I should really take a nap...

I won't, but I should. Last night I had every intention of going to bed before 11. Delilah, however, had different plans. She went to bed fine, but woke at 10 screaming. I finally brought her down at 10:30 and we went to bed at 11:30. She was up again at 4:45am and didn't go back to sleep until 6:45 and then was knocked out when I had to wake her at 7:45. I did get more sleep than I have been, but it was interrupted sleep, never good sleep.

I am dragging a** today, I have no intentions on going out today. It's currently 9 degrees and feels like -4 degrees. My brother so kindly picked up the girls and brought them home for me. I wasn't feeling well, tired and a little down.

I did finish Sophia's shirt last night. Only took me three hours, would have been less if the gathering stitches hadn't broken and needed to be redone. I like hers the best so far. Kale prefers Lilly's. You can be the judge for yourself. I think I will take a break for tonight and work on Aidan's tomorrow night.

Lilly's Valentine's Shirt and My New Habit

I have a new habit of napping in the late mornings. It's been nice, except I don't want to wake up when Delilah does. Oh well, I need to really start going to bed at a decent hour. I have been burning the midnight oil for weeks now. Not really good for someone who needs to be functioning during the day. Since I took up sewing my housework has suffered more than usual. My dishes and laundry mostly. My living room has never stayed so clean. I have to vacuum every night to be sure no one steps on any loose pins. That's one of my greatest fears.

I finally finished Lilly's shirt. It took me the longest so far. I didn't realize hemming on a curve was so difficult. I know better now. I like the way it turned out and how well it fits Lilly. Of course I had to take it in an inch and make the elastic 2 inches shorter than they suggested, I have skinny mini girls. I think I could make the bodice a size 5 for her, but she needs the length to be a 7. They are all over the place for the pattern sizes.

Now I just have Sophia and Aidan's Valentine's shirts to finish. They are all cut out and just need to be sewn. At least these two have easy written on the patterns, not like Lilly's. :P

The Day I Took a THREE HOUR NAP!!!

You didn't read the title wrong, I actually was allowed a three hour nap today. It was wonderful, I feel refreshed. I have been staying up late every night and of course I have to get up at 7 every morning so there is no sleeping in. I was chatting with Kale online today and could barely keep my eyes open. I decided I'd take my shower then lay down while Delilah napped. I can't believe she slept that long and that Sophia didn't try and wake us up. I put the gate up at the top of the stairs and let her roam between her room and the older girls room. When I came out I asked "Are you playing?" and she told me "No, playing is boring. You slept to long!"

After my extremely long nap we went to the grocery store and BK for lunch (late lunch at 2:30). We ate our lunch while we waited for the girls at the school. I usually get to the school at 2:45 so I am first in the pick up line. But they don't get out until 3:15. I also used the time to clean out the van, it was full of trash. A shopping bag full of trash to be exact. Mostly papers from my mail. I open it in the pick up line at the school. I rarely get anything important so most of it's trash/recycling.

I spent all day yesterday working on Aidan's dress which has now become a shirt. I tried to put the ruffle on the bottom of the shirt but after it was on it looked weird. So I spent and hour or two taking it off stitch by stitch. I thought it was going to be too big on her, but it fits pretty well. Looks pretty good also. My mom is going to help me put the ruffle on it this weekend, we will see if I like it better with out it.

I plan on going shopping this weekend for more supplies. Hobby Lobby and Hancock Fabric are both having pattern sales. I will stock up on the brands that are on sale. I wrote down the numbers of 7 I liked in Simplicity and 9 in Butterick. I am not sure I will get them all this weekend, but for 99cents and 1.99 each you can't go too wrong.

Here's Aidan's shirt. I didn't let her wear it today in case I want to add the ruffle.

Even though she looks angry she really wasn't. She is just weird right now about smiling.

