Vandalism

It is disheartening to see the damage a few stupid teenagers can do to a town. In my hometown the school's mascot is the Bison. So on the front lawn is a large sculpture of a Buffalo. It is something the school is very proud of.

But in the last year someone has taken to ripping the buffalo's horn's repeatedly. The first time Billy's uncle (who works at a car body shop) had to use the body shop supplies to put the horn's back on. He mistakenly believed he put them on so well that no one would be able to pull them off again.

It wasn't but a few weeks later that someone found the horn's off again. I haven't heard if it has been fixed since then but I hope they find the people behind this little stunt and make them put them back on and then pay for all the times it has been repaired before.

So Busy.....Update

I feel like all I have to say when I come to post here anymore is "I am so busy, sorry, will post later."

I underestimated the amount of time these two new boys would consume. You would think (or at least I did) that once the kids were back in school I would have more time to do the things I need to do. But alas, that has not been so. We did finally get to court and the ruling was handed down that the boys are ours to keep. So we are done with the legal part of it all. Now I just have to wrap things up with the social worker and get all the paperwork in. Fun!

Today, despite not having school the kids managed to keep me hopping. Becca got kicked in the face by a neighbor boy on the trampoline today and broke her glasses. So we ran into town to see if we could get a new pair (they are not fixable) ordered. The person who can do that wasn't available so they asked us if we could come back tomorrow. So we go back tomorrow.

Megan wiped out on the way out of the bus on Thursday and ripped a good hole in her jeans and her knee. She has been babying it all day and I finally convinced her to take the bandaid off to see a green oozy mess. Yuck! We got some antibiotic ointment on it so hopefully that will get it on the mend.

Cassie, Marea, and Mr. Bill are keeping me busy with homework and AR (accelerated reading). Both of the girls have to get 2 points a month for AR and most of their reading level books are worth half a point. We have been doing an extensive amount of reading here lately. I guess that is a good thing.

How is that for an update? Better than "gosh I am busy" right? Have a great weekend!

Working my Fanny Off

I grew up in a small town. It was so small that it had no major chain restaurants. Which was really depressing as a teenager. The best place to hang out was in front of the post office.

And so as I got older I kept saying someone should open a Pizza Hut, Domino's, McDonalds, OR SOMETHING! But no one ever did.

There were lots of little Mom & Pop type restaurants that opened briefly but most of them never lasted longer than a few months.

One of them I worked at. It was a sub shop originally. But after a few months of being open the owner's started adding things to the menu to entice more people to come in and eat. Soon we had hamburgers and pizzas and an entire breakfast menu as well.

Now that I look back on all those small town shops opening and closing so quickly it makes me wonder if anyone of those owners did some market research before jumping in with both feet.

As I got older a Taco John's and Hardee's went in but neither do exceptionally well. Someone opened a high class steakhouse shortly after I left. It cost several million dollars to build. And just a year later it was on the market for less than 200,000. Ouch.

I don't think I will be opening my own business anytime soon. 7 kids are a big enough job for me. And I know it is not likely to go under. Unless I go mental. he he he

Dancing

My new roof is done. And it is so pretty and flat that I want to get up there and walk on it and dance on the smooth-ness.

But it is soooooo far up there. And my legs get all wobbly when I am just standing on the fourth rung of the ladder.

So I will stand on the ground and admire it from afar.

What a beautiful roof.

Wordless Wednesday

From my new favorite website...

Drained

I don't know if it is the new boys, the never-ending schedule, the constant laundry, or a combination of everything but I am stressed and drained.

I am trying to keep up and keep going but somedays I just don't want to be the Mommy. Last night I woke up at 3 a.m. and could not go back to sleep. I tossed and turned and thought about all the negative stuff in my life. At some point in the two hours I was awake I thought, "I have bitten off more than I can chew". And suddenly I was panicked. But I reminded myself that things would be better in the morning. So I cuddled up to my husband and finally fell back asleep. And 30 minutes later the alarm went off.

