Organization

Chris and Carmen's question of the week on how we run a large family is on organization.

For some reason people seem to think that because you have a lot of kids that you must be very organized. That folks is just not true.

In theory moms of large families may have the desire to be organized but being the mom of a large family in reality means that you have more people who most likely do NOT have the desire to be organized!

My world functions better with organization- I'm happier, calmer and much easier to get along with when things are clean and organized.

You would think that this would somehow give the other members in my immediate (meaning those who live IN my home) the desire to keep things neat and organized BUT it seems to have the opposite effect on them.

In keeping with the theme of Chris and Carmen I will show you what I have done that works for our family and not all the things that I have tried that didn't catch on very well.

Not to say that what I have done that works was not accomplished without much screaming and gnashing of teeth. But hey, whatever works, right?!

My kitchen is fairly organized because I designed it and had all the cabinets installed where I wanted them. Thanks to my Mom's tips it came out better than can be expected. Now if I could just get everyone to stop using it to store their crap it would be great!

Laundry is fairly simple. Once you are twelve you do your own laundry and have your own laundry basket and your own laundry day. For everyone else there are two hampers in the hallway to put your clothes in and I wash them all. Fold them on the kitchen table thus forcing them to be put away before we sit down to dinner. Once you are six you put your own clothes away. Before that I do it and once you approach that age I start teaching you how to do it.

Clothes storage. We don't have any dressers in our house. They take up to much room and aren't as sturdy as they used to be. So all of our kids have storage things from IKEA and they are all in the same place. One whole wall and half of another house these. Bins are cheap to replace if they need to be and it's easy to put clothes away and out of rooms this way. Church clothes are hung up in your closet in your room.

Each child has a storage thing that holds 3 bins next to their bed which holds toys or whatever miscellaneous things they want to put in them. At least that is the idea. The only exception to this is the baby girls' room which has a bookshelf with blankets and toys in baskets. I can get them out to let them play in their room but mainly use them to store toys that rotate out from the coffee table.

In the kids bathroom we have two shelves with hooks underneath the bottom one. Each person has a different color towel that hangs on the hook. Each person also has a hygiene baskets that holds their toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, airbrush, shampoo, soap, face wash, razors, shaving cream, lotion and shower scrubby. These baskets are stored on the two shelves - bigger kids with things like razors on the top shelf and younger kids on the bottom shelf.

In the hallway we have another bin holder (these are all from IKEA) that holds a small bin for each child. This is for them to put homework that needs to be finished and their AWANA books. The idea is that they can easily find these items when they need them, again, this is JUST the idea!

Our coffee table is another storage area. The baskets on the bottom hold baby toys. This allows them easy access to their toys and maybe, just maybe I can teach them to be more organized than the others. OK I can hope though, right?! The top middle basket holds diapers, butt cream and wipes. The baskets on each side hold mail, magazines and whatever miscellaneous things get put in there. We also have end table with baskets that hold books that are being read, puzzle books and again whatever miscellaneous things are thrown in there.

Finally a picture

My Mom has been asking me for a picture of Taniyah with her birthday present that she sent. Since I'm sitting down in between loads of laundry I decided that I could upload some new pictures onto Flickr.

So the long awaited picture!


There are others on Flickr also!

Morning Routine

Chris (The Big Yellow House) and Carmen (Mom to the Screaming Masses) did their morning routines on Wednesday. Well I finally made it over there to read their question of the week and decided -even though I am almost a week late - to join in. Tomorrow I will try to get over there to read the new question of the week about raising a large family.
I used to homeschool like Chris but after 5 years decided it was time to send them off to school so my morning routine is more along the lines of Carmen.

5am-5:30am Alarm #1 goes off. I stumble to the bathroom while hubby goes to retrieve alarm #1 from her bed. I turn off alarm #1 with nursing while hubby gets in the shower.

6am - Alarm #2 goes off and I hit snooze, deciding if I really want to get up and shower or lay and sleep for another 9 minutes.

6:09 - I get up trying not to disturb alarm #1 and head to the shower. Grab a mini candy bar and try to get the light to stay "on" in the "off" position (remember we live in a fixer upper house and it's something we haven't fixed yet). Hop in the shower.

6:30 Out of the shower and dressed. Hubby is usually still sitting on the toilet with his towel wrapped around him, contemplating the task of getting dressed.

