. They came out shiny clean and a half a shade lighter than the rest of the couch, but oh well. I'm not complaining. I didn't take any pictures because it's getting ridiculous. I'm embarrassed to say, they boys make a mess, see me coming with my permanent scowl, and proceed to say in the sweetest voice, "Better get the camera Mom...." Oops. Yeah, that's my fault. I'm guilty, I get the camera first, discipline later. And for the record, no children were harmed in the chocolate syrup fiasco.

I promised blue goatee evidence and tonight I deliver.






Looks like a whole lot of fun doesn't it? Yee Haw!

Maybe one of these days I'll write about something other than two little trouble makers and their messy adventures. Probably not though.

Lessons in logic for preschoolers

Mom loves chocolate. -True

Mom does not love the living room carpet or the green couch. She hates them. -True

Covering the living room carpet and the green couch with a whole bottle of chocolate syrup will cause Mom to love the green couch and the living room carpet. -False

Actually, it will just make smoke come out of her nostrils.

E-Babybooks?

I gave up on baby books after kid number three. It's all down hill from there. And guess what? I don't scrapbook either. It's my own little way to rebel against society.

But I have this here blog, in lieu of the traditional recording of milestones. You lucky people [victims] get to read all of the daily tidbits of my children's lives. Cozy up with me on my cyber couch as I read you the latest goings on around here. Wow, I might as well pull out the vacation photos from the past eleven years and put you to sleep with a slide show on my living room wall. Booooring.

But I'm going to do it anyway.

I love my caller ID. I screen calls that show up as 1-800 blah blah blah. Anything that shows up as "unavailable" doesn't get answered either. But I was cracking up when Tyler answered a phone call from a buddy yesterday. He glanced at the caller ID, saw it was his friend, and pulled a "What UP?!" Quickly realizing it could be his friend's mother, he recovered with an "I mean, um, hello?" I was giggling in the next room.

Noelle's third grade class has the challenging task of using their newly learned cursive on a daily basis. She is supposed to practice her spelling words everyday by writing them, not printing them. It takes foreeeeeeever. Triple the time. I empathized with her after I decided to see how MY cursive is after all of these years. Since I print most of the time, and only throw in the occasional cursive uppercase "I", it wasn't pretty. I kept cheating by looking over at her paper, or asking "How do you make a lowercase "b" Noelle?". I think from here on out I'll stick to my own little mix of printing and cursive that I call my handwriting.

Camryn wants to skip over spring and head straight into summer. Know why? She is scared of tornados and bees. I tried to tell her of tulips and rain showers and Easter. In her mind Spring=itchy red welts and the threat of a swirling vortex. Summer looked good until yesterday's talk of swimming lessons. Now she is worried about THAT too. On an un-worrying note, she has a new found magic touch with Gemma that no one else has. She can put that baby to sleep so quick, it is just precious.

I have recently observed that Caedmon eats all food by wadding it up in his hand and gnawing on it like a beaver. Awesome.

Jack has a new word. It comes out something like this: "buttquack" We aren't sure if it should be on the naughty words list or not. It's too funny to discipline.

Gemma is standing alone. Someone tie her shoelaces together, I'm not ready for her to join her brothers in crime.

There you have it. I feel better about the pretty but empty books sitting in the storage room. I think I started writing Caedmon's birth story in his babybook, but never got back to it. Um yeah, that was four and a half years ago..........

Most of this is boring.

Nothing very exciting going on around the Laundry Pile. Well, unless you count the black crayon that stowed away in a pocket and made it all the way through to the dryer. It definitely left it's mark, luckily it only ruined a set of sheets, not my favorite Blindside shirts.

Caedmon has been remembering his dreams in the morning and then feels the need to share them with everyone.

Caedmon: Want to hear my dream mom?
Me: Sure!
Caedmon: It was me, and Owen and Ethan and our whole family and were were in Grandma's woods and we were walking, walking, walking. And we all had guns. And we saw something in the bushes, and we shot it, and it was a skunk. And you know what was inside?
Me: What?
Caedmon: MEAT!

So that's fun.

We went out for dinner last night at a pizza buffet and I broke my number one buffet rule: Never eat off of the salad bar. After working in a restaurant for a couple years and seeing the behind-the-scenes of the salad bar world, I vowed to never eat the macaroni salad or any of the rest of it again. People, it's gross. I'm telling you. But something about the glob of tan goo in the back row was calling to me. And even though I didn't know exactly what it was, I need to try it. I was hoping it would be from the pudding family. Quite the risk taker aren't I? Well, I was right, it was banana. And no food poisoning so far. YAY!

It turns out that the general public thinks that I'm meetable. Can you believe it? I won! But I'm implementing the don't-drop-by-without-calling-first rule. I need at least a half-hour notice to straighten upthe house. Thanks for voting for me, you guys are great. Oh that I could meet you all.

Some of my friends won too:

• Daring Young Mom will make you laugh and spit out your coffee all over your keyboard
• Shannon will make you want to have kids. Or have MORE kids. (yikes!)
• Karen's blog is oh so very happy.

The rest of the winners I don't know but I'm sure they are fabulous! I don't dare add any more blogs to my very, very, very, long reading list, there is only so much time in the day.

So on that note, I hereby kick myself off of the computer and head straight back to the laundry room, my home within my home. And I will be checking all the pockets from here on out.

Old Lu

Sweet coat? Check
Driver's license? Check

Invincibility? Working on it......

Happy 16th birthday to my little brother Luke.

Insurance

Wednesday afternoon I made a double batch of chocolate chip cookies. I nibbled on the dough a bit, because know what? I can. I am the mommy now and I don't have to ask to lick the beaters. Or share them. I baked up six or seven dozen, I'm not sure, I lost count. Last night, Thursday night, while all of the children were sleeping soundly in their beds, I opened the container and pulled out the last three cookies. I looked at them sitting next to my glass of cold milk and I faced a huge decision. Should I eat all three? I promise if there were five or even seven, I would have asked the same question. Should I eat them all? But my mother's intuition kicked in. I ate two and bagged up the last one to be stashed in a secret place. In a place where no one would find it except me. Because I knew.

