Chaos!

Our home is in complete chaos right now! We are moving in 2 days and I have been packing like crazy! This is what our table looks like (and has been this way for the past week!):



The storage room is all in boxes too:



Last night, I packed up the girls' room. There was a pencil box left on their dresser, and this morning I went down to find this:



I packed up my son's room last week. That was pretty much a waste of time because, today, it looks like this:



Actually, it looks worse than it really is. Once I get all of his toys packed back into the toy box, it won't be near as bad. That is the downfall of trying to pack with kids in the house. They just go right behind me and unpack things. This happens with cleaning too. I hate spending my time cleaning a room just to walk out for 2 minutes, then turn around and go back in the room I just cleaned and find it in disarray! That just frustrates me to no end.

Anyway, it is supposed to be snowing Friday so that should make for an interesting move. Hopefully we will get it all done quickly and I can get my Christmas tree up this weekend!

Out of hand?

No pun intended. (Ok, maybe a little.) Has this whole thing with Clay Aiken and Kelly Ripa gone a bit extreme? I see Kelly's point, but is she blowing it a bit out of proportion? I also think that the whole thing with Rosie O'Donnell thinking that Kelly's remark (about not knowing where Clay's hand has been) was homophobic is just absurd! I don't think it had anything at all to do with that. I believe that it was truly just about germs. Your thoughts?

Stupid Acid Reflux!

Good grief! I miss one day of my Prilosec and by bed time, I am feeling the pain! Something is not right with me. This is not normal! I have a Doctor's appointment in a couple of weeks with my new family Doc. to assess my overall health. I'll definately be bringing this up. I have brought it up in the past. My previous Dr. said that it should definately be checked into if the problem doesn't go away.

It has been going on for years now. It seems to have only gotten worse with each baby I have had. I fear I will soon have to have an endoscopy to figure out what is causing my problems. Just the thought of having a camera shoved down my throat to view my stomach makes me sqirm! Ugh!

That is the main reason I am even up at this hour blogging. I cannot lay down. I can literally feel the acid sitting in my esophagus. It is horrible! It's bad enough when I am sitting up, let alone if I attempt to lay down. Anyway, I guess I will go give a try to sleeping propped up on pillows. I did that a lot when I was pregnant.

Thanksgiving

Our Thanksgiving was a good one. I made a corn casserole, green bean casserole, and my friend's recipe for sweet potato casserole. The sweet potatoes turned out awesome, if I do say so myself! I think I'm going to have to make that again for Christmas!

Two of my dad's sisters and their familes weren't able to make it to town this week, so we only had 22 people there (including two very cute little babies). However, they are both supposed to be coming into town next week, so we should get to see them then.

Tomorrow, neither guru nor myself have any responsibilities at church, so we may or may not sleep in. Maybe we'll make it to one of the services. Too bad this day "off" didn't come next Sunday, since we can start moving next Friday and will probably be busy with that all weekend. But, since we both need to be there next week, we'll have to take a break from moving Sunday morning.

Anyway, I'm still keeping myself busy getting ready for this move. I am anxious to get moved and settled. Usually, I get my Christmas tree and all the decorations out the day after Thanksgiving, but this year I have to wait. I'm getting ansy!

I also realize, it has been quite a while since I've posted any pictures on here. So, I will try to do that sometime soon. That is if anyone cares to see. I don't know if anyone even visits here anymore other than guru, but that's ok. I still visit all my reads. Well, enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Upward!

Well, it's Upward time again! Last night was meet the coach night. Practices start next week. I know last year I said that I was not going to coach again this year. Well, I kept my promise...almost. (Check out the last sentence in that post!)

I waited it out, even though they were announcing over and over how much they needed coaches. I decided that I would wait one more week, and if they were still in need of coaches, I would volunteer. I waited the week and by then, all the head coach positions had been filled.

However, I agreed to help my friend (Alex's wife) as her assistant coach. At least I won't be coaching alone again like I did the past two years!

