she who never learns

I scored a round dining table from my Aunt the other day. For FREE! I have been wanting a round table For-E-V-E-R...
As is my usual fashion I look at it and think, OOOHHHH it will be beautiful, I'll just refinish it and BAM it'll be done.....(like it's no big deal, I have a sander, paper, how hard can it be)

I'm giving it a week and if I'm not happy, why I'll just paint the thing!!! AND I have a feeling that I will be unable to move my arms much tomorrow.......sigh........

So they didn't go in correct order down there, imagine if you will that they did :)

Ari was the most fun to watch hitting that pinata!

SO after 3 rounds of EVERY child hitting that pinata, Chris had to take over and then came the candy rush!

HIS party

This is what Isaac wanted for birthday cake, found this on that awesome "Pinterest" site. Hamburger's and Fries, AKA: cupcake brownie's with colored frosting and sugar cookie fries..


Singing to the now 10yr old boy/man

Everyone enjoying their cake


We had a scavenger hunt and I asked a few of the teens from church to come over and help me out by being the "team leaders" for each pair... You know safety first..... I couldn't have done this without them here to help, I LOVE teens!! :)

Isaac opening presents and then Kelly, Kayla and Chelsi... :)

A Whole Decade!!!

It has been a whole decade! How in the world have I been a mother for an ENTIRE decade?!

I swear it's only been minutes!!


His day started with waking up to 121 balloon's in his room, he's kinda a big deal you know :)



Tomorrow is THE party, stay tuned for more pictures.................

Large and in charge..............

Just because I'm still trying to process that my kid's are GROWING up, I'm going to blog this....
Isaac my oldest child who is a BLINK away from turning 10 was sized for shoes today....

(I wanted to make sure the new to us shoes were in fact the correct size) and he is officially wearing a men's 7 did you read that MEN'S 7!!!

Heck people I wear a men's 8.5-9..............

tick tick Tick Tick tick tick TICK......BOOM

One of my girlfriends told me last night that I needed to blog my text message that I sent to her...

I've been watching and waiting and watching and waiting. Measuring and looking and observing and waiting for the explosion. You know the "new school routine and we're all tired" explosion........
As we neared Friday of last week (which by my calculations would be d-day) I was preparing myself with a lot of slow deep breathing, telling myself over and over and over to have patience, asking god to please remember that i need his help most when they get like this but that with his help i CAN keep it together, and will-not-loose-it right along with them(you know like last year when I carried Norah out of a store over my shoulder) I'm shuddering just recalling that peach of a memory!!

Friday came and went, nothing, NOTHING, maybe a bit more picking on each other and bloodshot eye's but nothing worth writing about.... Monday AND Tuesday come and go and a bunch more nothing(maybe Ari a bit more on the asking me to beat him with his tude)but really nothing...
MAYBE I think, it's not going to happen,(see this is where it failed, I started to relax my guard) I did after all prepare Norah for this first year of all day school by having her do pm Kindergarten last year..............

AND THEN WEDNESDAY MORNING HITS........................................


Sigh/deep breath it's gonna be today.....

Isaac tells me he's not getting up and not going to school today...............
3 times he tells me this over the course of 15min. I ask what's bothering him, is there a problem I should be aware of, why he's feeling this way and I get "MOM, NOTHINGS WRONG" "GEESH, I'm just not going to school!!!!!!" THE 4th time I tell him it's time to get up I add "oh and Isaac, I don't have a problem with picking you up and taking you to school with what your wearing under that blanket (undies)..... MAGIC he's up but if looks could kill, from him alone I would have died 6
times before he even went to school not to mention every other LIVING THING in this house.....
While dealing with that I have a FEMALE 6yr old to also get up who has decided "I can't wear either of those outfits, those are FAT pants" ummm WHAT??? I'll deal with that later and who cares, )for the love of all that's holy SOMEONE get dressed and EAT)"that little part was said in my head" go in your undies for all I care just GET DRESSED AND EAT!
I will leave out Ari at this time because all I'm getting is a fit about how he's NOT gonna PEE!
**TICK TICK TICK TICK, IT'S COMING**

At some point in the afternoon after dinner the explosion's start, small at first, little things, I see them slowly progressing and I escape to "do laundry" text my girlfriend who I'm sure has 4 of these beast's at her house.......
And I say:
Norah has already taken 1 nap in a chair(to get out of doing chores,homework,bath)
Isaac is loosing his mind out of his eye balls(because no one likes him or will let him do anything HE wants to do) AND
Ari is BEGGIN me to smack his face every 2 minutes!!!!(because why not, join in and tell mom off over EVERYTHING)

While texting this dear friend I hear daddy raise his voice and something to the tune of "If I hear ANYONE whine at me 1 more time"........................
Give him a few more minutes and I gain all that composure and patience back.......

