The long weekend...good times!

So last week I posted about my laundry. Remember this?:



Yeah. Well I ignored it for the most part. For the rest of the week, until Evan came to me on Saturday and said "I can't change my underwear because I don't have any more" That is a problem. Particularly when you consider he has an entire drawer of underwear. He must have 15 pair. I have no idea WHY he has a plethora of undies, but he does, and I'm using it to illustrate my point here. How much laundry must there be when your kid who has that many underpants runs out?

So I didn't get a picture, but that pile was about 2X's bigger than that first picture. Then we added all of the bedding including the quilt off our bed for good measure.

You can trust me when I tell you it was insane. I think we did 9 loads. On super.

But now we are feeling a little better about life!



So since I was up until midnight on Sunday washing the rest of the laundry, because in my genius brain I started our bedding at 9pm...I had some time on my hands. So I made this for breakfast. (Or in Shawn's and my case a midnight snack).



The kids polished it off for breakfast this morning. Damn it was good if I do say so myself!

Then on Monday we planned a party! Shala and Jason, their two girls and new little additon, Tory and Hope and their six kids and Nathan. Only as is often the case this time of year things didn't entirely go as planned. Heather, Hope and Tory's baby had a bad cold so she stayed home with mommy, and then Shala texted me around 11 because Ava started puking. We were pretty much ok with them not coming over at that point. ;) So we were down seven from the plan, but that's ok. Tory pulled through and still brought 5 of his girls! And Nathan and Samwise the dog came too. And we had a BLAST.

(Well, Evan was a little cranky about the lack of testosterone in the kid set, and I was feeling a little overwhelmed by the lack of estrogen in the adult set, but it worked out)

Hope and Tory have 6 kids. Daisy is ten, then Iris is 5, Violet is 4, Rosie is 3 and then Kena is 2. (Heather is the baby). Daisy was a little bored with the little kids, but was pretty much entertaining herself. There was a good amount of Barbies being played by the others.

I am not going to post Kena's pic on her because she is not legally adopted yet and I don't know the rules on that in Illinois, in AZ it is a big no-no. But she is just beautiful. Rosie I wanted to keep and eat her up all at once. She just charmed the socks right off of me. The girls were all wonderful, and sweet and well behaved. It was truly a pleasure!

Here are some of the kids playing with Nate on the play structure.

More motivation:

So I promised more motivation in the cleaning deptartment. Lucky for you there is a never ending mess in my house for me to photograph!

Here is my office. It pretty much has looked like this since we moved in. It was the dumping ground and then when I'm in here I get online. Not very inspiring for scrapping either, so that is just tucked into boxes and sitting there.

So here is where I started:





and now? Ahhhh...much better! I'm feeling pretty inspired and am going to give my Motivated Mom's check sheets a whirl again, it should be easy now that the entire house is actually put together and this disaster is no longer hanging over my head!





I also did this today:



I'm sure everyone will be happy to play with me since I have no clue what I was doing. I haven't sat down and watched a football game in its entirety in 8 years. You just simply cannot have two parents not function for 3 hours because "the game is on!"

Kids really don't care. And so mom's get the raw end of the deal. Even mom's that knew more about football than their husbands did when they met. Even mom's who took stats all through highschool for the football team. Even mom's who watched their first superbowl at 5 months old...Yup. We have to change the diapers, cook the meals, and pay attention to the offspring, even.when.football.is.on. It just works out that way.

So that being said, I have no idea who is who. I knew Brett Favre. That is because he is older than dirt and was playing 8 years ago. Everyone else? I don't know. I only know Tony Romo is the QB for Dallas because he dated Jessica Simpson and they put that in People Magazine, and I used to read that all the time while I ignored my children at Papa and Noni's house on Sundays. ;)

Getting Organized

So anyone who knows me, knows that I'm forever trying out something new to get organized. I cannot stand clutter, messes, piles, yet I seem to be plagued by them constantly!

This year, like most years there is a major push to get organized as our kids go back to school. Nothing is worse than losing that paper you had to sign, or looking all afternoon for a lost assignment. But mixed in with the "stuff" that matters is the piles and piles of "stuff" that doesn't. Each day the kids come home with papers and artwork, and more papers and I'm supposed to care. And let me tell you, something went missing in my mom genes, because I just don't care about this stuff. I don't get sappy over the math paper that Kira got 100% or the billionth finger painting brought home by my kindergarten kid. I just see clutter, garbage, STUFF to deal with . *SIGH*

So anyway. My kids don't see it my way, and I just can't be cold hearted, even though I want to be on occasion. ;)

So while talking about solutions with some online friends the brilliant idea to have an art folder came up. I loved it and implemented it this weekend!

All it is are two poster boards taped together on three sides and decorated by the kids. They can put all the art they can fit into throughout the school year and they store them under the bed. Then at the end of the year we can sort through and choose a reasonable amount, put them in a scrapbook and start over again next year!

No more fights or hurt feelings that mommy doesn't think something is as valuable and worth keeping as they do, and I don't have to look at it piling up somewhere!

Here they are working on them, Evan thought this project was "Too boring". Oh well!
I told him to just write his name on it then and leave it blank, but he said he "At least has to draw a race track on it!"





This is the "after" Kira was proud and wanted me to keep taking pictures of her.
Evan was irritated and told me that he wasn't smiling and he wanted to go play now.

What my boy does after school...

So while Kira and I are in the land of pretty, clean, ballet studios and sipping Latte's at Starbucks, Evan is, well, being a boy.

His latest obsession? Catching toads and frogs. And boy are there tons of them to catch!

The tools of the trade? The pooper scooper.




