The big weekend is finally here, it starting today with Trick-or-Treating and later the arrival of Grammy and Grandma and Pop-Pop. Tomorrow is a very big day with our last soccer game, soccer party and ending with a Pool Birthday Party for Declan and Killi and sleep-over. By Sunday my three monsters should be a ball of laughs:) Next week starts out slow with school out early on Monday and no school on Tuesday so a action-packed weekend is okay, we will have to to recover next week.

We were supposed to Trick-or-Treat with the Bec and the kids, but they have been struck down by the BUG and with our company coming(grandparents:) I am trying to avoid spreading those germs onto them, it was an awful BUG. So, the kids are sad that we are missing them, but I know they understand and don't want to spread this anywhere else:) I will be happy to see this BUG move-out-of-town and it cannot happen a minute too soon!

Over, I Hope

Early Sunday morning I was struck down. It was not good. I spent the day sick in bed. Luckily the monsters did all they could to take care of me:)

I am feeling a bit better and I have a quite week ahead(except that we have family coming for the weekend:) So, I will lay-low and do work around the house. And get my school work done. Good news is that Maggie has a field trip tomorrow,so I have an extra monster-free morning!

2 More Down!

What a day we had. I knew it was going to be a long one when, after taking a xanax, I still only got 3 1/2 hours of sleep, which I think brought me up to 12-13 for the last three nights. Then, that rain I was hoping for, came, but soccer was played anyway. An hour out is chilly rain funny(and a reminder of why I avoid London in the winter:) Of course after that we all need warm showers before heading to lunch and run a few errands. Then because God must be watching over me Husband and I decided that we would go to church in the morning and just stay in for the rest of the day. What a good thing that was because at 5:40 Maggie and Declan starting throwing-up. Yes, at the same time, in separate bathrooms(two to clean is more fun than one:) Had we gone to church, mass would have just started and that would have been bad.

In the middle of this, I needed to get an essay done for school and Killi NEEDED our attention. I sent her out with Husband for some ginger ale, they came back with McDonalds for her:) Whatever, she was entertained for a bit.

Now I sit here, hoping no one gets sick again, hoping for some sleep, hoping for some healthy kids-

Shots and Rain...

We had a morning at home, a slow crabby-kid morning at home. I am not glad Killi was sick, but it was nice to have the morning at home with the kids. With a doctor's appt ahead of us in the afternoon, we all got dressed(if you saw us I am not sure it could be called that:)and headed out. The appointment was for Declan's 7 yr well check. He is good, growing well. As a bonus, because all the kids were there, and the office was slow, they all go to have their flu shots! Yes, it was great fun. They were so excited about their shots and in the end it only cost me three webkinz as bribes:) Yes, I do resort to it when needed and today, with sleep deprived mommy and monsters, it was needed. We then stopped in at the pool to pay for the big birthday party next weekend.

We are supposed to have a soccer game in the morning, but rain is threatening, so we can sty in until church. And because we did a good job eating in this week, we will treat ourselves to dinner out tomorrow night(nothing fantasy,the kids asked for Carlos:) So, a cheap dinner out!

Best news of the weekend though- Sunday is the last night of swimming until January!! I will be able to sty in the house the ENTIRE DAY! Yes, not to leave at all! I am so excited!

Sick Kid!

My poor little Killi is under-the-weather today. At about 8pm last night she starting going down hill and it continued until about 3am. It was a LONG night here. She seems to be feeling better this morning, but is still not eating. I am just hoping that everyone else is spared the illness-

One Little Monster!

Lately, being Maggie's mother has been like being in a 12 Step Program- here are mine:


Twelve Steps

1. I admitted I was powerless over MAGGIE—that my live had become unmanageable.
2. Came to believe that a Power greater than myself could restore me to sanity.
3. Made a decision to turn my will and my lives over to the care of God as I understood Him.
4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of myself.
5. Admitted to God, to myself, and to another human being the exact nature of my wrongs.
6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.
7. Humbly asked Him to remove my shortcomings.
8. Made a list of all persons I had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.
9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.
10. Continued to take personal inventory and when I was wrong promptly admitted it.
11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve my conscious contact with God as I understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His Will for me and the power to carry that out.
12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, I tried to carry this message to Maggie's care-givers, and to practice these principles in all my affairs.

