The kids are back. And a few other things.

They got home from camp on Saturday. Stinky, smelly, tired, but full of stories. They had such a great time. We were a little worried about Brooks. He called home Monday night (their first night there) and already wanted to come home b/c no one was playing with him. He said he was being left out of everything. We told him to just stick it out and if he still wasn't having a good time, he could home on Wed. He ended up staying the whole week and he had a good time.
After they got home, unloaded all their camp stuff, JM reminded them that it was Saturday and the yard still had to be mowed, even if they were tired and worn out from being at camp all week. Brooks said, "yes sir" and then muttered, "I wanna go back to camp". Who can blame him?

While the kids were at camp, I had to get rid of Sadie, the basset hound that we got back in March. Why did I have to get rid of her? Long story short: she stinks, howls waaaayyy too much, hates being inside but runs away when we let her out, tore up the carpet in our living room, tore up the linoleum in the kitchen, and the hair. Oh, the HAIR! That dog sheds sooo bad! I couldn't stand it anymore. She was stressing me out, and I am already stressed out enough as it is so I took her to the pound on Friday. I paid them to take her. I also gave them 3 bags of puppy food so I don't feel bad about leaving her there. Also, the kids were begging me to get rid of her. She had become a pain in the you-know-what.

Now this week we are getting back into the swing of things. I am trying my hardest to stay on a regular school schedule. I have been struggling with a few personal issues ( depression, anxiety) and it's been hard to get done what needs to be done. JM said something the other day that made me want to snap out of the funk I'm in (it's not working yet, but I'm determined to get there). He said, totally out of the blue, "I think the kids need to be enrolled in school this year." I didn't say anything. I didn't feel like fighting with him about it (plus the kids were in the car with us) so I kept silent. I just hope and pray that it doesn't come to that. My kids have no desire to go to school. Except Shelby, she is just curious about it but I think her curiosity would fade the first week there. Anyway, just hope and pray that this will all work out. I think I would just sink further into depression if my children were sent away all day.

Thursday Thirteen: Why I home school

Here are just 13 of the reasons why I home school.

1. I feel that is what God has called me to do.

2. We can spend more time together as a family-my children are each other's best friends!

3. We can go on vacation whenever we feel like it.

4. My children don't have to deal with peer pressure.

5. I don't think I could get all 5 kids dressed, fed, and out the door to catch the bus at 7:15 a.m.

6. We finish most of our lessons by lunch time every day and I don't have to deal with homework every night.

7. I don't have to worry about bomb threats, assaults, or school shootings.

8. I can keep my children as far away from drugs as possible.

9. I know what they are leaning and it's so much fun learning new stuff together as a family!

10. They're developing very important life skills such as cooking, cleaning, organizing, and money management just by being at home.

11. They learn how to socialize with people of all ages, not just their peers. It's amazing to watch a 10 year old hold a serious conversation with someone 4 times his age.

12. I enjoy being around my kids.

13. It's not for everyone, but it's definitely what works for our family.

Pardon my mess

With Blake and Brooks away at camp and Shelby staying at Mawmaw's house for the week, I decided to do something I have been putting off for looong while.

Clean and Re-Organize the little kids room.

I say re-organize because, believe it or not, it was organized at one time. But that was a very long time ago. And things had just kinda got outta control. The room turned into a Disaster Area! Then I just pretended I didn't see the mess in there. Denial is sometimes a good thing.

See what I mean:

Pretty bad, huh?

We (meaning Tyler, Micah and I) spent the better part of the morning going thou all of that stuff. I found 4 sippy cups, 2 lost shoes, the remote to the dvd player that has been m.i.a. for over 2 months, and a few other things that I will not mention here. I threw away 3 huge bags of broken toys/trash and have 5 bags of stuff to take to the Salvation Army.

After going thou and sorting stuff, I put it all away. Then I moved the beds, dressers, and toy boxes and vacuumed under everything and along the baseboards. I even washed all the dirty walls! Hadn't done that in a while.

All that hard work, I think it looks pretty good.

Now if I could just get it to stay that way!

Happy Father's Day

Here is the Father's Day letter I wrote to my dad, but did not send. I decided to post it on my blog for him and the world to see......

Dad,

Well, since it is Father's Day I should wish you a "Happy Father's Day". You know how I feel about this so-called holiday, that's why you're not getting a card from me. (I think you should honor and love your father every day not just one day out of the year, and I do.) But it dawned on me that I don't tell you how much I love you often enough. I love you and all that you have done for me. I love you for putting up with all the crap I have put you and mom thru these last 30 years.

You have taught me so much. Like how to ride my bike, how to skate, how to drive, how to work hard and how to take pride in everything you do. You even taught me how to make the most delicious chili in the whole wide world.

I have lots of great memories with you like camping when we were little, riding "inside" the corvette, and you taking off work to drive me to Memphis just to see some boy I was crazy about. But my favorite memory was the last time we were in South Dakota. We sat up until the wee hours of the morning talking and laughing with Cookie and Gary. You told stories I had never heard before. It was so much fun!