Off and Running

Now that I completed my first project I went out and found some more fabric I liked. I bought fabric to make Lilly, Aidan, and Sophia Valentine's Day shirts and Delilah a dress. I found a cute white with tiny red hearts fabric, for Delilah I am doing a tiered dress with the white w/red hearts fabric and a red w/white hearts fabric. I think it will turn out cute. The best part? No buttons or zippers on her dress. :P

I am exhausted, I haven't caught up from Sunday night. I planned to go to bed early last night, but at 7 my parents showed up. I was caught way off guard and my kitchen (where my mother always goes first) was a complete disaster from dinner. I normally clean the kitchen before bed and it was really dirty last night since I sewed instead of cleaned Sunday night. They came over and informed my that Jason and Rosy told them to bring my van to pick them up at the airport. Of course, as usual with my family, not everyone (me) was privied to this information. My van was a wreck, but whatever, beggars can't be choosers.

The best part of them borrowing my van? My dad gassed it up for me when they got back in town. :) He even filled it all the way up when I had less than 3/4 of a tank. The worst part? I had to stay up until they came back with the van. Which was 10:45pm. I was extremely tired. I really should have napped while they were gone, but stupidly I watched tv and surfed the web for Easter dress patterns and fabrics. -BTW, off subject, but I think I am going to go with Beatrix Potter's Peter Rabbit toile for their dresses. They have it in four different colors! But it's kind of pricey, like $7-10 a yard. We will see, I have months to think about it and look around.

Sophia, Delilah, and I went to Walmart today to pick up scrapbooks I had made at the photo center. While there I also picked up $45 worth of fabric, supplies, and patterns. But that's enough to make all four Valentine's Day shirts/dress and two yards each of two fabrics I just fell in love with. I can make at least two more things with those, maybe 3 or four depending on what I make. After Walmart we went to see Rosy and Alan. The kids played and had fun while Rosy and I caught up. We hadn't talked much these past few weeks. It was a nice visit.

Now I am waiting for my dryer to finish, then I will put my washed fabric in to dry. I plan on cutting out Aidan's dress tonight and starting to sew it tomorrow, depending of course, on how well Delilah and Sophia are behaving.

My Very First Sewing Project

Alright, that's not exactly true, I did take a sewing class when I was ten and took Home EC in high school. But the shorts I made in the sewing class didn't turn out and I never finished my apron project in high school.

Anyhow, yesterday morning I was trying to nap simply because I was bored and Delilah was sleeping. I wasn't tired so I sat and thought. I have been down a lot since Kale left again, it's harder this time around. I knew I needed something to occupy my time and keep my mind off my loneliness. So I decided I would teach myself to sew. K had offered to teach me years and years ago, but for some reason (maybe because we tended to shop more than sit at home) we never got around to it.

I took Meme, Lilly, and Aidan to Joann's and we picked out a pattern that said it was easy. Then after 45 mins of decision making I finally picked fabric and all the "notions". $28 later I had two patterns, 2.5 yards of fabric, thread, buttons, two zippers and a "green bag", enough to make Aidan a dress and a shirt for Sophia. Not too bad. I started cutting the pattern out at 6:30pm and started to sew at 7:20pm after I put Delilah, Sophia, and Aidan to bed.

I was on the phone with K after the first hour of sewing. She helped talk me though the rough patches. Apparently the pattern I picked was not necessarily for beginners. It had a zipper, gathering, and button holes (which I didn't do, as it wasn't needed due to the zipper). I finally finished at 12:30am. I think it's pretty cute myself. I wish I had fitted it to her before I put the straps in place, they needed to be in further. But she wasn't awake, when I do Aidan's I will fit it to her better.

I am pretty proud of myself. My goal is to feel comfortable enough by Easter to attempt dresses for each girl. I may try Valentine's Shirts next.

She calls it her "princess dress shirt"

Yesterday was a Productive Day, Today? Not So Much.

Yesterday I had Lilly clean the "art room" (their tv room, computer room, and where their art table is) and sent Aidan up to clean their room. This was at 10am. At 11am Lilly was done with the art room and was sent to help Aidan. I went to check their progress at 11:30am and they hadn't gotten very far. At noon they came down for lunch then were sent back up to clean again. I went to check on them at 12:30pm, this is when I realized their idea of "cleaning" was to throw everything into the closet. I know this is completely normal, but not acceptable. I had them pull everything out of their closet and start over. At 1:30 I checked on them again, they had everything out of the closet but hadn't made much progress beyond that. So I realized I had to supervise this endeavor.

