Tim's Birthday

Yesterday was my husband's birthday. It was hectic, like every day is with 9 kids. We ran around getting his gifts and his cake. I decided to get him a watch the women at the jewelry counter in JC Penney's were rude I believe it was just because I was standing there with kids. I guess they thought cause I had kids I couldn't possibly have had enough money to purchase a watch from the counter, not that it was even that much. She takes it out and says " You know it is $89" I was like "Yeah, that's fine, I'll take it" she just said " Ok" This was after being ignored for about 15 minutes. I know you may be sitting there thinking why didn't you just go elsewhere. Well I didn't because I had my heart set on this particular watch.

My day had actually begun early in the morning. With this awful gastroparesis. I was sick all morning. Tim had one wish for his birthday, a real egg roll. I know it sounds funny, but it is actually a hard thing to find in Vegas unless you know where to get it. We have been to 3 chinese restaurants that actually had spring rolls not egg rolls. So I started calling places which was almost comical. They would start off with "Take out or Delivery" I was like "Actually I have a question about egg rolls........" I am sure when I finally found NY Chinese they though I was nuts. I described the dimensions of a real egg roll and confirmed that it was a pork egg roll. We ended up getting chinese for everyone so that came close to the national debt, lol.

By the time everything was said and done we ended up eating around 9 and had ice cream around 10. I was exhausted. I felt bad for Tim because he ended up doing the clean up himself, the kids were not to helpful. Of course they helped put away the left overs but that was about it.

Today, I have been sick all day. My back has also been killing me. I have been in bed all day till I decided to get up to write this note. Brendan and Logan are home sick today, of course Logan I think became sick because he heard how sick Brendan was, you know one of those sicknesses. Well hope all my readers are safe and well, till tomorrow. Take care.

Back to School Shopping - OMG

Well back to school time gives me mixed feelings - on one hand I get the joy of sending them off and enjoying a peaceful house, one that is conducive to work. On the other hand back to school brings me closer to the poor house. See in my house we have what I like to call "ticket shoppers" now before you think wow that's great her kids care about prices, think again, some of them are simply the opposite, they want what costs the most. The other day we took Brendan and Logan school shopping, they came because they had to try on pants and their sneakers. We went to Old Navy where they were having a great sale on jeans. So we were able to buy outfits - shirt and pants for $15. And we went to the sporting goods store for their sneakers, Logan knew exactly what ones he wanted, which he was going to have no matter what the cost, luckily they were only $35. They were the easy ones. Today we took the girls shopping and I am getting my migraine headache back just reliving it. Amanda would look at the price tag first just to decide if she liked say a pair of jeans, if they were not at least $30 she did not like them. At the sporting goods store, they had many, many sneakers, she only liked the ones that cost $69 and up, all the others no matter how great they were she did not like them. Even if they were an $89 pair on sale for $50, she would not do it, we would actually have to shell out the money. So an hour and a half later we finally had sneakers for all three girls.

Oh funny story, Dylan has a job as a dishwasher, he got it because the house he was working at doing landscaping was talking to their friends who own a restaurant and they needed a hard worker. So the owner of the restaurant who we did not know showed up in our driveway asking if Dylan would like a job. They only problem was that Dylan never had any intention of getting a job, so he was a little unsure at first. I am sure once he gets his first check he will like it.

So Dylan also went back to the doctors who cleared him for drilling in wrestling practice and weight lifting so our lives have been back down at the club, which by the way has been like a sauna the past few days. So at least 3 nights a week we are at the club from 530 till 830 and we eat dinner very late.

Logans First Movie Theatre Visit

Well Regal has free movies over the summer so now that Logan is five I figured it was his chance to take the movie test. You may wonder what the movie test is. Well ever since, well I have no idea for how long, I have decided that I was never going to bring a child that is to young to the movies. The last thing I am going to do is waste money, and two hours of my time with a whiny or worse yet screaming kid. So we decided to go to the free movie. Now granted the movies are free so they are not current but since they are in the Regal Cinemas you get the movie theater experience - $20 popcorn and soda, and nice rocking and reclining chairs which made me happy. And did you know they have booster seats at the movie theater? I didn't, see I never bring my kids. So we saw the Rugrats Movie. When we started walking into the theater it was very dark and just had the floor track lighting as we made the sharp turn and Logan was scared he said "what is going to happen next" I said nothing there is just going to be chairs to sit in. Logan was better behaved than 99.9% of the kids in the theater. The other .1% of the kids that were better than Logan were my other two kids Brendan and Emily that came with us and that was only because we told them that if they talked during the movie there were never coming again. Apparently they believed me.

