Tuesday, September 18, 2007

Is It Possible?

I believe I have accomplished even less with my kids in school than I was when they were all home. Is this really possible?
With all the extra running around I feel like I have had know time for the important things. Like, knitting, talking on the phone for leisure (bill paying is not included), scrapbooking and reading. I have become a slave to the household to do list. Humffff.. Oh the joys...

We did just arrive home Sunday afternoon from the annual church family camp. I have realized that as much fun as it can be for the whole family. Some times spending three days and 2 sleepless nights with other people is not always fun. hehhee. Details in person later. I don't want to offend anyone. Ahheemmmm..

Alex has officially become the one line singing extravaganza. If I hear another Disney Movie chorus I could jump out of my moving vehicle. He is always wanting me to sing along. I don't really enjoy the Chicken Little Songs OVER AND OVER.. Sooooo.. "DON'T GO BREAKIN MY HEART, DON'T GO BREAKIN MY, DON'T GO BREAKING MY HEART" rerun again and again can make a person temporarily insane.
Add to that the "WHY CAN'T WE BE FRIENDS, WHY CAN'T WE BE FRIENDS." with varying degrees of vibrato (of course) finishing off his chorus medley with "IF YOU WANNA BE MY LOVER GOTTA GET WITH MY FRIENDS." it is a full day before we get the breakfast dishes done. Oh the joys of my little boy.

It has been a wonderful experience for the troops. I have had lots of encouraging comments from others who have had my kiddos throughout the day and they all say what wonderful, respectful, helpers they are. Is it bad for me to be a tiny bit bitter that they are at school HELPING when they could be home picking up the toys and misc. clothes tossed about?
I will refrain from any negative thoughts about the lack of helping at home. At least they are behaving in public and being a general blessing to others.. My biggest school room fears have been avoided.

Top Ten List of School Fears

10. The bathroom announcement with details as to which number (1 or 2)
9. Raising their hand just so they CAN talk.
8. Not participating in school activities because they are to big for them. (this is a big one for our 5 year old.)
7. Attempting to burp the ABC song or worse for the older ones their spelling words. (boys find this very entertaining)
6. Trying to convince the choir teacher that the armpit really is a musical instrument. (just give my boys a few minutes of your time.)
5. Pushing their way to the head of the line because they want to be first.
4. Taking off their clothes because they are just too hot.
3. Admitting to FARTING in class with complete confidence
2. Using their SPECIAL made up swear words in every day life. I won't post for those that keep it g rated
1. Revealing the secrets of our household to the general classroom population.
Our mom watched NETFLIX movies (Ugly Betty, Dr. House while we practice our spelling words.)
Don't judge me on the last one. We only have 2 more discs I will be more responsible. You would do it too. Maybe you just can't admit it. hehehehe. I have tried to consider this part of multi-tasking but it doesn't really fit.

If any of you would like to enable me to purchase my spinning wheel at OFFF this weekend please leave your encouraging comments and I will print them off for my hubby. HE JUST DOESN'T SEE THE FINANCIAL INVESTMENT LIKE I DO.. hehehe..

Friday, September 07, 2007

Doctors Office Visit

WARNING!! THIS POST CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT MIGHT NOT BE SUITABLE FOR ANYONE WHO IS NOT A WOMEN. OR IS UNFAMILIAR WITH BEING A WOMAN..

So today was my official prenatal visit. We have been blessed to have our last 3 babies at home and intend to do it with this baby too. I was thinking that I was going in to the office to do all the customary blood work and listen to the baby's heart beat. Our Dr. is our back up doctor so we see him when we have to. Our midwives are much more in tune with making you feel comfortable before they zap you with words like pap smear and OVERWEIGHT. It is really necessary to point out to the fat girl that she is overweight. Therefore risks for this and that are higher. I have not exactly been average weight since having kids nothing has changed. Do I not know I am overweight. Hello... I think I am aware of that. Seriously! This happened.


He wanted to do the routine exam. Breast exam, pap the whole nine yards. I should appreciate the thoroughness. I don't appreciate the procedures. What do you say after that? Thank you. Have a nice day. See you next time. Let's have coffee. I don't think so..

Part 2: The Lab. I know the lab lady so that was a giggle fest. Until she flashed the bottle of ORANGE liquid at me. Yes the lovely glucose test. So I put on my party hat and chug...chug...chugged that baby down. As I was drinking it, I realized with startling reality why I hate ORANGE SODA. It taste exactly like this stuff. YUCK!! After the liquid yuck was down. I continued to catch up with the gal at the lab. Laughing is not the best thing to do with a full bladder. But it was a good transition from the dreaded exam.

Part 3: The Plan. The original plan for the day included a quick trip into Costco for some essentials and lunch items. Well that had to be re-planned (or rather scrapped completely) do to the extended doctors appointment. At this point it had been almost 2 full hours. So plan B was to spend a few hours at the Local Yarn Shop... Oh yes. What better way to kill the thoughts of the morning completely. So off we went. My friend, Alex and her 3 little ones. I know crazy as it sounds the kids did amazingly well. Thanks Nichole for tolerating the "WHEELS ON THE BUS GO ROUND AND ROUND" over and over and over.

Anyway enough of that. A girl can only take so much the first week of school. Without her children. Really, do I need to be this flexible? On to the kid news...
I promise I am almost done BORING you all with my saga.

We could not have asked for kinder, more caring individuals to have with our troops all day at school. Kindergarten has opened my eyes to the crazy life of a K-5 teacher. Here are the highlights.

***Cole was so excited to be a construction worker and parade around the halls of the school. He got to go to the Principals office and he spilled chocolate pudding on his stark white button up shirt. Clarification on the principals office. We were thinking oh great 3rd day and already in trouble. Truth was they went on a tour of the school and got to see the principal's office. WHEW!!

