How to Catch a Skunk

We have been having problems with opossums, skunks etc so the boys made a trap to catch them and our youngest shows you how it will work!
http://www.youtube.com/user/3028960#p/u/0/tX_NncCd1Y4

3 Year Oldism

"Doggy lick me cuz I sweet candy."

Daddy convince Seth the dog licks him because he is sweet like candy.

3 Year Oldism

I want to watch wetters! (letters)

Leapfrog has some good videos on Netflicks. I love when I can turn on the TV and know that he is still learning! (Something I actually want him to learn that is.)

3 Year Oldism

Me-Let's go. Put your shoes on.
Seth-No Mommy, these plip plops! These not shoes.
Me-Are they sandals?
Seth- No, these not sandals these plip plops these not shoes these plip plops! Siwy Mommy!

5 Year Oldism

-Last one to the car is a lollipop!"

The Things Boys say...

"I am going to eat all this like a dog!" may sound like a good idea when you are 5. When you are a mom and trying to teach your all boy brood etiquette the response goes something like, "No, no you are not going to eat like a dog and if you do, you will not finish the meal and stand in the corner instead."

5-year-oldism

"Last one to the car is a cotton leg!"

Household Rules!

These are the rules that I assumed were understood in our house. In the last few months, I have found that this is not the case. Now I realize that I am by far out numbered with boys. I do. I really do! I expect to have to go to the ER on occasion and maybe even an overnight here and there for observation or even an ambulance ride but I am putting my foot down here and now and setting limits about how often because unfortunately while there are many males there is only one female to try and keep up with all of them. I tried to just verbally reiterate that which I perceived was know. This too has failed so now I am making a written version since my group of boys do not seem to understand I mean it! For my sanity's sake I am now writing them down so the Washburn boys/males (at least the ones in this household) can consult them before I lose my mind!

If at all possible, I prefer to limit the time spent in hospitals to a maximum of once a month if not less FAR LESS! That said:

1. No concurrent hospital stays this includes but is not limited to concurrent hospital stays at different hospitals. 

2. Concurrent ER visits will be permitted as long as both patients go in and are released at approximately the same time.

3. No back to back hospital stays. 

4. Once again this includes ER visits. 

5. If the monthly ER visit has been used, you are to refrain from any activity that will likely result in another ER visit if continued. This includes but is not limited to: dancing on the slide that is 8 ft above concrete, encouraging balls to be thrown at you while you ride a bike to see if they can cause you to crash, running around the edge of the jagged pool walls, trying to see how long you can stand on the raft that is by the jagged pool edge, etc....

6. The mom of this household reserves the right to add to this list or further clarify as she deems necessary especially as the the males try to see how far she can go without sleep!

BTW! Do you realize how much sleep you lose when you are at the ER or hospital? (ALL NIGHT LONG!!)  I do!! The mom/wife loses even more because she has to be coherent enough at all times to answer all random questions placed to her about the cause of said condition/accident and digest any randomly generated information the medical personal is willing to give or insinuate by action or inaction!

Turning 10

What happens when your baby(the oldest) turns 10. We are driving to the store and Brad started to bemoan our son's upcoming birthday.
Brad-"Erik is turning 10."
Me-"Yeah."
Brad-"Are you sure Erik is turning 10?"
Me-"Yeah."
Brad-"I remember him being born."
Me- "Yeah."
Brad-"Vividly! It seems like yesterday!"
Me-"Yeah."
Brad-"Are you positive Erik is turning 10?"
Me-"Yeah."
Brad-"Do you know what this means?"
Me-"What?"
Brad-"We are getting old!"

What's that Racket?

Let me set the stage for you: It is 8:30 in the morning. The boys have been told to shut off the TV and go upstairs  to clean their room. (It is amazing how if I am not up that must mean we can pile on the couch and watch TV instead of cleaning our room before we exit it!) Not just "clean" their room but "spic and span clean" your room! I hear singing and loud noises. Oh, here comes one boy complaining because his brother scratched him. I scold him and his brothers and tell them to "CLEAN YOUR ROOM!!" After things like this continuing on for 20 minutes or so I hear growling, roaring, yelling etc.. (They're boys these are really not uncommon noises just LOUD) and they come down playing on the stairs. I hurriedly get up to go reprimand them again thinking how my dad, and their dad is going to be upset about all the commotion. Who do I see? Their PAPA, aka My FATHER instigating the WHOLE thing!!! The rebuke flew right out the window and the laughter came bursting in!

