Oh the Insanity!! Why???

If there wasn't already a blog named "Getting Through Life, One Xanax at a Time," I would have replaced my title with it today.

Our week began with Thanksgiving parties at the kid's schools. It's an annual tradition and we look forward to them every year. However, on Tuesday evening, my sweet great-grandmother passed away. She was 102 and it was a blessing for her sake. We miss her greatly. I'm sure I'll tell you more about her at another time. Wednesday we headed down for the funeral and then returned later in the evening. Thursday, we headed over to my brother's house for deep-fried turkey. It was yummy! The kids had a great time together. We journeyed back home that evening. The kids were pretty tired, so I put them straight to bed. I had begged my sister to come up and spend the night so I could run out and get a few "Black Friday Specials" before the kids woke up. She reluctantly came, but did manage to act like she was excited to be here. This is where it gets exciting...

The alarm goes off at 4:45 am. I'm lying in bed thinking how insane I must be to even consider getting up at this awful time to go to Walmart of all places. I DESPISE going to Walmart. I really despise getting up early...and the thought of getting up to go to Walmart was just dreadful! My sister had come all the way up here, so I had to go. When I got there, the whole parking lot was completely full. I had to park in a nearby strip shopping center. I have never seen the whole parking lot full. I knew it was going to be even better once I got inside. Ugh!

I guess I should explain why I was even at Walmart at 5:00 am. I got this bright idea that the kids would love a trampoline. Walmart happened to have them really cheap. They also had DVD's for $2, sweats for $4, etc. My main reason for showing up was for that trampoline.

Back inside, it was mass chaos. I do believe the maximum occupancy was way surpassed. None of the specials were in the usual location. For instance, printers were in the food aisles. So no one knew where they were going. People were trying to maneuver through crowds with 72 in. flat screens in a cart. I finally found my trampoline in the back of the store. There were four! A man was standing guard waiting for another guy to come and help him load it in his cart. It took two guys to load this thing in my cart. I started to weasel my way back up to the mile long check out line. Insanity! About 15 minutes into the wait the large man in front of me let 'er rip. I almost died right there. Just my luck to die in Walmart. Ugh! Well, I survived and we slowly inched our way forward. I was third in line when all of a sudden, the monsoon came in to town. Lovely! After checking out, I managed to man-handle my cart to the front of the store, all the while hoping an employee would be there to help me load this thing into my car. Nice thought. Well, maybe if I just get it to my car, I can just dump it into the trunk. I headed off into the rain across two parking lots with an uncontrollable cart only to arrive at my car and realize I had left tricycles in the trunk. Ugh! Idea #2. Put the trampoline across the car seats in the middle row. Great idea if only I had been able to lift the silly thing! I stood in the rain for five minutes trying to get mad enough to build up enough adrenaline to push this thing. I couldn't budge it! I ran toward the first guy I saw and begged for help. He was so kind! He managed to push the trampoline over the seats and save my day! After a quick thank you, it was off to Tractor Supply.

If you're going to shop on Black Friday, I highly recommend going to Tractor Supply. No lines, no crowds, and good deals! Their ad had the cutest little pedal tractor. I just knew my boys would love it! I was in and out in five minutes. Of course, there was no place in the car to put it. I had to rearrange the tricycles to make space for the box. As I was putting the box in the trunk, the end came open and I had tractor parts going everywhere in the dark parking lot while it was still raining. I think I found them all. We may have a lop-sided tractor. I had to hurry, because Mardel was opening in five minutes!

Mardel is another great place to be on this wretched day! I picked up a few video's and t-shirts for $5. I was pretty drenched at this point and I knew the kids would be waking up aunt Laura any minute. I had promised her a Starbuck's for coming up, so I ran by there and got her mocha. As I was leaving, my battery light came on making me wonder if I was going to get home or just stay wet all day. I had already removed a sock and shoe because my feet were so wet and cold. I arrived back at the abode right after the kids had escaped from their rooms. Breakfast was served, diapers changed, and everyone was happy. This was all before 7:30. There's much more to come, but you'll have to come back tomorrow. My fingers are about to fall off. Don't forget! It gets so much better!

TGIF

I'm beginning to think that Dad being home more is not a good thing. Last month, he was away maybe five nights. The kids have adjusted to having two authority figures to keep them in line. Now, when dad is away, they transform into little creatures with horns and tails. I'm having to refocus their attention away from disaster and back to the wooden spoon with a hole in the middle of it.