Anyway, I hope you know I love you! And thank you for being my dad!

Love,

Amber

p.s. Thank you for sharing your Bing bars with me. (You did know it was me who kept taking them, right?)

Here are some of the pictures I have, but mom has all the good ones!

I know this last one was taken before you were a dad, but I found it when I was going thru my pictures and I couldn't resist posting it! I don't know why, but it cracks me up! :)

My Five Senses

Here are some of the things that I'm.......

Seeing:
~ Blake and Brooks trying to do a science experiment at the kitchen table.
~Tyler watching the boys trying to do a science experiment.
~Micah, sprawled out in the middle of the floor, "reading" a book.

Hearing:
~ Shelby coming in from outside.
~Blake saying, "Rubix Cubix" over and over and over. I have no idea where in the world he got that from or why he keeps saying it. It's annoying everyone. (That's probably why he's doing it.)
~Tyler whistling from the other room.
~Micah saying, "Give it to me!". "Give it to me now". "Give it to me now PLEASE!". Tyler must have something he wants b/c now he's crying about it.

Feeling:
~Tired and Yucky Blucky. I have no energy to do anything.
~My head hurts. I've had a headache since Monday. I hope I'm not getting sick.
~Hungry, even though I ate. I'm craving chocolate. Seriously, I could easily down a whole bag of Ghiradelli Chocolate Chips right now.

Smelling:
~Burnt popcorn from last night. The trash needs to be taken out!
~My own stink. I need a shower.
~A smelly boy standing next to me, reading this as I type it. ( Hi, Brooks!)

Tasting:
~Sprite that I've been sipping on.
~A B.L.T. (minus the "B") sandwich that I just got done eating.
~That bag of chocolate chips I was craving. (Ha! I only wish I had some to taste!)

WFMW: Lost Toy Basket

Here's my first attempt at doing a Works For Me Wednesday post:

Having five kids means having a lot of toys and kid "stuff" in the house. Neither of which I mind. The one thing I do mind is having the living room full of toys and stuff.

So I came up with a rule to help keep the living room clutter free and to help the kids remember to put their stuff away when they are done with it. The rule is: You may play with your toys in the living room as long as you put it away (i.e. back in your room!) when your done with it, otherwise if you forget and I have to pick it up, it gets put in my "Lost Toy Basket". The LTB is a mesh basket that I keep in my laundry room. Anything that gets put in there has to stay in there until the 1st day of the month. Then I empty it out and give them their stuff back and we start all over.

The first few months the basket was over-flowing by the end of the month but now they all have gotten the idea. Even my 3-year old is getting better about picking up his toys when he's done with them.

It works for me!

For more WFMW ideas, head on over the Rock's in my Dryer!

It's official

School is back in session and I am now homeschooling ALL 5 KIDS AT THE SAME TIME!!! Yikes!

Micah was beginning to feel left out whenever we did "school" so I bought him his own book. Can you tell he's excited?

Can you guess which side of the bed *I* sleep on?

I was making our bed this morning and noticed just how many books had piled up on my side of the bed. I thought it was funny so I took a picture. And yes, I am currently reading all of them (well, at least the ones on the top).

Running Plans

As some of you may know, I'm a runner. Not a very fast one, but a runner none the less. I like running but I'm not very disciplined at it. I have to have a race to look forward to in order to get me out the door in the morning because other wise I would just turn off the alarm clock, roll over and go back to sleep. yep, I can be lazy.

So to keep me motivated here is my "race schedule" for the next 6 months:

July 4th-
Green Street Mile- a 1 mile run-as-fast-as-you-can race in downtown Tupelo. (I'm a slow distance runner, so I will suck at this but I'm going to do it anyway!)

August-
Nothing planned for this month. I will probably be doing most of my running on the dreadmill in the comfort of my air-conditioned home. It'll be way to hot for me to race. I'm such a wimp.

September 2, 2007-
Tupelo 14.2 Miler- This is another local race that I've never done. It's got hills (I don't like hills) and it also starts at 5:00 A.M.!! (I'm also not a morning person) so I'm not going to sign up just yet. I want to do it, but I'm just a little nervous.

October 21, 2007-
Louisville Half Marathon (13.1 miles)- Since my parents are now living in Indiana (but only a 20 minute drive to downtown Louisville, Kentucky), I'm going go up visit them and run this race while I'm there. It's a race along the Ohio river so it sounds like a beautiful run.

November 2007-
I don't have anything planned for this month either. I'll probably be getting ready for my BIG race in December.

December 1, 2007-
St. Jude Memphis Marathon (26.2 miles)- I ran the half-marathon last year and I loved it! This time I'm going to do the full. I'm also going to be a St. Jude Hero while I'm at it. I can't wait!

Well, that's my running plan. Hopefully I can stick to it!

