I could be getting so much done...

But here I sit blogging....

Mali and Rosie...

Is Jon in the back ground alot? Here his is behind Charlotte Claire and Camille. The doll is typical of all the dollies around here. Naked.

Suzanne Eleanor. She has my favorite thing on. My mother's mu-mu. That's what my mother called it, anyway. Gramma wore this thing around the house alot. Seeing Suze in it is so nice for me, and it reminds all the kids of Gramma.

Rosie sometimes gets distracted by something on the t.v., like the noises Curious George makes. It is pretty funny to see her watching so intently.

She goes crazy when the kids play this xylophone. Now she has a turn with it.

Okay, I admit it, I don't really like hair too short on boys. But this is getting a bit out of hand. Mr. Jonathan almost looks like Miss Jonathan.

Abigail started cutting up some pork chops for the little ones, starting the production known as "Dinner".....

Jon has a cool bear with sunglasses shirt. He thinks he looks like a "Dude"...I do not know where he got that from.







She doesn't LOOK like a biter! She picked these beautiful flowers.

Last night the younger kids wanted to play kickball. So Paul and I, and Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja, Jonathan, Charlotte Claire (she had no IDEA what she was doing, which was adorable), Camille (who was even more clueless), and we even roped Benjamin in for a few innings. The chaos started when we brought them all in the house for showers, and the puppy peed on the floor, and Charlotte Claire was tired and crying about everything....

Well, Camille is awake now, and she has pointed to her behind and told me, "Poop!"....so I have a job to do. When they start talking, it is so cute....yesterday in Price-Chopper, we were walking by the bakery section, and she said, "I cookie!"......so I asked for a cookie for her. I told the worker that I wasn't planning on getting her one, but she remembered.....She is so sweet this morning in her little kitty pajamas. She is standing here getting into the drawer I keep all the hair things in. And she stinks. So, bye for now....

she bit me!!

Not Rosie, Charlotte Claire! At the check-out in Price-Chopper, she and Jon had had it with sitting nicely in the car-car-cart. They were being good about the tempting candy at the register, probably because I never buy it for them, but they were romping around in that small space, and suddenly I felt horrible pain in the back of my calf. I looked down and Charlotte Claire was on all fours, looking up at me with a huge grin on her face. I was talking to the bag-girl about puppy housebreaking, and puppy biting, and I guess Miss C.C. was jealous or something. (The bag-girl insists that the best way to get a pup to stop nipping is to bite them back. right.)Anyway, I looked at Miss C.C., told her that was not nice, and continued my conversation. I mean, was I supposed to scream, "OUCH you little brat you just BIT me!"?

Yeah, I have a bruise, and I showed it to her when we walked out of the store, and told her that was very mean to do to mommy. I am not a licensed phychiatrist, but here's my diagnosis anyway:

1. She had been pretty well behaved through two stores, and she short-circuited.

2. She was jealous that I was talking about the dog.

3. She was innnocently playing that she was a dog, and copying Rosie.

All three mixed together, that is what I think. The cure? The bag-girl probably would have shouted, "Bite her back, bite her back!".....I am thinking more attention? If I believed in spanking, I'd have given her a good one. (Oh, spanking is something so controversial....I do think once in a while they need a little spank on the bottom to show them you really mean business, and turn them from what they are doing,but to spank as a punishment...nah, we parents are big and kids are little...not very nice.) Hopefully it was just a fluke, and I don't have to buy her a muzzle.

We are ready to eat...yes, here I sit while Joseph cooks some chops on the grill. I already made a salad and the table is all ready.....Paul is going to be late because he is stopping at his dad's house. The older kids (Abigail, Mirielle, Joseph, Aaron, Mali, Sam, and Margaret) are going to the youth meeting after dinner, so we want to start early because it is so much fun sitting at the table. We do solve the problems of the world while we sit there. If you want to have lots and lots of fun and fellowship, eat dinner with your family everyday. Yes, there are spills. There are fights. But there are lessons in manners, respect and sharing that they don't even realize they are learning.....and oh, it is fun!

8 of still up...oh yeah, sam and joe too....

