False Advertising

We were watching t.v. tonight as a family (Wipeout!) and a commercial for this came on. Go on. Go look. It's worth it, I swear. I'll wait.


Ok. Now, in this commercial it shows 2 adorable little girls in equally adorable nighties putting their toothbrushes under this dispenser and happily brushing their teeth. And presumably going to bed without crying, begging and other antics. You can just tell, these girls would NEVER do those things.

At this point my husband and I were cracking up. One of the "selling points" for this item is that your kids would no longer leave toothpaste globs all over the bathroom counter. Mounting the tube on the wall eliminates this problem.
1)Yes, you would no longer have toothpaste on the counter because it would be running down the wall and on the floor.
2) What makes anyone think that a child would only press the button once?
3) On only a toothbrush?
4) Who has the time to dress their kids in matching nighties?

Scene at our house:
Me: Time to go to bed. Go brush your teeth.
Kids: whine. whine. whine.
Me: Looks like your shirts are somewhat clean, wear those.
Kids: cry. cry. cry.
Me: Have you seen Jarrett's toothbrush? Oh wait. Here it is. Under the cat.
Jarrett: Yeah, I pet the cat with it.
Me: Maybe you can use a different toothbrush tonight.

I don't understand why they didn't ask us to be in their commercial?

Two Thumbs Down

Way down.

I just finished "Confessions of a Shopaholic". I have read all the Shopaholic books (Sophie Kinsella) and have loved all of them.
I was really looking forward to watching the movie tonight but was so disappointed!

The movie is NOTHING like the book! Makes me mad when Hollywood takes a perfectly good story and screws it up! The movie takes place in an entire different country as the book for goodness sakes!

The only good point was Joan Cusack and John Goodman as Rebecca's parents. They weren't exactly the same as the parents in the book, but I enjoy both of those actors.

"My Sister's Keeper" comes out in the theaters soon and I did want to see that. Now, I'm not sure.

What books to movies have disappointed you?

Irritating Little Things

• Buying huge bottle of liquid laundry soap to save money only to have it make huge mess
• Spending $20 on Happy Meals for all the children in order to get stupid toy that would cost about 50 cents at the store
• Finally deciding to make brownies despite the fact that I'd have to turn on the oven, making our already sweltering house even hotter, only to find I am out of eggs.
• Having your 4 yr. old poop his pants because coming inside "takes too long and I do it everyday!"
• Taking a shower and finding no soap.
• 3 yr. old (that out weighs the 4 yr. old) wanting to be carried everywhere
• Braving the powers that be and taking all children to Wal-mart only to find they are out of 3/5 of your list.
• People that complain about stupid stuff when in reality they are very blessed to have 4 children and be able to stay home with them.
  

Can I Sit With You?

Me too? And me? What about me?




Of course you can!

"Thank yous" and Puzzlement Danger?

First, I wanted to say "Thank you" to all of you! Thank you for visiting my blog and thank you for your kind words about Daisy. Yesterday was a very unusual day for our family. We've never experienced that kind of loss before. I was unsure of what to tell the kids ( I wasn't prepared for them to see their dog dead in the yard!), afraid of saying "she was so old, she died" for fear they would think every thing old was going to die (which of course, it will!)

"Hey! Welcome to my blog. Wanna talk about death?"

Also, a big thank you to Green Eyed Momster for sending readers my way. If you haven't met her, she is one incredible lady. Reaches out to almost perfect strangers and lifts them up and encourages them. She is a great mom and a super friend.

On to other news:

With my husband home yesterday, unplanned, after we dealt with the dog, we decided to get out and go do something. We took a drive up the road to a fish hatchery and visited an old covered bridge. We live in one of the most beautiful parts of the country and we try to take advantage of local (free!) sites whenever possible.

What made the day extra special is Judd's grandma went with us and we had such a great time with her! She is my kids' great-grandmother and how many kids can say they walked through a fish hatchery with their great-grandma? I think that's pretty cool.

My kids are very fortunate. They have 3 great grandmothers, 1 great grandfather.

I took a few pictures but none of the awesome covered bridge or of the coolest great grandmother. But these:




Jarrett, Josie, Jayce and Jeven




Jeven doing what boys love to do--pee outside!




Jayce and Judd looking for "rock lizards". They spent 10 minutes digging through
rocks looking for a lizard that's about 3 inches big and ugly. We actually already have
2 bearded dragons and 4 geckos at home.

And finally:




I guess Jarrett thought this was a particularly dangerous puzzle.

Goodbye Daisy

November 1999-June 2009

Rules to Follow...

