Capturing the moment

I just love this photo.  I don't know why, but I just do.  Maybe it's the look on Aria's face, as she stares up, up, up at her bigger-than-life daddy.  She seems so small, in this photo, standing there next to her father.  And I can't help but to think ahead, as my mind often does....

One day he will be attending her soccer games

or her ballet performances. 

One day he will be driving her to a school dance

or taking her to the orthodontist to get her braces taken off. 

One day he will be shaking the hand of her future husband. 

And walking her down the aisle on her wedding day.

One day he will be pacing the waiting room as she delivers her first child. 

One day.

But right now, on this day....  she is 14 months old.

And she is looking up at him, with that look on her face.

She really just adores her daddy, and that makes me so happy.

And I was lucky enough, on this day, to capture that expression on her face.

God, I love cameras.

Sports

So today we had 4 soccer games to attend.  Plus one batting practice.  And then one birthday party at the end of the day.  A typical Saturday in this family.   First was A.J.'s soccer game.  Then Avery's.  Next was Alex's.  And finally, Afton's.  A.J. also had batting practice at the same time as Alex's game, and lucky for me, the batting field was right next to the field where Alex played.  So that was pretty cool.  I was able to watch Alex's game AND could see A.J. over at the baseball field.  When people ask me what my favorite sport is, the honest answer is whatever sport my kid is playing.  And that's the complete truth.  I love, love, love watching my kids compete!  They love it, I love it, their dad loves it.  We are a total sports family, and it's so much fun.  Of course, it makes for crazy weekends with all the games, and very busy week days with all the different practices.  Sometimes the games overlap, and it's crazy-busy. But it's all good.  If we get just one professional sports player out of it all, then it will have been worth it :)

Fourteen Months

I love this age...

Ebony & Ivory

Right now we have five children taking piano lessons.  Alex, Avery and A.J. each have a 1/2 hour lesson once a week with our piano teacher, Mrs. Baker.  Then Aislynn and Andrew each have a 15 minute lesson with her once a week.  I took piano lessons when I was younger, and my only regret is that I stopped taking lessons!  Yes, at age 13 - after 6 years of lessons - I QUIT!  What a mistake!  I loved playing the piano, and for the life of me I can't remember WHY I quit.  I know that I wasn't practicing like I should be, and I think that maybe I felt a bit guilty for wasting my mom's hard earned money on my lessons when I knew I wasn't giving it any priority.  So far my kids LOVE the piano and play often during the day.  Alex is especially into his music lessons.  He listens to classical music all the time and can't wait to play some of his favorites on the piano one day.  That is his motivation right now -- to play what he hears on his CD's.

Here he is helping Andrew with his lessons:

And here he is showing Aria

how to press the keys "softly" instead of banging!

Our next little piano player:)

# 7 and #8

I love this recent photo of Aislynn and Andrew!

I want out!

Aria does this whenever I put her into her crib.  She's such a little monkey!

Our Sandbox

We have a sandbox in our backyard that I both love and hate.
The kids play in it for hours.. which is very cool.
But then they come inside.
And there's sand in their hair.
In their clothing.
Between their toes.
And then I have sand everywhere in my house.
I don't mind it that much, because all I need to do is vacuum it up.
Which isn't really a big deal.
My problem is Rich.
He really  makes such a fuss over it.
Because, you know, he's like that.
Everything is a 10.
I love the guy, but come on....really?
Sand?  Really?  Is it really that big of a deal?
He'll get aggrivated if the kids come in and out without shaking all the sand of them.
If someone is caught inside the house with a grain of sand on them, it's like a major crime.
Talk about stressing us out!!
And it's too much work (and virtually impossible) to stand at the back door
and monitor that all. day. long.
I'd rather just let them come and go....in and out....having fun.
And then remind them to shake the sand off.
And then whatever doesn't get shaken off and ends up on our carpet
I will vacuum up at the end of the day.
Let's face it --

We are dealing with ages 9, 8, 4, 3, and 14 months --
(those who still play in the sandbox)
and so they aren't going to always shake off all the sand.
It's a fact.  Sand will get into the house.
Let's just accept that fact and get on with life.
And thank God for the invention of the vacuum!

