painting the kitchen, and pictures of the kids....

These guys are painting the kitchen...I can hardly bear it....they are so silly..

Here is Kathryn looking for a movie with Sonja....

Suzanne with Charlotte Claire...

Camille Anaya demonstrating how to drink from a sippy cup....and how to pick out nice matching clothes....

I look worn out in this picture....I think I was pretty stressed. I was trying to get dinner on the table so like 8 people could get out the door right after, and Suze wanted me to teach her how to do counted cross stitch, so I sat down in this chair to help her for a minute...then I heard the dreaded sound of something (or in this case, someONE) falling down the stairs, and Jon screaming....Camille fell down the stairs. She was bleeding alot from the lips....so it looked alarming. I am not too good in these situations, so it was good I was already sitting down. I had Kathryn get me a wash cloth quick, and when I cleaned her up it was apparent it wasn't very serious...but it gave me a few more grey hairs...Charlotte Claire was a little jealous that Camille got so much attention, and that Jon gave her this phone to play with, a real phone that Ben had that is broken...it is a very fought-over item.....

Yeah, I can tell now...:Mirielle is leaving in the morning. I have to be out of the house by 9:00 to bring her to the airport. Wah. Wah getting up early, and wah saying goodbye. Wah.

cozy cloudy afternoon...

Mali and Aaron so nicely watched the kids so Mirielle and I could go get her a plug converter and go to the bank, and we took a quick trip to the grocery store....and we stopped at Gramma's house...she made us a big pan of lasagna and an apple spice bundt cake.

Sam has three friends here, so Mali made them a nice lunch of rice, broccoli, and chicken chunks....I came home just in time to help clean up the mess.....

Now Camille is napping, and the girls are watching, "12 Dancing Princesses"....They have one huge bedroom with 12 beds in it....I realized that I have 11 princesses....only 9 will be left here when Mirielle leaves....but Emily will be back...wouldn't it be cool to have a room like that with all the beds in a row? Then a room for each of them to keep their stuff...hey, a girl can dream....

When I get my batteries charged, I am going to take a new picture of each of the kids, except for of course Emily and Joseph. Oh, all the things I am going to do.....and all I want to do is take a nap. What is it about rainy afternoons that make me want to snuggle in my bed?

I swept up the kitchen and living room floors so nicely before I left this morning. It looked quite nice. I hate crumbs and stuff on the floor. (I know, I am in the wrong line of work).....I walked in the door, and even though Mirielle and I had a nice relaxing outing, which included a large coffee and a medium Chai tea, I lamented....why can't anything stay clean? I did ask Sonja to sweep up the pile of pink playdough crumbs Camille left in the living room, where playdough isn't even allowed. Oh, Camille is a busy one. She took off her diaper before I left today and pooped a big poop right on the kitchen floor....I cleaned her up first, then the poop on the floor, then showered her off.....yes Martha, maybe I need to use those cloth diapers with pins. I have a huge bag of real diapers still, in the closet. 'Cause you never know.

Suzanne, also known as Carl around here, has the teapot whistler outside, whistling like there's no tomorrow. I don't care for high pitched noise anyway, but Camille is sleeping....rrr. Kathryn just got it from her and put it back on the tea kettle.

I saw a lady in the store today with a little tiny baby, a little toddler, and a bigger toddler, no older than three years old. She looked a bit frazzled. I wanted so badly to give her a word of encouragement without sounding like a know it all. But I didn't. I wanted to balance out all the "You must be crazy", and "Better you than me" comments she probably gets. When I saw her, I thought, "You are a lucky woman".....No, she didn't have much room for groceries because the carseat was in the back of the cart and the small toddler in the front....and she is probably tired and overwhelmed, but those kids were so cute!

Rosie the pup is a lot of work. Joseph, I will take some more pictures of her when my batteries charge. I gave her a nice bath the day before yesterday, and you could never tell today. She needs constant brushing with all that fur....I am thinking about getting her a haircut. She barks at the neighbors, at their garbage guys and Fedex deliveries, plus at ours. The propane man, wow, she goes crazy when he comes. She mostly comes to me when I call her when she is barking like a mad dog, but not always, and that bothers me. My mother always said the dog listens like the kids do, and she was right. And what bothers me more is that I have read that it isn't the dog's fault, it it the owner/trainer. ouch. I can make a lot of excuses, like she has too many masters, but I won't.....

out and about day again...

