Controlling Your Bladder is Easier Than Controlling Your Kids

To the person who left me this comment... "Sweet, a Mormon who has ads for coffee on her site.. Just proof the mighty dollar can buy anything." First of all - I'm not a Mormon. And I have nothing against coffee. In fact, I love coffee. Well, I love cups of coffee flavored cream anyway. Nor do I have anything against Mormons! Secondly, I'm not all that familiar with the Mormon religion, but I'm guessing that passing judgement on people you don't even know is not part of your doctrine.

Someone (I'm guessing without kids) wrote and told me something along the lines of, "You'd better not let your kids make too much noise on the plane. There's nothing worse than a parent who was irresponsible and had more kids than they can control."

Well shoot, I need to keep them quiet? Now here I was planning on letting them run up and down the aisles of the plane yelling. I was going to let them bring a guitar too so they could bang it on everyone's head as they walked past. Movie anyone?

As far as "controlling" my kids. Of course I don't control them. Nor do I want to control them. I want to teach them to control themselves.

Hal Runkel, author of, Screamfree Parenting, states in his book, that we as parents are not responsible for our children. What? We’re not responsible for them? Reading that statement, I immediately love this guy. Hooray! If Hal Runkel, licensed marriage and family therapist, says that I’m not responsible for my son when he doesn’t do his homework, or my daughter when she talks back to me, or my toddler who flings himself, screaming, onto the floor of the doctor’s office, then I’m 100% behind his Screamfree method of parenting.

Reading further in the book, Hal states that although we are not responsible for our children, we are indeed, responsible to them. I knew there was a catch! What he means by this is that we are not responsible for our children's choices and behaviors. We are instead responsible for ourselves and our actions. Hal teaches us to focus on ourselves and our behavior - something we can control. If we want a child to make good decisions, we have to model that behavior for them. How can we expect a child to remain calm when we fly off the handle and scream and yell at them when they choose not to cooperate? We can't be in control of the situation if we aren't in control of our own behavior and we can't possibly expect a child to calm down and get control of themselves if we're screaming like lunatics.

The concept is simple really. For example, when ABC was at my house filming, they asked me, "Do you fight with your kids to do their homework every night?"
I said, "Are you kidding? No way. That's their job. If they choose not to do it, then they're the ones who get in trouble at school. I have enough responsibilities than to take on their schoolwork as well."

They can choose to do their homework and reap the rewards at school, or they can choose to avoid their homework, and suffer the consequences of turning in an incomplete assignment. There is no reason for us to yell and scream and try to persuade our children to do their assignments. All that does is raise our blood pressure and make those little veins on the sides of our heads stick out. Besides, we can't remember our kids' names when we're mad and yelling and it's really hard to be in control when we have to spit out five names before we get to the right one!

Although the idea of having little robot children who obey our every command without a second thought is really, really appealing , it's actually not what we should strive for as parents. Hal uses the example of the movie Ella Enchanted his book. (If you haven't seen this movie, it's really cute and well worth renting, in my opinion.) In this movie, Ella is given the gift curse of obedience. She must obey. She has no choice but to do everything she’s told to do. This curse of obedience forces her to do some awful things in the movie. Think about it. Even though the thought of a child who obeys your every command, sounds heavenly, would you really want this child to grow up doing what everyone tells them to do? What happens when their peers tell them to have a cigarette? Take drugs? Steal a CD? I don't know about you, but I certainly don’t want my child to simply follow along and do what they’ve been told. I want them to use their brains and think of the consequences before making a decision. I want them to make wise choices because they've learned about consequences from experience.

Back to the homework example - I don't want my kids to do their homework because I've yelled at them to do it. I want them to choose to do their work because they know they'll get a good grade if they do and because they know they'll have to make up the assignment, or get an incomplete, or get a detention if they choose not to do it. Natural consequences.

