A recap of the last few weeks

Friday after school there was a swarm of kids at our house playing.  There were a few of them playing on an old phone (one with a cord connecting the base to the handset) that I plugged in, they wanted to see how it worked.  Next I hear the words "911" and "dialed" which caught my attention quickly.  I informed them that it was against the law to call 911 if it isn't an emergency and that they could get in big trouble.  They hung up the phone.  I unplugged the old phone.  As I was putting the phone away and continued my lecture on why we can't call 911, the phone rang.  I wasn't for sure if they really had called 911.  I aswered the phone, and it was the 911 center.  They received a call from my house and wanted to know if everything was alright or if we needed help.  I apologized and tried to explain what had happened and that we were fine.  About 15 minutes later, a police officer knocked on my door due to the 911 call.  I explained it to him and assured all is fine.  He took my personal info anyway.  I guess I have a record now.

When the officer came, I was getting ready to walk out the door to meet Robert for a date.  We had a sitter.  When we came home we heard all about their eventful night.  The saw something out the kitty door in the garage.   Some glowing eyes (like cats eyes do) but it wasn't the cat.  Amber went to open the door and the sitter told her NO!  Then the sitter went to look out there, she found the return of the Racoon!  He hissed at her as he was going down the steps.  I guess the kids where pretty spooked and stayed in my room the rest of the night. 

We had an incident the night before of something that was in the kitchen and I thought it was the cat.  When Robert went to go check it out, the cat was in the loft.  The kitty door swished open and shut when Robert went in the kitchen.  As he came back upstairs the cat was still in the loft.  Same night, just earlier, the kitty door swished but the cat was laying in front of the door.  I thought it was maybe the wind.  I felt the cat to see if he was cold as if he were in the garage, but he wasn't.  I didn't think any more of it until later when we had other things.  I did notice the racoon tracks in the snow in January sometime.  We are blocking the cat door in the outside garage door so he can't come into our garage. 

I went shopping on Saturday... alone... but ended up coming back much later than I anticipated which made a frustrated husband.  I did get alot done.  I got some curtains for our bedroom since the stupid vertical blinds that are in there are falling down, getting broken and don't work.  I found some curtains to replace the vertical blinds in our dining room too that I want, but those will have to wait a bit longer.  I did a small grocery store trip and got some hardware for some misc. tasks around the house at Home Depot.  I got a book shelf for the little girls room and some little baskets to go with it.

Sunday we had Robert's parents over for dinner.  Technically, they brought dinner.  I made a new salad, with cauliflower, onions, brocoli, rasins, bacon, sunflower seeds.  It was SO yummy!  Robert made the comment, "how can you make something with so many vegtables in it taste so good?"  Due to the super bowl, we had some junk food too.  Emily ended up throwing up early the next morning and stayed home from school on Monday.

The curtains I got weren't the right color so I went back another day to exchange them.  The new ones were $10 more but I think they will be better in the long run.  I also splurged and got a little table and two stools for the little girls' room to go with the little book shelf and their new dresser. 

I put together a dresser, a book shelf, a little table, and two stools.  I organized the little girls' clothes and got rid of stained or too small ones.  I moved two older dressers to the basement to make room for the new dresser.  (I am excited to have those in the basement to one day organize some things down there.)  I also debunked the bunk beds in the twins' room.  That was tough.  It would have been quite the sight.  I had four 8/9 year olds helping me stablizing one end of the bed as I moved the other side.  I even had Emily on the bottom bunk to kick the top bed up at one point.  I rearranged the twins room so that they could have their beds both on the ground.  I think Lauren was tired of being on the bottom bunk.  Their room is a little tight, but it will work. 

I also got a book shelf that about did me in when I carried it upstairs, I was thinking I was pretty wimpy until I looked on the box after I got it upstairs.  90 lbs, no wonder it was feeling so heavy.  Ugh.  My muscles were resisting when I put the back seat back into the van after carring the book shelf in it's box all the way upstairs.  The book shelf will hopefully be better for the books and toys so we can get rid of the toy box bins.

