So.....

we have been playing in the back yard with the neighbors Birthday balloons. Have I ever expressed my love/hate relationship with balloons? Love that they bring fun and smiles. Hate that they cause fights and grief when popped, or the wind happily carries them away. Then we quickly moved onto Halloween. I have a love/hate here too. Can you guess? My girls got to go on a stay in town Daddy Daughter. This meant I got to tag along with my camera. Good food, Good movie, Good company, Good times. Let's not forget that the school year would not be complete without field trips. Tankster and my Little Miss sure loved last weeks trip to the fire station. Who would not love getting to spray water out of the big fire hose? I just love these crazy kids. I went to Mayo Clinic for a second opinion. I am so glad I did! Dr. Curtis assured me my care was exactly as it should have been and he answered a lot of my questions.I feel so much better now and know that the longer I go without any recurrence the less chance I have of worrying about this again. If I do have another tumor I will be treated at Mayo. My Mayo Doc specializes in Sarcomas. I feel like I am in good hands all around. Mr J left to go to his Grandparents and Little Miss A is with us now. She is a treat and we are loving having such a spirited, bubbly baby keeping it real around here.Her first six months have been less than safe and happy and I am just so happy it is our house she can can call home for now. She may be moved to family before to long as well. What's up with the big pics? Oh well.....

Busy

I can't keep up these days. Hopefully soon. When does soon come anyways? Who am I kidding? So the 411 around here is that I do not have thyroid cancer. Both nodules are benign, one nodule has abnormal cells. If it grows at all I get to have them out. Not too worried about it. Lot's of people live with thyroid nodules. I am done with radiation and right around Thanksgiving I will be starting my monitor mode. I will have blood work every six weeks and CT scans every 3 months. I am going to go to Mayo for a second opinion. It is not because I do not like my Doctor's, it is just a smart move to get a different angle on things. I am told the biggest worry is recurrence, and the most likely place for that is my right rib cage where the first tumor was and or my lungs. I feel better every day and have more energy it seems. Some days I I feel worn down so much quicker and others it's like I never had a tumor. I can't lay on my right side. That missing rib sure messed that up for me. For what I have been through I feel really good. I am grateful for every day with my family. Things could have been so different for me and I am so thankful to be where I am!

My kids never stop, in the last two weeks Wild Thing broke the neighbors window. Miss M and Sweet K went door to door collecting Money for the starving children in Africa. I am am making them donate their meager earnings. We went to see Grandpa and Grandma M in Prescott and had a fun eventful fall break. I kept them busy and tried to spend as much family time together as we could. I have been MIA with this darn tumor and just wanted to give them as much of me as I could. Baby J sleeps through the night and has since he was 2 months old. What a good boy!. We sure love him and his big smiles. Life as usual, that is the way I like it.

Imagine

Imagine just for a moment you are me. It is a Saturday morning and you slowly open you tired, dreamy eyes to the blissful sound of silence. You yawn and stretch and cuddle close to Mr M. As you slowly awake to the light that is gradually crawling it's way into the room and up the walls, you hear the laughter of children just greeting the day.


SCRATCH THAT!!!!
Who are we kidding here?
6:35am: " I AM GOING TO TELL MOOO-OM!" Nice alarm....Jelous?
               Send one yelling fighting kid back to bed. Try resting for a while.
6;50am:  Knock , knock, " Mommmy, Mommy, Little Miss hit me."
               Send Little Miss to time out.
               No sense trying to rest now, I guess I could read.
 7:10am " I am hungry, I am hungry, what is for breakfast?"
               Enter several more children asking breakfast questions. Field all questions and open book again.
               Right?
7:25am   "Can I scratch your back? Can I do your hair?" " I was doing her hair , Mommy..... I was here
                first! wah wah...... No I was rubbing this foot ETC,"
                Seriously? Now we are fighting over me?
7:40am   Give up on my book. Kick the kids out and enjoy a moment of peace.
               No really, barely a moment.
8:00am  Breakfast of cold cereal and a fruit. What? how many fruits do you need kiddos?
              Try not to make a big deal over all the wasted fruit.
8:30am   Send Daddy out the door to work and start Saturday chores.
9:30am   C-Dog, " Hey can I teach the girls how to vacuum upstairs?
10:15am  No vacuuming has taken place, just a lot of fighting and learning how to wrap and unwrap
               the cord. Send two girls to their rooms and then allow one to continue Vacuum training.
               (one Vacuum belt ruined in process)

11:15am  Thought it may calm down for a minute. Handle several more squabbles. 

