Super Bummed

Tonight has been planned for over a month for Jeff and I to go out on a date. Well with the current state of our house being head lice, though I must say we are doing pretty well kicking it's butt. I had to cancel the sitter and stay home with the girlies. It totally stunk to watch my two boys leave the house with their dad when I should of been the one going. It wouldn't have been a big deal if our dates weren't so spread out. We go on one maybe once ever 2 or 3 months. I so want to change this but I just don't know how. Babysitting is expensive for 4 kids. We do have a few free babysitters but only a few of them are actually willing to watch our kids the others we have to beg and beg and that only works about 50% of the time. It is hard. Period. Anyway I had updated my status on facebook about watching the boys leave on my date with their dad. One of the comments mentioned trade sitting, which we have done once with another family who has 4 kids. Let's just say that watching 8 kids is completely INSANE. Most of our friends have 2 or 3 or 5 kids not many have 4 like us. I will definitely have to work something out with some friends to get this to happen more often with out breaking the bank for a date night = paying a sitter and then whatever we spend on the date. Ok my pity party is over ;)

Ugh

So not the way I wanted to end summer...with head lice. I am beyond upset and overwhelmed with all the stuff that needs to be done to get these little critters out of our house. All the treatments and checking for the nits (eggs) and washing all the bedding and towels after every use it just completely stinks. We found out yesterday that we had lice in our house. I spent 3 1/2 hours doing GlamorGirls hair. About 40 minutes doing Peanut's hair thank heavens hers is so fine. Both girls had it. GG's was worse then Peanut's. Then Jeff shaved both boys heads and he said he for sure found one in Monkey's head but wasn't sure about Red. Then we did a treatment in my hair and we found one louse and some nits. This is so not fun. I wish I could just shave my head and if I wasn't in a wedding in about 12 days I totally would shave my head. I have vacuumed my house top to bottom today and will need to do that every day for about 2 weeks or so. I have started doing Power 90 which is the work out right before P90X nothing like a little head lice to stop your workout mojo dead in it's track. So frustrating. Just sitting here I'm thinking of people I need to tell who might have been infected with them as well since I have no idea when we exactly got them :( Like I said so NOT how I wanted to end summer...

Our Summer in a Nutshell

The Pool. That is pretty much were we have lived this summer with an occasional park throw in here or there! A family from church got a pool pass too so when we have been at the pool they have usually been there too. They had 4 kids all summer until last Monday when she had her 5th baby. Which means the last time we went to the pool it was just my kids. It was good and bad. Good because they played with each other but bad because they got bored quicker. My friend said she was hoping to take all 5 kids to the pool this coming week!!! Also wanted to add that we have gone swimming so much Peanut's swimsuit got a whole in the butt and we had to go get her a new one...it was slim pickins and she ended up with a bikini. I finally remembered to take the camera with me the day we were alone so I got some really cool shots of them kids on the diving boards and in the water!!! I hope to get some pictures with the kids and there friends this coming week. Without further ado my favorite PICTURES! I took WAY more than this ;)

Peanut's favorite thing to do...

mid jump
into the water and then swimming to big sis
Monkey off the high dive...he's flying
GlamorGirl doing a handstand
Red's trick off the high dive
Her showing me how she goes underwater...
her under the water
These two are ones who got out of the pool before it was time to go...


What about you what have you been doing this summer?
I hope it has been as fun as ours :)

3 weeks

I am giving myself three weeks to get in shape. I talked to my hubs about how I was feeling out of shape and yucky. He told me to start working out. I told him I needed some sort of motivation and then proceeded to tell him to start calling me fat/chubby. Not a good idea. It did not motivate me AT. ALL. After the 5th time he called me that it started to hurt my feeling, so he stopped. I know I'm such a girl. I asked him to call me that to help motivate me and then when he does what I ask I don't like it. Something in me snapped today and I decided that I am going to do this working out thing and getting into shape. I think it had to do with the fact that I was thinking about how I'm homeschooling Peanut and I need to have some form of gym for her. Well if she needs to be active and move um yeah so do I. Anyway, we even took a picture tonight before we started working out to document what we looked like before. I really hope that after the first 90 days I can see a difference in that picture! I really hope that after the first week I will feel better and have more energy like I did last time I was serious about working out...right before we left for the Bahama cruise. The only funny thing is that summer is almost over and I'm getting into swim suit shape now. Whatevs! I'm also thinking that once school starts once a week walking the track at school and letting Peanut play at the park where I can see her. Or she can walk with me. I'm just really excited to see what the next 3 weeks bring. I can't believe that is all the summer break we have left. In three weeks a lot of things will be changing. I'm so thankful to God for change!

