Oh My SOCKS!!!

Status: Waterlogged. We've had two straight days of heavy rain now. And I mean Nonstop. Should I start building an Ark in the backyard???

Okay, I have concluded that I am going STRAIGHT TO HEAVEN for the amount of laundry I do for this family. Who knew that one girl and three boys (one of them being a baby) could churn out so much dirty laundry?

Not even including Hubby and Myself, in here. Add us in, and well...lets just say the piles of dirty clothes have reached astronomical proportions. You could probably see them from space.

But nothing is more time-consuming (or rather time sucking) than washing and pairing up SOCKS. I remember my mom had this nifty trick, where she would safety pin my dad's socks together before she washed them, probably so the dryer wouldn't eat them, but I look at my piles of socks and think "who has time to do THAT?"

First there's the matter of Hubby's socks. Highly Infuriating. A) He has lots of them and B)You can hardly tell them apart. Some are black, some are navy, some are navy-ish and black-ish, some have miniscule patterns you can only discern with a microscope, and most of the time I have to either pair them up in front of a sunlit window or a 1000 watt bulb, or I might make the mistake of pairing a black sock with a french navy sock and we might have a catastrophe on our hands. Like the one time when hubby called me up from work and thanked me for his one blue sock and one black sock he was wearing in his meeting with the President of the Company.

Then there's the boy's socks. Crew socks, ankle socks, anklets, soccer socks, church dress socks, I have to pair all those up. Don't get me started on Thing One's (our only girl) socks. Since she was blessed with KANGAROO FEET (my side of the family) she and I have barely discernible socks. So I have to be extra careful not to pair her socks with mine, or vice versa.

And the baby's socks. I swear my dryer eats at least two or three baby socks with every load. I have to rummage around to find them all. I have found them in crazy places. Sometimes I don't find them at all. I suspect the dryer has shrunk them all to nothingness.

And this is just SOCKS. Don't get me started on sorting underwear.

I must go lie down...

PUMPKINS!!

Okayyyy, it's AUGUST. And everywhere I go, I see pumpkins and scarecrows and crap. WTFreak?

This year is flying WAY too fast! Oh, and it got dark early last night. Oh, and guess what else? It was only 67 degrees this morning! Brrrrrr!!!!

Life's Little Embarrassing Moments...

Okay, I had one of those yesterday. I was all fired up (per my previous post) to be all daring and drop the kids off for Jumpstart in my t-shirt nightgown and slippers, and so, well...I did it.

Lo and behold, something happened that NEVER happens. After I dropped them off, I was starting to accelerate out of the drop-off zone when one of Thing One's friend's moms shot out of the school and started running after my car, waving me down. She wanted to talk to me.

I had a dilemma. Knowing my state of undress, should I stop and face the consequences, or just keep going and pretend I didn't see her? The latter was tempting...

Well, it wasn't the latter, because I COULD see her, she was right beside my passenger side window, waving an arm and yelling my name. So I had no choice but to stop, and roll down the window, after which she proceeded to lean in and greet me and start talking about their Summer, and how was mine, and did I get her email, yadda yadda yadda.

And of course since I was driving, my nightgown had hiked up a little and well, lets just say I wasn't in the best (or most modest) of positions. MORTIFICATION. And she just kept on talking. And talking. And talking.

Mercifully, there was a car behind me, needing to get out, and since I have a big car, it couldn't get around me. So she let me go. Of course her last words to me as she said goodbye were "Love the jammies--I wish I could pull that one off!"

As I drove away, cheeks blazing, of course I was thinking I DIDN"T PULL IT OFF YOU SILLY BECAUSE YOU HAD TO COME UP TO MY WINDOW AND SEE THEM!
I mean, isn't that the whole point of wearing jammies? Because NO ONE will see you??????

Yeah, that was an Embarrassing Moment. Granted, it's not as embarrassing as the time when I was chatting animatedly with a new friend I'd met at church in the foyer, (church had ended and there were about 500 people milling all around us) and I suddenly felt a draft and realized in horror that my VERY WHITE slip had fallen down around my ankles.

Yeah, I don't think anything will ever top that one...

Is it Only Wednesday???

This week is dragging on forever. Today we only have to run to Sports Authority and to the Children's Hospital (Thing Four needs his harness adjusted) and hopefully...traffic willing...will make it to the first soccer practice of the season.

