Hallelujah!

The baby miraculously slept from 10PM to 7AM last night. I actually had a decent night's rest besides having to tend to Jason at 4:30 AM. He was requesting a reassembly of his bottle that he disassembled before falling asleep. Jason doesn't quite understand the concept of a pacifier. He much prefers sucking on an empty bottle. Whatever works!

Vocabulary Lesson

I played Mad Libs with my kids yesterday. It was a good combination of fun and education. I got a bit bored with their choice of nouns and adjectives though. Come on, kids. House? Couch? Blue? Pink? I had to do it. I had to introduce them to how to really play Mad Libs. Now my kids can spell poop, boobies, stinky, and farty. They caught on quickly. After language arts class we moved onto food science and ate Cookie Dough ice cream, saved the cookie dough pieces and baked tiny cookies.

"Honey, I'm Home!"

Store brand Honey Nut Toasted oats were on sale at the grocery store. I told David to buy all that they had. He came home with 2 dozen boxes. If times get tough, we'll be eating lots of cereal and tuna!

I'm Getting Old

I'm getting old. The American Idol boy contestants are "cute" not "hot", I have hemorroids, I am falling asleep during prime time, and last night I dreamt I was knitting. I'm going to buy some prunes, yarn, and Preparation H this weekend.

I think I am going to stick with Blogger for little while longer. I've got too many other things to do right now like take care of my kids and write food storage hymns. Motherhood has got to be the best job in the world. Tonight I sat on the couch and held my baby as I watched Spy Hard.

"You're going to look like Swiss cheese when they find you!"
"That's no Gouda!"

Agent WD-40: Operator, get me Washington.
Operator: George?
Agent WD-40: D.C.

~INSERT ELEVATOR MUSIC~

Excuse me for not posting. I think I am going to make the switch to Wordpress. I need a moment to think.

Stay tuned.

Testing

Testing

I've Been Tagged

Thank goodness I've been tagged because I didn't have anything to write about today.

Here's the ABC's of me. If your name is under T, it's your turn.

A-Attached or Single: Single. Just gave birth and loving having my body all to myself.
B-Best Friend: My husband
C-Cake or Pie: Is cheesecake pie or cake?
D-Day of Choice: Friday/ Date Night
E-Essential Item: King size bed
F-Favorite TV Show: The Brady Bunch
G-Gummie Bears or Worms: Gummy worm buried in a flower pot of chocolate cake and crushed Oreos
H-Hometown: Rochester, NY
I-Indulgence: Pedicure and new clothes
J-January or July: July because it's warm.
K-Kids: Emily, Bradley, Sarah, Wendy, Jason, Rachel ...
L-Life is incomplete without: kids, M&Ms, ice cream cones, roller coasters
M-Marriage Date: April 21, 2000
N-Number of Siblings: 1 older brother and 1 older sister
O-Oranges or Apples: oranges - big, juicy and seedless
P-Phobias or Fears: hypochondria; hitting a pedestrian with my car; being chased and attacked by the Fruit of the Loom apple and green grapes
Q-Quote: "Just do it"
R-Reason to Smile: kids, family, Disneyland
T-Tag: Amber - she's the only person who reads my blog who has a blog (that I know of)
U-Unknown fact about me: I'm a highly evolved human with only 3 wisdom teeth.
V-Vegetarian or Oppressor of Animal: Omnivore
W-Worst Habit: Interupting my husband when he's talking; leaving junk on the printer, leaving the toilet seat lid up (all pointed out to me by my husband)
X-X-rays or Ultrasounds: Ultrasound
Y-Your Favorite Food: Japanese OR 7 oz. Flo's Filet with Ceasar salad, baked sweet potato, hot baked bread, Mr. Pibb, and a Chocolate Stampede.
Z-Your Zodiac: Cancer

A Mardi Gras Retro Post

So I'm just too tired today to find anything remotely cute, amusing, or interesting. But I posted this picture of Jason celebrating Mardi Gras on Feb. 5.