They finally finished the room around 3pm, I had been helping Sophia clean her room up and then we had a tea party. Then I decided to move their bookcases and reorganize them (AGAIN). That took me about an hour. I put all the "big" kid books on one case and all the "little" kid books on the second case. They are both nearly full and I still have a box of books in the garage. It's not a small box either.

I like books, I like that my kids enjoy reading. I used to. If I enjoy a book I have to finish it, right away. I took three literature classes my senior year and loved every book we were assigned to read. Even Shakespeare, which I took one class that was strictly Shakespeare. I don't read much anymore, I am too scatterbrained anymore. My mind swirls all the time and I have a hard time concentrating anymore. The last book I read was The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood. Now my mom is pressuring me to read the Twilight series. She gave me her book and asks me all the time if I have started it yet. Nope and I don't plan on it either. Vampires don't interest me one little bit. Plus part of me is afraid my mother will be right, and I hate that. :P

I will leave you with a few pictures from yesterday's productivity.

Sophia and I having our tea party.

Delilah saying "cheese" when I whip out the camera. What they don't learn from their older siblings.

Little Kid bookcase. A little room left, but not a whole lot.

Big Kid bookcase. Also a little room left, but not a lot. I am proud to mention Lilly has read all but a few (very few) of these books.

Lilly's bed. It was made when we cleaned, but I took these today.

Picture this closet 3ft deep with toys.

Much improved.

Aidan's bed. Messy but better than before.

This bottle was full the 24th of December. Aidan decided her bed stank and sprayed half the bottle all over her bed. Their room stank for days.

Excitement

When I find something that excites me it tends to consume me. It gives me something to think about other than how sad I am Kale is gone. For awhile I was excited about him coming, I was excited about Christmas, this past summer I was excited about all my trips/plans. I always need something to occupy my thoughts. Right now it's the excitement over the prospect of buying our first home.

We already picked it out, hopefully it will still be there in six months. If it's not, I am sure we will find something equally as nice or I will have gotten over this all together and change my mind. Which will drive Kale crazy, because I do this a lot. But right now, I am super excited. I have already been mentally picking out colors for each room. I have begun picking out furniture for the rooms that will be left empty (eat-in kitchen and formal living room). Thinking about what I would do down the road like redoing the master bathroom and changing the flooring in the living room, dining room, and bedrooms. This will keep me going for a couple of months.

Hope everyone had a good time on New Year's Eve! I was on the phone with K until 1am. Woo Hoo! :P

He's Gone, Again....

It's harder this time around. I am alone with the girls this time around. My entire family is out of town right now, parents in Chicago, brother in Mexico. It's just harder this time. Before I had Judy here to keep my mind busy and the first two months I went non-stop from activity to activity. It also doesn't help that it's winter right now and I haven't been going out as much before he arrived.

His visit was wonderful, but far too short and went by far too fast. We had barely a day to sit and do nothing. We had two family portrait sessions in two weeks. Three family dinners in two weeks. One dinner out alone,a dinner out with my family, and a dinner out with just his family. We also had Christmas Eve dinner at my parents house and Christmas dinner here at our house. Both dinners were delicious. The girls received way too many presents from everyone. We had Lilly's play to go to and Kale spent a day volunteering at the school. We had a morning of baking with the kids, Meme, and Judy. The women went out shopping the morning after Christmas. Kale took the girls to the movies twice they saw Bolt and The Tale of Despereaux. It was a busy busy two weeks but it was a happy two weeks.

Thankfully Delilah and Sophia are better. Delilah hated her meds and they had to be force fed to her or hidden in food. FUN! She has also not regained her appetite as of yet. Hopefully she will get it back soon.


I leave you with our second family photo shoot:

Kale, David, and Judy

In-Laws David and Judy

Delilah didn't want to hold still but sat still when we sat her on the sled.

Sophia and her silly smile.

Aidan's sillier smile.

Lilly

This isn't the best one of the four of them, but it's the funniest.

Four generations of Kale's family. His Dad David and his grandma Margaret aka Nanny.

Alone Tonight!

Kale and I are getting to go out to dinner alone tonight, thanks to my mom offering to watch all the girls for us. I think she may even keep all four over night for once. Not that I really care, usually once Delilah is in bed she is there for the night.