6:35 Start making rounds to get everyone out of bed - my high schooler SHOULD be up and gone by this point. I don't get him up as I'm to lazy to get up any earlier. I just tell him good bye before he goes to bed at night!!

6:40 Get Ellie from her crib and deposit her into her high chair with cheerios. Get Taniyah (AKA alarm #1) from my bed and deposit her in to her high chair with cheerios. Hope that they don't protest to loudly.

6:45 Heat up a cup of coffee and go back through rooms to pull blankets off of any stragglers who still lurk in their beds.

6:48-7ish Get Angie and Makkiah dressed for preschool. This entails taking one of them into the livingroom and dressing them quickly before the other one seems them "naked". Hope that the other one doesn't come into the livingroom as we then have a major meltdown that somebody saw them "naked" - even if they are half dressed. Then inventing something for the dressed one to go look for while I dress the other one, who jumps behind me anytime they hear anyone near the livingroom to make sure that no one seems them "naked".

7-7:15 Brush Brayana, Destini, and Angie's hair. For anyone who has tenderheaded, drama "princess" girls you know how this dance goes. Brush hair while the current princess is screaming and hopping around. You must be quick on your feet and very skilled to complete this task with not one but three of these beautiful princess girls.

7:15-7:20 Give Makkiah his medication. Refill cheerios on baby trays or give them shredded mini wheats for a change of pace and a little peace and quiet.

7:20-7:25 Make the rounds a third time to remove any stragglers from their beds, in front of the TV or computer to make sure they are 1)Dressed in appropriate clothes that weren't worn yesterday 2)they have brushed their teeth and hair 3)they have washed their faces and put on deodorant 4)they have socks on their feet and 5)that they have any of the miscellaneous 5 million papers that get sent home on any of the assorted days that need to be sign, filled out or completed and returned to school that day or they will "be in so much trouble and their teacher won't like them and life will be miserable".

7:25-7:30 Sign, fill out, and complete any of the miscellaneous 5 million papers that get sent home on any of the assorted days that need to signed, filled out or completed and returned to school that day or they will "be in so much trouble and their teacher won't like them and life will be miserable". Question again why they didn't give me the papers when they got them only to be given the answer of "you didn't ask!"

7:30-7:40 Round up Angie and Makkiah so that I can play the "I-know-I-should-let-you-brush-my-teeth-but-I-don't-really-want-to-do-that" game and wash their faces.

7:40-7:42 Brush my teeth while Angie and Makkiah look at me in amazement that "you brush your teeth too Mom!"

7:43 Make sure that the babies in their high chairs have sufficient cheerios to hold them over for the next 10 minutes

7:44 Tell Brayana, Destini and Jaleel that it is indeed time to get shoes on to go to the bus stop and end Destini's never ending question of "Is it time to go yet?" I swear she would have us standing at the bus stop at 5am if she could just to make sure that she wasn't late for the bus - which for the record she never has been late for!

7:45 Walk Brayana, Destini and Jaleel to the bus and stand around with a bunch of little kids whose parents aren't there so they think they can act stupid.

7:53 The bus comes and I can go home, releasing my children into the safety of the bus driver. (For the record, I still walk them to the bus since we have a large homeless population at the park near our house and I just don't like the idea of my kids being out there with no adult. Seems I'm the only one who feels that way but "oh well")

7:55-8:05 Walk home and get the two babies along with Angie and Makkiah loaded into the small van with the help of my 14 year old. Make sure that Angie and Makkiah have their backpacks with extra clothes for preschool.

8:05-8:13 Drive Angie and Makkiah to preschool and wait outside the door for preschool to open

8:15-8:20 Herd Angie and Makkiah into preschool and sign them into their respective classes while 14 year old sits in the *warm* van with the babies.

8:25 Drop 14 year old off in parking lot down the hill from her school because I'm mean and hate getting into the whole dropping off/picking up traffic hysteria that comes along with driving a child to school.

8:30 Get home and unload the babies from the van and lug them into the house

8:40 Feed the babies real food for breakfast and eat some breakfast myself.

9:00 Start one of many loads of laundry that I will do throughout the day, change/bathe/and dress babies, and try to check my e-mail while they play in the living room.

Since I only have the two babies at home from 8:15 to 11:45am I try to get as much as I can done. Unfortunately I don't get as much done as I would like because I still have two babies in the house who need supervision.

Hallway!!

We finally have a hallway all the way down the hall!