On our drive back home from getting the book shelf,  I was telling Amber that she couldn't have chocolate milk because of her cough.  I was trying to tell her that we didn't want to give her something that would make her cough more than she already was.  I started out with "you can'tt have things that will make you..." and I was trying to think of ways to complete it.  I didn't want to tell her she couldn't cough, so I was trying to choose my words.  Amber then finished, "make me die, right mom?"  I told her that was right (since that is all you can follow with when she uses that right mom phrase).  Then she was quiet for a moment.  Then she said, "Jesus probably really loves having a dog and a cat now."  It kind of caught me off guard, I had to have her repeat it.  The thought of her dying made her think of Jesus and that made me feel great that she put those two together.  She use to say things like, "if I push my finger in my eye I will go live with Jesus."  It kind of freaked me out alittle.  She would say things like that when she was going to bed about going to live with Jesus and dying.  I was always wondering, is she preparing me for something?   The reference to the dog and the cat that Jesus has is from our cat that never came home fearing his fate was death and a dog we had before she was even born that had to be put to sleep.

Oh, did I mention I also got a flat tire?  I found a crack in the sidewall of the tire on my van.  I heard this loud gushing when I was taking the seat out of the van to get that whopping 90 lb book shelf.  I could feel the air wooshing out.  I filled up my tire with air from our compressor and prayed it would make it to the tire place.  Would you believe when I got there, the tire was still fully inflated, I couldn't see the crack at all.  The two little girls and I sat in the waiting room while they replaced the tire. 

Emily had a science fair that we went to.  She did it on the diet of guinea pigs.  She got two different kind of food and fed one to one and the other to the other.  Then she put them through mazes to see if the time was better one way or the other.  She was checking to see if it one food effected their intelligence or activity level.  She didn't think she collected enough data to really tell one way or the other. 

Rob's mom went to the ER for a kidney stone and a UTI.  They admitted her for a procedure to flush the stone out, she had complications with blood pressure and has stayed this whole week.  We took the kids to see her the first night, but she was in ICU so the kids weren't able to see her.  Poor little Amber wouldn't leave, she said "I'm not leaving until I see Grandma!"  Even in the parking lot she was pulling back and telling me she came to see Grandma and she still wanted to see her.  It was pretty funny. 

Since then, Amber has came down with a cold accompanied by a fever so we aren't able to go see her until Amber gets better.  Amber looks so sad, her little eyes are all red and watery even.  One night I heard her crying in her bed, I went in her room.  She had turned the light on and was looking around in her bed.  I asked what she was looking for.  "I was looking for you!" she cried.  She must have been looking for her blanket and shirt or water or something.  Poor thing, she is just out of it. 

Lindsey and Lauren both have DEAR today, Drop Everything And Read.  Lindsey also has her RAD kids graduation.  I feel bad I will be missing it all.  Amber still isn't feeling great.  Robert doesn't feel like he can miss any work since twice a week he goes to physical therapy and leaves work early.  I wish there were someone to go to it.  I feel aweful I am not able to be there.  Lauren wants me to come help with her Valentine's party on Monday, but it will have to depend on how Amber is feeling.

Robert's physical therapy has been going good.  It is funny, our insurance approved him for 6 visits.  The dr. recommended twice a week for 12 weeks.  Our hope is that the insurance will still cover the other visits.  Oh, and did I also mention when Robert was thinking about this surgery he asked them how much it would cost.  The amount they gave him he thought was total before insurance, so he was thinking we would pay like 20% of that.  The price they gave him was AFTER insurance.  That made for a nice surprise.  He has started lifting weights with his arm at PT.  At first they were just using the weight of his arm as weight.  Now he is up to a 2 lb. weight.  He said it about killed him.  It will be nice once he has full use of it, so I don't have to do it all.  Book shelfs and dressers, Christmas trees, gargbage cans, snow shoveling, moving furniture, putting up curtains.  There are hundreds of things (or it feels like) I have been doing that I think it would be nice to have help with or for him to do it.

I got a call from a research place a week or so ago.  They wanted to know if I would be interested in coming in for a control panel, I think is what they called it.  It would take about 2 hours but they would give me $75.  I thought, sure!  I took the girls to Grandma's and went for the panel.  Turns out they always overbook, so I sat there for about 20 minutes then they told me I wasn't needed, so I got $75 anyway, and they will call me again since I didn't get to really do it.  I was excited!

