THE GOOD , THE BAD AND THE UGLY

So I am feeling bad about writing pretty much nothing of substance on this blog of mine as of late. But as I have mentioned in the measly 3 posts I have managed to write this month; things have been a special sort of crazy around here.

What has this month consisted of?

Getting the Christmas tree up and decorated, stockings up on the mantle, other Christmas decor out of boxes and strategically placed around the house, shopping for gifts, wrapping gifts, shopping some more, wrapping some more, crying about how much was spent, wrapping some more, going to Holiday parties, keeping the kids from eating every last Christmas cookie and Holiday treat at said parties, finishing up last minute shopping, making sure every child has exactly the same amount of gifts under the tree, as if one child has 4 and the other has 5, there would be hell to pay..... And in the middle of all this there was still the standard getting the kids to and from school, managing after school activities, homework, play dates, and all that other good stuff.... Christmas Eve morning was spent opening presents at our house, and attempting to get the toys they were given out of the boxes [which we all know is next to impossible with all the twisty ties, tape and other crap they use to make certain they are not removed easily.]Christmas Eve afternoon was spent at The Mr's side opening gifts and eating dinner, Christmas Eve evening [sounds weird, but you get what I am saying] was spent at home preparing for Santa, Christmas morning we were up at the crack of dawn with 4 out of 5 of our little monkeys at our bedside begging to go downstairs to see what Santa brought, opening Santa gifts, cleaning up mounds of wrapping paper, bows, tissue paper and boxes, Christmas afternoon was spent at my parents house opening gifts and having dinner while the kids played.

Whew.

And that wasn't the end of it.

After all of this, the kids still had another FULL week off of school. So this week we have been keeping busy building lego castles, meeting friends for play dates, playing new video games, breaking up fights, coloring, crafting, making creations with their new Bendaroo's, managing 4 very overtired kids from all of the holiday festivities, and dealing with their incessant ramblings of, "I am sooo bored! There is nothing to doooo!"

On top of all this I have a baby that will take a nap lasting no longer than 20 minutes during the day - which makes it next to impossible to get anything accomplished. You know, like throw in a load of laundry, make lunch, pry Anthony and Lucas apart after their wrestling turned into an all out brawl, change the sheets on Ava's bed after Liv decided she didn't want to use the toilet and peed all over them...

Wow. Now that was one hell of a tangent. My sincerest apologies for the tremendous amounts of run on sentences and general lack of flow of this here masterpiece. All this stuff is just pouring out faster than my hands can type - forget about it sounding good, right?

So there you have it, a little bit of the bad, a little bit of the ugly.

I must say, not all of it was bad. Actually, I believe the good most definitely outweighed the bad. You are probably thinking, "yah, right lady, you just bitched and moaned for paragraphs on end about how much work was put into it and what a pain in the ass it all was. What could possibly have been good about it for you?" And I would understand this train of thought, but as I have said before, I am all about keeping it real. And the Holiday season is not all about carolers happily knocking on your front door singing beautiful Christmas songs, sipping egg nog at the kitchen table while the kids play peacefully by the tree with their toys, family gathering around the fireplace reminiscing about Christmas' past.... You get what I am saying, it ain't all sunshine and roses all of the time.

With that said, we really did have some great moments. Breakfast with Santa...

As you can probably tell from the pictures, this event was very successful, with everyone enjoying themselves to the full extent. Well, I should say everyone but my Liv Grace. Don't get me wrong, she was a delight the whole time - except when Santa came anywhere near her. When this happened, she went into a sort of panic I have never seen before. Her eyes widened, her legs began to shake and she would cry like she had just seen a horrible goulish monster. Aunt Cindy and I took turns holding her and comforting her whenever the big horrible monster, AKA Santa, came within 20 feet of her. This seemed to keep her panic attacks at bay for the remainder of the Breakfast.

And to think she was the one who could not stop talking about meeting Santa, hugging him and sitting on his lap for days before this event.

As you can imagine, when it came time to take a picture with him she wanted nothing, and I mean nothing to do with him. I tried a few times to get her to go up and sit on the ground next to him, explaining she did not actually need to sit on his lap, and the answer was a firm "no." The grip she had around my neck was a nice reminder as to her seriousness on this whole not wanting to go near Santa thing.

And let me tell you the funniest part of this whole ordeal - as we were on our way home, she started in on wanting to see Santa again. Telling me how much she loved him, and wanted to hug him and sit on his lap. Seriously. That's my Liv Grace.

And Christmas itself was really quite memorable. It is always such a magical time of year for the kids, and I so love that. Watching their faces as they tear open presents in excitement - wondering what they will find, putting out the cookies and milk for Santa to snack on when he arrives[which I admit, we forgot to do this year], staying up late unable to fall asleep in anticipation of his arrival.... all that sort of good stuff. It makes me happy to see them happy, excited and full of the ever so magical Christmas spirit.