But hopefully not for too long....we are supposed to take our big van into the dealership for a recall (nothing big, just a possible "engine compartment fire", which is nice to know after driving the thing for five years.....)...but Mirielle's car, which is really Emily's car, is still at the fixit-shop....anyway, Mirielle and I are probably going out and about to do a bit of banking and other stuff because she is leaving soon. Last night she decided on a winter coat to bring. She is going to be gone a long time. Apparently the winter temps in England average much warmer than here, but then she is on to Norway, brr. It must to be difficult to pack enough stuff for over a year....

I am so sad she is leaving I can't stand it. It's not my fault she is so much fun and has become pretty much my best friend. It's not my fault she is my fellow coupon-shopper, fellow bargain shopper. It's not my fault that we think the same things are hilarious....oh, it is hard to say goodbye to her. I am not at all against her following her dreams and traveling and meeting new people, I think it is great that she is actually doing it. She always thought it was a shame that people just stay where they live all their lives when there is a great big world out there. But I will miss her! Why, oh why is she leaving for sooo long? Joseph will be home next month, and Emily in December....but we will just have to photo-shop Mirielle into the new family picture....I am wondering when we will all be together again....oh, sadness.....

I came out here at 2:30 in the morning to take ibuprofen for my back, and lots of older kids were still up. Aaron was eating microwaved frozen strawberries, Mali was bringing the dog in....they had just finished a movie....they will be in bed 'til noon....they need to start an earlier schedule....they are having that panic that school will start soon and they want to have as much fun as possible. They are obviously my kids.....

A cooler weather pattern has decended upon us here in the Northeast. Our high temperatures will only be in the low seventies. That is pleasant enough, but the pool water gets cold. As much as I sort of hate the really hot humid days, they were nice this year...the pool was like bath water....hopefully though, with these pleasant days we can do a few park visits, things that are miserable with the heat, and the non-air-conditioned van.....

a picture perfect day with no pictures...

No, my fully charged new batteries disapeared from my camera without a trace. No one here knows anything about it. Hmm. Aaron had his camera, but he is gone to a meeting tonight, so no pics right now......instead, I will try to describe the day.....I had the bright idea to take the kids to a nice county park on one of the Finger Lakes....(five finger lakes in central NY state, formed by glaciers, deep and clean and pretty........long and narrow like fingers, parallel to each other....) Mirielle, Mali, and Margaret had places to go with their friends, so I took Aaron, Sam, Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja K., Jon, Charlotte Claire, and Camille. The playground was our first stop, with the snacks set out....candy bars, diet soda, cheese crackers, almonds. And cheese and crackers and pepperoni. Yeah, I know, very healthy. We are clean out of fresh fruit and veggies. There is a huge slide there, they all went to the top and formed a train and went down together...it was nice to see Aaron, 16, and Sam, 14, playing so nicely with the younger ones. They took Camille down it several times. ( I asked her about it tonight, and she said, "steps!") They all went on the old-fashioned merry-go-round, Aaron made it go really fast. After a while we packed up the snacks, and headed down to the beach. I was worn out in like ten minutes. Camille thought she had a swim floatie on, I think. She has no sense. She just would run out in the water and collapse. I had to pull her up....and she just laughed....she finally settled down a bit, and played with the sand in the shallow water....the other kids would be jumping in and yelling, WATCH THIS, MOMMY!, and I would be like, sure, like I can take my eyes off Camille for more than two seconds. It seemed like everytime I did, she went under water. I don't mean to make it sound like she was in danger, she seems to hold her breath when she goes under, she doesn't cough or take in water......she just keeps me on my toes. There was a life guard on duty, and less than ten other people swimming. After about 45 minutes or so, I had had enough, so I scooped her up, carried her up to the grassy area, and cuddled her in her towel while she drank a bottle of milk. (What? She's getting too old for this?) We packed up and headed to the van. Boy, reading this makes it sound easy. I am omitting all the fun. Like how I almost left without Suzanne because she didn't want to sit next to Sonja, and she went back in the house and I didn't know it. Or how I "ran" into Walmart on the way there, with only Evelyn, to get them a volleyball to play with at the park, and several of the kids protested that I didn't bring them in. Or how Camille peed through her swimdiaper all over Sam. Or how on the way home, they somehow talked me into taking them through the drive-through of McDonalds....they got a paper and pen and took orders, two things each...we still came out short one hot fudge sundae, so I made Sam give his to Jon.....Sam made out well, because I gave him the rest of my double cheesburger, which only had a few bites out of it, then Jon gave the sundae back to Sam....anyway, they supposedly brought all of the garbage out of the van.....and when we got home, we did not have to have dinner! We just went swimming! Yay for a break! The weather today was superb. Warm and sunny and breezy and not too hot and not too cool and the water was warm and clear and sandy-bottomed. And Camille in her new brown and pink polka-dotted bikini with the ruffled bottoms, way too cute.....

