Welcome To Crazy Town, I Am The Mayor

This past weekend was crazier than a Chihuahua peeing on a Bulldog's house. It started on Friday when my sister dropped off her three kids to spend the night. I adore my nieces and nephew, but combining them with my kids is like those baking soda volcanoes you make in Science class. It's loud, explosive and bound to be a little messy.

Around this time we also got a call to show the house three times that day (I may or may not have good news about this ;) )with the first showing being within 30 minutes of the call. I have discovered that having older children is very handy when you have a bunch of things to get done at once. I got out my whip and lion tamer's chair and put them to work getting the baby ready, leash on the dog and clean some glass. I was trying to get all the kids out of the house, the husband and the dog; when the first viewers were on the front porch.
Since we had to be gone from the house for about 4 hours, we decided to drive up to The Dream House and look around the property. It's about a hour trip and let me tell you...6 kids, 2 adults and a dog in a minivan is not conducive to The Sobriety Wagon. Once we got there and everyone had their legs stretched and wiggles out; we got back in the van and looked for somewhere to eat. I preferred somewhere with a drive through trough and an interior car wash...but we settled for some burgers and fries. Holy Cow...preteens can put away some food! As we were starting to pull out of the driveway, our dog flipped out.

He jumped around the crowded van and ended up getting his leash caught around Buzz. It took picking him up and almost choking him to death to get the two unraveled. Buzz got some nice bruises from the incident (the kind that you don't want to take her out in public because of what someone might think) The Head Crayon got a fingernail ripped off and there was some biting going on. I believe all 6 children were screaming at some point, dog barking, husband shouting orders and me...I was making some kind of weird instinct whimpering. There ended up being blood everywhere and one of my nieces took to being the Florence Nightingale of the group and passing out bandages to the wounded soldiers.

We got home and everyone had to take their baths. I stood outside the bathroom door doing something that I swore I would never do.

You got 5 minutes, soap it off and get out!

Bedtime was an interesting affair as everyone wanted to sleep (insert weird typing format...so sorry!)
on the special bounce bounce bed (blow up mattress) Once it was decided who would sleep where, the whole house got really quiet and I finally took a breath.

I am Mayor of Crazy Town.

BTW...I am having a giveaway.
Does this strike your fancy? Click the giveaway tab

Blah Blah Blogging

Another edition of Blah Blah Blogging.

Trying very hard to balance between common sense and lunacy packing. We needed to reduce the amount of "stuff" in the house so that it shows well, so we started packing it up. We have had 2 favorable showings, but no contract as of now. The inside of the house has been scrubbed and polished to a spit shine. Honestly, I don't like being in the house, the neatness and reduction of personal items is a bit disconcerting. I really pray that this house sells. I am so ready to move and just "get 'er done." I want to keep packing on faith, so there is not so much to do later...that is where the lunacy comes in. So when in doubt; do nothing.

The kiddos have been wonderful help (HAHAHAHA!) in this whole adventure. Somewhere in a box that got sealed up is my toothbrush and a whole pack of Pull-Ups. Belly was packed for a moment, but we found her pretty fast. They are reacting to the turmoil in the home with predictable behavior. Much is being looked over and excused for now.

Personally, I am very tired. We have taken this Day of Rest, for a day of rest. I think The Man and I really needed it. In addition to the physical work we have been doing, there is the emotional work of praying for the house to sell or His Will to be revealed in our living situation.

Baby Emily is a top floor kind of girl. I still have a ways to go in this pregnancy; but if her crowding the top levels is any indication of things to come, I can go ahead and hang up being able to breathe at 30+ weeks.

Alright, I will admit it. This has been a pretty boring post. I think my humor is taking a day of rest as well. I also have some belly shots to catch up on and I don't think I have taken any pics of the kids lately to show off. *Sigh*

Award, hacksaws and clean spots

The Splash Award is given to alluring, amusing, bewitching, impressive, and inspiring blogs.

When you receive this award, you must: Put the logo on your blog/post. Nominate & link up to 9 blogs which allure, amuse, bewitch, impress or inspire you. Let them know that they have been splashed by commenting on their blog. Remember to link to the person from whom you received your Splash Award.

Thank you to My Little Life AND MannLand for the nominations. Yes dude...I got the award from two different people. Irockthis!

My nominations are...(envelope please)
Outnumbered by Testosterone
Become What You Are
A Silly Little Sparrow
Rachel's
(Following in my predecessors footsteps, I am not going to make it to 9. Does not mean I don't find your blog "Splash worthy" but I can't seem to find my links right now.)

Thanks again ladies.

You know those creepy movies about haunted houses in which the walls move and doors disappear? Yeah, I have one of those houses. I decided to return my oh-so-expensive-ate-a-hot-pepper-to-get blinds (since we might move) and just get some from Walmart. I measured the windows (for serious) three, maybe four times. I actually used a tape measure instead of measuring with the length of my arm like I do for the kids clothes. I know my measurements were right. KNOW IT! I wrote the numbers down and picked up the blinds. By the time I made it home, the windows had shrunk about 1/4 of an inch. Seriously, they did. My measurements were correct. What's a girl to do?

Hacksaw.

Look a little bit above the toolbox containing hacksaw and see reciprocating saw.

Look above that and see gas powered chainsaw.

Have some common sense and use the reciprocating saw.

Realize it needs a blade.

Now it needs a battery.

Now I need a clamp for the blinds to hold them still.

.02 seconds into it, battery dies.