I don't yell at my kids to eat dinner. They can choose eat what I've cooked or they can choose to not eat. If they choose not to eat dinner, they suffer the natural consequences of being hungry. No yelling. No fighting. They're responsible for their choice and they accept the consequences of their choice. Simple, right?
Well, in theory, it's simple. In reality it's hard. It's a simple concept that's difficult to master.

Like Hal warns parents against "emotional reactivity", author of 1-2-3 Magic, Dr. Thomas Phelan tells parents how to avoid the "Talk-Persuade-Argue-Yell-Hit Syndrome" by teaching them to not become involved in an emotional struggle with their kids. He goes on to say that parents make the mistake of talking too much and getting too emotionally involved. "Did you just hit your sister? Why did you hit your sister? You know you shouldn't hit your sister. Hitting's not nice. How would you like to be hit? You wouldn't like that. Hitting hurts. It's not nice. I can't believe you just hit your sister like that! Look at me when I'm talking to you! Do you think hitting is a good idea? Would you like it if I hit you?!........"

Anyway, my point is - you can't control kids and it's probably not a good idea to try. You can however, control yourself, teach your kids, and give them choices and consequences and that, in my opinion, is how you discipline.

Now, I know many of you probably won't agree with all this and that's fine. I'm not saying there is only one way to discipline your kids and this is it. Far from it. In fact, I think there are a lot of sound ways to approach discipline. I think a huge key to making anything work, however, is consistency. That and, of course, a sense of humor about the little things and maybe a little Captain Morgan. Just kidding. Sort of. :D

Oh yeah, if you don't like my blog or you find it offensive, that's fine. You don't have to agree with me. But here's a tip for you - you don't actually have to read it and you certainly don't have to take the time to leave me a comment. It would be pretty silly to waste your time that way, don't you think? For those of you who actually do have a sense of humor however, read on!

Oh yes, for the folks who asked - nope, no one else is throwing up, thankfully! I, however, have a fever and feel like mud. I'm definitely going to bed before 4:00am tonight! (My baby thought it would be fun to stay up and party last night.)

Come check out MAMASLIKE for interesting finds from work-at-home moms!

P.S. I just heard from Mimi, Julian's mom, that cancer cells were found in her little boy's spinal fluid. :*( If you're the praying type, please say one for healing for Julian, peace and comfort for his family, and wisdom for the doctors treating him. You can read more at Carepages.com under "Julian's World".

The Weekend's Over Already?

I had grand plans for this weekend. "HAD" being the operative word. I overslept and missed church today. I teach Sunday school and I overslept. Good job. Then I signed up to help with Crop Walk at my church this afternoon. Last year after nearly keeling over as I finished the walk, I swore this year instead of walking, I'd volunteer to help prepare refreshments. Because I missed church, I wasn't sure what time the walk started, but my dad, who'd been in church this morning, informed me it was at 3:00. At 3:00, I pulled into the church parking lot to see walkers just finishing up. On the marquee was a sign that read, "Crop Walk Oct. 21st at 1:00 pm."

Great. I missed church and I missed the Crop Walk. Feeling like a huge loser, I came home. My mil, fil, bil, and sil had taken the five oldest kids to a corn maze, so my husband suggested we run out and get a bite to eat. We drove to a new restaurant in town that had just opened yesterday. At least that's what the sign said. It wasn't open. Next we drove to a little place at which we'd never eaten, but it was close so we thought we'd try it out. About a thousand motorcycles filled the parking lot. Now I have nothing against bikers, but I didn't really feel like going into a biker bar for dinner with my husband and baby, so we went on to a little Italian sandwich place. It was closed. Are you seeing a pattern with my weekend here?

Yesterday I fully intended to turn off the computer and clean my house. The kids dragged out Halloween costumes, I picked them up. My daughter found a pair of sparkly "glass slippers" that I'd made by gluing sequins onto a pair of Mary Janes, and she wore them around the house. With each step, several sequins fell off leaving behind a glittery trail. As I vacuumed the sequins, my son grabbed my open container of pop (or "soda" if you live in the north, or "coke", if you live in the south) and spilled it all over the counter tops, dripping sugary liquid onto the floors I'd just scrubbed. Do you ever have days like this? I swear I never sat down, but at the end of the day, you couldn't tell that I'd done anything! It's frustrating sometimes.

