When You're Out With Only 1

Funniest thing happened to us this weekend when out house hunting. We gave the 3 older kids to my Mom. Took Mia with us. Went to Olive Garden where everyone ooh'd and awe'd at her. Then we started having people say things to us like she was our only child. "She's so cute, just wait till she gets older, then they're a handful!" "Aww! She's adorable. I've got 3 myself." Mia started crying, then I got some advice. "Aww! Maybe she has gas? Have you burped her? Poor thing!" There was a few more instances too it was so funny! Dave finally said "man people sure treat you different when you only have 1!" We never told anyone we actually had 4 and just let them all believe she was our only child. lol

I did not take any pictures this weekend! I can't believe that! But I do have a few things I can show. My Dad bought these AWFUL looking sandels for Dominic in Corpus Christi, TX and I just want to throw them away!!! UGH! Dominic LOVES them. Help!!! Help!! Help!!!!! And what are they supposed to be?!?! They are the freakiest looking things ever!

Then our Birdie laid one more egg! And then she watched me in our tree above as I took the shot.

BBQ's Are For the Birds

Hey! Remember this post??? Well lookie what we have going on again! This will be the 2nd summer we haven't been able to BBQ. I have already told Dave that we are buying new grill there is just no way I'm using it after this has happened 2 years in a freakin row!!! And just so you know, we decided this year not to clean out the grill when this started because we weren't going to use it anymore after last year. Life is precious and Dave and I would never do anything to this bird's soon to be babies. So look for updates because we should have some new babies here soon!!!

See the Grass hanging out the bottom there?

Count them! 4 Little Eggs!
Can you believe 2 days ago there was only 1?
Proud, Smart Mommy to be finding the best nesting spot of all. A BBQ Grill.

How to Sell a House with Small Kids.

Well our house will have it's 3rd private showing in less than a week today. That's one more than our house had last time when it was for sale for 3 months!!! I was pretty positive our house would sell this time around and it's looking like I was right. There's more people driving by, more people during our open house, etc. More Interest. We have STILL not went house hunting yet. There's a certain area we'd like to live in on the golf course out of town. It's just a few minutes out so running to Sams, Walmart or Super Target would be easy. Things I don't like about the area is you can hear highway traffic and the yards are so tiny!! I'm assuming they think that the swimming pools and playgrounds in the area make up for it but crap! The kids toys will probably take up a majority of the backyard of one of these houses. There's about 10 or so for sale on the course it's just finding one we like and finding time to look with our busy schedule.

Selling a house with small kids sucks. It's hard and I find myself screaming at them to sit down and watch TV so I can finish what I'm doing. That's sad but everything I clean is destroyed in a matter of minutes. Alex and Dominic are not digging this selling the house thing at all because I have their rooms perfect and they know they can't dirty them. At all. For any reason. After this experience I should write a book on how to sell a house with kids. I've learned some tactics I could pass on, one's called clean a room and lock the door even the bathroom. This has helped alot. Alex likes the cleaning up toys with Rubbermaid containters tactic. She likes to organize like Mommy. Another tactic, www.nickjr.com This keeps Dominic zoned for a few hours so I can clean. And my favorite tactic of all, The Crib. (sigh) If these don't help my best suggestion for the stay at home mom is to find a sitter. LOL

My Lady. My Lord.

We heard the saying My Lady, My Lord way too much today!! We ventured to the Renaissance Festival and it was alot of fun! Dominic met his idol Jack Sparrow. It was cute seeing him peeking around Daddy at him. Mia was tucked away under blankets we formed into a tent in the double stroller because it was so windy. Poor kid would get hit with the wind then be gasping for air!!! I am officially burnt to a crisp though! Sorry the pics aren't the best! I forgot my camera so I had to use my camera phone!

Gold from a pirate!
Heavy Metal Combat!!

Alex the Hatchet Thrower!!
Dominic was sooooo happy to meet Jack and hold his gun!!

Alex was happy to meet Jack Sparrow too!!
Mean Barbarian....Grrrrrr!
Drunk Pirates singing some Pirate songs
More battles
Petting the Knights horse

Getting ready to Joust
The winner!

Did they have moonwalks back in the Renaissance Era? lol

I haven't posted much really because I don't have much to say! The Virginia Tech shootings has made my mind just race the past few days. I posted a tribute video above it's just so sad. I can't imagine having your child enrolled in school which is ultimately the "safest place" for them and then to receive a phone call saying they were shot in class. I've thought alot about what a sick world we live in that we have other kids in highschool believing they can out do this sicko. Because of all this, I've thought maybe homeschooling doesn't sound like a bad idea after all. I thought about it when Alex was little but then went ahead and sent her to a small public school in a very small town. When we move, she'll be going to a much bigger school district in a metro type area. This now scares the living shit out of me.