Friday!

Tonight is/was our last night alone so I took the kids to an outside movie at a local church, they have done this every year since we've lived here. The movie they played was Dreamer so because it was a horse movie they had pony rides before the movie started. I could only stand the smell of the ponies for one ride but the kids didn't seem upset! Of course, GG was too old and too cool to ride on a pony. In years past I have never brought money with to these movies. This year I decided that I would bring some. I ended up spending $2. For the great time we had it was money well spent! Peanut was cracking me up tonight. She had run to the garbage to throw some trash away and on her way back she says, "Oh no my pants are falling down." As she hanks them up. Then on the way home Peanut said, "I didn't want a real pony ride I wanted a fake pony ride." That just cracked me up! She is too funny. We sat behind an interesting lady. She felt the need to turn around and glare at any kid who made a noise, which happened to be the family just to our left. At one point Red had dropped the ball he was playing with and it rolled up by them. She turned around glared at him and then looked at me and asked if he was my son. I said, "Yes, why?" She said nothing, he wasn't being loud so I'm not sure what her problem with him was. This lady obviously thought that an outside movie was going to be as quiet as a movie theater, um okay, not going to happen.

So this week was super long but we kept pretty busy that it ended up going by somewhat fast-like. Sunday was spent with my dad, Monday was VBS, nannying, and a friend over, Tuesday was VBS, swimming and National Night Out, Wed was the funeral and then swimming at night, Thursday VBS, swimming and concert in the park! I've already wrote what we did today. I also want to state for the record that at least 3 times Red has said to me..."your the best mom ever" during this week. Thinking that means we had a pretty good week :)

My Girls...

10 year olds are very frustrating to me lately, especially when it comes to food. A few days this week we have gone to the pool after VBS in which I packed a picnic lunch for the kids. The first day I packed GG a salami and pepperoni sandwich. She got mad and said she hated that kind of sandwich. I told her I was sorry but I thought that is what I saw her make herself for lunch the day before. She proceeded to tell me she had a salami with mustard sandwich and she likes those better. Well after that horrid episode of hatred towards the sandwich I made her I decided to ask what she wanted for lunch. Knowing that we were going to the pool and I was going to be packing another picnic lunch. Guess what? She never answered my question. The other two kids told me what they wanted but her NOTHING. Not. A. Single. Word. We get to the school and off they go inside. I do my school supply shopping while I only have one child in tow and completely forget about my earlier question until I get home and start making those blasted lunches. UGH...she never answered my question. I think to myself well the other day when she hated the sandwich I made she said she liked the salami and mustard sandwich so that is what I made her. Fast forward to opening up the picnic lunch. She says, "What kind of sandwich did you make me." I reply with, "Well since you never answered me when I asked you what you wanted I made you the salami and mustard sandwich because you said you liked it." Here comes the tears and the whining about how she hates salami and muster sandwiches and she wanted a salami and pepperoni sandwich like I made her the other day. WHAT? Didn't she spend that whole time complaining about eating said sandwich. I just don't understand 10 year olds. When we are home we never have a problem because she makes her own food it is just when I pack picnics.