What did I know? I knew that today was no school. I knew that all the kids can't possibly be on their best behavior all at once. I knew that they would start bickering about things such as whether or not "one, two, skip a few, ninety-nine, one hundred" is a legitimate way to count to 100. I knew that sometime in the middle of the afternoon, my body would start screaming for a chocolate chip cookie and I would become desperate. I knew that I would need a little nest egg. One little cookie. My secret hoard. And it is so worth it.

Proof

In a feeble attempt to redeem myself from yesterday's brutal honesty, I give you poor quality camera phone pics. (Have I mentioned this lately?)

Look, quick! My living room is clean! It won't last long.



And also, the shoes....only 13 pairs today. Yes, I straightened them up for the picture, you didn't want to see them in a pile like they were.



So go ahead and stop by! Wait, don't. I'm not going to be home today. See, I told you. Not so meetable am I?

In other news, Nate did some work last weekend and completed the triple-decker. The trundle is done and rolls out beautifully. Hooray for Lumberjack Husband!

Huh? What?

Ok, this is me picking up my jaw, totally floored that I made finalist in the Share the Love blog awards. I am up against some fine ladies in the categories "Most Meetable in Real Life" and "Best Commenter".

Let's discuss.

Most meetable in real life? Well kind of, maybe, if it's on my terms. You can't just drop by, because the couch cushions are on the floor again, being jumped on by two rambunctious little boys. There are probably a few (ok, more than a few) dirty dishes in the sink, and you will trip over the twenty or so pairs of shoes by the front door. I mean you can totally just stop by if you want to, but I'll be trying to stealthily straighten up the room without you noticing the whole time you are here, and I'll only be half listening. The other half of my brain will be listening to my inner dialogue of self hatred, scolding myself for not keeping the house cleaned up.

We can chat, but I promise the kids will be in and out of our conversation the whole time. "Mahhhhhhm? Camryn hit me." or "Mahhhhhhm? I'm starving." I promise it will be a constant, "Mahhhhhhhm?" in the most annoying, nasal tone that they reserve specifically for calling my name. They are always on their best behavior when we have guests. Yeah right.

So yes, I'm pretty meetable, as long as we agree to meet at a coffee shop or somewhere else that serves high calorie caffeinated drinks. And as long as I don't bring the kids. Let's set that up why don't we? If you don't show up, I'm still staying and enjoying a latte alone.

Best commenter? If you look closely, I think I use the same adjectives in every other comment. "Precious." "Hilarious." "You crack me up." Yeah, I have a pretty big vocabulary.

Go check out the finalists. There are some really precious, hilarious ones that crack me up. And vote while you are at it, it's your blogging duty.

Why the government might take my children away.

Today was grocery day. Grocery day means full cupboards but nothing for supper. Throw in three parent-teacher conferences this evening and what do you get? Poptarts for supper. Yep, you read that right, we had Poptarts for supper tonight. I had intentions of making them eat some fruit too, but we got wrapped up in the Spongebob special. (Tyler has been counting down for WEEKS people) The fruit never happened.

So yeah, that's healthy.

And Now for Something Completely Different

I lost a few pounds.
Exercise? no.
Eating only celery? no.
Sitting in a sauna for three hours? no.

I got a haircut.

If you know me very well, you know I don't like to keep the same hairstyle very long. I get bored. I took the opportunity, while pregnant with little Gemma, to grow my hair out. Take advantage of those prenatal vitamins women! They are huge and nasty and make you want to puke, but they sure do make your hair grow! Alas, these last few weeks, I had become bored again and the weight of these tresses was giving me headaches. I have been putting it up or pulling it back almost every single day and it was HEAVY. When it's down, the static electricity was crazy. Crazy I say.

I decided if I was going to cut it, I was just going to go for it. And so I did. I had it cut and I donated the ponytail to Locks of Love. I figured, if I hated it short I could just grow it all back, but the little girls without hair can't. Aaaaanyway. Want to see pics*? Huh? Do ya? Ok. Here it is before and after.

Before....... (Ewww, that look is so ewww.)

After...... (just home from the salon, still hadn't styled it myself)



See how excited I am?


Hooray for short hair! I love my stylist. LOVE HER!

Kid reactions:
Tyler: "Meh"
Camryn: "You look like Aunt Ann."
Jack: Double take
Gemma: Eye contact for a full 30 seconds
Caedmon: "I don't like it, I want your old hair back."
I asked Noelle what she thought of the color and she said it looked like chocolate with caramel in it. Yum, I want to lick it. Better not with all that "product".....

*I still don't have a digital camera, Aunt Ann does.

Snowed in and Snowed out

I'm not sure who is getting the better end of the deal, it's still undecided.

The big snow storm hit and the kids and I are snowed in. Nate is traveling for work and decided to stay an extra night and not to risk driving home until the roads are plowed, he is snowed out. Let's weigh both sides.....

Snowed out: A hotel room with five pillows. Five stinking pillows. He even shared the love and emailed me a picture of the beautiful beautiful five pillows. I cried a little bit.

Snowed in: Three little kids, sleeping on your head. One was scared, one just wanted to sleep with mommy, and the baby was a raging furnace of fever. It was like sleeping with in campfire.

Snowed out: Eating out. Steak I think.....

Snowed in: Eggs for supper. But tonight, homemade chicken noodle soup. We will fight these colds until the very end. Take THAT you persistent runny noses!

Snowed out: Browsing IKEA alone.

Snowed in: Taking six kids to two stores. In a blizzard. Come on, you can't blame me, we didn't want eggs for supper two nights in a row.


Because I was feeling sorry for myself, I ate a few more brownies than I should have, and now I'm going to bed. You know how Sumo wrestlers gain all that weight? They binge and then take a nap. Hmmmmmm

Wow!

I've been nominated for a blog award in multiple categories. Me, the girl who doesn't even make her bed. What is UP?!



The voting has begun and you can read all about it here. There are some really great bloggers out there, take a few moments do some reading. Some of my most favoritest blogs I found through other nominee lists. It's a big, big blogging world people.

The Truth

1. I have dimples on my shoulders that I inherited from my mom and have passed on to every one of my children. Not true. All my kids do have dimples on their shoulders, and they inherited them from my mom, but the only dimple I have is on my left cheek. (The cheek on my FACE, get your minds out of the gutter people.)

