Mary Kate may have a future in Mary Kay

After dinner tonight we were all sitting in the family room watching The Flintstones movie. Mary Kate was sitting very quietly on my lap (well actually it was more like lying alongside my hip). It wasn't until I looked over at her that I saw what was keeping her quiet.
It was most definitely a picture moment. Thankfully, the camera was charged and hubby was able to find it.

Biden's job description according to Riley

Riley: Mom I know what a Vice President does
Me: What's that Riley?
Riley: Well if Obama is sick then the Vice President fills in. Kinda like a princess filling in for a queen.

This is one of the reasons I enjoy taking Ri to do errands on the weekends. You just never know what he's going to say :)

Add "shoe sales" to my job description

This Summer the kids have been earning quarters for doing different chores and as a way for us to recognize respectful behavior towards their siblings and (more importantly) me. It has been working pretty well. There are times when they have to pay me (yeah), if the warnings have been given and the negative behavior continues. When they start paying Mom miracles begin to take place, their behaviors improve dramatically.

So we've been chugging along giving and taking quarters for a few weeks now and all the while I've been tripping over shoes. Shoes? Yes, shoes. Not sure of what the change has been, but all of a sudden the kids have stopped putting their shoes away. It really isn't a difficult task. We pull the van into the garage and right there in front of us is a shoe rack on the door as we enter the house. Pretty straight forward - shoes off, hang them up, close door, done!

So now the new rule is if Mom (that's me) or Dad find the shoes, we will take them away and in order for them to get them back they have to buy them from us. Yesterday, we were getting ready to leave for an afternoon at some friends house when I noticed Andrew walking around frantically looking for his shoes. Cha-Ching! Pay up buddy. A quarter a shoe and momma just made 50 cents!

Do ya think this is a taxable income?

Would someone please tell my daughter she's a girl

I knew it would be tough raising a little girl to be girlie when she has 4 older brothers, but some days I wish I could go back to the times when she would let me put the frilly dress of my choosing on her. The day usually begins with her removing her pj's and putting on whatever pj's of her brothers that she finds laying around...

Then once the boys are off at school or camp, she likes to raid their rooms for a little change of clothes. Most recently that entailed going into Andrew's baseball basket and putting on his baseball socks to have with her morning cup of yogurt....

At least I got her past the stage of wearing Andrew's football cup all the time (can't find the picture of that one) and of putting Simon's pull-up over her clothes...

There are many a day that I'm just thankful she's wearing something, because she'd certainly prefer to live in her birthday suit. Why be restrained by clothes?

I think the picture that most accurately captures my little girlie-girl is when she was outside swinging Easter morning with her dress flying in the air as she was grabbing her gun....

Love note from the Hubster

On Thursday mornings, the hubster is out of the house at 2:40 am to go to a Holy Hour Eucharistic Adoration, back home around 4:25 and heads straight downstairs to workout. He showers and then is off to catch an early train all before we wake up. Surprisingly, he is able to do this without waking up the house. When I woke up Thursday morning, I found a sweet thank you note on the table for him since I had made his lunch the night before. When I sat down with my laptop to have my morning coffee and catch up on emails, I was greeted by an email from my hubster with the subject line that read "Don't be freaked out but...." Oh sure, I won't freak out. What the heck, what in the world happened?? Here is the text of the email from him...

There is something living in the workout room. I was riding the bike and looked up and saw a black figure scurry across the door toward the furnace. Real nice that when in the middle of my Rosary I yell "Holy S__t!" I went to check when I was done with my workout and didn't see anything. So we should keep an eye out. I think it is probably a mouse like we have / had in the garage (might be the same one).I am catching the 5:56 train this morning.BP

Note to self, exercise isn't really THAT important! I'll be sticking to walking outdoors.

Coloring Nolan's world

Nolan loves to color. That is actually an understatement. Nolan colors every day, numerous times a day and will color anything. As you can imagine, we have a lot of crayons and with 2 younger siblings that like to break crayons we have more broken crayons than whole. The quantity of broken crayons is a problem with Nolan because he will dig through our tub-o-crayons until he finds a full size crayon in the color he needs. Nolan's addiction to crayons is actually comical. He tends to hoard crayons. He has been known to hide a box of crayons up in his top bunk away from the crayon-breakers. Hmmm, maybe I should seek out a "CHA" group for him (that's Crayon Hoarding Anonymous to you and I). Anyway, so when the pencil boxes from school were brought home and the number of broken crayons greatly increased, Nolan and I sat down to a little crafty fix to this problem. We made crayons! Not rocket science, but fun nonetheless.