                Welcome a niece and nephew in for the day while their Daddy is painting 

                 the trim on our house again. (story for another day)    

11:45am   Feed entire crew lunch and escape to vacuum the basement and haul the huge beast up to do 

                 the main floor. Remember, broken vacuum belt. Don't know where the new ones

                 are. Dang memory failed me. 

12:30p:m   Send wee ones off to nap. Send everyone else to attempt quiet time activities with

                 cousins over. Drag two very grumpy girls upstairs to fold the billionth load  of Laundry.

1:00pm     Load all sorts of squeaky female beasts into my car and run to Home Depot. My boys have

                 destroyed their blinds and I can no longer handle the sight of them.

2:00pm     Escape the HD with no casualties and loaded with way to much money in treats.

2:15pm    Get the girls stampin at the kitchen table and I am off to more laundry. We are actually done with

                chores. I blissfully break up at least two arguments per chapter and give up on my book.

3:15pm      The nap crew starts hollerin to be set free. All but one that is. I find my Little Miss has been up

                 playing with a cell phone in her bed. A CELL PHONE? Who, what, where? I panic, oh wait,

                 there are no police at my door. No 911 calls, what am I worried about? No harm, no foul.

3:30pm      Realize the cell phone is an old one of ours some miscreant charged and was playing with.

                  Note to self, talk to culprit later about getting into things and get that shower! I have a last

                  minute date I barely found a sitter for. (yipee) No stinky date partners at this house.

4:00pm      Make bed with clean sheets and start dinner.

4:15pm      Enter Tankster from back yard. Mumbling and crying and so hard to understand. Finally...

                  Mystery solved Miss M made him eat, are you ready for it? DOG POOP!!!

                  Does this day of arguing kids and endless work get any better?

                  Domestic bliss at it's best.

Who cares what time it is? This is sick!! Haul Miss M in and she quickly lays blame. Haul those two in and find out through a long dinner making detective hour who was lying and who was telling the truth. It was UGLY. Dole out consequences and listen to the guilty Miss M cry her way into oblivion.I was so ready for that babysitter. I needed out of here! Getting out without one more mishap for the day was just not in the cards

6:15pm   "Bubba, Wild Thing.  quit running in the house and read your books, no really sit down." They sit.

              

 I make sure they are engrossed in a book I don't have makeup on yet. Head for my bathroom when I hear the crash and the scream. You know the one...... Wild thing has fallen into the end table while running in the house. He gave himself a huge lump on his head and knocked a hole in my wall with the end table.

Enter babysitter, Exit Mommy I have had ENOUGH!!!!!

                                

Tiny Dancers

It's that time of year again. Recital's and more...






They are always fun to watch!

Full Swing

Summer is in full swing around here.

 What's not to like, right? I will be honest, summer kills me.
It means my small army of destucto rangers are in high gear. Water balloons thrown and popped in the basement.I am pretty sure the friend who snuck those in may never come back...Okay, she can come back, but with out those blasted balloons!
 I am woken up almost every morning to some sort of fight or a tattle tale. I am not kidding, almost EVERY morning. Almost every routine we have has to be tweaked. Strict limits enforced on t.v. watching and computer usage. No couch potatoes camping at my house. I must referee 4 fights before swim team and swim lessons each morning. These kiddos are having a hard time adjusting to each other this year. Too much of a good thing I guess.The pool is great behavior leverage. More than one kid has stood outside the pool fence wishing their consequence away. I have things scheduled for them to do and we have gone on some fun, and some not so fun outings.