I cleaned one thing, the kids destroyed two more. Saturday continued pretty much like this until we went to our friends' house for dinner. It was pretty quiet, everyone was eating, talking quietly in between bites, when out of nowhere, Clay shouted, "Underwear!" He then when back to eating his chicken. (No, he doesn't have Tourette's Syndrome.)

When we finished dinner, the kids (there are ten between us) ran off to play while the adults stayed at the table talking. The kids put on a somewhat demented fashion show for us. We enjoyed seeing the boys parade downstairs wearing tiaras, Power Ranger costumes, glamorous rings, baseball caps, purses, scarves, and of course weapons of destruction. You can't have a glamorous Power Ranger princess without a plastic sword, dagger, or Nerf gun. This is common knowledge, of course. This strange parade of fashions went on until our friends' youngest son, (we'll call him Sean) came downstairs wearing an eclectic combination of clothing, carrying his sister's Dora doll, and wielding a plastic sword.

He went through the motions of "decapitating" the doll, then tossed it on the floor, took off his costume and his shirt and body slammed the doll a la pro wrestler. We watched in fascination. Then my friend, (we'll call her Jen) said, "I think kids just do what we only think about doing." We might think about taking out our frustrations, but we wouldn't dream of tearing off our shirts and actually body slamming someone into the floor! We might want to break the silence by shouting out, but we wouldn't actually yell, "Underwear!" during the middle of our meal. Kids are funny that way.

There's nothing better than sharing a meal, visiting with good friends, and watching our kids act like nuts.

It's Like a Scary, Scary Caw

Since we're going to Florida next week, I was explaining to my little guy, Clay, that we'd be flying on a big airplane to get there.

ME: We're going on an airplane because Florida is far, far away.
AUSTIN: Like in Shrek.
ME: No, it's even farther. Shrek got to Far Far Away in an onion carriage. We're taking a plane.
AUSTIN: I like onions. Can I have one now?
ME: An onion?? A raw onion??
AUSTIN: Yes. going to get an onion so he can eat it like an apple
ME: There's something wrong with you.
Anyway, as I was saying... we're going to fly in an airplane up in the sky, Clay!
CLAY: Can this many people go on a plane? holds up ten fingers
ME: Yes. Even more can go on it.
LEXI: But 1000 can't go on it or it won't be able to fly.
ME: Ummm ok.
CLAY: When the chicken gets on the plane, he'll get squished out.
OK, at this point, we all laugh prompting Clay to say...
CLAY: Why are you laughing? Is that a joke?
ME: I'm not sure, Clay. I'm not sure.
CLAY: You know how fast a plane can go?
ME: Really fast. Faster than a car.
CLAY: Can it go this fast runs across the room and crashes into the wall
ME: Ummm, yeah. I think it can go that fast.
CLAY: It's like a scary, scary caw.
ME: A scary, scary car? What's like a scary, scary car?
CLAY: Not a CAR! A CAW!
ME: What's a caw?
CLAY: flapping arms like wings A CAW! Like this! demonstrates flying
ME: A bird? A bird that goes "caw caw"?
CLAY: Yes! rolling eyes at my obvious slow wit
ME: A plane is like a scary bird?
CLAY: I don't know. That's what the man with the sticker said.
ME: Ohhh Kaay then.
I could be wrong, but I don't think he quite gets the concept of flying in a plane.

Check out Mamaslike!

Snow Miser, Vomit, and ABC

I had fun reading about everyone's favorite costumes and homemade costume ideas! I thought I'd share a few more pictures of my totally creative sister's costumes.


It's Heat Miser and Snow Miser from Rankin and Bass's The Year Without a Santa Claus.


Here she is as Edward Scissorhands.