One of our bedrooms (Ellie and Taniyah's) you had to walk through to get to the back of the house - kitchen, master bedroom and laundry area. We had a long pole and shower curtain up to make a "room" for the two babies but if you walked down the hall while they were sleeping, well you didn't have a sleeping baby anymore.

So, on Saturday night Rod & I went and picked up our order from IKEA. We now have a "wall" of linen closets. They go from floor to ceiling and open into the hallway. If you walk down the hallway they look like closet space and it provides a great barrier between the hallway and the bedroom. And since they are white they don't make the hall look to dark or dreary.

I will post a pic when I get some taken. I need to go put all the shelves in so I can utilize my new space:-)

Teething Pain

Tanoyah is getting her 4 molars in.

ALL at the same time.

And in true Taniyah fashion they are taking FOREVER!

I swear they only go a cm a week!!!

Just shoot me now!!

Oh that's right I'm not the one in pain.

Just sleep deprived!

That spinning thing!

Rod, Ladaria, Tyreque and I are sitting and watching American Idol. Watching all the people who think that they can sing but really can't is always great entertainment.

So Tyreque turns around and I'm not sure where it came from but he says that he's always wanted to go on one of those things that you hold onto and they spin around when someone pushes them.

Rod and I laugh. A merry-go-round!! One of those playground staples when we were YOUNGER!! Never even thought that my children have been deprived by not having them around anymore.

We reminisced about jumping on and off of them, holding the middle bar and putting our feet out while it spun around and the infamous puddle around the outside that you inevitably landed in no matter how hard you tried jumping over it.

So now I feel old!!

ACTION

Brayana, Destini and Jaleel are now on the Aim for Faith Junoirs Team. Last night was the first practice for the new younger team and they really seemed to enjoy it. They wanted to practice when they got home and they all got up early this morning so they could practice before school! We'll see how long this last!
So far they have two presentations that they will be doing. As they practice more they will be able to do more things but first things first.
I've been busy here at home. Sorting clothes that were given to us and washing them before they either find a home with my children or I pass them on to someone else. Sorting through curriculum to list on E-bay and working on Children's Ministry stuff. Rod and I are also taking a class on Tuesday nights at the church. It's an evangalism class which also includes homework. I should be doing mine but instead I'm updating this so some people will stop complaining:-) I try to get as much done as I can while I just have the two babies in the morning but the time seems to pass way to quickly!
Hope that everyone is having a good week and I will try to update again soon.

The start of a weekend

Rod and I went to a leadership conference at our church last night and this morning. It was really good and I learned some things.
THen we went to Big Lots. We are looking for some shelves to put in Brayana and Ladaria's room so that they have places up higher to put things they don't want the babies to have. I think I found what I want at Walmart but thought I'd check out Big Lots first.
I also told Ladaria that I would braid her hair this weekend so I have top find a couple of hours to do that. I braided Brayana's 2 weeks ago and it's time to redo it. It's so nice to not have to fight with her everyo morning about brushing her hair. Makes my life easier.
I will try to get some new pics on here and will install the CDROM so that I can put the vacation pics on here.
Checking things off my list!!

I'm still here

I'm sure you all thought that I fell off the face of the earth. Nope didn't happen. I've just been busy - doing what I'm not sure but I'm sure that I have accomplished something in the last two weeks. If nothing more than cathcing up on laundry and making sure everyone has been fed!!

Yesterday Makkiah had a pulmonary appt. Just when we think things are looking up that kid throws us a curveball.

He's had croup episodes three times since Thanksgiving. These episodes have gone on for days at a time. Needless to say he is back on all his meds - Flovent, Atrovent, Nasonex, Singular (up to 5mg tabs), Zyrtec, and Prelone (5 days at a time and thank God this is his fifth day). He was also started on Prevacid for his reflux. Up unti lJune he was on Prilosec which was a total pain in the butt because it has to be compounded and refrigerated. Therefore it can't be mailed but has to be picked up from the pharmacy. That entails at least a 45 minute wait, sometimes almost two hour wait, for a medication that just needs to be taken out of the fridge and handed to me!! It was SO frustrating!!!!!!!

The prevacid we open up and dump the little, teeny, tiny balls onto yogurt, pudding, etc and then he has to swallow it. No chewing allowed.

The things about his steroids (prelone) is that it causes him SEVERE mood swings. Usually it makes him very aggressive. This time it seems to be making him cry at the drop of a hat. I swear he is worse than a girl going through PMS!!! But there is nothing that he can do about it and he needs it to breath SO we push on.

