Time to take a break.

After a six week struggle, I can now officially say that I have hosted my first crop. It was a lot of work, but I was pleased to raise money for the Douglass Community Center where Jilly goes to school now, and Cooper will go next year. I have many stories to get everybody caught up on and will do so soon. Right now I plan on relaxing with my monkeys for the next few days before gearing up for another charity event I have been asked to be part of in mid April! It looks like my little crafty business just might be taking off finally.

Just Plain Funny!

So the past 2+weeks have been hell on my family, but on Friday Jeff and I came to an understanding that allowed us to get back on the path of being a family again. Needless to say, the kids are happy that Daddy isn't "at work" all the time now, and they are slowly getting back to their normal.

Last night we celebrated Aunt Ginger-beth's birthday with a family dinner of scallops/shrimp alfredo and salad. Sounds so simple, but it was SO delicious! Ginny loves her seafood, so every year for her b-day dinner she gets it! The gilry monkeys helped me make the cake which was butter pecan with cream cheese icing. There was only 1 piece left, that's a record!

Sadly I have no pictures...'someone' (we don't need to mention my name) let the memory card fill up on the camera, so the only pic of the evening I have I had to swipe from Face book. Aunt Amber took this picture with her phone and it sets up the next few stories perfectly.

First funny story happened as soon as we pulled in the driveway. We were all piling out of 'magic van' trying to make sure everyone had everything they needed, and I look up to see Russell looking very confused. He started to shake his head at me, and before I could ask he said "I looked over and thought Courtney was you. It took me second to realize it wasn't you." People keep telling me we look exactly alike, and I can only see it in pictures.

Second funny story happened after dinner, and Jeff had said not 5 minutes earlier that Cooper is a 'mini-mommy'. Which is true, girlfriend goes around picking up after everybody else, and has NO problem telling you when you're doing something worthy of time-out! Well, most everybody was in the living room and Courtney was holding Zee (girl could not be persuaded to put the baby down!) and Zee started fussing. (She was tired, and a little coldy) Out of nowhere Cooper pipes in "Give it to me, NOW!" Cooper thought she was the only one who could stop Baby Zee from crying, again the 'mini-mommy' in her.

It is always great to see the kids together, how well they play, who is taller then who this time. They are at the age where imagination takes over when they are playing and it can be beautiful, or even down right scary. Jilly and Riley were playing and they walked into the kitchen while I was feeding Wyatt. Jilly announces to me "Riley-man is the Daddy, and I'm the Mommy." And I looked at her and thought, hey kid, this is Virginia not West Virginia! It was harmless, but still just a little scary.

There is one more story, but this happened the other day. I was getting ready to vacuum, and both girls pulled out their toy vacuums. I did my thing, went and put mine away and Cooper walked up to me and asked "Mommy, can I have a screwdriver please?" This was interesting..."Coop, why do you need a screwdriver?" *Cooper cops a teenage like attitude with hands and huffs* "Because I have to fix mine vacuum Mommy, it's all out of dirty!" It was too stinking funny, but that's just my little Cooper-Doo, a riot!

That's about all from the last week.

Love

Expansion

You see this picture and I'll bet you said "Awwww!" Well let me tell you more about my little 'seam ripper'. For the past week Wyatt has been waking up, almost like clockwork, between 1 and 2 am. I give him milk, change his shorts and he lays down...45 minutes max. Not from Wednesday night into Thursday morning. He got up about quarter of 2 and proceeded to have his milk, get his shorts changed, and then just could not be consoled. It was just before 6am and I knew there was no way I was going to get him upstairs without running the risk of him waking up, so we crashed for a short bit on the couch. Courtney took this picture so it was sometime between 6:30 and 7:30 am. The little girly monkeys woke me up then, and Wyatt was done sleeping as well.

As ready as I was to pull my hair out while he was irate, this picture almost makes up for it...ALMOST! It just goes to show you that you can never know which of your kids is going to rip your heart out, and on the other hand, you never know which is going to start crazy gluing it back together.