2. I make my bed every day, but I don't make the kids' beds. Not true. The kids are supposed to make their own beds in the morning, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. This is a "do as I say, not as I do" type chore. I never ever ever make my own bed. (Mopsy, I am so flattered that I look like a bed maker, but it's all a facade.)

3. I once fell from a cheerleading stunt while in highschool. We were doing an extension and the girls who were the base, dropped me. I ended up with a mild concussion. Not true. No concussion, but I did fall. A moment of silence for the days of flexibility...... WAHHHHH.

4. I once sang a duet in a vocal contest with an older boy from youth group. When we hit the stage, I lost all sense of pitch and embarrassed myself completely. TRUE! I definitely have a "choir" voice, not a solo voice. I usually have a great sense of pitch, but I think this was a divine intervention. I was getting a bit cocky about the duet and I was pretty sure we were going to do awesome. I guess I needed to learn a lesson on humility. The poor guy probably regrets the day he decided to sing with me.

5. In elementary school, I was such a little book worm, that I had read every single book in our little media center by the time I was in the 4th grade. Not true. I was a total bookworm, but I only read all the books about HORSES in our little media center.

There you have it.

My first love.

Happy Birthday to my first Valentine, my Daddy.

Even Alien Robots Can Share the Love

This afternoon, as we were cranking out some last minute Valentines, Caedmon was having a hard time deciding which Star Wars character Valentine to give to each person. So he asked me "Mom, do you think Shane likes Generous Grievous*?" I guess around Valentines day, all the bad guys go a little soft.....


*For all of you who are not StarWars geeks, his name is General Grievous

I cannot tell a lie.

Many moons ago (ok, last week) Lauren tagged me for this little meme. Five things about me are listed below and only one of them is true. Can you guess which one is not a lie?

1. I have dimples on my shoulders that I inherited from my mom and have passed on to every one of my children.

2. I make my bed every day, but I don't make the kids' beds.

3. I once fell from a cheerleading stunt while in highschool. We were doing an extension and the girls who were the base, dropped me. I ended up with a mild concussion.

4. I once sang a duet in a vocal contest with an older boy from youth group. When we hit the stage, I lost all sense of pitch and embarrassed myself completely.

5. In elementary school, I was such a little book worm, that I had read every single book in our little media center by the time I was in the 4th grade.

I tag:
Andrea in her little corner of the world.
Karen who made the big trade-off.
and Gretchen the nut about life.

A couple of things....

Five days ago, I bought six gallons of milk. There is 1/4 of a gallon left. I guess no one around here is lactose intolerant...yet. We will all have bones of steel.(I gave up on the buns of steel three kids ago.) What am I going to do when they are teenagers? Buy a cow?

Gemma is entering a new phase, a solid food phase. This phase is bittersweet for me, I think it's super cute when she grins at me with her four little teeth surrounded by a sweet potato goatee. I don't enjoy the hassle of baby food jars and bibs. Let's just jump ahead to the part where she can bite off a big hunk of steak since that's what we eat for dinner every night right? Come on molars, where are you? She also has begun with the "da-da-da-da-ba-ba-ba-ba-ma-ma-ma" I just want to gobble her up, she is totally gobbleable.

While we are on the subject of goatees, Caedmon drew a pretty good one on himself this morning with a navy blue magic marker. Very suave. All the ladies love a colorful faux goatee with matching sporadically-drawn-on leg hair.

What part of "laundry sorter" is my family not getting?





*Edited to add:

Due to the comments regarding the lack of pictures of the said goatee, I give you these pics from January that I just got developed:

Instead of the goatee, I give you a "mushcosh."



Instead of the leg hair, I give you "Ninja":



Instead of Gemma's goatee, I give you green beans and a death bite on the spoon:




I will give you pics of the goatees when I get them developed, probably in March. Nothing like a little delayed gratification!

Nate

Thirty one years ago, my mother-in-law was in the maternity ward of a hospital not so far away. It was a baby boy. A boy whom they named Nathan James. I can't even begin to thank them for the way they raised their son.

Nate and I grew up in the same town. We didn't know each other but our parents had mutual friends. It blows my mind to think that I probably played with my future husband when I was a preschooler. Weird how our lives crossed paths at an early age. Heck, I first met Nate at an early age! I was barely 14 and it was my first day of highschool. Study hall. The only thing I was studying was his beautiful eyelashes.

He has known my brothers since they were in elementary school. Luke since he was in diapers. (Sorry Lu) Nate has known his Mariah, his youngest sister-in-law her whole life. He even held her in the hospital when she was born. This year I have officially known Nate longer than I haven't known him.

Nate is such an amazing man and I celebrate this day, the day that he was born. I love being his wife, I can't imagine my life without him. I look around at our kids and I see little bits of their father in all of them. Tyler's gaming skills, Noelle's appetite, Camryn's cuddliness, Caedmon's eyelashes, Jack's ability to sleep anywhere, and Gemma's tenacity.

I love him despite that fact that he orders pepperoni pizza every. single. time.
I love him because he his mind is a steel trap. You want useless facts, ask Nate. You want useful facts, ask Nate. He learns things quickly and is good at them. Paintball, football, tennis, raquetball, chess, computer games, golf just to name a few. He changes diapers, even the really bad ones, he snuggles the kids when I have had enough clinging for one day. He does laundry, does dishes, and grows some seriously awesome grass. No, not marijuana people, real, old fashioned grass. You know, the lawn. I love him even though he prefers store bought, mass produced goodies to home made sweets. (But that sure makes for an easy birthday cake!)

Happy Birthday Nate. I hear the thirties are awesome.

Super Bowl XL

This is the only football game I watch all season. Three observations:

• The Steelers' Quarterback, I think his name is Roethlisberger, reminded me of Will Ferrell when he had his helmet on. When it was off, not so much. When it was on, all I could think of is "More cowbell!"
• The font they used for the numbers on the Steelers' jerseys just didn't look quite right. It's like they were trying too hard.
• The commercials weren't that great. A couple of them cracked me up, mostly the beer ones.

We skipped the halftime show and since we were TiVoing it, we fast forwarded through everything that was unnecessary. (Movie previews, local commercials, really boring commentators.) Now THAT'S the way to watch a football game.