Oh, and we're out of milk. Where does it all go??? I buy four freaking gallons a week! Two skim, two 2%. What is the deal?

Must run the kids to Jumpstart. How many of you dare me to drop them off wearing only my long t-shirt nightgown and my fuzzy pink flip-flop slippers??? Why not...I don't have to get out of the car!

HA! I'm going to do it!

We're in BIG Trouble Now...

Guess who's found his thumb?

None of my other Things were thumbsuckers. Not one. This is a whole new experience for me. Should I worry?

HYUAHHH.....

Status: Exhausted. We had thunderstorms all night and Thing Four woke up at 1am and decided he was hungry. THEN at 4am Things 1-3 all ran downstairs while I was warming up another bottle and informed me they couldn't sleep because of the thunder. I shooed them all to bed.

Don't worry, we are registering for school this morning and they are having their school pictures taken. Can you say DARK CIRCLES under the eyes??? I have a little makeup stick somewhere...

It could be worse. One kid across the street got whacked in the head with a golf club (one of the heavy ones) right above the eye a few days ago. So he has a black eye and six stitches for school pictures. I suspect a makeup stick won't be able to fix THAT. Eeks.

Today will be another yucky run-around day. Run to Jumpstart, run to registration, run to the grocery store, run to the sports store to buy more soccer stuff, run to the haircutters (before registration--Thing Three has a mop top) and somewhere in there I need to make cupcakes for a visiting teachee and four loaves of wheat bread.

Tomorrow is even worse. I CANNOT wait until school starts! Then it will be just me and Thing Four at home, my house will stay a LOT cleaner, and the chaos will end. Sort of. Replaced by new chaos that the demands of having multiple kids in school will bring, of course.

It never ends.

ps: I wouldn't REALLY use a makeup stick on my boys--although I have been tempted once or twice.

Soccer Mayhem...

Status: Wanting the weekend to not end. Read some chapters from a friend (should be finished up today) and relaxed. Now it's time to run my A** off...

Ah, the little annoyances and difficulties that arise when you have multiple kids in multiple sports. I got the soccer practice schedules for all three Things (Thank HEAVEN Thing Four is only three months old!) and let me just say, it's going to be a juggle.

Two Things have practices on Tuesdays and Thursdays. But Thing Two has practice on Wednesday and Thursday. Thursdays will be tricky, because practice times are overlapping, and at different soccer fields, and OF COURSE one of the Things has practice LATE so Thursday nights will be nearly three hours of soccer practices for me and Thing Four to sit through.

Tuesdays nights aren't so bad, but I still have two hours of soccer practices to sit through. I intend to bring a book, let me tell you.
But this could be problematic because my personal trainer comes on Thursday nights, and they have Cub Scouts and Activity days on Tuesday nights. And of course Hubby can't help out at all, because he works late usually. Or he's traveling.

Excuse me while I go get a tissue, I have these sudden urges to weep, lately...

Okay. I'm back. So, this should be very interesting. I think I could get a bit of writing done if Thing Four doesn't want to be entertained every minute. We'll have to see.

I'd better make friends with the other soccer moms stat. So we can carpool. It's the only way I will keep my sanity, for sure! BLEAH.

ps.. CONGRATS MITT ROMNEY!!! (Okay, I like to remain bi-partisan on the blog but I couldn't help myself). :-)

OUTRAGED!!!

As I was bemoaning to one of my writer buddies last night, I was distraught yesterday because do you know how much money I spent on REQUIRED school supplies?

Let’s just say a small fortune. As in hundreds of dollars.

For SCHOOL supplies, mind you, not school clothes. We haven’t even attempted that mountain yet.
But I was bewildered by all the pencils and pens and folders and erasers and calculators and headphones and lunchboxes and backpacks and pencil boxes and boxes of tissue and hand sanitizer and flash cards and index cards and compasses and protractors and rulers and highlighters and spiral notebooks and packs of post-its and accordion folders and pencil sharpeners and Ziploc bags and sharpies and crayons and markers and colored pencils I had to buy and…and…well…it sort of added up for all my kids.

You know, when *I* went to school, all that stuff was provided. They had boxes of used sh** that we just used over and over. Yeah, it was dirty and old and was probably bought in 1967, but it worked and we didn’t have to buy it brand new every year.

So what is the deal now? And don’t worry, my kids each have a big hefty FEE per student I have to pay.
This fee covers costs for…wait for it…materials and supplies.