Onto my baby girl Peanut. This girl has just taken off in the pool this week. We have gone swimming 4 times since Friday which is pretty normal in a weeks time. She has started to really go under the water and hold her breath for pretty long periods of time. Today she was even jumping off the side of the pool into the water, would go under and swim to me. I was really impressed with how well she was doing! A few times when I picked her up and was taking her back to the side she would say let go. So I did and she swam the rest of the way. She is also learning how to back float this week. She does good until she starts to get freaked out, then she starts sinking. I just think she is too funny when she holds her breath goes under water and kicks her legs underneath her and moves her arms all crazy. I was teaching her today to kick behind her. I had her hold on to the side of the pool and kick her feet to splash the water and she was doing it. Then she was holding on kicking and then stuck her head in the water. I think next year she is really going to take off! I might get her some swim lessons this school year as part of her gym class! Other than that her swim suit got a big rip in the bottom today so after her nap we are headed out to find her a new one!

Almost

We are almost half way through this week and will get to be reunited with two of our family members. Come on Saturday get here please!!! In other news I am so sick of going outside and seeing raccoon poop all over my backyard. They have been pooping in the window well but now they are just going all over the place. There is a family of raccoon that live in a vacant house that is owned by a bank on the next street over. They come to my yard because we have the cherry tree and veggie garden. At first I didn't think they were eating any of my veggies I knew they had eaten cherries but yesterday when I went out to water right next to some poop was a half eaten tomato. So annoyed. I looked up animal control and told them my problem they told me to call my local police department which as a police officers wife I knew was not the right thing to do. But I called anyway, yup they can't do anything to help me. They told me to find out who owns the house and bring a civil suit against them, really? Not helpful. I got the name and number of my Alderman from my nice neighbor and gave him a ring. To my surprise he answered the phone and I got to tell him what was going on. He knew about this house and has dealt with issues with this house before. Mainly yard overgrowth. I really don't care how the yard looks I don't want raccoons in my yard at 5pm at night when my kids want to be outside playing because the harsh sunlight has gone down. It isn't safe for them to be in their own back yard. I am just so frustrated at this situation and the last thing I want is for one of the kids to get attacked or step in the poop and bring it in the house. Why do these things always seem to happen when Jeff is gone? UGH

Camp

Jeff and Monkey are gone this week at camp, they left Friday and camp started on Saturday. Monkey was very excited about this year there are a bunch of kids from church going and his uncle (my brother) who is 11 months older than him will be there too! I talked to Jeff on Saturday morning and he said that Monkey had a rough night...really hoping that was the only bad night he has. When I talked to him he said he had a hard time sleeping because he missed me. Poor guy. Jeff also said that the camp had a hard time placing kids in cabins because all the kids had requested to be with Monkey!!! There are 5 boys from church not including Monkey and his uncle all wanted him with them. He is just such a timid kid in big groups, he has always been better one on one. I really hope he can over come that this week and just have a great time! The only bad part of everyone requesting him is they couldn't fit all the kids in one cabin so they split them. But no one is in a cabin by themselves so that is good. Please just pray for him this week that this time builds him up and he doesn't get discouraged.

Unsure

I'm really unsure how to handle my oldest son. He is my quiet guy not much of a talker but I can tell things are bothering him. He lashes out in little ways like if I ask him to sweep the floor which is one of his chores he does such a bad job that he has to do it two or three times before it is acceptable. He is so disgruntled about doing said chore. I just don't know how to get through to him. Today he didn't want to go swimming but everyone else did so he just sat on the side staring with a mad look on his face. When I tried to talk to him he just told me to go away or would start crying. I just really fear if he keeps it all inside at the ripe old age of 9 what is it going to be like when he is 13 - 18 when the things he is going to deal with are extremely difficult and he will need me and his dad. I just want to cry and make him talk but instead all I found I can do is pray. Pray that I can take him to God's word and show him how much he is loved no matter what the world says. Pray he will open up with me and talk about what is going on. Pray that I can help him work through it when that time comes. Pray that I can be the best parent for him. I'm just so scared sometimes that I am going to mess my kids up. I just want them to be healthy and happy and know how much I love and care about them but I fail so I pick myself back up and try again. If you could just pray for me and this whole situation with Monkey that would be great. I pray that this upcoming week will be so great for him to be at camp away from life and be able to learn and grow in his faith. This is really vague but I think we have some really serious stuff going on with him.