*Scowl*

This was not one of my favorite days. Here are some adjectives in alphabetical order. Blustery, Chaotic, Confrontational, Desultory, Destructive, Exasperating, Irksome, Glowering, Provoking, Stealthy, Tiresome. These words may or may not apply to the people living under this roof. Ok, they do. In fact, I think each family member is represented in that list. But let's talk about the toddler, Mr. Two-year old himself.

Today, Jack kicked my butt. The kid is of Navy Seal caliber. I can't even begin to relay to you the various messes and mischief he was up to today. You wouldn't believe me anyway. He can scale sheer cliffs with his bare hands. He can find a way through locked doors. He laughs at the child gate I attempt to stall him with. Cookies in the pantry three shelves up? No problem, Jack can get them. Mom's purse hanging on a hook five feet above the ground? Where there's a will, there's a way, especially if there is gum involved. Does it really surprise me though when he has this kind of role model? The thing that is so annoyingly cute is that when you catch him red handed, he tells you to "Go away, go away, go away." As if he can pull some kind of Jedi mind trick. "These aren't the droids you are looking for. Move along."

The little culprit is in bed, along with his accomplices. The house is quiet, and I want sugar. I think I deserve it, don't you? Surprisingly, in the middle of this nerve grating day, I managed to make homemade chicken noodle soup. I'm not going to lie to you, it was an eleven on a scale of one to ten. Worth it? I'm undecided, every dish I own is dirty in the sink upstairs. I wish I could just call on the kitchen fairies to make a quick house call, but I don't think that's gonna happen. I think instead I will go nibble on the bag of chocolate chips that Jack cut open with a pair of Fiskars this afternoon. He's his mother's son, he know a good snack when he sees it.

Organized? Me?

Over yonder at the Big Yellow House, Chris is discussing organization and big families. Carmen, the Mom to the Screaming Masses also wrote about this. It got me to thinking about how organized/disorganized we are around here. We have some victories and some clutter, and we can always use more coat hooks.

A very, very, very organized real life friend of mine helped me out with my paper messes about a year ago. She set me up with a system that I love. We have a three ring binder with a section in it for each person in the family. When papers come home and they can't be thrown, they get three-ring punched and filed under who ever's name that paper applies to. Examples: lunch menus, spelling lists, nursery schedules, permission slips. You know, all the semi-important papers that seems to get lost in a pile when you need them most.

Another success is my In-Box. I bought a little shallow wire basket that sits on the counter and when the kids come home from school and empty their backpacks, they put all the papers right into that basket. It keeps them safe until I go through it later. Then I start in with the throwing, the three ring punching, and I save special art work or interesting stories. Those go in an accordion type folder.

Another system that is working for us right now is socks. FINALLY! You don't know how many times I have had to sit down for a room consuming one hour sock sort with my dear friend Dr. Phil. If only he actually helped sort socks! Now, I pair them up as they come out of the dryer and get them right into each person's basket. All loners are tossed into one of those rollie drawer organizer thingies with a drawer for boys socks, girls socks and parent socks. Each time I toss loners in, I check to see if the match is already in there. I think there are some sad old "widowed" socks in there who will never see their mate again.

A recent attempt at organization that turned into a big laugh is my new laundry sorter. I bought one of these attempting to replace the tattered old plastic hampers that are used for climbing on and rolling down the stairs. I only paid about fifteen bucks at Walmart for this new thing, and mine is a little different. Same type of thing though, it's canvas with three sections. Ok, the box said it holds six loads at once. Uuum, they must be doing laundry on some other planet because about four pairs of jeans is all that fits in each section. Is two pairs of jeans a load of laundry? Well, then I am WAAAY over loading my poor washer. Just a side note, one section DOES hold a four year old boy. It's a great place to hide during a game of hide-and-go-seek. Anyway, I laughed when I got the thing assembled. Six loads...grumble grumble.

So that is a glimpse into a couple of my attempts at organization. I'm off to organize myself some lunch.

New Old Friends

I mentioned yesterday in my list of numbers that I was able to meet three wonderful blogging friends on my trip. Let me tell you a bit more.

I had breakfast at Panera with Joanne. She was so sweet and genuine. We chatted over coffee and pastries, it was heavenly. I feel like we could have talked all afternoon, she made me feel so comfortable. Lovely lady that Joanne. And she has fabulous red hair. I was green with envy.

For lunch I met with Vashti and Gretchen. I felt like I was amongst old friends and we were just getting together again after being apart for awhile. Vashti was full of life and so amazingly friendly. Her two daughters were just precious and I was so lucky to be able to meet her three nephews also. She had quite a tribe with her, I felt right at home.

I have "known" Gretchen for a couple years now through a message board that we both visit and I have wanted to meet her from the moment I met her. Does that make sense? She was gentle and sweet and completely amiable. (I've been dying to use the word "amiable" for a long time and meeting Gretchen gave me the perfect opportunity) She also wore a most fabulous pair of sparkling pink earrings. I could have chatted with her three little boys for hours, they were simply charming.

This was a day completely worth plucking my eyebrows for. If you knew how much I hate tweezing, you would know how huge that is. These three ladies did not disappoint and I was so thrilled with my very first real-life-meets-the-internet day. Also, none of them turned out to be axe murderers, which is a bonus.

This Little Piggy Cried Wee Wee Wee, All the Way Home

I'm surrounded by a sea of suitcases and I'm waging war with my seven mile long to-do list. I thought I would give you a quick overview of our trip with more later.

Let's look at the numbers.

1 trip to Denver Colorado

4 flights

3 checked bags

1 snowboard

1 carseat

3 carry-ons

1 scamming cab driver

1 migrane

2 Advil

4 glass elevators

4 caramel lattes

3 fabulous blogging friends

9 well behaved children

1 monstrous pizza

1 very steep flight of stairs

2 loads of laundry

1 sleepless baby

3 lazy days

1 trip to downtown Denver

1 phenomenal rootbeer

countless trips up and down the elevators

1 snowy drive home from the airport

6 sleeping kids

1 very slow morning

0 gallons of milk

1 breakfast of "cee-yo" with heavy whipping cream

1 very happy mommy

Peace Out.