Well the kids job is complete, so Dylan, Amanda, Meghan, and David are back to their usual driving me crazy and the begging to sleep over various peoples houses and for things. The kids also think everyone else in the world has it better than them. Right now Dylan wants to buy a hot tub. After some research on line and discovering that your electric goes up quite a bit from a hot tub I told Dylan that he cannot get one unless he gets someone to pay the difference. Now it is not that I am being a bitch but we live in a large home where our bills run around $1,000 in the winter and $250 in the summer so I would notice it when it went up. He is trying to convince me that we are the only family in Burnt Hills that does not have a hot tub and if he does not get one he will not fit in. Then Amanda starts harrassing me about her hair, she just had her haircut about three weeks ago so for my back to school budget I figured she could wait to get hers done, she started complaining about why do the boys get to have theirs done but the girls have to wait saying it was no fair. She is mad because she did not have enought cut off, even though we told her what to say, well she did not listen.

Right now I am sitting on my bed in my 12 x 14 and there are eight people in my room. TJ is sleeping on my floor. Talk about no room at the Inn, and no air to breathe, lol.

Quiet Time and Watering the Trees

Well my house has been really quiet this week. The older kids got a job. Well TJ and Bradley have been working, that's right Bradley got a job at Best Buy. But things have been even better - Dylan, Amanda, Meghan, and David have been working at a house down the street doing some major landscaping and cleaning. They are having a wedding at their house, so they have been working everyday this week. So times have been nice, it has been like having 3 children, imagine that.

It was nice because I have had lots of work to do between grants and Tim has been writing lots of articles. Amanda has been up to her usual stunts, we stepped out yesterday just to get a message from her saying she went out dinner, apparently we were not home to ask permission from. So she got home at 11pm, some dinner. So she is now punished.

We went to the park again today, Logan was our coach again, he got us into a huddle and told us that we were not allowed to scratch, bite, punch or kick, or that's right bite. We played HORSE, Brendan won.

When we got home, Logan must of thought we had a drought because for some strange reason he forgot we had a bathroom and peed on our tree outside. David and Logan raced to our bedroom, David to tell and Logan to deny it.

Welcome to my world.

Mommy Look at my new pets

One that I have learned as a parent, nine times over is that having a five year old is fun. Logan really likes to keep the house going. Over the past few days he has been fighting with Dylan over Cesear, Dylan's Dog. Dylan teases Logan saying that it is his dog and tells him to find his own pet. Well Logan decided to do just that. Later on that night he came into my room while I was sitting on the bed on my computer. He had a bowl and in it was a frog. I wasn't paying attention to what he was saying and he said not understanding him and I said "What honey can you keep your log, sure Logan." and he protested saying nooooo, I said oh "the Saab" he said "NOOOO My RRIBBB IT RIB It" and as he screamed it jumped out of the bowl and next to the bed. Luckily they got it and I explained that if he kept the frog he would kill it and that the frogs family would be sad.

So last night he came in with his new pets. He came in with his sundae cup from McDonalds and in it he proudly showed me and Tim. "Look at my pets a mosqeeeetoe and bawth" We looked and indeed he had a mosquito and moth in the cup. Now he has been trying to collect more to help them have a family.

I have also discovered that David can be evil. He took the squirt gun and filled it with syrup and was chasing Brendan and Logan and shooting them. They were covered and crying. What an evil little brat. So David spent most of the afternoon cleaning up the backyard, and syrup is not easy to clean up.

Today some of the kids are up the street, bet they will come home real happy. Someone called looking for some kids to do some yard work, we volunteered some and they will be moving rocks.
Well if anything they will come home nice and tired, Mission accomplished.

Trampoline - Oh No

Well Tim is on his way to Walmart to purchase a trampoline. We told the kids they could have one if they did all of the following: clean the whole house including closets, laundry room, bedrooms (even under beds), mud room, and even the garage. Well and guess what, they did it. We had promised it thinking they would never do it in a million years. Well they shocked the heck out of me, and Tim. So now we are keeping our end of the bargain. Now let's just keep our fingers crossed that none of them break any bones on it.