Waiting in the AZ summer heat to see Lightning Mc Queen and his pals was a wretched idea. The ice cream fixed all the whining, mine included.I am sure I will get it figured out and have my kids trained and the fighting to a minimum just about the time school starts. I still enforce bed times. I still enforce quiet times and sometimes I enforce friend time just to give me break from the continual pestering of one another. I have two kids to potty train this summer, a family vacation to pull off, and a month with hardly any plans. June is booked solid and July has left me scramblin. I need some fun indoor activities.Going to have to get really creative.
Don't get me wrong it's not all bad. I am just feeling a bit tired as I adjust too. My feet scream at me by the end of each day. We have to renew our Foster care licence which means some more parenting classes and Dr appt's and running around. I have been having some PCOS related health crap and a good skin cancer scare so I am already running extra places. We will more than likely have our two little tykes adoptions both finalized by the end of this year. It is all worth it. I guess it's up to me to find the good in all this craziness and enjoy the chaos.Here's to another crazy summer

This week

I sat back and just listened when I could.
 Some inconsequential thing happened, but I new I was being lied to. I hate that, so I sent my Irish triplets to their rooms until some one could tell the truth. Little H came down swearing her innocence. I knew she was in the clear so I sent her off to play. I announced to the hoodlums left in their rooms that Little H was off the hook. They were surprisingly calm, so I listened,

Bubba, " So what are we going to tell her?
Wild Thing, "I didn't do it!"
Bubba, " Yeah, but Mom is mad."
Wild Thing, "I DIDN'T Do it!"
Bubba, "FINE, I will just go tell the truth!"
Negotiations over........... He was so sad when we were all swimming and he was stuck in quiet time for lying. Hope he enjoyed his nap.

My kids were amazed a lady as old as me could actually swim.
I was amazed at how few laps I could do, yikes...

I left a child at home, SCARY! I was misinformed of a baseball playoffs games starting time.(Duh, the messenger is a 10 yr old boy!) So when the coach called frantic telling me my son would be the reason they forfeited. I threw the kids in the car and drove off. We were halfway to the ballfeild when  Sweet K screams, "We forgot Miss M!"  I dropped off my half dressed baseball player just in time and drove home. The front door was wide open. This is where the what kind of Mother am I doubts started screaming through my brain. Who runs off with out a child? The door being opened sent me into panic mode. Mind you it has only been 8-10 minutes. My mind went crazy, I ran in the house and down the stairs and there sat Miss M in all her 7 year old glory watching Mickey Mouse Club House. She was totally oblivious to her plight. My only thought was maybe I need to pummel one 10 Year old boy into learning to close doors! Okay, I don't pummel my kids but I wanted to right about then. Really it's my fault for not counting kids. I Know I over reacted a little, but it scared me that the next time we would be on vacation, it would be a gas station in the middle of Idaho and I wouldn't notice for over an hour or more. My folks did that to my brother. It's funny now but my parents were not laughing at the time.

We have an adoption day and time for Tankster!!! Yippee!!!! Now we pray every day and night and any prayer in between that some bio relatives do not file a motion to intervene. He won't leave, it will just delay the adoption and we do not want that or the legal hassle.

10 Reasons I Love my Redneck Swimmimg Pool

1, It is a hole, and is filled with cool refreshing chlorinated water.
2, It makes even the grumpiest of small people smile.

3, It promotes sibling interactions that are sparse.

4, It provides a learning tool for slave labor work ethic.

5, Keeps bored kids from complaining.
6, Has the possibility of removing pasty white coloring from the resident lifeguard.
7, Helps me coin new Mom phrases I am sure to repeat until I am blue in the face,  "Walking feet, walking feet, I said, NO RUNNING!"
8,It increases creativity.

9, Makes the kiddos so tired that sleep comes five minutes after their heads hit the pillow.
10, Summer entertainment without sopping wet car seats.