On top of all that, time spent with family always seems to be sweeter this time of year. There is always lots of wine to drink, lots of kids running around full of all that Christmas energy, lots of laughing - and I mean the good kind, where you laugh until you cry; until your stomach hurts. Lots of joking around - like when Anna and I sang some Christmas tunes in an ever so serious manner and so very out of tune that Grammy looked at us in disgust, put her hand on her forehead and with a big sigh said, "what happened? I am the only one that was lucky enough to get the gift of a good singing voice? You would never be invited into our church choir." [Anna and I being the ones joking, Grammy, not so much.] And the funny thing about all this is that Grammy, God bless her heart, has a terrible singing voice. And this little tidbit made us laugh that much harder.

Yes, their were infectious amounts of jokes, laughs, drinks, and all that jazz on Christmas Eve and Christmas day. And it was all had with family. So very much of the good.

So there you have it. The Shelton Holiday season, chalk full of the good, the bad and the ugly. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

HOLY HECK, WHERE HAVE I BEEN?

Not sure what happened, but December has flown by and I have only posted once. Actually, I take that back, I know exactly what happened; the Holidays happened.

I have been busy shopping, wrapping, shopping some more, surfing the net in search of the perfect one of a kind gift for certain someones and of course finding something only to realize it is going to take an act from God in order to get it in time for Christmas because I waited too long to order it.... You know how it goes. On top of all this gift buying/wrapping stress, we have been running from Holiday party, to Holiday party [don't get me wrong, they are fun and all, but too much of anything is never good. Yes, even Holiday parties.] And let's not forget the regular old run of the mill things going on - running to dance, hockey practice for Anthony and Lucas, play dates, and other after school activities. Oh, and the added stress of continuing to try and get Olivia potty trained and off of the Nuk. Both of which I thought I had licked in November, but it turns out Olivia is a smart little girl and understands that if Mom is crazy busy in an attempt to get a million things accomplished in a short period of time, she can grab her nuk and go to town on it all day long, or she can choose to poo in her pants, pee on the wood floor, or sometimes in her potty chair if she feels so inclined. [I know, crazy run on sentence, but it seems fitting, so I will just go with it.]

And top it all off, I received my credit card statement in the mail yesterday, and just about choked on the chips I was eating at the time, when I read the balance. For the love of everything that is good and holy was that out of control. I honestly had to go online and go through my purchases as I was convinced there had to be some mistake. Alas, I found there was no mistake.

And this is when the meltdown began.

It was a meltdown of grand proportions that entailed a phone call to the Mr. in tears, trying to explaining through my sobbing that I wanted nothing, absolutely nothing for Christmas. That I spent way too much money and I don't know how I did it as I thought I had really stayed on a good budget. That I was so upset and felt sick to my stomach as I had received the credit card statement for the month. That I was such a terrible spender and couldn't figure out where I had gone wrong. That it was all my fault the credit card bill was so high and that I was good for nothing except spending money.

Yep, I was upset and a tad bit dramatic about the whole thing. That's the way I roll, like it or not. All this was followed by the Mr. telling me it was alright, and that we would get back on track in January, and telling me to calm down and not worry....

Whew, It was a doozy.

So this is where I have been. Busy doing all the things one does around the Holiday season, trying to keep up with life as I know it, and making an effort to not lose my mind in the process. So please forgive the lack of posts as of late.

All this, and I have to say that I have finally seen the light. It is the Holiday season, and I am supposed to be enjoying this time of year. Not stressing about all of the above. So I am going to forget about it all, sit back, and enjoy it in all it's splendor.

Lord help me.

ONE OF THOSE

Ever have one of those days? Weeks? Or even worse, months?

Well I have. This time around it seems to be "one of those months." Which is never a good thing.

You know what I am referring to by "one of those[insert time period]", right? The times where nothing seems to really be going right? Where you feel like you have a list filled with 100 different places you need to be,100 different things that need doing, and no matter how hard you work, it seems like you are not making any progress with the list? And asking for help with this list would be in vain as everything on said list seems to need to be done by you and only you? Where you feel like everyone needs you all at the same time? Where you wish more than anything that there were two, three, maybe even four of you so that the weight of all these things you are carrying around could be lifted, just a little bit? Where you just want to dig yourself a nice cozy hole, curl up in a ball, get on in, have a good cry, and never come out?

Well, if you didn't know, now you do.