Gartering

"Papa, Papa" yells Matthew. "I want to go gartering with you!"
Papa-"Oh yeah? What do you do when you go gartering?"
Matthew-"You dig with the digger. Then you plant seeds, then you bury them, then and then you water them"
Papa- "Well, we better go gartering then."
He didn't need to garden. He didn't need to plant seeds, (He just did the day before.) It was not the proper time to garden (too hot) but to Papa it did not matter. He spent time gartering with Matthew. I love the kid's grandparents!

Health Issues

I was not going to blog about this since I try to keep it pretty light hearted here but then decided the purpose of this blog is to keep a kind of Family Album since I stink so much at Baby Books, and Photo Books. Our family has been in crisis mode for over a month now due to Brad's health. In the last month, he has been diagnosed with CHF, DVT, PE, Bilateral Pleural Embolisms, Gastroenteritis, amongst other things, all from a bout with pneumonia. We have been coping as best as possible with lots of help from parents (his and mine), friends and church members. We have people we do not even know praying for us and we are eternally grateful. He has been in and out of the hospital for over a month with the average being in far more than out (over 3/4s) and that has just take a toll on our family. At the same time we can see positives in all of this. We have seen how wondrous God can be and how merciful he is. Thanks to all for the help and prayers!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Belated Birthday to my 7 year old! Sorry I am late but we have been having internet issues amongst other issues. Once upon a time (before the Lord intervened) he was going to be the baby of our family. Thankfully he is not since he is such an awesome big brother. He is helpful and growing up too fast for me. He is such a good reader, and is always up for outdoors "anything." Out of all the kids he is the most like me (maybe because we are both the second child in our family). Now hopefully that will not scar him later in life. I love you and am so proud of you. You are and will always be my baby!!

Happy Birthday Baby!

Seth the "baby" of our family is 3 today. Obviously he is no longer a baby but he will always hold that baby spot in our family. (Unless the Lord decides to bless us with another "miracle" child. ;P) I am having a hard time understanding how the last 3 years flew by and how my "baby" is now in his preschool years. The personality coming out is so infectious with humor, wit, and sarcasm(I know, total shocker there!) that you just can't help but laugh at his antics even when you know you should not!
Just yesterday, Taggy was trying to get to his brother's tag, while in the car. No big deal since his brothers are used to it except one thing; Matthew had fallen asleep. He was not in any mood to have his brother wake him up but Taggy was relentless in his pursuit of the almighty tag! As Matthew was protesting the assault on his body(or back of his shirt), I told Seth to stop but was bursting with laughter which of coursed caused everyone in the car to start laughing, including Matthew, and Seth's determination paid off. Giggling with glee, he had his tag! That's my baby!


(FYI I am allowed to call all of my children "my baby/ baby" since I incubated them for 9 months. Due to the fact they cannot out grow their beginning, I have earned the special right to call them my baby for their life. They have grudgingly accepted this right and no longer try to correct me. ;D)

Growing Up

I am writing this to the little boy who is standing in front of me shrieking. This is a new stage in your life and one that is not a favorite by any means. I know that right now you do not understand that you screaming at me will not make me change my mind. I realize that you do not agree with me right now and you cannot differentiate between that and me which is why you are screaming. "I don't like you." I am glad you have not learned the hate word yet because I am quite certain you would hurl that instead as you learn to express your feelings. I realize that is how mad you are right now. I also know this tantrum will not last long and you will say, "Sorry, Mommy" and will need me to hug and cuddle you so everything once again will be right in your world. I want you to know I love you. I am making these choices for your benefit to bring you up in a Godly manner not because I want to be "mean." I will hold firm, rely on God and wait this noise out until we get to the the cuddle time and savor that moment so I can get through the next time you decide to "express" your displeasure with my decision.

