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.....