Joy to the World

I have to admit that I will never be able to sing or hear the song Joy to the World again without thinking of Barney the purple dinosaur.  Why do you ask.  They have nothing in common.  Or so you would think.  A few years ago the two older boys learned a new version of the song...because that is what boys do.  Then the taught it to Abby and Kaden who have been singing the "Barney" song over and over and over again.

Here are the words.  Hum the tune in your head...

Joy to the world that Barney's dead.
We barbequed his head.
Don't worry about the body
We flushed it down the potty.
Round and round it goes
The potty overflows.
Joy to the world that Barney's dead.

Now the real trouble begins at church when I have to make sure that they kids don't sing the wrong words at the top of their lungs during sacrament meeting. To be honest, they don't even know the correct words of the song.  Oh, what to do?  What to do?

The first day!

For those of you who know me well knows that this fits me to a T!  Not that I don't love my children, I just need some structure and a break from all the fighting, messes and noise.  Today was the first day of school and I happily sent them out the door!  But hey, they were happy about it too.  It wasn't like I shoved them out kicking and screaming...

 These pictures are so typical of my kids.  I ask for a picture.  They stand there with a half smile like it's the worst thing in the world.  I then told them to put their arm around each other and then their true personalities come out.  Bunny ears and all. 

 Abby, watching the boys take pictures earlier, decided that she needed bunny ears too.  Monkey see, monkey do right?  Hope they are enjoying 6th, 5th and the 1st grade.  Kaden and I are going to be best buddies.  I know that I'm not as fun as Abby to play with so we'll see how things go.  Maybe I'll be wishing my kids back after a week...

Sorry, but they gotta go!

 Here is a picture of our house.  The very first time we saw this house online I thought it looked nice, but the ugly juniper type bushes would have to go.  Ryan's dad was more than willing to come, bring his truck and chainsaw and help us rip those things out.  The thing was massive.  And if you look close there is a lamp post hidden away in there.  We've had several neighbors who commented that they were so excited to see those go!  What a great way to meet your neighbors.  Just rip out your bushes!

 The boys had the job of jumping on the bushes to squish them down.

Ah, much better.  Looks a little bare now but hopefully within the next few years the new shrubs and flowers will grow and fill in.  I like to sneak a peek every now and then.  :)  It makes me happy!  Now on to the rest of the juniper bushes that surround the other 3 sides of the house.  But we might just have to wait on those until it cools down a bit.  Working in 90+ degree weather is pure madness. 

Before and After

 The new house.  It has great, great bones.  All brick, nicely insulated.  But it was built in the 1970's. Early 1970's and shall we say a tad bit dated for my tastes.  Wallpaper in almost every room. Brown paneling in the basement that compliments the brown/orange 40 year old carpet.  We knew that we would update as time and finances would allow.  We tackled the front room first.  We pulled down the wall paper.  Oh my goodness what a task.  Then we painted and added taller baseboards and crown molding.  What a difference.  I love it.  It's my favorite room in the house!  This room almost makes me want to tackle another room.  Almost.  Give me some time to forget what a nightmare pulling down wallpaper can be.  If you ever had a thought to hang wallpaper in your house.  DON'T DO IT! 

BEFORE:

AFTER:

 

Stinging things

Since the day we moved in, the kids noticed that we had a huge, wasp/bee nest in one of the trees in the backyard. The begged and pleaded to throw rocks, sticks or balls at it. I very sternly said, um, NO WAY ON EARTH! Who knows how many creatures of the stinging variety live there. You remember the movie "My Girl?" Oh my goodness I remember watching that movie when I was younger and seriously bawled and bawled when the boy gets stung by the bees and dies. Anyway, back to my point...last night we had a wind/rain storm. As we were eating breakfast the kids noticed that the hive had fallen out of the tree and was laying on the lawn. I went out cautiously. I'll be honest. I don't like bees or wasps or hornets. Doesn't matter which. I hate them all.

What was left on the ground was just the outside of the darn thing. I looked up and found that:

Gives me the shivers. It looks abandoned and for that I'm thankful. I can't even imagine how many hundreds on buzzing things lived/built that! Kind of cool, but I'm wishing that it was hanging in someone else's tree.

3.1415926535897932384626433832...

Today is March 14 (3.14), known to geeky people everywhere as "Pi Day." The boys told me last week that they needed a circle treat for math class. They will be finding the circumference of the circle items brought from home. What a fun idea. They specifically asked for Rolo cookies. That was great until I found out that they needed Rolo cookies for the entire class. Both Josh and Ethan have the same math teacher so we're looking at 50+ cookies for their two separate classes. Time consuming, but doable.

Yesterday at 3:30, when Ryan came home, I happened to mention that it was pi day today and that I was making the boys cookies. He got a horrific look on his face and being the geeky math teacher, told me that he promised the kids in his math classes that they would have a party on pi day. And that they needed pie. Yes Pie. So not only do I need to make oodles of cookies, but 10 pies just got thrown into the mix. So from 4:00 to 10:30 I'm shopping, measuring, mixing, forming, spreading and baking lots and lots of pi day treats. Ah, the things that we do for our family.

So have a happy Pi day. Go get yourself a pie to celebrate. Everyone needs a reason to have pie.

What a day

Yesterday was quite the day. Started off at 4:28 am. Yep, that's when Kaden decided he wanted to join me in bed. I let him crawl in because I was too tired to put him back to bed. (Push-over. I know.)

20 minutes later, Kaden decides he's uncomfortable. I'm uncomfortable too. He willing goes back to his own bed. Oh good. Maybe I'll be able to sleep after all.

10 minutes later. Kaden comes in bare bummed telling me that he needs a new diaper. He informed me that the other one was wet. I find the new diaper, cover my child and send him back to bed.