Photo & Prompt Challenge: Day 23

How did you come up with the name for your blog?


Since the birth of our first child, I have slowly been out numbered by males in my house. In the beginning, we had two female dogs and a host of other animals (think reptile variety here, snakes, bearded dragons, frogs etc...) so if you count those my husband originally was just trying to keep up. I think he has this unknown huge competitive streak and wanted to make sure that the females would not dominate his household. :) We had child number 2 and while I originally wanted a girl was enthusiastic that my two boys would grow up together and have that brotherhood bond. Then by the time the third "baby" came around, I did not want a girl because having one sex is easier in so many ways, I.E. toys, hand-me-downs,1 room etc... We also no longer had dogs so I think by then we just had gotten accustomed to the boy thing. :) The fourth just confirmed we were meant to be a family of boys. 
When people comment about all my boys, my boys are quick to respond that Mommy is the girl in our household or that our house hold just does not "do" girls. Trust me we have come with quite a few one-liners to the many responses we get when we go places with "eeek" 4 BOYS!!!
I do explain a little in my profile on the side and originally was going to use the title BoysRUs but that was much more common than I thought. I guess my lack of creativity was once again showing. As my best friend, Randi, likes to tell me I am not very "fun.";p
I thought my title was a little more "fun" but when trying to find my blog I have noticed you come across a lot of sad circumstances of people being held hostage. I obviously am quite content in the male takeover of our household and just try to keep up in the vast differences of the male brain. ;P

Pants

"Mommy, can you put his pants back on?" asks Matthew. He needs me to put his transformer back together.

Cold

This morning Seth climbs on me whispering, "Cold, cold I be cold." In his cute toddler voice. Of course, I had to move the covers so he could cuddle with me. I love this cuddle time and will miss it so much when he grows up.

Photo & Prompt Challenge: Day 4

An Experience That Made Me Who I Am Today
I can think of so many things that have shaped me. I think the biggest thing was...

I married at the ripe old age of 19. I was a teenage bride and have felt like I had so much to prove for so long. I am finally growing out of that feeling but it has taken a long time and is a gradual process.

Photo & Prompt Challenge: Day 3

Photo & Prompt Challenge: Day 3

My Favorite Shows

If you know me, you know I am not a TV person. It took us almost a year to hook up a TV in our house. We had a new flat screen for almost 2 months before my husband took it upon himself to put it together. It just is not a priority to me. With that said, I do watch it when I am folding clothes or late at night when I cannot focus but for some reason cannot sleep. Thankfully there is Hulu that will catch some shows and let me watch them later. Sometimes much later. Shows that I like are crime/forensic or medical based. Here are a few...

Photo & Prompt Challenge: Day 2

The People That Make you World go Round

These funny guys right here are my world. I actually started this blog to keep some kind of document about our lives that my children could look back on. I stink at baby books and never actually bought any after the one for my first child never was used. I hope someday they will appriecate the effort. The other people I do not have a picture of right now is my parents. I grew up in a solid family. We had our problems but very stable. I love my family and know they would do anything for us. My MIL is above average too! J/K Somehow I was very lucky in that area as well. She definately tries her best to keep our family running smoothly. I am very blessed and could go on....

Photo & Prompt Challenge: Day 1

It's Gravy, Baby! is hosting a fun 31 day challenge for bloggers to post answers to different questions about themselves. I can't promise I'll remember to participate everyday, but I thought it sounded like fun and maybe I am being prodded into it a bit. Since I do not want to Day 4 quite yet I figured I would "catch-up" over the weekend!

So here goes.. A Photo of Yourself and 10 Facts!

Not the best one but one I could find quickly. This was taken during our trip to Maryland over Christmas in front of the Native American portion of the Smithsonian. Don't let my son's expressions fool you either they had a great time they just wanted to play on the structure not take a picture. :)

Ten Facts

1. I am 30. My husband tells me I am now old. I remind him he is older but he has to tease me I am not young anymore just old. 

