Still going

On Christmas we did the traditional went to Grandma's after we spent the morning here. It was a really good day. The kids were well behaved, so were the grown ups, so it was nice.
Tonight we have a shin dig to go to that will keep the kids up very very late, and then tomorrow Lonnie's side of the family is coming here for that Christmas celebration. That is always fun too, 8 grown ups, 10 kids, and usually some extra dogs thrown in for good measure.
Then on Saturday we will be going to my Uncle's, about 2 hours away for one last Christmas gathering. The kids are excited about going. They love to see the cousins they don't get to very often.
It looks to be a very full week coming up.
Oh, and Lonnie came home from work last night and went straight to bed. He is still there, no work for him today. I just hope he is feeling better before we are supposed to go to the shin dig tonight.
Now I have to go off and get my house ready for people tomorrow, including the room that my kids call Grandma's room, since when she isn't here, it just collects junk on the bed. :-)
So, off I go.

Day 11

Yesterday we went and picked up some refrigerator boxes. Then we filled Rylee's room with them and they got to spend the afternoon making castles ans cities and whatever else they felt like calling them.
They seem to be enjoying themselves with that.

Day 5

Day 5,
We cleaned the house.
Both bathrooms,
My bedroom
The boy's bedroom
The girl's bedroom
the living room,
the kitchen
changed all the bedding

The plan was for them to help with a large portion of this.
It didn't happen.
But it was a good day and the house is clean.
Lonnie came home from work early, and it is questionable if he will go to work tomorrow.
Tomorrow we will be doing some prep for Christmas day,
so it will be a lot of fun, cookies to make and all that.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night sleep.

Not a good plan, but a plan.

It's Day four of the occupation. I will be venturing out today as well. I will be taking all four of the native to the mall. Yes, the big mall. Three days before Christmas. Crazy. Insane. Stupid. Necessary.
SO I have recruited help. Grandma will be accompanying us today. That way the odds aren't stacked so high against me. We will also be taking the "backpack" (leash) for one of them.
Wish me luck.
At least it will get them out of the house today. Maybe burn off a little cabin fever.

Lock Down

It's day three of our time in the big house with all the rough necks. There was more bad news today, it was too cold for them to go outside for PT. That means they have been in the house all day.
All attempts to subdue them with movies and candy have backfired. Now they are restless and high on sugar and empty calories.
It will be a long night.
There is no hope for escape.
Lonnie is going to venture to the outside world tomorrow and see if anyone else is fairing any better. I fear he may not return.
We have 14 more days until their release, We ventured into this with 6, I am hoping all 6 make it to the end.

?

I have Frank Sinatra Christmas Carols playing in the kitchen.
Wyatt looks up and tells me "this sounds like New York"
Now how would he know that?
And yes it does sound like New York.

4:30?

Apparently my kids are used to being in there own house.
Rylee cried for Mommy most of the night.
After she was finally asleep, she woke up around 4:30. Then she was lonely I think, so she woke her brothers up. All of them.
Then they proceeded to tell Grandma that they ALWAYS get up at 4:30 on Saturdays. (No, in fact they don't)
So by the time I got to them, they were very very tired. As was Grandma.
So they came home, watched a movie and had some quiet time, and then still went to bed right on time after church. They even slept in just a bit this morning. I think they are all feeling a little better right now.

Mom, Thank you, thank you, thank you.
We love you.

We are done.

There is something really refreshing about waking up when you are ready, and not because some child is yelling at you.
At the same time, there is something kind of creepy about walking around the house with no kids here. I guess in the afternoon is different, but waking up to a house with no kids is kind of weird.
Lonnie and I got all of our shopping done the other night. They are wrapped and hidden.
The traditional one package for Christmas eve are under the tree.

We are good to go.
We had a good time.
We got home waaay too late.
We spent more than we wanted to.

It was great.