This month I have been drowning in it all. My head is spinning with it all. A taste of my day: Morning, alarm goes off. Make my way to Ava's room and coerce her out of her slumber, then off to Lucas' room to get his little sleepy head up. Make my way downstairs with them, help them get dressed as they are most always too sleepy to do it themselves and time is limited before the bus arrives, throw together some sort of breakfast in the hopes that they will at least eat a bit of it, sip down a few cups of coffee in the hopes of waking myself up a bit,get shoes on feet, backpacks on backs, out to the bus stop, run back to the house, get Olivia out of bed, feed her breakfast, Then Anthony usually roams downstairs, try and try to feed him some sort of healthy breakfast, which is usually to no avail as he is not all that thrilled with breakfast as a whole. Take a quick shower, Get Anthony dressed, lunch made, off to preschool, home, Liv down for nap, toys picked up, laundry done, clean a bit, make lunch, feed Liv, change diaper, more laundry, more picking up, time to go wait for Ava and Lucas to get off of bus, then load everyone into the car, and off to preschool to get Anthony, home again, snack time, kids outside to play, change diaper,Liv down for nap, time to make dinner, feed everyone, get ready for dance/Karate/Wednesday learning or whatever activity is going on that night, load everyone in car, off to event, home, quiet time on couch, pajamas on, prayers said, books read, brush their teeth, bed time for the kids, and the day then ends most often with me collapsing on the couch, glass of wine, and remote in hand.

Then comes the next round - All the thoughts that invade my brain once the kids are in bed. All the "I still have to do's"...Need to make sure to mow the lawn tomorrow as it is getting too long, need to strip all beds tomorrow and wash sheets as I am actually caught up on all the other laundry, need to wash the floors, need to get to the grocery store, need to get to Target. Need to help Ava with her sight words, need to help Lucas learn to tie his shoes, need to spend more time playing board games, playing catch and riding bikes with the kids, need to spend more time with the Mr. talking about our days, having date nights. Need to need to need to...

Then I usually make my way upstairs, and find some peace in sleep, only to wake up and do it all over again.

Somedays I have to remind myself that the laundry can wait, the dishes can sit in the dishwasher, the lawn can go unmowed, and that things in general don't always have to be done "right now." Somedays I have to remind myself that I cannot please everyone, I cannot make everyone happy all of the time, or do everything perfectly. I am only human, and I do the best I can. Somedays I have to remind myself to sit down, take a deep breath,relax a bit, and simply enjoy my kids, the Mr. - life in general, as it just goes by way too fast. And really, in the long run all the stuff that fills my brain and at times feels like is swallowing me whole aren't the things that really matter in life. Right?

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY

I have been busy as all heck lately. So busy and crazed have I been, that I ran out the door this morning, looking like this to drop my Ava off at her summer success program.

Yes, that is me, (picture taken by my Lucas) in my pajamas, glasses on, no make-up... I did not even bother to make an attempt to fix my hair or even throw a hat on so as not to scare any of the other Mom's or kids when dropping her off. Now I have said in posts before, that I really don't see a point in getting all dressed up, hair done, make up on and looking all pretty every day of the week. But I should at least have the decency to make myself look somewhat presentable in public, right? Seems in my crazed state my general appearance has fallen to the wayside among many other things. What to do?

So I have been spending the summer running here there and everywhere, and finding next to no time to do anything, much less sit down and post anything on this blog of mine. The one I promised to write in at least 3 times a week so that I would not find myself going months without writing in it.

My point in writing this little post today? To document the fact that I promise to get back to writing at least 3 times a week soon. Very soon. Meaning, most likely when the kids are in school and things seem to slow down a bit. Oh, and to document the fact that I promise to keep up with my general appearance from now on. You know, take care of the basics : showering, doing the hair, and making sure to wear a pair of pants that you are not able to see my underwear through. (Look closely at the picture above, and you will see that it is true, I went out in public in a pair of see through capri pajama bottoms.)

Yes, I promise to do all of this to show my own self-worth, but most of all so as to not embarrass my daughter when I drop her off at school.

A LIST TO DESCRIBE THIS DAY OF MINE

No pictures, no cute stuff, just the cold, hard facts.

1.) Mr. Shelton left the house this morning. Nothing unsual there, except for the fact that he left the house with my Armada, and left me with (for the fourth day in a row) the Bonneville.

2.) Anthony woke up to find that he wet right through his pull-up, onto his sheets AND his quilt. Bed was stripped, Anthony was stripped, Linens were washed, Anthony was thrown in the bath tub.

3.) Friend came over to scope out our unfinished (2 years and running) laundry room/back entry in order to finally finish it. Allelujia!

5.) Began to think about leaving the house in order to pick up Lucas' birthday cake, and get Ava from school.

6.) Thought about it some more, dreading the thought of the ordeal it would be accomplishing said tasks in the Bonneville.

7.) Realized if I did not leave, my Son would be late to his own birthday party, which would be pretty poor on my part.

8.) Began the arduous task of getting three kids, car seats and all squeezed into the back of a sedan, and buckled appropriately.

9.) Roughly 10 minutes later, task accomplished. WHEW.

10.) On to gathering up stroller, box filled with goodie bags, knife to cut cake, candles, camera and other miscelany.

