beach vacation

so... the photos will have to wait until we get home and i can upload pics, but this is one of the best vacations of my life! first of all, it is actually a vacation for me. Usually for me, vacation involves tons of planning, shopping, laundry etc. before we can even leave, and then while we are out of town, it takes extra work to get kids to bed at night in hotel rooms, lots of work to keep things organized, and things like that. this time, we are staying in a 10 bedroom house with 8 other families. it seems like it would be more work, but it def. isn't. each family have their own rooms with our own beds and their own full bath. kids are going to bed on time (well, ours are, some are not!) and sleeping well. each family is only responsible for 1 meal during the week and then our own lunch everyday. so we are getting hot meals for breakfast and lunch everyday, and with 40 people in the house, the cleaning is a group effort and over really fast! there are several teenagers here who are awesome with kids and our boys have had a blast playing w/ their friends and in the ocean. anyway. tons of fun and pics will be up later!
A

overwhelmed

Why is it when there is so much to do, nothing gets done? i have lists stretching miles it feels like, and i would rather watch youtube videos (hm, not so great), work on PAF (much better), or sleep (the best)... unfortunately, youtube is winning on time spent category. so everyone can skip this post. (better yet, go watch youtube for me, so that i know it is in good hands). this is my way or trying to organize my life right now. jo has finished most of his testing. late last night tho I realized he has an appointment tomorrow, for which we were supposed to give him an enema (ew.... johns job) tonight. i do not know how i have dropped the ball on that one. we will be heading to kroger tonight. so he goes in at 130 tomorrow, and we are hoping that when they finish testing, they will be able to give us a more specific medication for him. the one he is on now is a general "catch all" for the wetting problems. it causes blurred vision and dry mouth. he always is kinda "crusty" around the mouth, i am def. ready to be done w/ the one he is on. there is no diabetes, no liver/kidney problems, but we are STILL waiting on the sonogram. it has been frustrating to me how slowly everything has been moving with this. i do like his doctor though why ANYONE would ever choose to become a urologist is totally beyond me. (John, not a choice, k??) the urologist believes that everything we have been struggling with is because he was premature (11 months younger then brother, 2-3 weeks early) he is tiny, and struggles with almost everything (except humor and rocking. he understands that better than ANYONE!)

overall tho, that is the best diagnosis we could have possibly asked for. we feel very blessed that if that is the case, then these are things he will grow out of.

ok, this week:

1 urologist appt. (in christiansburg)

1 dentist appt (me)

2 eye appts. (jo and M) (in Roanoke) ----- GUESS WHAT JODID ON TUESDAY... (grrr.) he was mad at his glasses because he was pushing on them while he was watching tv (the day i had my boys, + extras 2 that i usually have + 4 extras while mom went on photo shoot...) so i tried to adjust them so they wouldn't dig into his face, he was unhappy with what i did and came in a sec. later to tell me the lens fell out. when i took the glasses from him to fix them, i realized he had literally balled them up and snapped them in half on the part that holds the lens. they are luckily still covered under insurance....)

extras for 24 hours this week

regular job for only 9 hrs this week(!!!)

2 orchestra rehearsals

1 PTO fall festival (does the vp HAVE to go???)

a husband working 345 am - lunch time

2 PTO related meeting

1 parent teacher conference, which means 1 day M doesn't have school, so he comes to work with me

1 early release from elem. school

1 VT football game (which takes most of the day...)

and 20+ loads of laundry, grocery shopping, etc. to get ready for the beach trip we leave for on Sunday. if we can just make it out of town.... we WILL need the break! ok. off to fix the kids lunch. we have 1 primary program in 50 minutes.... whoops!