Kale had lunch with Aidan today and read her class a story or two. He even took Sophia with him, which was nice. I got to be alone for awhile as Delilah went down for a nap and is still down. She doesn't feel well and had her immunizations given to her yesterday. I was surprised they let her get them as she was coming down with a cold. I think she is moving on to ear infection now. FUN!

Kale and Sophia are going back to the school here in a little while for Lilly's holiday party. Then after school we are dropping the four of them at my mom's house for the rest of the evening. He finally decided he wants to eat at Olive Garden and have dessert at Cheesecake Factory. Fine by me.

Tomorrow the six of us are going to see Bolt and having lunch at Panera Bread, after the girls clean their rooms. And we have to put our tree up still. :S This is the first time since I have been an adult that my tree has not gone up the day after Thanksgiving. I just couldn't lift it by myself and we have been so busy the last two days.

We were lucky Kale was able to get on the very first flight out of Jacksonville on Wed. I was worried we were going to miss our family picture appointment. That was a whirlwind day. We picked Kale up, went to Walmart, came home, got ourselves and the younger two ready, went and surprised the girls at the school, came home, got them ready, met Jason & Rosy so they could follow us, got our pictures done, high tailed it to the school just in the nick of time for Lilly's play, watched the play, and came home where everyone (my parents and the teens also) had pizza for dinner. It was tiring, but a good day.

All of our days, I think, will be tiring but good. Kale just caught Sophia painting her finger and toe nails. One of my aunts bought Aidan make-up, AGAIN, this year. They never think of me when they buy such things. Last year Aidan painted the walls and her toys with the nail polish. It's not peel off nail polish either, GRRR!

Hope everyone has a fun weekend!

COLD!

It's gone from 5 degrees to 2 degrees in the last hour. It's cold. We don't normally get this kind of cold in KS, it's more like the cold we dealt with the three years we spent in MA. The windchill today is -14 degrees. Kale is going to freeze his a** off tomorrow night and probably every day he is here. Cuba is nice and toasty warm, but I don't feel a bit sorry for him having to come here to freezing temps.

I spoke with my mother about the situation with Lilly's teacher. My mom is a principal and has been for 12+ years so I often go to her for guidance. I like to run things by her first to make sure I am not worrying for nothing or going overboard. She thinks I am completely justified feeling the way I do. She mirrored my opinion that the teacher just doesn't want to do her JOB. So I took her advice and I asked for a meeting with the principal. Kale and I will be going together, when it comes to my kids I tend to get overly emotional and feel like I am being attacked, even if I really am not. So I need someone to be there to calm me. I wish my mom could go with me, but she hasn't the time and she likes to make me handle things myself. If it goes further though, I think she will step in and help out.

Aidan is getting sassier and sassier. I wanted to smack her yesterday. We had our Christmas with Jason, Rosy, and Alan since they are leaving next Friday. And Aidan had two gifts to open, one from them and one from my Aunt Mel. The only reason she had the second gift was because my uncle decided they needed to open more than one and brought the gifts from her over. After Aidan opened her two gifts, loving both of them, expressing thanks, all that good stuff, then came the water works and the "I don't have any more presents to open!" Then the screams "I WANT MORE PRESENTS TO OPEN!" I cut her off quickly, which is how you have to deal with Aidan so it doesn't escalate quickly. Usually when I am with my family my dad steps in and starts yelling and arguing with her, it just makes it worse. They usually end up in a screaming match, really they are like the same person. The louder someone yells at them, the louder they yell. It's lovely when they get into it with each other. I was able to get her to go to sit by herself and calm down rather quickly. I am not sure, but I think this behavior is going to take something drastic to get it to stop. Like taking away a present or something the next time she does it. Selfishness is not something I take very well, it drives me NUTS! And she is the only child that acts that way, the others are happy with what they get. Not her, she always wants MORE.

I guess if she does it again I will be taking her to donate a toy or two to Toy's for Tots, out of her own Christmas presents. She needs to learn selflessness. I am just not sure how to teach it, I will figure it out though, I know it.

Tomorrow! He will be here tomorrow night! :)

It's Snowing!