Oink

Tonight we celebrated David's mom's stay here. We went to a very yummy steakhouse. We concluded the meal with the obligatory Chocolate Stampede. The eight of us ravaged it like a flock of vultures. In the middle of the decadent dessert feast Wendy shouted, "Mommy!" And I said "Yes?" And with her characteristic cheesy smile and chocolate mousse covered lips she very proudly said, "I a pig!"

This is the way we wash our linens...all on a Sunday evening.

A little over 2 years ago David and I upgraded to a king size mattress. (Best purchase ever!) At Bed Bath & Beyond I debated over whether to buy the $30 regular mattress pad or the $80 waterproof one. I figured since we have small children and plan to have small children for many more years, that the extra $50 was a worthwhile investment to protect my pretty new white mattress. Today that investment proved its worth. As we awoke from our family nap on the master bed, Bradley commented, "Daddy, my leg is wet." Sure enough Sarah had predictably peed on our quilt, the quilt under the quilt, the blanket under the two quilts, the flat sheet, and the fitted sheet right through to the mattress pad. Now I get to spend the rest of my Sabbath day doing 5 loads of laundry. I'll be sure to sing some hymns as I do my happy Sabbath cleaning.

The Pumpkin Grape

The picture is kind of blurry, but it's the best one I got. The kids found this grape in the bunch today. It's kind of like Siamese octuplet grapes. Way cool!

A Belly Button is Born

The baby lost her umbilical cord today. Yeah! She's 3 weeks + 3 days old.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

One Reason We Don't Have Pets

"Wendy did it!"

The other reasons:

1. If we are going to feed another mouth, it might as well be a human's.

2. We've got enough potty training to do.

3. Don't want to find a pet sitter when we go on vacation.

4. We already have a security system.

5. The kid's haven't asked for one.

6. We'd have to fence our yard in (for a dog.)

7. I don't want to be forced to exercise at 6am (or at all for that matter.)

8. Our house already stinks enough.

Isn't She Beautiful?

And while I'm bragging, I must finally break down and boast about my baby's tongue. I've been holding back the past few weeks, too afraid I might render some unnecessary envy in other mothers. But I must admit my baby has the most beautiful, long, and succulent tongue. It was apparent immediately at birth. Take a look:

No Bikini Model Yet

I have a baby with a stubborn umbilical cord. I was told 2 weeks is the average time it takes for the stump to fall off. She is 3 weeks old today. My oldest daughter is extremely grossed out by the nasty, black, crusty, but also pussy stump. Today as I was examining it to see if there was any hope that it would fall off before swimsuit season, I felt a sucker punch to my upper left arm. I turned to the culprit, Emily, and asked, "What the heck was that for?" She gave a disgusted grimace and said, "Don't touch that!" This is also the same kid whose two front loose baby teeth are turning yellow in death because she refuses to wiggle them out. I think it is safe to guess she will not become a doctor or dentist.

Answer to Yesterday's Word Problem

Answer: 270 "Mommy!"'s

Bonus Question Answer:
There's no telling because if I tune them out I can't count them. However, an educated guess would be 250.

Word Problem

Today I had a goal of counting how many times Wendy said, "Mommy!" in her little munchkin voice. The experiment began at 7am. I counted to the 30th "Mommy!" when at 8am I began to inadvertently tune them out and lose count. So can you figure out today's word problem?

Word Problem:
Assuming 2 year old Wendy maintains an average rate of 30 "Mommy!"'s per hour, how many "Mommy!"'s will be spoken during her 9 waking hours?

Bonus Question:
How many "Mommy!"'s will be tuned out by her mother?

Answer will be revealed tomorrow.

I have a 16 month old insomniac

I don't know how Jason functions on so little sleep. Last night as David and I were retiring to bed at about 1am, we walked past the boy's room and Jason was sitting straight up in his crib, babbling away. He continued to talk for the next hour .....and the next hour .....and the next hour. I heard him at 4am still carrying on a one-sided conversation. Unfortunately, I had difficulting sleeping as well, worrying about the fact that my child is a freak. I thought surely he would be difficult to wake up this morning. But he was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 7am. I decided this morning I'll attibute the insomnia to what any good great-grandma or grandma would say, "He must be teething," or "He was probably hungry."