I am leaving.

We have arranged for the care of the children. The two little partners in crime are spending the rest of the week with their cousins. Together, they make up infamous Four Muskateers. The three oldest have the ball and chain of school around their little traveling ankles and have to stay in town. But staying with Oomah* and Doopah** makes up for having to continue with classes and homework and boring stuff like that. Little Gemster comes with us.

And where are we going? On an airplane. The last time I flew I was a mere 15 years old and was headed to sunny Florida. This time, I am not headed to sunny Florida, but to somewhere just as fun, and I am bringing along a very very active little seven month old. A seven month old who has mastered climbing the stairs and is now flirting with letting go of furniture while standing next to it. I think she freaks herself out a bit: "Look at me, I'm standing next to the couch. Am I awesome or what? Wait, whattheheck? I'm letting go! Wow, look, I'm awesomer than I thought! Ohmygosh, this is scary, MOM...HELP!" and plop, she falls right on her squishy little butt. Yeah, I don't think there is much room for that on the airplane, so we are praying that she will sleep a lot. Benedryl as a back up.

We'll be back late late late on Sunday night. Don't wait up.


*This is Nate's mom. The German word for Grandma-Oma became toddlerized by our oldest when he was a wee lad and the resulting difficult to spell nickname has stuck.

**This is Nate's Dad. This is the masculine partner to Oomah. It is sometimes shortened to a more casual "Doop".

Errors?

Raise your hand if you are having problems with my links or archives.
It seems that this template is causing some errors for people, including myself. I love the argyle, but I think it may be evil.

Why I've been scarce.

We are recovering from a crazy-wild weekend that ended in the stomach flu. I think we have successfully infected over half of our little town. (Sorry everyone!) I spent yesterday feeling queasy in bed (no, I'm not pregnant, just sick) while Nate impressed me with his laundry skills. He knocked out six or seven loads of bedding and whatnot. It seems as though everyone is feeling better today. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it is over and done with.

A quick update. My grandpa had triple bypass surgery on Saturday and is doing well. I'm disappointed that I haven't been able to visit, but I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate a stomach virus being introduced to the ICU.

Arrrg!

My pirate name is:

Dirty Ethel Cash

You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. You're musical, and you've got a certain style if not flair. You'll do just fine. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Do you speak toddler?

Karen over at The Big Trade Off wrote of her daughter's first night without her "Gicky". It cracked me up. I love toddler talk. Some of our favorite kid words have stuck and our family still calls the items by their toddler-given name. Some examples:

• "Shopping shoes". Or for short, "Shoppers". Noelle knew from the very beginning that there was something special about a sparkly pair of shoes.
• "Boochees". This one is HUGE. We have blankets for wrapping up in when we are cold, but "boochees" what our thumb suckers hold up by their faces while they suck their thumbs. If you have seen it, you know what I mean. Hilarious.
• "Boe-Jay". This is Jack's interpretation of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Which he loves almost as much as "Cee-yo". (cereal)
• "Nakee". If you don't have clothes on, you are Nakee.
• "take a tubby" You have to be Nakee to Take a Tubby.

I know you aren't supposed to repeat thing back to them the wrong way, but it's just so doggone cute! Only now we have our own little language around here. Please, assure me that we aren't the only ones who talk toddler all the time.

The Unforseen

Isn't it funny how you can be cruising along and everything is fine and then the road of life takes a twist that you didn't see coming? Last night I was running some late night errands alone. On my way into town, I had to pull to the side of the road two separate times for two fire trucks flying toward me, lights flashing, sirens wailing. My mind immediately went to the dark place it always does when I see emergency vehicles, "What if they are going to my house?" My pulse quickened but I quickly turned my thoughts back toward the gallon of milk I was on my way to retrieve.

As I turned the corner on to my street I caught my breath. My heart jumped into my throat, my hand went to my heart, and I breathed the words "Oh dear Jesus, no!" out loud to myself and my empty car. The trucks were parked in the middle of the street, right in front of our house. My pulse pounded, I could feel the panic rising. I didn't see smoke, so I immediately thought of all the other horrible possibilities. As I came closer I could see a fireman going up the stairs in my neighbors house, no smoke, everything looked under control. Further information proved that it was a gas leak, and not a serious one. The kids crawled back into their beds and tried to go to sleep despite the flashing red lights on their walls.

I was struck by the quickness in which my heart leapt into high gear. By how quickly life could have changed. My mind now turned to my Grandparents. Early yesterday morning we had news that my Grandpa had been taken to the hospital. It is definitely his heart, they are running tests to see what exactly. Life took a turn for them that morning. How could Grandma have suspected that this is the path her day would carry her on as she made breakfast for him while Grandpa did chores? Did Grandpa have any idea that he would be laying in a hospital bed that evening? I know my Mom couldn't have guessed that she would be spending the night with my Grandma an hour away. And what of today? Tests? Surgery? More tests?

Life is so precious. I forget that sometimes. I take it for granted and I figure that things will always be the way they are. But they won't. Most of the time I have a hard time looking past the now, the day in day out stuff. But life is all about change. Change for the better, change for the worse, we never know what is coming.

January. Bleh.

Yes, I love January because it is the month of my BIRTHDAY. But I have to admit, it's a little bit of a letdown after all of the December hoopla. And especially this year, all of our snow is gone making the view out of our windows pretty barren. And very very brown. This of course makes for some very dirty snowpants and boots when the kids come traipsing in after school. The temperatures have been lovely, but I feel like mother nature is a suffering from a memory lapse. Hello? Mother Nature? Yeah, it's Heth, and well, could you please make up your mind? What season is it?

So to bring a bit of sunshine into this January 18th, I give you one of my favorite summertime photos. Close your eyes and dream of July.

Laundry status 1/16

I've been laundering constantly for the past week and I am still up to my armpits in dirty clothes. I discovered part of the problem when I found all the dresses Camryn
"tried on" before church were in the hamper. I guess it's easier to throw them in there than to hang them back up. My children are using the laundry pile as a quick fix while cleaning their rooms, which explains the plastic dinosaurs I found hiding under a pair of jeans.