***Makoa(2nd grade) He was worried that mom would be sad without him home. He asked me on day 2 if it would be okay if he tried school again tomorrow. He assurred me his teacher was really nice and he was going to trade some of his lunch at school the next day so he should be there. Well of course I wouldn't want to waste all my hard work preparing that meal for my child. Sure sweety, you go ahead and go to school again. Forget the education.. Let the trading begin.

*** Austyn(5th grade) No I am not smarter than a 5th grader. After the parents met the teacher and toured the classrooms. I do not desire redoing 5th grade.. His teacher is young and super sweet. She came up to us and said " Austyn is such a joy to have in class.etc.etc." He is a great help. It was nice to hear that. I wanted to stick around and see if she said this to all the parents. I left quickly and kept thinking HEY MAYBE WE ARE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT... Yeah!!

So, I have survived the first week of school. Also, my sitter (currently a senior at their school) even offered to bring them home from school. Who could ask for a better wrap up? Thanks for the kind words and well wishes this week.

Wednesday, September 05, 2007

The First Day

Who knew that sending your kids to school for the first time could cause a person to sweat profusely. Yes SWEAT... I was doing pretty well with the idea of everything until I loaded them all into the car and was halfway to school.

They were chattering with Alex letting him know he would have so much fun with mom.
Alex was a bit disgusted that he was not able to go to school too. They were so sweet comforting him.

Our morning started with Dad's cheesy potatoe breakfast. Usually a crowd pleaser. They were too excited to eat. Followed by each child clearing their plates (without being asked) putting them in the dishwasher and promptly getting ready for the day.

This all seemed so strange the banter, cooperation, kind words about their apperance. They aren't normally mean to each other it was just one of those quiet calm moments that make you wonder what is coming.

Anyway back to the story. I was getting all the bags of school supplies out of the van and into the proper childs hands. All of them started to talk at the same time. Will the kids tease us? Is Alex going to get a smoothy? He said you are buying icecream? Are you getting us or is dad coming to get us? It was then I noticed the armpit rings in the side mirror of the van. Thank God I had my sweat shirt in the car. I don't believe this was the original design feature of the sweat shirt but I put it on real quick and ran the kids inside.
Ausytn was happy to be able to be the first helper to arrive in class.
Cole was just a little confused as to why the teacher was calling him Justin. Instead of Cole (His whole name is Joshua Cole). That is what happens when you call your child by his middle name his whole life. Ooopps..
Makoa was a little bit more appropriate with his reaction. He was a little worried but hugged me and went to meet his teacher.

I am so proud of them. They did such a good job with everything. The sweat just kept pouring. Is this a normal reaction to stress? I don't know.
By the time I filled out the paper work I was soaked through my t-shirt. I couldn't tell if I wanted to cry because I was sweating so bad or because I had just dropped my kids off for the first time.

Alex the whole time was chattering on and on and on. Hehehee..

So after a quick stop for a hot cocoa and OJ break with a friend at Shari's. I came home to shower and cry. It only lasted as long as the shower did. I felt 10 times better after that.
The kids survived and so did mom. They all wanted to try it again today.

Rick has taken on official breakfast cook duty so I am down with that. The only other adjustment is the snacks and lunches for all of them. But the big boys will do their own lunched next week.(Another great dad idea)..

Well I should wrap this up for now and warn you that my blog content may lack it's usual I can't believe he did that moments. But I will share anyway.

Monday, September 03, 2007

Labor Day!

Well I have been putting off an update until I had all my stuff together. Again that did not happen. hehheeh.. So I will post another photo free blog post. Sorry.

We have had a few new developements at housefullofboys (AKA the Whitaker house).
A few weeks ago after our hawaii family visted I was feeling a bit under the weather lots of headaches that turned into migraines. Headaches have been a part of my life for a while now. So I didn't think much of it. But when I started the extreme sleepy, nausea and vomiting. I began to suspect it was more than a month long hang over..

With a busy house of boys. I tend to get a little overwhelmed with daily household responsibilities. So I figured stress. Hahahahhaha.
After being forced into the bathroom with a home pregnancy test (yes forced, by my hubby). I waited a few extra minutes. I truly was shocked that the test was POSITIVE.... When my husband started knocking on the door saying WELLLLLLLLLLL!! What does it say? I just opened the door handed him the test and sat down to finish knitting the bday gift socks I had been working on.

He is so excited to be adding a new little one to the crew. We are not sure exact due dates yet but we are thinking by mid-march baby number 5 should be on scene.
Funny how things have a way of sneaking up on you...

This news was followed by the news that Austyn's homeschool turtoring group ( he adored) was not going to financially be able to stay open. That completely changed out school plans. We had intended to send Austyn full time this year so I would only have 2 at home full time homeschooling. Soooooooo.. To make a long story short we have decided to put the 3 kids into a local private school for the year.

Note to anyone: Don't make a life changing school decision the weekend before school starts. Top three reasons..
1. You have to shop WITH the kids.
2. The stores are out of half the items you need anyway.
3. It costs a whole lot more all at once.. hehhee

After a sugar induced adventure to Walmart at 5pm at night. We spent our first investment for the year. Ughhh.. Came home to double check the lists and had to return yesterday for the essentials like TP, toothpaste, bread, milk and cereal.

It hit me yesterday that the one downside to not homeschooling was that I have to wake up and make breakfast at 6:30am instead of 8am. We will be adjusting for the next couple weeks.

I will post tomorrow. I would take a picture of my crying mommy moment, but how do ask someone to photograph that.. heheheh..

So highlights of the summer to follow. Stay tuned for more baby info..