These little girls are still going strong at almost ten o'clock. They are so cute and sweet. Rosie the pee-pee queen is in her cage for the night. I am ready to zone out any time now. It isn't so much the sleep I crave at this time of night, it is just that I am ready to stop being ALERT. With Camille, the alertness has to be turned on high at all times...even when someone else has her. At the restaurant yesterday, we were getting ready to leave....the girls showed Camille the fishies in the fishtank, and then I was counting out a tip (I felt so guilty about the huge mess and the wasted food, I left a pretty nice tip) and I noticed all the girls, and WHERE is Camille? She was no more than 5 feet away, thankfully, with both hands in the big box of fortune cookies, grabbing. It was so funny...I was glad she was so close by, and the girls were laughing hysterically at her grabbing the cookies....then a few of them decided to have a few.......no, stop, no, those are not part of the buffet....or are they? I did end up with a few in my purse, (I didn't take them, they did) and today when I needed Sonja to do me a favor for a little prize, I gave her a fortune cookie....

Well, it is getting that time....the girls are fighting over a toy....they need to go to bed.

where DOES the time go?

.Yesterday, Sonja did not go to school. Her lip was swollen from the dentist, and somehow that made Suzanne and Evelyn stay home too. We somehow ended up going to the Chinese buffet for lunch. We sat there for over an hour drinking tea and eating oranges and cookies. They had ice cream too, and chicken-on-a-stick, which they call cat-on-a-stick (thanks, Uncle Bob)....it wasn't very expensive since the 6 of them are under ten years old, but still....I shouldn't be doing that. It WAS fun though. On the way home we sang "On Top Of Spaghetti", and "This Old Man".



We had chicken fajitas for dinner, since we (Mirielle) grilled like 10lbs. of it the day before. Then the older kids went off to do some church activities....the younger ones were pretty energetic, so we all went outside and played some tag, even Paul. The puppy likes tag. She likes to catch the kids, too. She needs to play with them, but we need to be there too, because she likes to nip. She was a bad puppy last night. Accross the street from us lives a big black Lab named Lucy. Lucy stays in her own yard nicely, most of the time. She came for a visit the other day, and probably left some wonderful scents behind. Rosie seems fascinated with going across the street now. Which cannot happen. She goes out to the road, I shout NO, and she keeps-a-goin'....(I almost imagine she is laughing at me).....I chase her all over the neighbor's yard, and I to put it mildly, I am not a runner. I finally catch her when she stops to pee...and I carried her back across the street, across our yard, and up the deck steps. I wanted to smack her, but I didn't. Then, she came in the house and you guessed it! She peed!

So I have been reading what I can about all this, and I have come to the conclusion that she can no longer run around the yard without a leash. It dampens the fun for her, because hey, I am not as fast as her, but if she is going to take off and not listen to me, oh well. She is tied up in the shade in the front yard right now, I need a break. I do not like tying a dog up, but until she learns better to listen, she will have to have these times. As for the peeing in the house, help! She seems to go every 15 minutes or so when she is in here! She keeps the crate dry at night, and doesn't have the symptoms of a bladder infection...I am getting tired of cleaning it up. When she does it, I tell her NO, and bring her outside, tell her potty, and then praise her when she goes. But she doesn't seem to get it. She doesn't poop in here, thankfully. I know I need more patience, but my goodness, I have all these kids here that need attention, and lots and lots of work to do......I am not giving up on her, but I wish there was an answer. Obedience school?

Charlotte Claire threw a little tantrum this morning when she didn't get her way about something. She was in her screaming, and I was cleaning up pee...that's when I decided THE Heck with NOT tying up a dog.....come here, Rosie....

Right now they're watching Word World. They have already been outside swinging and bike riding....it is getting to be lunchtime.

I asked my son Joseph, who is 18, this morning if he will help me do something when he and Aaron and Mali are done with school. (they are done before the younger kids) I want them to help with the kids while I clean a few of the bedrooms....I would like it if I could have the whole house clean. I want to rent a carpet steamer for the bedrooms. He laughed. What is this with these guys laughing at me? I told him I had a dream last week that I really wanted to move into a new house, and Paul asked me why don't I just clean this one? In the dream, the house was much worse than it actually is....and I thought it would be impossible. Anyway, the main living area isn't too bad, we clean it up all the time and it is presentable. But a few of the bedrooms need sorting and straightening and cleaning up.

Today is one of those days where I can't seem to eke out the time to blog. Distraction reigns, kids love me, housecleaning calls. Not white glove stuff, just trying to make it look like 17 people don't live here. 17 people who don't know how to hang up a sweatshirt or close up the bread.

