Ten!

Today marks ten months down on this terrible, horrible, no good, very bad deployment! I'm starting to get antsy at the thought of Jeremy coming home, so I'm trying not to think about it. It gets harder the closer we get, though. I've already started to "nest" -- I want the house in perfect order when he comes home (not that he cares, but I do -- don't want him to think I didn't do my share of the work for the last year). So, I painted the laundry room last weekend. Next on my list is to finish scrubbing the pool fence (can't power wash the darn thing without spraying the cleaners into the pool), then reorganize and clean our closet (perhaps paint it, too) and then on to power washing the house and washing the windows. I'm thinking I'll be dead exhausted by the time he gets home, if I get everything done that I want to. Hopefully keeping busy will keep me from being too antsy...

Two more months (at the most) to go....I can't wait to put this behind us!

Day off?

So, Tuesday is our "day off" around here. This is what we've done so far today:

• Put laundry room back together after painting, which included scrubbing the cupboards and floor, remounting wall hardware (hook for ironing board, brooms, etc), mounting the dust buster to the wall (finally, after two years!), and touching up the trim paint
• Mopped all the hard floors in the house
• Swept all the carpet downstairs
• Did four loads of laundry
• Dusted entire downstairs (well, except my room, which is where I'm headed next)
• Swam in the pool with the kids for a 1/2 hour
• Made dinner while kids clambered around me screaming that they were starving (all the while they were shoving oranges in their mouths -- yes, I clearly hadn't provided them with food today)
• Read 4 books to the kids
• Had a battle of the wills with Reid over whether or not we were going to practice his speech homework (I won, by the way)
• Had a battle of the wills with Reid over whether or not he was going to take a nap today (I lost, by the way)
• Danced to "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountaint" a dozen too many times
• Set the boys to timeout three times for not keeping their hands to themselves and twice for rampaging through my flower beds and trampling my plants
• Changed at least 6 poopy diapers
• And everything else I've already forgotten...

Uggghhh...I don't think I've sat for more than 5 minutes today. I'm pooped. So, really, I'm wondering exactly how this is a day off!?!? When did I start viewing a DAY OFF as an excellent opportunity to accomplish a million things, instead of relaxing and recuperating? Those pregnancy hormones must damage the brain a bit...

Editing to clarify: No, I am not pregnant. I'm referring to the fact that with each child I've had I've become seemingly more determined to exhaust myself on a daily basis.

Lucy turns 1!

So, today I wished my baby girl "Happy 1st Birthday"! I can't hardly believe it -- the last year seems to have flown by in so many ways (and slowly in others, but certainly not in respect to Lucy). It hardly seems possible that she is officially a toddler and that our family is saying goodbye to the years of having a baby in the house (and, yes, we absolutely will not be having anymore).

We spent the weekend at the ocean where my parents, sister, aunt, uncle and cousin were vacationing. I made her cake early last week, so that I could have the fun of making her one before we were gone. This is what she got:

I was totally pleased with the cake. It took FOREVER to make, though. I rolled the fondant strips for the cupcake base out several days in advance, so that they could dry enough to hold their shape. I also made all the confetti pieces from fondant, as I wanted the coloring to match. That alone took 1 1/2 hours. Add to that the 1/2 hour I spent making the fondant several days before that. And then there was the baking the cake and making the buttercream and assembling....I think that cake had about 6 hours of work in it. But it was perfect for my little princess, so I'm not complaining. Oh, yeah, it was lime cake and lime buttercream, which is quickly becoming one of my favorites....mmmmmm!

And here is the little girly enjoying her cake:

And here she is opening presents. Doesn't that look like a painful way to sit?!?!

And then her birthday celebrations were continued at the ocean. Here she is opening her gifts there (decked out in her Buckeye gear because it was game day!):

She got the CUTEST tutu from her Great Aunt Deb, Great Uncle Thomas and cousin Casey! Now, I never in a million years would have thought to buy her something like this, but it is SO STINKING CUTE! Actually, my parents and sister & brother-in-law coordinated with the monkey theme, so she got an entire wardrobe of monkey clothes for the fall -- I can't wait to get this stuff on her!

So, I'd say she had a wonderful time celebrating this week. Happy Birthday, Lucy!

And we're off!

Reid had his first day of pre-school yesterday! Our schedule is suddenly crazy, but it will be good to get back into a routine. Summer was nice, but random, which isn't the best for the little ones (or me, for that matter).

I was quite amused with him on the way there. It was like he was trying to prove that he was ready to learn (or, I suppose, getting warmed up). The whole way there he was like a little pre-school version of an encyclopedia that was spewing at me from the back seat. "M makes the mmmmm sound, Mommy, like the word marshmallow." "My lunchbox is a square because it has four sides." (Then we had a rather lengthy discussion about the difference between rectangles and squares, which got me absolutely no where.) And there was a peppering of questions, too. "How many sides does a triangle have?" "They have three, Reid." "Oh, I don't like triangles."

He was really excited to go and I'm really excited for him. I'm really impressed with his teacher this year (last year's was a big disappointment). I can't wait to see what he learns!

And just because they're cute...

Here is a decent shot of the kids together.

Lucy said, "take this stupid thing off me!"

My favorite new outfit for the fall! She was sooooo stinking cute in this!

Comment: Updated post to fix gross gramatical error. Good grief -- I swear my brain is rotting in my skull some days!

A series of funny photos

The other night, the kids were in the backyard playing and I, of course, had my camera out and was snapping pictures. The boys were swinging, when Reid asked me to take pictures of him making funny faces. I told him okay and snapped a dozen or so. He loves looking at the pictures on the camera. So, it wasn't until I downloaded the pictures that I noticed something really funny. Check out Ross's face in these photos (to really appreciate them, you need to click on the individual photo to see the full size shot). He was totally not participating in the funny face making -- he was just swinging and making noise (he's a constant stream of chatter and wonky sounds right now). His facial expressions are just hilarious! I got a total kick out of these...