She made this Vegas showgirl costume. Yeah, I know, she stinks. Of course, she hadn't had any kids yet in this picture.


And here she is as Marge. You can't really tell from this photo, but she actually dyed her skin yellow for this!

And how could I forgotten this costume I did! I guess you'll only recognize him if you live in an area with a Six Flags Amusement Park. A couple years ago, they played commercials with this little old man dancing to a fun little song. My son carried a small tape recorder and danced around to the song while trick-or-treating.

My baby threw up in her sleep last night at midnight. She was lying on my bed. I stripped her jammies off, wrapped them in my puke-covered comforter and threw the whole mess outside in the rain. Then I put her in the tub and scrubbed her down. Gag! After that vomit extravaganza, I was afraid to go to sleep lest she get sick again, so I stayed up until 9:00 in the morning. I'm glad I stayed awake because she continued to throw up about every 45 minutes, all night long. I figure we'll all have it by next week when we leave for Florida. That should make for a fun trip. Needless to say, I'm tired. I'm heading to bed and hoping that no one wakes me up with buckets of vomit tonight.

OH! I almost forgot! One of my readers sent me this link to the ABC segment! If you missed it, you can see it HERE.



My other blog - Mamaslike

You're Going to be Ghosts This Year

I just realized we have two weeks until Halloween! Only two weeks! That doesn't give me a lot of time to come up with six costumes. Now don't hate me, but I'm actually one of those moms who makes their kids creative costumes every year. I know, I know, your opinions of me have just lowered. I don't sew or anything, but I'm pretty good with a hot glue gun. Well, truth be told I'm not actually that good with a hot glue gun, (Do you know how badly it hurts when you get hot glue on your hands?) but I get by.

So, I like to make creative costumes and I secretly love it when my kids are the only ones in school with their costume. Does anyone my age remember the costumes we had as kids? They came in identical boxes and they all had the same components - a plastic costume with little plastic ties at your neck that would rip before you even got to school and a hard, molded plastic mask. The masks would have cut-outs for your eyes and mouth. Every kid had to stick his tongue out through the little mouth opening because, well, because it was fun. Inevitably, we'd scrape our tongues on the sharp edges of the hard plastic. The best part of those masks was, of course, the little rubber bands of death. You know - the tiny rubber bands that were attached to the mask with even tinier staples and no matter how careful you were, you always snapped yourself in the head with it. And of course, your face would sweat so much in that hot plastic that you'd have actual puddles in the mask by the time you reached the end of the block. Oh yeah, those were the days. Honestly, I can't complain because I only had a couple of those costumes. My mom was a homemade-Halloween-costume-maker herself. It's probably where I get my passion for making my kids costumes. I don't mind getting that trait passed down from Mom. :D Hee hee - just kidding, Mom!


Medusa from Clash of the Titans. What kid wouldn't want to be Medusa for Halloween? Now there was a movie with incredible special effects. My son had to watch that movie for school last year during their unit on Greek mythology. After seeing Harry Potter and Star Wars, the awesome, "realistic" stop motion animation in Clash of the Titans, just didn't seem so spectacular.


The Jolly Green Giant. I don't know about you, but I know I always wanted to dress up like the guy from the can of green beans.


Ahhh, Sleeping Beauty. Yes, I know she looks a little evil, but note that her plastic costume is flame retardant!


And the devil costume. Notice his teeth? Who knew the devil didn't brush and floss regularly?
Thank you so much Debra and Tracy for sending me those pictures from your collection!

My mom made some cool costumes for me and my sister. I've made some cool costumes for my kids, but my sister has made the ultimate costumes for herself over the years! They're absolutely remarkable.

Here are a couple of the costumes I've made my kids over the years. I wish I had more pictures of them on my computer. I don't have the time or the energy to do anything this year. I think they're all going to be ghosts.


Marge Simpson (it's bubble wrap painted blue for the hair.) I stole this idea from my sister.

A whack-a-mole game

Yeah, giving him a big padded mallet probably wasn't one of my better ideas.