young wild things

SO... I uploaded these pics a few days ago, intending on journaling the very next day, and it slipped my mind until just now...
I took Diane, my 13 year old *beehive* to go see the young wild things tour the other night (wed, to be precise.) I have gone to a ton of concerts, I love going to shows, and this made my year?? (maybe, Dave was pretty awesome in Sept. when he played at tech) HOWEVER: Dave wasn't an indoor venue. there is something awesome about feeling the bass drum in your chest, and have your ears ringing for days afterwards. I had the best time on earth, but I FEEL SOOOOO OLD:-) Lets see... I picked up Diane at 4 and took her to dinner. She had never been to a concert before, and her parents got her a set of tickets for her 13th birthday. her older sister Melanie was supposed to take her but couldn't get out of play rehearsal. Diane mentioned in passing a few weeks ago that she needed someone to take her to see FOB so her dad wouldn't have to. I volunteered IMMEDIATELY! Her dad was more then happy to turn over his ticket, so off we went for our adventure. we got to Roanoke, and got lost trying to find parking (all fun and games!) we finally figured out where the parking garage was, and I have only parked there maybe 20 times, (in my defense, we didn't go straight there because we were trying to figure out which garage the shuttle was running from), then we headed to the civic center. we got there pretty early and got great floor standing places. cute is what we aim for was the first band. they were pretty good, but i was to impatient to appreciate them fully. i will have to check them out when I am not waiting to hear 3 other bands that i know the words to their songs and love them. plain white t's played second, and i love groups that i can relate to musically. hey there Delilah was such a super song, and so i learned how to play it, so when plain white t's came on, i was really excited. (they look SO young, but i digress, i am old...) they played all the songs i love (Delilah, Hate, friends don't let friends...) it they were great. gym class heroes played third (cupids chokehold/breakfast in america) (for Lauren, its a remake of a supertramp song) they were so fun. they were also incredibly random. there was a guy in a fat costume, a guy waving a flag, and then the guys singing. oh, and they came out to soulja boy, so that was pretty random as well. BUT, they were funny. he at 1 pt. told all the parents to put there hands up. very few did, then he yelled at the kids abt how they wouldn't be there/own the music, etc. w/o the parents. then more parents put there hands up. he told us to skip work the next day and tell our bosses gym class heroes said it was ok (if only, work was SOOO rough the next morning, but THAT is a completely different story). FINALLY fall out boy took the stage. it was so awesome, bc Diane didn't know the other bands, so the whole night the anticipation was building. she was so excited, and it was really fun to watch her trying to stand on her toes so she wouldn't miss ANYTHING. unfort. we were on the floor, and it was hard for her to see most of it, but we both had a great time. I don't know how long they played, but the whole set was amazing. they played all my favs, im like a lawyer (me and you), grand theft autumn, this aint a scene, etc. we had such a great time! anyway, i loved it! and la, you should further educate yourself and keep us w/ us um, not quite as old as you *kids*... (just kidding, i am sure you know all the words to every song i mentioned know that you know their names... i always was super impressed by that!) ok... loved it!

Ambitious

Today is election day so i have the boys all home today. I also have the sweet "extras" that i keep here. my house is a MESS, my lovely sister in law, husband, and her 2 sweet babies are coming up for a visit on Friday, and this is my only day "off" work... i have lists of things to *try* to get done today, and am so totally unmotivated to try any of them. I mentioned in passing to T earlier this week that on his day off from school, we would get some baking done (he LOVES to help cook). he has a list of things he wants to make today: brownies, pumpkin bread, "goldfish popcorn chicken", pumpkin cookies w/ choc. chips., "popcorn lifesavers" (cooked on the grill, of course... (what???) , and the boys i watch are voting for cupcakes.... i have exactly 6 eggs, 6 kids, and not enough patience... there will, I am sure, be pictures later.

hmmm... ok. my kids are very perceptive. (darn it..) and pay attention to EVERYTHING. (again, darn it) I have learned that i cannot say something w/o spying ears, and we are way past being able to spell anything. so now T wants to know who i am voting for president, and why people thing Hillary is playing the "gender" thing. (i think he was looking for the word card there.) WHAT??? since when do 7 year olds pay attention to politics?

anyways, as i was thinking about my kids, i made this mental list of things i have decided my kids think:

couch cushions, shoes, coats and backpacks BELONG on the floor. they have no other home or place they belong.

whining gets exactly what you want. all the time. right now

checks and credit cards buy anything you want, you just write the checks for the amount you want

when sent to clean the playroom downstairs, it is ok to play the whole time instead, as long as they don't come upstairs and play.

tattling ALWAYS helps

blaming the youngest ALWAYS works.

here are things I have learned:

only 1 room in the house can be clean at any 1 time. (the theory of relative speed of toddler vs. aged hobble of parents.)

baby wipes clean everything (kids, floors, toilet seats, cars (but not the windows so much), etc.)

boys feet stink. all the time, even when bathed everyday.

by leaving the vacuum in the middle of the dirtiest room, you can always claim you were "just abt. to vacuum" when unexpected company shows up.

kids wet the bed the day you FINALLY wash all the sheets

school is always boring, the teacher is always mean, and they never do anything fun.

a tantruming 2 year old will stop and pose for pictures before resuming tantrums.

uh-oh is the scariest word out of your kids mouth, closely followed by "i was just..."

a 5 year old who listens to urinetown can tell you what exposition is.

kids who watch too much tv can tell you all abt the infomercials and why they just have to have whatever was being sold. ("mom, if you buy this bed, you can jump on it w/o your cup falling over"-T. "Uh, T, you aren't supposed to jump on your bed at all"-me; "yea, but you could!"-t...

so, what have you learned???