It's not the first time it's snowed this winter, but it's coming down a lot faster than last time. Maybe it will be enough to cancel today's Girl Scout Ceremonies, I don't feel like going and being social. And of course both girls have ceremonies the same day and time, so that is wonderful. My aunt is taking Lilly for me, so at least I don't have to feel the guilt of "No one is going to my ceremony!" Although Aidan maybe upset that I am going to hers instead of Patience, we will see. I also have to go get a dessert to bring with us. And I have to go to the post office to return the wool dress coat I bought and didn't notice the sizing was junior's sizing. Needless to say it did not fit. I ordered a new one in the appropriate size already.

Some pictures of recent acquisitions:

Kale's New "Top Coat" for Dressier Outings

My New Dress Coat

My Dress for Our Family Pictures

K made two of these dresses out of fabric I bought this past fall. One for Sophia and one for her "friend Abby".

Here's Abby modeling the dress. I would post one of Sophia modeling hers but it was just mailed out yesterday.

After Judy decided she wanted a family picture also, I decided for my side of the family's picture we would all wear brown and pink or black. I couldn't find anything I liked for Lilly so Keisha offered to make me one. I just had to pick a pattern and she found the fabric. She is my hero, she made the entire dress in less than 12hrs. Impressive to me as I have little to no sewing experience. I also don't have a picture of her modeling it as it was also mailed out yesterday.

I have also recently bought Aidan and Delilah wool dress coats, Sophia's my mom bought a couple of years ago at a yard sale for only $3. It's in perfect condition and only needed to be dry cleaned. I bought Lilly's last year in an after Christmas sale. I almost always buy coats a little big so they last longer than one season. We will be a well dressed family this winter. :)

12 Days and Counting.....

Very, very soon Kale will be back, the 16th to be exact. He gets in at 11pm that night and I am picking him up myself. Green has volunteered to come over and sit with the sleeping children. The girls don't know exactly when he is arriving, just that it's soon and before Christmas. Lilly will be very excited he will be able to attend her Christmas musical on the 17th.

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Black Friday

As is the tradition for the women in my family we went shopping on Black Friday. Green was kind enough to spend the night on my couch and "take care of" (be the adult in the house just in case) the older three girls. Rosy insisted I leave Delilah with Jason and Alan, I wasn't going to argue. I am just glad for my brother that she went straight back to sleep after I dropped her off at 4:40am. As always I have to be the first one up that morning because I am the driver and I have to pick everyone up. I picked Rosy up, dropped Delilah off, and picked Patience up. It's really not bad, I live 10mins from Rosy, Patience lives across the street from Rosy, and then it's 5mins to my mom's from there.

We went to Walmart first, arriving just before the doors opened. There was a line formed all the way around the outside of the store. We joined at the very end and it took us about 15mins to get inside. It was very cold that morning, only 20 degrees. Rosy was not ready for that, this was her first time getting up at the crack of dawn to join us. She went the years before, but after 8am usually. My mom bought her 50" Plasma TV my dad wanted, Rosy bought a trampoline, Meme picked up some gifts for the girls, Stella bought shampoo and nail polish remover (we teased her about this), Patience bought toys for her grandson Matthew, and I bought pj's and toys for the girls. My mom got right through the line and took the tv home while we shopped and stood in line. Patience and I didn't take too long in our line. We had a nice older lady in front of us and she was not letting a line jumper in our line. It was very funny to watch her tell him no he couldn't "squeeze in". Other than that we didn't see any arguments. After I got through the line I went to keep Rosy company, it took her awhile to get into line since they had to find a flatbed cart for her trampoline, that sucker was heavy. I couldn't even lift one end. It took us and hour to get through her line to pay. Then the worker loaded it in the van and we had to take it to her house or nothing else would fit.

We didn't get out of town (out of walmart) until 7:30am, then we headed to north KC. We spent another hour at Toys R Us. Then Kohl's, Target, lunch at Applebee's, and Old Navy. We were home about 3:30pm. I found Green as I left him, sleeping on my couch. The girls were dressed and had been fed, he woke up long enough to handle that much. It's a good thing Lilly is older and can take care of things. Delilah gave Jason a run for his money, she and Alan like to fight. There was an incident with Alan's poopy diaper and her grabbing it and flinging the poop everywhere. We laughed our butt's off at that one when he called to share. All and all it was a fun day, I wasn't sure I would be able to go this year and I am thankful my family stepped up to the plate to help out.