We started by separating out all the broken crayons. Then we started peeling all the paper off of the broken crayons. This is somewhat tedious and great fine motor work.

Did I happen to mention that we have A LOT of crayons?

Once we had everything separated, I took an old mini-muffin pan and sprayed it lightly with Pam. If I had paper muffin cups I would have used them in addition to the pan.

We broke the crayons into smaller pieces and mixed up some of the colors. Put them in a preheated 250 degree oven. The melting time will vary. You will see there is a big difference between Crayola crayons and the cheap ones that you get from restaurants. Yes, we are "those" people that take all the crayons with us that they hand out to keep kids happy before the meal arrives.

Voila! Here is the final product. The mixing of the colors makes it fun. It would be neat to try different shapes/molds. There a few crayons that all but a small area melted, so there is still a crayon stick in the circle (as can be seen by the yellow one on the bottom left). This is because of the varying melting times. The yellow crayon must have been a Crayola!

Note, the above picture is not Nolan's normal coloring! He was just trying out all the colors and scribbling. Below is a sample of Nolan's coloring....

MK's chicken is my kitchen.

Me: "Good job getting undressed Mary Kate. Where does your pullup go?"
MK: - walks into boys room and throws it on the floor -
Me: "No Mary Kate, it goes in the trash"
MK: - surprised look - "Oh da twashhh"
Me: "Yes in the trash in the kitchen"
MK: - questioning - "In da chicken?"
Me: "In the kitchen, the trash can in the kitchen"
MK - "Oh, ok. In da chicken"

She continued to mumble "in da chicken" the whole way down the stairs.

Spaced out on Spaceballs

While the kids were eating their not-so-nutritious-artery-clogging meal from Mickey-D's, I searched the tv for something for the kids to watch. I'm looking for a somewhat peaceful night before they head off to bed. Wishful thinking, I KNOW! A woman can dream though....

Me: Ok guys, I have a hilarious movie you can watch. It's called Spaceballs.
Ri: No.... is it cartoon?
Me: No
Ri: I don't want to watch it (with a lot of WHINE)
Me: Fine, I'm going to turn it on and if you don't laugh in the next 30 minutes then I'll turn it off.

5 minutes later....

Ri: Mom are you recording this?
Me: Yes
Ri: Good!

So I won, however now that I am hearing it, I'm really beginning to rethink who won? Too many words that they kids don't need to hear ;( Why did it seem ok 20 years ago and now not so much? It's amazing how much kids change things for you...

Nolan seeking bride. Must be Amish.

Nolan - Mom, when I get married, I know where I'm going on my honeymoan (yes that's the way he said it!)
Me - Yeah, where?
Nolan - Dutch Wonderland
Andrew - Don't you think you should take her somewhere more relaxing?
Nolan - Like where?
Andrew - The beach would work.

Submerged

Saturday was a very big day for Riley. We went to a neighbors house for the afternoon to be a part of their yearly Memorial Day weekend gathering and to open the swimming season. My kids LOVE the water. Riley is probably the one that has always loved water the most, but what has always been interesting is that he has never gone all the way in the water. Ri doesn't think a hotel is worth anything unless it has a pool. Doesn't matter if it is 5x5 in size. Doesn't matter if it's indoor our outdoor. Just as long as there is a pool.


With all the love he has for pools there are somethings that he has never liked about them. Being splashed and putting his head under the water top the list. Big splash or a sprinkle of water, if he's not doing it to himself, he's not interested in it. Putting his head under the water is a NEVER! Even in the bathtub, he refused to go under the water. Showers are new within in the past few years and truth be told only because he wants to be just like Andrew. There have been many times that I've had to re-rinse his hair because he didn't like standing under the shower.