2. My dad was the one who married my husband and I.

3. I was married and had my first kid before I could legally drink. Yup, we did not serve alcohol at our wedding and for the first year and a half I could not go on a beer run for my husband. Funny thing, my dad would forget constantly and ask me to go get wine occasionally to go with dinner forgetting his married teenage daughter could not buy it. 

4. Funnier thing I do not even drink beer or wine.

5. I will not drink wine because a) I hate the taste. (My nose is literally curling as I write this) b) The stuff makes me nauseous. (Something to do with the way it is fermented is the best guess I have.)

6. I will not eat mushrooms. I used to love them but having to drink medicine to throw them up to make sure that you did not ingest poisoned wild mushrooms and then charcoal to settle your stomach down turns a 5-year-old love into something to be avoided at least the sight of them no longer makes me nauseous.


7. I used to strive to be an "ideal" family and now I rebel against it. We have 4 boys and no we are not trying for a girl. 


8. We live in a small 2 bedroom house with those 4 boys and for the time being I am not interested in moving into a larger house.


9. I am scared of birds. It does not really matter the type. I am scared of the little ones and terrified of the big ones. I'll blog about the story some day.


10. I would just like to say it is much easier to write about my boys.  I wanted to be a nurse growing up, changed my mind to a doctor, changed again to an accountant, changed it yet again back to a nurse. I am now currently in the process of getting everything ready to start in the summer to finally "grow up."

The Pukies

The pukies are different than having the sickies by, you guessed it, the mounds of regurgitated food coming up. At one point it was a tasty eatable morsel, (or at least you hope it was eatable you never know with my kids) now it can smell up the room in less than 10 seconds making you wish you had not eaten for the day or maybe the week! This is being posted about because we now have 2 children sick with the pukies. It has already cycled through one and now we are on to the second. I am really hoping that no one else gets it.
The first happened while we were waiting for my MIL who was in DMV. Of course we were waiting outside in the van and my child threw up all over the van.
Super!!
The night before the older kid's Science Fair. Thankfully my parents stepped in and ended up doing the entire Science Project with both kids. Thanks Dad and Mom!! I left the sick child home and loaded up the other ones. We went to the Book Fair first (Yes, busy week at the school) and then headed over to the Science Fair. We brought their projects out, set them up, signed in, collected their T-Shirts and then just as I was making the rounds through the different vendors (Our Science Fair is a combo Science/Vendor Fair) my youngest started puking!
Super!!
Thankfully my best friend was there with her mostly empty cup to let my child puke into! There was only a little on the floor and us. I feel a little seasoned as a mother when I am actually quite grateful I only had a small amount of puke on me and the little one was not too bad either. Oh, and I actually just put clean clothes in the diaper bag two days ago so I was able to change him immediately. The small things I tell you, it is about the small things!

Proud Moments!