I go though phases of sorting and not sorting. Sometimes I just cram everything from not-so-whitish socks to red sweatshirts all in the same load. It doesn't matter if you are a towel or a lacey pair of underwear, you are riding the tub of suds together. Then other times, I become compulsive sorter. Today, I sorted. Camryn has been my star sorter. I taught her early, and she prides herself on knowing which pile to put the white pajamas with pink stripes in. Since she has been at school for two years now, I am passing her torch to Caedmon, who learned how to sort last week. He was very proud of himself. I hope I'm not breaking any child labor laws by making my four year old do laundry.....

And so today, our family room floor is littered with piles of jeans, colors, whites, towels, and darks. I guess segregation isn't a bad thing when it comes to laundry.

Do you sort your laundry? What are your "sorting categories"?

Do you feel sorry for me because I am out of fabric softener?

29

A list of Twenty Nine things on my Twenty Ninth birthday.

1. Pancakes. We had a birthday dinner at my parents' house, and I requested pancakes.
2. Ham. (Mom made ham too, I guess for the people who don't love pancakes all by themselves.)
3. Steaks. Last night, Nate's parents made me a delicious steak dinner. I'm drooling now.
4. Pecan Pie. Last night's dessert.
5. An "African-American" bracelet that Noelle made me with her new beads. (She's totally into beads right now)
6. Gemma slept all night last night. Thank you Gemma, that was the best gift you could have given me.
7. Cherry Chip Cake with Cream Cheese frosting
8. We made a trip to the ER with Gemma. Thought she had a bum arm, but she's fine.
9. I made a pot of coffee this morning before church and didn't have any until after church.
10. I wore my favorite Blindside shirt. And some fuzzy pink socks.
11. Caedmon and Camryn went to a birthday party. When he was getting out of the car, Caedmon fell into a snowbank.
12. My dream birthday present would be to sleep until I wake up on my own.
13. Nate made scrambled eggs for breakfast.
14. I thought thinking of 29 things would be easy but it's hard.
15. I don't think I feel like I'm 29, but I can't tell if I feel older or younger.
16. I wore my favorite black and pinks shoes to church this morning.
17. Jack sang happy birthday to me and it was adorable.
18. I went ahead and had a second piece of cake.
19. Just now, I ate the last two pieces of pecan pie. I think I'm going to wish they were there tomorrow when I get hungry for something sweet.
20. I'm thinking about cutting my hair.
21. I wish the season premiere of 24 wasn't on my birthday.
22. My birthday is my favorite day, and I milk it.
23. I still have those pink fuzzy socks on, I love them.
24. I wish I was in bed right now.
25. Track seven on Tyler's Spongebob CD makes me laugh out loud. "The best time to wear a striped sweater, is all the tiiiiiiime."
26. I secretly fed lots and lots of ham scraps to my Dad and Mom's dog.
27. We played a game of Apples to Apples this afternoon. That is a fun game.
28. I think I am going to start collecting belt buckles.
29. I'm so sad that my birthday is over.

Is this a Photo Blog?

While I'm posting pictures, I thought I would share my film version of Caedmon's self-haircut. Remember that? I don't think the digitals captured how drastically he snipped, but this photo does. I can't stop laughing!

Another Christmas Post?

So I have already admitted to the humiliating fact that we do not own a digital camera. Someday I will drag my butt into the twenty-first century, but for now, I will continue to use my beloved Pentax K-1000. I really, really love it. And I'm afraid that if I ever DID get a digital, it would have to be this little beauty. Not too easy on the pocketbook though. So I guess we will just stick to Nate's little camera phone. That, and you will have to enjoy delayed photos as I will be posting them when I get my film developed.

Which is what I am doing today. I picked up my Christmas photos the a few days ago and thought I would share. Every year, on Christmas Sunday, I make the kids line up on the couch for a picture before church. I usually take way too many shots, but I ADORE them because you end up getting a feel for the moment when you look at all the pictures in a row. One year they played pass-the-baby-Jack. I had four pics of the group with each kid taking a turn holding the baby. But I LOVE this year's pictures. I laugh every time I look at them. Ahhh, can you feel the brotherly love?

Distracted

You know, most of the stuff I write here is pretty fluffy. I don't really go delving into the inner workings and thoughts of the Heth very often. Honestly, it's because I know some of you in real life and how weird would that be? Its one thing to have you all know that Caedmon and Jack are up to no good most of the time. Running into you in Wal-mart would be a little awkward if you knew everything from the depths of my heart and I knew nothing about you. Anyway, that is my disclaimer.

But today I think I will go a little more serious.

I think the adjective to describe me lately is "distracted". I find distraction creeping into every area of my life. If you look around my house, you will see tell-tale signs. The pot of coffee that I started to make, I poured in the water and started to grind the beans, but I was interrupted before I could turn the pot on. There is the lineup of laundry baskets, half of them are empty, but I never got back to the rest of them. I am reminded of the painting I started on our bedroom wall. Beautiful shiny silver script of love poems and quotes. I was very pregnant at the time (with Jack I think) and I couldn't get down on the floor on my belly to write the last few lines. Ummm, yeah, that's still not done. The girls' dressers are primed, but never painted. The Christmas decorations are put away, but the living room is not put back together. I could go on and on.... You've all probably read "If You Give A Mom A Muffin." It made the email loop a while ago. They wrote that about me. (at least I'm pretty sure they did) But it goes deeper than stuff around the house.

It has spilled over into my identity as a mother. I am a MOTHER not a house keeper. Yes, I need to run an orderly place around here and at least keep the toilets scrubbed and the kids fed. But what about reading books, and dressing up like ninjas, and doing puzzles? Why is it so hard for me to join Tyler in a little two player on the Nintendo, to be a part of his world? Why don't I let Noelle use her Easy Bake Oven? If I was honest, it's because it's too much work for ME. How do I get so wrapped up in stupid stuff that I have to try to think really hard to remember if I hugged Camryn today. Have I let my "duties" distract me from a deeper relationship with my kids?