He'll be trialing the prevacid for a month and if we see no decrease in the croup symptoms then it's back for another bronch with the peds pulm and peds ENT. Everybody cross your fingers and pray that it works. The brocnhs don't bother me but if he doesn't have to get it done it's so much nicer for all of us but mainly for Makkiah.

Hope everyone is having fun and enjoying winter. Personally I'm ready for summer!

A Lazy Sorta Day!

We've had one of those lay around and be lazy sorta days.

I figured that we were allowed at least one during Christmas Break.

I made some phone calls that needed to be made,

attempted to upload all the vacation pics to Flickr,

played the Game Cube,

and that was about it.

Sometimes I suppose it's good to sit back and relax.

Doesn't happen very often around here.

Always things that need to be done after the lazy day.

I figure I might as well get it all done to begin with.

Shots and teeth

What in God's green earth was I thinking?

We just home from vacation last night.

I have a week's worth of laundry to do for 11 people.

My house is a disaster after unloading the van last night.

My Mom bought us a PS2 for Christmas which was waiting for us when we arrived home.

The kids wanted to play the PS2 over unpacking.

Who wouldn't?!

I guess I had momentary lapse of judgement when I scheduled Taniyah's well baby appt for 8 am.

Where she recieved 4 shots.

The four shots that are MOST likely to cause fever and irritability.

She gets fever and irritability with the shots that are LEAST likely to cause them.

If that wasn't bad enough I ALSO scheduled Angie to get her teeth pulled.

Not 1 tooth

Not 2 teeth

BUT 4 teeth!!

4 teeth that are so infected that the local anestethic didn't want to numb her up.

And of course her dental is to cheap to pay for anything else.

Next time I decide to do something like this would somebody please kick me!!

I Spy

We had a LONG drive through the desert and we were staying out in the desert so this is what we saw a lot of.

My children decided that the perfect game to play on the trip was "I Spy".

Now is it just me or does anybody else see a problem between this picture and "I Spy"? This is what it looked like on both sides of the road and then the road stretched out for miles.

So what did they come up with to "Spy"?

Brush, grass, dead grass, power lines, sand, rocks, the road, the lines on the road, the reflectors on the road. You get the idea!! Needless to say it wasn't hard to get through the list!

Back From Vacation

We got back from vacation today. We had a great time in Arizona but it was definetly good to be home.

One week in a two bedroom cabin with 9 kids is enough to test anybodies sanity!!

I have blog entries to add to the blog from vacation as well as more pictures but I have to replace my CD-rom drive in my computer. I burned everything from Rod's laptop. It would have been the perfect plan if the CD part of my computer hadn't decided to go caput on me.

Tomorrow I will have to buy a new one so that I can upload those photos and entries.

I uploaded a few photos to FLickr though.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas.

Happy 10th Anniversary

10 years ago today Rod and I were married. We were married at the kitchen table of a minister that we found in the paper. I was 6 weeks pregnant with our daughter Brayana and we decided that we should welcome this baby into the world with a mother and father who were married. We were married but not necessarily committed to each other. It was to be more a marriage of convience than anything else.

Neither one of our parents knew that we were married. My Mom found out on Dec 23rd when we went to visit her in Oregon. She saw my ring and asked what it was!! She didn't even know that Rod was there!!! I asked if she wanted to meet her son-in-law. She said she could she was in her pajamas. He said the same thing!!

Rod's parents didn't find out until after the new year. He was going home for New Years and his Mom told him not to come home if he was married. He went home and just didn't tell her that he was married!! After he got back she called and wanted to know when he was going to "make things right" by getting married. He told her that he already was.

That first year was rough. We were so young and certainly NOT ready to be married, let alone old enough to be expecting a first baby. We were not in love with each other but felt that we needed to "put up with each other" for the benifit of our child. We spoke often of divorce that first year and often went out on dates with other people.

As my belly started to grow things started to change. I started thinking differently about this person that I called my husband. I had obviously liked him prior to getting married but I don't think that we were truely "in love" with each other. It's sad to think back to that first year. To think about all of the things that we missed.

I have to say that God knew what he was doing. He took something Rod and I could have easily messed up and he started to work on our conscience. When I was pregnant with Brayana Rod met a guy who was cleaning windows at a store that he was going into. They exchanged numbers. Ron and Glo were a great couple who, even if they didn't realize it, became mentors to Rod and I. They invited us to come to their church. As we started going to church things between us started to change. I started seeing Rod as the husband that God wanted me to have, not just the person who shared my apartment and bed with. I started falling in love with him. He on the other hand was not so easily convinced!

