dear john-

tomorrow is my last day of work! (for a few days anyway) I am super excited to have a break! your daughter woke up at 5:05 today, but didn't seem sick at all. I guess the puke at the grocery store was just a fluke. she was crying and grouchy and i was worried we were in for another long morning but she curled up on me and fell back asleep in our bed and let me sleep til 720! It was much needed! the job has been really fun but it makes for long days. today with the younger class we worked on our fathers day cards. the kids had a great time making them and sully was really excited to make this for you but we need an address of where to send it. i took pictures of each of the kids in the class to put in the cards and developed them after the swim meet tonight (which was a disater btw. taking 5 kids to the drug store after a swim meet while they are all dripping wet and without dinner at 8 pm is a baaaaaad idea) jo had a playdate this morning w. the twins and the kid you dont like;-) so he came to work with me and the twins mom picked him up and took him to the park. i was really glad she was willing to do that and he didn't miss out. I am worried about how much he will miss his friends next year when school starts and he isn't going. Jo came back to art camp this afternoon and had a really great time. We are doing a unit on Egypt so we have been working on several related projects and there is a kid in the class from Egypt (actually several) and they speak the language and know the culture, so that was a pretty cool coincedence for us. we've made cartouches, made scrolls by making paper, today we made a heiroglyphic mosaic. They've made salt maps of Egypt and the Nile and today we started a mixed media painting on muslin using metallic paints. Aside from Egypt projects, the older kids made a painting out of black posterboard, neon paints and aluminum foil and had to research phospecent bays. they really enjoyed that one as well. It has been such a fun perk to be ableto have van go to class with me in the am and jo in the pm. M will be in my next session and we will be doing very similar projects with a slight twist due to a couple kids repeating the course (spyix out of clay instead of a cartouche, etc.) both of our kids have had a great time in the class, but jo is taking things away and is dissapointed it ends tomorrow. He has made a few good friends that he hangs out with, 2 of them are kids from tkd that he really likes which is nice for him. he has also made friends with a little boy who was the only kid in the class of 22 that didnt have another kid from the same school there. Everyone else knew at least 1 other kid but this boy and he and Jo are very similar in build and interests. It has been a good week for both of them! (van has 3 kids from his preschool in camp with him and is having a blast.) After work today i rushed home, took the sitter home and rushed to kids to a 5 pm swim team warm up. (i got home from work at 430...) i didnt feed them ahead of time but did pack some snacks. We only swam against 1 other team tonight so the meet went super fast, and they only had free and back and our kids weren't even on a relay so we were able to leave early and get to the drug store to develop pictures. when we finally mad it home i made them spaghetti and opened 3 cans of oranges (which is the only thing diva ate) and threw all 5 of them in the shower and staight to bed. they all fell asleep pretty quickly but i also threatened to take away weekend wii time and tv privelages so maybe they were just quieter about it tonight then in the past few days. I am def. not travelling this weekend. I am just to tired and the kids are bummed but they haven't had any free time at the pool since the sitter isn't comftorable taking them so i think we can have a great time here relaxing and swimming. i also have to cut the grass since frank has cut his twice now. i suppose i will borrow the across the streets mower 3 more times before our lease ends... speaking of lease endings.... when we made paper with the pm class, i took the screen door off of our back porch to give the kids a screen with a frame to work their paper out onto. it worked perfectly and the kids were very carfeul with it but the all thought it was really funny that i had taken it off our door (not that it stays on...) ok, diva is awake and crying, i am going to start an episode of arrested development and hold ehr til she goes bakc to sleep (she is getting all 4 canines and is about to finally lose that toenail... she just keeps picking at it...) ok. goodnight!

dear John-

I finally got the computer up and running tonight! It was great talking to you earlier this evening, but I forgot to tell you a few kep oints of our day: first off, sweet girl had not thrown up again, but we snuggled and she watched so you think you can dance with me and applauded their efforts. She really seemed to enjoy watching them. Ok: our house is running a very comftorable 80 degrees, but not squeaking. Should i call maintenance or let it go? I cannot wait to finally move and get out ofboxes for the first time in 3 weeks. Having our moved delayed has actually been really good for us, financially and stress wise. since our amazing babysitter lives super close it has made my driving much easier. Her mom has been bringing her in the am and then I drop her off at home when I am done for the day. It has worked out great! when we move next week the class after that week is held across town at our fav. school so it will mean a ton of driving. I think ym van is getting sicker. I may just be paranoid bc I know i pay way close attention to how it feels, but I think it is chugging worse today then last week. We may have to bite the bullet and sink some money into a downpayment for something else. I will be really irritated to have 2 car payments but i am wondering if we have any other choice now. i will def. start looking bc i really want to be able to travel some this week and there is a certain car trip to a place up north that I will be missing at this point.
diva is almost out of diapers. i am really not wanting to buy another pack but would feel super ghetto washing diapers in the laundramat. guess tomorrow i will go pick up a pack to get us through next week.
k i supose that is all that i didnt tell you on the phone... have a great night!
go to mexico and find george for me while you are down that way!