A penguin and elephant I made years ago. I just used sweat pants and then cut up and glued sweat shirts. My mom did a little sewing for me on these.


Our boy genius, Jimmy Neutron.


I made a plain ole Sponge Bob costume for my oldest son way back before Sponge Bob was a household name. When we went trick-or-treating, people kept saying stuff like, "Oh look honey. It's a piece of cheese." He used that costume for two years and then we redecorated it to look like Mermaid Man.

Umm yeah, I had nothing to do with this. Gotta love a man who isn't afraid to let his hair down. (Yes, I did walk several paces in front of him)


Yep, that's a typical picture of my "princess".

Baby Blogger

Like Mommy, like daughter. She's a BabyBlogger. And she's an ultra cool BabyBlogger at that. ;)

OK, for those of you who missed the ABC segment and have asked to see it, I do not have a link for it online. However, my friend, Trish is working on getting the segment online and I'll put it up on my blog when I can.

Our new and improved product review site is up and running. Come check it out!

So, You Wanna Start a Blog?

I've had nearly a hundred people write me, after having seen the segment on ABC, to ask me how to start a blog. I don't have time to answer everyone so I thought I'd tell you what I know about blogs (not much) here.

First, keep in mind, I only started my blog four months ago and a rock probably knows more about computers than I do.

I'm sure there are many ways to start a blog. One way is to click on the "create blog" link in the top right corner of my blog. Then simply follow the steps.
That's the easy part. Now, you have to come up with interesting things about which to write. That's still pretty easy.

The hard part is getting people to read your blog. I have no idea how you go about doing that, but knowing my awesome readers, they'll write their tips, advice, and experiences in the comments of this post. Check them out. I honestly just got lucky. I placed an auction on Ebay accompanied with a little story and people read it and passed it along. People asked me if I had blog and I directed them here. Before that auction, I got around 5 hits to my blog everyday. I made a couple pennies on my ads every day. That's it.

How do you find people to advertise on your blog? Again, I'm actually not a good one to ask. People found me and asked if they could advertise on my blog.

BlogHerAds is seeking high-quality blogs with women-focused audiences as they add new premium networks and expand their existing topics:

Parenting (Mommy and Daddy bloggers are welcome)
Food
Health
Entertainment
Life...and more
What is BlogHer looking for in ad network members??

You blog regularly (2-3 times a week)
Your blog is at least 90 days old
Your blog is public
Your blog adheres to our editorial standards

You have a passion for blogging and are ready to get paid :)

...and that's pretty much it! No referrals necessary and no minimum monthly page views required!


In fact, BlogHerAds is running a little demographic survey right now. If you see it toward the top right of this blog, take a minute to click on it and answer the quick, anonymous questions. The survey will be active every day until October 20th.
The survey link is here. Thank you!

If you're planning on starting a blog to make some money, give it a shot. It doesn't hurt anything to try, right? Just keep in mind that I'm only making money from advertising because I get tens of thousands of hits a day.

Sorry, I'm not more helpful. I'm afraid the popularity of this blog, came about in an unusual way.

Um, Just how Many Cameras do you Have on You?

I was on ABC World News tonight! I know some of you caught it. While watching the segment, I should've been thinking, "I'm on TV! Cool!" Instead, the only thought going through my mind was the recollection of the Friends episode where the gang is watching an old video of Monica and she says, "...the camera adds ten pounds." To this, Chandler replies, "Just how many cameras do you have on you???" It's time to go visit my friends at Weight Watchers I think.

In every frame of the segment, I noticed my three year old jumping around like the monkey he is. And I just love the part where I tell him, "You get to have pudding for breakfast. No one else does!" Sounds like I'm bribing him, doesn't it? Not that I'm above a little bribery now and then, but my toddler had just had a tonsillectomy and was crying because he couldn't have a waffle. I was trying to explain that waffles were too scratchy for his throat and it was special that he got to have pudding for breakfast. Yep, that's me, perfect mom that I am, feeding my kid chocolate pudding for breakfast on national TV.