"Just hang in there..."

...if I have to hear that one more time, I'm going to lose what's left of my sanity. The funny thing about kids (well my kids anyway) they are either like a seam ripper or they are like crazy glue. Let me explain.

Kids test their boundaries, our patience as parents, and there are times when they can say just one simple sentence and devastates you (seam ripper). Or they can bring you the greatest joy imaginable with an unprovoked hug, or a 'just because' kiss (this picks up a few pieces of the broken heart and 'crazy glues' them back into place). And even though I did the single mom thing while Jeff was in Africa, this is much different, and I truly think the monkeys can feel it. They have been themselves, bouncing off the walls one second, and snuggling with me or each other the next. Being 'super good listeners' followed by me wondering when did they go deaf?

(By my calculations, roughly 216 hours have passed since Jeff and I decided we needed to be apart for awhile. In that time I have slept approximately 18 of those hours. So please forgive me if I make no sense to you, it all makes perfect sense to me.)

We were told we'd be getting a 'light wintry mix' starting sometime on Tuesday...that changed to a forecast of 6-8 inches of snow starting Monday. I did not get that info until dinner time on Monday, so I had to rely on Courtney. The monkeys all ate dinner, we played, did the whole bedtime routine and I layed the 3 little ones down. I left Courtney 'in charge' while I ran to Target for the basics. She had no problem, they all stayed asleep, and then she got bored. While I was out she decided to (....wait for it.....) straighten up the living room AND fold laundry (GASP! and I didn't even have to ask her to do it.)! For a 14 year old to pass up the chance to grab the computer and decide to help just goes to show me that the way I choose to parent is the right way for what we would like or kids to be.

So I get home from Target, she's holding the door while bring bags in. When I left (I was gone for maybe a half hour) it was raining, but by the time I hit the parking lot again it was a sheet of ice. Literally, you could skate to your car. So I told her I was going to put some icy-melty stuff down so the 6-8 inches of snow that was supposed to fall would be easier to shovel in the morning. There I am sprinkling this stuff over the sidewalk and driveway, and then it happened. Well, I'm not really sure how it happened, bottom line I lost my balance and slipped on some ice and hurt my wrist pretty badly.

It is now Thursday, and I still have no idea if it is broken. All I know for sure is that it hurts like hell, and is about 6 different shades of purple right now!

This is just going to have be one of those things I have to get over. "It'll be OK, just hang in there!"

What a week!

While my world has been turned upside down this week, my monkeys keep me smiling. Today we bought some Crayola Color Wonder finger paint and were painting after dinner. Cooper turns to me and says "I painting you a thank you card." and Jilly jumped right on that bandwagon by adding "Me too, for all my stuffed animals.". No matter how crappy a day (or week) I may be having, these monkeys light up my heart.

I also got approval to hold a fundraiser for the preschool that Jilly goes to. The amount of interest is already overwhelming me. I am very happy to be able to throw myself into a project, especially when the focus is all about giving.

I have a very few pics from this week, but still have to figure out how to get them from my phone onto the computer. I really wish my phone had come with an instruction book. I'll figure it out soon, promise!

Love

Pop-pop's birthday

Just a quick dinner of pizza and a butter pecan cake with coconut pecan icing. It is always nice to celebrate a birthday, it means we have made it another year and are still alive and kicking. I think between Jilly and Cooper they told Pop-pop happy birthday over 100 times, and even though the rest of were starting to get agitated, Pops just kept saying "Thank you Honey." to which ever one had said it. Thankfully, the pizza was planned for cause poor Granma ended up having to work almost 11 hours today.




Here's to another 55 birthdays Daddy. I love you, as do all 6 of the grand kids. We can not ever thank you enough for all the things you do for and with all of us. Thank you for being my Daddy!