Dear John-

First I have to tell you that your old computer drives me crazy and part of me wishes we had already fixed the old desktop, even if it meant paying the monthly fee... (the other half of me is still super cheap and not tooo irritated.) anyways...
Van fell asleep crying last night. he was being a huge pain in the butt to his brothers since they are all still sleeping on the floor in the playroom. he was jumping on them and at 9 still hadn't settled in. i made him come lay in our bed and he fell asleep holding the picture of you from your dresser, the one where Jo is a baby. I sang him his goodnight song and he sobbed the whole time. he finally fell asleep and i carried him to bed. I was asleep by 930 last night.
I am finally becoming a morning person. After 10+ years of being married and you always having to get up early with the kids I am finally pulling my weight. miss thang woke up again this morning in the 5 am hour. I was having a crazy dream (that I actually remember: I was in some bizarelly small town and they had built all of these institutional type buildings inbetween there really cute quaint buildings. when i was walking through the village they were wrecking all of the houses down. They had had the olympics there and when they ended they were ripping all the buildings down so people wouldn't come visit... weird...) anyways I was dreaming away and i heard her yelling at me from the other room. I am very diappointed as I would have loved to have had a few more minutes of sleep (like maybe 90ish) I pulled her into bed with me and she was mad about everything. the hole in the foot of her pajamas (so i stripped her) then realized she was poopy so I changed it. then she wanted a water cup so i grabbed the princess one without thinking. It leaked all over my shirt and our sheets so i tossed it across the room and went and got her another one which of course was no longer good enough. I finally got up at 6 when she started asking for "beffast". We were done at the grocery store by 745 am. work was fun today. i was really glad to have an excuse to leave for a while today as I was exhausted with her by the time it was time for me to go. the babysitter had a better day today also. She followed my schedule to a t mon which meant that even though baby girl was tired and crying by 10, she kept her up til 1 bc of the schedule. today I assured her to deviate as neeed. Miss thang went down around 1020 and slept for 2.5 hours and was so much more pleasant all afternoon. I am really glad, as I am really not wanting to scare sitter away. She brought the avatar the last something for them to watch and they loved it. They are even doing their schoolwork for her without whining. the older 3 boys have had swim team yesterday and today in the am and have practice tomorrow night after scouts and thurs. morning. hopefully they will do well on thrus night swim meet. M is actually loving it the most, which is totally a surprise to me. tonight when I got home from work i realized i had to go to the laundramat def. to wash my 2 work shirts. I took all the kids to the laundramat to throw the wash in and then took the kids to our fav. tues night dinner place for food. I had no desire to cook. baby girl and van were both crying (baby bc she is a punk and van bc he was starving hungry)

dear john-

i started my new job today! it was long but mostly fun. i was glad to be home tonight in time to cook dinner and was even gladder (i know...) that i missed the kids and the house was still standing. let's see if i can make it through the week. I dont know how working single parents do it! they seemed to enjoy having a sitter all day even though it made me super frustrated to realize more then half of my take home pay was going to be enjoyed by the sitter (again, how do they do it?) I never made it to the grocery store today so we have even less to eat tomorrow then the meager choices today, but dinner for tomorrow is already ready (country style ribs w. mexican rub, corn, and a salad, if i make it to the store tomorrow after work) I also now need to go to the laundromat as the kids have run through clothes like only you can imagine and we still are without a washer. its really sad bc i dont have any cute stories to tell you about our day or funny things the kids did. i can tell you little miss thang woke up at 530 today... good thing i went to bed by 10 last night! i am sooo tired that it may be even earlier tonight! i am letting the kids watch a tv show they really wanted to watch sun but made them go to bed instead. our 4 year old cried a bit off and on last night but really hasnt had to many issues today. the kids missed Xfit due to lack of rides but made it to swim team. they have practice every day this week exceot fri and a meet thurs. night. hope you had a great day and i will try to get pictures up tomorrow, if i take any! happy monday!
-your wife

Oh, hey... I have a blog... guess it's about time it was updated... There is a very good reason I have been such a bad blogger. The computer I am using while the man of the house is out of town is this old:

Jonas Dec. 24

Taylor- mid dec.