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The Days Ahead

We have a ton planned for when Kale is here. It's going to be a whirlwind visit, I think our heads will be spinning by then end of the trip.

17th: Trim the Tree, Family Picture (ENTIRE Family, all 14 of us), Lilly's Musical
18th: Delilah and I have doctors appointments at 1pm
19th: My parents are watching the girls and we are going out to dinner ALONE/Jason, Rosy, and Alan leave for Mexico and won't return until the 5th of Jan.
20th: Kale is taking the older three to see Bolt
21st: Kale's b-day dinner (his b-day was 11/22) at Famous Dave's with our extended family
22nd: Painting Sophia's room white again and switching her room and Delilah's
23rd: Kale's parents and Nanny arrive/We will go out alone again
24th: Christmas at my parents with everyone
25th: Christmas of course/plus Kale and his dad are taking the older three to Tale of Despereaux/Judy and I are making dinner/My mom and the teens are coming over for dinner
26th: Probably family pictures with Kale's family (since Judy all of the sudden after 5 years decided she wants to get it done professionally again, AFTER she has said numerous times that regular snapshots are good enough)/My parents and the teens leave for Chicago
27th: His family leaves
28th: Not sure yet
29th: He leaves at 6pm :(

The only positive thing about Jason, Rosy, and Alan being in Mexico for Christmas is that they are letting Kale's family stay at their house. That way we aren't cramped here and they don't have to spend money on a hotel. Otherwise it sucks, we will miss them like we do every year.

I may be hit and miss again during all of this. I have been very lazy, bored, and tired lately.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

MIA

I have not been up to blogging or reading this past week, I will catch up soon. I have been dealing with Delilah's constipation issues. We dealt with the same issues with Aidan when she was this age. We battled severe constipation for 3 years before we finally got a handle on it. With Aidan we found out it was milk, put her on Lacatid (lactose free) and she has been fine unless she has lots of dairy. I don't know what Delilah's issue is, she is already on Lactaid. I thought maybe it was goldfish snacks, but I cut those out of her diet and she is still having trouble. It came out of nowhere, so I am not sure what to do with her. So my life has been full of suppositories, probotic yogurt, fruit, and veggies. I am trying aloe vera juice now, but she doesn't like it. I tried hiding it in strawberry milk, but no luck she doesn't like it. I tried tea and juice, she doesn't like either. I tried pushing liquids, K thought she might not be drinking enough since it's cold. No luck there either. It's not an everyday fight, yet, but I know how quickly it can become one and I don't want to go there again. Aidan was miserable and so was I for years, I can't and won't go through this again.

Other than that, I haven't been very busy lately. I am nearly done with the kids Christmas shopping, Delilah is the only one who needs anything more. I am just having a hard time finding things for her. I have found her a few things that are not toys, a personalized hooded towel and a personalized pillowcase. But that's really all I have been able to come up with. I still have most of the adults in my family to buy for yet, but I will work on them closer to Christmas. I am ready to shop on black Friday, we are hoping Green will keep the girls as we usually head out at 4am. At least the older three, I may take Delilah with us. We haven't hashed out all the details yet. I am hoping to find an MP3 player for Lilly, we bought her one last year but it's not compatible with our Napster program. Plus we can't figure out how to get any music on it period, even had my brother try. I know what brand to buy this time, so I will get her one that will work.

It's now less than one month until Kale arrives. It's getting closer to the time when I will be able to relax. :P At least Delilah has started sleeping through the night, finally! So I am getting more continuous sleep, it really helps. She also has a new word "Uh-Oh" it's very cute to hear her say it. She likes to drop things then say it. She also says a bunch of words that sound like "It fell down", but not clearly. Sophia is still in the horrible threes, some days are unbearable. She seems to have gotten louder, I never thought it was possible. I really screwed myself, we made a deal when she was inutero that since she was the hardest pregnancy to that point she had better be my best baby. And she was a dream baby, until she turned two. I should have asked her to be the best child and teen also. :P

I will post some pictures and links of the stuff I have found for the girls tomorrow and Friday. I will also catch up with everyone then too.