Well Saturday was a new day! The neighbors pool was packed and it was impossible to avoid the splashing, although he tried as best he could. I was at the baby pool with Mary Kate when I looked over and Riley was IN the pool up to his neck in water. WOW! I made a big deal about it, well as much as he'd allow me to without crossing the line of embarrassing him. A bit later, the hot tub was packed with a bunch of little bodies (because where else would you be on an 85 degree day, but in a 102 degree hot tub!). Riley was beginning to get a bit more daring in the hot tub and before we knew it he was completely under the water with goggles on and plugging his ears.

He was so proud of himself. When he came above water he immediately started telling me who I needed to email the picture too and then started calling people over to see him do it again and again and.... well you get the picture!

It is days like Saturday, that remind me of just how far Riley has come. His sensory processing disorder has kept him from so many things, but when he is able to learn to work through them the possibilities are endless!

Don't mess with his Mary...

...no matter how much she stinks! I took Simon and Mary Kate on some errands this afternoon and then rewarded them with a stop at a McDonald's with a play-land. There was another little group of boys around the same age that were playing there. Simon and Mary Kate were happily chasing each other throughout the play-land. About 10 minutes passed when I heard the other little boys laughing and pointing.

Simon: "HEY STOP TALKING ABOUT MY MARY!!!!"

The boys continued to laugh and point. Mary Kate was oblivious to their teasing and went on about her business of flirting with another little boy that had just shown up.

Simon: "I SAID LEAVE MY MARY ALONE, YOU ARE BULLIES!!"

OK now I figure I should see what's going on.

Me: "Simon what's wrong?"
Simon: "Mom those boys are calling Mary Kate stinky monster"
Me: "hmmm, do you think she pooped her diaper?"
Simon: "ummmm, yeah"
Me: "well I'm thinking it's time to go 'cause she is a little stinker, but those boys should have not been teasing her like that and we shouldn't make fun of people."

Now this is where I am REALLY proud of myself because when I looked up, I saw one of the younger boys in the group wearing his sisters princess shoes and I didn't say "hey Simon look at the little girly-boy". Now THAT would have been setting bad example wouldn't it?

OxyMORON

I was driving all over the Northern Virginia area today and while on my way home was stuck behind a car with the license plate that said "Vick 7". OK apparently he's a Michael Vick fan. No big deal. We are a house of Hokies and although we don't condone what he did, at a time we were fans. Maybe this drivers' license plates hadn't been up for renewal while #7 has been behind bars. Then while waiting for the light to change I realized that the below "Vick 7" was "I am animal friendly" with a little cat and dog on the side of it. Really? Must be a starving comedian.

Ummm, No Thank You Ri

Riley: "mom can I put fertilizer on you?"
Me: "no"
Few seconds later...
Me: "Ri, why do you want to put fertilizer on me?"
Riley: "so you can turn into a chicken egg and I can heat you"

Obviously, Ri is learning about the life cycle of the chicken at school. Clearly, we need teach the difference between a person and a chicken.

Simon's idea of a fun hike

Simon was getting ready to head out to preschool when I told him after school we'd be going on a hike. He got all wide-eyed (if you know Simon, you know the look well).
Me: "we can look for butterflies and flowers"
Simon: "but I want to look for snakes and lions"

I of course will be taking my camera along. I'm hoping to not come home with pictures of snakes and lions.

Ri needs to work on his photography skills

I was passing out the kids dinner tonight when Riley said he wanted to take a picture of me in his brain. He held up a an imaginary camera and gave a big "click".

Ri: "Ok, lets see you are wearing a Hokie shirt, glasses, sneakers and a little bit of pants..."
Andrew: "Ri she has her pants on, you can't just a wear a little bit of pants"

I will say that Andrew was just as shocked by Ri's photographic memory and even turned around to make sure that I was in fact wearing pants.

For the record, I was wearing a pair of capri pants.

The bad Angel made him bite his nails.

Me: "Nolan are you biting your nails again?"

N: "Yeah, I'm sorry. I'll try not to"

Me: "Good"

N: "It's just that the bad angel on my shoulder told me to and the good angel told me not to, but I listened to the bad angel"



If only we all could explain so easily why we choose to do things we shouldn't do.