Anyway, the woman who interviewed me and wrote up the segment, Barbara Pinto, is awesome! She was so nice and, despite the fact that she leads a much more exciting life than I can imagine (she flew into a hurricane to cover the news!), she seemed genuinely interested in me. Here's the story she wrote on Mommy Bloggers.

Tooth Update~

I love my dentist! Whenever I have a tooth problem, this guy fits me in his schedule right away. I suspect he even skips his lunch time to see patients who have emergencies. He cracks me up too. He used to be so uptight when I'd have my kids there at the office. If he heard the baby, out in the waiting room with my husband, cry, "He'd get this worried look on his face and nervously ask, "Should you get the baby? I think I hear him crying. Do you want to go see what's wrong?" Now that he has a daughter of his own, his attitude has changed to one of, "Your baby's crying? Really? I didn't notice any crying." Funny how that works, isn't it?

Anyway, I lay down, got my pretty blue bib pinned on, and opened my mouth. My dentist took a look at my gums and said, "AAAEEEWWWW!" as he kind of jumped back. I'm thinking to myself, "this can't be a good thing when your dentist says 'Ew'." So he sticks a hunk of cardboard in my mouth to give my gag reflex a work-out while he takes an x-ray. The good news is the tooth is fine. Hooray! The bad news is that my gum is infected, however, a week of antibiotics and I should be good to go. Next week, he'll fill the first of many, many craters in my teeth.

Fridge update~

The repairman who came to my house last week told me that he'd have to order the part. Perfectly understandable that they wouldn't keep replacement parts on hand, them being an appliance repair service and all. He said it should be in by Saturday or at least by Monday. I hadn't heard anything from them, so I gave a call this afternoon and asked when they were expecting to get the part in stock. The girl on the other end of the phone replied, "Oh, we have that part in stock now." She made it sound like they'd had it forever.
"Umm ok, were you ever going to call and let me know? Do you realize I have a family of eight and we've been working without a refrigerator for a week?""
Anyway, it's scheduled to be fixed on Wednesday.

Bye Bye Birdie update~

I misunderstood my son. He didn't have to sing a song from the movie. He just had to wear a costume and/or bring in a prop and talk about the musical from the chosen character's point of view, using that character's mannerisms, and speech patterns. Whew. He did his presentation today and didn't vomit or pass out. Life is good!

My daughter, in typical little kid fashion, jumped up and down again and again and again this evening while saying, "Look at me! Mom, look at me! Look what I can do! Mom, look! Watch me!" I eagerly watched to see what she'd come up with this time. I absolutely love watching the kids' impromptu shows; watching them sing, dance, or otherwise perform. This time, it was a gymnastics exhibition. My daughter put her hands down on the floor and kicked her legs up. Right into my face. Oh well, why not have both cheeks hurt? At least I can say I'm balanced. ;)

Bye Bye Toothache

I finally broke down and called my dentist. On a Sunday. In the middle of the Bears game, no less. I told him I was pretty sure I was dying; my tooth hurt so badly. He prescribed antibiotics and pain killers and told me to give him a call in the morning. My whole face hurts. I'm taking my drugs and going to bed. Tomorrow I'm going to ask him to cut to the chase, pull out what's left of my teeth, and give me a set of dentures. I'm pretty sure I could live on ice cream and mashed potatoes.

I've had the song Bye Bye Birdie in my head all day. My son had to watch the movie and do a little report on it for his music class. Is it just me or does Dick Van Dyke (other than the color of his hair) look the same today as he did in Bye Bye Birdie?

Anyway, as part of the report on the American musical Bye Bye Birdie, my son needs to dress up like a character from the movie, complete with props, and he needs to act and talk like the chosen character. He is NOT looking forward to this. I feel bad for him because he doesn't like getting up in front of crowds. He doesn't like too much attention directed at him. On the one hand, I want to rescue him from having to stand up in front of his class and act like Elvis. On the other hand, I know it's the teacher's way of making sure he really paid attention to the film. Plus, it's a confidence building exercise and confidence is always important. Unless of course, you're the kid who gets sick, sweats profusely and throws up during your reenactment. I guess that wouldn't build too much confidence, would it? Here's hoping he's not that kid.