Things aren't going so well here and I have not figured out how to make it right. I do know that with ALL Three of my children, I have felt that I could not be their mother at some point during the ages of 3-4, but this is the worst one so far. Because now not only do I need to take a firm stand with her, but I also need to parent two other monsters with commitments. That limits what I am able to do to/with Maggie. I cannot be in the house all day while she sits for hours on end in the time-out chair. Because in case you were wondering, she is the kid that would do something to get herself in time-out as I was walking out the door to pick the other two up, just to call my bluff. And even if I put her in time-out when we got back, she would still think she got one over on me because Time-out waited for her. Don't believe me that that is my 3 year old's thought process- Just go on and ask my crazy sister she'll tell you because she thinks the same twisted way. It is hard to be the parent of a child THAT manipulative. And as a crazy person myself, I find it hard playing mind games all day.

All that said, I do LOVE her so much and I know things will get better-

Why My Family and Friend Rock!

As you may know, today was Graduation Day for me, but that didn't happen. What did happen is that I remembered why my family and Becca's Rock.

On Friday night, we loaded up six kids and 5 adults and headed the two and a half hours southeast to Hampton, Virgina. Becca(after sitting in traffic to get home from work) drove me and my girls in the car with her and her kids. Then Husband(who also sat in traffic to get home), my in-laws(who drove down from NJ and sat in the same traffic) and Declan followed a bit later. The ride down was uneventful, the kids were VERY good and quietly watched movies. That gave Bec and I time to chat, which doesn't happen often anymore with everyone so busy.

The Hotel was very nice and new. The kids were happy to get out of the car and were alittle crazy upon arrival, but they calmed quickly. It took about an hour, but we got most of them asleep(Gray figured he score alone time with mom:) The second carload arrived just after the kids went down, so I stuck Declan on the pull-out with his grandparents:) They were happy to have him:) We got up in the morning and all headed down for are wonderful(free)breakfast. Then repacked 6 kids and 5 adults to head-off on what should-have-been our 30min ride to the Scope Arena in Norfolk. That was the end of the goodness.

At about 9:30am we came to a complete stop just before the tunnel. And there we remained for 2 hours. YES, TWO HOURS! I missed graduation sitting in traffic. It was not all bad however. The Kids were unbelievably awesome. No Fighting(well, the babies a bit:) Becca and I played on the computer because it was charged and I had my wi-fi card, we even shopped online in traffic:) After 2 hours and VDOT just showing up, we decided to turn around and come home. So, the kids settled in for another two hours in the car. We decided we would grab lunch closer to home.

What made today better than any graduation day was that all those people were willing to share it with me. And even though they were all out time and money, my husband, Becca and my in-laws(who took us all to lunch:)were only concerned with my missing graduation and how I was feeling about it. That made it a great day!

I will never be able to thank them all for spending my special day with me. And while I am not upset about Graduation, I will remember when I graduate from my Master's Program in Minneapolis, I will stay on the same side of the river as the ceremony:)

DECLAN!

Today, I got work home of Declan's that had been graded at school. Not all of their work gets graded, so just gets checks, but others get graded. Anyway, he brought home a math sheet and 2 reading/writing activities. The grading scale is 1-4 and goes as follows 1:below standard 2: progressing 3: meets standards 4: exceeds standards. So, Declan's grades were 3/4, 3/2, and a 1. His first writing assignment was very good. He spend time writing and on his picture, he deserved a 3/4, his second was a bood he made about Johnny Appleseed, that he could not have put less effort into. The pictures were sloppy and in pencil on two of the four pages, it was bad, the teacher was generous with the 3/2. Now, the third was appalling! It was a math problem, that I am not sure he ever read. He drew so ridiculous pictures that had NOTHING to do with the problem and he was not even close to the right answer. It was a problem he was able to do, I know this because I asked him the question again tonight and he gave me the right answer, but appeared to have NEVER heard the question before. I wanted to kill him. I can deal with a child that has trouble in school, but not a LAZY, worried-about-getting-done-first kid. So, I explained that to him tonight. I told him that I knew he had not done his BEST work and that It will not happen again, or he will be redoing the assignments at home. He admitted that he was rushing and said he would try harder.

Problem is, he got the worst qualities of both his parents:) I am happy to say that this half-ass school work thing is from his dad:)

Decorations!