So as you can imagine I was dragging by this afternoon. And Jack was not in a good mood. In fact he was in his screaming mood. So when I layed him down for a nap, I layed down on the couch too. I wasn't able to go to sleep but I rested a little bit. And then I got online and started doing a search on nutritional supplements because I need some energy and stamina. I feel like I have run a marathon every night as I fall into bed. Most of it though is an emotional race. Parenting is hard work, not so much physically, but emotionally. I spend a lot of my day working on building relationships, teaching morals and values, building strong kids who will hopefully turn into strong and healthy adults. It is tough.

In the end I know it will be worth it so I keep chugging along. I think I can.... I think I can..... I think I can.......

Bubbles

Never say Never

Someday we will......

I find us using that phrase more and more as we get older.

Someday we will have more money...

Someday we will finish our house...

Someday we will start our own business...

Someday we will go on vacation...

Someday we will....

In order to stop the someday's we are trying to set some goals for our family. Of course with life throwing some curve balls at us these may not all happen as fast as we would like but at least with some goals in place we will be working towards them.

One of the first ones we have started working on is starting our own business. Billy has wanted to do this for a long time. The only thing stopping us at this point is if he quits we lose our health insurance. Which, if you consider paying the bills for 7 kids each year, would be devastating to our family. So I need to find a job, even a part time job, that allows us to have health insurance so he can work on his ideas.

So while we have been researching our options for insurance I laughed when I saw this human resources software. I don't anticipate it would ever be more than two employees at our little shop so this would not get used much. But it sure looks interesting.

Homecoming Week-in-Review

Homecoming week was a busy one for our family this year. I can only imagine what it will be like in a few more years. But here are some highlights.

Everyone in red, black, and white.

Now that Becca is in middle school she gets to participate in the dressing up activities. Here she is on Tuesday on opposite gender day.

Here are the shirts Billy designed and ironed on for the kids. He drew the little cardinal bird and then put each kids name on it. Becca's is sort of hidden by her hood. Megan's is in the top picture.

Me keeping it all together as 5 kids get ready for the homecoming parade. And telling Billy to put the camera down already! Thank goodness the youngest two just got to watch. :)

And now it is over. All the kids had fun and came home and crashed into bed. Now we prepare for Halloween. :)

Organization

I have been on a mission. A mission to declutter my house.

And the worst room in my house by far is our office which is also now our bedroom.

And so I have been looking around online for a new desk that can handle two computers and hide all the junk that goes along with them. Right now we have two desks that each have one door and drawer. Which means everything else is out for all the world to see. And it is messy.

After hours of searching for a closed in desk, I gave up. It seems everyone wants a desk that is "open" and thus showing off all their stuff. Except me.

And then I saw this website for reception desks. And ta-da! I found desks with drawers and doors and overall designs that HIDE your stuff.

What a novel concept.

A New Nephew

Congratulations to my baby sister and her husband!

They had a baby boy this afternoon.

Welcome Little Ian. He weighed 8lbs and 4oz!

I can't wait to see him!

Pain Relief

After my very first cat scan and second round of xrays, I am hopeful that this doctor can figure out what is wrong with my shoulder/chest area that has been causing me pain for the last 5 years.

It is funny because my Mom is such a hypochondriac. Everything and anything is wrong with her. The power of Google seriously compounded her many diseases because now she can look something up on the internet and ta-da! she has those symptoms therefore she must have that disease. Because of this I am the opposite. I don't talk about things when they hurt, I don't complain, and I certainly never go see a doctor.

But after trying many treatments on my own it became pretty obvious that whatever is wrong is not going away without help. Not that I have stopped trying.

So when I got a sample of Freeze It in the mail the other day I quickly rubbed it on the sore spots. It instantly reminded me of Icy Hot from my track days back in high school. My Mom bought me a jar of the stuff and I used it over a period of days but since I didn't really have any pain I quickly tired of it and the smell.