This jerk used a 9MM and a 22. Back in January 1999 I came home to find my dogs who had escaped from their pen were shot. One was dumped in the country she died instantly & someone found her then called us and the other was shot twice in the neck and stomach. He had emergency surgery and lived through the ordeal. When the Dr told us he'd been shot by a 22 I about fell over. Our Dusty was 120 lbs and barely survived. Dave actually owns a 9MM so I pulled it out the other day to see what the bullets looked like. I don't know why I guess maybe to see what pain these poor kids had felt. The bullets are about 1/2 as long as my pinky and I took this picture.
Other than watching TV 24/7 about VT, not much else has been going on. It's terrible that tragedies like this are what brings the nation together. It kind of goes along with the whole Nickelback song If Everyone Cared. My heart goes out to the families though. I wish I could hug them all!

I'll Make You Want One or Another....

Ahhh.....Finally Got The House To Myself Again.

The past week was too long. Finally it's OVER. We'll start out right after Easter. Well Sunday night (the 8th) we took our truck (pictured below) to my Mothers house and left it there. We had decided to do this because every time his Mom visits she thinks that we owe her a vehicle to go running around in all day everyday and she's never here because she's out shopping or visiting her friends. It's pathetic. I've discussed this on here before because it annoys the crap out of both of us. Well when she arrived, D told her that the truck wasn't here because my mom was borrowing it since she wrecked her car. Well she did wreck her car in the ditch about 100 feet from her house but she didn't need to borrow the truck because they have another vehicle and her dh has a motorcycle. Well the next day she asks where the truck is and I tell her again. There was nothing else said about it after that except when I would over hear her on the phone telling D's aunt that "Sabrina's mom has the truck still." She had his aunt come pick her up on the 10th and the 11th and 12th she used his aunt's SUV. lol Her friend took her to her house to stay the night on the 14th. Finally my mom was getting anxious over the whole deal so I picked up the truck on the 15th with Dave around 10 PM. By noon Monday she was asking me for the key. Well....... lol We KNEW she would right away after the truck was back so D when shifting his work truck and our truck around that nigt he deliberately left my key in his work truck. That morning I hear her on the phone with D's aunt saying "oh thats ok I've got the truck." So noon she asks me for the key. I act stupid looking around and such and say "D must have left it in his truck because I don't have it." So she had D's aunt come get her for the day. Well he decided on Monday night before going to bed he'd leave the key in the kitchen since he didn't want to look like we were trying to keep the truck from her. I didn't know. By noon yesterday she was ready to go and said she was leaving. I thought someone was coming to get her but then I heard the truck start. She said she was going to Walmart at 12:30. By 3:45 D's home calling his aunts house to see if she's there because she wanted to go out and eat with us but I told her it'd have to be at 4 since our kid's have Gymnastics at 6 PM. She finally arrives at 4:10 and by the way his aunt lives 8 minutes from my house. We barely got to the YMCA on time. By 9 PM she had to "go get cigs" and left but actually came right back. It was a miracle! lol

She was so bored staying here the whole week and not being able to run around whenever she wanted. You could just sense her bordeom. The whole time she would complain about her back or her arms, legs and everything else because of her arthritis. She thinks Kansas weather is what makes her pain so bad so she complains about it constantly. Our kids are wild when all together and she was constantly saying "Alex that's not nice" or "Stop! Dominic stop!" or "No No" to Damien. I thought it was great and maybe she'll realize 1 week or less is about all she's going to want to put up with at our house. I will encourage them to be more rotten next time.

She did her best to inform my kids of things they really don't need to know at this age such as starving children in Africa. "Eat your food. you know there's kids in other countries who die because they don't get food from their mommy and daddy."

Another little mishap, Damien had his Early Intervention meeting last Monday which I posted about below. We came home to D's mom, in the kitchen, in her PJ's at 11 am, chatting on the phone with NO TEETH!!! I couldn't believe it. Dave had told me awhile back that she had all her teeth taken out because they were bad since she hadn't been to the dentist in like 10-20 years. It was sick. Seriously disgusting. And the funniest part was that I went straight in the front room with Mia and she was trying to pick up Damien and he started crying and took off running to his room. It was absolutely horrifying and I don't blame the lil boy one bit!!!!!!!!

I also discovered she was using one of the kids cups from Applebees as her denture cup. When she stayed the night at her friend's on Saturday, I threw the damn thing away so it wouldn't end back in the kitchen. NASTY!

In all, it was quite the week and I'm glad it's over. You know I love the woman but her moving in for 1-2 weeks puts a HUGE strain on Dave and I. If I've never said it on this blog, Dave and I never fight and we get along great all the time. BUT when his parents show up, all hell breaks loose and I end up resenting Dave because of his mom. The kids love her and played with her the whole time she was hear but she was constantly telling them about her bones and how they hurt. They don't understand Uncle Arthur so of course they aren't going to be gentle. They want to jump on you and give big hugs not little dinky ones.