Everyone that knows me knows that I love to decorate for the holidays! It doesn't really matter the holiday, I love lights and blow-ups, the cheesier the better. So, today I finally got Husband to pull out the Halloween decorations for us. We don't have many, but the collection is growing each year and now they are up. That makes me happy. Here are some pictures, the middle one is our new Pet:)





I can barely wait for Christmas decorations now:)

Work, Work, Work

Another busy weekend! It seems the quieter we try to make them, the more we end up doing. We did get to lounge around abit on Saturday morning, which was very nice. Then we were on the move. A birthday party then church rounded out Saturday for us. The girls did get a much needed good nights sleep on Saturday night and Declan too, we slept in until 8:30. Then we were on the go again. Bec called and said that the deals at Rite Aid were awesome, so we headed there first(and the deals were awesome:) Then we went to Bloom to get some food shopping done(triple coupons:) We did well there too. For our last stops of the morning we headed to Best Buy for a new wireless router(we had gotten one about two weeks ago, but it never worked right and Declan's new laptop new could connect) but alas, all is well in the computer corner of our home. And I think that 3 computers for 5 people is enough for now although Killi is pushing for one of her own:)

Husband and I did get some clutter out today, which always makes him happy. Almost as happy as sitting at swimming on Sunday night does:) We ate dinner late, and the kids didn't hop into be until about 10pm, but hopefully that will buy us time in the morning.

Tomorrow, the kids and I are hoping that Husband will find our Halloween decorations for us so we can get them up. Then in the afternoon we are going to hit the pumpkin patch for some pumpkins and some mums. I need to get the house in order, we are having alot of company the next few weeks.

Trying!

Maybe my time management skills are not as good as I once thought. I may have to cave and get on a schedule and more importantly, stick to it. With three kids in school, a husband that works alot of hours(and commutes more:),a household to manage, volunteering for everything under the moon and a Master's program I am running out of hours in the day before it all gets done. I am not complaining about what is on my plate, because I am enjoying it all, I am just realizing that I need a schedule so that I can complete it all and most importantly give 100% when I do.

We have been doing much better with our new bedtime routine and the kids have had a shower EVERY SCHOOL night before bed(this is a big deal because it used to get pushed til morning alot:) I have done that! And the morning is going pretty well too. Now I need to get the rest of the day in order. M,W,F mornings Maggie is at school. Mondays I have gotten good about running my errands. And Friday I am at school in the am volunteering. T,TH Maggie and I don't need to leave the house until 3pm to get the kids, so I need to get a schedule for those days. House cleaning, school and such. I guess I shouldn't be so hard on myself though, I has taken me a few years to get a bedtime routine down:)

The Game!

We went to the soccer game and the husband an kids enjoyed it. I, on the other hand, am not sold. I just don't think I get it. I will say that watching in person was much better than watching on tv, but still not good. I cannot for the life of me, understand how it is so difficult to get a very small ball into a very big goal. And before you send the hate letters, I do understand soccer is the MOST popular sport in the world, but I just don't get it. No SuperStar, No scoring, all team work and defense, what kind of sport is that:) Maybe someone can change my mind.

Soccer Family Fun Time!

We have a soccer filled day ahead of us! First at 2pm the Fireballs(yes the kids named themselves:) have a game and we hope it goes better than the last three. Then we are off to see the DC United! It will be our first professional soccer game! We are going as a group with others from our area soccer league so I hope it will be fun as soccer is not really my thing. I am a baseball girl and Husband an American Football guy, but I do like to try everything once, so we will go. With my luck though, the kids will LOVE it and what to go back:) As a plus, it is family time and that is always, well sometimes nice:)

Who needs a horse when you have a dog this big?

If you have kids and are EVER looking for a dog, go for a Newfie. Gus has been the best dog. He has far more patience than I for the Monsters. I dare say he enjoys them and their wild games. Games that include capture the lion and put him in a cage and ride the pony. He's the best!

Kegs Already?

We are BIG fans of Kenny Chesney in our house. Declan and Killi have seen him in concert twice and Maggie once. So, it is no surprise that Maggie's new favorite song is a Kenny Chesney song, but I was a little surprised when she told me it was this song.

What does this mean for her college years:)

Declan

Tomorrow is my biggest monster's 7th birthday! I cannot believe seven years have gone by so fast! It is even harder to believe that it has been 7 years and I've kept you so long!