Pardon me while I get a bit misty eyed and sappy on you

All my babies

have worn this outfit

Amazingly, it’s one of the precious few items that survived the great baby clothes wipe out without a spot, stain or mold spore. There were a few other things I held on to for sentimental purposes but most are covered in yellow mystery stains and speckled with mold spots. If you look in the corner of this photo, you can tell that Levi is wearing it too

For some reason, this silly little thing, makes my heart sing

People often comment on the size of my family, something I find rather laughable as I only have 4 kids- around here, though, that’s a big ol’ mess of youngins’. “Wow, are they all yours?” “Don’t you know what causes that yet?” “You must have your hands full” and my favorite “Why?!?!”

This is why

In the near future, there will come a day when I don’t have to take the trash out anymore. It’s good to start training them young so that day comes much quicker.

this was my night

I have no pictures of myself with all four and The Hubster was MIA with a very conveniently dead battery cellphone (grumble grumble bitter bitter) so I drew my head on his body. Yes, it’s accurate. I am totally rocking bangs now. No, really I am. I would take a picture but the people of Fiji can see my bags from here; I need no photographic evidence of that!

Back to my very rotten no good evening. It all started when I asked the girls to clean up after their toys. The whining! Oh my heavens the whining! Tessa decided to sneak off to the bathroom and hang out instead of cleaning. She kept hollering “I’m pooping!” but nay, I could see what she was up to through the crack in the door- futzing, lots and lots of futzing. So, when she reluctantly emerged to a fully cleaned living room I sent her off to clean her bedroom where the pissing and moaning lead to screaming. When i told her that she was obviously tired and needed to go brush her teeth, she kicked me. Um, what? Oh hell fuck no. I wrapped that defiant child up in her bed covers like a burrito and held her down. She screamed, she fought and she shrieked. Boden started wailing from the stress of it all and then Levi, completely bewildered by the situation, joined in.

This wail-a-thon lasted over an hour, during which i attempted to call the Hubster 12 dozen times. I may have also hexed him for leaving me alone with the heathens. I questioned my parenting abilities and then decided I must have been smoking crack when I decided that kids were fun! and why not have a whole mess of them. This was the first time since Bo’s arrival that I questioned my ability to cope with it all. Then I cried.

It was quite a sight. Me crying and seething, Bo wailing, Levi freaking out and Tessa on planet insane. Mira was the only one not in tears but she made sure to do her part- she whined, incessantly, about the unfairness of the delay in getting her corn bread with butter and honey.

Eventually I was able to sooth everyone down. Tessa even went to bed early like I initially told her- heck she fell asleep before Mira went to bed. Punishment successful (you can’t ever let this kid win- never ever- she can smell weakness and capitalize on it). Boden fell asleep in my arms, softy sighing and I couldn’t help thinking I might like 10 or 20 more. Color me nuts. Which reminds me, when The Hubster gets home i owe him a swift kick to his….

7 years ago (yesterday) I was all dolled up

The Hubster was looking damn good too

Folks were hanging out in our living room, waiting for the show to begin

but the gal we hired to hitch us never showed. The guys tried calling her, repeatedly.

After the 67th phone call we got the sinking feeling that she had blown us off ON OUR WEDDING DAY and The Hubster started searching for someone else- no easy task on a Sunday afternoon.

Eventually, salvation arrived- lovely tiny woman named Joy. And she was a Joy; she did a phenomenal job. We stood in our dinning room, before a living room full of family and friends, and tried to ignore the phone ringing just as tears welled into our eyes and we exchanged rings.

It’s been 7 years and I am still head over heels in love. I guess that is why I keep ended up in this situation

What do you call 2 pregnant women, 2 husbands, 4 children, 4 dogs and 2 birds?

I’m not sure what to call it other then one heck of an adventure! Our friends are staying with us for a bit while they try to resolve a very very very bad housing issue that will probably require the Department of Health or EPA to intervene. As if all this activity isn’t enough, their son suddenly developed a stomach bug this morning. Now we are holding our breaths, waiting to see if someone else falls or if this may possible be blamed on an accidental baptism in a local river.

Speaking of accidental baptisms, I sent The Hubster’s cellphone through the wash. During the food poisoning plague, Mira barfed all over some clothes left on the bathroom floor, which included The Hubster’s pants. I don’t know about you, but I was not going to fish around in vomit pants so I chucked it all in the wash. As sorrowful and remorseful as I felt, it ended up being the best thing I could ever do. It forced us to seek out a new cellphone contract as our expired back in February and I had just been putting off doing anything. As a byproduct of our new cell contract, we were able to step into the current century. I am proud to announce that we are no longer suckling at the teat of free rabbit ears television. For a ridiculously low price we were able to “bundle” our services and end up with only a few dollars difference over what we were paying for the same services minus the whole satellite tv. Considering that I will be spending the next couple of months sitting on my laurels as much as possible, I’m grateful to have the option of watching something other the Jerry Springer or Judge whoever shows.

