Dominic The Gymnast

Look at that talent. And a look and smile for the camera, too! Nice try, but it's just not quite up there with Dom.

My Idea Of A Great Time

Catherine and I went to the library book sale last weekend and browsed for an hour. Of course we found a few things.

Okay, okay, we got three boxes full.

But it was only $9.75! Woo-hoo!

Feeding The Goats

A couple of weeks ago, my neighbor called and asked if the kids wanted to come down and feed the goats. So, as soon as they got up from their nap, we loaded Joseph up in the wagon and went on down. An area grocery store had given her a bunch of produce that was no longer sellable (is that a word?). Catherine, Dominic, and Anne were more than happy to help out. They fed the goats lettuce, onions, cabbage, and asparagus. They loved it (goats and kids, ha ha). In fact, they spent an hour emptying out several boxes, hand feeding the goats.
Joseph was a little scared at first. He finally warmed up to the goats and here he is, checking them out. Or are they checking him out?

They all told me that we need to get a goat to feed. Hmm. Don't know about that!

Here Joseph is carefully placing a long strand of green onion on the fence. He did this over and over and as he did so, he would say, "Here go. Here go," until the goat ate it.

He had better watch out, though. That goat might think his hair looks tasty, too!

Small Successes - 15

1) I finally got everything arranged so I could go get my hair cut. Meaning appointment made at a real salon, and childcare arranged for at the same time! And the big success in this is that I cut off 12 inches of hair and sent it to Locks of Love. If you want to see the before and after shots, go here.


2) After the first big storm on Sunday, I let the kids go out barefoot to splash in the new stream in our backyard. And I went out barefoot too! To see pics and video, go here. And I dealt with all the soggy, muddy clothes on Monday with not a complaint.

3) I figured out how to light the pilot light on the gas water heater. Well, I called Dan first to let him know in case anything blew up. And I checked to make sure we had propane coming into the house first (checked the oven). And I smelled everything carefully to make sure there were no gas leaks before I tried to light it. When you are used to having your husband do those things, it is a big deal! After all, using a butane lighter to light your gas-run water heater could be risky. What was my motivation? I didn't want to take a cold shower. :)

Go to Faith and Family Live to read more Small Successes!

Pointless

A resealable pack of batteries is a great idea.

Unless the pack only contains one battery.

Random Fact About Hair

Do you know how long the longest hair on record is?

No?

Well, I'll tell you since I discovered that fact on the back of my shampoo bottle.

18 feet, 5.5 inches!

Can you imagine? That must have been heavy! Not to mention all the logistical problems. Only button-up shirts allowed. Carrying your hair around in a basket. My arms are getting tired just thinking about trying to brush it. And the massive tangles. Ouch!

And you know, that hair must have taken a whole bottle of shampoo to wash it. Of course, it probably didn't get washed much. If ever. Now, there's an icky thought. Right now I'm imagining all the things you could have found in that hair. Are you?

Easter 2009 - Part 3

Since we were out of town on Easter, we had our own little Easter basket morning a couple of days later. It was during the Easter Octave after all. The kids were very excited to get to eat candy before breakfast! Here are Anne and Dominic:
Catherine and Joseph:

So, how much can we eat, Mom?

It was funny to watch each kid with their Easter basket and how they ate their candy. All of the kids went for the chocolate first and the jelly beans were the last items left. The older kids would just dig in and eat them one by one. Joseph however, was a different story. He loved to unwrap as many foil covered candies as he could until I took his basket away, and then he would take a couple of bites out of each one. When he was done, he was done, and the wreckage was left where it lay:

Note the little girl hands waiting to eat the leftovers as soon as Mommy was done taking the picture. (Shudder)

If You Are At The Dinner Table

If you are at the dinner table and your son says,

"I want one of those black things!"

You know you didn't do a very good job grilling the hamburgers.

Wild Weather Weekend

Saturday, for the most part was a lovely day outside. The kids were out a lot and Dan mowed all afternoon. However, as I was grilling the hamburgers and brats, it started to sprinkle off and on. When we were ready to eat, I flagged down Dan and he put the lawnmower away and came inside. Just in time, because as soon as he came in, it started pouring down rain.

That night was uneventful for us, but little did we know that there was a confirmed tornado in our county on Saturday night. Thank goodness it was on the other side of the county. Here is a link to a picture of it, which is pretty impressive. They called it an "elephant trunk" tornado. It did a little damage, but there were no injuries.

Sunday morning we got up and went to church. It was very cloudy out and it sprinkled here and there, but not much. We came home, ate lunch, and then Dan and the kids went outside for a while. While they were napping Dan left to stop by his brother's house and then go to Lowe's for a few things. We knew there were some storms around the state and that there was one set to hit us in a while, but it didn't seem like much. The TV stations were focused on the more severe weather to our north and east.

About 45-60 minutes after Dan left, it started thunder storming and I casually flipped on the TV and computer to monitor it. The kids woke up early and I popped some popcorn for a snack. Joseph was getting scared because of the thunder and I decided to take the popcorn party downstairs for a movie. As I put the DVD in, the lights went out. Talk about chaos ensuing, with 4 little kids in a dark basement! We went upstairs, with Joseph clinging tighter to me than a koala bear, to get a flashlight and boy, was it wild outside. Thunder, lightning, driving rain. I had the kids sit at the top of the stairs where it was light. As I found the flashlight, Dan called, said he was on his way home, that the tornado siren was sounding, and that he could barely see on the road. Yikes! I hurried the kids back to the basement and they were scared to be in the dark. We said some prayers and asked our guardian angels to watch over us and our house and keep us all safe. Then the lights teased us by coming back on for a minute. As the phone rang, they went out again. Dan finally got home and had to go shut the door to the big shed and then come in and manually open the garage door to get the mini-van inside. I couldn't do much as the kids were freaked out by all the wild weather and the dark. We just hunkered down in the basement.