11.) Opened trunk in order to store said items for the drive to the party, and find the trunk stuffed. With what, you ask? Tools, garbage, more tools, tool box, more garbage. Stuffed. Nary a single spot to place a thing o' mine. Blood was beginning to boil. Removed some items out of the trunk in order to get my items into the trunk. After jockying times around, pushing things this way and that, removing a few other things, I was finally successful.

13.) Off to Wal-Mart (two blocks away) to pick up the cake. Unbuckled all the kids, got cake, and as I was on my way to find a candle I heard a distinct "crunch" sound. Turns out Anthony accidentally sat on the cake. He was in the cart, stood up for a moment and fell backwards. Nice. The cake was smooshed on one side. What to do? Nothing, just deal with a smooshed cake I guess. Purchased the cake and the candles, only to find out I lost my keys. YEP. I made the mistake of letting Olivia play with them while I was shopping in order to keep her from crying. Now they were gone. Back through the store we went, up and down isles, retracing my steps, until we finally found the lost keys. Out to the car we went. Buckled up all the kids AGAIN, and managed to find a spot on the floor of the passenger seat to place the cake.

14.) Off to pick Ava up from school. Arrived, unbuckled the kids again, started making my way inside, when Anthony fell in the parking lot and skinned up his knees. Some comforting took place right there in the middle of the parking lot, down on one knee, with Olivia in one arm and Anthony crying and being consoled in the other. This, thankfully passed quickly. We got inside, picked up Ava and headed to the party.

15.) Party was going smoothly until I found Anthony writhing about on the floor crying that his tummy hurt. This behavior was on and off throught the hour of play time, but when we arrived in the room to eat cake he had that look. The I-am-going-to-puke-any-second look. I raced him to the bathroom where he sat by the toliet awaiting what seemed to be inevitable. Happily enough, he turned out to be just fine, no puking.

16.) All kids were picked up by their Mom's, goodie bags and balloons in hand happy as could be. The party was a success.

17.) Now on to the daunting task at hand - getting presents, leftover cake, 6 balloons, stroller, diaper bag, and 4 kids into the lovely Bonneville. I had a hard enough time getting everything in to get to the party, now I was leaving the party with more than I came with - this was turning out to be very interesting.... After much reorganization, squishing, and squeezing, I managed to get it all in the car.

18.) The car ride home was eventful, with Ava's balloon flying out the window, causing her to sob hysterically the whole ride, Anthony crying about how his tummy hurt again, and Livi wimpering out of pure exhaustion from missing her afternoon nap.

19.) We arrived home with one (Ava, my persistent one) still crying over the lost balloon, two sleeping (Anthony and Livi) and I am happy to announce, one smiling, content little boy (Lucas). Better one happy camper than not a one, right?

20.) I spent some time unpacking the car, let the kids play outside with some of the new toys, ordered a pizza, filled everyone's little tummies, placed jammies on their little bodies, and last but not least, made them march those little legs up to bed and off to dreamland.

As I sit here finishing this post, a few things come to mind.

1.) If Mr. Shelton seems to think the Armada is now his "work" car, then he needs to march his derriere down to the car dealership and purchase this Momma a Denali. Or an Escalade - in Pearl White. Alright, I will settle for the Denali. But this needs to happen... yesterday.

2.) I may just need to look into these "happy pills" I have been hearing about. Many Mom's as of late have been taking said pills in order to feel less stressed and more at ease about the daily going on's with children constantly in tow. Sounds like it could be a good thing, no? No, not really, but does cross my mind from time to time....

3.) I need to finish this post, publish it, and pour myself a large glass of wine.

DAZED AND CONFUSED

The past few days have seemed like a whirlwind around here. I am totally, utterly, unbelievably exhausted, a bit dazed and confused if you will.

What has been goin' on round here that makes me feel all of these wonderful feelings all at once? Well, let me tell you.

Sunday morning we arrived home from Camping. Unpacked camper, did 3 loads of laundry, bathed 4 pig pen kids, cleaned downstairs bathroom, swept floors, and vacuumed carpets all in preparation for Lucas's 5th birthday party that afternoon.

Yep, you heard me right. We arrived home Sunday morning from camping only to have to prepare to have 12 adults and 9 kids over for a birthday celebration. This would have been all fine and good if I would have prepared ahead of time and had things set to go when we arrived home. But of course, that was not the case. [Silly me].

After putting things away, and cleaning in order to make the house presentable for the party, we sat down to tackle what to make for dinner.

Yes, I was that unprepared.

I had not a single idea as to what to feed all of these lovely family members that were coming over in just a few short hours expecting to get their bellies filled with something. Pork tenderloin? No, takes to long to cook, not enough time. Fajitas? No, too much work. Order pizza? No, did that for the last birthday party. Jimmy John's? Hmmm. Jimmy Johns. Yep, that would work.