9 years ago...

today I was miserably pregnant with Monkey. I just can't get over how super fast these years are flying by me. This is his last year in the single digits and then I will have half my kids in the double digits. I have to say that these last 9 years have changed me for the better. I love all the joy and love that Monkey brings to our family. Yes, he is a kid and he has a sin nature just like everyone in this world but he is a really great person to know. He is a super sweet guy. There is just something special about the bond a mother and son have it is completely different than mothers and daughters, not better just different. Want to clarify that for when my kids read this later on in life. Most of the time I can just give Monkey a look and he knows exactly what I am going to say. Parenting him is so fun yet can also be challenging. He is not my talker like the other kids yet when it is just he and I alone...it is like the flood gates of his lips have opened up, I so cherish those one on one times with him and I really need to make more of them happen. As of 12:05am on the 22nd I will have a 9 year old. Happy Birthday my sweet sweet Monkey!

Vacation Bible School

We are currently in the midst of our second consecutive VBS. This week is different because I am working it so I get a break but not a sit in a coffee shop and surf the internet kind of a break. I work in the kitchen so there are no kids (well except today because I brought Shane the 3 month old I watch in the kitchen with me) but it is me and my friend. So we prepare the snacks and we chat. It is my favorite place to work in VBS. Thankfully this week's snack are much healthier than last weeks but the kids are still coming down from that sugar high. I can tell when they have been eating junk they are crankier and snap more at each other. I feel like after this week of our VBS summer just flies by us in a blink. We have one more VBS of the summer!!!

We made it!!!

On Monday morning I was laying in bed and heard the most crazy wind I have ever heard in my life and two seconds later we lost power. Well that changed my plans for the day. No grocery shopping for me. However the kids still had a Vacation Bible School all week to go to. What a life saver that turned out to be! On the way to VBS there were so many trees down. There was actually a tree that was completely uprooted that left a HUGE divot in the ground where grass used to be. Craziest thing I have heard seen. Later that day the city workers were out there cutting the tree up. Once they had all the branches cut off the stood the trunk back up. Never seen that before! It was just a tree trunk with no leaves. Anyways, as Monday went on and I started hearing that other places like Great America had lost power, I realized that we were going to be a long time without power. We kept calling ComEd to see when our power would be back on and learned that over 800,000 customers were without power and the first day they just said restoration could take several days. Yipes! That is A. Lot. of. people! I wish we hadn't been in that number but we were. The whole block across the street had power so by Tuesday there were tons of extension cords going across the street to tap their electricity. We didn't ask our neighbors, though I know they would of said yes. We just really didn't have much food in the fridge to bother with that. The plus side of not tapping in was we were able to clean out the fridge! It looks so nice. Yes, we did end up throwing some food out but, really, it was maybe $30 dollars worth. Tuesday they finally gave us a restoration day Friday at noon. WHAT?!?! How am I going to survive three more powerless days??? Thankfully our electricity came back on at 5:15am on Thursday morning. It was funny Jeff set his alarm for 5:15 to go golfing, I hear the alarm and kept my eyes closed in hopes I could fall back asleep but no go Jeff hits me to tell me we got power! I laid there willing myself back to sleep which was hard because I had so many thoughts running through my head and so happy we didn't have to go two more days without it. The kids and I did make the best out of the bad situation. We did tons of play dates at the pool and park and went to fun places. It will probably be the most interesting week of the summer. One my kids will for sure remember as the summer we lost power for 3 days!!! We survived :)

Monkey

This month a lot is happening for my little Monkey man. He is turning 9 years old and he is getting glasses. I never had to wear glasses so as his mom I am really nervous for him. I have no idea what to expect. I think he is slightly nervous to get them and have to wear them in front of his friends. Kids can be so mean and I guess he is going to find out who is true friends are...the ones that don't make fun of him. I am also nervous about the his siblings. They have already made a few comments that aren't very kind and fortunately I don't think he has heard them. I just really want him to feel good about needing glasses. Tons of kids have glasses there just isn't a whole lot in his school that do. I know this is what is best for him at this point in time. He is also probably going to be my kid that is going to need braces which will be another rough event for me. I never had those either. Though I think Peanut might need those too just hoping she doesn't need the glasses. The store called and left a message saying that his first pair of glasses is in so we are going to be picking them up. I think I will wait to finish this post when I have a cute picture of him in the glasses to upload. Ok here is my handsome little Monkey in his new cool glasses!!!
Not sure why the picture is so small but we lost power yesterday morning and I'm sitting in a coffee shop to get some internet time. The kids are at VBS! This post was started a few days ago...