The same day Emily had her science fair, Lindsey had an appointment with her orthodontist.  She scored another A on her brushing and flossing.  That put her name into the monthly drawing and she got to put a sticker on her picture.  Her picture had 5 stickers on it already so this made 6.  Every 3 stickers you get a gift card to a local business.  She last time got a walmart $10 gift card.  This time she chose Cinemark.  She was really excited!

Samantha's new thing is "in-a-men" which means in a minute. I am sure that is a phrase she hears me say often.  I will ask her to come here to put her pajamas on or get her shoes on.  She will tell me, "in-a-men" and she will continue doing what she is doing.  Funny girl!  She also does this cute thing with her eyes.  When she is telling you something that maybe might be a bad thing she will squint her eyes up real tight.  For example, "I just spilled a little bit" or like when Grandpa asked if she wanted some of his cake.  She said, "no I have my own."  But then she came back and said, "Maybe just a little one" with her eyes all squinted and her fingers showing how little of a bite.  She is so cute!

It is amazing how much you can accomplish at times and yet other times nothing gets done.  The master bathroom has been on my to do list for weeks.  Yet I can never find time to do it.  Although I did find time to rearrange 2 bedrooms, put together furniture, and organize the loft which was a 2 day project, and I cleaned the car out.  The car was a nightmare in itself.  We also lost one of the remotes and I had a hunch the couch ate it.  I turned the couch over and sure enough, the remote was there along with tons of other little pieces of playsets and some other unknown things and lots of crumbs from snacks and popcorn.  That couch is the worst at eating things!  Although we still have a remote we lost around Christmas time that has never surfaced.  Strange. 

There is always lots of things going on.  I saw a paper announcing sign-ups for spring soccer.  Amber is old enough this season.  She will be so much fun.  But I am not sure about 3 practices and 3 games each week.  I am sure I have forgotten some other things from the last few weeks.  Since it is Friday, it is my laundry day, so I must get on it or laundry will never be done this week.  I am hoping to get my curtains up too, but I have been hoping that for half the week.  I also want to put together the new shelves too.  I am not sure my day is long enough. 

Still trying to catch up

I forgot to also mention I went out on Black Friday, but was really at about 10pm on Thursday of Thanksgiving.  I went to Toys R Us to find something, which they were out of.  Come to find out... those deals are on the internet, so I ordered it on Friday, same price as it was advertised but I had to pay shipping, but I didn't have to wait in the line outside of the store to get in as they were only letting so many people in the store at a time.  Also the line inside was INSANE!  I would have been there forever if I did find what I was looking for.  After that I went to Walmart to get some dishes I wanted.  Found them, and a few other things.  I waited in line for 3 hrs to check out.  Then I went to Old Navy to get some clothes for the girls.  Someone said you can buy them on-line instead of waiting in line (which is were I got the idea for Toys R Us) but they didn't mention that the selection would be stinky and most of them would be gone online also.  I left the store to go home and get it all on-line to find NOTHING I was looking for was available on-line in those sizes or colors I had in my shopping bag at the store.  You win some, you lose some!  The dishes I got were okay but the design I wanted they were out of, so just for kicks I went to the Walmart closer to our house... which was dead and quiet.  I found the dishes I wanted, bought them, no lines, no crowds.  I was amazed, and I will go back there next year for black friday Walmart deals.

Another thing that happened in November is that we sold our Suburban and got a Minivan.  I totally loved, loved, loved my suburban.  I was sad to see it go and the nice space we had.  I will want one later I am sure again.  We decided since we still have our old house which is renting for less than our payment and other finacial things, that we should scale back a bit for awhile so we can have some breathing room.   Now we have a van that only fits the members of our family, no extra room for friends or Grandparents, just our family.  It will work just fine.  Oh except for the big girls all having to be right next to each other... it is very challenging.  And the carseats don't buckle up nicely or fit as tight as I would like them to.  I have to keep tightening them.  I wish they had the new LATCH system.  The good thing is, this car has less miles on it then our old one did.  And now we have a white car and a white minivan.  Cute huh!