But the area that scares me the most is my relationship with Christ. Have I become distracted here too? I think maybe I have. Sometimes the daily stuff distracts me from spending more time in the Word. I can pray while I'm doing dishes, but my mind easily wanders to my to-do list. I think the biggest distraction for me is works. Sometimes I just get this list of things in my head that I THINK I SHOULD be doing to make God happy. It's almost like I am trying to earn my way into favor with Him. Like I'm buying a palace in heaven with my good deeds. I get distracted by legalism and I forget that He loves me. He saved me by His grace and He just loves me. The more I love Him, the more I will WANT to do the things that please Him.

I want to get back to the basics. A simple, orderly home. A family who is confident of my love because of the time I spend with them. And most importantly, an undistracted love for my Savior.

Luke 10:40-42

40But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made.

She came to him and asked,

"Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself?

Tell her to help me!"
41"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered,

"you are worried and upset about many things,

42but only one thing is needed.

Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Dance like no one is watching?

Hannah posted a great video over on her site. Remember those other dancing guys back in the archives? (I'm to lazy too go find the old post) I think this guy may have them beat. Check it out.

http://www.military.com/Video/050303_DanceTime.wmv

And go check out Hannah's blog, she takes pretty pictures.

Packrats

This morning I was sorting through the girls room. Taking on the job of picking Polly Pockets shoes from Ello pieces and Barbie clothes is a very noble job. Noelle (9) and Camryn (6) love purses, and they pack them with some interesting things. I think they each have about 4 purses each right now, and if I'm missing something around the house, I go digging through their purses. Let me give you a quick list of what I found in one small purse this morning.

• A Hot Wheels car
• one Fairytopia strappy sandal
• a dirty sock
• a rock
• a wadded up Sunday School paper
• Polly herself
• Some sort of bean bag thing one of them made at VBS this year.

Where's the lipstick? The mirror? The cute little wallet? Apparently they didn't get the memo about what to put in a purse.

Some haunting questions.

• Where were GI Joe and Barbie going in Barbie's convertible and why was their dog driving?
• How many thousands of googly eyes did Caedmon and Jack dump out on their floor?
• How long has this shirt been wadded up behind Noelle's dresser?
• What in the world are Polly's clothes made out of that they can stretch so much?
• Why am I jealous of the wardrobes of the My Scene dolls?
• What in the world am I going to discover when I clean the boys' room?

An unexpected concert

We just attended our first fifth grade band concert. I wasn't really ready for it, literally. We found out about it as Tyler walked in the door after school. "How was your day?" "Good, and oh yeah, I have a band concert tonight." Communicating important school info is not one of his stronger suits. Remember, we already discussed the condition of his backpack.

So we knocked out everyone's homework and chores, shoveled some supper into our mouths and ran out the door. It took a little shuttling, the Beast is in the shop (that's a whole other post) so we had to figure out how to transport eight people with a five seater. The xB is great. Love it. I took the younger four to my parents and then came back and picked up Nate, Tyler, and Noelle.

Tyler plays the trombone. We have heard him practice a few times. You just can't get the whole picture from listening to your kid practice their instrument solo. He does a great job, but there's not much melody in the trombone section. Those fifth graders put on a great show, seven songs and I wasn't even bored. Seriously, I wasn't. One thing I remember from my own fifth grade band experience was the foot tapping. And guess what, it's still there. And it's contagious. Tonight I found myself tapping right along with them.

Good times.....

The mind of a four year old

Gabe (my college freshman little brother) comes in the front door and greets Caedmon (4) "What's up?"

Caedmon "What does that mean?"

Gabe "It means how are you." (thinks to himself, "Wait, not really. Oh well.")

Caedmon "Oh"


A few days later, Gabe once again greets Caedmon with his usual "What's up?"

Caedmon (without hesitating) "Good"

Shoes I have loved in 2005

I apologize for the quality of the photo, but I used hubby's camera phone.

Let me tell you about each of my lovelies.

Ok, front and left is a little brown corduroy slip on I just bought this fall. Payless Shoes. $1. I am not even kidding. One little dollar. And I love them.

Behind that is my running shoes. New Balance 680's. Took a few tries to find one I liked, but these babies carry me through my morning run quite well.

To the right of the 680's we have a fun little black pump with some pink stitching. Target? Payless? I don't remember. They look great with jeans though.

To the right again is a little brown sandal. Walmart. I just want to gobble them up. Aren't they fun?

To the right, a cream ballet slipper. I love them, but I wear them without socks. The inside is really gross and dirty if I wear them to your house, I will probably not take them off at the door. Either that or I will disown them and wear someone else's shoes home.

The red ones. I have had these for a long time, I think I will keep them forever. I bought them at Walmart. They are red, what else can I say?

The pink and black tweed pair at the top are my most recent purchase. I bought them and had nothing to wear them with. So I went shopping for new clothes. I had to have them. I love them. I wear them too much.

There you have it. I am such a loser, I arrange my shoes for photography. But it's easier than taking pictures of the kids. The shoes don't make funny faces at the camera. I neglected to put my flip flops in the photo. Pulling the flip flops out of the back of the closet would just make me long for summer. I'll just have to do a "Shoes I Have Loved in the Summer" sometime in August.

Woo Hoo, bring on the Memes

Chilihead tagged me. Thanks Chili, I just love this kind of stuff.

Four jobs you have had in your life
1. Picking up rocks from a field. Why? So they don't ruin the machinery.
2. Waitress at Country Kitchen. I was the worst waitress EVER. I'm not kidding.
3. Waitress at Godfather's Pizza (this was better, just worked behind the counter, the customers got their own drinks. PHEW!)
4. Mom to all these kids

Four movies you could watch over and over
1. Romeo+Juliet The weird psychedelic one. Come on, you know you love the fish tank scene.
2. Emma
3. The Notebook Wahhhhh. Bring out the Kleenex.
4. Sense and Sensibility So noble.

Four places you've lived
1. My Parents house
2. University housing in Grand Forks, North Dakota
3. The Ghetto (in Grand Forks North Dakota)
4. Here

Four TV shows you love to watch
1. What Not to Wear
2. Good Eats
3. Spongebob
4. The Biggest Loser

Four places you've been on vacation
1. Out West
2. Down South
3. Up North
4. DesMoines, IA

Four websites you visit daily
1. Homestarrunner, But what is UP?! Nothing new for over a month. I hope it's not over...
2. Bloglines brings me all your blogs. (yeah I switched, I like bloglines better than Google)
3. A message board for moms with more than 5 kids
4. A message board for runners

Four of your favorite foods
1. Pancakes
2. Tacos
3. Red Velvet Cake
4. Chicken Enchiladas

Four places you'd rather be right now
1. Taking a nap
2. Reading
3. Shopping
4. Sunbathing on a beach

Four Bloggers you are tagging
(I'm hoping to wake up some sleeping bloggers here)
1. Shawn
2. Bill
3. Haleigh
4. Everyone else. If you are reading, you are tagged.