Mr. Shelton ran to the store, picked up a vat of potato salad, couple bags of chips, and placed an order at Jimmy John's for a party tray. Whew. Done.

Darn it. A cake. I did not order a cake.

Mr. Shelton saved the day by making his way to Wal Mart, finding a ready made cake in their bakery department and having them write "Happy Birthday Lucas" on it. Voila.

He managed to get home just in time for us both to get showered and ready for guests to arrive. And arrive they did - 15 minutes early.

The party went swimmingly, Lucas had a rousing time playing with his cousins, opening presents (one of which was a coveted storm trooper helmet),

And singing happy birthday and blowing out his candles.

I was happy to find that everyone was very satisified with our choice of Jimmy John's for dinner, and went home happy and with full bellies.

Brian and I put the kids to bed, and crawled into bed ourselves. Once my little old head hit the pillow, I was off to sleep, dreaming of peaceful, calm days ahead.

And dreaming was exactly what it was, as this week has been far from peaceful and calm. Oh so far from it.

Thus far, I watched my dear friends children on Monday (that would make 6 kids under the age of 6 in my home all day), mowed the 1/2 acre of lawn (curse this big yard, curse it) we have in order to stop the spread of dandelions throughout the whole darn yard, replenished the mulch in the garden out front, replenished the mulch around the trees out front, got flowers out front in my pots, cleaned out the garage, did 5 loads of laundry, went to Target, and went grocery shopping. And it is only Tuesday.

Needless to say, I am feeling a bit dazed and confused - I am also feeling glad and thankful to be a mother to 4 babes, even if they induce the occasional feelings of being totally, utterly, unbelieveably exhausted.

It's all worth it.

I LEAVE FOR A WEEK AND EVERYTHING FALLS APART

Brian and I just returned from a fabulous vacation in Key West yesterday at 3pm. While relaxing on the plane on the way home, I spent a lot of time mentally preparing myself to jump back into the "daily grind".

After getting off the plane, we made our way to baggage claim, gathered our luggage and headed out to the street where my mom and the kids were waiting anxiously for our arrival. When I entered the car, I found Anthony looking terribly sick, complaining of a sore throat and running a very high fever, Olivia looking at me as if she did not know who the heck I was, and Ava and Lucas simply shouting "what did you get us?!?"

I had a feeling it was going to be a long rest of the day. Unpacking, dealing with a sick child, one who did not know who I was anymore, and 2 that could not stop asking to see their gifts.

I called urgent care en route to our house and was lucky enough to get Anthony an appointment that evening. I managed to get home (where it looked like a tornado hit) unpack, throw 1 load of laundry in (out of 10 that I had), give the kids their gifts, and feed them all before I had to run to the Doctor to get Anthony a throat culture. There was no time to get to the messy house.

Did I mention I had not had a shower all day? Ugh.

After waiting for a surprisingly short period of time at the Dr's office, we found out that Anthony had strep throat. To make matters worse, the Dr. mentioned that he most likely got it from one of his siblings. Wonderful. I arrived home and immediately checked everyone's throats. Ava looked good, Livi looked good (from what I could see), Lucas looked -- not so good. He had it too, and of course I had to bring him into the Dr. after I was just there so he could get a prescription as well.

Whew. Talk about diving right in after getting home - looks like there was not going to be any down time at the Shelton house.

Finally we were all home. Everyone got their medicine, a much needed bath, teeth brushed, and tucked into bed at 7:30pm. I even managed to get a bit of quality time with Olivia Grace where she actually looked at me as if she knew I was her Mom.

I then managed to take a shower myself, got into bed, and pretty much fell asleep once my head hit the pillow. Seriously.

So two sick kids, 10 loads of laundry, a house in serious need of a deep clean, and one missing hermit crab later(not sure what happened there) - we are home, settling in, trying to get back into the groove of things...

So Much To Do So Little Time

So I have oodles of things to accomplish today, which really does not set this day apart from any other day of the week. But.... I have a yucky head cold. I am tired. I am lazy. And I just plain old don't feel like doing anything. {Sigh} But I am going to pull myself up by my boot straps (silly thing my mom used to say) and get to it. Actually, I have to give myself "props" (another nice one, right?) for accomplishing some of the things on my list thus far.

1.) Drink some coffee in order to wake self up (out of my fabulous new coffee cups - see below.)
Aren't they fabulous??? The coffee gets cold quickly as they are really wide and let the heat out quickly, but no biggie, I just toss the cup in the microwave and heat. They are asthetically pleasing, and in the case of coffee cups, I take that over functionality any day. Brian seems to disagree, but I pay him no mind. Hmph.

Hmmm.... I guess that is all I have accomplished thus far. Bummer. Well, here are the millions of other things that need to get done today.