The Fest!

This year I am taking a little different approach on the whole festival/carnival. I actually read through some of the other activities besides the rides. The boys did the baseball skills activity and both got a trophy. They actually gave Peanut one too just because she was there. HA! Another thing I am doing differently is actually eating some of the fest food. Typically I will feed the kids before we go and then pack a few snacks but this year I figure we didn't take a vacation last year and even though I want to take one this year it just might not happen so this will be our little vacation where we spend some money just enjoying ourselves! The first night we got an elephant ear and funnel cake to share because we went after Monkey's last baseball game of the season. Friday we ate dinner there and it was pretty good. Saturday we ate before we went and got some ice cream at the fest. The kids are so shocked. This is totally not what we have done in the past :) I have forgotten to bring my camera the last few days but am hoping to remember to bring it tonight so I can get some pictures to go with this post! I remember the camera the very last day of the fest! Here are some of the pictures I took.

Ice cream YUM

My serious ice cream eater :)

Racing down the big slide!

Monkey won!

Our favorite ride...well my favorite ride :)

Swings

Monkey's favorite ride...the bumper cars!

These two went on all the crazy rides!

2011 Fest was a good one! We spent two different nights with friends. One night with friends from school and the other night with friends from church. So much fun!!!

She's HOME!!!

Today we picked up GG from camp! Boy have I missed her dearly! I really love that girl and it makes me realize how much of a help she is to me when she is gone. She had a wonderful time at camp and was so excited to have gotten two packages in the mail plus the letters she got from friends and family. I guess I need to start saving up again for next year because she really wants to go back...

End of Baseball season

Tonight was Monkey's last game of the season. It was a very frustrating game for me. Monkey had gotten hit the last two games so this game he was terrified of the ball. The first at bat he step away from the base at each pitch and struck out. He was mad at himself. Then the second time he was up to bat he REFUSED to bat. The coach even offered him some ice cream if he just stood at the plate...he didn't even have to swing. Just stand there. And he wouldn't do it. Because of his refusal the team got their second out of the inning. I was not a happy mom. He had a chance of getting walked because the pitcher wasn't the greatest. I just don't know how to get him over his fear of the ball???? I talked to him about how he has been hit 3 times and has walked away from all of them unharmed. At this point I just want to take him outside and peg him with some balls! I won't of course but I want to. He had such a great season and tonight just wasn't his night. The funny thing he still wants to play next year. But I'm not shelling out that kind of money if he won't bat. UGH Also just want to state that it stinks that the team with the worst winning season is going to the world series...how does that happen? Double UGH.

Totally Inappropriate

I was absolutely shocked by the way one of the female camp counselor was acting at the pool today. First of all this girl had some gigantic breasts. She couldn't even keep them in her swimsuit. However, the size of her chest is not what was inappropriate though. The way she was flirting with the boys who were probably about 11 to 12 years old was absolutely WRONG. Another mom and I sat and watched her for awhile and I finally said something 'cause I could tell she was watching this girl too. She couldn't believe it either. At one point she walked away from the three boys and blew them a kiss. Seriously?! She was also going off the high dive and let me just tell you it wasn't pretty. I actually felt sorry for her. At another point one of the boys came up to her to talk and his height and her chest level were the exact same. All this little boy could see was her chest half hanging out of her swimsuit. If I sent my kids to a camp and there was a counselor there like that I would be VERY unhappy with their behavior. There is no need to be flirting with young boys when you are at least twice their age. I believe I heard this girl say she was a teacher which would put her at 23ish? This world is so fallen, it makes me sick. Other than the above we had a fabulous time at the pool. This morning the two boys didn't want to go but by the time I wanted to leave I couldn't drag them out of the pool. All three of the kids are laying down for nap/quiet time.