Now to December...  Robert was scheduled for surgery on his shoulder.  The year prior during an indoor soccer game, he got knocked down.  The guy that knocked him down was calling him a baby or something like that (probably more mean and descriptive) and Robert's shoulder was hurt pretty bad.  He kind of healed and seemed okay but in certain activities or movements with his shoulder it would shoot a sharp pain and finally he got it checked out.  They call it a SLAP surgery, they go in and drill through the bone and use some method which I can't spell to attach the labrium back to the bone.  It then heals and goes back together like it is suppose to, and now Robert's shoulder won't pop out of socket or catch and cause such intense pain for him.  Although he did say one day (as he was in pain) "I should have just lived with it.  This is worse than the pain I had."

The picture above is him in his nice surgery attire.   He was just hanging out waiting for his turn.  He had an IV in and I got to sit with him.  I was a little jealous that he was getting a nap.  (I am always jealous over someone's nap.)  We sat there and joked around a little and in our "private" little curtain area talked about nothing really because it wasn't private at all.  We heard the guy next to us talk about the hormones they are adding to apples and all about his apple orchard.  They took him back to surgery, and I went and waiting forever in the waiting room.

The said it was suppose to be a 40 minute procedure.  I waiting for about nearly 2 hours and by this time and have seen doctors come out and give updates to everyone but me, and finally someone comes and tells me I can go see my husband.  Funny thing, before the surgery, he had to shave his armpit, and his shoulder and all.  Then they wanted him to write the word "right" on his right shoulder.  I guess so they knew which shoulder they were doing surgery on.  We were making jokes about that, drawing an arrow on his other shoulder pointing to the right side, or putting "wrong" on the left side. 

Surgery went well, the doctor said it was turn worse than he thought.  He called it a 6 point repair or 6 point something.  I am guessing 6 screws that reattaches the labrium.  Robert went into the surgery with a little cold and so when he came out of the anestetic (where's my spell checker?)  he was coughing so hard.  He couldn't stop coughing.  I guess it is common to have a cough afterwards, the nurses where calling it a "block cough" due to the shoulder block they did on his shoulder.  It was kind of like a spinal block I guess when you have a c-section but it is specific for the shoulder.  He had a cold for several days which was really hard on his shoulder, everytime he coughed it hurt his shoulder once that pain block wore off.  He was also funny too, he at one time said that he wished we could put his arm back in the sling how it was when he came home from the hospital because it didn't hurt then.  Of course it didn't hurt, he still had that block in effect and he didn't feel his shoulder at all. 

It was very interesting, he couldn't do much for himself.  I dressed him, showered him, made food for him and in some cases even fed him.  I felt like we had a new baby.  He needed meds like every 4 hours which needed food with them too.  He would text my phone or call me from his phone in the middle of the night needing food, meds, or to be unhooked from his ice pack pump to use the bathroom.  Because it was an out-patient surgery he thought he would be back to work the next day.  He had surgery on Wednesday and went back on Tuesday and was still in a lot of pain.  I think he went back because he had stuff he needed to get done.  He underestimated it big time.  He said, "why didn't they suggest to do surgery on Monday and then just take the whole week off?"  I was thinking, the lady told you that you weren't going back to work on Thursday when you asked before the surgery when you could return to work.  I think he was still thinking it would be a pretty easy thing.  He went back to the doctor today for a follow up and will start physical therapy today too.  He is totally NOT looking forward to that.  So many people have told him how hard it is, and especially on a shoulder.  I think he is scared!
So this wasn't suppose to be just a surgery post, but it looks like I should have dedicated it to that.  But I already loaded the other pictures, so I am going to continue on with this L..O..N..G post. 

Amber and Samantha play really well together... well most the time.  They are hillarious together.  They are so fun!  They are both into dressing up and make believe.  Samantha is into it big time.  She will come hand you something in her small little hands and place a small something in my hand.  My eyes don't see it but she tells me it is a little kitty or a little bottle of something.  It was hard having them so close when they were young and I felt bad for Amber not having her time with us before we had another baby, but they play so well now. 

In the picture above, they have a book that they are reading to their babies or animals or something.  It is different every night and I am not sure who their audience was that night. 

