Public Service Announcement

Are you tired of getting calls from telemarketers?

Then you need to visit this website! :)

National Do Not Call Registry

I don't think this will work for my Canadian friends but for us Americans it is a great service. Just register your phone number (don't forget your cell phones) and those annoying people cannot call you for 5 years. I just did mine and it won't expire until 2011. Yahooooo!

Your welcome.

Sleeping in...

My kids have finally figured out that during the summer there is NO REASON to get up at 6 a.m.

Today I woke at 10:00 to complete silence. All the kids were still asleep. Hallelujah!


Now if I could just get them to cook for themselves! ;)

O.C. returns

Well we are a whole week into our summer vacation and everyone seems to have settled in nicely.

We spent our entire weekend doing projects in and out of the house. We got the shed and garage scraped, primed, and painted. Then we put in three new flower beds as our very generous neighbor gave us many plants out of her out flower beds that she is wanting to redo. We mowed the lawn (fertilizer makes our grass grow FAST!) We even got some of the drywall mudded. We spent part of Saturday at the lake just relaxing.

It didn't take the kids long to start complaining about being bored though. I told them I had plenty of things they could do. Like...

the dishes, vacuum, mow the lawn, clean their rooms, do some laundry.

That quickly got them off and finding something to do on their own.

te he he

Don't need him...

After we purchased our laptop we needed to network it in with our other two computers. I got the wireless router hooked up but was clueless as to how to get all three computers on one circuit, so to speak.

Or so I thought!

Today I spent about 30 minutes under my computer desk rewiring and moving the appropriate cables to the appropriate slots and BINGO! I have all three computers hooked up to the internet and they can all access each other.

My husband spent about 10 hours early this week hooking them up and they never worked right. EVER! This morning I couldn't get on the internet on any of them. That was the final straw!

I am woman! Hear me roar! :)

Don't quote me!

Mr. Bill: "I smell hairspray! Mom you smell like hairspray."

Me: "Do I?" (turning to Billy) "Did you hear that? I smell like hairspray."

Mr. Bill runs away giggling, "Mommy smells! Mommy smells!"

Soon all five kids are running around the house chanting, "Mommy smells!"

I get no respect....

Forget the title!

Can I take the Organized part off my title? The kids have been out of school for one whole day and I am already rethinking this summer break idea.

They obviously need "How to play with siblings 101"

It is amazing how much they don't interact during the school year. By noon yesterday they were at each others throats and Becca was at mine. Sheepers!

I am ready for the pools to open.

Finito!

Yesterday I mowed our lawn. The.Entire.THING! It took me almost three hours to get it all mowed. Then I put down more fertilizer and weed killing stuff. Hopefully we will have that lush green lawn we are after this year. I need to get some pictures of my flower beds so Alison can help me make them look better. Right now they look pretty pathetic. LOL

Today is the last day of school for my girls. They will be home early (at noon) and will officially be done with school for the year. I am excited not to have to get up early every single morning. And the joy of not having to make them get dressed and get ready is staggering! :)

The guilt

There is one thing that the doctors don't tell you that is born the same day your child is born.

Mommy Guilt.

Those of you who already have kids know what I am talking about. Those of you without, take notes because this will happen to you. This mommy guilt pops up at the most awkward times.

Say for instance that your child finally learns to sit up by herself. What a joyous occasion! You can leave the child sitting on the floor playing with her toys while you make a mad dash to the bathroom to pee alone in privacy. Just as you sit on the toilet you hear a thunk followed by a loud "Waaaaaaaaaa!" You quickly pull your pants up and run back to the living room. There is your precious baby doing a face plant into the carpet and crying inconsolably because YOU left her there so you could go pee. How dare you!

Or there is the time you get the opportunity to go out ALONE without the baby and do something just for you. You make sure to take the cell phone with you and you hit the mall. As you enter the first store you feel this twinge. You pull out the cell phone to call home and check on the baby. Your husband assures you he and the baby are doing just fine without you. You wonder how that is possible but head into the store anyway. After checking out several racks of very nice clothes you would love to own, you grab a shirt and try it on. It is the perfect shirt and it looks awesome on you. You take the shirt out and put it back on the rack. Afterall, you are a mommy now and you can use that same money to purchase something for the baby. You rush through several other stores and arrive home 45 minutes from the time you left with 4 new outfits for the baby and feeling emotionally exhausted.