The younger ones are tucked in, Benjamin is watching the Yankees. Mirielle is packing, she is leaving soon, but I am not allowed to say when, because she does not want her friends to throw her a going away party....so I am being respectful of that, even though I don't agree. Kathryn, Evelyn, and Suzanne are still up....summer hours. The older kids are all at a meeting with Paul.

Well, these three girls want to talk...

It is midnight....

and I should be in bed...I am wondering if I should just bring some ibuprofen into my room with me for when my back starts to hurt...I didn't call the dr. today, nah, not yet....I haven't procrastinated long enough...

Today ended up being a running-around-day....I took Mirielle down to some stores to get a few things for her long journey on the other side of the Atlantic.....we took Evelyn, Sonja, and Charlotte Claire with us. Charlotte Claire somehow made it out the door with her junky old flipflops....we brought her nice little sandals along, and made her put them on before we went into Target. She did not want to wear them, but I insisted....then she had a fit, and it was too late for me to say, WHAT the HECK, just wear them....so Mirielle just PUT the nice sandals on her, and carried her into the store crying very loudly.....Charlotte Claire, that is. Not Mirielle. Anyway, she settled down a bit, and Mirielle asked who had to go to the bathroom....Charlotte Claire went along with Mirielle, but not without saying, "I don't like you anymore, Mirielle..."

So we went through that again at the next store....then, at the third store, before she could start her little whining gig, I told her, GUESS what?! You can wear your flip flops in this store!! What was the lesson learned here? Never mess with a three year old. They will win.

We had a party tonight. I didn't even know it was going on, and they came in and invited me...I was pleasantly surprised when I went out on the deck, and there were candles everywhere, and seated at the new table: Mirielle, Mali, Aaron, Samuel, Kathryn, Evelyn, and Suzanne.....they were eating pizza and playing in candle wax....and talking about how funny it would be to take some of the abundance of toys in our yard and just put them in our neighbors pristine lawn....

Our oven broke tonight. We had these two beautiful Pizza Uno pizzas from BJs......I had put them in the oven, and it just turned off.....they cooked partially, so we had other stuff for dinner...and later the kids put them in foil on the grill outside......hence the party.

Paul didn't get to the oven diagnosis yet. He had taken Margaret and Kathryn to soccer practice, and tomorrow night he has another meeting.....I told him not to worry about it, I can live without it for a while. He is SO responsible....

It seemed like I had extra time on my hands today since I had no mousies to feed. I am not regretful of the experience, even though 3 people have said I am stupid so far. Here I went and taught the kids to be gentle with the mouse babies, they were little and fragile, and I acted like they were so special ....then my M.I.L goes and tells Jonny that mice are dirty and have germs and we should give them to the cat.....hmm.

Camille did not want to go to bed tonight. She said, "I don't want it, night night..." I, on the other hand, am very tired....and, these guys are watching "Kill Bill", AGAIN....it is hard enough to watch once.....

monday morning already....

and mousie #2, Mr. Squeaky, is nowhere in sight. When I went to bed at the early hour of eleven last night, while the big kids were still arguing what movie to watch, Sam was going to take charge of Mr. S. He must have died, because the box is gone. I am sort of relieved that I didn't have to see it....he was slowing down on his feedings yesterday, he must have missed his sibling.

Camille and Charlotte Claire were the only ones up with me this morning until they got the bright idea to go storming into the bedroom where Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja and Jonathan were sleeping soundly. AND get in a big fight in there, which entailed Charlotte Claire pushing poor Camille off the bed, which she says was an accident, and I told her to say sorry, and Camille sat here saying over and over, "Sorry Charlotte, Sorry Charlotte", and she is the one who fell....

Camille got into the Anti-Itch gel that one of the little princesses left out...a few of them cannot sleep if they have one bug bite.....she washed her hands in it and painted some dvds.....