They love to have hats on, of all sorts sometimes they aren't hats but my kitchen items or even it might be a pull-up diaper on their heads.  Amber loves to put pants on her head for a hat, she thinks it is sooo funny.  It is pretty funny looking!  The picture above Amber took.  They both want to take pictures with my camera.  It kind of scares me what they take pictures of, and of course the fear of them hurting my camera.  I am glad we have those kids camera's still.

The girls all went to the dentist during Christmas break too.  I was so sad and felt so ashamed of myself and the lack of teeth care I have been for the girls.  Little Amber had a cavity, and they decided to do a crown for it.  I feel so bad, because it is my fault, I am the one that should be doing that, and I have failed!  Poor thing!  She did AWESOME!  She sat very still and did everything they asked her to.  She was a trooper.  The dentist went on and on about how well she did for being so little.  I felt aweful that she had to be there for treatment in the first place. 

She is pretty proud of her silver tooth!  But every time she smiles or laughs and I see that silver in there, I feel I have failed.

On the other hand, Lindsey had no work to be done, Lauren a couple small ones that didn't even need numbing, Emily had a few that were small too but she had a baby molar removed bacause the tooth under it was coming in wrong.  Her poor teeth are so crazy!  I see braces again for her!

It was a HUGE tooth with roots and all they took out.  She had a gaping hole there.  She was pretty sensitive for a few days.  She seems fine now. 

I also talked about our new addition.... which would be a cat.  Funny thing, it looks like a smaller version of our old cat, GATO.  One afternoon the girls told me there was a cat meowing in our yard.  I went out to check and I could hear it but not see it.  Later when it got dark, I went back out to see with a flashlight.  The poor little kitty was stuck, probably more afraid and cold.  There was snow on the ground and there wasn't any foot prints so he was probably there all night the night before.  I got him out brought him in the garage the girls made him a bed.  He laid down in it, ate some food (which we still had left over from our cat that is gone) and got him some water which he drank right up too.  I think he is the first animal we have had that used the little bed the kids made.  They were always trying to make beds for the cat or the rabbit.  They never really appreciated them and would never stay in the bed.  This cat, which still is nameless, loved every little bed the kids made.

The middle of December we took the cat in to get nuetered.  We had gone to all the neighbors around to find out where he came from.  We found the family and they said, "you can have him if you want him."  I really wanted to get a baby little kitten, but I guess this is okay too.  I thought the kids would have so much fun with a little kitten instead of a 4 month old cat. 

The girls would go out into the garage (since we didn't let the cat in the house) and play with him and sit with him.  After Amber had sat in this little sled, the cat slept there for the next few days.  He seems to be great with the kids.  Although I thought the adopting fees were crazy.... $80-$100 for a cat?  They are crazy!  After our $178 vet bill for shots and neutering, I think that price is a good deal!  Although I secretly wanted a little litter of kittens, but having a boy cat, it wouldn't have been so favorable for someone else I guess, and I wanted the kittens here at our house.

With Christmastime came gingerbread houses.  I was thinking I would make the gingerbread but as time went on and life has been so crazy I saw this little Wilton's 5 piece gingerbread village.  I thought that sounded like a good deal, and it came with frosting and candy too.  Score!  The kids all got to make their own.

Amber was mostly interested in just eating the frosting instead of it getting put on her house.  She ate more candy than she applied to her house too.

Lindsey did pretty good with her house too.  Notice the place in the background, those are my new dishes that I got from Black Friday for my Christmas present. 

Lauren did good with her gingerbread house.  Although the other girls called her house an out house.  In the kit they had a name for all the little houses, and when we got to her little structure Emily said, that is their out house.  They all laughed but Lauren of course. 

Emily was a great creative planner here on hers.  She came up with ideas and then Lindsey and Lauren followed those ideas too. 

And then there is Samantha.... with candy up her nose.  She did eat the frosting... I had to keep putting more on there.  She cracks me up!

Here is the finished little village.  And then they all ate their houses with the exception of Emily whose I think is still sitting on the counter untouched. 

I feel pretty caught up, well kind of.  We still have Christmas to go over and then of course we are 11 days into the new year.  Ugh, will I ever be caught up?  Hopefully next will be Christmas. 