If you're interested, take a look at the highlighted company, Slinglings, on my other blog.



Ok, all the permission slips are signed, gym uniforms washed, and homework packed up. I'm off to bed now. And it's before 12:00! That must be some sort of record.

Green Goblin Strikes Again

I'm so excited about the new blog I started to review unique products and businesses of stay-at-home moms! I did my first review this week for my friend Angie at Good For The Kids. Her site traffic increased by 900% on the first day and her sales went through the roof! Unfortunately, my review blog looks a little umm, boring and plain, and since I have the computer skills of your average squirrel, I partnered up with Angie, who knows how to make a nice website. (She knows how to spell too!) The new site, Mamas Like, will be up and running Monday. Stop by and read about the great work-at-home mom's company I'll be profiling!


No, it's not mold. It isn't a skin disease, nor is it a rash. It's one of those darn markers that keep reappearing!


Isn't my highchair pretty, Mommy?

My tooth hurts. I mean, it REALLY hurts. Remember, I've given birth to six kids without epidurals and I've had several kidney stones. If I say something hurts, it HURTS. Have you ever heard the saying, "Have a baby, lose a tooth"? My dentist says I'm the poster child for that slogan. I never had bad teeth as a child. Even as an adult, I only acquired a couple cavities. That is, until kids. Seriously, with each pregnancy, I've gotten four, five, even six cavities each time. Literally. My smile is made up of more filling than teeth.

Last year I had a root canal. As unpleasant as it was sitting there with my mouth pried open, spit sucker slurping away, dentist filing what was left of my tooth, and smooth jazz elevator music playing in the background, I have to admit it was kind of nice. I mean, no one said, "Moooom he took my homework" or "Mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy" or "Can I have candy for dinner?" or "make her get out of my room!" I got to sit down lie down for a good hour! I didn't have to scrape gum off my son's sock (don't ask), clean cocoa powder up off the bathroom floor (perfectly normal thing to do), or try and figure out how the baby got tomato sauce in her hair when all she had to eat is scrambled eggs.

Now tell me, how else would you ever get the chance to sit down, let alone lie down, during the course of a regular day? You know what happens when you take a chance and lie down for a few minutes on a regular day at home. Pencils with big star erasers and wads of paper towels get shoved down the toilet and cinnamon-sugar mixture gets dumped on the carpet, the hot water mysteriously turns on full blast in the bathroom, marker drawings appear on the carpet, and graham cracker crumbs cover every conceivable surface in the house. So, I've heard. Ahem.

Anyway, after my root canal, I got a crown, so technically, I'm a princess now. I hope I don't need another one, but I'm pretty sure it isn't natural or normal for your tooth to cause so much pain and swelling that it looks like you're a chipmunk storing nuts for the winter. It figures I'd need another root canal since I just finished paying off my last one. Looks like my dentist will be getting that summer home after all!

Welcome Home, Honey!

My husband came home after work without doing any side jobs this evening. He's been working nonstop for weeks now, so we were thrilled when he said he'd be home for dinner tonight. He walked in from work, tired and wanting to sit down for a few minutes and relax (read - go to the bathroom for a great quantity of time.)

Upon entering the bathroom, he saw, much to his surprise, the toilet bowl filled to the brim with water. In a change of plans, he grabbed the plunger and tried to get the water to drain. No dice.

Now we live in an areas with old trees. Old trees that have roots that run for miles and miles underground and wreak havoc with the sewers. Hubby went outside, took a peek in the access hole in our yard and lo and behold, the water was up to the top. Wishing he'd just stayed at work, my husband, defeated, grabbed his tools to rod out the sewer.