Inquiring Minds wanna know

We went to Sonic the other night and ordered root beer floats. Their advertised special said "Old-Fashioned Root Beer Floats Only $.99".

As the kids were all sucking down the sweetness, Shelby says, "These are yummy but I wonder what New-Fashioned root beer floats taste like."


Hmmm, I wonder?? :)

Dental issues

We should get frequent visitor points from our dentist because we have been to the dentist a combined total of 13 times in the last 2 weeks. And we have 2 more scheduled appointments within the next 2 weeks. Think we have bad teeth? I'm beginning to wonder.

Each of the kids went in for cleanings. That counts 5 of the visits. Then we went back last week so they could do 1 filling each on all 5 kids (that makes 10 visits, for those of you that are keeping track). Then we went back today so Brooks could have a tooth pulled and Tyler and Micah both had another cavity filled (3 more visits for a total of 13!). Brooks came out of the room with his eyes glazed over and a wad of gauze in his mouth. The dentist said he did great, handed me some more gauze and his tooth and told me to change out the pads every 30 minutes. Brooks had no clue that they had pulled out a tooth until I showed him the tooth. He said he didn't feel a thing. To me, that's the sign of a great dentist!

We go back in a week so Micah can have one more spot fixed. His dentist thinks he has an enamel deficiency and that's why he is so prone to cavities. Poor kid.

Then we get to go back one last time (until Nov. for cleanings again) so Brooks can have a "space maintainer" put in. I have no idea what the heck that is except that they glue it to his teeth and it goes on the top of his mouth.

So now we are home, the little ones are crabby/hungry/tired but cannot eat anything b/c their mouths are still numb. I think I'm going to let them try and eat some pudding and then put them down for a nap. Maybe they'll feel better when they wake up.

Back Seat Driver

Micah-3yr. has discovered the world of traffic signals. He even knows what each color signifies. He will tell you that red means "stop!", green means "go!", and yellow means "slow down". I don't know where he learned this, as I did not teach him these rules of the road.

Whenever we are in the car, you will hear him shout, "Green means go!" or "Red means stop!" as we pass a traffic light. At times, when the car is moving past a big intersection with several lights, he will shout all in one breath, "Redmeansstopgreenmeansgoyellowmeansslowdown!" The kids and I get a kick out of him when he does that.

At first I didn't mind his babbling in the waaayy back of the van (I can hardly hear him back there) but now it has gotten kind of annoying. Because now whenever we are sitting at a light, he will chant "Red means stop! Red means STOP! RED MEANS STOP!! ", raising his voice until the light finally changes green in which he then proceeds to chant, "Green means go! Green means GO! GREEN MEANS GOOOO!!" until the car in front of me gets out of my way so I can GO already!

Brooks said he would make a good traffic cop someday. :)

Shelby's 7th Birthday

My one and only girl celebrated her 7th birthday this past Sunday. She picked Raviollli, salad and garlic bread for her b-day dinner. She opened presents her daddy and I gave her and then she made her brothers eat princess cupackes. She had a great day but the real fun hadn't even started yet.





She had her actual party last night at Club Libby Lu's. If you have never been to Club Libby Lu's or one of their parties, put that on you're list of things to do before you die. It's definatley something every girl should experience. That place screams GIRLY! The entire place is pink and purple, smells like cotton candy and the floor is covered in glitter. So awesome!

Shelby picked the "Rock Star" theme so the girls were all turned into rock stars for the night. Complete with rock star clothes and their very own microphones.

Here she is before they glammed her up and then after they got done with her:









It's hard to see in these pictures, but their heads were covered in glitter. They all sparkled from head to toe! They smelled like cotton candy, too!

After they

transformed into rock stars, the b-day coordinators (yes, they have coordinators so all us moms have to do is sit back, watch, take lots of pictures and think to ourselves "Why didn't they have something like this when I was a kid?") taught the girls a dance that they preform outside in the mall. Shelby was not to crazy about learning some new dance moves so she opted to just do the Hokey Pokey.

After the party, the girls and I walked around the mall, rode the carosel, and stopped by the cookie factory. As we were walking one of the girls said, "People are looking at us because we look like rock stars. What if they ask us for our autograph!"

As we were walking back thru the mall a few of the girls had to us the bathroom, one of them really bad. Shelby told everyone that "Rock stars walk slow so everyone can take their picture while they are walking." The other girl (who need to go) said, "Well,rock stars walk very fast like this when they have to pee." It was so funny.

As a sort of last minute idea, I let all the girls spend the night. Blake and Brooks stayed with their friends so they wouldn't be bombarded with all the screaming and giggling. Tyler and Micah were in bed by the time we got home from Shelby's party. The girls all camped out in the livingroom and watched chick-flicks all night (well, at least until 11:30 when I turned off the t.v. b/c everyone but my daughter was asleep.)

So Happy Birthday Shelby-Girl! I hope you had a birthday you'll never forget! We love you!