Other than that, I will be attempting a new recipe for Thanksgiving. I usually make the sweet potatoes, so this year, I've decided to make it interesting! I'm getting a recipe from my friend A for her mom's sweet potato casserole that is apparently awesome! I hope I can do it justice. I'm also making a corn casserole and green bean casserole. Now I'm hungry! Just two more days!!!

OSU vs. Michigan

'Nuff said!

GO BUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bummed!

My oldest daughter came in earlier and told me she looked in the window of the new townhouse we are supposed to be moving to and that the new carpet they laid in there is gray! WHAT?! The rest of the apartment has a tan color scheme. There are a few different color schemes they use here and usually gray carpet goes with a darker countertop and tile.

I am kind of bummin' right now cause to me, gray and tan don't really go together. The walls in all the apartments are tan. All of our furniture and our bedding go with tan and clash with gray. I know they just replaced the carpet, so at least it is brand new. I don't know if I should call and see if they would be willing to switch it out for tan, or just let it go and deal with it.

I don't know how the carpet is going to look with the tan tiles and countertops in there. I don't want to seem too demanding to the people who work in the office, especially since my brother works here and they know that I'm his sister! What would you do?

Shopping

I met up with my good friend Sweetiepie on Saturday for lunch and some shopping. We had a wonderful lunch at Spageddies and then hit the stores! We shopped at Toys R Us, Big Lots (shut up, name brands @ closeout prices), Bed Bath & Beyond, Michaels, Old Navy, EB Games, and Marshalls.

After a full afternoon of shopping, we found ourselves hungry again around 7:30 p.m., so we headed to CiCi's for a cheap pizza buffet dinner. Mmm, Italian food twice in one day! Good thing I remembered my Prilosec that morning!

After dinner, we headed back to her house and hung out for about an hour filling in her hubby on all we did and all the great deals we found. It was a fun day! I'm definately looking forward to doing it again soon!!

Making a Move

We are preparing to move to a bigger townhouse here in our complex. We have been on a waiting list for quite a while now, and they finally have one available for us. We are able to move December 1st. I am excited that we should be all moved and settled in by Christmas!

I've been doing a lot of work around here the last few days trying to get everything clean and organized. I've made some excellent progress but there is still a lot to do! Most of the work has been the laundry/storage/play room. But it's pretty much ready to go now! I'm sure I will be throwing a ton of stuff out. When we moved from our house into here, I threw away many huge trash bags and boxes of stuff. I expect I'll be doing the same thing this time, only maybe not to the same extent.

I am really excited about having more cabinet space in the kitchen and a pantry. Not to mention we'll be able to fit more than one person in the kitchen at a time comfortably! We'll also be getting an extra bedroom and full bathroom in the new place. Yea!

Elections

Tomorrow is election day! And I couldn't be happier! I am so sick of seeing all of the "trash talk" commercials on t.v. and hearing them on the radio. And if I get one more freaking recorded phone call from a Senator or Laura Bush, I'm likely to reach through the phone and punch them in their recorded throat!!!! (In Jesus' name, of course!) :)

Trick or Treat

Well, we ended up going trick or treating in the rain. We headed over to Alex's house and his wife and I took the kids out with umbrellas. We only circled around to one end of the street and back the other side to their house. After that, we decided to go inside for a while since it was raining pretty good by that time.

A little while later, the rain had stopped...just in time for guru and Alex to take their turn out with the kids. When they got back, we had fun raiding their candy and discussing which candy bars are the best (Snickers is totally the best, Alex! Gotta have nuts in the candy bar!), and how Milky Ways are the retarded cousin of Snickers. Good times.


(Yummy goodness in all sizes!)

Stupid Rain!

What the dealio with all this rain? It's October, not April! We are supposed to go trick or treating tonight. The kids are determined to go, even in the rain! There is no rain date for trick or treat here, so I guess we could just go and take umbrellas. It's not like we'll melt or anything. Plus, if the rain deters a lot of people from going out, then hey, more candy for me...er...my kids.

I don't know. I would hate for their cute little costumes to go to waste! It starts in less than an hour, so I need to think of something quick-like.