Things That Have Been Going On

First and foremost my grandfather has been in and out of the hospital for three weeks or more. This week they really thought he was going to pass. It's been hard to be in limbo. Technically he is not my grandpa, he is married to my mom's mom, but he has been married to her since before I was born. I credit my mother greatly for not clouding our love for him with her opinions of him. She did not like him and until recently didn't have a very good opinion of him. But she never let it show to me, I never even knew anything about her not liking him until I was an adult. So even though he is not my blood grandfather, I love him all the same. I am worried for him and really worried for my grandma, when he goes she will be very lonely and she can't drive so she will be stuck at home. She hates to ask for help, but will have to learn after he passes.

In other news Judy (mil) broke her foot this past weekend. Not bad enough to require a cast, but she has to keep it wrapped and wear a special shoe. The only reason this really affects me is because she will be coming out when my grandpa passes, to take care of the girls while we go to the funeral. While I hope he lives for years to come, I am realistic and I realize he really only has months to live (hopefully). When we thought he was going to pass on Monday she still planned on flying out she just asked if my parents would leave the teens with her to help. My mom didn't have a problem with that, it will just be a little crowded here at my house. No big deal though. The rest of us, probably including Green will drive out and go to the funeral whenever it happens.

Last night my uncle blew through town with his girlfriend Rhonda. We all went out to dinner together, even though I had already fed the girls when my dad called and told me to meet them at Applebee's in town. We had a nice visit with him. And Rhonda told me she has a cabin 30mins from Jacksonville. She said she will pick me up from the airport, let me stay the night, and then take me to the base the next day for my flight to Cuba. :) That will help out a lot, then we won't have to pay for a hotel for that night in Jacksonville or a shuttle to the base. I was a little worried about doing all of this on my own anyways, but now I won't have to.

Last night was a good night of sleep for me. Delilah slept from the time I went to bed until I got up at 7am this morning. It was a welcome change from her recent behavior, waking me every 1-3hrs all night long. I needed to have some continuous sleep.

Tomorrow Lilly and Aidan are having a "character parade" basically it's a Halloween parade, but they have to dress as actual literature book characters. Lilly is an Native American and is going as Sacajawea. Aidan of course is Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. They just have to carry a copy of the book their character is from during the parade. I plan on going to watch the parade tomorrow morning. Hopefully I get another good nights sleep. After the parade I have many things I need to get done before I have to pick them up at 1pm, I am not sure why they are getting out early Halloween I guess. I wish they weren't, tomorrow is pay day and I have a lot of things to do.

I will post pictures of the parade tomorrow. Have a good day!

My Purse

Awhile back Jenn did a post about what's in her purse, so now I am showing what's in mine. I honestly didn't think I had much until I emptied every pocket of my purse.

This is everything typically in my purse daily.

1) My wallet

2) My ID Case

3) My wristlet (full of my credit cards)

4) My cell phone and bluetooth

5) A handful of souvenir pennies (they need to go into the penny passports)

6) The kids ID cards, our dental cards, our Tricare cards, other various cards that hang out in the interior zippered pocket of my purse

7) Gum and gum wrappers

8) My pen

9) My camera

10) My keys

11) Coupons that haven't yet expired

12) Handi wipes

My Weekend: A Pictorial (Part 3)

On Saturday Fort Leavenworth was having their biannual post wide yard sale. That is why my in-laws came out, to help me sell my crap. While the yard sale was going on Judy and I cleaned out the garage. I went from 18 small rubbermade containers to 8 and from 4 large rubbermade containers to 3. Their were many many trash bags of stuff (mainly clothing and paper) either taken to goodwill or recycled. While we were in the garage as the day warmed up it began to smell like dead creature. I thought for sure a mouse, squirrel, or other small animal had been locked in their and died. Judy went about looking for it when I opened the freezer up and found the smell. Now, I don't normally keep much in there, usually only frozen waffles, pizza, or ice. I had thought it was empty from last winter when my mom lost power at her house for days and brought all of her stuff to my freezer. I had assumed Green had taken everything out as per her request. I assumed wrong.

