Halloween in Perfect

The title refers to television advertisements from Walgreens I think, anyway... So far Halloween festivities are going well. Last night I took all the kids to the Boy Scout hot dog roast. One of E's friends was there because her little brother is a cub scout so she was happpy. We then took all the boys down town (You have to realize I live in a very small town, think Mayberry). The town was having it's Scarecrow Festival. Local businesses, schools, groups, etc create scarecrows to decorate downtown. The street is closed and all the businesses have games or treats or something for the kids to do. There was apple bobbing, donut on a string, hoola hooping, pumpkin decorating, wheel of fortune, you get the idea. We took all the boys on the haunted hayride. Lots of fun, lots of screaming. I then let everyone 8 and up wander around for awhile on their own while I took the youngest 3 around. I had 2 extra kids because they had no ride home. We met 45 minutes later and everyone had a good time. Today was pretty good. I got out the box with the costumes from lo' these many years plus anything I've picked up and garage sales and stuff given to us. We tend to be the dropping place for lots of stuff people don't know what to do with. We are having "Pumpkin Princess" E in a really atrocious orange formal from somewhere, S a hunchback monster, C a racecar driver or ninja, L a fairy princess- a gown with wings, wand and crown, F will be a dinosaur and Mel will be a cow. It is a very cute outfit some seamstress (this would NEVER be me) made and the treat bag is an udder. I will of course be Professor McGonigal. I need to get a new outfit. We carved our pumpkin. Note that was singular. This did not please the kids but it's what dh came home with. He doesn't get they'd all rather have a microscopic pumpkin that they don't have to share rather than a huge one that someone else gets to have input on. Tonight S went to a party so I'll at least have to stay awake long enough to pick him up. Tomorrow I'm teaching Sunday School so I'll probably take them treating at church and of course Trick or Treating tomorrow night followed by A Charlie Brown Halloween...because I want to see it, I don't think the kids really care. I hope they are up for school Monday. Maybe we'll just all lie around the house with insulin shock instead.

Please Stop.....

I am a firm believer in voting, I treasure my rights, I love my country but please.....stop the election noise!!! If I hear either side predict doom and gloom and be rather ungentlemanly toward the other I will scream. I actually did run screaming from the news the other night, just on principle. It shocked the kids. Come on Tuesday and lets get this over with.

What else has been going on? Wednesday the kids and I enjoyed the eclipse, Thursday I conducted the Halloween party at ds's preschool. I had to take Mel and L but they were good. Well, Mel was in the sling so she didn't have much choice but L was good. I had one other mom show up to help. I hate being one of the only sahms. It means you get elected to everything. I know you can say no but then they just cancel the party, trip , whatever. And I was a wohm for a long time, so I can sympathize. Tonight is supposed to be the cub scout bonfire/cookout but it is raining. The plan was to cook hot dogs and marshmallows and then attend our town's scarecrow festival as a group for games and a hay ride. We'll see if it stops raining.

F is now trying knock -knock jokes. What amuses a 3yr old amazes me. "Knock knock" "Who's there" "Ducky" "Ducky who" "Poop, poop!" Collapse in peals of laughter. It pales for me after the 33rd telling :-P

Will They Notice

So I'm sitting here with a headache and sore throat reading blogs. I was reading Chris' blog and was relieved others guestimate those milestones. I got Mel's baby book down to put 1st birthday cards inside and saw all those blank pages. I made up some dates just so she won't have that to report to her future therapist too. I hope they remember that I was always willing to play ball or badmitton, let them color their hair, climb way too high in trees, served ice cream for breakfast and tried to only stress about the big stuff. I don't always succeed but I hope they at least notice I tried. I guess we'll know how successful I was when I see if I rate a nice nursing home or get left at the bus station.

For excitement today I nearly electroduted myself. I was putting the panels over the breaker boxes since I am done painting the utility room. I heard a bzzzt, felt a tingle and all the power went out in the house. I'm still not sure whether I pushed on something or crosses some wires or what. It was excitement I could do without.

Well, time to pick up dd from basketball practice. Sigh... seems too early to be starting "winter" sports. Can't we have a summer do over???