Then there is the guilt that surfaces when the neighbor kid knows all his colors and your child can't even tell yellow from blue yet. You rush out to the local book store (with kid in tow) and buy a bunch of books and flash cards to teach him all the colors in the rainbow. You throw in a box of crayons just in case they may come in handy. You spend the rest of the afternoon showing your child the cards, books, and crayons and repeating the color names very slowly, "Bluuuuuuuue." You child looks at you, giggles, and stuffs another crayon in her mouth.

The dinner table is not immune either. You will spend hours trying to coerce your child to eat. Because heaven forbid, you do NOT want to be one of those parents whose child ends up in the hospital because she refuses to eat her vegetables or anything else on her plate. And worse than that is the thought that your child should go to bed hungry! What must she think of you when you send her to bed and her stomach is growling because you didn't feed her any acceptable foods? Oh the guilt!

And don't forget as they get older and can use this mommy guilt to their advantage. Just when you think they are old enough to do things for themselves and are not totally dependent upon you, you think you will get a much needed break. You are seriously mistaken. You will hear things like, "Why can't I go to my friends house? You NEVER let me do anything!" "I need those fake fingernails! Don't you know how much not having them is going to affect my self-esteem?"
Don't crack. Just smile and walk away. The bathroom is a good place to go. Shut the door, turn on the faucet, and let the tears flow. Who knew you would do such a bad job at this parenting thing?

That mommy guilt is the worst kind. It seeps into your dreams, it invades your mommy time, it ruins a day out without the kids. Don't let yourself believe for one minute that you are immune.

We are not ready for this!

This morning as I am getting ready for the day, Becca comes in and informs me she needs some pants to go over her shorts. (Today is field day at school so she will be outside running.) I tell her to look in her dresser. Her dresser is a mass of mixed up clothes so I assume there is a pair of sweatpants in there somewhere. She informs me she "DOESN'T WEAR SWEATPANTS!" I just look at her with that "get a life" look and hand her a pair of purple sweatpants that are sitting on the dryer. She storms out of the bathroom yelling all the way down the hall at me.

Billy, who decided to stay up half the night, wakes up to Becca's screaming. He starts yelling at her and then at me because how dare I not take the time to dig through the rubbermaid boxes and find her a pair of running pants. Why am I such a mean mom.

Ignoring him and her, I go downstairs to assist my other three children in getting their hair and teeth brushed and shoes and socks on. In this amount of time Billy digs through the boxes in the closet and finally comes up with an "acceptable" pair of pants.

Billy then hops in the shower, now 40 minutes late for work, and Becca starts in on me again. She has a plain backpack! How dare I buy her a plain backpack. Megan's is way better! (Never mind that Megan's backpack ripped last week and this is one that has been hanging in the closet, unused, all school year!) Then the bus arrived. Thank heavens for school!

I inform Billy of the backpack incident after he gets out of the shower. It is PMS and preteen crap dear. Get used to it!

We are not ready for teenagers. Heaven help us.

A family of 7

It is true. I really do have five kids. Just ask the little girl at the restaurant...

It seems that this is a hard fact to swallow for the general public. We spent this weekend out playing and doing things as a family. While we were out and about we got the following comments:

1. Are they all yours?

2. How old are they?

3. How old are you?

4. Don't you know what causes that?

5. You must have your hands full!

6. Don't they make you crazy?

7. Why did you have so many?

8. What were you thinking?

9. (This one whispered from a wife to a husband) Dear God, why would anyone have so many kids!

10. (A little girl standing on her chair in a restaurant pointing at each of my kids and counting out loud:) One, two, three, four, five. And her mom leans over and says, "Better them than me."

And my response:

SHUTUP!

Okay, that isn't really what I said because well, I am too nice. I wanted to yell shut-up after I heard those rude comments all day. But I don't. Usually I either pretend like I didn't hear them or I nod and smile and quickly exit the situation.

I told Billy we should move to Utah. "Why?" he asks. "Because that is where most of the Mormons live. They typically have lots of kids. We would be a small family there. Then people would ask when we are having the next one."

"Great idea." he says as he rolls his eyes at me.

I tried.

Ta-da!

Here they are.....

Drumroll please.....



Was that fast service or what? Gotta love Walmart Optical! After they got their glasses we wandered around Walmart for awhile and Megan read every single sign that was hanging from the ceiling out loud to me. I didn't realize there were so many! Then we got outside and she said "There's a cloud! And there's a cloud! And look, there is a whole group of clouds!" Apparently clouds didn't exsist in her previous world. :)

I don't think they will be taking them off anytime soon. They both kept saying everything is soooo much brighter!

Eyeglasses are in order

Well after a two hour trip to the optometrist we are indeed the proud owner of two girls who need glasses.

