afternoon break...

Today I got some things accomplished...Charlotte Claire's room got cleaned and sorted, again...it is the toy storage room...and I am a toy-a-holic. Ten doll strollers in there, and one on the deck. Oh, and there was one in the hall, too. Trucks and cars, and dishes and play food, dollies and clothes, baby toys, dollhouse stuff, Waffleblocks, blocks, cash registers (4 or 5) (but they play with them when they play store), and a big shelve set in the closet filled with old Fisher-Price little people stuff. Each time I clean in there, I try to weed out a few things. It is hard for me to do, but I try.......

My sister registered her camper to go camping. If you register late in the year, you only get charged for a 6 month period, and it is cheaper. She camps in August, so she registered right before she left. She was told she could only get the cheaper rate if she had her husband's driver's license. She could register the camper without it, but to get the special rate, she needed it. What??? That is the law, she was told. Okay...she got her husband to fax a copy over, and got it done, but she couldn't help ask the obvious: And people want the government to run health care??!

Polly Pockets have way too many little pieces......why do I feel so responsible for the pieces when they don't seem to care?

Mirielle is making icecream cake for the big birthday party. We don't know yet what we're having for dinner. I was planning to make chicken wings, and Evelyn just said she doesn't like them. So she went to check in the freezer, and dumped over the soupy cake that Mirielle just put in...it went all over the stuff in the freezer, and Mirielle is asking her to clean it up...she says she'll do it in a minute.....meanwhile, the thing is melting.....hmm.

Sonja K. was my helper cleaning Charlotte Claire's room, so she gets to help me fill party bags....the stuff is all in my room and Camille is napping. She has asked me about a hundred times to go in and get the stuff, just sneaky, Mom. right. As if it's worth waking Camille. Every time Sonja goes down the hall, I suspect she is either trying to make a little noise to wake Camille, or she is going to "hear" her and go into the room to get her. Nah, my kids aren't brats....

But I do love them so much. Even when they fight. Yesterday, Aaron, Mali, and I were at our wits end with the fighting when we went bye-bye. Kathryn, who wasn't too bad, but Evelyn, Suzanne, and Sonja, who are 11, 10 (today), 8 and seven, are like two, no 4 cats in a sack. Rrrrr. Scratch, hiss...pick, tap, slap, screech, STOP IT, MOMMY, SHE.....whatever. I told them to knock it off. I told them to stop it. I told Evelyn not to touch Sonja. I told Sonja not to whisper loudly in Suzanne's ear and spit on her. I told Kathryn not to tell Sonja to shut up. They did not listen to me. All this time, I was driving, and I was tense. So I yelled at them, loudly. Very loudly. I suppose it could be called screaming. I didn't do it because I was mad, I was driving along and thinking what I could do....so I yelled. They were shocked at it, and they all started laughing their heads off....and I couldn't help it, I laughed too.....then Aaron and Mali started yelling at them too, and we were laughing so hard.....it DID diminish the fighting, but we no sooner stopped to get our breath, and Sonja was complaining that if they just stop doing whatever, and they were telling her they didn't do anything, she should stop blaming them....ugh.

Well, I had better go start cooking......