Funkiness and Princess Campouts

I just wanted to let ya'll know that I'm still here. I'm just in a major funk. I don't exactly know what kind of funk, but here are some things that have happened in the past couple weeks that have made me feel a little overwhelmed with life in general. It's nothing major, but all the little things can add up and cause me to just want to sit and watch TV and be very unproductive.

Everything I touch seems to break. My AC broke a couple of weeks ago. It's fixed, but still needs to be replaced because it has a leak. I've come to terms with it.

Our downstairs toilet had a leak. I couldn't actually see water leaking, but the wood around the toilet was slowly turning darker and darker. I called a plumber and $100 later we have a new wax ring under the toilet. The old one was completely smashed and the seal broken from all the plunging that has been done on it the past 7 years.

My telephone landline has a whole bunch of static on it and sometimes it completely goes out when it rains. According to the tests I did, it seems to be a problem with the wiring in our home which isn't covered by a free phone company repair. I can call them to check to see if it's on their end or ours, but if it ends up being our problem, then they charge me $85 to tell me that. So in the meantime, if you want to call me, check the weather before you call, because if it's raining you might not be able to get a hold of me until the weather dries up.

My van's check engine light came on Thursday. My van didn't have any "symptoms" but I thought it was a good idea to have it checked because I never want to be stranded on the side of the road in 90 degree weather with seven kids all by myself while we wait for help to arrive because there is also a good chance that I will forget my phone or that it will be dead. So I took the van to the shop before it could break down, and $535 later it's "fixed". I have no idea if I'm getting ripped off or not. Everything that my trustworthy mechanic tells me sounds right, but I just don't have the expertise to know for sure. It supposedly needed a new Mass Air Flow Sensor, which is not something you want to completely fail because it can cause stalling and stuff like that, which would be bad. I surely would've returned my iTouch if I knew I was going to have that hefty auto repair bill. Oh well. Too late! :)

I have siding and trim on my house that is rotting. Not a huge deal, but enough to to be a nuisance and make it frustrating to find someone to come out and repair it.

Then, the other night when I went to blog, Blogger was BROKEN. What is up with that?

Last weekend the entire family had a stomach bug. I think Bradley picked it up at the children's museum. We went there last Tuesday (May 3) and he got sick on Wednesday night. I was hoping it might have just been something he ate that didn't agree with him, but then Jason, Wendy, Rachel, and George all got sick on Friday night and Sarah on Saturday. I have to say that has got to be the biggest drawback of having a large family - the simultaneous puking children. The bug seemed to last about 24 hours, but I was the lucky one to have it on Mother's Day. Yay! David had it Monday. Emily never threw up, but she said she felt nauseous all day on Saturday. Something really cool though was that for the past two months George has had this gross goopey eye. Every morning he would wake up with his eyes gooped shut and his eyes would ooze all day long. I was getting a little annoyed with it and thought it must be blocked tear ducts because Bradley had that until he was 18 months. But when George woke up the morning after he puked, his eyes were completely clear and beautiful and have been every morning since. Also, I had a nasty sinus infection several days leading up to Mother's Day. I had a lot of unwelcome mucus that I was tired of dealing with, and it just wouldn't go away. But when I was through with my stomach bug, my sinus infection had cleared up, I could breath, and my mucus was no longer green. It was like the stomach bug kicked our immune systems into high gear and cleansed our bodies of all illness. It was pretty awesome.

So it was a total bummer to be sick on Mother's day, however, the good news is that I got an iPod Touch for Mother's Day. My husband totally randomly and impulsively picked it out on his trip to Walmart Saturday night. It's a good thing I was sick, because if I had been well, I surely would've had my head on straight and thought David spent too much money on my gift and probably returned it on Monday. But I was feeling miserable and just couldn't resist opening it and playing with my new toy while I recovered. It also helped me get over the fact that I couldn't eat the cheesecake my family bought for me.

I threw up about 5 minutes after taking this picture (I think I'm good at faking smiles.) I also got a 2.5 gallon lemonade dispenser (the big clear thing next to me.) David wrapped the iTouch and put it in the lemonade dispenser. He totally tricked me because I thought the iTouch was a box of lemonade mix or something like that. So as I opened it I was thinking, "Hmm...I wonder if it's pink or yellow or raspberry or cherry....." But I was totally wrong. It was Apple. 

So pretty much this whole post is about my vicious cycle of not blogging. I was in a funk, so I didn't blog, and when I don't blog regularly, it  discourages me from blogging even more because I feel like I am so far behind. Ug, did that make sense? Anyway, I'm ready for the school year to be done, get the house repairs finished, and move on to our summer schedule and regular blogging.

This weekend my husband took Bradley and Jason on a father/son campout. The girls, George, and I stayed home and had our own campout with tents in the family room, a princess tea party, and roasting marshmallows over candles. The girls all said it was the "best night ever!" I love that my girls are best friends and can have their own slumber parties. Sometimes I want to be one of my kids. Here are some pictures:

 The tea party portion of the campout.

Testing the tea with her fingers. I wonder what the Queen would think of this etiquette.

Wendy roasting marshmallows. She ate A LOT of them.

Sarah roasting a marshmallow.

Emily eating a smore.

The campground. 

We watched Phineas and Ferb and Funniest Home Videos until 1 AM while the boys slept in a tent during a thunderstorm in the forest. We were all tired the next day.

Ok, I think my blogging momentum is back. Blogging can be therapeutic.