whew....

Rosie-the-bad-dog.....

She was ripping up/eating the purple streamers from the birthday party. She doesn't just chew things up, she eats them.... Our back yard this morning.

It isn't nine o'clock yet, and I need a nap. I actually had a good sleep last night, Camille woke up twice, but I didn't get up, and she went back to sleep on her own. Only like a year later than it should take for a toddler to learn that, but I'll take it.

Camille is up now, and she is snuggling with me. Rosie is tied up outside, and barking her head off. She is all clean and fluffy and cute now. I just went out and got her and brought her in again. That makes three trips outside already for me. A guy is plowing our across-the-street neighbors' driveway, and somehow that is Rosie's business. She is pacing around and whining to go back outside. I wish I could just let her go, but she will go over there and bark at that truck.

All nine school kids went this morning. Suzanne remembered her brownies. They all remembered their snacks (or rather I remembered all their snacks), and Jonathan brought his snowpants just in case they go outside. I am successful. ha. Aaron had a migraine at school yesterday. I wonder why he and I both got them on the same day. He came home and went to bed, and when he got up later in the evening, he still felt awful. He has some migraine med. but forgot to take one before school. He only gets them in school, I wonder if it is the lighting or the dust or the lack of air circulation. Or stress. I don't know. I always try to figure out what triggers mine, and the one common denominater is stress and being very busy, but that is the story of my life, and I don't always have a headache, so it has to be something else.

Well, like I said yesterday, I am thankful for the help I recieved yesterday, but....oh my goodness, they don't do things like I do. Joseph DID sweep up last night, which is nice. But a Monday without doing any laundry, eeks! Benjamin is taking his GED test today, and Mirielle has classes, and will be picking him up when he is done, but he will have to wait for her for a while...he wanted me to pick him up. I said no. It was hard to do. I like to please everyone. But it will take me all day to get ready and drive to the small city and then I won't want to just come home after all the effort of getting ready, and he won't want to shop. So...I said no. He can wait the hour or two....but of course I feel bad. That's me, the mom who wants to help all the kids all the time.....but sometimes I just can't. Oh, but maybe I should just go get him....rrr.

Emily was here to visit last night. She didn't have to work, but she couldn't stay overly late because she had homework. She is going for her bachelors in nursing by taking classes online. She has a tough job, I couldn't do it. She works on a very intense floor, and people there die. Of course it is a hospital, people die in hospitals. But her floor has people with mostly unfixable or dire medical conditions, and it is sad. And just for the record, she never tells me any names or specifics about any patients, she abides strictly by the privacy laws.

Anyway, Paul and some of the older kids were gone when she came over, and the little ones were estactic to see her. They showed that by their behavior. Jumping on the couch and going wild....I had to put a stop to that...they wanted her attention. And I told her to remember that they aren't always like this. She'll never want to come over! She is a good girl, she helped by changing Jon's bedding and tucking them in. They liked having her pray with them and put them to bed.

I have a niggling feeling, and whenever I have that niggling feeling and I ignore it, I am sorry....right now I should check on the girls. They are not supposed to go into Evelyn, Suzanne, Jonathan, and Sonja's room. Because they get into their stuff, and there is nothing more heartbreaking than a kid getting off the bus and running into their room and exclaiming how someone dumped her Barbies or trashed her shelf......I am supposed to guard that room for them...so off I go...