Had a bad week!

Do you ever have one of those weeks where EVERYTHING goes wrong? Yes I said, week and yes I mean EVERYTHING! Let me take you back a bit....

Last Thursday November 5th
Before I begin this story I need to give a little background. Alexis is our youngest, she is 7 years old and full of energy! Last year she took gymnastics and LOVED it. She was asked to be part of their team that competes but we opted not to do it because I did not want to commit to gymnastics over the summer time. I promised that we would start recreational gymnastics just as soon as school started and we were more into routine again. So school started in August and last Thursday, November 5th was Lexi's first day back to gymnastics. So I was a little off with the dates but, none the less, she was going back!
So, Thursday afternoon Lexi comes home, puts on her leotard and starts checking the clock. 3 hours to gymnastics. Go eat a snack and play outside, 2 and a half hours until gymnastics. Run around a bit, 2 hours 20min until gymnastics. I mean literally this girl was soooo excited. So, the time finally came and we were ready to go. Lexi and I, along with Ethan hop into the car and start off. Literally 2min away from the gym and our Suburban dies. I mean dead, dead, not going anywhere for a while. Could not get it started so I called a friend to come get us and take us back home. Lexi walks in the door at home, runs to Stephanie and starts bawling! Poor baby, I could have cared less about the stupid truck, Lexi was sooo disappointed. All that build up and then she had to miss gymnastics! Bummer!

Friday November 6
Got all the kids to school via some sweet sweet friends of mine and resigned to staying in for the day. What else is a mom to do but get some laundry done. Got one load done and into the drier, throw in the next load. After the first load was done and dry I emptied it out onto the floor and transferred the wet clothes into the drier. I then sat down to begin sorting and folding the clean clothes. I get to the bottom of the pile of the dry clothes and two of the tops are wet. Hmmm, that is odd, I thought to myself, but maybe I just dropped something as I was transferring the wet clothes into the drier. Throw those clothes into the drier and start to work on socks. All of a sudden my pants start feeling wet, this is when I thought, "what on earth is going on in here". Then I looked behind me and noticed the pool of water coming from underneath my washer machine! GREAT! Quick call to the hubby and all water is shut off to the washer. Have to call my sweet friend and ask if I can finish my laundry at her house!

Midnight November 6/7
Pickup Jason at the airport! Poor guy has to fix the truck and the washer machine over the weekend but he can do it! ;-)

Saturday November 7
Get up and fix breakfast then do the dishes. Go under the kitchen sink to get some detergent and low and behold the pipes are leaking under the sink! For crying out loud! I was starting to freak out at this point.
Next Stephanie goes outside to feed the dogs and our Black dog is not moving. She is breathing but stiff as a board! GREAT, not the dog is dieing too!
Grrrrr!

~ Now, to make a long story short let me sum up some of these disasters for you.

1)Kitchen sink just had a pipe that needed to be tightened, Jason got that done EASY

2)The weather got warm and the black dog started moving again. We have diagnosed our own dog and think she is getting old and might have arthritis. We now give the dog Glucosamine pills every day and so far she is doing better.

3) There was broken hose on the back of the washer so Jason and Ethan ran to Lowe's and got new hoses. Ran a load of laundry, all looked fixed. Then, one load later we notice water again! OYE! Jason looks into repairing it but knowing that he still has a truck to fix too. Decides we need to go Washer Machine shopping.

4) Jason spends all day and night on the Green Suburban. Decides to change his ticket to Tuesday and spend more day trying to get the truck back together. Can't get the truck figured out in time but decides the kids and I can make it with the Blue Mercedes for the week and he will come back home the next weekend to get the truck fixed!

So, now we are to Tuesday morning November 10
Jason and I get up at 4 in the morning to take him to the airport. We are both tired but get up and head out. Half way to the airport I realize that I forgot to grab my purse. Dang it, no license on me. What can we do now, oh well. Get to the airport and go to the back of the car to hug and kiss goodbye. Just as we meet at the back of the car Jason notices that the tail lights are not working on the Mercedes at all. Jason kicks the tail lights, still nothing! Poor guy is so freaking frustrated at this point. Tells me to try the brakes, those lights work but still no tail lights. I assure Jason I can get back home, we will be fine but now he is just upset! He tells me to wait in the car and goes into the airport. He cancels his flight and tells me he is driving me home! Hubby can't go back to AR and work leaving me and 4 kids with no reliable vehicle!

Tuesday November 10, Afternoon
Decided to go car shopping. Did not find much in our little town so Jason comes back home to work on the truck. While he is working on the truck he tells me to start searching for new vehicles online. I find a GREAT deal on a Suburban at a dealership about 45min away. Decide that we need to go look at it and get things taken car of so we can make the drive. Long story short...we bought a new Suburban! Jason changes his flight AGAIN and decides not to head back until Thursday the 12.

Tuesday evening
Fun times begin again! Kids LOVE the new truck and all the new little bells and whistles that the old 1999 Suburban just didn't have.
Do a few loads in the new washer that also has a "glass" top and the kids are sooo entertained I'm thinking about canceling the cable!

