I've Got a Bug

Seems like the most popular conversation between the moms at school has been whether or not they are going to get their kids vaccinated for the flu and H1N1. Many of the students have been out because they have had one bug strain or another.

It has been cause for alarm and confusion among these highly involved parents, as there are so many different reasonable arguments for and against these vaccines.

I, too, fall into the category of alarmed and confused mother, and I have come to the conclusion that I am fighting the confusion with a bug of my own.

I'm concerned that I have contracted a crafting/baking bug, being that all I can think about lately is crafting and baking. If the release of creative juices is a remedy for keeping viruses out of our home, we are completely covered for the next 3 flu seasons, for sure!

For the kid's school carnival cake walk... Mr. & Mrs. Frankenstein

The only creepy crawly creatures that are allowed within 100 feet of our house...Friendly Spider Hairbows

When my husband asked me to make a treat for him to share with his co-workers at the office, I went all out....Mummy Cookies, Festive Cake with Chocolate Ganache, & Candy Corn CookiesI'm thinking that Betty Crocker should stop sending me email updates with "Fun and Delicious Recipe Ideas." If she doesn't, I fear that my family will be busting the seams of their size 6 and 7 clothing. And I am not at all interested in gaining back the 40 pounds I lost over two-and-a-half years ago!

Little Jokestress

Sweet and innocent, wouldn't you say? Sugar and spice and everything nice, right? Oh, how I wish that were true.
In reality, Bella is my jokestress, (feminine for "jokester," of course).

Today our elementary school took part in a special fundraiser for Rady Children's Hospital. The students sold a special edition of the newspaper called, "Kid's News Day." It features articles about children who have overcome great odds and who have lived through serious trauma.

At the request of my children, I read to them numerous articles about children who experienced serious trauma. They were genuinely concerned about what happened to these kids. A number of relevant questions were asked. I felt quite proud that my children had such empathy for what these children were going through.

And then, mostly by accident, Bella threw in her humor.

Pointing to a picture of one of the patients and a woman, Bella questioned, "Is that the little girls' mom?"

After reading the caption below the picture, I answered, "No, it is her Occupational Therapist."

Without hesitation, she retorted, "Therapist? Is that something like, My dog pist?"

Leave it to Bella to lighten up a serious situation!

I'm Back!

For the first time since July 2, I am actually sitting down to my computer to type a post on my horribly neglected blog, and....I only have 14 minutes 32 seconds to do just that, because my kiddos would be mortified if I didn't pick them up from school.

Why does it seem that I have become a slave to a schedule? More than ever, it seems that I am barking a time frame to my kids.

"We're leaving in 6 minutes!"
"In 5 minutes we need to be downstairs eating breakfast!"
"It's 7:30! Time to strap in the car and leave for school!"
"Your soccer game is at 10:00! It's time to go!"

Notice the exclamation marks...those were not put there by mistake. Oh, quite the contrary. By the time I've repeated myself 5 times to 4 children, an exclamation is quite necessary! If you do the math, you will conclude, that I have repeated myself +/- 20 times.

What am I thinking? I forgot to include my darling husband. Nine times out of ten, he needs to hear the barks as well!

Now that I've got all that off my chest, I'll follow up soon with a post of substance! I'll even include some of the thousands of pictures that were taken during my sabbatical!

I've missed you blog world!!!

Find Me A Hole...Or Some Super Glue

I know that it wasn't long ago that I swore that I wouldn't be heading back to Walmart ever again after my sweet, little Annie brought me to my knees in embarrassment, but if truth be told, I've entered those doors at least 50 times since I made that promise.

And on that 5oth visit, my clan was determined to embarrass me even deeper!

It almost seemed as if it was all part of their master plan. You see, my girls have entered a phase where frilly skirts and dresses are their, "threads of choice," and they talked me into toting them down to Walmart so they could pick out some fabric to make them some skirts.

Because my children easily engage in conversation with anyone and everyone, they quickly traded in the audience of the nice lady who was looking through the pattern books, to an audience of the two employees who were working at cutting the fabric. If I knew ahead of time, which way the conversation was going to go, I would have only chosen to buy 1/8 of a yard of one fabric, rather than 5 yards of five different fabrics.

In less time than it took the employee to cut one of the pieces of fabric, each of my four rugrats darlings had blurted out statements that were totally unfounded. Well, most of the statements were, anyways.

I'm not even sure of the question that was asked to intiate such conversation, and I was waiting for the hidden camera to make it's sudden appearance.

Angel began with, "Our mom doesn't even want us!"

Isaac followed up in confirmation with, "Yah! She screams at us ALL.THE.TIME!"

And as if it was relevant to the previous digs, Bella blurted out, "Yah....My mom had 2 miscarriages!"

Was it pent up anger spewing from my kids' lips? I'll admit that I have perfected the Art of Screaming Loud Talking, but to suggest that I "don't even want them?" That is utterly obsurd. While the employee fidgeted with a computer malfunction, instead of climbing under the fabric cutting table, I loudly explained to my kids how very much I wanted them.

With wide grins, our two audience members tried to comfort me. I'm sure they were worried about the loss of color from my face, and the pharmacy was a much safer departement for my needs than the fabric department at that moment in time.

Or maybe the hardware department would have better suited my needs. Had I first bought a tube of super-glue and glued those cute lips shut, I never would have had the problem in the first place!

Apples, And More Apples

I agreed to picking apples at my dad's house last Friday after the kids got out of school.

I had no idea we would also be picking up "Road Apples!"

Mini Money Managers

Mark is bound and determined to raise children as financially responsible as he is!

Which is why he toted the trio down to the bank last Saturday morning to open up their first bank accounts...besides their college funds.

Which is also why he insists that every penny they get lands directly into their Ziploc bag full of money.

Which is why Isaac came to me the other morning pleading with me to buy him some Trix yogurt. Which was interesting to me, seeing as Isaac's requests are usually for Bakugans or Legos.

And what is the relationship between yogurt and bank accounts you may be asking? It went something like this:

"Mom? Can you please buy me a package of Trix yogurt please?"

Because I was in the middle of getting myself ready for the day, I quickly appeased him and told him I would be happy to buy him some Trix yogurt next time I went to the store.

"Do you know why I want to buy Trix yogurt? They're giving away $10,000 and I want to try to win some money. Do you know what I would do with the money, Mom? I would give some to you and some to Daddy! Would you please buy TWO packages of Trix yogurt, please?"

After glancing up to see his genuinely sweet look, I wanted to rush out and buy him a whole case of Trix yogurt!

Questions to Soon

Maybe I'm forgetting , because it was 29 years ago that I was a kindergartner. Or maybe I'm just being naive because it is my clan that I am talking about, but I don't recall questioning my parents about the things my children are questioning me about.

The other day, Angel began to inquire about all sorts of marital matters.

"Mom? Can two people live together even if they aren't married?"

I tried to explain that people do live with their significant others, but that it was not right in God's eyes.

And then she took it a step further.

"Well if they can't live together, can they still have babies?"

I was SO afraid that the next question was going to be, "Where do babies come from?" and I'm absolutely, positively sure, I am NOT ready to answer that question!

I'm not 100% sure where this is coming from, but I have my thoughts about who the child is.

And I'm pretty sure it's not the same child who taught my kids a new term for testicles when he happily wrote and illustrated in his journal yesterday, "The baseball hit me in the nuggets."

And I'm pretty sure when I was in kindergarten 29 years ago, that nuggets were the chicken pieces we ordered at the Mc Donald's drive-thru window!

What is this world coming to?