Time is FLYING...

I can't believe it has already been two full weeks that the kids have been off of school. I feel like time is just flying by. We have been keeping ourselves pretty busy with fun activities! Like yesterday I took the kids roller skating. GG has gone on a few dates with Jeff roller skating so she sorta knew what to do it has been at least a year since she had last gone. She was cruising on her skates within a half an hour. The boys and Peanut this was their very first time. I was able to get some plastic skates for Peanut that you can adjust how fast the wheels turn. She still fell a few times but she was a ROCK star with those skates. But I am the most impressed with my Monkey. Within an hour he was actually doing better than his big sister! Red was struggling but the one employee was really helping him learn how to skate which was so great. By the end of the time at the rink he was able to go pretty far without falling down. If it didn't cost so much to go roller skating I would take the kids more because they LOVED it. And I didn't have to skate either!

Birthday Party

Today we had Monkey's 9th birthday party even though he won't be 9 for another month! This week at his school they are having a basketball camp that most of his friends are going to so it worked out well to have the party after the camp! We were planning on being at the park across the street. We got there 5 minutes before the camp got out and I sent GlamorGirl over to the park with the pizza. About 3 minutes later it was a downpour. I ran across the street to get my girl and poor thing was standing under a tree with the pizza trying not to get soaked. But by the time we got back to the school we were both drenched and then it stopped. Ugh this weather! I didn't want to risk getting rained on again so we had the party inside the school. After party for kids who are older are so nice. They completely entertained themselves by playing different games in the gym. The party consisted of pizza, chips and drinks for lunch, playing in the gym, opening gifts, going outside to do some water balloon activities, and finishing at the park with some water gun fights! On the way home from the party Monkey said, "That was the best birthday party EVER! Thank you mom for putting it together for me." Is he not the sweetest kid ever?!?!? I feel guilty that I really didn't do much in the way of planning it but he loved it. He had 7 boys from school with him made 8 so it was a good even number!

Father's Day and today

We had a wonderful Father's Day yesterday on the boat with my dad, step-mom, sister and brother plus my family. We met at 11:30am and got some food from taco bell, so NOT my first choice but I made the best choice of food I could. Then we headed out on the boat. We tooled around a bit, took the lock (never did that before), docked so the kids could swim and then pulled them on the tube. It was a very peaceful Father's Day but it was also not an uneventful one. While the kids were swimming GG cut her toe on a rock or something in the water and it took awhile to get it to stop bleeding. Oh the drama that went with that. Then on our way back to park the boat we ran out of gas. I had Peanut on my lap napping but all the chaos woke her up pretty quickly. We got to boat to the side of the river and the guy who lived in the house took my dad to get some gas. Then we were on our way. Then we went out to eat dinner with my dad. It was a really great day. Until I got home and had to lay down to sleep. My stomach was NOT happy with me one bit. I tossed and turned for a long time last night not feeling good. I even got up a few times to try and make myself throw up the food I had eaten that was causing me so much tummy pain. It wouldn't come up. I finally fell asleep around 1:45ish. Then this morning the kids and I had a chiropractor appointment, run Monkey to basketball camp, get groceries, pay a bill and un-register Red for he Tae Kwon Do class. He was pretty bummed but it just wasn't at a good time or day for the summer. We are going to sign him up in the fall. Then the kids and I went to nanny this afternoon. I really love this job. The baby is 8 weeks old and he is smiling a lot, so sweet. GlamorGirl loves to hold him and actually says she has first dibs on holding him when we go there. Now I am laying in bed not very hopeful that tonight will be any better as my tummy is still not happy with me. I didn't really eat much today. I had an apple for breakfast, some baby carrots and a granola bar for lunch and a piece of toast for dinner. I am very tired from only sleeping 5 hours last night. If you think of it please pray that I can get a good nights sleep tonight and wake up feeling a 100% better! Thanks