Stitches

This morning, after guru had left for work and the girls were already at the bus stop, I was in my kitchen making a sippy cup for my son when my front door opens. Hmm...wonder who forgot something, I thought. It was my middle daughter saying that my oldest had fallen at the bus stop and was bleeding.

So, I slip on some shoes and run out of the door in my shorts and t-shirt, hair not yet brushed, in 40 degree weather to find out what happened. I see my daugher walking toward me down the sidewalk, crying and holding her face with one hand and her mangled glasses in the other.

I take her inside and clean up all the shed blood and find out she was playing balance beam on the curb and her foot slipped. She had her hands in the pockets of her coat and she couldn't get them out in time to catch herself before faceplanting into the concrete. Her glasses dug into the side of her face leaving a nice slash next to her left eye.

It looked pretty bad, I could see several layers under her skin, and the cut was gaping. I figured she may need a stitch or two for it. So, I called around and the Children's urgent care didn't open until 3 pm. I wasn't about to head downtown and wait 8 hours in the Children's hospital ER, so I found an urgent care close to home and took her in.

Sure enough, she ended up with 7 stitches in her pretty little face! She was not happy about that at all! She screamed and squirmed when they gave her the shots to numb her face. I had to hold her arms down while the nurse held her head still. Once the numbing was taken care of, she was all good.

I continued to hold her hands and watch as the Doctor stitched her up. I actually remained very cool through the whole thing. I'm impressed with myself. How is it that I can handle all the blood and watch a Dr. put stitches in my baby's face, but I can't handle throw-up? I don't know.

Anyway, I would post before and after pictures, but I took them with my new camera phone, and we don't have the proper equipment to transfer pictures from phone to computer.

Lazy Day

Well, the family and I took a trip to the hospital last night to visit trin and G's new little man! He is so cute and looks so much like his big brother!

Today, my son and I just hung out at home all day. We even took a nap together this afternoon. That was nice! Tonight the kids and I are just gonna veg out and watch t.v. Guru is working late and I'm not sure when exactly he will get home. He works almost an hour away and he is still at work, so the kids will be in bed when he gets here. Pretty lazy and uneventful day here today.

I was hoping to take my kiddos to a Fall festival tomorrow night. We went last year and it was fun. There's free food and free candy, so it's all good! I am supposed to be singing with our church's worship choir this Sunday and our usual Wednesday practice got pushed to tomorrow, so if we go, it will only be for about an hour before we have to leave for the church for my practice. Boo!

Updates

I almost forgot to post about the double date Saturday night. It went pretty well. However, there is not going to be a second date. My friend just can't get past the fact that she had absolutely zero attraction to him. And I don't blame her. The guy seemed nice enough, but I really don't think their personalities match either. She's really outgoing and bubbly and he's kind of withdrawn. He has 2 parrots that are like his kids (and he likes to talk about them a lot) and she is not a bird person in the slightest. So she has already communicated with him that she is not interested in going out again, and he responded well.

Moving on...

I ended up having A's kids all day yesterday. So there were 5 kids 6 and under in my house all day long. Then when my girls got home from school, I had 7 kids 9 and under. Dinner time was fun. :) It really wasn't bad though. All the kids did really well. They played nicely and watched some cartoons and the youngest one is the only one I was actually able to get down for a nap.

Around 8:00 pm, I took A's kids up to visit their new baby brother. He's so cute! He looks exactly like 3/4 of her other kids. Her oldest daughter is the oddball...she looks more like her mommy while all the others look like their dad.

He weighed in at 8lbs 1oz and 19 inches long. I got to hold him and watch them give him his first bath in the nursery and smell his little newborn head! Almost makes me want to have another one.....almost!

Sometime today, I'll get to go back to the hospital and see my new nephew. And while I'm there, I'll stop back in and see A and her new baby.

Baby Day!

Well, today is the day! My brother and SIL are going to be meeting their newest addition. I'm really excited for them!