Rod was young and didn't want to become held down. He still wanted to become single and felt that I was trying to trap him. He bought divorce papers from the local office supply store but he couldn't file them as 1) we were broke and 2)we had a child which made him unable to do the papers himself. Once again God was in control!

I know that God was working in Rod's heart as I prayed for him and for us. We became closer and were falling in love with each other. I still remember the first time that Rod said "I love you" and felt that he really meant it! I cried as I believed that the words that he said were true.

At 5 years Rod and I reflected on the fact that we had made it to 5 years. Nobody that knew us then believed that we would make it that far. Rod and I didn't even believe it ourselves. But we had made it and we had worked hard on getting to that point.

7 years and thankfully neither of us experienced the seven year itch. I think we got it out of our system at the beginning!!

Now here we are at 10 years!! We have come so far and looking back it's hard to believe that we have made it to where we are. So much in our lives have changed. God has blessed us with 7 wonderful children plus the privelege of caring for the numerous foster children that have come through our home. I can't imagine spending my life with anybody else. I miss him when he's at work. Our life is full and we are full of love for each other. God is certainly faithful. He has placed many people into our lives as examples and mentors -Dennis and Julie, John and Liz, Betty and Roger, John and Cindy, Joe and Linda,my Mom and Keith, Rod's parents. I thank each of you for being the couple that God has made you to be and for being an example to me.

I thank God for the husband that God gave to me and for many, many more years together!!

Off to vacation

We will be leaving on Monday to go camping. We will be renting a two bedroom cabin on the lake and will there for a week. That's were we will be spending Christmas. We figured that since Rod won't be here next year at Christmas we would spend it together as a family. This is also only one of two times that the kids are all out of school at the same time before he leaves in July. I will have lots of pictures to share I hope when I get back. I hope that everyone has a very Merry CHRISTmas this year.

Off to School

All my kids actually went to school today. YAY!

Monday I sent everyone to school. I had to go pick Makkiah up at 10:30 because he was coughing and they weren't comfortable with him staying there. We took Angie's paperwork for school and dropped it off at the dentist. Then we went back and got Angie.

Went to meet someone interested in the condo and Ladaria's school called. She was in the office sick so I had to go get her.

Yesterday Ladaria stayed home sick again although she was doing better by the evening and didn't want me to take her to acute care.

Angie had a dentist appt. She has to get 4 teeth pulled and 4 others need fillings. I didn't take Makkiah to school as I wouldn't be close to pick him up if I needed to.

Today Ladaria wanted to stay home from school again but I was mean and made her go. Since she was fine last night, eating, playing, and watching tv I made an executive decision to send her to school. Haven't gotten a call yet so she must have started feeling better- at least I hope. I think everyone who has a cold feels worse in the morning.

I'm going to work on my Christmas letter. I might actually get one sent out this year. You can always hope!!

Sick of Being Sick

I'm sick of being sick.

I've had this cold, or maybe it's colds for over two weeks now.

I'm tired of coughing.

I'm tired of blowing my nose.

I'm tired of blowing my kids noses.

I'm tired of wiping snot from noses,

faces,

hands,

shirts, (including mine)

and anywhere else that a baby has decided to wipe thier snot.

I'm tired of listening to my kids cough,

sneeze,

and blow their noses.

I'm tired of my kids thinking that because they are sick it's the end of the world.

Well I think she's tired of being sick also,

or maybe she's just tired!

Next in line

We were awakened this morning by a loud bark at the door. I don't I've ever seen Rod hit the door from a dead sleep that fast in my life.

He thought it was Makkiah. It was Jaleel. He sounded croupy and was having a hard time breathing in. Rod took him out to the porch swing and made him some lemon tea. We also gave him some of Makkiah's on hand steroids. Probably not the acceptable thing to do but we needed to get the swelling in his throat down. The combonation seemed to help and he was breathing easier in no time at all.

Sent him back off to bed and fell back asleep.

Next at the door was Ladaria.

She had a headache and had coughed so hard that she threw up twice. She was hungry and wanted to know what she should do. Gave her some Tylenol and had her eat something. Back to bed she went.