I will add that by reading some of this, you may think D's mom is old. She's not in fact she's not even 50 years old yet. She has let herself go and it's sad. I've known her since she was about 35. Smoking is bad is all I can say. You'd think her dad died from emphasema and that would keep you from smoking but hasn't. By looking at her, you'd think she was 10 years older the way her skin on her face looks. I've seen pictures of her when she was young and she reminds me alot of Maria off of West Side Story. Very pretty. Anyways, I wish they would just move back. Things would be alot less stressful for us and the kids might actually get to know more about their grandparents instead of just visiting with them twice a year.

Innocence

OK Should I be concerned that Alex just loves to dance and chant out Gwen's Stefani's verse on Whatcha Waiting For "Take A Chance You Stupid Ho." She's going to be the next Don Imus. lol

What about a note I found in her room saying My Boyfriend Is Devin.

More Snow = More Fun.

Daddy, Momma, Damien, Mia, Alex, and Dominc Snowmen

Damien, Mia, Alexzandra, and Dominic Snowkids

Hello.

Well just a quick update since I won't be on much. (MIL visit) Things other than that are going great! I am just so happy with everything, the kids, Dave, life. Now I just need my house to sell!! Miss Mia is really showing her age now. She is so smiley and giggles just a little when I make funky faces at her. Damien is onry as ever but you can't help but laugh at him. He is such a clown. I have a video I made on my camera phone of him saying Ha Ha like the bully on The Simpsons. He cracks us up. He is one happy little guy. I took him in today and had him evaluated. They did a Denver II test on him. His speech is so far off the charts (behind) I agreed to have him on an IFSP. He'll be evaluated again on May 15th and on the 23rd of this month his Speech Therapist will come over for our first visit. I had Dominic's IEP meeting the other day as well and he will be receiving services too. I'll post more of that on his blog later.

Last night we went food shopping for a hour and a half without the kids. Boy was that different! We put them all in bed and left at 9 PM. Dave's mom was here just so you know we didn't leav them here alone. HAHA. We ran into a friend of ours Nicole from highschool who has 4 boys. It was hilarious. She said "Wow! You guys got a date night! How'd you pull that off?" LMAO Very comical. I asked where her crew was and she said their daddy was watching them so she could get some alone time and some grocerries. Nicole and I really had the Stay at home mom look going on because we both had Yoga pants and baggy T's on from working out in the gym earlier. LOL Luckily we both know we don't normally look like that!! Boy how things have changed in the 12 years since I graduated highschool. Back then, we would have never been caught dead scoping out reduced produce and meat at the grocerry store let alone use coupons!!

He Is Risen!

Getting ready for a "Quiet" Brownie Egg Hunt in the library!

Easter Twister!

She's out.

Hunting for Eggs at the RacePark.

Group Easter shot before Church

He just hates me taking his picture. He can't even smile at me. lol

Our egg-citing (lol) Easter has finally came to a close this Monday morning. The kids are back in school, hooray! We spent Saturday at our racepark at their huge egg hunt. The kids had a blast! They picked up a few hundred eggs, and got a whole bag full of candy. Mia screamed the whole time. I think she just didn't like being bundled under blankets since it was 40 degrees out! This weather sucks right now! After that we went to the mall and found that our mall didn't have an Easter Bunny this year!! Oh I was so mad!! There was a photographer out there though who was taking Easter shots and he took a family shot of us. I can't wait to see how it comes out. He told me he'll probably have to photoshop! LMAO!! It was hard!! Then we went to Dave's aunt's house and ate dinner and the kids had an egg hunt. We went to pick up some Easter gifts for them and left them there to color eggs.

They were excited when they saw their baskets Easter morning. We spent $60 this year on all 4 so that wasn't bad. We decided no toys though except tiny ones so the boys each got Thomas DVD's with a train in them and Alex got another Laurie Berkner CD. They all got bubble bath and candy. Mia got $5 in her eggs. lol She's still too hard to buy for at the moment. Alex also got an extra dollar from the tooth fairy!! She was so excited about all this new money in her eggs and under her pillow. Then we went to church with my dad and his wife. Yes I said CHURCH!! Dave and I decided Easter was the perfect day to go. The last time I went to church was when Alex was about a month old! So now I know all about the drama of leaving a kid in a nursery because Damien was NOT having it. He screamed and cried and flipped out big time! We ended up with all 4 kids with us. Damien held down on our laps whining to get down and Dominic on the floor playing with trains trying to escape under the pews and of course the girls were great! UGH! Oh well. My stepmom thought they did great for their first time. Obviously she was trying to make me feel better!! Then we all went out to eat at Sirloin Stockade where Damien rocked his chair and fell backwards into a man, spilt a Mountain Dew all over the table and flung mashed potatoes everywhere! Dominic wanted to go under the table and play. They all ate great though so I have to be happy with that. Dave and I chose buffet since it goes alot easier with the kids. Again Dad and Karen thought the kids did great. After that we went home and the kids all took about a 3 hour nap! That was heaven. Then we went back to my dads and then to my mothers to end the evening. I even got the kids to bed at 8:30! Overall it was a great day!


This week will be busy starting with Dave's mother coming in for the next week from AZ. Wish me luck. I'm sure you'll all be hearing about it in a week. :)