Freeze It was a little better because the smell didn't stay all day and night. It smelled like menthol very briefly and then faded. And my skin felt hot and cold alternately which did help sooth some of the pain.

My kids all got some too because they liked how it felt hot and cold.
Hopefully when I go to the doctor on Friday he will have some magic cure, but if not I still have some Freeze It left.

Fun-filled Days

Life has been crazy and I am sorry I haven't posted here for so long.

This week I decided it was time to find out what is truly wrong with my shoulder. I made an appointment with an ortho doc and got poked and prodded and xrayed on Monday. Tuesday I had a cat scan since he couldn't see enough from the xrays. And Friday I go back for the results. In the meantime I am on prescription strength Aleve to see if it helps the inflammation.

This week is also homecoming week at the kids school. Which means I have stuff to do. Like make homecoming shirts. Dress my oldest in pajamas on Monday, a boy on Tuesday, and in school colors on Friday. Plus I have been torturing us all by making her practice her saxophone for the required 70 minutes a week because they will be marching in the parade on Friday.

And I made a certain kindergartner homemade pretzels with peanut butter dip for his "P" homework.

And the summery weather I love has started to disappear so I am digging out the boxes and boxes of winter clothes so we can swap shorts for pants. And jackets for coats.

And in between all of this, the roofers are still here. And yesterday they ripped off the largest section on the east side and suddenly it poured buckets. Poured. And most of it ended up inside my house running down the walls and turning our ceilings yellow. So I need to get a gallon of Kilz and paint sometime this week too.

And of course we still have our two newest boys. They are adjusting well although it is a lot of effort on my part. So far we are moving right along. I hope it continues to go smoothly.

Memories

When I was about 12 my parents divorced. After that we spent the part of the summers with my Dad and the rest of the year with my Mom.

One particular summer my Dad took my sister Vonnie and I to the store and we purchased large amount of gummy candy. She had sharks. Blue gummy sharks. And I had bears. Multicolored gooey goodness. I think we both had well over a pound each.

That day my Dad took us on a road trip to visit his sister. On the ride there we devoured piece after piece of our gummy candy. I am pretty sure we ate almost the entire bag.

And soon thereafter the gummy candy got its revenge. I remember vividly sticking my head out the window and spewing multicolored candy all over the road. Shortly thereafter we arrived at my aunt's and Vonnie and I spent the first part of our visit laying in bed hoping to die of gummy candy poisoning.

But thankfully after a night of throwing up and a little bit of sleep we were both feeling better. So we donned our swimsuits and headed for the hot tubs our Aunt had in her backyard. We swam and swam and soaked.

And then, even though Dad had never eaten a single gummy candy, he succumbed to what must have been a 24 hour bug.

And now that my sister is just days away from giving birth to her second child, I was contemplating what to buy her when one of my kids volunteers, "GUMMY BEARS! Aunt Vonnie loves gummy bears!"

Yea, I don't think so. he he he

Roof Pictures

Before. Notice the odd shaped shingles?
After on another section of roof. Nice flat dark shingles. Oooooh....pretty!

Halloween Shopping

It is that time of year again. Time for the Halloween Party we host for our town. Which means I need to get my behind in gear.

And lucky for me, the local retail shops are on the ball.

Yesterday when I was at Walmart I noticed the Halloween aisles were FULL and spilling out onto the floor (I would NOT want to be the person responsible for those aisles. What a mess.).

In the last two years we have used black sheets to create "walls" for our haunted house. But we have had problems with kids running through them to get out quickly so we wanted to find a better solution this year.

And I think I may have found it. I was looking at all the Halloween goodies and came across a black tablecloth with eyes on it. We always have black lights so those eyes would glow quite well in the dark. And since they are vinyl, I hope they will hold up better than a sheet does. And perhaps we will tone down the scary just a bit so we don't end up with kids running through the walls this year. he he he

Drowing in Tomato Juice

Our neighbor called me on Friday offering me 5 bushels of tomatoes from her garden. Apparently she had canned 80 some jars of tomatoes and just as many jars of salsa and she was D.O.N.E. with canning.