The Baby

Aria, age 14 months

The Baby is now...

climbing stairs on her own (scary!)

laughing whenever we laugh (so cute!)

climbing out of her crib (scary!)

holds a book open and babbles as if reading (so cute!)

running away from me when I say "come here"  (not so cute when I'm in a hurry)

arches her back and throws a fit whenever I try to put her into her carseat  (not cute at all, especially when I'm in a hurry!)

takes just one nap a day (such a bummer!)

always sleeps in bed with mommy (I love this....)

has never had a bottle (still loves mommy's milk:)

is 23 pounds and of course rear-facing in her carseat (wouldn't have it any other way!)

She might be our #9 child, but wow -- she is no less a thrill to us than the first baby:)

We are enjoying her sooooooooo much!

Aria is such a blessing to our family!

Being Four

Aislynn, age 4

She loves....

going to preschool
coloring
playing house
dressing up in fancy clothes
kicking a soccer ball
sleeping in mommy's bed
playing with her baby sister
getting her toenails painted
playing with friends

Kool-Aid Play Doh

Ingredients:


2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup salt

2 packages unsweetened Kool-Aid powdered drink mix

2 cups boiling water

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

Directions:

1) Mix flour, salt, Kool-Aid and oil until blended.

2) Add boiling water, mix with spoon until cool enough to knead.

3) Continue kneading until color is blended.

4) Store in air tight bag or container in the refrigerator.
 
 
My kids played with this stuff at our home school gathering last Tuesday.  I liked the consistancy of it, and it smelled really good:)

Rushed

This morning our alarm clocks failed to go off.
Yes, we are blaming the clocks.
What's that you say?
Of course we set them.  We always set them.
Nope, definitely a malfunction of the alarm clocks.
It was supposed to wake the older girls up at 6:15am, so they could get dressed, eat, and do all that they need to do before leaving the house for school at 7:15.
Instead, I woke up at 7:20 from the baby fussing.
The girls were still sleeping.  They were not happy with me when they learned it was 7:20. 
Funny how they blame me for their alarm clocks not going off.
When all else fails, blame Mom, right?
Because I don't set my alarm since Aria sleeps with me, and I don't like to wake her up at six in the morning.
That is why both girls have their own alarm clocks.
Which they both forgot to set last night.
So anyway, everything was a rush this morning.  I hate that.
We got to school just 5 minutes before the first bell, so that's good.
But it just made for a very unorganized and chaotic morning.
I hope the girls manage to have a good day at school, dispite their rushed start!

End of Summer

Labor Day.
The official end-of-summer day.
I'm a bit bummed that summer is coming to an end.
Two reasons:
1)school starts.
2) now we are back on a schedule.

I am also happy that summer is ending.
Again, two reasons:
1) school starts.
2) and now we are back on a schedule!

I find that once June comes rolling around, I am DYING for school to end. We need the academic "break" so to speak. And likewise I am always looking forward to having no schedule to keep to. Just lazy days (somewhat) of going to bed later than normal, waking up later than normal. I love that.

But then....after two months of that....I am SO ready to be back in school and on a schedule again!

I need the structure.
And they (the kids) need the structure.


So tomorrow is our first day of school.

Anthony (who is 18 now and graduated in June) is taking the semester off and looking for a job (or two!) because he needs to buy a car and have money for insurance, gas, etc. No luck yet finding one. (I personally thing he's being a bit "picky" as to which jobs he applies for) When he gets a job, this will be a good thing. The kid needs a car to get to and from college each day next semester!

Audriana and Afton will be in high school at our local school --10th and 9th grade. They are both looking forward to it.