2.) Take a shower. Yep, this is one of those things I don't find much time for anymore being a Mom of 4 little kids. I usually end up getting to this around mid afternoon, but hopefully this will happen sooner today as I am not feeling all that "fresh."

3.) Vaccuum, wash floors, clean bathrooms. YUCK. POOH. SUCKY. BLAH. So now you know how I feel about cleaning house. I was spoiled and had a cleaning lady for about a year, had to give her up because of this yucky economy. No money = no cleaning lady.

4.) Put away laundry, 3 baskets full of it. Oh the laundry in this house - It is simply Out. Of. Control.



5.) Figure out how I am going to go to a pool party with Ava on Saturday with Lucas, Anthony and Olivia in tow. Daddy has a meeting and won't be around to help. A pool, 4 kids, and one adult simply do not mix.

6.) Go over our monthly budget and look for things we are able to cut out. Again. I am thinking a certain someones Monday "poker nights" need to get the nix. Ahem.

7.) Adjust Olivia's crib so she can no longer stand up and have the ability to fall out headfirst. How did she get so big so fast??? Darn. This is such a pain in the butt, pulling the crib out from the wall, taking off all the bumpers, taking the mattress out of the crib, unscrewing all of the thing-a-ma-bobs, pushing the thingy down, rescrewing all the thing-a-ma-bobs in, putting the mattress back in, putting the bumpers back on, and pushing the crib back against the wall. WHEW - that was one heck of a run on sentence.

8.) Feed Anakin Kenobi Starwars (our hermit crab).

9.) Finish putting together a gift basket for Grandpa's birthday. Simply have to finish this and get over to visit him in the nursing home. I have been getting a heavy dose of guilt poured on me by my lovely family members (you know who you are) that I still have not been over to see him. And I understand I should have gone by now, I love my grandpa immensely, and want nothing more to go and spend a nice afternoon with him but finding the time to do so is not that simple. 4 kids age 6 and under, a husband who works crazy hours 6 days sometimes 7 days a week makes it hard for me to accomplish tasks that for most people are done quite easily. Not sure they will ever understand. [sigh]

10.) Come up with something to feed the kids for lunch other than chicken tenders or frozen pizza.

11.) Get kids loaded up in car, wait for Ava to get off of the bus at 2:45, rush to Lucas' preschool in order to pick him up by 3pm.

12.) Get everyone home, snack in hands and settled in front of the good old T.V. so that Mom can have a half hour to myself.

13.) Drink a Diet Coke in order to stay alert for the next 5 hours until the ever so coveted bedtime.

14.) Wait in hopes that Daddy will get home by 4:30pm. Why, you ask? so that we can pack all the kids in the car, drive out to the Mall of America, and pick out two more hermit crabs to join Anakin Kenobi Starwars in his homey little cage. The kids have convinced me that he is quite lonely and needs a few companions.

15.) Hopefully eat dinner at Hooters so that I do not have to come home and cook dinner. This is our all time favorite restaurant at the MOA. The kids beg to eat here everytime we go to the Mall - "please Mom and Dad, can we PLEASE eat at Hooters??" They really to beg - something to be proud of, our kids pleading with us to eat at Hooters, right?

16.) Drive home, praying that the kids will fall asleep en route so I don't have to deal with bed time. Sometimes it is soooo nice to just scoop them out of the car and put them into their beds. No fights, no teeth brushing (they can miss one night, it won't kill them), no "I need water", "I am cold." "I need another blanket." "I am too hot." "read me a book." " I can't sleep". You get the idea.

17.) Get kids into said beds.

18.) Put on pajamas, pour a glass of wine, lay on couch with remote in hand and watch one of my Tivo'ed shows.

19.) Go to bed nice and early in order to gear up to do most of these things all over again tomorrow.

20.) Oh, and maybe fit in some "quality time" with Mr. Shelton. It has been a while. I know, too much information, right?

Some Things I Miss

that I took for granted prior to having my kids, prior to having someone attached to me at what seems like all times....



I miss being able to clean my house AND have it stay cleaned for more than 1 hour. I tend to clean with at least one child following behind me messing whatever it was I spent the last half hour cleaning up.

I miss being able to take a shower for as long as I want without any kids in the bathroom or in the shower with me..... Ususally the kids are running around like wild people from one end of the bathroom to the other, or wrestling eachother which ALWAYS leads to someone crying and throwing a tantrum. Sometimes I am lucky enough to get Ava and Lucas settled on the couch in front of the T.V. in hopes of whisking myself away upstairs and getting a nice quiet, relaxing shower. HAH, right, Anthony can literally smell me leaving a room and is always two feet behind me. He tends to hang out on the floor right in front of the shower door waiting for me to finish. I guess this is better than just a few months back, where he insisted on getting into the shower with me and sitting right at my feet.