I love holiday shopping!

I went out to do some holiday shopping, taking advantage of the bigger kids being in school and only having 2 with me, and being able to shop for those that are not with me.  Although I still shop for Samantha and sometimes Amber too while they are with me because sometimes they don't pay attention to the less exciting things such as clothes that I may be getting them. 

I had to return a few things because I got a better price somewhere else, saving like $15 and that was worth it to me and I also had to go get a new blanket for Samantha.  I first head off to Target looking for a blanket for Samantha.  When Amber was born one of our neighbors got her a super soft blanket with pink stripes on it.  Amber used it and then Samantha used it too, but Samantha sort of attached herself to the blanket and that is HER blanket now.  She loves the tag on it.  Her blanket is looking pretty gross.  It is all stained, and looks dirty even when clean.  A sure way to tell if it is clean is to smell it, but I wouldn't really recommend that. I recalled the girls noticing in other shopping trips that Target had a blanket just like Samantha's. 

Upon the arrival at Target, Amber spotted a kid cart (the ones with the special seats for kids to sit in and not be in the basket).  She requested it, and I thought they would do better in there anyway.  (I must have forgotten our last trip to the store when we used the car...that ended badly.)  I grab the girls and we walk through the parking lot across two rows where she spotted the cart in a cart return area.  We snag the cart and go inside. 

I am purusing around in the dollar section....  I see a few things for some of the girls, but then I need to even it out and find something for the other girls...  Amber has decided she doesn't really want to be buckled up by now and she is sitting on the side of the cart.  Samantha keeps saying "buckle" and she wants out too.  That isn't going to happen!  I try to get Amber to sit back down in the seat.  I find a singing christmas pig, turn it on and put it in our cart where the girls are sitting.  While that is entertaing the girls for a bit, I go looking for the blanket that we came for.  I am looking, no special exact blanket.  I then see a small piece of a blanket that is soft and has several little things like tags hanging off the sides, pooh and friends, and then some ribbons too.  I show it to Samantha to see if she accepts it, she looks at me and says, "NO!" I give her a few more soft blankets and she holds them and loves on them and then says, "here, " as she gives them back to me.  I try another blanket, and kind of untuck the tag that is bundled up inside the folded blanket.  Samantha seams to be taking to it, or at least more than the rest.  I decide to walk through the blanket and bedding isle one more time... and ta da!  I found her blanket but in BLUE.  I am thinking WHO CARES if it is blue.  I give it to Samantha and she immediately says, "kitty" and loves on it.  (She calls her blanket kitty, not sure if that is what she is saying or if she is trying to say blanket, but it sounds just like kitty.)

Sweet, so we got the blanket.  Amber is now deciding that she wants to have the blanket.  She is mad that it is all folded up.  She keeps baby talking, "Blanket!" I give her the blanket but she wants it all unfolded.  I push the button to the snorting, singing Christmas pig.  Not working... she is ignoring the snorting pig singing or snorting Christmas tunes.  I take the ribbon, tags, and the hanger off the blanket and give it to Amber.  I put all the torn off packaging in my cart.  Amber is finally satisfied. 

I go to the next item I am searching for.  Now Amber is trying to lay the blue blanket on Samantha and lean on her like a pillow.  Samantha is getting upset and pushes her away.  Amber tries again, and then cries and complains that Samantha isn't letting her lay on her.  Amber decides she is going to walk now.  I take a deep breath, knowing what this is going to end up like, but also realizing the cart isn't working out so well either.

Samantha is crying because she wants out too.  I give her the pig again... no one cares now about the silly snorting pig, that is probably why it was dumped in the area we found it.  I am trying to hurry but I am still looking for one more item... which was in the department by the toys.  Amber sees something she wants to look at in the toys.  We go over there and she gets out of the cart.  She pushes the buttons on it, and then I urge her to get back in the cart.  She decides she is going to sit under the basket, but it is too short so her head doesn't really fit in there.  I told her it wasn't going to work... she wouldn't listen, until she got her head hurt.  Now she is crying too. Now we aren't just annoying the people in the isle that we are in, but the whole departmant we are in, possibly the entire store.