Lunch with Nate

Today the three littles and I had lunch with Nate. We had Pablo's burritos*. They. Were. Huge. I'm guessing about thirty pounds each. Ok, not thirty, but close. Nate wrote a tribute to the burrito a while back. You should read it. The kids (Caedmon and Jack, not Gemma silly!) had McDonald's hamburgers, apple slices instead of fries, and chocolate milk instead of pop. Am I the meanest mom ever or what? Of course I didn't give them the caramel sauce for dipping their apples, do you think I'm insane? I'm saving that to pour over a slice of Brooke's coffee cake. Ohmygosh,I'm about to pass out just thinking about it.

*I only ate 1/3 of my burrito and he ate the WHOLE thing. My remaining 2/3's is in the fridge right now, waiting for me. Oooh, I can't wait.

Putting it all away

I just finished up De-Christmafying our house. Everything is being packed away in plastic totes until next December. As I took the lights off, I noticed that our tree had the texture of shredded wheat. You know, like all the little crunchies that are left at the bottom of the bag. I wrestled and wrangled the old cactus out the front door and on to the curb where it now awaits it's delivery to tree heaven. It is a bit windy outside today and I keep looking out the window, fully expecting to see the tree go tumbleweeding down the street. Half of the tree was left all over the living room floor, but it is all safe inside my vacuum cleaner now. I had a lot of help from my two little boys, thanks guys, it was fun re-living the green and red Christmas ornament snow ball fight again. The latest in the girls' snowglobe collections are snuggled tightly with the boys' new nutcrackers. It's a fun little tradition my mom started a few years ago. I even clearly marked whose are whose so as to prevent any future squabbles due to memory loss on my part. Hooray for a moment of organization.

I always have an inner debate with myself whether or not to leave out the more "wintry" decorations so the place doesn't seem so stark. This year I opted for no. I have a history of not really getting those last few trailers put away with the rest of the stuff and then we have little mittens hanging on the wall in June. My mother-in-law has gotten us each a little wooden mitten with our name on them, she ends up having to place a new order with the mitten lady every other year. I think she deserves a discount since she single handedly keeps the woman in business.

As I'm looking around the living room, I am extra aware of every nail hole and scuff on the wall. Maybe sometime in the next year we need to switch colors. Any ideas on what would go with tired rose colored carpet, a green love seat, and a purpleish couch? And Nate, don't you have some business trips coming up?

Linkage

Ok, so I finally added some links on my little sidebar there. Here's the dealio: That is a list of some of the blogs I like to read. I only added people who actually update more than once every three months or so. You know who you are. I also didn't add anyone under the age of 18. (love you guys though!) I will continue to update it as needed, but it's tricky business. I don't want any hurt feelings since I know some of you in the real world. The non-cyber world. The world where you walk out to your mail box and reach out and open it with your hand when you want to check your mail. The world where you can eat pancakes.

Back to school

It was like we were standing on the edge of the pool, just about to dip our toes and test the water, when someone ran by and shoved us in. We are fully submerged in the routine of real life again, and the water is great once you get in.

The oldest two were having a hard time falling asleep last night. I guess two weeks of no bedtimes was a habit hard to break in just one day. Everyone was a little slow this morning, but after a bowl of Cheerios, they changed gears and were early to the bus stop.

Things I will miss:

• People sleeping all over the house. No, we didn't have house guests, we all just crashed where we wanted to. Usually there was someone on every couch and a couple of kids in bed with me.
• Christmas food
• Staying in our pajamas all day.
• Having Nate home.

Things I will not miss:

• Having Nate home. (just kidding!)
• Constant Nintendo
• no bedtimes
• Kids on a 24 hour sugar high

It seems that I spoke too soon in regards to Gemma's 12 hour sleep plan. I suppose I was asking for it though, proclaiming her angelic night time sleep habits to the whole internet. And so she did NOT sleep 12 hours last night. She does have a well baby check up today, maybe I will ask for a prescription for Ambien. For her.

I have high hopes for this day. Hopes of getting a whole lot of something done to make up for all of the nothing we have done the last two weeks. I let you know how it goes......

Happy routine to you all!! Hooray!

Overachiever

Gemma has a new trick and we are quite surprised.

She is six and a half months old. Babies aren't supposed to be pulling up to furniture at six and a half months old. Didn't you read the manual Gemma?!! This new trick has created a new problem. She doesn't nap anymore. Here is a visual for you.

We lay the little Precious down in her crib for a nap, and she stands up. Then she is stranded because she hasn't learned how to sit back down yet, the crying starts and there is no sleeping. The positive side of this whole thing is that she is sleeping wonderfully at night, sometimes up to 12 hours. The girl is exhausted. Infact she is asleep right now, probably for the night, because she did not nap. All. Day. Long.

Notice the little Glo Worm in her crib. Isn't that cute? I think she hates it but WE like it.

Our little New Year's baby

Today is Noelle's birthday, she is nine. NINE! I can't believe it. I can still see her toddling around the house with a little fountain of blonde hair spouting out of a rubberband on the top of her little two year old head.

Noelle was born during a season of winter in our lives. We were living in North Dakota, the state of perpetual blizzards. Over five hundred miles away from family, in a tiny little university apartment, we waited for our baby. We were young and poor and excited to meet our second child. A week overdue, but perfectly timed, she was a New Year's baby and was showered with gifts from all around town. Her ride home from the hospital was a free ride in a white limousine, and we didn't even have the cash to tip the poor driver.

Little Welly was a ray of sunshine in a bleak time in our lives. She is a ray of sunshine in the bright times too. One day, she will be the best cheerleader/lifeguard/pet shop owner that this world has ever seen. Happy Birthday to our little optimist.