At some point this summer we must have lost power or someone left the door to the freezer open for awhile, something had to have happened. There were tubes of ground sausage that had gone bad, expanded, and then exploded all over my freezer. The smell was the nasty sausage that had dripped blood and oozed out all over the freezer. Thankfully Judy took on that task as I was still cleaning and going through everything in the garage. I am not sure I could have stood the smell enough to clean it out. She bleached the freezer after it had defrosted and then turned it back on with baking soda in it. It smells much much better, you can hardly tell the bloody massacre that it once had been.

At the yard sale I sold my couch, chair, and ottoman set for $100. The woman tried to barter with me at 8am, I told her no way it was too early for that. After it had been sold, as the day went on, I wished I had put at least $150 on it. Everyone was amazed I sold it for that price, it was only 2 yrs old and looked like it had no wear at all. I also sold the table set that went with it for $25 and wished I hadn't been so cheap. Oh well, it is all gone and not in my garage anymore. That's the most important thing, I can now park there this winter. I also sold a bunch of other things, I ended up making about $200 that day.




All of the baby stuff is going to Jason and Rosy's house. Once that is out I will be able to park in there again. Last winter I could park in there, but their were containers stacked on either side toward the end of the garage. Now there are only the three at the very end of the garage and then some more near the door to the house. I am very happy about what all we accomplished this past weekend. Even though we felt like we died every evening, I don't think we stayed up much past 10pm any night this weekend.

My Weekend: A Pictorial (Part 2)

Our room

I have been meaning to decorate my room since we moved in, I guess I will do it now that we are staying for awhile longer. I already have all the stuff to do it with.

My dresser is a mess right now. I only made my bed for the pictures. :P

The best part of all, that was where the crib USED to be! I still have her "cage" in my room. I need to put it in her closet.

The hallway out of our room. To the left just down the hall is our bathroom, it's nice to have our own. We never had our own before.

Judy also reorganized the bookcases, my kids don't read much, do they? :P

These flank the bathroom door, the door to the right is Delilah's room.

K and I had gone to a store in Cambridge MA to get these things, they were unfinished and cost me a pretty penny. Finally after years of begging, he got them finished. Or maybe his mom did it, I can't remember now. :P

I need another one though, I found another container full of books in the garage.

The door to the left is our room.

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Lilly and Aidan's Room

Aidan's bed, messy I know, I guess I can't expect them to make their beds when I don't make mine. :P

That is Butterscotch next to her bed, she got him for her last b-day from everyone. She thinks she needs Butterscotch's friend S'more's but I disagree. The empty shelf is one that my FIL put up yesterday, I haven't had a chance to decorate the rooms yet.

Lilly's messy bed. She's lucky, I don't know many 9yr olds with full size beds. We only did it because the mattress was ours and we wanted a queen size but didn't want to "waste" a very expensive mattress on a yard sale or Craig's list. So it went to her.

When we moved in this house 2 and 1/2 years ago, this was Sophia's room. It's the biggest and right next to ours. We had planned on putting any "new" children in with her and giving the older girls their own rooms. Yeah, that didn't work out. Then the room was Aidan and Sophia's for a few months. That didn't work either, Sophia kept waking Aidan up in the morning and they go to bed at the same time. So we moved Lilly in with Aidan and it works out well. Aidan goes to bed an hour before Lilly, she is usually asleep before Lilly goes to bed. And Aidan tends to sleep in or just leave the room instead of waking Lilly on the weekends.

We put Lilly's dollhouse at the foot of her bed and let them pick out about 10 barbies total out of the 30-40 they had. Aidan picked out about 10 ponies out of the 30-40 she had. We let them keep all the furniture for the house and all the clothing for the barbies, babies, and ponies. We had four doll carriages but sold two of them in the yard sale. Looking out of the room you can see Delilah's bedroom door, that landing was covered in books and toys every night before we cleaned the rooms up to where they can play on the floor again.

This room was never decorated, so I have a blank slate to work with. I have plenty to decorate with, I have been collecting things for years. Hopefully I will be up to doing it soon.