Then we have 1st grader A.J. who is very excited to be homeschooling at home with mom this year (last year he attended Kindergarten) and he has actually already started with me (late at night when all others were sleeping we have been doing some grammar and reading together, and he has been working on his printing. He can be quite the Late Owl -- just like me -- so I took advantage of that quiet time and we worked together a few nights last week. One night it was 11:10pm when we sat down together and worked on some phonics and printing practice. Crazy hours, huh? Well, sometimes with a family this large, you gotta do what you gotta do to find some one-on-one time together!)

Next we have Miss Avery Clare, who is doing 3rd grade this year. Avery chose not to attend Kindergarten, and so she has always been homeschooled. She was a late reader, so I'm very glad she has the benefit of learning at her own pace at home. (In school I am quite sure she would have been labeled somehow.) As it is, she read on her own time and now is a very good reader and LOVES reading books. She reads books at her own grade level and some of her older brother's books as well. See? No need to worry if you have one who doens't "get" reading right from the start. Instead of drilling her and forcing her and ultimately creating a HATE for reading in her, I just let her BE. And now, she's an avid reader.

Alex is our 4th grader this year. He went to Kindergarten and then homeschooled ever since. He is a very good student, but can get a little distracted when he's sitting in his seat too long. (Boys!) I'm glad he has been homeschooling because I don't just make him SIT and do his work, but instead give him lot of outside time and breaks when he needs it. Plus, he helps Avery with her work sometimes, and that helps HIM, too, being that they are just a grade apart. It's good for him to see how much he knows by helping someone else.

Aislynn is 4 and will be 5 at the end of November. She will do Preschool this year, for the first time. My kids do just ONE year of preschool, and that is the year before they start Kindergarten, whether they homeschool or not. I have two reason for this: 1) Preschool is expensive!! So one year of it is enough for our budget. And 2) I like my little ones home with me. We only send them 3 days a week, for just 3 hours each day. Some people might wonder WHY send them to preschool? Simply put, it's FUN for them. It's something that is "theirs" to be excited about, when all the others have school and outside activities (sports, Girl Scouts, etc) All my kids have gone to a Christian preschool and so far I have been very, very happy. So little Aislynn starts her "school" this week as well. She's very excited to be a "Mighty Lamb" (what they are called at their preschool).

And finally we have Andrew and Aria, who will be at home with me of course, at age 3 and 13 months.

I'm looking forward to school -- me, the teacher -- because we've got new books, new lesson plans, new pencils, and a new school room that has been painted and decorated already, complete with a dry erase board and a U.S. Map hanging on the wall. I love it.

They are both yellow.

So I guess I put too much trust in my six year old to wash the kitchen floor on his own last night. Usually, a few kids will tackle that chore together, and they always look forward to it because I let them "skate" with the rags at the bottom of their feet. (for those of you old enough to remember, I got this idea from watching Pippi Longstocking, although I believe she had actual brushes that she would strap to her feet)

Anyway, so last night A.J. was the only one who didn't help out with the chores that day, so after dinner I told him that he could wash the floor while we were all upstairs getting ready for bed. So he happily agreed, and I left him in the kitchen while I bathed babies and kids upstairs.

About 30 minutes later, I went downstairs to check on him. Upon entering the kitchen, I noticed a very different smell. I was expecting to smell Pine Sol, you know, because that is what we always put in the bucket when we wash the floor. And just about the time I noticed that there was a strange smell in the air, I stepped onto the kitchen floor and SLID about three feet. Now, I've slipped and skidded on wet floors before, but this was nothing like that. I actually floated across the kitchen floor. I looked down at my feet and everything was so slick looking and quite shiney.

What the....????!!!!!

Then I looked on the counter, and there it was. Sitting near the bucket. Next to wet rags. There sat a bottle of Vegetable Oil.

You gotta be kidding me. Is this what A.J. used to "wash" our floor?

Okay, so this tells me we have a lot of reading/vocabular/spelling to get to, because my 6 year old did not know that VEGETABLE OIL does not spell PINE SOL.

He later explained that it was the same color as Pine Sol, so how was he supposed to know?

But then I said, "But A.J....the SMELL. Couldn't you tell that it wasn't PINE SOL just by the smell?"