Everything seemed to happen quickly and it was a fast-moving storm, so soon it had passed us by. Our time in the basement was only 30-40 minutes. Later we found out that there were rotating clouds, which triggered the tornado siren, but no actual tornado sighting. When we looked out there was water everywhere! Huge puddles, and in the backyard was a stream, just like when we had our big snow melt so fast. It was still cloudy and sprinkling, but no longer wild. So I let the kids play in the water. Here they are splashing through the stream in the backyard:
Joseph is up to his knees in this shot:

Talk about some soggy kids:

How fun is this?

Below are 3 video clips taken on our digital camera. Each one is only about 20-30 seconds long.
It was just so funny to watch the kids playing in all that water. Of course, today I am washing a lot of laundry, but that's okay.

As the kids played outside, the electricity was still out and we could hear the neighbors' generator going. Dan hung up the rain gauge and did a few things around the yard. After about a half-hour, the electricity came back on and it was good timing because it was getting close to dinner time. I turned on the oven to heat up the leftover bierocks. Then the kids came in because they were getting cold. I have never seen such a soggy, muddy, dirty bunch of kids in my life! They immediately got tossed into the bathtub and then got to eat dinner in their pajamas, which was of course exciting.

Meanwhile we were keeping tabs on the next storm system coming our way. We were under a severe thunderstorm warning and a tornado watch. We got the kids downstairs watching that movie they didn't get to see earlier (Here Comes Peter Cottontail). Then we watched the storm approach. Here is the backyard, where just a few hours earlier, a stream was flowing. And look at that wall cloud! It was enormous and threatening and moving fast!

Another view of the storm:

Joseph and Mommy watch the approaching storm:

Not long after this the rain started. It poured and it poured and it poured. Thunder, lightning, rain, rain, rain. We watched the local station's continuous coverage of the storm all evening. You know when they cut out the regular programming to show the weather, you had better pay attention. Finally, it seemed to get less severe and we were able to go to bed. The electricity went out one more time briefly, so we woke up to blinking clocks everywhere. Dan went out and checked things and there doesn't appear to be any damage. The rain gauge had 4.8 inches in it, and that was just from the second storm. We estimate we got a good 6 inches of rain or more!

What a wild and crazy time. I plan to get better prepared for the next storm that comes our way. After all, this is tornado season. One thing that I discovered is that Glade flameless candles are great to have for your kids' rooms, or anywhere, when the lights go out. They look like candles, but are battery operated and they smell nice, too. So no worry about the kids knocking over the candles and setting things on fire.

The Big Chop!

Here is the before shot:
12 inches! (It's going to Locks of Love.)

Catherine is fascinated with Mommy's fat braid of hair:

It's been a loooonnng time since my hair has been this short.

The new hairdo:

By the way, this is a good way to freak out your husband! He did know I was going to do it, but that was sure a big change.

Happy Birthday To Me!

Yesterday was my birthday, so we invited our friends over for a visit. Here are the kids:

The kids made me a birthday cake and here they are decorating it, with jellybeans. I think we went through a whole bag. Every square inch was covered and what didn't fit on the cake disappeared into a few little mouths.

Ta-da!

Small Successes - 14

1) I finally drove the 40 minutes to get to the monthly Catholic Homeschool preschool playgroup. And I was well rewarded. I met some very nice women and there were lots of kids for mine to play with. At a new playground, nonetheless, at least to them. It was especially nice to go to something where you meet new people and you don't have to answer questions about your "large" family. In fact, it was refreshing to hear not one comment of Are they all yours? and You've sure got your hands full. We will definitely be going back again.

2) Dan and I finally made it out on a date! Which we've been going to do since our anniversary back in February. On Sunday late afternoon/early evening we dropped the kids off at Dan's brother's house, which left them in charge of 9 children. Woo-hoo! Thank you!
We went to the Bonefish Grill, which was excellent. Definitely somewhere we would never take the kids. And what was the occasion for our date? My birthday, which is today! Which brings me to:

3) I helped the kids make me a birthday cake. When they wake up from their naps, we are going to frost it and I will let them decorate it with jelly beans.

Go to Faith and Family Live for more Small Successes!

A New One At The Store

Last night at the grocery store, as the cashier was scanning the 5# of grapes and 6# of bananas I had among my purchases, he asked, "So, are you making a fruit salad?" Implied was that I must be making one for a big party or something.

"No, I have 4 little kids."

"Wow, I've never seen somebody buy that many bananas before!"

Great News!

My mom's surgery for breast cancer went well and the path report came back and it was good! Margins were all clear and it was indeed a DCIS (Ductal Carcinoma In Situ), which if you have to have a breast cancer, is the kind you want to have.

Thank you for all of the prayers!

Heard In The Car

The other day, when approaching a stop sign, we heard this:

Catherine: S-T-O-P, Stop!

Dominic: S-O-Toe-P, Stop!

Anne: S-Toe-P, Stop!

Joseph: O-P, Top!

Hee, hee.