On top of that, my friend A is headed to the hospital right now as well. She was already scheduled to be induced today at 10 am, assuming the Dr. thought she was ready when she went in this morning for her last appointment. (She was due on the 19th!) When she went in this morning she found out she is at 3 cm's. So she just dropped off her 4 other kids here and is on her way to the hospital. She is super excited, because usually, it takes her forever to get to 4 cm's and then it goes really fast. So, she is hoping that with a little help from the pitocin, she'll be meeting baby #5 very shortly.

Well, that leaves me with 5 kids ranging from age 6 down to 17 months. We'll be fine though, they are good kids. Right now, they are all playing very quietly. The 2 oldest ones are watching Doodlebops and the others are playing Mr. Potato Head!

I may be taking them to another friend of A's for the afternoon, or possibly keeping them here. I don't know for sure yet. It depends on if the other friend is still willing to help out. If not, I'll take the kids up later today to meet their new little brother.

Wish me luck today, I should be pretty busy!

Saturday

This afternoon, I am taking my girls to a birthday party at friends 2B made. That should be really fun for them. I wish they had places like this when I was a kid. Basically all we had was Chuck E. Cheese or the skating rink. But that's a different story.

After that, guru and I are going out on a double date with a single mom friend of mine. She met a guy on eHarmony and I told her that the first time she meets him shoudn't be by herself. Anyway, she's having mixed feelings about this guy as it is. She says he has a great personality and they seem to have a lot in common and with just talking to him, she would definately be interested in him. But looking at his pictures, she is not attracted to him at all. He's a bit overweight with below average looks. She feels like God my be trying to teach her to not be so superficial.

There are a few other things that concern her about the guy too, like his job and his ex-wife. But she's going to give it a try. At least after meeting him in person, she should have a better idea if she thinks it is even worth pursuing further. She'll be able to say that she just didn't feel a connection with him in person....or possibly the other way around. Who knows.

I'll make sure to report how the date goes!

Kinda Bummed

We were supposed to be going to the Pumpkin Show tonight. Weather.com is showing a 100% chance of rain tonight starting at 7pm (which is about when we'd get there). That really puts a damper on our plans (no pun intended).

I guess we still have through Saturday to go if we really want to. The only thing is that if we don't go tonight, we will miss the parade of bands. The parade usually consists of a bunch of high school bands from across Ohio, but tonight they are welcoming The Best Damn Band In The Land! So we would have to miss that!

I guess that's not such a huge deal to guru though, since he gets to go see them at "the shoe" on Saturday!

Update

Well, I went back to the Dr. yesterday. He didn't end up doing another strep test. But, he did give me a stronger antibiotic. He said if I keep having problems with this, I may have to go see an ENT Dr. and talk about getting my tonsils out! I'm 26 years old! Isn't this something they usually do to kids? My oldest daughter had hers out when she was 6.

I have never been put under anesthesia for anything before. I really don't want to have to have them removed, but if it will keep me from getting strep throat so often, I may just have to do it!

Anyway, my friend A got sent home, no baby yet! Right now she is scheduled to be induced next Monday if she hasn't had the baby by then. That would actually make it convienient for me though if she waits until Monday, cause then I could make one trip to the hospital on Tuesday to see her and my new nephew!

I think it's back!

I think I have strep throat AGAIN! GRRR! My throat started feeling kind of icky on Friday. It didn't really hurt too bad, but it kinda felt like I may be starting to lose my voice or something.

Throughout the day, however, it really started to hurt. Yesterday and today were very bad. I was supposed to be on my church's praise team this morning, and ended up not even being able to go to church at all. (Same thing last time I had this a couple of weeks ago, I missed being on PT. Maybe God is trying to tell me something??)

Anyway, I will be calling the Dr. tomorrow to try to get in. I will have to endure another strep test, but if that's what I've got again, at least I'll know and can get on some meds to get rid of it. This time I want it to stay far, FAR away!

On another note, my friend A called a little while ago and said that she is in labor! This is baby #5 for her. Please pray for a quick and easy labor for her and a healthy baby!!