It doesn't help that I'm still trying to get over this crud that's been going around lately. For two weeks, I have coughed my lungs up every night. It only bothers me at night for some reason. More about this later...

After a day filled with moaning and whining, we were sitting down to dinner. I say "we," but I really only mean the kids. I dare not eat until everyone is in bed, so I can try to enjoy a moment of peace and quiet. Back to my point. Frijole Man somehow managed to spill a whole container of yogurt all over his booster chair, the big chair, and himself. The only way to really remove it and the other crud that had been growing on the chair for who knows how long is to get ammonia and SCRUB. I shined his chair up and made it so clean and went on to put the used ammonia-soaked paper towels in the trash. I proceeded to bathe the kiddo's not giving the cleaning anymore thought. Everyone went to bed and I came back downstairs to clean up the rest of the day that was still lying around. I noticed the paper towels had been removed from the trash and chewed on by our furry little friends. It was going to be a fun night. :(

Around 9:00 pm, Frijole Man woke up crying. He's been going through this whole "don't close the door" phase. That would be fine except that he shares a room with his brother who would escape in the middle of the night and would probably bring the whole house down. We repeated this scenario at 9:30pm. I had already decided I wasn't going to watch my TV addiction, choosing to have a quiet evening instead. Nice thought.

At 10:30 pm, Big E wanted to have his turn in this little game. Finally, I got to go to bed. Here's where the coughing comes into play. I have to be really still in order to stop coughing. Any time I move it starts up and I cough my lungs up for at least a half hour. At 11:45, I wake to this obnoxious beeping noise. I followed it upstairs to Pod's room. She had set her alarm clock again. It's also a CD player, which is what she really uses it for. I fumbled around and tried to turn it off. Then, I went to make sure she was covered up, only to realize she wasn't in her bed. I found her snuggled up in my bed. Next came the coughing episode only to be followed by the alarm going off again with some happy Spanish tunes playing. This time I made sure it wouldn't happen again. More coughing.

When I had finally fallen back to sleep, it was Sydney's turn. There was (well, still is) a laundry basket full of dirty clothes that never made it to the wash the day before, sitting next to my bed. Sydney loves to sleep in the dirty clothes. At 2 am, she began to have a seizure. She has these a couple of times a month and we have had her checked. Ugh! I knew this was a reaction to eating the ammonia-soaked paper towels. I took her outside and she fumbled around for awhile. She stood by the backdoor and we went in and out literally fifteen more times. This is terrible, but I wasn't about to call poison control for animals, because they charge $75 just to talk to you and it was 2:45 am. So, I gave her some water and snuggled her back into the laundry basket. More coughing.

The next thing I remember is seeing Bubbie's bubbly face at 7am. Let's hope for a better day! :)

Practical Phonics

Miss pods was upset with me for telling her to clean up her room. I found her door shut and this note attached to it.

"Don't Come In"

by Pods

I'm so glad that all of our phonic practice has paid off.

Big Trouble Comes in Tiny Packages

I'm going to let Eric tell it tonight. His day was a bit more exciting than mine...for once. Mom had taken Pods to a birthday party. Dad was home with his three sons. At approximately 4:00 p.m., Dad was working on a puzzle with Bubbie. He knew the twins were awake, but decided to delay releasing them from their room. Mistake #1. Upon entering the room, he noticed both boys were jumping on the top bunk. No big deal until Dad noticed a tiny hiney was jumping around. (You can guess where this is going). Frijole Man was removed from the top bunk. Big E was next. Big E was naked from the waist down with little clumps of chocolate on his back. Dad picked him up and took him downstairs on the tile in front of the fireplace. Why not straight to the bathtub across the hall from his room you ask? So did I. Mistake #2 . Big E was expect to stay on the tile while Dad went back upstairs to clean up the mess...like that's going to happen. Meanwhile, Dad went searching for a new diaper and wipes. Big E thought it would be fun to stop, drop, and roll onto the carpet. Now there's another mess. Dad yelled at Big E to return himself to the tile. As dad looked to see if Big E had complied, he saw what he described as the"golden arch" coming from Big E. Mistake #3. Never leave a boy without a diaper. AAhh, I love laughing at these stories when I'm not involved in them!