The doc said Becca is nearsighted (which means she can't see far away). She needs glasses.
Megan is nearsighted and has a astigmitism. She needs glasses too.

So we headed over to the optical center and the girls tried on 20 pairs of glasses. They each settled on a pair and we went to get them ordered. I had no idea how much goes into getting glasses! It took us over an hour to get both pairs ordered.

They should be in early next week so I will post a picture when they have them on. They are both excited and looking forward to their new glasses. I am sure after 2 weeks of having to wear them that will change. LOL

Rambles

Only two more weeks of school left for the girls and the school is making us pay!

Today the girls had 5 activities at school. A bake sale, playground fundraiser, hat day, jump rope for heart, and bike rodeo.

Can they pack anymore activities into the last two weeks of school? I hope not. I have two girls going on field trips this week too. I made Billy volunteer to be a chaperone. After all he gets to spend his days with coherent adults doesn't he? It is about time he gets to step into my world. 30+ babbling 10 year olds. he he he

The weather has been great here so we are spending many days outside in the sun. Tonight though I have to run Becca and Megan to the eye doctor. Becca has been squinting at stuff faraway since the fall and I told Billy she needs her eyes checked. He thought she just wanted glasses so told me not to take her. Now Megan came home from school last week and said when she was sitting at the computer in class she couldn't see what her teacher was writing on the board. I knew I should have listened to the mommy instinct and taken them both in months ago. Why did God give us men to make us second-guess ourselves anyway? My mommy instinct is always right!

Well, I have to go and pick the kids and their bikes up from the bike rodeo so I better run!

TTFN!

Dead Silence

Mr. Bill is napping, my babysitting job has gone home early, and the girls are still at school.

It is just me and my thoughts in this quiet house.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh.......

At the Capitol

Here are some of the pictures we took at the capitol. I apologize to those of you still with dial-up. This page will take awhile to load.
Here are the kids standing outside the capitol building.
A little bit closer so you can see their smiling faces. Except Megan. She didn't WANT to go to the capitol.
This is the view as you walk in the front door. That staircase is white marble and just magnificent. There is another one below it. It is fabulous to walk up.
Here is a white marble water fountain. These were exquisite. When the building was first built and plumbing wasn't available they used to put a brass bowl of water and a brass drinking cup for the enjoyment of the guests. There were water fountains in the walls too made out of the same white marble.
Here is a peak into the House of Representatives side of the building. We actually got to wander back into their cloakroom and locker area. It was interesting.
Here is the Senate side. It looked very similar to the HR side but the colors are obviously different. I took pictures of the areas where the senators and reps sit but they came out very dark. We were only allowed to stand in the doorway of those rooms.
This is a glass block floor on the second floor of the building.
Here is the tile floor that is in EVERY single room in the building. Could you imagine laying all of those tiles ONE AT A TIME! I am sure it took forever.
Here we are. I had Becca snap this picture for us.

I know, I know

It is Wednesday already and I haven't posted a thing. I will be back later tonight with some pics of our trip.

I have been busy on the net the last two nights because I FINALLY found (well actually he found me) a relative on my dad's side of the family who lives in NORWAY and is the same age as me. They have been looking for my family and the descendants who had come to America for over 30 years. They were very excited to find me and I them! So I have been busy digging through all my stuff and emailing him back and forth.

I love putting lives to the names in my family tree.

S-U-C-C-E-S-S!

We arrived home last night after a jam-packed weekend! My lesson went great. The internet cooperated once we plugged in a hardwire line (none of our laptops could catch the wireless in the room for some reason). We had a small group and they seemed to really enjoy the lesson (except the gal in the back who fell asleep). She apologized after the fact and said I wasn't boring she was just tired. Whatev...... The gal that had originally asked me to come teach said they will be doing these classes around the state and wondered if I was interested. You betcha!

We also got to tour Pierre and we had a blast. We toured the capitol building and OMG is it amazing! The building is 100 years old but it is in amazing shape. Most of the building is marble. I took pictures which I will share with you later today if I get them downloaded. The building had a grand white marble staircase like you see in old southern movies. The brochure we had said it cost almost a million to build it back in the early 1900's. Today its estimated value is over 58 million.

We also checked some of the more local sites but almost everything was closed due to it not being tourist season just yet. Oh well.

I have spent most of this a.m. on the phone to dell trying to figure out why each time I disconnect from the wireless internet on this laptop it would give me the blue screen of death. I hope we fixed it. I will find out once I disconnect in a few minutes. Cross your fingers.

What did you all do this weekend?