I miss being able to go to the bathroom all by myself. Especially when I am having - ahem- stomach issues. Yesterday I was feeling a bit "under the weather" if you know what I mean. Which meant I was taking a lot of trips to the bathroom that were rather unpleasant in nature. These types of things are best done in private, or at least you hope they can be done in private. Not for me - Anthony, Ava and Lucas all had to peek their heads in to ask me what I was doing (what do they think I was doing??) Other times (like I said, I was in the bathroom a lot yesterday) they had to go so far as to come into the bathroom with me, close the door behind them and hang out until I was finished. Privacy in this area is nonexsistent in our house, and it frankly stinks - no pun intended. I am funny, aren't I?

I miss being able to sleep through the night without being woken up to a child yelling such things as :

" I want some juicy!!" (Lucas)

"I can't sleep anymore, I want to go downstairs!" (Ava)

"I want to watch a toony (cartoon)!" or his latest obsession "I want to play Sta Waws (Star Wars)!" (Anthony)

"WAAAAA - WAAAAAAA" translates into "I am hungry Mom!! (Olivia)


Adding to this point, I SO miss being able to sleep in. I am not talking until 10am here, just until 7:30am would be nice - actually it would be Heaven sent.

I guess I am able to find some joy in the fact that 15 years from now I will be able to do all these things with ease, and in peace again. Although I am wondering if when I finally get to this point in time, I will be wishing for a bit of that chaos back. Funny that I would even think this... but the chaos that admittedly drives me to my breaking point on most days, seems to keep things interesting around here.

It's All Worth It

I was woken up at the ungodly hour of 5am this morning by my lovely daughter Ava who does not understand the meaning of sleeping in. This is not good in our household as both Brian and I are so not morning people. I have learned over the past year or so that the best plan of attack for the mornings are to get her downstairs on the couch with a bowl of honey nut cheerios (sans the milk) and cartoons on. These few things tend to get her to lay nicely on the couch until I come down for the morning, which if I am lucky,and the rest of the kids sleep, is about 6:30am.

This morning I was not so lucky. I got Ava down on her couch per usual, and as soon as I got back into my warm and cozy bed, just about ready to doze back off into dreamland, Anthony got up. I turned to look at the alarm clock and saw that it was 5:30am. Ugh. I got out of bed once again, got Anthony downstairs, and attempted to sneak back up to bed. I unfortunately did not make it. Anthony came running yelling, "no Mommy, sweep (sleep) on the couch... Please Mommy!" I begrudginly made my way to the couch and curled myself in a ball with a blanket, knowing it was pretty unlikely I was going to get back to sleep. But a girl can hope, right? A few minutes into my attempt at slumber...

Anthony: "Mommy, I want to play Staw Waws (Star Wars), pwease (please) turn it on for me?"

I got up and turned it on for him, curled back up on the couch, and tried once again to sleep. About 10 minutes passed

Anthony: " Mommy, I'm Thiwsty (thirsty), can I have some juice?"

I got up again, got him some juice, curled back up on the couch, and tried again to sleep. I was not going to give that easy. I wanted to sleep. Really bad. Another 10 minutes passed, I was hopeful.

Anthony: "Mommy, I'm hungry, I want some chewioos (cheerios)." Grrrrrrr!!! This time I got up in a state of anger, got him his cheerios, was about to give the whole sleep thing one last go, when livi started crying. She was up, and the attempt at getting back to sleep was O -V- E- R.

All this unfolded while my lovely Brian was fast asleep, this is usual, so I don't know why I get so frustrated every Saturday and Sunday morning when it happens. But what I can't understand is how he can possibly sleep through all of the commotion? Maybe he is faking sleep so he does not have to get up and deal with it all. Hmmmm... I will have to look into that one.

Anyway, I gave Mr. Shelton until 8am and then I made my way upstairs with the 4 kids to make the hand off. He was already up and ready to come downstairs. He told me to go ahead and take a nap - this was good as it was my plan all along. He and the kids left the room, while I got into my fabulous sleep number bed, pulled the 1,000 thread count sheets over me along with my down comforter, and went off to dreamland. At least for a while. I awoke to the sound of Livi crying in her crib - it was the inevitable "I am hungry cry feed me now cry". I snuck into her room, scooped her up in my arms and took her to bed with me. I nursed her and we fell back asleep together for about an hour.

I would have to say these are some of the sweetest things.

Naps.

Even better Naps with Livi Grace.



Really, is there anything sweeter?

Controlled Chaos

Ever taken 15 five year olds bowling for the afternoon?

Me being the best mom ever, (I like to sing my own praise) took all of Ava's friends from school to Stillwater Bowl today for her birthday party. Now I was not thinking that this was going to be an easy task by any means, but I thought it would not be THAT bad.