Have you always heard that pools are money pits? We had heard similar. When we found our new house that met all our criteria and it just happened to have a pool that was outdated and in need of a complete overhaul. What were we to do?  Fill it in? Pay thousands to bring it up to date? Not buy the house?  I loved the idea of a pool with 8 small kids to entertain. Mr. M. Not so much. It could have been a deal breaker.  Well a money pit it is..... whether we fill it in or remodel/re-do it. It is still usable so until all plans are final we are taking advantage and just livin with it's issues. We are hoping to have it all spruced up by the actual true beginning of summer. We will see...

They'll be days like this....

How does that song go?
Days when you wake up so exhausted you are sure you should have permission to sleep all the way until tomorrow.
Days when you know your son needs some hard life lessons and it would be easier to put them off, but today he is out of school and the perfect opportunity is in front of you.
Days when you were smart enough to get piano lessons out of the way for the week, but forgot it was your  sons last session with the behavior coach and left her hangin for 45 minutes while your husband tried to reach you on the cell phone you left at home, and you were oblivious.

As it turns out, life is all about our attitude right? When the first friend came over I made the decision to let it all go and enjoy this day off with my kids. Due to our life sucking, wallet emptying flood we were sticken close to home anyways. I decided we should make the most of it.

So there will be days like this, and I am OK with it! Days where 13 kids under 10 take over your home and it turns out to be the most fun you have had in a while. 8 of them under 5. Count em...

I had the best conversations with them. Kids are seriously the best entertainment around. My niece was a crack up! One cute kiddo showed up, announced his arrival and who he was here to play with, and proceeded to tell me his Mom told him he had to play at our house, and then my phone rang. "Hey is E at your house?"  We chuckled about his grand escape from home. Blame it all on your Mother, right?

They all wanted to play out front. Fine with me, my side yard was muddy from the rain. We hightailed our fanny's out front and took over the culdesac. I couldn't figure out where C-dog, who had lost his friend privilege for the day had gone. Not only had he lost his friends for the day I made him shadow me and do all my Mom chores for the day. Life lesson #1, Mom's do not do "NOTHING" all day.Well today was kinda  a Mom holiday, kinda.......
I found him, but not where I expected. I found him in the garage fixing Miss M's bike. WHAT?? I knew he had it in him, that boy is truly so sweet! No one asked him. He saw a need and he shared a kindness

Not only did he perform a sweet service he did it with a smile as he asked Miss M to help him. The same sister he would not sit by in church yesterday until a consequence he detests was offered him. I asked where he learned to fix flats and he said, " I learned from the best,  Dad."  Are you kidding me? Please keep pulling this stuff out of your hat buddy, I could get used to this.

Her smile says it all.... Days like this are totally worth all the ones that are not!

Words and Pictures

This was our week.
Green crayon all over the basement bathroom toilet. Not the canvas I would have chosen, but it sure beats my walls.
A bath tub full of toilet paper while two girls were bathing. That means two heads of hair full of soggy shredded toilet paper. That was not the most fun I had all week.Thanks Bubba and Wild thing, sure hope you liked your no bath, early bedtime consequence.
Lots of time playing with friends
A new bike rack for the garage.
Bedroom painted and new beds put up (pics later) Oh, that was the week before oops.....
2 games of Uno won, one of Golf and one of Phase 10, I rock!!
Lunch with a great friend.
A fabulous lazy start to our Saturday morning.

Sometimes it is so nice just to hang with them on my bed. Sorry Dad you had leave for work so early.

This week I did Birthday pics as per the post below with my resident tattle tale, and the bossy one. Can you guess who's who?

The kids played with their food. This is an every day occurance, this is play I am actually ok with.



They really are a very entertaining bunch!

You should stop by some time or just sit behind us in church. That is a show all on it's own.
They do more than just perform tricks. This little tyke got awarded the "Winning Worker" award at school this week. Great job Miss M, we are so proud of you!

It has been a good week.