Several hours pass as he grabs out tree roots and cleans out the pipes. Still the toilet wasn't flushing properly. Frustrated, he yanked the entire toilet out of the bathroom. A perfectly reasonable response to the situation, no?



He carried it outside and started flushing it with water from the hose. Finally, after much rinsing and manuevering the toilet to get it to drain, this came out...



In case you were wondering, it's not a good idea to put wads of paper towels and pencils with giant star shaped erasers in your toilet.

I Know a Song That Gets on Everybody's Nerves...

Ok, so since so many people caught my little reference to The Pirate Movie (a thoroughly silly, yet fun movie very loosely based on The Pirates of Penzance), I had to put this video here. I've had this song in my head all day. Well, not all day actually. I had this song running through my brain until my daughter started this song....

I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves
everybody's nerves
everybody's nerves
I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves
and this is how it goes
bum, bum, bum
I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves
everybody's nerves
everybody's nerves
I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves
and this is how it goes
bum, bum, bum
I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves
everybody's nerves
everybody's nerves
I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves
and this is how it goes
bum, bum, bum

(repeat until your parents totally lose it)

Of course she started singing this in the car. In rush hour traffic. Just me and all six kids in the car in rush hour traffic with her singing this song. Then my son joined in. Then another son joined in the chorus followed by another daughter. Four of them singing in our closed up car in rush hour traffic. Then my little boy started singing his own version of the song which consisted mostly of his phrase-of-the-week, "Monkey poop". Not to be left out, the baby joined in the cacophony with her rendition of the song which went mostly like Ba Ba La La Da Ba Ba! At this point, I willingly retreated to my happy place. Serenity now! Serenity now! Serenity now!

Ahhh, I remember the days when I had only one little baby. His cries would break my heart because I couldn't do anything to comfort him while I was driving. His cries would just magnify in my ears mile after mile. I never would've guessed that one day I'd be tuning out six of them just as easily and naturally as breathing.



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Hallelujah the compressor broke on my fridge! It's under warranty! Until tomorrow anyway. Yay! The repair tech. tried to collect a service fee from me even though the warranty clearly states that all labor and material to replace the compressor is covered. I told him he'd have to collect from Whirlpool. Of course, this is not a part they keep in stock so I won't be able to get it fixed until next week, but it's covered so I can wait. It barely hit 50 degrees here today so I can throw all the food out into my backyard in the meantime. ;) You know what they say about the weather in Chicago - if you don't like it, wait a minute. It'll change.

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Because so many of you commented....back by popular demand - the picture of my baby smothered in chocolate.

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I have to give a little shout out to my friend Mimi in Texas! Mimi has a son, well actually she has four sons, but one of those boys, Julian, has Medulloblastoma (aggressive cancerous brain tumor). The tumor, the size of a golf ball was totally resected on March 9th 2007. This little four year old boy has (as has the whole family) been through a lot in his few years. You can read more about Julian on his care pages. The name of his page is JuliansWorld.





I know I talk a lot about different charities, but I'd be a schmuck if I didn't use my sudden popularity to help out others. I don't mind being known as a dork, but I don't want to be known for being a selfish schmuck. So, you can skim past this part if you wish, but I have to mention it anyway. My friend Mimi is selling those rubbery wristbands that are popular with kids to help offset some of their overwhelming medical bills. They say "Julian's World" on one side and "Trust God to Beat Cancer" on the other. She sells them for $5 which includes regular USPS mail. Additional ones are only $2.50. They come in your choice of yellow (Julian's favorite color because "it's like sunshine"), silver (for brain cancer), red white and blue, glow in the dark, and camouflage. They come in three sizes - large ,medium and kids (like under 8).

If you'd like to order a bracelet, you can email Mimi at mimiavery74@msn.com and give her the following information... how many wristbands, size L,M,K(for kids), color, Y(ellow) RWB(red white blue) S(silver) GID( glow in the dark) and
C(amouflage), your shipping address and chosen method of payment, check or money order, or Paypal.

Thank you!!! :D