Worse Than December

I have just had one of the busiest 2 weeks ever in my life.

It started with a Honors Band Recital for Benjamin (I spent this recital outside with Gavin), then a Volleyball Game for Naomi, then Mother's Day (Not really my headache, but I still sent a gift to Boise for my mother and we had Brendon's mother and my father over for dinner.)

Next was a Clogging Recital for Naomi (I stayed home with Gavin for this one as a result of my experience at the Honors Band Recital).

Gabrielle and Naomi participated in the play King Arthur's Court with the Missoula Children's Theater. They had practices starting right after school nearly every day that week.

Friday, we attended our Ward Party.

Naomi's final Volleyball game was that Saturday, as was Gabrielle and Naomi's final performance for the play.

Then this week, we had Benjamin's final Band Concert, Naomi's 6th Grade Choir Concert, and finally yesterday was Gabrielle's First Grade Program.

As I was waiting for the girls to turn in their costumes after the final performance of King Arthur's Court, I was visiting with one of the other moms. She said that she felt like May was just as busy as December. I'm thinking it is probably worse.

If You Give a Mom a Vacuum

If after looking at a disgustingly dirty family room for a few days I decide to vacuum it, I'll notice there are some spots that don't come out. So, I'll pull out the shampooer and shampoo the carpet.

While I'm dumping dirty water from the shampooer into the toilet, I'll notice that the bathroom floor is dirty. So, I will get some disinfecting wipes and scrub the floor down. As long as I am cleaning the bathroom I decide to do the whole thing thoroughly. This means scrubbing the toilet.

When I scrub toilets, I scrub all 4. (This is because I like to use the Clorox toilet wand because it is disposable, but I don't think the cleaner on it does a thorough enough job. I squirt 3 of the toilets down with toilet bowl cleaner, and then clean the first with the toilet wand and then use the toilet wand to clean the rest of the toilets and then throw the disposable part away.)

Since the toilets are all clean, I now have to clean the other 3 bathrooms. I start with mine. In order to do a good job on the shower, I spray it down, and then get inside and scrub it out. Now I need a shower.

So I take one. After my shower, I realize that I am exhausted, so I sit down to rest for a while. Gavin bangs on my bedroom door the entire time, and I realize that I really don't have time to rest because I have to pick up Gabrielle from school. (Naomi has achievement days at the church directly after school.)

I am running late, so I drive to the school. After picking up Gabrielle I realize that there is an errand I would like to run as long as I am in the car, so I run to the store.

While we are in the checkout lane, Gabrielle lets me know that she needs to use the bathroom. (I asked her if she had to go before we left the school and she said "No.") The bathroom is at the back of the store, so I get out of line and take her to the bathroom.

While we are waiting for Gabby to go potty, Gavin notices a box of Scooby-Doo graham cracker snacks and asks if we can buy them. I know that he is hungry and will probably behave better if he gets them, so I put them in the cart.

I open the crackers and let the children eat them as we drive home from the store. When we return home I notice that the gate has blown open and Lizzy (the dog) is running around in the front yard.

So, I call her and try to get her back in the backyard, but she doesn't listen. Gavin & Gabby see her running around and decide to try to catch her. She can leave them in her dust and runs down the street.

I yell at the children and tell them not to follow her, I make them come in the house and suggest that if Lizzy sees us going inside, she will try to follow us in. She does. As we are coming in the house, the box of Scooby-Doo crackers spills on the floor. Lizzy eats them as quickly as she can. I grab the box of crackers and put it in the kitchen. I also have Gabrielle pick up and throw away as many of the crackers as she can.

To get Lizzy into her kennel, I yell "treat". Lizzy comes running and I get her in the kennel. Since I promised her a treat, I get the box of doggy treats out. Both Gabby and Gavin want to give her one, so Lizzy gets 2 treats. It is totally worth 2 treats to me that Lizzy did not pee on the floor in her excitement to be in the house.

After all of the excitement, I sit down on the computer and check in on facebook. As I am reading my facebook, I realize I have a pretty good idea for an entry on my blog. So I start to blog. While I am typing my older to children come home from school. They are both hungry and see the Scooby-Doo crackers on the counter. They eat a few and then decide they would rather have goldfish crackers.

Somehow the goldfish crackers get spilled on the floor, so Gabby gets a broom to sweep them up. While she is sweeping her friend comes to the door to see if she can play. She can't because her room isn't clean, so she goes upstairs to clean it.

Benjamin keeps bugging on me and I realize I can kill two birds with one stone, if I make him clean one of the remaining bathrooms. So I do. I think I'll go clean the other one.

Finished at Last

So, I quit my job with Western Pathology a couple of months ago. It just got to be too much to juggle for me. Since then, I have been working to finish a few things that I just couldn't get to while I was working.

For example, I cut out a nightgown for Naomi and a pair of pajamas for Gavin in the fall of 2008, but never got around to finishing them. I finished them up a couple of weeks ago and thank goodness they still fit.

Also, Brendon and I (mostly Brendon) have been working on terracing and building retaining walls in our back yard. This project has also been recently completed, and I can't resist posting a picture of all the hard work.

Canning, Costco and Train Blankey

I've noticed in many of the blogs that I follow that people have posted pictures of the canning they have been doing. I thought I should get in on the action.

Thanks Costco!

Today Gavin was talking to Train Blankey in the type of sing-song voice typically used for infants or pets. He was saying "You're such a good blankey. I love you."

Officially a Teenager

Benjamin turned 13 a couple of months ago, but in my mind he is only just now officially a teenager. This is because last night we were toilet-papered for the first time by Benjamin's friends. It isn't a very good job, Naomi figures they only used 3 rolls based on the centers she found.

Brendon says he would be really embarassed to do such a poor toilet-papering job. I just find the whole thing very amusing. (Maybe more so since Benjamin gets to clean up the whole mess.) I'll post a couple of pictures of the job for your enjoyment.

Gavin & The Potty

This morning, Gavin asked me for some new play-doh. I have some unopened containers up in my pantry and he wanted one of them. I told him he could have one if he would go potty on the toilet.

We went into the bathroom, and he tried to go, but couldn't. About an hour later, he yelled very excitedly that he had poop in his potty and could he have some play-doh now. I have to admit I am a little skeptical about things with my children, so I did a little inspecting.

It turns out, he had a bowel movement in his underwear, then dumped it into his potty. I explained that this didn't count, and that he had to actually go potty in the potty. Gavin was disappointed. He really thought that it would count.

Last Day of School Dilemma

Every year at this time I have the same dilemma. Today is the last day of school for my children. Soon they will be coming home with backpacks full of all the crap they have had in their locker and or desk for the past year. They will include lots of work they have completed and want me to look at and adore. They will also have broken crayons, mostly used erasers, pencils only an inch or so long, nearly filled in notebooks etc. And all of this stuff they will want to save in the name of playing "school".

I really want to throw it all away, but since they will be home during the day, I can't throw it away without them noticing. Plus also, this is really a lot of stuff just to go missing all at once. How to get rid of it all???