LONG STORY-If you want the whole story ie the girl story read this version if you want the nitty gritty details or the guy version scroll on down to the Short Story. :)
Yesterday was a long day. It started off with me leaving the house before 8:00 in the morning with 4 boys in tow (not planned but the littles woke up and wanted to go, as always.) I went by the gas station so I would be able to take Erik to his mandatory writing test that was out in some part of town I have never been to before. As I am leaving the house, I thought I should go back and get the paper so I will have the address just in case. Then I thought, eh I'll be fine. I looked on Mapquest. It is right off Fair Oaks and I am already running late; I just need to go. After driving up and down Fair Oaks 4 times and calling everybody I could think of who might have an idea of where this place was because nobody was answering their phone and 20 minutes of sheer panic, I found the testing site. (Note to self, next time just take the 30 seconds to go back and grab the paper!!!) Now mind you I could not sleep well the night before so I am going on about 4 hours of broken sleep. I then had to drop Jeremiah off for his classes and go to my MIL's to clean. Since I did not want to drive all the way out there again to pick up Erik just to come back and then drive way out there again to take my MIL to Winco, (same general way out there.) I woke up my MIL so I could take her to Winco after I picked up Erik to cut down on gas usage. Now if you know my MIL, you know she is NOT a morning person. I might have woke her up at 9:15am so that I would not have to make that extra trip all the way out there(Are you noticing a theme, yet? Add in I do not not even kind of like driving!). Actually my son woke her up, quite persistently too!! He told her she had to wake up and opened her blinds so the sun would come in thereby forcing her to get up. :) He does all this in such a charming way that you can not get mad at him even when you really want too! Just as we are ready to walk out the door, Taggy pees through his diaper. In his defense his diaper was on crooked and going up his "crack" but really? of all the the timing. UGH!! And of course there is not an extra outfit in the van. Just Great! I called my mom and thankfully she has extra clothes so instead of driving to go pick up my child I am now driving in the opposite direction to my parents house so I can put some pants back on the baby. I am so glad they live so close to my MIL much closer than driving all the way back to my house. As I am driving to my parents house, I get a call from my son informing me that he is done with his test early and to come pick him up. I apologize profusely and let him know he is going to have to wait because of the said earlier incident. He takes it really well and waits patiently for me to come get him. He is very understanding when I finally get there even though I am 20 minutes late picking him up and he is the next to the last kid there. We travel onto Winco and within 5 minutes of being in the store my MIL offers to pay for coffee if I am willing to go get it since she is exhausted and she could tell I was as well. (Like I would ever turn coffee down!) I went to the nearest Starbucks and get coffee for Linda and I and hot chocolate for the kids. Taggy finished his drink before we even left Starbucks! I then took the rest of the drinks back to the store and passed them out. Matthew did not have his drink for even 5 minutes before he dropped his cup thereby spilling all his Hot Chocolate all over the floor. Poor guy, he did not even get to take one sip of it before BLAM! all over the ground. As one could expect, he was quite distressed over the incident and while voicing this profound disappointment not too loud yet but working his way there Erik rushes over without any kind of prompting and tell his brother he can have his chocolate milk. I can not even begin to express how proud I was of my son right then. (My heart was bursting a little OK a lot) I could not believe that he so unselfishly gave up his treat just to help his little brother feel better. He did not offer to share his treat with him but instead gave up his entire drink to help sooth his brother's feelings. It's time for a big AWWWW and a How Sweet! (It is moments like these that I treasure!) Now if you are still reading then feel free to skip the next part since its just the facts not all the details leading up to this treasured moment!


SHORT STORY-My MIL sent me to go get coffee while we were grocery shopping. I came back and not even 5 minutes late Matthew spilled all his hot chocolate on the ground! As Matthew stood there working up to a full blown howl my oldest rushed over and told Matthew he could have his chocolate milk. Nobody asked him to do this; he just saw how upset his brother was and wanted to make him to feel better. I can not even begin to express how proud I was of this thoughtful gesture of kindness.

Healthy Eats

I was reading a blog today about someone's commitment to eating healthier in the new year. (She is a fellow couponer actually she is a much better couponer that I.)  In her blog, she commented on something I noticed. Quite a few of the coupons that are out there are for processed, with not much in the way of nutritional value  type of foods. I can think of quite a few and while I do see coupons for eggs, milk and other healthier products they are not the majority by any means.
Now, I have always read labels and added vegetables whenever possible but I did rely on hamburger helper and other such products for the base of my cooking. I would start dinner with one of these products then add some pasta to stretch it and about a pound to two pounds of vegetables. It was easy and I felt like I was making sure I got my kids veggies in for the meal. I still felt they were getting too much sodium and was not content with the quality of the meals but they were easy so I kept on and tried to get a real home cooked meal in from time to time when I had some days off.
About six months ago, I decided to start trying to cook from scratch. I have found that cooking from scratch suits my personality (the whole control issue) and does not take much more time than the way I previously cooked. It has only taken a few minor tweaks here and there. I have always prepared 2 or more meals at a time so I can have leftovers for lunch the next day or freeze it for a meal later on in the month. (This is how I stay sane at the dinner hour.) In my down time, while cooking up the meals for the week, I make up whatever mixes I am getting low on. I started by making our seasoning mixes. I have made up Taco Seasoning (without salt) and use this for both Taco Seasoning and Sloppy Joe seasoning. I have found recipes for biscuit mix, pancake mix, muffin mixes etc. and now I rely on these instead of the mixes you buy at the store. I also started making our bread (unless it is free or really, really cheap!) We have a bread machine which I use to make the dough and then I put it in the oven after the kids go to bed and I have fresh bread for the morning.
I still do not make everything from scratch. It is a process and one I will not stress about since my life is already hectic enough and I still keep easy to fix food around my house. Tonight for instance, we had pizza: Free French Bread, Spaghetti Sauce (I admit from a can. Still working on that one too.) Cheddar and Jack Cheese and Pepperoni. Normally I would make pizza dough but the bread was free and from a local bakery. I figure that is still better than popping in a frozen pizza or three since that is how much it takes to feed our family and quite a bit cheaper too.
It costs me less than 25 cents to make a loaf of bread. I still buy some mixes (pie crust, pizza crust) but I am gradually buying less of those and just keep the ingredients on hand. I feel like I am making our nutrition more of a priority without becoming too obsessive. It also helps that my plate is already flowing over with all the other things on it but small subtle changes make an impact in the long run and that is my goal over time we will become a more health contentious family without ruining our food budget. :)