5 minutes later. Kaden is up again because he can't find his bucket. Yes, he slept with a throw-up bucket because he said he wanted to. I wasn't in the mood to fight that one. If he wants to sleep with a bucket, so be it. I just never thought that he would whine about the dumb bucket at 4 something in the morning. We find the bucket. It was on the floor next to the bed. I'm thinking that I'll never allow Kaden to have a late nap ever again.

25 minutes later. He's back. This time he's pulling in his pillow and blanket and has now camped out on the floor at the foot of my bed. I try to sleep but I'm a little out of whack.

6:00 a.m. rolls around Kaden says his tummy hurts. I'm whining. He's whimpering. Maybe he needed that bucket after all. We pull his bedding next to me on the floor and I reach down and stroke his head for while until he falls back to sleep. I know full well that the stupid alarm clock will be ringing in half and hour. It does. I think bad thoughts about the dumb alarm. And guess what? Kaden sleeps right on through it. Figures.

It's now 7:00 a.m. Ethan heads into the bathroom and then informs me that there is pee all over the floor. Only it's not pee. Oh, it's just the ceiling leaking from all the rain. Wonderful.

Yeah, the water is leaking in through the fan vent. Doesn't that rusty, dirty water look seriously disgusting? I know it's going to be a GREAT day! Can you sense my sarcasm there?

It rained all day. The ceiling dripped water constantly all day. Ryan was gone all day. Abby was on one and was sent to time out more than just a few times. But you know what? The day actually ended up all right. Because we had a few successes on this bad boy:

The sticker chart actually has some stickers on it. I'll call that a win for the day!

And then this:

Josh wanted to cook dinner. So I let him. Oh course I was there to supervise but he did it all on his own. I think I might have to let him cook more often.

It's finally 9:00 pm. The kids are finally in bed. Ryan is still gone at a basketball game so I crawl into bed thinking I'll zonk right to sleep and guess what? I'M NOT TIRED. Figures.

The new place

I guess I should expound. It's not "our" new place, just our rented place. Some of you may have heard that we were looking to buy. Which we were, but things didn't work out at the house we put an offer on (you know, just minor things like the foundation was bad and the porch was falling off the house.)

So we ended up with this little guy. I rather like it. It's plenty big enough at 2800 square feet. Which by the way, is huge here. Most of the houses are tiny, 100 year old homes with 2 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. Not quite what we were looking for. So we were pleased to find this home. And it has a family room downstairs which we needed to store the kids away. Oh, I mean the kids toys away. Sorry. Just a minor slip of the fingers.

The backyard has a great covered patio that's perfect for BBQing in the winter, which we are known to do and two big sheds for tillers, lawn mowers and extra moving boxes that we keep because after you've used them for like 7 moves it's hard to let go, you know?

The kitchen. At one point those cabinets were painted a seriously bright orange color. Good thing that they've been painted since. I kind of like the color they are now. Of course I would have never painted it like that myself, but it's different and I like it.

The living room, dining room area. It's almost too big of an area. We don't have enough furniture to fill it. Plenty of running, jumping and wrestling space I guess. One thing that I HATE is that there are no lights in the living room. Just lamps only. It's so dark and it drives me insane. I guess from now on, I'll be looking up to see just what the lighting situation is before we get another house.



These little guys keep us entertained. I don't think a day has gone by that I haven't seen at least one squirrel. They live in the trees outside and we have tons of trees here. So much so that the Satellite people had a hard time finding a clear view of the southern sky for our TV dish. What fun though. Once, I looked out the window and the little squirrel was right up on the patio under the window. Kaden thinks he's going to catch one. I told him that squirrels were really fast. Kaden told me that he's faster. Okay. I'll be impressed when he actually catches one.

So you can come and visit. Plenty of room and squirrels. Nothing better!

That's a lot of hair!

Abby has been asking me to cut her hair for a little while. I think it all came down to the fact that she hated having me brush it because it was always so tangled. Doing hair always started with her running away, me counting to 3 and her crying while I tried ever so softly to brush out the snarls. She wanted a hair cut like her cousins Katie and Adeline. Short and sweet. Well, tonight I gave in and cut away. I seriously tried not to cry. The worst part was when she asked if you could put hair back on once it had been cut off. I about died. Umm no, I told her. It's gone. But it'll grow back fast. She seemed to accept that answer and says that she likes it a lot. As of right now, she's bounding around the living room with a smile on her face. I hope that tomorrow she'll feel the same way.

Daddy hasn't seen it or even knew that we were doing it today. We'd talked about it earlier in the week so it won't be such a shock but I hope he doesn't hate it!!!

The new do!

11/11/11

Yep, my biggest boy Josh turned 11 on 11/11/11. Isn't that really cool? I thought so. That doesn't happen very day!

Abby and Kaden gladly helped with the making of the pies. Josh wanted one chocolate and one vanilla pie. Easy enough because I don't do fancy cakes. Trust me. It's a good thing that I keep expectations really low when it comes to birthday cakes.

Let the party begin.

Josh got Super Smash Brothers Brawl for the Wii. It was great. I think it was the first time that I have ever seen all the kids playing the same game, at the same time, having fun together. Wow. The stars really did align on 11/11/11.




About Josh:
*He is always tossing a ball or some other small object into the air.
*He does well in school but doesn't LOVE it like Ethan.
*He loves to play computer/Wii
*He's a thinker. Great at games. He beats me a lot.
*He's got a great singing voice, but doesn't want others to know about it.
*He started playing trumpet this year and his teacher said he has real talent!
*He loves to eat chips and drink pop.
*He's a night owl. Just like Dad.
*He likes to sleep in. Just like Mom.
*He's a great kid and we love him.

Happy Birthday, Josh!