Another Annabelle Funny

So at my house, the three oldest kids play soccer. I have a "You must be at least 4 years old to play an organized sport" rule at my house. So the other day, I was cleaning the kitchen and I hadn't seen Annabelle in a little bit so I called out to her and asked her what she was doing. She replied, "Getting ready for soccer." I thought nothing of it because she is always putting on the other kiddos cleats and stuff. She comes out and says, "I put my shin guard on!" She was very proud. Here's what I saw...

Okay...I need a closer look...can't really tell exactly what that is...

Yep, it was a Maxi pad! Not to worry, it was a new one, but still...Zoe, of course, said, "Annabelle, that's not a shin guard!" Annabelle said, "Well, what is it then?" Zoe looked at me like what do I tell the three year old? I waited to see what Zoe would tell her. "Um, yep, it's a shin guard!"

Office Supplies and Mascara

No, this isn't a post about a recent shopping trip. This morning as I was putting on my mascara I thought to myself "I need some new mascara" which got me thinking about how much I love getting new mascara. My eyelashes are pretty much non-existent so I have to wear mascara so I love getting it new. Of course, I am married to man whose eyelashes touch his sunglasses when he is wearing them. (so not fair!!!) Anyway, there are a few aisles at the store that I will look at just about everything in them. Now, my desire for these items is almost always trumped by my hatred of spending money on myself, but I always look. One of those aisles is the office supply aisle. I love all that stuff...paper clips, pens, colored paper...you name it and I can probably come up with a reason that I NEED that stuff in my home. Again, I hate spending money on myself so I can usually talk myself right out of it. Another aisle is the craft aisle (or the entire Hobby Lobby itself). I love the idea of crafty projects. How sad is it that I rarely actually do them? I actually have done more here recently and since my kids are getting older, these type things are lots of fun. And the mascara aisle...I am lured by the promise of the brush extending each individual lash by 15% (who measures this??) Oh, and the voice in my head that makes that promise is almost always a British female and that mascara is going to make me 5 foot 11 and 125 pounds. Just by putting on the mascara! Powerful stuff...

Thankfully for Adam, my rational side almost always wins this battle. The side of me that says, "Why in the world would someone pay $15 or $20 for mascara?" And then I reach for the sensible mascara that will ultimately do the same thing for half the money.

Our friends...

Here is a picture from our Chick-Fil-A meeting with Charity, Andy and their three boys...Left to right- Heath (9), Jude (4), Sebastian (5), Noah (10), Elijah (8), Zoe (9) and Annabelle (3). This was as close to a good picture as I could get...we had a hard time getting them all to be still. And, my boys really wanted to make silly faces. But we had a great time! Love you, Charity and Andy!!!!

ATO Founders Day and lots of fun...

We had such a fun weekend! Each year, Adam's college fraternity has a Founder's Day celebration and he tries to go every two or three years. Well, this year, lots of his college friends all came so he was able to hang out with lots of his "old" friends. I think he had a great time. The kids and I dropped him off in Jackson, TN on Friday night and picked him up on Sunday. Friday night after we dropped him off, we were able to see my friend Charity and her husband and her three kids. We haven't seen them in 6 or 7 years! We stayed at Chick-Fil-A for a little over two hours and visited so much. It was so much fun. Then the kids and I headed for my brother's house. It's always so much fun to visit with them because they have a 10 year old girl and a 5 year old boy. So everyone has fun. Saturday morning I took all the girls to the mall to spend time with my friend Heather and her two kiddos. Ashley (my sister-in-law) kept the boys and took them to McDonalds. I think everyone had a good time. Saturday night, Ashley and I took the girls to see the Hannah Montana movie. It was pretty cute. Of course, it had a huge Daddy/Daughter relationship part of the story, so I cried. Add that to the embarrassing list of movies that I cry at! But, it was a pretty cute movie. Sunday morning we got up and went to Faith Baptist, which is where Adam and I got married. Well, to be correct, now there is a huge beautiful worship center instead of the gym where Adam and I got married. It was so much fun to see Brother Danny and Brother Todd and lots of people that I have known since I was 10 years old. Then we headed back to Jackson to pick up Adam and we even got to spend a little time with some of his friends. It was a lot of fun!!

A Random Thought

Why is it that we can put a man on the moon but no one has been able to figure out how to make a cereal bag that doesn't rip when you open it?

So there are certain things that happen in your life where you realize you are, indeed, a mother. You also realize why no one actually tells you every detail of being a mother before you are one because then no one would ever do it!

When they are babies, they pee and poop on you way more than anyone ever told you they would. And they "spit up" on you too. I put spit up in quotation marks because that is really just a nice phrase for puking on you. You spend the first year of life with something constantly on your shirt or pants and you don't change your shirt or pants because they are just going to get dirty again. At one point during this stage, you look at yourself and think, "Wow...I'm really a mom."

Then they start potty training and now you find yourself cleaning poop out of panties and underwear, pants, socks, and the floor of wherever they were just standing. This stage is slightly easier because at least now they can say, "I love you, Mommy," which makes things a little easier to swallow. And again, you look at yourself and think, "Once again, I am a mom."

Once they are out of that stage, then anything else that you have to endure in this field will be centered around blood and/or broken bones. Not too bad. Don't get me wrong, there are many other things that go on in this stage that I don't have time to discuss here, but on the subject of gross bodily fluids that you have to clean up, it's not too bad.