.......oh ya and fold SOME cloths so it looks like I really was.............

Up I go and dad goes outside, 15 minutes later all the piece's of said children are tucked nicely into bed and kissed goodnight.........

It was 7:30pm


silver lining...........At least we got it over with in 1 day and we weren't in public :-)

IT-IS-DONE :-)

The boy is officially "house trained" :)

Even during night time. He was told that if the diapers were dry every morning thru dad's vacation we would try undies at night.. Soo Starting this past week Tuesday he's been all undies all the time and zero accidents... woo hoo, 10 years of diapers is DONE!!! Let's move on.................

Our Nature Walk Adventure

Cool tadpole we found on our walk
and a froggie

Our first find, a red dragonfly. Yes I know it's blurry but it was hard to get the correct angle while surrounded by kids who wanted to see up close...

She's asking for something, I just think that face is super cute...

one of our finds, a red grasshopper.

First day of school

I'd like to say the first day of school was calm, cool, transitioned well........but i can't...

I was up past 1230 because I couldn't sleep and was up again at 330 to give Ari some cough meds AND THEN............................I woke up 1 HOUR after my alarm went off!!!
1 WHOLE STINKING HOUR!!!! Got up at 7 and had to leave by 725 to get a parking spot...
So the first day of school was rushed, very cold, not much breakfast eaten, and we made it on time for parking and watched as they grew before my eyes and walked in school with their class.........................




I just sat down to write this post and was thinking about Norah and her first FULL day of school, wondering how she was doing and the teacher sent me this.............


This lady knows how it is and I love her already!!

Now I must go ice the stress out of this neck and shoulder's of mine because you know I have to work tonight too.... :(

The Shedd

The weather over the past 2 weeks here has been AWESOME.. Gone was the 105 degree heat index and in was the 70's maybe even low 80's which ment that as long as you shut your shades when the HOT sun was coming in them you could be AC free and loving it.....
We decided to take a day trip to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago... Wouldn't you know it, back came the 105 degree heat index!!
Being the super smart woman that I am, as we set out I shut all the window's and turned the AC on...
This trip is 3+ hours each way, oh ya and the AC went out in the van... You know how it is, you have a priority list when it come's to money and that just wasn't at the top...
Sure wish it was about 30min into the trip....

Did I mention that 2 days before this trip I overhear Ari and Chris talking about how Ari is sure he doesn't want to wear diapers any-more and that he wont go potty in his undies.. I then chime in that if this is really happening that there is no turning back this time, no more back to diaper's if there is an accident... Then I look at Chrs and mumble under my breath, you guys couldn't wait 2 more days to have this conversation.... DANG

We all know that the toddler in the house sets the tone for how days, trips are going to go... Ari was a ROCK STAR!!! We wouldn't have even needed a movie except for the fact that dang, i just wanted him to stop talking for a bit ;)
The aquarium was fantastic, what a nice place, set up... We got to see sooooo much :) only advice I have it to really make it worth it defiantly get the "go in everything" tickets and bring your own food!

Waiting for the Dolphin show to start

We ALL agree this was the best part of the day(I know, sad right) the Dora and Diego 4-D movie. Chrs even had a permagrin the entire 15min movie... You had awesome 3D affects along with wind when you needed it, smells at the right time, vibrating seats for landing, water when splashes... Really well done :)

I think this is my second favorite picture from the whole day....

One of the awesome Beluga whales
Funny, stocky little Jellies
Upside down Jellies
Pretty awesome color changing Jellies!

I don't even know what this guy is but he was by far my favorite picture of the day. When peering into his "tank" I didn't even know he was there, I was looking elsewhere and as I backed up to walk on, I saw him right there in front of my face... Sooooo Coool!!!

An amazing Puffer Fish that they didn't call a puffer fish.....



A massive white Gourami
Don't they look thrilled with this shot, this was on the way out and apparently the marble was "really hot MOM"

This is how the back looked 5minutes into the trip home, good day for us..

The 5 lanes of insane, awful traffic that we spent about 30 minutes going no where fast...