Driving Hangover

I (32 weeks pregnant and all) drove down to see some of my sisters this last weekend. It was wonderful to be surrounded by family and have my little girls getting reacquainted with cousins and aunts and uncles that they don't see as often as I would like.
The Professor couldn't go- he had a lot of work related business- and so I decided to brave the 6-hour trip by myself with the girls. Luckily mom-in-law was kind enough to step in and send 12-year old aunt with us to help with the little girls. Some of you may be thinking, 6-hour car trip, no big deal but it is a big deal for my anxiety ridden self. In the past I've had a growing fear of semis and of falling asleep at the wheel and because of that I usually resist being the driver on trips of any length. But I pushed all thoughts of death from my brain, got behind the wheel, and things went just fine. I actually enjoyed the drive home.
Which brings me to my next point. I probably enjoyed it because I was stuffing my face with soda and other sugary treats the whole way. The downside is today I have a severe "driving hangover." I am sick as a dog from all those treats!! But there are no regrets. :)

Living in Fear

I am afraid today! Very afraid! I'm supposed to have all the daycare kids, plus watch my sis-in- law's kids tonight. (Sorry, K, I'm happy to watch them, just nervous about what havoc Caboose and his cousin can wreck!:)) Two of the daycare kids today are brother and sister ages 2 and 3. Less than a year apart and full of what my grandma used to call spit and vinegar! They definitely bear watching. The Angel is coming today, but staying late. She's had a cold and if it gets worse they'll have to put her back in the hospital so she needs a lot of attention too. I'm supposed to make to to a parent teacher conference for #6 today, and of course there's the usual...housework, my own kids...blah, blah, blah.

Oh! And how's this for embarrassing? Preteen 1 (12 yrs) wants to know what the squeaking is coming from my room at night. I mean sheesh! Can't a mom get some without being grilled about it? I told her we had trouble settling in at night. She was like, really? It seems a little rhythmic...like you're jumping on the bed or something. I said, yes. That's what we're doing.
Good thing my face was already red from exercise or I would have blushed my head off!

One of those days

I've been having one of those days for about 3 days now. Everytime I turn around it's something! Let's just take yesterday...at breakfast, Caboose refused to eat his food which is wierd for him.. He's decided he can't live without grapefruit for breakfast. He's seen us eating it and now he wants some for himself. Pre-teen 2 shares hers and now he's decided he wants mine. I cut up another one for him, which of course, being two, he refuses to eat. So I get him down, and he cries. Well, 10 min later, he's beggin grapefruit from Freshman! He and #6 were messy from breakfast, which was blueberry pancakes, and needed a bath. I plopped them both in and went to grab towels. When I came back, one of them had pooped in the tub! I drained the tub, cleaned it out, and started over. Soon, they were both dressed and #6 got on the bus for school. While I'm putting him on the bus, his brother is filling up the toilet (I forgot to shut the bathroom door) with brand new rolls of toilet paper! AND FLUSHING! In the meantime, the daycare baby has woken up and wants a bottle. The day did not improve. We had spills, tantrums, and broken stuff. There was a fire, too... Finally, at 5pm I'd had enough. I fled! I ran to Target and wandered around until I didn't feel like strangling anyone, then the grocery store. By the time I returned home, the kids had gotten a hold of themselves and set the table for dinner. Later that night, I found an apology note signed by them all. I was impressed, I must say, to see them take some responsibility. They had even signed Caboose's name. I sat down in my recliner after prayers that night (8:30) intending to watch tv with TGH. Well, that's the last thing I remember. I woke up to the alarm this morning in bed, hoping for a better day.

The Ride Continues

Well, the sale of our house is back on. Our buyers have lending again and we're set to close at the end of the month. . . .

