Heaven help me

Seriously, I need some divinely inspired patience tonight. I've been working on a housewarming gift for my sister and her husband for a very long time now.

Years.

They move into the new house in less than 2 weeks. I'm almost done. It's going to be lovely. I even messed up on one part and spent a week taking it back apart and redoing it. I'm so excited to give it to her. She and Dale are going to love it.

I left the room for 90 seconds this afternoon.

Miles grabbed scissors and cut it to shreds.

He's 4.

All I want to do is light Bug on fire. Let's see how he likes it.

*I told him exactly what I felt like doing. I also said I wasn't going to do it even though I was very mad because it's wrong to destroy something of somebody else's.

Claire- you're now getting a crock pot.

Skipping the Glamour Shots this year

Fall is the perfect time of year around here for family pictures. Everyone still has a little tan left on them, hair is naturally highlighted, the background is gorgeous everywhere, and it's just chilly enough for sweaters.



Usually we have a nice family picture taken right about now.

Usually.

This year, however, we're battling some photo problems.

Broken arms,



Goofy boys (this isn't really unique to this year),



Bad mommy hair and a chubby mid-section, lack of haircuts on the boys,



and four particularly squirrely kids.



Oh well, there's always next year.

Quotes of the day

You know it's a good day when you have more than one quote.



#1 - Miles came into the kitchen crying this morning. I finally figured out between the sobs, "Mom, Tate won't let me draw in his notebook, but he let Lucy, and she only has one arm, and I have two arms!"

#2 - Said to a passing elderly walking woman (who happened to be wearing an alarming amount of red), "Hey Red Guy!" She chuckled a bit as I tried furiously to herd them all into the house, but was unsuccessful in doing so before Miley could yell to Tate and Lucy, "Hey, look at that red guy!"
This was followed by peals of laughter as I shoved and stumbled them all into the mudroom.

My very own photojournalist!

Lots of important people have their lives documented in pictures.

JFK.

Elvis.

Me.

That's right, I have my very own photographer following me around. The only problem, he's only 3 feet tall, so I have lots of pictures of the underside of my chin(s).



But the plus side is, I also have lots of photos of my work:





I like to call this one, "Dressing a Fall Baby."



























I love my little paparazzi!

Almost finished...

I always have a list on the dining room table.

Always.

I get a kick out of crossing things off. Sometimes I'll write "brush my teeth" just so I can cross something off. When I get down to 3 or 4 things on the list, I usually think of 47 other things that need done. Once I run out of room, I just scrap it and start a new list of the things I haven't finished. Thus, my list is never finished.

I had a huge amount of things to do this week, but I finally finished most. The thing that gave me the most grief was this costume:



But the look on her face when she came home and saw it after school made it all worth it. She picked Little Red Riding Hood because it would hide the cast. Now she's counting down the days until Halloween!

Oh, and this boy has been helping me whittle down the list every day.





Well, him and Ninja Bug.

Good food makes me happy

Yesterday was a pretty darn good day.

No vomit, no car crash, no wardrobe changes, no new injuries. And most importantly, I got to eat some very yummy food.

Karen and I signed up for a cooking class of Autumn Comfort Food. No kids, no messy house, a good friend, and endless calories. By the end of the night, I was stuffed to the gills and feeling much better.

Jake's evening didn't seem to go so well, and I have a feeling it had a little to do with this:



I found him like this at 5pm and didn't wake him up until 6:30. Poor kid.



Oh, and I have a feeling this one didn't help matters much.



Poor Jake.

Today's gotta be better

Yesterday:

Late for OB appointment.

Calvin spits up in a library book.

School nurse calls to tell me Lucy fell and her broken arm hurts.

Miles finds in the car and eats half a box of Hot Tamales candy without my knowledge.

Miles throws up Hot Tamales all over the dairy isle in Whole Foods.

Angry elderly man rams us in his car in the middle of a busy intersection.

Tate runs in the kitchen to tell me Miles is hiding in the back of Ted's truck and Ted is driving away.

Tate has exaggerated the truth.

Scouts.

Sneeze while making pizza. (pregnant with 5th baby, weak bladder)

Change my clothes.

Burn the pizza.

Tate tells me he's not feeling so well.

Jake cuts 3 slices off the loaf of pumpkin bread made for the neighbors.

Calvin stays up late because of nap during ride to scouts.

I guess the crazy's hereditary...

Running out of things to do!!

It's only day 2 and already she's going bonkers from boredom.

I armed myself with some supplies for the day:



We started out with homework from her teacher, but first had to practice writing with the "wrong" hand.



She was very proud of herself.




Unfortunately, she can only spend a short time sitting at the table. We have no idea what to do to pass the next few days.

HELP!

There's not much at all a girl can do one handed.

Crazy. We're going crazy.

As for the white-haired one, I think he picked up all kinds of extra knowledge just sitting there during her lessons.



Oh, definitely smarter.



Can't you just see the brains oozing out of him?



Okay, so maybe he got a little, uh, naughty.



Luckily, my own personal saint, Allison, called and asked to borrow him.

By the time she returned him, 5 hours later, he just collapsed into a heap.



Allison, how do you do it?

If you're gonna break your arm, this is a good weekend to do it!

I'm really glad it's conference weekend. I've loved hearing the talks and I'm so grateful not to have to worry about teaching a lesson today!

Lucy hated her plain navy blue sling, so I offered to "pretty it up".



I spent the morning session by the computer, fixing a sling fit for a princess.



It's all the rage right now among crippled princesses in Milan and Paris.



Everyone else spent the morning eating Lucy's cupcakes (thanks Karen!), drawing, and putting together Lego's.







Naked church is the best.