Amber gets back in the cart.  I am looking for my last item still.  Then Amber kicks Samantha, and then squishes Samantha.  I forget about the last item.  It will have to wait.  As I am heading to the front of the store to check out, I see winter coats on sale.  Lauren needs a new coat. I see red shirts.  Emily needs a red shirt for her Christmas program.  The girls are both contently sucking their thumbs.  I stop for about 2 minutes and then the crying begans again.  I continue to the check out line. 

Of course like ALL check out lines there are rows and rows of candy and suckers that light up and spin when you push a button, small toys and snacks.  Amber is now showing me the sucker and wanting it.  I tell her no.  She picks up something else.  I tell her no.  She then starts crying, "I can't get ANYTHING?  Thats not fair!  You just don't care!"  I look to see if that is really Amber standing there or if it is one of the older girls.  Yep, still Amber although she sounds just like one of the other girls.  I want to give her big long talk about respect and being nice and talking nice and how we can't always get things.... but I am tired and worn out too, so I instead pick her up and hold her.

We finally get out of the store and find our way to the car.  I go through a drive through to get some food for me and the girls and we head to yet one more store to make a return.  That store (The Red Balloon) was much quicker, I didn't need to shop, just return an item and that was less eventful although I did have to pry Amber away from one toy and then another and another toy. We finally made it out of the store.  Phew!

I was thinking if I had time I would go to another store, but that will have to be for another day... maybe today I will gather all my patience and try it again for my last item list.  Although it seems that my last item list keeps growing and doesn't really end up being my LAST and FINAL item. 

Other than all that stuff, I love holiday shopping! 

Yep - I love holiday shopping with the crowds and my screaming girls.....I love it more than spaghetti!

Girls Weekend

Robert had a family get together this weekend in St. George leaving me with the 5 girls for Friday and Saturday by ourselves. Emily was in desperate need of new clothes, and I asked Robert if on Saturday night he would let me take Em to go get some clothes after he got home. She also needed some shoes, since both her sneakers and her dress shoes for school had holes in them. I thought I would take ALL the girls to get new shoes, since Lindsey and Lauren need some flip flop shoes too.

Robert had left for St. George about noon on Friday, so when school got out, I went and picked up the girls, and we went to their last day of the book fair at their school where they each were able to get 2 books. They had a Buy One Get One Free deal. We spent enough money to even get a free mini-poster too. The girls were so excited.

Then I decided to just go shopping with all the girls... what was I thinking? For the most part it was good, but the girls were giggling, laughing, singing, dancing, posing, and hogging the mirrors in the dressing room. We all went into the same dressing room. I had the big stroller for both little girls, so I got the handicap dressing room. I kept having to "Shhhushh" the girls but they had such a good time. They were loving to try on clothes in the dressing room. Amber kept unbuckling the stroller so I would occasionally see her run through the clothes racks, I would grab her and put her back in, buckle her in, and not much time later she would unbuckle and be chasing one of the twins around. I guess we need to practice going to the mall more often. Of course in the middle of our trying on clothes, the girls say, "We have to go potty" and of course the bathroom is on the next level up... so we have to leave everything go up, come back down and continue on with our fitting process.

We went to Sears since I had a $44 balance left on a gift card for Sears and a 15% off coupon, but then later when we went to Walmart to buy some plain t-shirts to go under some dresses they got, I was feeling a little buyer remorse for the higher prices at Sears compared to Walmart. I am hoping these will last longer and hold up better than Walmart clothes. That is what I keep telling myself so I don't feel so bad about it. I do typically think you get what you pay for, although there are exceptions to the rule. Emily is kind of at a point where she isn't growing much, and who am I kidding, I am only buying clothes that will go through 4 more girls, so it's worth it right? :)

Although I do have to admit I will often grab a t-shirt at Walmart while I am there doing other shopping and then as soon as I wash the shirt it shrinks in the length and then it is too short for me to wear comfortably without a longer shirt under it. That helped me justify the Sears trip and not feeling too bad about the money spent there.