To which he replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

Was I angry? No. Not at him. At myself, a little. Because had I not been so anxious to get all the kids bathed and into bed for the night, I might have taken the time to fill the bucket with Pine Sol for him. But nooooo, I was in a HURRY and let him do it.

So, my bad.

Taught me a lesson (see, even after NINE kids, I am still being taught daily lessons!) because instead of relaxing that night, which I had planned on doing, I spent a good hour mopping up Vegetalbe Oil off my kitchen floor, and then another 20 minutes after that washing it with Pine Sol.

the squatter

We have a rental house that we have been renting for about 14 years now. Never had a problem. Until now.

We have a lady living in there now who has not paid her rent since June. She also will not move out. We posted all the notifications like we are supposed to. We sent her a registered letter, and she refused to sign for it. She claims she has renter rights.

(renter rights to do what? basically squat on our property?)

Anyway, to get her OUT we have to pay $250 for a filing fee with the court. Then there is a court date set up 3 or 4 weeks once that is filed. If she doesn't show up to the court date, then I believe the Sheriff will put locks on the doors or something -- I don't know. But that seriously could take a couple months.

It's crazy. People can just live in your house and not move out when you say to. She has a month-to-month lease. She's behind 3 months rent. GET OUT!

We are not receiving rent for our property from the person who lives there.
We cannot rent it to anyone else... because she won't leave!
We have someone living there for free.
We want her out. But there's a process.
A process?!!!!!
I just want to go into the house while she's away and move her stuff OUT of my house.
But nope -- the renters have rights, and although it's MY house, I cannot do that. We, the owners of said property, apparently do not have rights. We have to let a person live in our house even though we want her OUT.

Very frustrating!

Oh, and the place is a mess. She's one of those "hoarders" and there's trash and boxes everywhere. She hasn't any furniture but a mattress on the floor in one room and a tv that sits up on a box. Oh, and one small table with one chair. But that's it. And it smells awful in there.

Nice.

She's lived there since March. Not that long. I think some people do this over and over and over, moving from place to place, living for free...until the authorities remove them. When we went to the authorities to ask what we have to do to get her out, they told us that this type of thing is going on a lot lately. In fact, we have a friend who owns an apartment complex with 30 units, and he told us that he has 9 units right now that he is trying to evict for non-payment of rent.

Ugh. What a headache!

What is with this computer, anyway....

So a few months back, my old computer kept locking up, had about a bajillion viruses, and it was 3 years old anyway.... so I spent a small fortune and bought a new computer -- this one -- about 3 months ago.

It was FAST! Loved it!

It didn't lock up! Loved it!

I was loving life to the max!
Such freedom!
No frustrations!
I felt liberated!

But now? It's starting to lock up again, gosh darn it! Where sometimes the only way I can free it up is by turning it off, which isn't good to do if you don't shut down the computer properly. But you can't do that when it FREEZES up!!!!

Ugh!!!!

And for some darn reason, the stinking computer won't let me upload my photos from my camera. Even though just two weeks ago I could do it without a problem. Now, today and yesterday....it doesn't let me.

And now, I will start writing an email...and the computer FREEZES up for no. dang. reason.

It's not like I have any other systems running.
It's not like I have any other windows open.
Nope.
Just a simple email to a friend.
And it will FREEZE up.

I think I just have the worst luck with computers.
It really is just that.
Because there's no reason why a BRAND NEW computer, with all the memory that I spent on it, all the upgrades, etc.... there's no reason why it should be freezing up after just 3 months.

Someone TELL ME what I'm doing WRONG!!!

(YES -- I do have an anti-virus on my computer.)

So that's why there are no NEW photos lately.
It's not that I haven't been taking them.
I have.
It's not that I don't have the time to post them.
I do.
It's not that I don't want to post them.
I really, really do.

But I just can't because of this DAMN computer and my stupid computer luck...as in NO LUCK at all.

**Okay, my rant and rave is over now.
You can go back to your regular programming.**