The darn things keep getting down in the window wells of the basement, so Evan saves them with the pooper scooper.Here he demonstrates how it is done:





Then he plays with them then he dumps them in the far parts of the yard so they won't go back down there.




You see that really big guy in the picture? He just wouldn't behave himself. He kept climbing out and hopping away. Evan was not impressed and gave me the job of watching over him while he saved "his babies for him" (Every time he would put a tiny frog in the pot he would say "There is your daddy, don't worry, he's right there!")

He kept having to "talk" to him about his antics.
First he would catch him, because my "watching him" consisted of me saying, "Um Evan, your toad is leaving again".



Then he would catch him and say "Moooom! You are supposed to keep him IN there!"
Followed by "You need to stay in the pot with your children, they need their daddy!"




I think Evan needs his daddy too. He needs his DADDY to babysit the toads. Mommy is over that job. ;)

What my girl does after school...

Kira was a budding gymnast in Tucson. She truly is a natural at the sport, it comes easily and she "gets" it. But she doesn't want to be a gymnast she wants to be a ballerina. What can you do? So after doing her research (she asked the neighbor girl Rachel who is TEN and oh-so-cool which studio she danced at) it was decided. She goes for one hour a week. Which turns out to be a good thing because it is on the mainstreet in town and took us over 30 min. to get there during rush hour even though we live about 2 1/2 miles away. I don't think I can handle that more than once a week. I was tempted to dump her out of the car and have her walk. I'm still not convinced that wasn't a good idea, but since she is 7, and we just moved here...well you know.

I tried to get a picture of her grumpy expression, because as we are all aware, any time things go wrong and you can blame your mom, you should. She was so angry with me about the traffic. I was told "Can't you just *pass* someone" (Um no darling, we are in gridlock, there is nowhere to go) "Why are you going to make me late on my first day! I hate this traffic!" (Um...yes darling, we all hate traffic. It's especially lovely with a griping 7 year old in the back seat while you can't go anywhere). In addition to her frustration at being late, having me for a mother (geesh! what luck!), she was nervous. You see the accelerated 1 class was full. There was only one option. Ballet 2. Now she had ballet for an hour a week at the gym but she was convinced that it wasn't "Really, real" ballet and that she would not know what to do at all and she would "Probably mess up and look dumb". So anyway, I took her picture but she kept fake smiling. I said, "Why are you doing that, let me get a picture of you grumpy" and she said "Mom, you look ugly when you are grumpy and I'm smiling to be in a picture" (In that tone of voice that makes sure you know you are in fact an idiot)




So when we arrived 15 min. late she shoved her slippers on her feet, and when we opened the studio door was greeted by "KIRA!!! Kira! I didn't know you were in this class! Come sit by me!!!!" I apologized profusely and shut the door.



Then I walked outside and sighed with relief. I called Shawn and told him that by the time I manuevered the car out of my parallel parking spot and got home I would have to turn around and leave again, so I would just wait for her. He agreed.

So I stopped next door. Isn't this a lovely sight?



I ordered the just out Pumpkin Spice Latte. Oh, what a little piece of heaven!



Then I strolled down mainstreet. There were lots of cute little shops so I stopped in the bakery. The conversation that ensued was mind numbing.

I tried to get a quote on ballerina cookies with fondant. Lets just say that it was a nightmare. And while I'm all about supporting local business, I cannot support local morons just because they go into to business. Guess I'll be ordering my cookies online as I planned originally...

Then I found an old fashioned pharmacy. They sold candy out of pretty glass jars and the pharmacy counter had old signs one said "Biologicals" and they had tons of cool old bottles and stuff on display. I even saw "Pills for the bowels" :) I bought Shawn and the kids candy and then strolled back to get Kira. She was in better spirits, said "I think I did okay, I know how to do everything I'm just a little out of practice"

Today was ugly.

My to do list consisted of the dentist and laundry.





I'm going to go take a nap. :(

It's what we do.

Target. You know.

So today while I was being super motivated I decided that being Old Mother Hubbard wasn't going to work out much longer. And since I'd already decided that going back to bed was out I showered, got dressed (in a SWEATER! It was 49*F here folks! What is that?) and then made up a list. I picked up Evan at the bus stop and we headed to the store. Since I want to make a sort of "life" journal out of my blog I have been taking my camera with me to strange places. Target, being an integral part of my life, was no exception. If you are wondering if people were looking at me funny, they were. No worries, I haven't been embarrassed since I was teen and had to go to the mall with my parents...

So the first person to look at me funny was this kid (so I took a picture):



Our conversation went something like this:

"Mommy?! What are you DOING?"
"Taking your picture"
"At Target? You are just going to take my picture at Target?"
"Yes, do you think that is silly?"
"Um...yes. Can I have Pizza here?"

So you know, the first round of weird looks and questioning wound up not being too painful, so I continued on. ;)





Doing our part to stop the spread of the flu:



Then a little lunch, or in my case diet Pepsi, I can't eat any more pizza. That is all they do in this city.





This is how I shop. I'm sure Lorraine is having a heart attack. I still put my purse in my cart. I won't learn until someone snatches it I'm guessing. Sorry Lor, I don't mean to frustrate you, it just comes naturally. Ask my mother. :) (Hi mom!)




Then I got busy and forgot I was taking pictures, so I looked funny while we shopped with a monster camera around my neck. It didn't help my headache at all. So after I did this damage:




I came home and ordered this:





Isn't that cute! I love Etsy, this is from knittybitties shop on Etsy.com

YAY me! Now I'll be fashionable next time I venture out to T's with my camera. (I really need to look into a little point and shoot for days like this don't you agree?)