A little behind yet a little ahead

These two,

are 13 months and two days apart. They are oil and water some days, and best of friends the next. They share a room and eachothers secrets. So when their birthdays roll around I document their getting big with birthday pics. Miss M had her birthday not to long ago and Sweet K's is coming up. They usually like to go together and killing two birds with one stone always works for me. So here are just a few moments  captured of the fun we had. They are so used to the camera in their face that they pose with out being asked and I can just capture who they are.







Love ya tons ladies.

WHAT???

Tempe camera tells me it will be 4-6 weeks to repair my camera which apparently had a sticky day at the beach. Oh wait, no beach around here......I am such a camera Nazi and I am still not sure what actually happened, but it makes me not want to blog. I am a visual gal and I feel like I have to have a photo to post anything.Yep, that is me, the lady with all the quirks. I am supposed to be documenting. No birthday pics of Miss M and I missed some fun family things. I guess I should have invested in a point and shoot somewhere along the way. I have my new phone, (droid) but I am not sure how to get pics from my camera to my blog. Can you upload from your phone? You would think I were more techno savvy. Sadly I am not....
   So what's  going on over here? Survival and procrastination, and I am sure I could write a book on both. Not so fun. I am excited though that right around Christmas time Sweet K decided to like cooking. That is a double edged sword, she wants to do it all.

A cuter pic than this is the one where she is in her undies with that apron tied under her tiny hiney. Don't post those, just too many sickos out there. She was cooking eggs in that very spot just this morning. How soon do you think I could have a full kitchen staff and I can lounge nearby with a book while they produce some gourmet grub? Look, I know I am dreamin, don't spoil it! C-Dog hates that Sweet K likes cooking because as self appointed king off all children in this house the rules (his rules) state clearly that no siblings can have the same interests or likes as he has at any time. Funny how he doesn't care if I am doing it all.
Speaking of cooking I just got a 3 barrel crock pot.Yep, 3 crockpot's one big warmer, and dinner just got a little bit easier around here. Feel free to stand up at your computer and do a happy dance with me, go ahead..... OK, enough dancing.We can not use any major appliances from 3-6. You know, time of day plan and all so the schedule Nazi here could not make her usual grub and it was throwing us off. These cute kids have to be in bed on time for my sanity and later dinner means later bed time. NO CAN DO! This baby is going to save my life.(sorry no pic) I will prepare lunch and dinner at the same time and at 5 serve and clean up. I think I may be in love. I can even do potatoes in it and have a potato bar. Enough food talk or I will think I need some, I don't.
   Gonna buy a new car this week. don't hold your breath. Just think 8 kids and wonder what glamorous wheels a mom of 8 gets to drive. Nah. don't, it's really not exciting. I will find a way to show you the wonder of my new wheels when I get them. When we actually get to vacation in one car as a family I am sure I will be singing it's praises.
Till then......

WORD

The trend seems to be that instead of New Years resolutions we pick a word and simplify. Focus on that one goal and hope it helps us in other areas too. The first year I picked a word, I did pretty good. If it weren't for me posting my last two words I may not even remember what I chose. So a friend of mine posed  the question on FB  "Are you choosing a word for the New Year?" I pretty much answered no. I am not good at resolutions and as it turns out words. Unless you are talking about talking, that I can do A LOT of.... So now I am going to eat those words. Today I came up with my word.
DOCUMENT
This one I know I can live with. This one might actually get remembered. I want to document more of our lives. I want more documented in word and in photos. I want to start getting yearly blog books. I want to remember more of the stuff that bores others and makes me happy. I don't want to be in more pics with my kids. I am forcing myself. Not their fault I have PCOS and issues with being on the other side of the camera.I want the little things documented. My same friend does a weekly family photo. I would rather poke my eye out with a fork. I will try one a month though. It is a fabulous idea she has after all. I will document more of my kids comings and goings. More of what life is like and what we do. I am so afraid of being so busy with all these littles that I will forget. If it weren't for this blog and photos to remind me I am sure entire parts of my children's precious little years would be lost to me. So back to the entire reason I started a blog to journal. To Document our lives and be able to look back and remember. I started with the hardest part for me today.