And since we didn't get our garden in this year I said yes. So this morning I spent a couple of hours peeling and chopping tomatoes.

And now I have a crock pot and two pots on the stove simmering with tomatoes to make tomato sauce, salsa, and spaghetti sauce. Tomorrow will be the canning portion of this mess.

It is a good thing I like to can! :)

Wedding, part Deux

So we have decided the wedding (our renewal ceremony) will go on as planned despite the new addition of two kids to our family.

So I am on the lookout for dresses for the girls and myself. The first time we got married I was young. My Mom had a lot of say in what went into my wedding even though I was paying for the entire thing myself. And she convinced me to go with a second-hand vintage wedding dress. Which was fine but not what I would have gotten if I had more say. So this time around I am getting the dress I want. Now I just have to find it. LOL

I have also been researching invitations but have not found many for a renewal ceremony. I guess they are a relatively new thing so there aren't too many companies offering them yet. Of course, with most companies you can write whatever you want so that may be the way we go. Billy thinks we should just make our own but with 7 kids I think I have enough on my plate right now. I guess we still have a few months yet until we have to send them out anyway.

I forgot how stressful this wedding planning can be.

Tricky Photos

Do you know how hard it is to get a picture of the roofers work when they never leave!?

They get here at 7:30 in the morning and don't leave until it is almost dark (6 ish) so it is not prime photo taking time.

NOT that I am complaining. The longer they are here the more work they get done. We have two sides done and they are working on our addition today so hopefully it will be done by 6ish. Then we just have TWO sides left and it will be finished.

And I can write a big fat check for 8500.00 but we aren't talking about that part. *sigh*

Oh, and the kids are on their second official friday off now that we are on a four day school week. 7 kids and me in the house all day.....wish me luck!

Today is the day....

that I get to mop the floors.

I am so excited.

Life as a SAHM is so glamorous.

HA!

Compromise in Marriage

Me: Curtains!

Billy: Blinds!

Me: Curtains!

Billy: Blinds!

Me: Curtains!

Billy: Blinds!

Me: Okay fine blinds, but you are installing them.

Yea, we are debating over what to put on our upstairs bathroom window. It currently has the icky pull down shade that was present 5 years ago when we bought the house. And it is hardly functional and ripped. It needs replaced.

Perhaps I will just hang my husband on the curtain rod.... It's a thought.

Who says marriage is difficult? ;)

Life

It has been just over a month since we got the boys. In some ways it feels like way longer and in other's I can't believe it has only been a month.

I mentioned before that the boys are doing well. Considering they lost their Mom, Dad, siblings, and life as they knew it.

But our kids? How are they doing? The older girls are doing incredibly awesomely well. I am amazed at how well they have adapted to having to new brothers. They sometimes go and hide in their rooms for a break from all the chaos (but then so do I). Mr. Bill, I think, of all of the kids is having the most trouble with it all. The older boy is the same age as Mr. Bill and they seem to butt heads a lot. A LOT! Finally though this last week things have settled down some. I hope as we go through this they learn to be friends if nothing else.

And the birth mother? Well she is in drug rehab and calling us every few days. Which annoys the crap out of me for a variety of reasons. I am trying to see it from the boys' point of view. I am sure it gives them some sense of security to talk with her and still feel like she hasn't completely abandoned them. But it is hard for me.

And court happens on the 19th. So hopefully we will know what is going to happen soon.

The waiting is the hardest part. Harder than being pregnant because at least then I knew when the baby came it was mine and no one would come to take it away from me.

Which reminds me, I have had huge baby fever lately. HUGE! I keep thinking we need one more. Why I don't know. And Billy he is all for getting snipped to stop my planning. LOL

I guess life with 7 kids can have a small effect on our brains. he he he

They're Here! They're Here!