And we're off

The kids' bag is packed. Complete with each ones special sleeping toy.
My Dave Ramsey approved envelopes are labelled and ready to go.
There is gas in my van.
All we need is Grandma to come get hem, and I'm outta here.

We are doing our yearly Christmas shopping marathon. I will be meeting Lonnie at his work, then we will go to dinner, and shop till we drop, for everyone on our list. The kids, the nieces, the nephews, the parents, everyone.
Then we will come home, Lonnie will watch a movie, I will wrap wrap wrap and when the kids come home tomorrow, We will be completely done.
And, the kids get to have a sleep over at Grandmas!
I am so excited. I have been looking forward to this for weeks.

Thanks Mom!!

Butter anyone?

Just so everyone is clear, if you have plastic butter dish sitting on the back burner on your stove, make sure that you either remove it, or double check which burner you just turned on under your refried beans. This will serve two purposes,
1. You beans will not cook at all if they are on the wrong burner.
2. Plastic butter dishes melt. rather quickly in fact. As does the butter. And you burner just may turn some lovely shade of aquamarine that your butter dish used to be.

Just spreading the knowledge, that's all

Oh, and melting plastic doesn't have the most excting scent either.

Tag

They have tagged him. I guess he is officially one of our kids now.

Snowy again

I love snow. I think it makes everything look so pretty. It all looks so clean and fresh. Then cars drive through it and kids tromp over it and it isn't so pretty anymore.
But the smiles on the faces doing the tromping is totally worth it.
School was out early today, and the kids played in the yard. I didn't get any pictures, because I was playing with them, as well as shoveling.
Now 2 of them are in the bath tub. Because that is the routine in our house. Snow to get cold, bath to warm up, and then hot chocolate in your jammies.
Lonnie is out doing a yearly shopping trip with a few other jar heads. They go and shop for all of their wives at one time and make it a grand affair. This trip has gone on every year, regardless of weather, for 8 years. My favorite was when they took a 1 1/2 yr old Wyatt with them. The stories that came back from the trek are priceless, and I seem to remember it was the shortest venture.

SO tonight it is frozen pizza and hopefully to bed early, but we may have to sneak a game of sorry in before they head to slumber land.

Enjoy the snow, after all this is Iowa, it could be 60 by next week. :-)

Snow fun for some

Not so much for others.

You say burger, I say booger

Tyler- What's that?
Me- burger
Ty- I don't like "booger"
Me- yes you do
Ty- Well I only like me and Wy "boogers" not you and Rylee's
Me- Why don't you like us?
Ty- you have girl boogers, I only like boy boogers

Not exactly what I thought we were talking about, but ok.

Economica

I make Ry pay me to clean her room. Sometimes I make her pay Wy. She has to pay $1 to who ever it is that cleans it. She won't. She will spend 8 hours (no joke) in her room and not put a thing away. Since the basis of making them clean their rooms is to teach them to be responsible adults, I figure she can do that with money. Not everyone cleans their own house, my mom ran a fairly successful business for several years built on that truth. So, I am off to make a dollar.

OOPS

I have been accused of being a lazy blogger. I hate to admit it, but I have been. It doesn't feel like it has been that long, but wow, it has.
About three days before I posted about Lonnie's dad's heart attack, one of my closest and dearest friends was sent to the hospital and admitted for "clots" in her head.
It has been one thing after another since that time. It was found out that she had a mild stroke, and several other complications. I haven't been able to get to the hospital to see her, so instead I have taken on meal planning and child care arrangements for her family at home and her husband. The response has been simply overwhelming. I can't thank the people enough who have stepped up to help. It has been fantastic.
Things are finally starting to look up, and there may even be whispers of her coming home sometime soon.
Other than that, things are pretty normal. We have gotten our Christmas tree up and the house is all ready. I have now reached the pint that the "helpful" reminding signs at Wal*Mart, you know the ones, "3 Saturdays Until Christmas" have started to really stress me out. I think that is on purpose.
That is about all for now, please forgive my delinquency.