It pretty much entailed 2 hours of screaming, running up and down the bowling alley, and occasionally throwing a ball down the lane to hit a few pins over. When the bowling part ended, I thought things would calm down a bit as Ava opened her presents. WRONG. All the kids crowded around her and opened her presents for her. It seemed like at one point three different girls were opening three different presents. Wrapping paper, tissue paper, cards and presents were being thrown in every direction, and no one was listening when I asked for people to sit and calm down. No kidding.

I finally just sat back and watched in amazement, wondering to myself how I could not control this group of 5 year olds. Come on, I have four of my own, you would think I would be experienced in controlling chaotic situations. Not the case here.

We are home now, decompressing, and all I can think to say as I look back at the crazy afternoon is....

HOLY CRAP.

Game Play in the Shelton House

It is rare that I pull out any sort of game for the kids to play. Whether it be Chutes N'Ladders, Candy Land, or Memory the game always seems to end in me breaking up a big fight. The frequent complaints are: "Ava was cheating!" "Anthony is not playing right!" or "Lucas is crying!" It all just drives me wild and I just don't want to deal with it, so this is why I tend to not offer these games up for something to do to pass time.

Well, today was a crazy day, we had all been in the house since noon on Friday, and Cabin fever was slowly setting in. The kids were tired of cartoons, video games, playing legos, Star Wars guys... you get the idea. So I did what I do not like to do unless in emergency situations - I opened up the cabinet that holds all of our board games, puzzles, and craft stuff and told the kids to pick out something to play.

Ava immediately went for Memory, and surprisingly enough Lucas and Anthony did not object. Wow. This was a good start - maybe we could get through a whole game start to finish without a fight.

Wishful thinking, right?

To my delight, Livi Grace was sitting peacefully chewing on some memory cards that the kids decided not to add to their game play. She was oblivious to what was about to unfold just a few feet away from her where her sister and brothers were playing a rousing game of Memory.

I braced myself as they got their game underway, and of course it started....

We were not 5 minutes into the game when Ava ripped a card out of Anthony's hand and started yelling that Anthony was not playing right. Which in turn, resulted in Anthony starting to cry.

Her observations were correct - when I looked over to see what Anthony was doing he was simply picking up every card trying to find the match for the bike. Obviously not the right way to play, but he is not even 3 yet so what does she expect. Well, she is only 6 so I can see why she does not understand that he is not old enough to understand how to play.

Is your head spinning yet?

Then Ava decided to skip Lucas's turn and go in his place. Lucas, in turn started crying.

As you have probably noticed from my commentary, Ava is not the most patient 6 year old on the planet - she can't wait for Anthony and Lucas to go before it is her turn again. This is simply too much waiting for her so she tends to decide when she wants her turn and takes it.

This is when I threw in the towel and ended the game, as always. Finally, to round it all out, Ava started crying.

So much for thinking we could get through an entire game without a melt down or a fight.

Maybe next time, right? I can always hope...

It has been a long Christmas break....

and there is still a whole week to go. Help me Lord.

The beginning of Christmas break started off with a bang. Ava returned home from her last day of school very excited after all of the Christmas fesivities she partook in. She anxiously took off all of her winter gear, ready to fill me in on all the details of her day full of candy, games and partying. As we sat on the floor in the playroom, her recounting her day for me, I noticed something strange in her hair. It was a gooey substance, dark brown and light brown in color, almost looking like (ahem) poo. As I got closer to her head I was able to figure out what it was 1. by looking closer, and 2 by smelling it. It was a reese's peanut butter cup - hmmmm. How in the world would a Reese's peanut butter cup end up melted to the top of her head like that?

This is where the investigating started.

Mom: "Ava, what is that in your hair?"

Ava: "What?"

Mom: "There is something in your hair."

Ava goes to feel the top of her head, I quickly pull her hand away so as not to get the melted substance all over the place. This, in turn, made her start to cry.

Mom: "It is alright Ava, there is no need to cry. You have Reese's peanut butter cups in your hair. We need to take a shower to get it out."

To which she began crying even harder. I again asked her what happened. No answer. I took her up to the shower, helped her get her clothes off over the goopy mess in her hair, and got her into the shower. All the while she was STILL crying. I got her out of the shower, dressed, hair dryed, and Reese's peanut butter cup free. She then finally stopped crying. Alleluia.

After getting everyone settled and on their couches for quiet time, a lightbulb went off (sometimes it takes me a while). I went over to her winter hat and took a look inside. Sure enough, there was melted Reese's peanut butter cup in the hat. SO, she must have somehow dropped a Reese's peanut butter cup into her hat, and put the hat on without it falling out. Amazing feat in itself, huh? On the bus ride home it must have slowly melted so that when she arrived home and took the hat off it was a big goopy mess.

Voila! Look at me, a regular Inspector Kluso!

This is just one of many eventful (well, eventful to my stay at home mom self) things that have happened thus far on this wonderful, hectic Christmas break.

January 5th can't come soon enough.