 This little pumpkin had a birthday this week and we went to see Tangled with the girls,while the big boys saw Tron. I made sure to bring my camera and I made sure we used it. I even did more than one. Not a bad jump start to year that isn't quite here yet.

I want to get down all the stories of how our children came to be ours. I want that documented as much for our sake as theirs. So when their Birthday rolls around this year I will do that child's adoption story. I am pretty sure I chose a word I can live with and a goal I can accomplish..

That's My Boy,

down there on that baseball field.

He got to spend the entire game down there. When he was not on the field he was sitting here.

Mr.M's company bought loads of tickets and with there big name came a drawing for all the workers kids.  Our Friends little guy was originally drawn but was to young so the torch was passed to my boy. He was not sad about that at all.  He was honorary security for the entire game. On and off the field  the whole game.  He came home with a ball given to him by a Giants player and a smile wider than the state of Texas. Sweet K was supposed to sing in the 7th inning stretch and we were a few minutes too late. Oh how she cried. It broke my heart too.
We enjoyed the game from the cheap seats. Peanuts and beer not included, we are circus animal and bottled water kinda people.

The last 3 or 4 innings Mr. M was allowed to sit down By C-Dog and  catch the action up close.

Nice shot babe! It was a great day of not Laboring. We ended it by having a BBQ with our great friends.We had a rough morning, so glad the rest of the day was fun and smooth sailing.

Reaching

DAY 21
for a hand to hold. I love that Miss M is always  ready to help, to hold a hand, or give a hug when needed. I love her tender little heart.

Kindergarten & More

A frightening yet fun adventure.
DAY 11
 You know that day your five year old talks about all summer. The day she asks about for weeks with longing,  "Is tomorrow the day??" It made me so sad to tell her no for more than one reason. One, because it broke her heart and two, because I was just plain tired of being asked. So the much anticipated day arrives. I found her in her room all ready dressed in mismatched clothes. I think when I told her to take them off she thought I may send her to school in her scivies. Not so... She even smiled for the token back to school shot.

That all changed about the time we hit the big school grounds.

She started looking a little worried.

Proceeded to tell a few boys  how it is in true know it all Sweet K fashion.

When asked to wave goodbye to her parents she refused and began the please don't do this to me pout. That was our que to leave and we did, quickly....
She came home a few minutes ago with a grin from ear to ear.  A good sign for sure!
I did send two others of to grow a few more brain cells today and they came home happy too.
Too bad C-Dog did not want to grin for a pic today because he was way to grumpy this morning.  Miss M did (smile) even though she was a little worried once she got to the school.

I am so excited to see this school year start and to see how my children will grow. They each have great teachers and if today was any indicator we are off to a good start.

Spent

DAY 10
Spent the day cleaning and running errends, bet you do not want to see a picture of that. So here is a recent favorite. It was taken Friday.


School starts tomorrow, YIPEEEEEEEEEEE. It is not that I mind having the cute things around, it is that it's a bazillion degrees outside and there are only so many ways to keep the little tykes occupied. I would much rather have them at school stretching their minds than here throwing out brain cells one by one.

We Owned the Joint

Day 5
The Zoo:
I am keeping the kids busy and keeping up on my photo a day.
We heard the first bedroom door creak open at 10 to 6 this morning. I stayed in bed as long as I could, but they all knew we were headed to the zoo, so there was no point really. I passed out swimming suits, packed the towels, grabbed Daddy out of bed and my camera, and we headed out the door to the Zoo. 

Great thing about a family outing is I always take more than one. I am loving black and whites lately. I go through phases, just like my kids. I think mine are nicer though....
The best thing about the Zoo opening at six for members is that NO ONE was there. Well, we were ,and two other small families. We owned the joint. I sure wish I had been doing this all summer long. I may take advantage of the summer hours a few more times.I think these pics prove we had a great time. We stopped for breakfast on the way home and were out  of this crazy heat by 9Am.