Mr. Potato Head

by Pods

Look What I Found in the Compost Pile

I've had a million "I've got to blog about that" moments over the last several days. I'm going to try to get what's left of my brain to cooperate and get as many of them down before I fall asleep.

Every night, as a "delay-going-to-bed" tactic, Pods draws us cute pictures and brings them to us. One of our favorites is of her and her daddy holding hands with a heart above them. She came downstairs with a serious look on her face. In her hands, were two pictures. One was for Mrs. Wilson, her beloved co-op teacher. We opened the other and Eric said, "Oh, thank you, Pods. I love this picture of us!" Pods looked at him and said, "That's not us dad. That's me and John." Eric was dumb-founded. So we inquired a little deeper, trying not embarrass our 5 year old. She went on to tell us all about him. You know, the important stuff like where he sits, what he eats for lunch, what he plays on the playground. I tried to relieve Eric's fears by telling him, it's just a little crush, no worries. The next day she comes home from school telling us about another kid who kept noticing (and telling her) that she loves John. She said she does love him. We'll see where this goes from here. I'm just glad she's excited to go to school....

I let Pods wear a shirt that had a little belt and jaguar print to school. As she was getting ready, she was telling me how much she loved the shirt. She said it looked like something Hannah Montana would wear. (Yippy, but I don't know how she would know this) I told her she looked pretty in her shirt. Her response was, "Yeah, I even look normal!" How many more years of this?

Bubbie has been Bubbie...need I say more.

Frijole Man has been cracking us up as usual. He's decided my name is going to be "Maw." Lovely southern ring to it, huh? He gets really excited when he does something good and starts clapping and smiling at himself. Oh, here's a funny story...this morning I was getting him ready for school. He's starting to want to "do-it-himself." He had his pj pants all the way down to his ankle, but couldn't get it over his foot. Being the drama king that he is, He starts straining and adding all the necessary sound effects needed to show he was exerting effort. He strains really big and out comes this little toot. He just turned red and burst into laughter. It was hilarious. That's the kind of humor four men in a house create.

Big E was promoted to the lower bunk this week. Frijole was moved up top. They seem to be fine with it. Big E is learning that speaking will get him what he wants. He's starting to copy sounds more often and try to get words out. Big improvement! Yeah, Big E!

Other news...the speedometer on my mini went out. It's a mixed blessing. If the speed limit's 60, Eric will go 59. Makes an ADHA person like me want to jump out of the window! So, at least for now, he has to go with the flow of traffic!

Can't think of anything else and my Nancy Grace show is on....I'm becoming addicted again!

Later Gator!

Play-Dough, Dog Treats, & Flames

I thought I had 5 minutes in which it would be safe to reply to my friend, Anita's email and to the PTA president who had emailed me two weeks ago. I was wrong, as usual. Pod's is was at school and Bubbie in front of the t.v. The twins have just finally got to discover the joy and mess of play-dough. I left them at the table, thinking they would be entertained for at least five minutes.

While typing away, I heard some questionable noises coming from the kitchen. So, I went to investigate. I found both boys up on the counter next to the stove. Frijole was eating treats out of the dog's treat jar. Ethan had turned on the stove (low) and put the small pan that I use to boil passey's on the burner. Passey's were in the pan, but no water. That would have created a nice odor and small flames in a matter of minutes.

Uncle Pat, don't bother buying us the collector's edition with every color of play-dough this year. I would prefer shock collars instead.

Turkeys for Tosha

I know you're sad that you don't have a class to make my favorite turkeys with this year! I want you to know that my class made some. We have to keep the tradition alive! :)

Every November, I would make these adorable turkeys with my students. Then, we'd hang them from the classroom ceiling. We had turkeys everywhere! When I started my new job as a mom, Tosha thought it was hilarious when she came over and saw that Pods and I had made these turkeys. We've done it every year. This year we added the corn cobs, which are the kid's feet and thumbprints.

I love you, Tosha. And so do my turkeys! :)

On another note, we got so bored today that Eric drug out the air compressor and started blowing it at the kids. He said he was teaching them about air pressure. We have got to get a hobby!

No Mom, No Rules

Pods had found a displayed picture of Eric, Grandma Susie, Uncle Norman, and his Grandma Sibyl. She identified her dad and grandma, but was unsure of who the other two were. I explained to her that Uncle Norman is her grandma's brother and Grandma Sibyl was Grandma Susie's mother. I went on to explain that Grandma Sybil had passed away and gone on to Heaven were she would meet her someday. Pods asked, "So, Grandma Susie doesn't have a mother?" I replied that she does have a mother, but she's not with us on earth anymore. Pods got a very inquisitive look on her face and thought for a moment. Then she asked, "So, Grandma Susie can do whatever she wants to now?" Makes me think she's counting the days until I kick the bucket.