I think I need to call the dr. about my back. It isn't so bad during the day, but I cannot sleep. I fall asleep okay, being pretty tired when I get in bed, but I wake up at 3 or so and the pain is horrible.....I took 3 extra strength ibuprofen last night when I woke up, and it did take the edge off....as I was finally drifting back off, Miss Camille-who-needs-her-own-room-badly woke up....all she wants is for me to pick her up and hug her, lay her back down and cover her up, and she is fine. She did this twice last night. Right as I was going back to sleep....rrr. I am not so sure they can do anything about my back anyway, I think it is a disc that is a bit out of place. But it could be something awful like a tumor. Suzanne, who is 8, told me yesterday morning that she dreamed my back hurt so bad that I took off my ring and went in my room and died. And she cried in her sleep. Ooh, that was a bit creepy. I honestly haven't said much in front of them about it....and the ring part she must have gotten because I wear my late mother's wedding band on my right hand....so she knew Gramma has her ring off.....anyway, I should probably call....I wonder if I need a chiropractor.....I come from a family of self-diagnosers...I hate going to the dr....

So, Camille has a terrible habit of taking her diaper off these days. Yesterday at church she was out at the playground with the other kids and Evelyn came running in and said she took her diaper off and pooped and it rolled down the slide. Great. It turned out it was just tiny, not a big deal, but after I got her all dressed again, she pooped again, for real....and the kids restrained her from taking it off until I got out there and changed her...potty training? I just asked Suzanne to take her in sit on the toilet....

Kathryn just told me the mouse died when she was trying to feed it last night. She said it was pretty sad....oh well. We tried.

Okay, a question was asked about school attendance, if the school gets on our case about missing days....the elementary/middle school nurse calls here so much, I am sure she knows our number by heart. In high school, it becomes much harder for the kids when they miss school. Most of ours are responsible enough to have good attendance, as they know how hard it is to make up the work, and their grades will suffer if they miss a day. One thing I got a kick out of was this past year, Suzanne had a comment from her teacher on her report card that said, "I am concerned about Suzanne's excessive absences." My question was, what exactly was she concerned about? Suzanne gets all A's, exceptional test scores,and has wonderful social skills. But yet her teacher was concerned. She obviously didn't understand that the time Suzanne spends at home is the reason she is so smart and well-adjusted. I don't just park her in front of the tv here...she is busy playing office or reading stories or setting up forts or coloring or writing books. Not that they don't watch their share of movies, or some public television here and there......her teacher doesn't understand that having Suze here a day a week or so with just the little ones gives her and I a chance to have some special time together. That those days are more than just skipping school. So with letting the kids miss school sometimes, I have found a sort of happy medium between home schooling and sending them to school....we live in a rural area with a small school, everyone knows each other, it is way different than the huge district where I attended school. One of the huge pluses of sending them to school is that there are several other families in our church at the same school, and the kids have those friends in their classes. This is a tremendous help, especially during the difficult middle school and high school years.

Now that our amusement park day is off, the kids are wondering what our special outing will be. Hmm. Where can you take 12 or 14 kids for fun and cheap?

Well, my older kids won't be up for a few hours, just the seven youngest are up....I need to get busy....

one mousie died....

And the kids don't know it yet. I kept the box here by my chair last night, feeding the poor little guys...and one wasn't interested. Finally, it took a big breath and was still. I must be crazy, because I teared up a little. 5 days I have been feeding them....now the other one, who I call Squeaky, has slowed down noticably. I have been up for a while, and tried to feed him, and he seems just blah.

I couldn't sleep because my back was hurting, so I decided to get up. Everyone else is still sleeping, except for stupid Rosie, who just keeps barking at the across-the-road neighbors' dog every 5 minutes or so. It is so absolutely silent here that the barking is just not acceptable, especially on a Sunday morning. I have jumped up no less than 5 times to quiet her. Oh, she looks so repentant when I tell her to stop....like she'll never do it again. I would just bring her in here, but she will sneak down to the kids' room, and if she gets too excited when they all yell at her, she will pee in there. Oh well, I didn't get the perfect dog I envisioned, but I do love her anyway.

School starts on September 8th this year. I will have 9 kids going again, as Joseph graduated and Jonathan starts kindergarten. Aaron and Mali in high school, Sam, Margaret, Kathryn, and Evelyn in middle school, Suzanne, Sonja, and Jonathan in elementary. I had better face reality pretty soon and check their school lists to see if we have everything. I have been buying basic supplies all along, and I bought Jon a sleeping mat. Wah. I do not want to send my little Jonny. But I will be letting him stay home a lot. I have been struggling with the homeshooling thoughts all summer. They are MY kids, I hate sending them off. But the school district is great, the teachers are kind and respectful, my older ones had no problems going through school, and are strong advocates of sending the younger ones off for their own doses of reality.

Aah, sweet quiet. Paul is up now, but he is being quiet. We are going to church this morning, so I need to get moving and get their clothes out.....