Saturday, May 30, 2009

Best invention e.v.e.r.

Check this out, this is my before:
Yes, it's a big pile of mismatched, orphan socks. (And, yes, this is the second time I have placed this picture on my blog. It's my blog, and I can do what I want!)

But wait: (Drum roll please)
Now I own these:
http://www.sockpro.com/sockpro.htm

Oh yes, the sockpro. A veritable life saver for those of us with twelve feet in our homes. It looks like this: Is that not the best thing ever? Your socks go in together, come out together, and can even be put away together! Entire evenings have just opened up for me. *sigh*.

That's my update for tonight. Stay tuned for lots of pictures involving baseball, birthdays, and babies. (kids really, but that didn't go with the alliteration...)

Thursday, May 21, 2009

The hamster dance.

Connor has been getting an allowance for a few years now. What that means is that when we remember, we give him a few bucks to put in his bank. He has a bank that breaks up immediate spending money, donating money, and saving money into three separate places for him. He's been putting money into his saving place the entire time, and never spent a dime. He counted it the other day, and had just over $60.00. Pretty impressive I think! He would have had more had I not taken some for coffee money, but I digress.

Anyhoo, he decided he wanted to buy a hamster with this money. Originally he was going for a $100.00 Lego set, not sure what changed his mind. Maybe he figured the hamster would be an even bigger way to make a mess. Of course, 1200 legos would do the trick too....

He picked out a hamster and a cage. This cage in fact. Cool, no? He played with the hamster for a bit, and went off to bed. The next day he was full of hamster joy at church. Then came Monday.... (suspenseful music cue here...) Some time during Sunday night, a curious cat came into Connor's room and knocked the entire cage, yes the Crittertrail X, onto the floor. Lo and behold, one less hamster. We looked for a bit, with no luck. (Not only is it a hamster, but it's a dwarf hamster. It's like as big as the foot of a one year old. Not that I measured or anything... no way). My poor son went off to school so disappointed. I stayed home with Siobhan that day because she was sick, and I turned the house upside down. It turns out hamsters are really good hiders.

Tuesday we went to the store to find a new hamster, having given up hope on the old one. After a few let downs we did find a good one. New hamster in old cage, all was right in the world again. On Wednesday we brought the hamster in for "share" (What hamster hasn't dreamed of going to a first grade classroom, really?)

Wednesday night was interesting (suspenseful music....) At about 9:30 that night wihle I was checking out facebook doing some important computer work, I heard the most freaky, high pitched, scared scream I've ever heard. There was Al pointing at the stairs saying "hamster, hamster, hamster...." Yup, he's great with the beasts. The original hamster had returned to us. Oh good. Now we have two hamsters. Great. I am so happy. I scooped up that one and we made a temporary cage for it. She was filthy and starving, but she had survived.... (I'm hearing Gloria Gainer here...)

Today I ran out and got another cage. Now each kid has a hamster in their bedroom. Awesome, just what I always wanted....

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Consider yourself warned.

This too could happen to you when you have more children than hands. You could realize that. although you need to drag your still sleeping children out of bed at 7:30 on school days, they pop out of bed at 5:45 on weekends. You could also realize that you are all too happy to sacrifice your values of 'not too much TV' to get 'just a little more sleep' as you allow that box in the corner to babysit your children in the morning. While you are sacrificing your values catching up on sleep, you may also realize that your children have decided to be helpful and make their own breakfast. In so doing, there is now milk and cereal all over the floor, counters, and couches. But still, it was worth the extra ten minutes of sleep. When you wake up, your four year old may ask to paint. Of course you want to encourage this artistic experimentation, so you set her up with paints and brushes. Now you also notice that the paint cabinet is full of (now blue) barbie doll clothing, so you go ahead and clean that up. While you are cleaning, the one year old decides that she too would like to paint. (Thankfully the seven year old is downstairs erasing brain cells in front of the ninja turtles watching educational programming on TV, and doesn't get involved in the painting). As you come back from cleaning up the barbies, you will notice that your one year old is now covered in every color paint there is. So, you take her and bring her to the shower, where your husband is showering. She gleefully joins him in the shower. So, you return back to cleaning up barbie, and overseeing the painting. You notice a few red and blue footprints into the bathroom, so you clean those up (along with the offending feet). After a few hours of painting, she's finally done, and she goes ahead to clean up. You, in the meantime, have gone downstairs to fix more breakfast (and clean the first breakfast up) and left the painting oversight to your husband.

As you go up to put the kids to bed, you notice that the bathroom looks like a art festival crime scene, with paint all over the vanity, doors, walls, and floor. You ask your husband about this and he says, "Yeah, I thought I noticed that earlier". You tell your four year old to clean it up, and notice she's enjoying it. You certainly don't want that, so you tell her to just go to bed. You also tell her she can't paint for two weeks. As she asks you what that means, you wish you had said two years. After you tuck everyone in you get the laundry, which looks like this:
Yes, that is a mountain of socks. In fact, that is a mountain of unmatched socks. This is how I spend evenings now, matching socks.

This, boys and girls, is what can happen when you have more children than hands.
'

Tuesday, May 5, 2009

huh.

Aisling ate dinner tonight wearing an inner tube. An inner tube like from our pool. She had it around her waist for all of dinner. Each time she had to get up, she moved her arms and head as though she was swimming. It was weird. (And a tad silly). The other day, she was walking around in one winter boot telling everyone she had broken her leg. She's got an imagination, that one!