Tonight we have a huge holiday dinner with The Hubster’s side of the family. I feel bad for the restaurant that is playing host to this scheduled mayhem. We can be a demanding and piggish bunch. This has been a lean Christmas for us but rather then scrooging the relatives I made them gluten free candy. Don’t you wish you were related?

Happy Thanksgiving to all the Americans out there in blogland. We’re keeping the gathering small and yet I can’t help but cook cook cook!

The Pioneer Woman is helping me with my turkey this year as I give brining my first go.

Gluten Free Girl is helping me with my pumpkin and apple pies.

My stuffing/dressing is homemade gluten free buttermilk cornbread with lots of sauted goodies baked to stuffingy perfection. The mashed potatoes, I’m sure, are outlawed in 10 states for being overly decadent then there are all the veggies. Oh the veggies! We have a huge organic bounty to enjoy this Thanksgiving thanks to some close friends who work at the organic veggie co-op. I’m feeling a bit like a pip and thinking that 2 pies and a cake simply might not be enough, I may need to make some more toffee. MMMMMMMMM toffee!

We have so much to be thankful for this year. We added a vibrant and healthy son, our girls are flourishing, and we are expecting another miracle. Our sense of support and community has expanded 10 fold in the last year; it’s such a blessing to have people in your life who are eager to help when the road gets tough and who know that you are just as eager to help them.

I can only hope that each and every one of you have such blessings and many more in the year to come.

We are in the midst of quite a busy month. Tessa is starting school in just a few shorts days (did I just hear a chorus of angels singing?), Tessa’s birthday puts in an appearance and the very next day me and the kiddos (sans The Hubster) roll out to visit my family (maybe get to meet a blogger).

The “plan” as we shall loosely call it, is for the Hubster is complete some of the little niggling projects like FLOORING and oh ELECTRICAL so we might actually have a shot at closing out our permits this year. I say “plan” because, dude, he’s slated to have 4 days unimpeded by howling children, a nagging wife, and work. Four long lonely days he can fill with beer, power tools, Johnny Cash and sleep. Upon my return I hope to lavish my husband with special favors for all the projects he completes (and I don’t mean finally completing a life sized beer can pyramid).

It is my hope that we can close out October with ungodly amounts of delicious candy and at least one passing inspection. I also hope to plunge full steam ahead into November, cleaning and prepping the house for tea. After last years panicky last minute party
due to pukefest ‘06, I vowed to put together a proper birthday party this year. one with INVITATIONS! and SCHOOL FRIENDS!! Tessa has requested a tea party and now I am scouring the internet looking for CHEAP! tea party food and decor ideas and, really, I need CHEAP! ones.

We’ll be inviting the children in her class, which should be 14. I doubt they will all come but I need to plan just in case there is some cosmic fluke where every single child is inclined to RSVP and show. There will be another 6 to 10 kids on top of that and a boatload of grownups.. why yes, I am insane.

The plan thus far:

Make and send invitations that request everyone comes dressed “fancy” glitter, sequins, bows and top hats are strongly encouraged. Set up several long tables, add lots of chairs. Cover tables with table clothes, accent with contrasting runner. Make tea.

There seems to be a few vital party elements missing. I could use some ideas, CHEAP! ideas.

I’m already scouring the thrift stores for CHEAP! tea cups and saucers (there is thus far a huge void in the used cup and saucer market. What are you people doing with all your tea cups? Give em to me!) I think I will hit the dollar store for a few cheapy vases and maybe fill them with lollipop flowers cause right after Halloween I should be able to score some lollipops for a song. beyond that I’m kind of floundering.

I need a kid friendly, yet gluten free menu, that will also somewhat appease the adults in attendance, maybe a few ideas for organized games (my current plan involves mass chaos and zero activities), and CHEAP! decorating ideas. Also, do I have to do goodie bags? Is it poor children’s party etiquette to just skip em?

Tessa plans on wearing her new Halloween dress, we’ll see if it survives the candy carnage in relatively good condition

Live at 10am I will show up in the box below. I will be nursing my 8 month old son. Please join me when you see me live. Chat features will be enabled and I’ll do my best at one handed typing. Thanks to The Maternal League of Justice for putting this together

Check out this great youtube video. It’ll have to tide you over for now