The roofers are here.

They are on my roof making a ton of noise and shingles are a' fallen!

Woooohooooo!

I will get pictures when they leave tonight to show you what they have done.

Comments

Well the general consensus seems to be that the comments here are working just fine for most of you.

I did get a few emails from people who couldn't comment and after much research, I have no idea why.

I am guessing it is a program or setting on their computer that is conflicting with haloscan or the pop-up window that is required for haloscan to open. But those are just guesses. So please, if you want to leave a comment but for whatever reason can't, just drop me an email. My email is in my side bar all the time so feel free to use it.

It will be a nice break from all the junk mail I have been getting lately.

And thank you to everyone for leaving a comment so I could see if it was working correctly. You all are great!

Trying something new

I have seen quite a few lists on people's blog for things they want to do before they reach a certain age. Like 40 before 40.

I have never looked at life like that. I have always been a one day at a time kind of person. Until recently. I sat down and looked at the things I have done in life and realized there are some things I haven't done yet that I would really like to.

So while I am not making a 40 before 40 list, I am swirling some ideas around.

Like Golf. Although the golf apparel ladies wear is not all that appealing. But the sport itself looks interesting. And it would mean I could stay outside doing something fun with my husband for hours.

And Tennis. I have never learned how to play but I do enjoy playing for fun. And those outfits are cute, although perhaps a bit skimpy for a 33 year old Mom to 7 kids.

And rock climbing. Despite my fear of heights I have always wanted to try this.

And driving a semi-truck. This has been something I have wanted to do since I was a teenager.

Hopefully we can find another babysitter soon (ours is too involved in school) so we can try some of these activities.

Menu Monday

Okay, so I am going to give this menu planning thing a whirl.

Today I went to the store and bought the ingredients for several new recipes I found in my "Kraft Food and Family" magazine. (Those recipes are marked with an *)

So here it is:

Monday:
Saucy Parmesan Chicken*
Salad
Homemade Breadsticks

Tuesday:
Slow Cooker Orange Chicken*
Rice
Peas

Wednesday:
Slow Cooker BBQ Roast
Mashed Potatoes
Broccoli

Thursday:
BBQ Sandwiches
Salad
Sliced Cucumbers

Friday:
Hamburger Gravy over toast/noodles
Cheesy Potatoes
Homemade buns

Goodbye, Farwell, TTFN

It is that time of year again.

Sports Season.

And while most of you are rejoicing and watching it all on t.v., I am wondering when my husband will be home from work.

He works for a company that has many many sports teams as customers. And many of them must be procastinators. Because they call a week before a game and want their project done for the first game. Most of the animation projects my husband does take at least 2-3 weeks. Ain't gonna happen.

One of his first business trips was out to Penn State to help a customer. He spent a lot of time collecting drawings and pictures from the customer to use as an aid in his animation. So it is all too ironic that there are plenty of Penn State football photos available on the web.

I will have to point him in the direction of this website for his future picture needs. It will save him a business trip and me and empty bed.

Just the 9 of us

I forgot how hard it is to adjust to life with new family members.

When we adopted the first time, it was hard. There is a lot of time spent teaching the new child the ropes and helping them adjust to life with a new family.

This time around, two boys joined our family. And I am not all that familar with boys. Sure we have one, but he has 4 sisters. So he is sort of girl-ified. He has manners. He eats nicely. He says please and thank you. And his feet remain on the ground.

The two new boys are like uncaged monkeys. They burp and fart at the dinner table, they demand and scream for what they want, and a set of bunkbeds are merely a jungle gym to them.

We have a long road ahead of us.

Vacation

This weekend as the weather turns colder (56F for the high tomorrow!) I find myself longing for beaches and hot sand between my toes.

But in reality I enjoy autumn time too because of the holidays and the fun activities that are soon to come.

