Winter Weather Day 2

The temperatures weren't so bitterly cold today, so the kids spent the entire day outside with their friends or at somebody or another's house. All I have to say about that is that I hope they have all of their toes when they come home, and they darn sure better be worn out. Sariah got us all up and moving at 5:30 this morning, and by 8, the big kids had lost all their Wii privileges, because of... guess! Fighting. It's always fighting every time. We need sleep, and a lot of it!

Me? I've spent the last 3 days doing long neglected chores and finalizing preparations for our house to sell--it's already on the market, but nobody wants to come see it when it's slicker 'n snot outside. Go figure! So here's where I write down what I've done so that I can feel proud of myself:

• Rehung the border in the boys' bedroom.
• Cleaned and culled the pantry from top to bottom. Don't ask what all I threw away. The one problem with a large pantry is that it is VERY easy to lose items Somewhere In There.
• Fixed my printer, which consisted partly of cleaning out the printer head manually.
• Ironed 10 items. Bob and Tiffany'll probably keel over with shock.
• Painted the insides of my kitchen cabinets, AND (bonus) I've put everything away inside again.
• Repotted my violets.
• Cleaned the kitchen window and (another bonus!) blinds.
• Filed or shredded like a gazillion papers (about another billion to go).
• Cleaned the fish tank. Poor little fishies. They don't hardly know what to do now that they can see where they are going and don't live in the Fish Pollution Capital of the World.
• Caught up all my laundry, so that I can start all over again tomorrow, because I LOVE doing laundry that much!
• Mopped my kitchen floor--twice. Snow is never really pure white, is it?
• Balanced my checkbook and arranged to pay some bills.
• Started our tax return.
• Dusted half of my entertainment center. Maybe I have ADD, because I was just too bored to finish it, and haven't come back to it yet.
• Changed diapers.
• Cared for the dog, who sits on the step shivering pathetically when it gets this cold.
  
• Cooked my kids ... oops! I meant, cooked FOR my kids. It was only Ramen, but still, the stove had to be turned on.
• And since we're on the topic of parenthood, grounded the kids in turn about a couple hundred times. However many times it was, it wasn't enough.
  
• Loaded the van with more stuff for the storage unit or Goodwill.
  
• Had hives (still do) for no apparent reason...
• Which means I've been taking a lot of Benadryl...
• Which means I've taken more than 1 nap a day. The house wasn't too pretty when I woke up the last time.
  

Wow! I totally rock. But wait! There's more! The kids are home from school again tomorrow (which saves me a lot of work running them all over creation), so.... Coming soon to a blogspot near you: Winter Weather Day 3!

And just so you know that I NEVER work nonstop (as it would appear to be from that spectacular list), tonight I sit down to watch a Drew Barrymore movie. I'll probably fall asleep in the middle--thank you, Benadryl--but that's ok. Sleep is good.

Winter Weather Day

It's snowing! Snowing? er...sleeting? er...icing?

In any case, there was no school for the kids today, but I got so much done. It was a completely productive day, due to 2 sets of people.

First, my three oldest kids spent the entire day at the neighbor's house. Sissie totally rocks. For some reason, it's so much easier to take care of Rex and Sariah when the big kids aren't following us all around whining. I know, I bet you're sure they NEVER do that.

And second, our beloved home teacher brought us pizza from Little Caesar's for dinner tonight. He said he was out, and he knew I wouldn't be going out. So no cooking for me tonight, which is good because I was really stumped.

But now what will I do tomorrow when the kids are home from school again? I'll have to start thinking now....

More Time Out

Sariah is an equal opportunity sister, if you'll remember this post.

50s Dance

The annual 50s dance at the kids' elementary school is a big deal. I'm always really impressed with it because the music teachers and the PE teachers invest a lot of time into teaching the 5th graders to really dance, and then all the other students pick up things through observation. My kids really look forward to this. Unfortunately this year, I didn't get to take the kids myself, but they went with the neighbors. I got some good beforehand pictures. Check 'em out, especially my little Elvis:

Sariah Got Glasses (and interesting fashion tastes, too!)

Sariah has a condition called Type II Duane's Syndrome, which basically means that the muscles in one of her eyes is wired incorrectly. She was diagnosed at 9 months old, and because she turned her face so markedly to the right to correct the misalignment in her vision (her pupils didn't look exactly the same direction), she had surgery at 12 months to compensate for (not cure) the condition. The doctor detached and then reattached an eye muscle to give her eye more room to turn. It all sounds so complicated....

Anyhow, while the opthamologist was diagnosing this, he realized that Sariah is also extremely farsighted--more so than most babies, who are naturally farsighted--and extremely so in one eye. Dr. S said if this wasn't addressed soon, she would develop a lazy eye, and could eventually go blind in that eye. This website answers a lot of questions without out too much medical jargon.

So, we thought, "Well, glasses it is then." She's had them since Thursday, and it's definitely had its ups and downs--she likes to take them off in protest of whatever it is she's displeased with. And we've already had to have them repaired once (that's hereditary, ask my parents how many times I had my glasses repaired as a teenager--they do say toddlers and teenagers are a lot alike).

But Sariah loves to put her glasses on and everyone tell her how pretty she is. We're so glad we have her, so very blessed.

We Did It!

If you've been wondering why I haven't been blogging or facebooking (I love how new words come out of current trends) or talking to anyone very much, it's because I've been painting my closet, and decluttering my house, and fixing up the bathroom, and a hundred million other things, because It's Time. That's right, it's time to get a bigger house. Ok, well, it was probably time several years and a few kids ago. But we did it! We're listing our house; it goes on the market next week. I'm so excited! (Oh my, now I have to keep things picked up, which we all know I'm not terribly good about!) But ... I'm so excited! Hopefully soon, I'll be able to make more time for my blog. I've missed it, and all the comment love, as Melessa puts it. :)

Me, Revealed

Have I mentioned that Bob and I disagree on photo-taking tactics? He really likes to catch people as they are naturally. Unfortunately, I have issues with this, because I make a lot of really ugly faces. All of the following pictures are from Rex's birthday party, which was less than 2 hours long, btw. Dare I mention that there are more photos of me wearing ridiculous expressions than there are of the birthday boy? At least I know I'm loved in all of my states of being!

In the with New, out with the Old....

A mixed metaphor, to be sure, but you'll soon see why.

Traditions are part of the building blocks of strong families, or so I've heard. Our family certainly cannot be an exception to this. We have a very special New Year's Day tradition. I'm going to outline it for you step by step.

First, in the month of December, we build the most amazing gingerbread houses. Okay, well, this year we didn't build them, but we did decorate them.




Next, we either (a) admire them for a few weeks, or (b) ask Mom and Dad about 50 times a day when we can eat the candy off of the beautimous houses, or (c) wish we'd given the houses away like we'd planned on.

At long last, the Mom and the Dad say, "If you can pry the candy off the houses and think that it would taste fine, please be our guests, and eat the candy. (And good luck prying it off your teeth later!)"



And at long last, we take the houses outside into the January cold. (This is Oklahoma, people.)



And we smash them to smithereens because it's totally awesome!



Hey, we're building a strong family here!