Friday night for dinner, we went to KFC since we had coupons for FREE Grilled Chicken meals but found out there was some problem with the coupons or someone over used them or something and now they are no good. So my FREE dinner that I thought we were gonna have turned out to be more like $27 instead. Another bummer I felt. (KFC has a form you can fill out and send in your coupons and they will mail you new ones that are also good for a free soda along with the 2 piece chicken and 2 sides. It will be awhile I am sure before we get those back.)

Then I took the girls up Israel Canyon where Robert likes to run. He told me I should go walking up there, which I did and it is steep at times and I regretting it the whole way up there mostly thinking how unstable the ground was with all the ruts and the uneven rocks sticking out. When I was walking up there I saw a rabbit's hind leg along with it's tail, remenants of some other animals meal. The girls love things like that. I took them up to see it, and not to mention the view is incredible. As we were driving up we also saw off to the side a skeleton of some sort of animal, like a large dog or small deer. The girls really loved that too. That was pretty much the end of our Friday.

Saturday I kept thinking about taking the girls to the zoo, they had a "Macy's Mom and Me at the Zoo" where you go to Macy's buy their shirts for $7 and get into the zoo for free. This is their 3rd annual zoo day, so they would work for next year too. They had extra special things for the kids to do that were free if you were wearing one of the shirts. I kept thinking it would be fun and then thought it would be crowded.

I finally decided against it and we just hung out in the DIRT in our yard digging for the most part of the morning while Samantha slept. We had our First "Sale" of the girls'. Emily made up a new kind of ice cream. She took vanilla ice cream, put in some mandarin oranges, crushed up some ice cream cones and mixed it all up. They sold those out on our side walk. They sold 5 of them. Silly girls. They LOVE sales. I wish I would have gotten a picture of their first sale. Emily had the cooler out there and all the things in the cooler. She is so funny about things like that. She wants everything to be just perfect and in order, and of course HER way. (which caused a bit of fighting) She called her new ice cream, Orange Delight. I did have some of it and it wasn't too bad. I ate it with much resistance since they will often make me "drinks" with questionable ingredients that don't work so good together. This was kind of yummy, but I am all about texture so the crunchy cones in the ice cream was a delightful crunch in my ice cream. For only a quarter she will make you a cup of it too. (Oh, wait though, the ice cream got too soft and flopped out of the ice cream carton and onto the floor when it was getting put back into the freezer.) We may have to buy more ice cream.

After Samantha woke up from her nap, we went to get shoes and shirts to go under some of the dresses the girls got that didn't have sleeves. We did good in the shirt department but the shoes, didn't work out so well. Emily did get some that will end the year for her, but we had no great luck. Lindsey and Lauren did get some flip flop type shoes but not what I wanted them to get. They will work for them okay, just wasn't what I was thinking as "easy" slip on summer shoes.

The girls wanted to eat out again, but I told them I just spent a lot of money and couldn't spend anymore on eating out right not. We got home and had some dinner, which was only one that would be appreciated by kids. We had clam chowder soup with mini tacos and applesauce. Yummy huh! Rob and his parents got back shortly after our dinner was ready. To no suprise they ended up getting something else to eat and picked up some pizza. That was the end to the Girls' weekend.

I really don't mind Robert gone like that, I would if it was OFTEN but I don't mind the less pressure of dinner and those kind of things. The girls and I get along well. Amber even slept the whole night in my bed, which I wouldn't recommend or probably do again. I had to shoo the cat down several times as he would jump up on the bed and lay down purring next to Amber's face. I was afraid he would wake up Amber in the middle of the night.

I don't think we will have another Girl's weekend for awhile, but that is okay. It was nice while we had it. Robert's mom kept saying how sorry she was that we stayed home while Robert went with his family, but I much more enjoyed staying here with the girls then stuck in a small motel room with lack of good sleeping arrangements. I had no problems with it at all. She kept telling me how bad she felt for me.... I kept thinking, it isn't a big deal. I missed Robert but me and the girls have fun! I wouldn't want to do it for LONG periods but it is okay. It was better than the 5 days Robert was gone when I was 36 weeks pregnant with Samantha and having the other 4 girls to take care of. I ended up having Samantha the next morning after Rob got home. Now that was timing!!

Until next Girls' weekend... or probably more likely a Girls' night when Robert goes to some sporting event.