The things Boys say...

I am listening to my boys chatter this morning and not commenting. (Yes, this is normal unless it is something big I try to let my non-caffeinated brain take it easy. After the caffeine takes time to kick in, I am much more willing to participate.) My mind is functioning enough to notice that my children have talked about guns, bombs/grenades, farting, burping and other boy fascinating topics more in half an hour than I remember doing in a week as a child. Even then I think those conversations were led by boys/dad! I think they talked about gas for 10 minutes and were not just mindlessly repeating themselves either! Now do you still wonder why I give my brain a break in the morning until I am fully functioning! I find these creatures that I am raising oddly fascinating and humorous (at times) in a weirdly disturbing sort of way. I cannot fathom the thought process and am beginning to give up trying and think that it will be something I embrace while never understanding kind of like brain surgery although I think I have better hopes at that then understanding the workings of the male brains living in this house!

Happy ?th Anniversary!

Depending who you ask will depend the answer you get. Erik wrote us cards that said "Happy 10th Anniversary!" My husband convinced his mom that it is our 13th. Someone asked if it was our 9th. My mother got it right after she thought about it for a few minutes. (I think she has the worst memory out of all the people that asked us too!) It seemed like nobody remembered. Thankfully my husband knew!! Now I know we have been married a little while but really? It is pretty easy to remember. We were married in early 2000 so the year we are in is almost always the years we have been married. (I. E. 2011 = 11 years) I am not expecting everyone to know but most of the people that asked were people who were in our wedding!

Breakfast in Bed (Almost)

My husband woke up to my oldest in the kitchen yesterday. As he was trying to figure out what was going on, Erik surprised him with trays made up so we could have breakfast in bed. It was so sweet!! On my plate was pancakes, a Greek yogurt, and, of course, coffee. On my other's plate was pancakes, yogurt and a Mountain Dew! Yup, soda for breakfast. It's the drink of champions! (We were out of milk and the only kind of coffee my husband drinks are iced espresso drinks so Erik did not know what else to give him.) My husband thought it was hysterical and said, "Well if you compare the caffeine count, it is probably pretty close. I love my husband's sense of humor! Erik also had two cards made up that were taped to the trays (Cookie sheets but I love the ingenuity!) The other boys also surprised us with anniversary cards. Jeremiah drew us a Lego man. Erik helped Seth draw and color a choo-choo. (What else?) Matthew had a lovely colorful picture with a changing verbal story of what the picture was about!

Happy Anniversary!

We through God's infinite grace are celebrating 11 years of marriage! I am excited and a bit surprised about how fast time has seem to go by. The funniest thing is that the person this post is most meant for will probably never see it but here's to hoping. Love You Brad!!

4-year-oldism

After almost coming to blows over whose Mommy I was, Matthew offered a solution, "How about this Taggy?
Mommy is your Mommy and Mammah (my mother) can be my Mommy. Is that okay?"

Stinky Times!