4 little girls go to the dentist

And did I think to bring the camera? Sonja went first, she had a small cavity, her first, and she did fine. I brought Charlotte Claire back to watch. When Sonja was finished, she climbed willingly into that great big chair, and the assistant put those huge protective glasses on her. It was the cutest thing! She had her mouth wide open, and the dentist wasn't even ready to start. She had no idea what was coming. The dentist numbed up her gums, then got out the novocaine: he told her it was magic water, he was just going to squirt some in her mouth. She was so trusting, and then the look when the shot went in....poor child. She had two small cavities on her top eye teeth...so two shots. She didn't cry, but she looked betrayed, and I felt bad. If I had told her it was going to hurt, she wouldn't have been so willing. Anyway, she was a brave little patient for being just turned three years old. The dentist did such a good job, you can't even tell the fillings are there.

When we left the dentist, there were firetrucks going by. Loud and fast. (What is it about some people who think they don't have to pull over??) It was upsetting to think that there was an emergency close by, and of course I thought of my accident prone 20 year old, Benjamin. Then when I saw the trucks had stopped right down the street, way too close to the pizza place he works at, RATS! I was praying like mad for him and for his boss and family, hoping it wasn't their place. Instead of going on our merry way to the store, we drove down around the back streets to check....and thankfully it wasn't the pizza shop. It was at a big apartment complex, and we still were praying that the people inside were okay.

Then grocery shopping with Evelyn 9, Suzanne 8, Sonja 7, and Charlotte Claire, 3. Who was in undies, by the way. I did not even bring a diaper bag, oops, and one of the bigger girls said, "That's okay, if she pees we can go buy her some new clothes!" QUIET with that!!, I hissed. Nicely, of course. But come on, what kind of incentive is that???? Anyway, she peed nicely on the toilet at the store...and stayed dry for our fun and exciting store visit. We went home and had a dinner of grilled chicken breast (thank you Mirielle), Italian bread and butter (Wegman's Italian bread is the BEST), and tossed salad. It was during this nice dinner that Charlotte Claire, who was only having yogurt because of her dental work, peed her undies.

Well, I have things to do this morning. Evelyn, Suzanne, and Sonja all skipped school....well, not really skipped. Sonja's lip is all swollen from biting it accidentally when it was numb. So I said she could stay home. Then I am not sure what happened, but the others wanted to stay too....so, here they all are.

pictures of our crazy house

Jon and Charlotte Claire going shopping with their babies....

Jonathan and Margaret playing Wii
Joseph Michael with my computer....I can't believe that 5 of my kids are adults!

Mirielle, 19, not acting like an adult. She is going to kill me for telling, but that is chocolate milk with whipped cream in that cup.....

Charlotte Claire doing some housework...wow, those undies are dry!

Camille must have been thirsty....

ooh, yummy! It may look like a Kool-Aid smile, but it is a Chrystal Light smile.

Oh, she does give the appearance of innocence.





This may look like an abundance of illegal drugs, but no, it is my new Shower to Shower powder. Wah.

And here is the guilty party. Mommy is just no fun!





And Jonathan's car has been carjacked! Nah, he used to have a bad habit of chewing the tires off every single car he had. He is trying to convince me that if I buy him a new one, he will not do that to the tires. Okay Jon, I'll run right out to the store.

And now, I have to get busy again. I made them popcorn and let them watch "Dragon Tales" AND "Word World" to get some relatively quiet time, ha, Camille does not watch t.v., she prefers green markers and dumping popcorn and bringing chairs to the sink.....hence the word "relatively"....

husbands....

Well, we watch the show, "The Office", and in a recent episode, Pam's parents split up. The reason: The room never "lit up" for dad when mom walked into it. So they were divorcing.

Okay, so call me stupid, but I asked Paul last night if the room lights up when I walk into it. He laughed. Laughed!!! And he said, "I wouldn't exactly say THAT...."

I was slightly offended. He could have at least told a little lie!

He loves me. He is good to me. He is responsible, and he is respectful. He is funny, and we get along very well. He is who he is, and I love him with all my heart.

He isn't mushy. Or overly sentimental. And when I think of how our life is, when I walk into a room, I am usually exclaiming how much there is to do, or suggesting what we should do, or telling him about something or other with the kids that needs attention. I really started thinking of what it is like when I do walk into a room. I have been seeing how much I complain lately. I would LIKE to say I never do. Because I hate it. But I have to really work on it more. Oh, I have so much to work on. But one thing I am thankful for is that where Paul is concerned, I don't have to go down the "feel sorry for myself because he doesn't love me" path, because I expect unrealistic reactions from him. But ouch, he laughed!