Wednesday
Took the kids to school and spent a day at home with the hubby, not worrying about anything. New Washer, New Vehicle, a dog that is mending, and a sink that has no leaks! Life is back to good....at least until Thursday morning when I had to take my baby back to the airport! At least my baby doesn't have to worry about us now! Oh and guess what?
Lexi made it to gymnastics on Thursday the 12th and she absolutely LOVED IT! :-)

Dinners

Every Sunday night or Monday morning I sit down and ponder what I am going to make for dinner this week. I always make a list and I always write it out according to the days. What that means is, I write out Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, ect...and then put a meal under it with all sides. I once thought I could keep these little papers and reuse them another time but when I started doing that I found that it never worked out because I wasn't in the mood for the same things come another particular week. So, I just make new ones every week and I am fine with that. Here is what I am planning for this week:
Monday: Sloppy Joes and Fruit Cocktail
Tuesday: BBQ chicken, baked beans, and Peas
Wednesday: Hamburgers in Puff Pastry, Salad, and Jello
Thursday: Salisbury Steak, Mashed Potatoes, and Carrotts
Friday: ALWAYS PIZZA AND A MOVIE NIGHT! :-)
Saturday: Chicken Marsala, Wild Rice, and some sort of squash (to be determined in the produce aisle)
Sunday: Shish-Kabobs with meat, veggies and then served with Saffron Rice
Should be a good dinner week and the only meal I think the kids will complain about is my Salisbury steak but that's only because the little ones don't like mushrooms. They can just pick them off and I'm sure they will be happy!
What are you making this week?

Happy Halloween

Every year I type the same thing at Halloween...I LOVE HALLOWEEN! I haven't always LOVED it the way I do now but I swear we have the best neighborhood EVER! This year I bought 100 glow in the dark necklaces along with 4 bags of candy. About 8pm, I was completely out! I couldn't believe I had run out, I've never run out before. I ended up going into the house and giving away rice krispy treats because I hated turning out my light when there were still kiddos out there! We get over 100 kids each year and that is what makes it so much fun! A lot of the kids I know from being up the school so much and I just love seeing them all dressed up and excited to be getting candy!
This year my teenager Stephanie deserted her post as candy helper and went to friends house instead. Such is the life when you are a teenager! Friends are more important than mom, go figure! Oh well, we still had a great year and Jason was home to take the younger three trick or treating this year too!
Here are a few photos from carving pumpkins and the kids all dressed up and ready to go out trick or treating! :-)

Why

Why oh why is it so hard to keep updated on this blog? When I first started I couldn't wait to sit down and post little tidbits and "glimpses into our lives" (as I so tagged in my profile). Now I think about blogging but never take the time to sit down and write it out.
Yet, I still LOVE to check my friends blogs and see what they are up to! Just the other day my sister asked me, "are you ever going to update your blog again?" I guess that means I have been slacking. But in my defense I have been a very busy person since my last post on September 2 of 2009. Here are just a few highlights:

September 12: Nicholas had an accident that landed him in the ER
The next week he stayed home from school and I got to play mommy/nurse

October 4: Jasons 29th Birthday :-)

October 11: Nicholas's 9th Birthday

October 21: Drove up to Chicago all by myself with 4 kiddos

October 24: My older sister Kim got married! Yay!

October 26: Drove back to Savannah with all 4 kiddos

So when I write it out it doesn't look like much but between all those things were the normal, Dr. Apptointments, Dentist Appointments, cleaning, packing. laundry, dinner, homework, phone calls with Jason, Celebrations for the Birthdays, Wedding planning, Bedtimes, Baths to be had, Teacher conferences, grocery shopping, and snuggle time/tucking kids into bed each night! Phew! So you see, I have been busy. But I have loved every single minute of it! Even the 4 days in the car with 4 kids...they were AWESOME!
Okay, now I will post a few pics to update everyone and then I will TRY to be more faithful! Thanks for checking in on me! :-)

Easily Entertained...

We live in the South

While waiting to drop off Stephanie at High School today I noticed this truck in the parking lot (see left)

Notice the two big antenas from the back of the truck? Then we have the lovely rebel flag (sort of crumpled but it was still there) If you look really close there are two bumper stickers on the back of the truck those also have the rebel flag on them. Finally we have the mud all over the base of the truck because apparently this person has gone mud bogging (as we call it here in these parts).
Yeah, I would say that about sums it up!
Southern truck in the Southern state of GA! Wouldn't see this one up in Chicago! Ha-ha!

I got an idea...with a little help from Ethan's Drama class! :-)

Ethan came home from school today and I noticed a paper plate in his bag. I asked him why there was a plate in his bag and he said, "oh it's for drama". Upon taking a closer look at this plate I noticed that there were things written all over it. Things like:
I like your necklace, awesome!
You are nice!
You are funny!
You are cool!
You are funny and smart!
You are a special person!
Some of these get repeated a couple times on the plate but each one is written by a different person, in different ink, and that persons own unique handwriting. I haven't taken the time to find out the principle behind this plate but it did make me stop and think that words of affirmation is something we all need to hear more of!
With four children in the house I hear words like, stupid, idiot, retarded, meanie, brat, baby, and you get the idea! It is so easy to spout off words of ridicule and humiliation without even batting an eyelash but words of praise? For a sibling to say, "Hey, you are really smart!" OR "You know what that necklace is pretty cool little brother!". I just don't think there is enough of that or we could could ever hear too much!
Friday nights are family night. We ALWAYS have pizza and a movie and this is the one night pop is aloud to be their drink with dinner. I look forward to a night off of cooking but I also look forward to just spending time together as a family. Watching a funny movie and sharing the time together! When I was little we did the same thing in my family except we were always watching The Dukes of Hazard on TV that night! :-) Ha-ha! Anyway...I am getting away from my point, which is this. This Friday night I am going to add on to our Friday night tradition and tell the kids that before the pizza, pop, and movie we are going to take a few minutes to go around and tell one thing positive each sibling has done or said in the past week, including mommy and maybe even an e-mail to dad!! :-)
I don't want my kids to feel foolish for praising other people and I want my children to be able to take a compliment. Maybe one night we can make a plate and write it all down, or put it on a piece of paper, something to remind each child that they are important, have value, and even when we don't always say it, each one is loved by the other!