thank you mr. darling!!

We have water pressure!!! Oh, we are in hog heaven. Total bliss. We filled the hot tub, did laundry, ran the dishwasher, and flushed the toilets all at once!!!! I gave Rosie a much needed bath, and the hand-held shower had so much pressure she was leary of it. Wow. I am doing load after load of laundry, I am almost caught up already!!! I do not want to forget how thankful I am this very day for water. So if and when I get to complaining about something, remind me!!!

I am home tonight with the seven youngest. They were dancing like crazy with the music cranked, until I couldn't take it anymore, and I suggested they turn on Qubo....they are watching Rupert, a very nice cartoon. They are pooped out now. I should do showers and get them to bed before they get a second wind. There is no school tomorrow, so they get to stay up a bit tonight.

Camille has a dollhouse baby, and she is walking around with it cradled in her hand, saying, "Shh, shh." They have a bunch of dollhouse furniture out again. If I could pick just one type of toy to invest in, this would be it. It is sturdy, and it keeps their attention. I mean, she is only just two, and she plays and plays dollhouse. I wish I could buy just a bunch of babies, as she loves them the best.

Today was a bye-bye day. We went to the dollar store (Pepperidge Farms raisin bread, one dollar. I used three loaves to make french toast for dinner tonight)(and it was good)...then on to BigLots, where I got a few Christmas presents, including pink slippers for myself. Then to Staples where there is a UPS station, so Joseph could mail back his xbox360 to be repaired. Hopefully for him it is something they will fix for free. Then we were hungry, so we went to BurgerKing, because we had the free fries coupons from Halloween. Abigail, Joseph, and I each got a $1 sandwich, and one to spilt for the little girls. And ice water to drink. Not too bad for lunch....although I was not going to eat any fries, and I did. One by one...and they add up.

Then we went to Wegmans, where I bought a dozen one pound bags of frozen veggies for 79 cents each, and about 30 cans of canned veggies for 39 cents a bag. Wegmans is a high end store, their store brands are as good or better than national brands. I got eggs and shredded mozzarella (a 5lb bag, 1.80 a lb.), bread and milk and chocolate chips and brown sugar and carrots and potatoes and soup and pasta and sauce and a 27 pound turkey for thirty-nine cents a pound! Before I started shopping, I got a large coffee, as they have excellent coffee, and sipped it while I shopped. I also picked out a cranberry toasted-walnut muffin to have on the way home with the rest of the coffee. I wasn't going to, but then I saw the baker taking them from the pan to the display case, and I couldn't resist the thought of such a fresh muffin....they are the best, tart cranberries... and slightly sweet fresh moist muffin, and those toasted walnuts, yum.

When we got home with all the groceries, I put away some, then assigned the kids to put things away, and I went on my walk with Kathryn. Oh, if everyone had a Kathryn to bring on their walk with them. She talked so much about so many interesting things, it really distracted me from how hard the hills were. She told me about a snake that her and Emily had come across, and we saw two deer, which she really wanted to chase, but didn't. She didn't get one bit out of breath on the hills. No sir, she talked the whole way.

I am bound and determined that I am going to walk every single day until we leave for vacation. I don't delude myself that I am going to look great in my suit or anything like that, but if we are doing alot of walking, I want to be able to do that. I know from experience that it doesn't take very long to get into somewhat better shape.

Well, time to read some stories and have some showers....I don't like to see them parked in front of the tv for too long.