We have had a skunk living under our house for a few months, maybe a year. We have never encountered it so we did not really do anything about it. It is easy to forget about creatures under your house when you are only presented with a smell from time to time that dissipated within a few hours. We have also seen an opossum taking advantage of the lack of screen on a few of our vents too. It has been on our to do list but somehow we never got around to it. That has now changed.

Since we have been home, my husband encountered it 3 times in less than a week so a mission was campaigned to take care of the skunk before our children were sprayed. He picked up a trap from his grandparents house and last night he and Erik set it.

Within a few hours Erik heard it go off and got his dad.

YUP, they caught it.

UHHH, now what?

Turns out Brad thought he would have a few days to figure out what to do when he caught the skunk not a few hours. We scoured online what to do and started trying to get hold of people we knew with trucks to relocate it.

BTW You are not allowed to have a pet skunk in the state of California although they are considered good pets. It is recommended to remover the scent sacs. Gee, I wonder why? (Useless information found on the web when trying to figure out what to do.)

In the morning, my husband called animal control and they sent someone out to us on a urgent call. (They came in the afternoon so obviously not that urgent.)

If you were wondering, skunks are not considered threatened or endangered in California so Animal Control shot(Yes, with a gun!) the skunk in our backyard which causes the muscles in a certain area to relax and this is now causing our house to stink, especially in the bathroom. I am unable to blame any of the males members that currently reside here although they stink it up frequently too.

Just for the record, I never laid any claim on the skunk however my kids are another story...

Erik had preference to relocating it.

Matthew: "Animal control is not very nice since they shot our skunk."

ADD/Mom Conversations

My husband told me today (and not for the first time either) that I am going to give him ADD since he can not follow me when I hold multiple conversations with him at the same time. I did not even notice until he pointed it out since I do this with my friends all the time. How else are moms supposed to communicate?

Here is how it goes:
Mom1-"Did you hear that so and so is having a baby? No, baby don't eat that off the ground. Ugh! He thinks he can eat anything, no matter what!"
Mom 2- No, I didn't. I bet she is excited! Thats okay mine does it all the time, too.
Mom1-"Yeah she can't wait! I know but I have preference to him not eating off the ground especially at Target. Oh did you know Target is having a sale on diapers?"
Mom 2-"How long have they been trying for? Eww! Mine completely grossed me out the other day when she picked something off the street and put it in her mouth before I could stop her. How good of a sale?"

and so it goes on while 4+ children are running around clammering for our attention as well as whatever other distractions there are pets, strollers, cashiers just to name a few. Mind you I did not put the actions in the dialog since that would make the post very long!

BTW-We also text this way which does cause confusion at times but for the most part is quite easy to understand unless you are a guy and then we might give you ADD since we can not seem to stay on the same topic!

My Other

I have been realizing that I do not praise my Other enough. He helps out significantly around the house especially when he can tell I am getting grumpy.

Now, I know you are saying who her NEVER!

Try not to spit your coffee (soda, for you Randi) at the computer from laughing so hard!

Lets just recap the day as one of those days and then right after we came home and I was deciding what to make for dinner since what was planned (Yes, I plan my meals out and for a month at a time too!) would not work and the back up plan was eaten the night before....

THE POWER WENT OUT!!

Great! I was deciding whether or not to make a chef salad since I din't really want to chop a bunch of stuff up, and I was hearing these whining noises about what else we were going to have for dinner because we couldn't just have salad and... Let me tell you again if you didn't catch it the first time...

THE POWER WENT OUT!!

Well, now we are definitely having chef salad since I now do not have a microwave, oven, stove or anything else that needs electricity. (For the record my stove and oven are gas but it takes electricity to light them and I am sure not volunteering to stick my hand down there to light it!)