Kudo's to the "A-Cups"

I went for my first mammogram today and much to my sister's dismay didn't take pictures or have a live video feed available for her comedic enjoyment. When my dear sister went for her first mammogram a few years back apparently she found it funny to imagine how it would even be possible for me to get into the boob-squishing machine and wanted to be there to see it happen. About 6 weeks ago, I felt a lump and after ignoring it for a week, I made an appointment to see my OB/GYN. It's funny I've never seen him for the "GYN", but always for the "OB" and as a matter of fact this appointment was really my 6-week postpartum check-up. I was only 2 years late :) Dr. Scott Forrest laughed and said he figured I'd just call my 6 week check-up in since I'd done it so many times before.

I would be lying if I said I wasn't nervous about the mammogram, I think it was a normal reaction and one that was mixed with many different variables. What if they "found" something? What would the future be? What if they laughed at me as they tried squishing my overly petite girls? What if it really did hurt as bad as EVERYONE told me it would? What if I really was THE smallest patient the doctor and mamo tech had ever seen (and at 5'7" I'm not talking about my height)? How would I handle any of the above scenarios?

Well today God sent Karen into my life and she was a true blessing to this nervous lady. Karen was the technician that did the looking, smooshing & pushing. I did get nervous at the beginning when she tried setting me up on the machine and had to stop and put a smaller "smoosher" on (as you can see, I am not hip on technical mamo-terms). She didn't even laugh at me and later told me that I could tell my sister that I got to the number 3 on the smoosher (I let Karen know that I was pretty sure M.O. would have made it to a 9 or 12).

It was the longest 90 minutes EVER, but 6 images and a sonogram later, I walked out of there with GREAT news, all clear! My petite girls and I are some happy campers tonight. There really was no pain, just some discomfort. So maybe the smaller the better is the rule for mamo's ;)

Cheeseburger Joes get 2 thumbs up!

Last week the Kraft Food and Family magazine arrived in the mail and it was loaded with lots of good recipes. I've been getting this magazine for a few years now and have found many recipes, but alas they've never been made. Not this month! I tore the magazine apart and placed the recipes in my handy-dandy-to-do-binder. Easy organizing, but unfortunately many a recipe have ended up in the binder never to be seen again. Well it is the second day of the school week and I'm on my second recipe.

The Cheeseburger Joes are basically sloppy joes, but no need for a can/envelope of "joe" mix. All the ingredients are already on hand. I of course had to double the recipe, so here it goes...

2 lb. ground beef - browned and drained
1 cup bbq sauce & 1/2 cup ketchup mixed together
Add sauces to beef, warm and serve on buns with cheese.

Add some cucumber slices and carrot sticks and dinner was served in under 20 minutes ;) That's my kind of meal.

Lions and Tigers and Bears.... OH MY!!

Yesterday we took a little Park Family Field trip to the Catoctin Zoo up in Thurmont, Maryland. We've driven by the zoo plenty of times on our way to visit friends in Pennsylvania, but have never stopped in. On Saturday afternoon, the Baker Family called to see if we'd like to tag along with them to the zoo. Without much thought (you know like what it would take to get 7 people out of the house for 7:30 am Mass, packing up a change of clothes for the kids and snacks for the car ride) we agreed. I've found these are the best kinds of outings and actually the most relaxing (yes that word can be used in the same sentence with "outing" & "5 kids").

The overall review on the zoo..... The Park's will be monkeying around at The Catoctin Zoo and Wildlife Preserve again! The kids were able to get far closer to the animals and see them much better than they ever could have at the Washington Zoo. No there are no pandas, but truly we've been to the Wash. Zoo before and never seen the panda's. Also no giraffe's or elephants. So what did they have? Monkey's galore, reptiles, lions, tigers, bears, wolves, fish, birds, jaguars, and the best part (according to the boys) were the 2 playgrounds situated throughout the grounds. We were there on the opening weekend, so there were actually a lot of animals that weren't back from their winter siesta's. It was still an awesome time. It was pricey and I think the next time we go we'll be purchasing a yearly pass. Yes, the kids had THAT much fun!

At least Beamer won't have cavities

Well we know Beamer has an affinity for sweets, but the good news is he's trying to practice good dental hygiene.

These tooth brushes were found a few hours after the "little" syrup mishap. It's not as if the kids leave them laying around on the floor, but Mary Kate is known for going into the bathroom and brushing her teeth with whichever tooth brush she can get her hands on and then passing it along to Beamer. She likes to share, we just need to focus that towards something other than the kids tooth brushes.