Love

Valentine's Party

Jilly's class celebrated Valentine's Day with a party on Friday. I could NOT pass up the Paul Frank monkey shirts to celebrate. And I swear that one of these days I will get Mrs. Janda in a picture as well! Thanks Mrs. P. for taking the time to pose with both the girls...I know things were wicked hectic that day!



Here is a pic of the valentine's cards that Jilly and I put together. And just like at Christmas, Jilly made sure that we had enough for her teachers..."I have 4 teachers Mommy! I still see Mrs. Monarch and Mrs. Cohrs, so they are still my teachers!" how am I supposed to argue with logic like that?!?


Love

They grow up so fast

At Jilly's school last Friday all the kids wore a jersey for their favorite football team since the Super Bowl was on Sunday. Not only did Jilly wear her Redskins shirt, but Cooper wore hers also. (It cracks me up that there is 26 months age difference, but these two act like twins!)



In other news, Cooper has decided to call Wyatt her 'snuggie bear'. I have no idea where she came up with it, but it is the most precious thing!

On Tuesday I made the decision that it was time to put Wyatt on 'Binky only for sleeping' status, and so far little monkey-man has had no problem adjusting. That night at bedtime I started talking to Cooper about giving hers up completely. The way we worked it with Jilly was if she gave up the Binky, she could have the toy of her choice after one week of sleeping without it. Cooper said she wanted a purple kitty (still not sure what she was referring to!) but she still wanted her Binky. No problem, I just wanted to start planting the seed that 'soon' she wouldn't have to have her Binky. So on Wednesday night we had a similar conversation at bedtime, and again she told me "Not yet, Mommy." OK, cool. So last night after reading books, both girls hopped in their beds, and I went to reach for Coopers Binky (which 'lives' on top of a tall dresser that she can't reach). She was sitting there in her bed and started telling me "No Mommy, no Binky." The cutest part of it was she was sitting there indian style and started waiving her hand at me as if she were a traffic cop! I went over to her bed and she and I talked for a few minutes, and she made it very clear that she did NOT want her Binky. I figured that she would be in tears after a few minutes, but we did not hear a peep out of her all night! It was amazing, it was her decision and she is getting more and more like the bigger girls every day!

...now if potty training were only going to be this easy!

Love!

Report Card Update

Courtney came home on Friday with her report card (sorry, we've been having computer issues AGAIN!) and I was in utter shock! She somehow managed to pull her C in Algebra up to a B. But wait...there's more! Girlfriend got an A on her exam. You read it right, an A on the exam she and her daddy spent the better part of 4 days studying for! She came home and told me that she now sees how easy it can be to understand when you break it down into small pieces. (I really do love when I hear my own words spoken back to me, she may not have gotten it at first but she does now!) Since she had fallen in love with the texting (my evil plan worked!) she was relieved that she could keep it.

Courtney is making drastic improvments in her riding. It was a drastic change for her to start Dressage, but she is much happier now. She is having a blast despite the freezing weather.

The rest of the little monkeys are all doing great. Jilly helped me make the Valentine's for her preschool. Both the little girls have fallen in love with the Color Wonder line of products from Crayola. Those two can sit for hours and color sharing the markers and books. And all 6 of us have a blast almost every single night before bedtime with the game Just Dance. Even Wyatt gets 'his groove on'. They all have different songs that they love, but thankfully there isn't any fighting...we all take turns picking the next song.

On a sadder note, in the wee hours of the morning after the Super Bowl both our cars were broken into. It makes me feel a tiny bit safer that the whole neighborhood got hit, and we weren't choosen at random. This comes just a few months after a friend of mine who also lives on our street had their minivan stolen right out of their driveway...car seats and all! We have wanted to move for sometime now, but with the way the housing market went our house isn't worth the mortgage on it. So for now, we get to pretend we no longer live in a sleepy little town, but rather in the ghetto. There's always an adventure to be had around here!

Love!

Just a quickie

Our computer is on the fritz again, so I will update on report card and little monkeys next week.