Mason- mid dec.

anybody want to take a guess as to the year? 2004. In computer years, its like 72 years old. really. it takes literally an hour to load and get online. so anyway. we are flying through the last few weeks of school. I cannot wait! this year has totally flown by and i am really excited for summer time. In fact, I even made a list of goals: 1. quit job 2. swim a ton 3. teach the kids to clean the whole house and 4. teach sully how to swim... should be a great one

quick updates before i sign off for night (and maybe the rest of better computers absence) Baby girl has gotten so big. I'll have to post a recent pic soon bc her hair has gotten so long and she is losing the baby look and looks so old all of the sudden. she is so hilarious. she has gotten tons of words recently like "princess", "pretty" "poop" and can say most of her brothers names, cup, and many others. she is trying to potty train herself and says potty as she tries to strip all of her clothes off. today i needed a few minutes to try to finish packing some boxes (we're moving in 4 weeks) and put the wiggles on for her. she is not a tv girl so i sat with her for a few minutes to try to get her interested. They came on the screen and she freaked out and started signing and saying all done. She grabbed onto me and wouldnt let me put her down. I turned it off and took her into the back of the house with me. A few minutes later she walked halfway down the hallway then turned around and ran back screaming all done. I am pretty sure she will have nighmares tonight (not that i blame her at all, those guys are super frightening)

sully is finishing up his preschool year and is signed up for k next year! we are both very ready. he finished up his season of soccer last week and was on the golden pumacougarkittydoggy team (coach let them name themselves....) he also used black makeup and gave them kitty whiskers every week in order to intemidate the other team. they looked awesome. he scored at least a goal per game and had a blast playing. He started a new kids class today at a local gym called crossfit (the older boys started there a little while ago) and had a blast!
T, Jo, and M are all ready for school to be out. I am still planning on homeschooling jo although we got a solid diagnosis on him this past week and after starting correct meds this week i think we may finally have him a little more under control (such a relief!) I am already noticing a difference in his diet and the way he feels. (he was having a hard time working through the school day bc he never felt well) he finishes his SOLS fri and has done pretty well the last few weeks of school! I pulled all the kids off of Tae kwon do bc the violence level in our house kept rising and started them at a gym called cross fit (see if you have one.. it is INTENSE!) my kids have muscles i never knew existed! the coach has them doing box jumps (t can jump a 24 inch box with 500 reps!!!) and jo and t can make it to the top of a roof level rope... its pretty fun watching the kids do things the adults have lost the ability to do, and i am amazed at the things my older boys can do. they totally make me look weak (who am i kidding, i totally am...) so i have been working out in the mornings doing biggest loser bootcamp.... it hurts... ok. thats all

It's Spring time, and around here, that means it's spring clear out time! We are getting ready for (another) move. Despite our best plans to stay in this house all 4 yrs. of med school, nobody mentioned to our rental company our desires to stay here with a resonable rent, so alas we begin the spring clear out to get ready. we will move in july across town to a place half the size of our current residence. CLS has already caught the bug and it seems that everytime i turn around she is dumping something else in the trashcan... today it was sippy cups, socks, and the dinner she didn't want. In big news... I finally weaned her!! this is a huge accomplishment and to celebrate, she slept through the night last night. We aer over joyed, to say the least!

Jo turned 9 earlier this month! I did wrap his present in candy can wrapping paper left over from the holidays, but he didn't seem to mind to much! the lego kit stayed together less then a week before being shattered. this is the last kit he will get for a loooookng while.

we met with his teacher mon. who has been expressing major concern for him recently. He is not doing well in the classroom. He is a B/C student, but is not speaking in class and is struglling in a few other areas. We have decided to pull him from our beloved school. He and i are attending the open house for the local catholic school in town, but he (and I) both are planning to homeschool next year. the open house is so we can say we explored all options. And I am totally excited abt having him home next year! I put in notice with my job that I won't sign a contract to return, and have already begun building lesson plans involving many art [projects and hands on science, since that is really how he learns best. We are also having him tested for some food allergies to see if some of these issues are dietary.

CLS went to the Dr. this month for several flus and FINALLY hit the 19 pound mark! I am so excited, as this has been a long time coming, but her attitude is becoming stronger by the day, even if her weight isn't....

looking forward to spring break next week!!!!

ob la di, ob la da...

jonas- dec. 04

i feel like a superhero... my sidekick has been out of town for 16 days, the kids have been to school once in that time and i didn't lose it... in fact, i have LOVED this. my house has been (overall) cleaner then normal, i did my once a month grocery shopping w. all 5 of them (it took 2.5 hrs, and I saved almost 30% of my totalbill using coupons) and then cooked 30 freezer meals, i started 4 quilts, and baby girls scrapbbok, the boys have been great abt. playing with their sister (who is walking-ish now) and they didn't play wii all day (um, most days...) some days its the small things that matter... we have been BLESSED with like a million inches of snow and they have been to school 2 full weeks since dec. 15th. unfortunantly tomorrow, the kids return to school, i go back to work and the speed of life will catch back up with us. in the meantime, i will revel in my superheroness and pretend it's amazing abilities that helped me get so much done rather then 3 weeks of being snowed in. heres to hoping that the 40 rumored inches of snow that are suposed to hit on the 24th come quickly and that someone comes over to take my kids sledding, because i have had enough of that.