BUT WAIT, didn’t I already freaking BUY all the materials and supplies??? What the hell does the school buy? Gold-plated textbooks?

It must have something to do with budget cuts. Because I don’t remember it ever being this bad. And yes, I’m cussing. I’m hopping mad. Maybe I’d better stop having kids. Or something. I can only see it getting more and more expensive. AAACK!

Okay, rant over. But DANG it sucks that I will be doing this every year from now on!

I was so distraught I let them have corndogs for dinner. CORN DOGS. I mean, how horrible of a mother am I? If they took pure Evil and put it in Food Form, it would be the Corn Dog. Or possibly the frozen Chimichanga. I can’t decide which is more bad for you. It’s a toss-up.

I am still depressed over it. But no time for that now. Got to take the kids to Jumpstart! Then I get to go and buy SOCCER SHOES and gear for three kids. I love my life!!!

It's a Christmas Miracle!!

...Okay...so it's not quite Christmas yet...but hey, Hobby Lobby has all their Christmas stuff out already! So close enough.

THING FOUR ONLY WOKE UP ONCE LAST NIGHT.

Seriously, I put him down at 9pm, and he woke up at 2:30am for a feeding, and then he didn't wake up again until 7am! Woo hoo!

You know what that means: I got some un-interrupted sleep. I am beside myself with glee. And no, that is NOT sarcasm, folks.

Although I did wake up around four am because there was a thunderstorm. Hey, I'll take it.

So, I'm getting a tad nervous because with Things 1-3 in soccer this season, and with practices starting up next week, I have discovered that I will be going to practices EVERY night of the week. Don't even get me started on the games. You KNOW they will eventually have games at the same time, and I'll be running and dropping off and running somewhere else to drop off and poor Thing Four will just have to go everywhere with me. I think he's used to it by now. He practically lives in his carseat, which by the way, he's rapidly growing out of. He's HUGE. I have the pro-football scouts on notice. This kid won't even have to do much--he'll just crush everyone.

I fleshed out some story details last night. At 11pm. And then I scoured my master bathroom. It has been bugging me. We still had suitcases with a few holdouts and remnants from our trip to Utah, and I had them all in the master bathroom, waiting to be emptied. So I just did it.

I am wondering, am I the only person who takes three weeks to unpack everything completely after a family vacation? Please tell me there are others out there. I must find some way to rationalize my laziness...

Oh, and my dryer is still broken. Apparently the installer didn't tighten a screw tight enough and the wire eventually burned and melted the 4-prong cord and burned the housing cover. Dorks. So I am still sans a dryer and luckily I have enough clean onesies for Thing Four to dress about 57 kids, so we're holding out ok.

Then again, if I get desperate, there's a laundromat down the road...

It's Monday!

Status: Tired. Of course I stayed up wayyy too late since Hubby is in New York all this week, and Thing Four decided he was hungry at 1am...UGH.

I spent most of last night playing with the kids new computer. It was a steal of a deal at Sam's Club. (Not the place I would usually buy a computer!) But it came with a 22-inch flatscreen monitor on it--perfect for their educational games and gaming, so I did a little splurge. They LOVE it. But I am limiting them to only one hour a day--because otherwise I'm sure they'd trash it. I know my kiddos.

Not a whole lot going on this week--yesterday was... interesting. My dryer (which is brand new and I haven't had more than a year) stopped heating up during the drying cycle, which I only discovered early Sunday morning, AFTER I had washed all my husband's and my underwear, and his jeans in another load, all of which he needed for New York. (I suspect a burnt-out fuse., and I don't know how to replace fuses so I'm making a call to an electrician after this post).

So after having to locate a laundromat and lugging the wet clothes there for some drying, I then had to lug all four children by myself to church and this happened to be the Sunday that I was doing the ENTIRE primary singing and sharing time as singing time because we have our singing program next month and the kids need to practice their songs. So basically, I got home from church, fed the kids, brought Thing Four into bed with me, and took a two-hour nap. Except for the phone rang twice while I was sleeping and finally woke me up for good. Hmph.

Today is overcast and cool. Hopefully it won't rain--if Tennis lessons are cancelled they don't reschedule. And now that I have all the lists for school supplies, we get to hit Target this week and take care of all the Back-to-School stuff. Which is actually quite fun. :-)

But right now I have to go pick up the kids from Jumpstart. And then get the dryer fixed. The laundry pile is growing as I type...Eeek!