Which brings me to my day today...Zoe came home from school yesterday with symptoms that are textbook UTI. Of course, she didn't really express how she was feeling to me until last night. So, this morning we headed to the doctor. I found myself squatting between her legs as she is sitting on the toilet, holding the cup for her to pee in. Lovely. We were there for about an hour and she never could pee on demand. (For the record, I don't understand this, because I have had four babies, so I could fill a cup at any point on any given day. But, I realize she is only 10 years old) So, the doctor gives us the plastic urine specimen cup and tells us to bring to back once she has been able to pee in it.

So, now here I sit at work with a urine sample on my desk and I just looked at myself and thought, "Wow...you are a mother."

Video of Annabelle dancing with Adam's Dad

This is a sweet video of Annabelle dancing with Adam's dad. She is singing "Can I Have This Dance?" from High School Musical 3. She is saying "It's one in a million, the chances of feeling the way I do. And with ever step together, we just keep on getting better. Can I have this dance?"

Organization Update

So it's been almost two weeks since we organized the kids rooms. And, I'm very happy to say that it has been maintained! The soccer bucket is fabulous! Here's an example: On Tuesday, Zoe was supposed to have soccer practice at 5:30 pm followed by all three soccer players having pictures made at 7:00 pm. By around 3:00, Zoe's coach had called and cancelled practice and the boys coach had called and cancelled pictures. So, since it had rained all day and it looked like we were going to be inside for the night, the kids were playing dress up and whatever. At 5:20, Adam calls me and tells me that Zoe's pictures were actually at 5:30, not 7:00 and they were still taking them! He also says that no pictures have been cancelled, so the boys should probably be dressed too since we wanted a picture of all three of them. Okay, so I pulled out the soccer bucket and was able to produce 3 soccer jerseys, 3 pairs of shorts, 3 pairs of soccer socks, 3 pairs of shin guards and 3 pairs of soccer cleats in about 45 seconds. We ran around like crazy people getting dressed (since Zoe is really the only one who can get all of that stuff on by herself) and got out the door. We got the soccer field at 5:38! I'm not kidding! Now, I was sweating and driving as fast as the speed limit would allow me (now I have people in the car who look at my spedometer and get on to me when I am speeding), but we were there.

On another note, this weekend I decided I was going to organize some other things. I realize that I have a small army that can and needs to help with running our household. I also feel like I need to say that I am not naturally an organize person. I don't think in lists, so I usually just assign tasks to the kids as needed. This doesn't always work. So, Sunday night, I sat down and made a list of all of the household chores. I divided the list into things that needed to be done daily, things that needed to be done twice and week and the things that only need to be done once a week. Then I assigned children to each of the tasks. I assigned dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, laundry (collecting the clothes, washing, drying and taking them out - I will fold them - each child puts their own stuff away) bathrooms, feeding the dog and keeping the kitchen table wiped down. I made a colorful chart with clip art for each chore with the days of the week that they need to be done and the name of the child responsible for the chore. The kids loved it! I put it on the refrigerator and they have checked it each day and done their chores! We told them that if they do their chores for a month, then they will receive a reward. We haven't really decided what the reward would be, but they have been doing the chores without a promise of anything. I kept anything having to do with the kitchen for me, but the rest of it has been going really well. I am finally using my little army!

Confessions

Okay, so I have a confession to make about myself. I am a crier. Those of you who know me well will not be shocked at this admission. I cry at lots of different things...movies, songs, TV shows, TV commericials...you name it. But, I also have a "cry quota" that must be met. So, here are a list of movies that make me cry and why: (some of these are serious-tear jerker films and some of them are not!)

The Notebook - where to start on this one? The whole thing is so sad and sweet through the whole thing.

Atonement - this movie just has three scenes in it that make me cry. The first one is when Robbie and Cecelia see each other for the first time in the restaurant and they don't know what to say to each other. His crying is so sweet. Then, the scene where Briony is apologizing to them. When only Cecelia's voice can calm Robbie down and quiet his anger. And, then when Robbie dies during the war. The way he lights the match to look at the postcard and the life leaves him as the light flickers out. That scene is so emotionally charged.

Where The Heart Is - I love the end of this movie. The scene where Novalee goes to find Forney and, when she does, he asks her why she lied to him about loving him. She says, "Because I thought you deserved better." And he says, "Oh, Novalee, there isn't anything better than you."

Pride and Prejudice - I like the Joe Wright version of it with Matthew Macfayden as Mr. Darcy and Kiera Knightly as Elizabeth Bennett. I love the scenes where he just doesn't know what to do with himself because he loves her so much. I cry everytime they are in the moor and then when she is asking her father's blessing.

Toy Story 2 - Don't laugh...every time I watch the scene where Jessie sings her song about Emily, I cry. I can't help it. It is so sad when she drops her at the donation barn.

High School Musical 2 - again, don't laugh...I cry when they break up (he is so SAD!) and then I cry again when she shows up at the talent show and starts singing. Yes, I have seen this movie a million times, but those scenes still make me tear up.

High School Musical 3 - again, he is so SAD when she leaves! And then, when she shows up and they dance their "prom" dance. Yes, I'm a complete sap.

The Patriot - this is the movie with Mel Gibson, not Steven Seagal. I am a complete sap whenever it comes to Daddy/Daughter stories, so the scenes with Benjamin Martin and Susan Martin (his little girl who doesn't speak until she is begging him not to go to war). I can almost cry just remembering it!

I'm sure there are many more ( I promise, there are!) but no one has time for a complete list. Anything with a daddy/daughter type story line makes me cry. Father of the Bride I & II are I'm-crying-so-hard-I'm-hiccuping type movies. Same with Cheaper By the Dozen 1 & 2. Any movie with a Daddy having a hard time with his kids growing up is a guaranteed.

Those are my "dark confessions". Now you can all go and say a quick prayer for my sweet husband who has to live with a person while he can see no reason a sane person could ever "need to cry."