And on another note I made it through kids choice dinner week. We are back on parents choice so last night we had lasanga. Amanda begged us for it, and promised us she would make it. But when we got home with it she decided to play oh dumb blonde one and forgot how to make it so we ended up coming down to made it. Of course she was on Facebook telling her friends that she just made lasagna, yeah right.

We have wrestling and weight lifting tonight but I will be back, as I am sure there will be a story to tell about putting the trampoline together that will start something like this...... How many Clarke's does it take to put a trampoline together?

So the answer to that question is it takes 7 Clarke's. It was Dylan and the rest of the them fooling around with it trying to get it together and Tim had to go out and read the directions for them. They all thought they could put it together without reading the directions.

And the first one to cause injuries is the one who was not supposed to be on the trampoline at all, you know him as Dylan, we know him as stupid Dylan because he never, ever listens to us. He wanted to know why he could not jump on it we told him, duh because he has a broken back. And of course he was right back out there hurting everyone else. See why I did not want to get a trampoline.

Luckily we had wrestling and weight training, so halfway through trampoline demolitions Emily, Meghan, Amanda, and Dylan we left so that ended the injuries for the day. Bradley had work so we had some quiet.

Oh did I tell you about Bradley's new play toy, oh I mean energy zapper. He bought that surround sound system that he just had to have so now he is down to very little money and he just started at Best Buy. That is the best part he got a job doing something he loves. He gets to talk and get people to buy things they really don't need. Hell he is an expert at it, he does it to himself all the time. He is great at the limited time offers you know when something is on sale so you have to have it now. You watch he will be a pro.

And TJ is taking his ASVAP test next week for the Airforce and having his physical. We still have mixed feelings about him deciding to join, but he is 20, so we don't have much of a choice. He says he wants to do something different. I suggested going away to college but that didn't seem to strike a chord. So we are going to do what all good parents do support him in public and bitch in private.

Well I gotta go and write some articles. Have a good night. See you next time.

Hotel Jacuzzi and Cows

So the weekend was great and I learned alot. Friday was our 21st wedding anniversary and my birthday. How old you ask? Never mind. Friday we went our shopping for the perfect anniversary presents. Tim went looking for a ring for me and he discovered that you cannot walk into a jewelry store and ask for a particular size ring. And I got him a new desk and office chair which he took as an insult. I thought he would be more comfortable doing he work. He said well would you be more comfortable doing your work with a new vacuum? Ok well now I get the point but it seemed like the perfect gift to me.

We left the kids home alone on Saturday night and Tim and I went away, really far, like 14 miles away to a hotel with a jacuzzi tub, a suite. And we ate out for Friday night at Applebee's, Saturday lunch at Chili's and Saturday night at Tuscans Grille, well we pair for food poisoning. We were both soooo sick by Saturday and Sunday night it was not even funny, we were practically fighting over the bathroom.

We also got a disturbing call from the kids early on Saturday within hours of our arrival from Emily. Brendan had gotten stung by a bee, in all places on the tip of his nose. And Logan had to call us ever at least 20 minutes because he missed us. I ended up giving him them the hotel phone number because they were using up all my minutes on my cell phone number. And heck might as well make the most of the room, right?

The jacuzzi tub in the room was great, we spent most of our time in there, matter of fact, I think in a former life that I was a mermaid, maybe Tim was a merman, sexy eh? We would be the only Mer couple with so many mer children swimming around populating the ocean.

Seriously, I would stay in the jacuzzi until I was ready to pass out, then I would get out until I felt okay again then I was like "You wanna go back in?" and Tim was like "Sure"

On Sunday we woke up early just to go down and get breakfast which was simply a waste of time, the baseball team, and ladies bingo team apparently beat us to it, we were left with what everyone else did not want. So we went back to the jacuzzi until 11am, check out time.

When we got home it was off to the fair as we promised the kids. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to make it because my sickness had all of the sudden gotten worse. But I had promised and if you have kids and you promise them something......... well you know what happens. So we went to the fair. Same old same old, saw some pigs, cows, and horses. Logan was afraid of most of them so he petted the back end of a big old cow, and said aaaaah to some baby pigs and then he wanted to eat. Because he is like most 5 year old boys he really did not go to the fair to see the animals he wanted to go because he thought we were going to buy him something to eat. Since we were both feeling sick though he was in for quite a disappointment. So we did what every parent does when they have a screaming 5 year old in the back of the van we went through McDonalds drive thru.

I spend the rest of the day in bed. Tim was the best he made the kids leave me alone. Which was wonderful.

Well thanks for checking in............