Go for the hacksaw.

Realize my elbows are not meant for this.

Leave all tools, pieces, blinds and curse words in the garage for The Man to deal with tomorrow.

And THAT is exactly what a girl should do. Or use the chainsaw after all. I wouldn't steer you wrong here.

So I now am sitting here in front of the computer and in front of blindless windows (because putting it off until tomorrow is something a man should do) feeling very self aware, trying to remember to not scratch my butt for fear a neighbor will see...and you know how rumors start. It's been a long week, mainly due to the wonderful cleaner I bought to remove some smudges on the wall thank you children, and it became one of those "Holy-cow-I-just-made-a-clean-spot" moments. I tried to smudge the spot back up, because I didn't want to have to deal with cleaning all the walls to match the clean spot, but I don't have the needed ickiness on my hands that children are born with. Now I am doomed to go room to room making sparkly clean walls. At this rate, I will be to worn out to nest.

BTW, I am aware that my typing format is all jacked up, I am dealing with it; hope you are too.

Toodle-dee-doodle-doo.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

So, how does it? Is it like mine, 2 feet in one week? Seriously, I do not use fertilizer (I would NOT make more work for myself) and have even considered spraying some type of killer all over it or having the yard concreted. Nevertheless, that stuff called sunshine and rain is working overtime in my neck of the woods.

Yeah, mowing is typically the man's job, but we agreed that if we (I) got a (dog) poop in the backyard that I would be the one to mow.

The last time I mowed, the lawn mower kept stopping up (it does that with 2 foot tall grass) and The Man fixed it for me. Today, I discovered how he fixed it. Simply took that little flap off the back. Ya know, the flap that keeps grass from shooting out all over your legs? Ummmm.....not the solution I had envisioned.

....and it still stops up.

After finally getting the lawn mowed (took 2 hours having to unstop it every 10 feet and even my elderly neighbor urged me to kick and cuss the stupid thing) I was covered in clippings with no less than 30 bruises on my legs. Bruises you ask? Yes. Not only does it shoot the grass out at 45 mph, but also small twigs and the rocks I didn't pick up.

Then there was the incident involving the $50 water hose (The Man had to have) that was nicely coiled up in the 2 foot grass. Green hose + green grass = incident. The kids are thrilled with their new sprinkler though.

I put the blade down to scalp height but know that I will probably have to mow again in 3 days. *Sigh* I am going to have to look into that concrete option.

Random picture I want to share with you...do I have these kids trained or what?

Life Buffet Style - All You Can Eat

Last night as I was going to bed, I was thinking about what all I had to get done. 'Cause that always makes for a peaceful drop off into sleep oblivion. Ummm-no. It got me to wondering about the phrase "my plate is full." Which got my always hungry mind to think about an "All You Can Eat Buffet"

It's funny how your mind makes comparisons of things at 1am.

Life really is like an "All You Can Eat Buffet"

You get a plate (Your Life) and go from section to section to see what you want to eat (Choices you make for your life) As you move from the fried chicken, pot roast, ham and b.b.q; you begin to put a little of each that looks good onto your plate. Then you hover over the beans, peas, corn, casseroles, etc. All the while putting small portions of everything that looks good on your plate. By the time you lug your 30lb plate back to the table, you look at your bounty and wonder how on earth am I going to eat all of this? It all looked so good at the time that you had to grab it, but once you got a portion of each; it is way too much for you to actually eat. Talk about feeling overwhelmed.

The strangest thing about feeling overwhelmed is that you chose to put every item on your plate. (Committed to your choices) You did not have to get all 6 meats offered, you could have chosen just one. If you did finish your smaller portions, you can always go back and try something else if you are still hungry.

How about making a choice in your life to simply your plate? Decide on the few things that look really good and see if you have room for the ice cream with sprinkles at the end.

Make sense? Well, it did at 1am.

Cake Zombies

My children are very much like the zombies portrayed in older movies; minus the gore of course. Not the new zombies that are fast, agile and cunning; but the ones that stumble around slowly, beat on doors/windows in slow motion, hold their arms out in front of them and moan about "brrraaaaiinnss" non-stop.

It seems that all day they follow me around chanting "juice, cookie, gummy, etc." like little zombies. Yesterday was MIL's birthday and I begged The Man to watch them so that I could run to the store alone to pick up the cake, but he could not do it for some reason. (Reason still unknown and unconfirmed) So I loaded up the zombies and headed to the store. As soon as they saw the white bakery box, the chanting started.

"caaaaakkkeeee caaaaakkkeee"

This continued for the next 2 hours until we made it to MIL's house and handed her the cake. At first, she did not want to cut the cake because she wasn't hungry and something about being almost 80 years old make you lose your childish joy of birthday cakes. Soon the chants became too loud and I cut the thing just to stop the noise.

Zombies appeased. For now.

In other news...

The days of Buzz swiping what she wants from Belly are over. I kept warning her that the day was coming that her little sister was going to start fighting back. Retribution Day is here. Belly has finally figured out that not only does she outweigh her big sister by a good 10 lbs, but that big sister is really a wus when it comes to confrontation. After much hair pulling, pummeling, screeching and some pinching, domianance is established. The "dominant one"? Me, with the sprayer from the sink; hosing them down like dogs. (Never get in the middle of a fight when biting is involved!) There is a new respect between sisters now and I doubt Buzz is going to tangle too much with her WWF little sister.

We have a busy weekend in front of us and Monday can't come soon enough.
Toodles for now.