This~n~That

So, just some random stuff here. Dry wall is really a pain to prep and paint. Can we say !dusty!. Of course, my lung function is worth saving the $1200 that the contractor budgeted to paint it. We're getting down to the end here. I need to paint, the floor will be here in 3 weeks, after that the electrician can come back and wire the heaters, lights, etc. The gutters need hung outside. The door ways and other trim needs put up, and as you can see in the pictures below the kitchen wall needs drywalled. I refuse to live with green styrofoam. On Sunday we had my family over for cake. Mel was 1 on 10/20, my dad was 77 on 10/22, my SIL had a birthday on 10/23 and today is me and dh's 18th anniversary. And they said it wouldn't last {smirk}. Here is the 'party' and my horrible kitchen walls.




DD is now bugging me to teach her how to download from itunes. The kids are home today for records day. I treated them to lunch at Pizza Hut. This a big deal for kids who don't go out much. We also went to get Mel her 1 year shots but they were out of MMR vaccine so we went to the park instead. All in all a pretty good day.

Happy Birthday to Mel!

My baby is one today. I can't believe how, not sad exactly,( but maybe nostalgic or wistful would be the word )that I feel. Where did the baby go???
Here she is doing her favorite thing, unloading the kitchen cabinets.

Her "today" cake. We'll have family over Sun for a nicer one.

It took her no time to decide she liked chocolate cake.

Not a cool blog....

So, I've been tooling around blogland since Mel has a cold and is in hold me/nurse me/love me mode. I've been looking at content, templates, comments and have come to the conclusion....I am as boring as I thought I was. Arghhh!!! This was just what I was afraid of in high school. Back when I thought I'd move to Chicago and have a killer apartment and an awesome career. But you know what I really wouldn't trade. Dh and I look at each other and talk about friends and aquaintances. "What do they do????"

Quiet Weekend?

I thought I was going to have a quiet weekend. Dh is working. Somehow it got busy though. DS went to a boy scout olympics, needed to drop him off and pick him up. DD wanted to go to a $.50 movie so I let myself be talked into that because DS#2 had a birthday party on the way. I put 90miles on the van. Eeek! Now it's 7:00pm and they've had the nerve to tell me there's nothing to do. Tomorrow we're really, (I mean it) going to stay home, and be bored , or else!! Maybe it will be nicer tomorrow. Cold, rainy, sleety and windy today. I'm not ready for Faaaallll. Off to oversee the dinner dishes. Don't tell me you're bored or I'll find you something to do, lol.

Not a great day. The contractor's helpers hung the screen door on the back backwards! Duh! This p*ssed off dh, so he griped at me. This means I will have to track down the appropriate people and get the door hung right. Dh (in his usual manner) displaced his aggravation with the door onto the kids. Sigh!! Two ended up in bed early. I behaved like an adult (which ain't much fun) and waited to b*tch at him until they had all gone upstairs. I wonder if my parents did the same thing? I wonder if the united front is all it's cracked up to be, LOL. I'm now going to go have a nice cup of tea and a crossword. I deserve it.

Not Much Shaking

There is not too much exciting to say today. The Colts won yesterday, yeah!! Mel learned how to clap. They continue to pound on my house, for 8 long hours at a time. They also continue to sand dry wall. Through the dust I think I see rooms starting to take shape. Dh and 4 kiddos have colds. Yuck! I haven't posted my menu for this week. I need to keep myself honest or I'll fall into the whatever you can grab habit.

Sunday : Meatloaf, potato wedges, green beans, apple crisp
Monday: Chili, peanut butter sandwiches or saltines, pumpkin pie
Tuesday: Chicken, dressing, carrots, gingerbread
Wednesday: Spaghetti, broccoli, garlic bread, oranges
Thursday: Hamburgers (on the grill), corn on the cob, ice cream
Friday: Pizza (again!! a kid request), cookies
Saturday: Ham & Beans, cornbread, fruit bowl
Sunday: Pot Roast, potatos, carrots, cake

$$$$$

It was one of those days where the money seemed to whip out of my wallet. I took E for an optometrist appointment this morning. I thought we would just renew her contact Rx and get out but her eyes had changed so we ended up getting new contacts and frames/lenses. Then she went to get the haircut I promised her. I then went to Lowe's to get lights. I got a fan/light for our new bedroom, six basic globes, a vanity bar light for the new bathroom, a light for the outside back porch and a screen door for the new back. Eeeek! $350 later I left. Tomorrow we're eating egg salad and playing board games for entertainment, lol. That sounds frugal. At least I picked the ones I liked and for once in my life things are the ones I wanted and not the ones the previous owner left.