Laundry blues

I want to rant a little about laundry. It seems to be a never ending job. As soon as I think it might be caught up, someone takes a bath or throws up or gets dirty and changes their clothes. I have considered and am trying to get rid of more of their clothes so there will be less laundry. It does NOT seem to be working. There is just always more and the only time anyone cares about laundry is when they don't have something they think they need, like underwear and socks.
And what is the deal with all the laundry products out there. Detergent, fabric softeners, stain removers, whiteners, bleaches, etc. sometimes I just stand in the laundry aisle staring in awe at all the choices and kinds. Personally I love Tide. It gets out everything, cranberry, blood, dirt, grass and tons of other unidentifiable stains. My second choice is All. It does pretty well. I do think that with detergent you get what you pay for. Crappy detergent means dingy yucky clothes. I also love downy. I hate static. My hair has enough trouble without my clothes making it staticy (how do you spell that anyway?). I love when clean clothes smell clean. This is especially helpful when chicharons 1-3 carefully place the folded clean laundry back into the hamper for me to rewash. I like when the linen closet smells like downy (much better than sippy cup bad milk smell).
By the way....Blueing is amazing on boys and mens white Sunday shirts. If you haven't tried it, you should.

The Roller Coaster Ride

How else can I explain our house searching, house selling, moving fiasco except roller coaster ride. At first it didn't seem too daunting or scary, you know how the roller coaster starts ever so slowly up that really big hill. You are unsuspecting until you get right to the top and you look down and scream, "Oh bleep!" but by then it is far, far too late. Whatever is going to happen, will happen and you just better darn well keep your arms and legs inside and your seat belt fastened.
That is about where we're at with this. Yes we have a buyer for our Smallville house. But does that buyer actually have lending? Ah, there is a very good question. They have lost their lending and are scrambling to find a new loan before the deadline runs out. So we are waiting until the end of the week to find out.
Meanwhile, we have been looking at houses and almost talked ourselves into one but luckily did not go ahead and make the offer. The Professor is getting so stressed out by my waffling that he would prefer not to talk about it for a few days but I can think of almost nothing else- the term obsessed weirdo applies perfectly.
And to top it off, we were supposed to go with the realtor tomorrow night to look at three houses. I just saw another bee-yoo-ti-ful one on my 5 millionth search of realtor.com and called him on a whim to add it to our go-see list. He was wery helpful right up until the point where I told him what was going on with our house and then he mentioned that he was going to need to hurry, did we really need to see them tomorrow and he actually has a meeting at 7:30. Hmm. I feel de-prioritized. (not that de-prioritized is even a word, but it works).
Needless to say, as with all rollercoaster rides I have ever been on, I am gritting my teeth, clutching the bar, and trying to not be sick!

The First

Have you ever noticed how the first day of anything is the best...the first day of a diet? the first day of exercise? the first day of New Year's resolutions? Then, the second day, you're more like, why did I want to do this? The first everything is nice. First kisses, first babies, first day of school. First dates, first homes, first jobs. The seconds are harder, maybe because you know what's coming. Second job? Sure you'll get paid, but it's still work! Second day of exercise? Your body is sore and surprised to out there again. Second kiss? Yawn. You already know what it's going to be like. Second baby? It's cute, alright, but it's going to cry and poop and you know it! By the third time, it's old hat. Been there, done that. First's can be hard, it's true. Hard to get up your nerve, hard to take that first big step. But in my opinion, it's the seconds that get you. You know what's coming and you do it anyway! That takes a lot of nerve, my friend.

knock on wood

Dare I even mention this? Children have a terrible way of stopping whatever good behavior they have done as soon as you mention it. But I just can't resist.
Little Bubbles (not Buttercup, the ornery 4-year old but Bubbles the jolly 2 1/2 year old) has used the potty twice. The second time was at her own request! (sssshhhh)

Buttercup is so literal. Yesterday she was outside with Blossom and Grandma because the weather was super beautiful. They were looking around the yard together to see what was starting to bloom. Grandma said something like, "Now, you have to keep your eyes open because the flowers are going to start blooming." Buttercup looked very concerned and said, "Grandma, what if I have to blink?"
She sweetly thought that in the blink of an eye those flowers were going to shoot out of the ground and she didn't want to miss it!