....if you wish. I am not a perfect parent. Those of you that know me in real life (IRL), know this to be true. And, I had a pretty good childhood really. It wasn't perfect but nothing that makes me say "I'm not going to do things like my parents did". My parents did a pretty decent job really.

But, there are a few things that I make a point to do, concerning my kids. A few things that I would recommend to any new (or seasoned) parent. Take 'em or leave 'em.

1) I try to greet my children joyfully every time we've been apart for any length of time. Even if I'm not that joyful to see them. For example: my kids take naps every day. It's a part of the day I look forward to because it means I get about an hour of "quiet" for myself. Unfortunately, sometimes they don't all go to sleep at the same time, even though they're put to bed simultaneously. By the time Jarrett goes to sleep, Jeven wakes up. So that means no "quiet" time for me. And I am disappointed but that's not Jeven's fault. So, I greet him with a smile and a hug like I am so excited to see him. What child would want to be greeted with "URG! Why are you awake!"? When I've been out alone for awhile and the kids have been home w/ dad, when I step through the front door, I am usually greeted immediately with demands and excitement and I feel like I've never been gone but they missed me and need to feel like I missed them so hugs and kisses all around! Plus, I have pretty good kids and maybe I did miss them. A little.

2) "Mom!! Watch this!" is usually followed by either some spastic dance move or a daredevil climb up the swing set. But, I do try to stop what I'm doing and watch. In the case of the daredevil move, it's a good thing! In the case of the spastic dance, it gives me a good laugh.

3) When giving an order or directions, my kids have to make eye contact with me. I am always saying "look at my eyeballs!". With eye contact, I know they heard me and understood me so when they disobey, I can feel confident that they deserve a punishment. They know they can't say "I didn't hear you" or " I didn't know". At least it makes it unbelieveable when they say it! After all, they are kids. They'll try to get away with things.

These are common sense "rules" and I hope they don't come off too "preachy". I am still learning as I go, this parenting stuff. I don't claim to have it all down, so to speak.

Please share some of your "rules" that you follow on a day to day basis.

Genius

Jarrett can ride his bike, with the training wheels on, super fast. So, Judd had the bright idea to take off the training wheels. I had the even brighter idea of not telling Jarrett we were taking the training wheels off. Genius, no?

Yeah. No.

(sorry about the side ways thing, I don't know how to fix it)

After about 10 times of this, Jarrett finally had enough. He got off the ground, and YELLED at his father "QUIT PUSHING ME OFF MY BIKE!!"

He still didn't know that his training wheels were off. He thought Judd was pushing him off just for the fun of it. Poor guy.

The training wheels went back on.

Another proud parenting idea shot down.

Blood Sucking Babies

Josie's mind works in strange ways. I have given up long ago trying to figure it out. I just go with it. It does no good to argue.

Last week, when I came home with a bandage on my arm from my blood draw, she asked what it was for. I told her the doctor needed to take out some blood. By the end of the day, I had a huge bruise and she felt very sorry for me. She has told friends and strangers all about how the doctor took my blood.

Today, when my SIL was here, Josie told her about the blood doctor. My SIL said "Well, your mom has had 4 babies, she's used to getting her blood taken." Now, I know and you know, that she was referring to all the testing that goes on when you're pregnant.

My daughter's mind works differently.

Several hours after this conversation, Josie and I were walking through the grocery store. There was a mom with a tiny newborn. I pointed the baby out to Josie and said "Sometimes, I wish we had another baby."

Josie said: "NO!!! It will suck all your blood out!!!"

Darn blood sucking babies....

"Hey Mom!! Look at me!"

This kind of stuff is normal for little boys. Right? Please tell me this is normal for little boys....

The old stand by: "Your face will stick like that!" I think just made it more appealing to him.
The bruise on his forehead adds a nice touch, don't you think?

Been Down For the Count

It was my goal this month to post more often but I haven't done too well have I?

I have many things to say but some medical issues have kept me from doing much of anything lately.

I have had some testing done and awaiting results. Nothing too serious and certainly not life threatening but basically trying to find some answers as to why I've been so darned fatigued. Not "I have 4 kids and life is crazy" fatigue but "walking to the mail box is too much too handle" fatigue. Anemia seems to be the obvious answer (especially in light of all the bleeding that is going on. What? TMI?) but some blood tests that have already been taken have come back suspicious.

So, here I sit, with huge bruises on both my arms from all the poking and prodding but other than that, things are good.

With the kids out of school, summer is officially here. That's the only way you can tell, the kids being home. Certainly not from the weather!
Oh, and I know summer is officially here because of this:




Plus this:


Equals:



For those of you that have not had the fun of little boys (and girls) playing outside for hours on end, this is the "foot brush" that sees alot of action during the summer. And the kids are very ticklish too!