Better Day

Well, F made it through pre-school without bullying anyone! Yeah! Now to make it through 56 more days bully free! I think the fact that the fire truck visited today and he got to climb on the truck and honk the horn helped. None of my kids are good at sitting still. Right now he is playing the part of Pinky Pie and Mel is playing Cotton Candy as designated by L who is directing their little pony picnic.

This is E running in her last cross country meet. She ended up 10th which I thought was pretty good for the county. I'm sure it's waaaay better than I could do.
I had a teacher conference at school last night with L's teacher. She is doing well and seems to be well versed in what is needed for k-garten. She is starting to read simple words . Now if the other three conferences go that well next week. I'm sure I'll hear the same old things E is so responsible, C has a gift for math and no social ability and S is shown by tests to be soooo bright but will not concentrate in class. At least they aren't biting people ;-)
On the house front, we are half sided and the dry wall is up. It's not taped and mudded yet but it's taking shape.

I need to go buy paint and light fixtures. I picked my bathroom cabinets today. He had all these books and looked positively dissapointed when I said "Plain white please." I'm just deficient in the decorating gene.

I'm a s*cky parent

My 3yo has had a hard time at preschool. It took 2 weeks to get him to go in without prying him off my leg. Today I got a call that he had pushed and bitten another child. He has never bitten anyone at home, so why does he pick someone else's kid to start with, grrr. I went to school, gave him the firm mom talk and told him his beyblades would be gone until he could act better. Dh went to pick him up 30 min later and he had scratched someone since I had come home. Double grrrr. They are giving him Thursday as a final chance and then he's kicked out of preschool. There isn't a big enough rock to crawl under. I can here the locals now "If she didn't have so many kids she could control them." and other variations on that theme. Dh went bonkers. He is so mad he can't think straight. I feel bad for the other kids and am just plain old embarrassed and am wondering why my kid can't just be good. Typical of mothers I'm sure this must be something I've done wrong. I realize I didn't do the biting but that doesnt' change the way I feel. Ok, I know in 20 years it won't be a big deal but... sigh....

Orchard Trip

It was a beautiful day (and yesterday was a loss, explain that later) so we went to the orchard!! It was sunny and the temp was perfect. The kids looked like advertisements for wholesomeness! Such exictement over the "perfect" apple. There was much running and giggling. We also made a spectacle of ourselves. We always do. The older boys spied apples high up. They were on thin branches so the obvious thing to do is hoist your 3 yo brother up to get them. I have never understood how my children can be so mediocre at sports but excel at climbing. So mom here comes around the corner and sees F hanging waaaaay out there on a TWIG. Of course I had 25# chunky baby in a sling so my run was slow motion. But hey, why should mom worry, afterall, 10 year old was hanging on to his one ankle. Obviously I am an overprotective nut. At least that seemed to be their concensus. I did bring my camera but neglected to test those pesky batteries so no pics to share :-(

Yesterday was a loss because dh and I spent 8 hours tearing out a breakfast bar, glued on carpet, 2 subfloors and 3 layers of linoleum that we counted. Oh, and endless passes over the floor pulling up nails. My knees are bruised from crawling around and my hands.... well, it's just a good thing I don't spend money on manicures. Now I am at the mercy of the subfloor gods. Until then we will be living with some circa 1930 chipped linoleum. It's a good thing Martha is in jail and won't be coming over ;-)

Amusing

Yesterday in the mail I recieved my chance to join....Planned Parenthood.LOLOLOL! Anyone besides me see irony in sending that to a woman with six kids who'd like more? I laughed all the way in from the mail box. I wonder what would happen if I showed up at a meeting with the kids in tow? Maybe they could use me as a "Don't let this happen to you"