Love at First Sight

So a few weeks ago there was a good deal on Woot for the Shark Pocket Mop. I don't usually like gimmicky cleaning gadgets because they are more of a disappointment than the awesomeness they portray on the infomercial. But I couldn't pass it up because it was about half of the retail price. I figured if I didn't like it, I could probably Craigslist it for close to the amount of what I paid for it. Well, it arrived, and of course it didn't perform as awesomely as I hoped it to. However, I am well aware that there is no miracle solution to cleaning a kitchen floor of the dirt and grime that comes along with a nine member family. I still love Shark though. She doesn't make the job go any faster, but I like the fact that she steams the floor and sanitizes it for at least the next day for when George eats food off the floor. The best part about her arrival was that she is the perfect companion for Dyson.

It was love at first sight and they celebrated their first Valentine's Day today.

Jason and Sarah. I think the throat hold just looks so loving.

We don't normally celebrate V-day on the 14th because I don't like spending full price on flowers and chocolate, but my husband broke the rules and bought flowers for the girls from the boys. I suppose it's my fault, because I asked my husband to pick up some milk, butter, and bananas on his way home from work and he got sucked into the peer pressure of all the other husbands at the store buying stuff for their wives.

Rachel admiring her carnation. She was the rebellious girl today that didn't wear pink, red, or hearts.

Wendy thought the girls' flowers were better than Mommy's flowers because they were bigger. She hasn't caught on that carnations are a B list flower. The white ones will make good science experiements though, when we put them in a glass of colored water. 

(I can't help but be practical and educational with my flower receiving.)

My pink roses. Whenever my husband buys me flowers I can't help but think of what kind of dent it put in my budget. I really do appreciate them. But I appreciate even more the grocery store sushi my husband brought home along with the flowers. I love grocery store California Rolls!

Can you see my new cabinet behind me? Remember way back in January when I had a Solution Resolution to fix my kitchen counter clutter? Well I did get that accomplished. I still need to post 'after' pictures, after I get my kitchen counters cleared....AGAIN! 

My next door neighbor brought over a 7 oz. giant Hershey Kiss today that she got at work. She didn't want it because she doesn't eat milk chocolate (Why doesn't she eat milk chocolate? I don't know.) But we graciously accepted it. In order to serve it fairly, we had to weigh each serving to make sure each child got exactly 1 oz. I like to call it Chocolate Math Class.

George enjoying his ounce of milk chocolate.

The kids did some artwork today. I really liked what Emily painted. 

Tomorrow we will continue our annual tradition of shopping for chocolate the day after Valentine's Day at 50% off. Another Chocolate Math Class. 

In other news: I went to the doctor again today for a regularly scheduled prenatal checkup. My abdominal aching returned yesterday afternoon and it radiates to my back. He agreed to scan my gallbladder, but they didn't find anything. I'm beginning to think it's simply just mid-back pain due to a shift in my center of gravity, since my belly significantly popped out about a week ago. It doesn't feel very digestive system related anymore, but rather more muscular-skeletal. Pregnancy in my 30's isn't what it was like in my 20's. It's no wonder that pregnancy at age 35+ is labeled a "Geriatric Pregnancy". So, I'm not going to be paranoid about it and I'm NOT going to Google any symptoms because it will only cause me to stress and not blog, and we can't have that!

Or or oar or ore?

[Ok, so the title of this post has nothing to do with what it is about. It's just a question the kids came up with at lunch today while we were talking about the difference between "ore" and "oar".]

On with the post...

I am dragging my reluctant fingers to the keyboard to do something other than check Facebook or Pinterest. I am self-diagnosing myself with ADD. I just can't keep my brain focused. I'm sure it has nothing to do with raising and homeschooling seven kids, I'm just....well, here's a picture....wait.....let me tell you about Sarah's birthday......in a minute. I want to show you a picture....no wait, let me tell you how this past week the stomach bug went through our home. Ug. Yes, it was yuck and I'm just recovering.....ok here's the picture: (That's just a glimpse of how my brain has been functioning lately. Annoying, right? And if you can translate my unfocusedness into housecleaning, you might be able to imagine what my house looks like. Everything is either 1/4, 1/2 or 3/4 of the way clean, with an emphasis on 1/4.)

This year I was going to write a To Do List at the beginning of each month for all the things I wanted to accomplish that month. January's list was pretty successful. Over a week ago I sat down to write my To Do List for February and this is how far I got because I got distracted. Needless to say, you can't go very far on a To Do List if you can't even To Do writing the list!

OK, back to the stomach bug. Wendy started it on Monday and she had it for two days. Usually if sickness goes around our house, more than one kid will get sick. But she was the only one, which led me to wonder if she had appendicitis or something because she was complaining about her lower abdomen hurting before the puking started. Then I got paranoid about the undercooked hot dogs we ate on Sunday, and I was afraid she had Listeriosis, and that I would have it too, and it would kill my fetus. (Listeria can do that.) But then Emily and Bradley both got sick on Wednesday evening, followed by Sarah and Rachel on Thursday evening. (I will admit I secretly rejoiced when the two kids who did not eat hot dogs (Emily and Rachel) threw up and I was able to throw my Listeria paranoia out the window. I think George had the illness in the form of a liquid diaper, and Jason seemed to miraculously get by unscathed. We think it might have to due to him eating so much fruit to keep is immune system going. Thankfully the bug seemed to be a sort of 24-48 hour thing depending upon how long the child wanted to milk it for some TV time. My husband and I both had something funky going on too, but no throwing up, thank goodness. We were just both very tired and I had a very bad crampy feeling in my upper abdomen ALL week! At first I thought it was just growing pains of my expanding belly, but by day five I thought it might be something else. I went to the doctor and he diagnosed me as having "The Bug". I totally thought I had gallbladder issues, but I started feeling great as of Saturday afternoon. 

The good news is my doctor was not busy the day I went in. I told him he was torturing me by having me wait until the 28th to find out if I am having a boy or girl. So he said, "Do you want to find out today?" Without hesitation I said, "Of course!!!" So he led me down the hall for a complimentary "Social Ultrasound." But I'm going to keep you in suspense for now because I feel like I cheated by getting a sneak peek. I get my official anatomy scan on the 28th to make sure she has a heart, brain, etc. Did I say 'she'? I meant 'he'. Now I've got you confused. At least we know he/she has at least one hand:

A few fun things have happened since I last posted. Here they are in pictures:

Rachel's Birthday on January 22

 

Can you guess how old she is?  She's either 4.....

....or 44. (Emily decorated the cake.)

She got a Spongebob Barbie from us.

Sarah's Turned 8!

I guess there is no theme to the birthday cakes this year.  This year I have ADD, not OCD.

Sarah got baptized on Groundhog's Day.

Daddy baptized her.

A group shot.

The next day I put my free labor to work and we painted a section of our fence in desperate need of paint.

The next day I painted our bedroom. I don't have a good picture yet. The color is called "Moondance". I thought it was a light blue, but it's actually a light grey. I'm not 100% happy with the color, but it's better than the pink we had for the past 3 years when we traded rooms with the girls.

That's all for now. Dentist appointments tomorrow. The kids are looking forward to theirs. I'm not looking forward to mine.

And since you have been so patient to get this far in my post, I'll let you in on a little secret.....It's a Girl!