Excited About Tuna

I got home from the grocery store last night at 10:00pm, excited to tell my husband about my great deal on tuna. Tuna deals are hard to come by, so when I saw that I could get 4 cans/ $1.00, I loaded up the cart. However, when I checked out, the manager came up to me and told me that there was a limit of one deal per customer. What?! I told him I would only take four. So he and the teenage checker unloaded the unwanted tuna cans onto the vacant checkout stand. Then as the checker continued to check out the rest of my items, the manager had a brilliant idea that allowed him to give me all 84 cans of tuna for $0.25 each. You rock Donny Taylor! He even helped me out to my car and unloaded them in my trunk. I am so stoked to have saved $33.62 on tuna! The young, single girl behind me commented that it was a lifetime supply of tuna. But I estimate that it is about a 6 month supply for our family. I should've bought more.

Also, I paid $0.09 for an 18oz. jar of peanut butter (Buy One Get One Free + $1.00 off coupon.) And Bradley's favorite chicken nuggets were on sale. I love grocery bargains! Overall I got about $170 worth of groceries for $95. Now, that's what I call "shopping!"

A Daddyless Breakfast

Daddy attended a church broadcast this morning. I let the kids get their own breakfast. Somebody chose a bowlful of Goldfish. Wendy poured herself some Froot Loops.



I learned from Jason's leftovers that if there is no loop in a Froot Loop, he won't eat it.

Don't forget please, thank you and nicely.

The other day Wendy wanted a cup of water at dinner. She asked David and me and we both replied, "Later. Let us finish our dinner." She continued to complain so I finally said to her, "I'll bet Sarah will help you. Why don't you ask her nicely?" With a look of agreement Wendy turned to her older sister and sweetly asked, "Sarah, will you get me some water, nicely?"

Cable Frustration

Woo hoo! I think my internet frustrations have come to halt. I have been neglecting my blog recently because my internet and/or computer have been functioning at dial-up speeds, despite the fact that we have cable internet service. This morning our connection was completely gone and I called Comcast and the lady must have pushed her magic button after we power cycled our modem and router because everything was solved. I feel like I am surfing the web at ligntning speeds. Just had to tell you all that.

Congratulations to Baby Gunter! So glad he finally arrived!

A Mardi Gras Celebration

Today Jason got into the spirit of Mardi Gras.

Our First Annual Puppy Bowl Party

Most Americans sat and watched the Super Bowl this evening. Our family watched Puppy Bowl IV on Animal Planet HD. The kids really enjoyed it.

Murphy's Law

Yesterday when I was on my cleaning binge, two main chores I accomplished were washing the girls' bedding and mopping the kitchen floor. Last night Emily puked on her nice clean sheets and Bradley spilled 2 quarts of pink lemonade on my nice clean tile floor. Sigh! You gotta love those kids!

Happy 4th Birthday, Sarah!

A Chair Full of Treasures

Today is my mom's last day here, so I decided to get a head start on my spring cleaning. I vacuumed and Febreezed the couch and chair. As I scooped out the sides and back of the chair, I found a multitude of items. Here is my list:

2 toy curling irons
1 calculator (now I can return the one I bought last night)
2 fake gold coins
2 green colored pencils
1 large Lincoln Log
1 Barbie playing card
1 stencil ruler
1 Mickey Mouse memory card
1 mini tambourine
1 triangle Magna Doodle piece
1 lavender hair bow
1 Cherokee clothing tag (clearance)
1 orange crayon with wrapper
1 orange crayon without wrapper
1 necklace
1 red counting bear
1 piece of green balloon
1 red rubber band
1 yellow rubber band
5 staples
1 AA battery
pine needles
1 chocolate chip
1/2 M&M
1 mini princess crown
1 green button
the battery cover for the cable remote control
1 yellow Aqua Dot
1 used Band Aid
1 mini pine cone
1 toy pizza cutter blade
1.5 inches of pink curling ribbon
1 tiger magnet
1 Christmas tree hook
1 Minnie Mouse picture
1 rubber bumper from a cupboard door
1 Capital One fake credit card

...and yes, I just spent 10 minutes or so documenting all that.