I also had to share this picture of the Big E. Our kids don't get dessert unless they eat all of their dinner, which is a rare occurrence for most of them. For the past few nights, Big E had watched Eric and I savor our chocolate pudding. He would sit in my lap and stick his tongue out hoping to catch anything that might fall off my spoon. It was hilarious. He finally ate all of his dinner and got his pudding. He was as happy as a pig in a mud puddle!

Good Intentions...

The road to Hadis is paved with good intentions. Those are my words of wisdom for today.

Let me begin by saying that I really DO NOT like this time change. This is the time of year that I begin to feel like a mother bear locked in a cave with four hyper baby bears. If it weren't for the threat of Santa not dropping by, I would be in real trouble. The only thing positive about this change is the fact that there is a .0001% possibility that I might get one extra hour of sleep. Hey, there's still a chance. ;)

I'd had the kids all day yesterday and we'd done pretty well together. We went outside and played and then I mowed while they continued to play. During nap time, I organized the attic. I did accomplish something, finally. We had friends drop by and visit, which was such a nice refresher! Dinner time went well. All of the boys had taken a bath by 6:45. I just had to keep them up for two more hours. Fun! While Kathryn was taking her bath, the little guys decided that we'd missed a few spots and took it upon themselves to jump right on back in the tub. Jammies and diapers included. They had to be totally changed. Big E had run straight to his bed when he realized he was in trouble, so his sheets were wet. Of course I did what every good mother would do and just moved his pillow to the other end and undid the sheet. Good thing he's still short! Finally the little ones were dreaming of sheep, or cookies in Bubbie's case.

I decided I would take advantage of this wonderful hour of extra sleep. I would go to bed early and wake up early before the kids, looking and feeling all refreshed! I was in bed at 9:30. Just when I was about to drift off, I heard Frijole Man crying. I went up to check on him only to realize he had a very snotty nose, fever, and shallow breathing. I gave him Motrin and an inhaler treatment. As soon as I returned to bed, he started up again. Upstairs again I go. After about fifteen minutes of rubbing his head and trying to relax him, I snuck out and returned to bed. Twenty minutes later, I'm back upstairs trying to get him out of the room before he wakes everyone else up with his barking cough. We went downstairs and did a breathing treatment. He got the privilege of sleeping in my bed. We did breathing treatments every hour for the rest of the night. Around 3:45 am, he finally relaxed and fell asleep in my arms. Finally some sleep was in my future. Would you believe as soon as I closed my eyes I heard Big E sliding down the stairs? UGH!!! I had to remove myself from Frijole and return Big E to his trundle. This, of course, just started Frijole's whole coughing and wheezing right back up. More treatments. At 6:00 am on the dot, I was attacked by Bubbie and Big E. I tried to lay there and close my eyes, but it was useless. Reluctantly (that's not a strong enough word), I got up and got breakfast ready, chocolate milk's ready, diapers changed, cleaned up Bubbie's spilled milk, Motrin and breathing treatments administered. Once everyone had their belly full, I decided to put in a movie for the kids and go lie back down. Why bother? At least one kid was annoying me at all times. I don't like to shut my door because they tend to get into things they shouldn't when they know mom is occupied. My bedroom is right next to the living room, so I can observe them without being in the same room. One was opening and shutting the door. The other was throwing diapers around the room. It was all I could do to not get that magnetic paint out, paint a wall, and hang them up by their overalls. I just wanted fifteen minutes!! I thought it must be close to 10:00 am, so I might as well just get up and plan to rest at nap time. I looked at the darn clock and it was only 8:15!!! I thought I was going to die.

Anyways, I did manage to rest for fifteen minutes at nap time. After which, Frijole woke up with wheezing/breathing issues. My dear sister came and watched the other three so I could take him to the doctor. He's on 'roids now and that always opens him up. This kid ought to look like Arnold when he gets older as much as he's been on steroids.

We're hoping for a good night tonight. You can probably tell that four years of sleep deprivation have not had a positive affect on me. I get really possessive of my sleep time. I do, however, love my children more. :) Nighty, Night!