And I start thinking of cabins and mountains and leaves turning colors. What I wouldn't give to be able to visit Pigeon Forge cabin rental and reserve one of these:

I might even be willing to trade the hot sand for a warm fire glowing on my face. I long for the slow pace of life. And time with my family.

All the things autumn reminds me of.

Commenting

Andi emailed me to let me know she is not able to comment on my blog the majority of the times she is here.

Which may explain why my readership is way up but I am still getting almost no comments. So tell me, would you please, if you can comment on here?

If you can, leave a comment. If you can't would you kindly drop me an email and tell me it doesn't work for you? (toogirls2000@yahoo.com)

Thanks!

Apparently

Apparently the hormones were on a war path yesterday.

Heather and Allie both had days like mine.

Today will be better gals. It has to be. :)

PMS

Yesterday was the peak of PMS for me. I have always suffered with this, some months being worse than others. And yes PMS is a real deal. If you think otherwise, hold a second and I will put my hormones on, they can tell you all about it. Just watch out for the grouchy one. She will rip your head off and chew it up.

Anyway, yesterday after a really crappy morning and a bad beginning to an afternoon I tried to call my husband. But his office is in the basement of the building and so he frequently does not get my calls on his cell.

So the phone rang and rang and rang. And I started to cry because my husband wasn't answering the phone.

Thankfully after many years of dealing with this, I have learned to recognize my odd behaviors and so I laughed at myself and prayed, "Good Lord please help me make it through this day."

Because someone has to.

Snot

What is the best way for a one year old to let his Mom know he needs a kleenex?

Would it be to wipe your nose on your Mom's leg?

No?

Someone better tell Jack that.

When I Grow Up

When I was in high school I wanted to be an interior decorator. I loved rearranging my own room into a million different configurations. My Mom would just laugh as I spent an entire Saturday redecorating.

And now that we own our house and I can do whatever I want to it, I do. But we have a tricky living room with a window or door on each wall. To find some possiblities I did some searching on the net. There is a vast array of decorating websites out there. I love the ones that show before and after pictures as well as the ones that give decorating tips for applying the ideas into your own space.

Right now I am on a mission to organize and redecorate my office. Because what was the office is now my bedroom and it is crazy messy.

Sort of like my brain today, crazy messy.

What I am doing today...

Attic Puked

This weekend we used our free time to clean out the attic that has been waiting so patiently for us to get up there and turn that empty space into bedrooms.

But it was not as empty as you would imagine. Our attic has been storage central for the last five years. So we had a few boxes up there. So we hauled boxes down 3 flights of stairs only to realize the attic had puked into our living room. This was only the beginning. Once we got the "organized" boxes out we hauled them to the garage. Which then looked like this:
I know we have a serious holiday imbalance. But you see we host the town's annual kids Halloween party so we have way more decorations for that. The ghost/pumpkin bean bag toss and the frankenstein plinko game were both constructed and designed by my insanely talented husband. We have two more rubbermaid containers full of Halloween stuff but until they start selling the orange and black ones we have to use the grey ones. :)

After about 3 hours of going through boxes labeled like this one

We had a garbage pile like this:

Which allowed us to sort the remaining stuff into newly purchased rubbermaid containers and put it all in the garage. By then it was 9:30 at night and dark so I couldn't get a picture of the garage or attic but believe me one is full and the other is empty. And I am so proud of my pack-rat husband. We have moved these boxes full of art stuff, his Dad's art stuff, and other "crap" that needed to be sorted through but he is not good at getting rid of anything. He managed to sort over 15 boxes down to 9 rubbermaid containers. Bravo! Although it may have something to do with him having to carry all 15 boxes (some full of books) down three flights of stairs. Maybe.

So now the roofers are due to arrive sometime this week and the construction on the attic bedrooms will commence shortly thereafter. Yippppeeee!

Where were the Kids?

Oh and where were the kids while we were busy moving box after box?

Playing with a box of playland balls (thanks Grandma!) that we took out of the attic of course.