Now I can go on for days about how annoying 4 boys are when they find out that something that they always rely on is no longer working. The two oldest had to flip the lights switches about 10 times each to make sure that indeed the lights were not working and not just 1 light switch because that would only be mildly annoying but every light switch in the ENTIRE house or at least they would have if I didn't stop them after the 4th one. Then the bazillion questions started and this was after Daddy showed them a cool way to get the flashlight to work even though we only had 1 D battery instead of the two we needed. (Yes, D batteries are going on the shopping list.) He took a C battery and some quarters and VIOLA we had light! Enough light to chop vegetables at least. Then we had to have a safety talk about fire since after we lit a few candles. (The free candles from Target came in handy tonight!) During this time Taggy decided the best place to be was in my arms (Really are you surprised?) and was not happy that I set him on the counter beside me but settled for that when he found out his other option was to be placed back on the ground. The nice part was Jeremiah and Matthew now wanted to be right by me and helped out by washing the salad fixings until there was no more items to be washed and then Matthew grabbed my butcher knife to help me finish cutting up the celery. Then we had to have another safety talk. (Side note we had not been home for even half an hour by this point.)

Speed forward... After I finished assembling dinner and was ready to bring it to the table, the Power came back on! Do not get me wrong I was very grateful for it because I would not have been able to eat dinner if it did not, (I have this weird thing about having to see the food I put in my mouth.) but I was a little frustrated I could not use the food processor to make my job of chopping a little easier.

Speed forward... Our family is now eating dinner and we have made rules about no extra bodily noises at the table (You should have seen that one coming after all we do have 4 boys!) and tonight we had to include laughing. Not the normal giggle or chuckle or even laugh but the food coming out of your mouth because you are hysterically laughing about something mildly amusing your dad says. (He gets it from me since I do this especially when I am tired so I know I shouldn't complain but EWWW!)

Speed forward... The whole point of the story, I know you are thinking FINALLY but I did speed through quite a bit of it so Brad sent me out of the house to have some time to myself to regroup while he put the boys to bed. The hardest part of the day he went ahead and took care of so I could get a break for a bit. I came back much more relaxed especially since my house wass quiet and reasonably picked up or maybe it was the chocolate chip cookies I bought YUMMY either way wasn't it sweet!

Thanks Honey, one of the many reason why I LOVE YOU!

Couponing

I have a new hobby that I have not blogged about but have talked about many times. I am a couponer and I love it so I will probably be posting quite a bit more on some of the deals I am able to find. I am not extreme by any stretch of the imagination. For all of those of you who caught the "Extreme Couponing" episode on TLC, I am not anywhere close to that. I have purchased quite a few really good deals one of them being last night. I also was able to buy about 50lbs of hamburger meat for $51. I saved so much a manger had to come by and override the register. Also, I was able to get 6 12packs of soda for $10 plus CRV and received a snickers and a small bag of peanut butter cups for free. I am not a huge soda person but my husband is. Unfortunately, I was not able to do much more than that since the store was wiped out but I received rain checks and plan to go back! Couponing has allowed us to budget our food and household items (cleaning products, hygiene items plus diapers and wipes) for our family of six for consistently under $300 usually $250 a month and that is with stocking my freezer to the bursting point and donating items to people in need. I know if I was more consistent I could lower that amount but there is a trade off between time and money. Also, I easily reach burnout since our family already seems to be so busy. I treat it as a hobby and my husband will tell you I am addicted to saving (or the endorphin rush it brings!) but then I also noticed he does not complain when I buy him products he enjoys especially the ones that were previously out of our budget!
On a side note, from the same blogs I use to coupon, I went to Old Navy last night and scored 3 pairs of jeans/pants for me for under $5.00 each, a shirt for $1.57, a fleece pull over for Jeremiah for $2.97, fleece hats for the kids for $0.57, and more!! My couponing habits are definitely here to stay!!

We are Back!

Our vacation in Maryland was wonderful mostly due to the awesome hospitality my brother and sister-in-law extended to our family. We took trips to D.C. My husband and I were able to go out to dinner at a tasty Indian food restaurant childless. The holidays were fun even New Years which we normally do not really celebrate. My brother cooked 3 different kinds of New Years food all of which were delicious. I cannot begin to describe all the experiences my family was able to enjoy. I will try to do a more detailed post later but since we arrived home we have been jam packed with obligations. It seems that quite a few things were pushed off to be completed when we came back so now my husband and I are rushing around playing catch up. Even now I am checking the clock to make sure I get to my next appointment on time so I am off!