dreary sunday morning....

And I mean dreary. Cool and cloudy and breezy, and I love it. It makes it all the cozier in here. There is no church today, as many of our friends are at a wedding in another state. We probably wouldn't go anyway, Paul is sick. He is still in bed, which is unusual for him, to say the least. Sam seems better, Mali is better, Mirielle is better....maybe not completely over it, but better. It is a fever/cough/flu thing. I think because Paul just goes and goes and keeps so busy, when he gets sick, it just knocks him out.

I am thinking of taking the kids to McDonalds today to play on the germy playground. Hmm, if it doesn't rain, maybe I would be better off taking them to an outdoor playground, not so germy. I have been promising Sonja a HappyMeal for months now. She earned a coupon through school, and it expired....and not because she didn't nag me enough, either. So, they saw that the prizes are Barbies and Hotwheels, and Sonja just looked at me, with those sad pleading eyes. I said, Why do you want those, so you can throw them out when you clean your room??? Whatever.

It is busy in here this morning. Evelyn re-designed her room yesterday. Four of them sleep in there, and they don't have much room. One of the beds is a regular bunk bed, the other is sort of a loft bunk, Jon's Little Tikes Race Car bed was underneath. So Evelyn took the mattress off the loft bunk, moved Jon's bed out from under, and put the mattress there. Now the top of that bunk is like a play/storage area. They have also decorated their walls with all sorts of lovely stuff, tacked to the walls. Oh, what's the use of trying to have things "nice"...they think it is nice this way, so , oh well. Anyway, they are playing in there non stop, and lots of kids/small room, chaos.

Our oven does not work. Paul ordered a part, we waited for it to arrive, he fixed it, it broke again. It keeps blowing the fuse. I think we need to just buy a new one. Too bad he spent over $100 on the part....he might be able to return it. Anyway, buying a new stove/oven is not what we like to spend our money on, but going through fall and winter without one sounds difficult. It makes the meal planning a bit challenging. Thankfully we have a grill on the deck.

Camille has on a diaper and her froggy boots. She is always coming to me with "owies" for me to kiss. Just the way she says, "Mama".....so sweet. She makes these statements, and adds, "Kay?"

Yesterday I went to the outlet mall. What a disapointment. We hardly found any bargains. Mali wanted some clothes. She found one dress for $5.99, and that was it. Aeropostale had boys/mens shirts for $7.99, way to much. I did find the cutest jumpers at Carter's, for the two little girls for six bucks, including the long-sleeved onesie shirts underneath. But they don't really need clothes, of course I got them anyway. I found them some 99 cent skirt/skorts in the Childrens' Place. And Abigail found some new shoes for work...they were cheap because they were two different sizes...but she liked them, they were cheap, comfy, and we agreed you couldn't tell one is a seven and one is an eight. Oh, we are bad. We left without spending much, which was nice....but where are the bargains these days?

Afterwards, we were SO hungry....it was Abigail, Aaron, Mali, Sonja, Charlotte Claire, and I, so we ordered takeout from this nice little Chinese place downtown, and ate it in the minivan (I hope we didn't leave any rice in there, Paul likes to keep it spotless).....so much for starting my new better way of eating yesterday. I wanted to go walking, but I wonder if I am fighting off this sickness, I am dragging. I did drag around the mall, and it was enough.

Well, the kids seem to be done playing in the newlly remodeled bedroom, and are talking about what their teachers told them about 9/11, so I need to go and talk to them.....