Next up was Ellie who decided at 5am that she also was hungry. Last night she was playing her little - I'm not going to open my mouth and eat game. She didn't eat much dinner. Guess it caught up with her. She very willingly ate this morning.

Jaleel is better this morning and sounds normal, Ladaria is still sleeping and Ellie is fed and happy. Hopefully this cold will get out of our house soon.

Makkiah in the ER

Well our Thanksgiving didn't go completely as planned.

Wed afternoon Makkiah started sounding a little croupy. Started giving him his Atrovent and he took a nap. Woke up around 3:30 in the afternoon coughing hard and sounding bad. Continued giving him his Atrovent.

Spent the rest of Wed watching him but deciding that for the time being he was doing ok. Around 8 pm he fell asleep in the chair so I put him in my bed. Played around on here for WAY to long trying to give it a new look.

Around midnight I decided that I should probably go to bed. Makkiah was sound worse so I gave him moer Atrovent, which I repeat 3 times at 10 minute intervals. Rod and I debated as to taking him to the ER or not. He thought we could wait it out some more. I thought he was getting worse even with the medication. I also know that once he hits a certain point it's downhill fast from there.

We decided that we should take him in as he was sounding worse, his respirations had gone from 25 to 36 in less than 1 hour and I didn't want to be home with him when he nose dived.

Loaded him up in the car and off to the ER we headed at around 2am. Got to the ER at 2:30am and got checked in. They put us in a chair in the hallway waiting for a bed to clear out. Got taken to a bed at 2:55 and the doctor came in. Asked his history and such - I told her that once he starts making the "whistling" sound he goes downhill fast. He was making the sound. She walked out and he started having a hard time breathing. He was hunched over, puffing out of his mouth.

The quickly got an IV in to give him Decadron-which is the "gold standard" for him. The also gave him a nebulizer with racemic epinephrine. Once it took effect he was better.

At 6am the peds came down and looked at him. They then gave Dr. W a call and he said that if we were comfortable taking him home then we could as long as he was doing better. They gave us the clear at 7am to go home. When we came in his croup score was 6, then it went to 2, and down to 1. Anything or 3 is considered moderate croup and needs to be treated.

Came home and cooked Thanksgiving dinner. Only two people showed up. After dinner I crashed. I was so tired and couldn't keep my eyes open anymore. I've had a cold which doesn't help and then I had a fever. Took some Tylenol and off to sleep I went.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I just wanted to get on here and wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving. We have much to be thankful for- our house, our kids, family and friends plus all the little things. We plan on having a big feast for Thansgiving - deeo fried turkey, ham, deviled eggs, sweet potatoes, fruit salad, green bean casserole, veggies, corn, lumpia, and lots of pie. We have invited over friends since all of our family is so far away but we will be thinking of all of you today. We hope that wherever you are you are enjoying the day. We miss you all!!

New Look

I decided to try a new look. It took me a long time to figure out how to do this but it doesn't look quite so generic anymore. Let me know what you think.

And the other Half!

Here is the other half to Jaleel's Family Tree. At least the part of the three that is above him!!

Mom DianeDad Clyde

Me

Rod's Parents

Jaleel had a Family Tree Project for his class. We made a big poster with pics of all the kids on purple paper, Rod and his parents on blue paper, and me and my parents on red paper. We then took a family picture and put it on red, blue, and purple paper- each trimmed a little smaller so that you could see each layer. The idea was Rod's parents were on blue and had him, my parents were on red and had me. Rod and I were right next to each other on our respective colors. Then red and blue got together and made purple! He titled it "My Rainbow Family" and glued all different colors of construction paper as the background. When we get the poster back we will take a picture of it and I will put it on here. It turned out really well and he got a good grade on it. All the kids in class as well as his teacher loved his poster. I thought for fun I would post pictures of Rod and his parents along with him and then on another post put my parents and me.

Mom Bernice

Dad Harold

Rod

Busy and sick and teething baby!!

I've been so busy. Constantly on the run AND we have a cold going around. Of course I have the cold along with the kids. I've been loading up on vitamin C and zinc. Taniyah has been teething for who knows how many days and has been miserable. Up all night and screaming all day. She screams and I can't talk since I seem to have lost my voice - we make a great pair!! I'm really NOT ignoring anyone just haven't slowed down to less than 4th gear in week it seems. A million things on my list of things that need done, cross one off and add five more things! I promise to write more soon but I am going to attempt to get some sleep tonight!

OH!!! BUTTON!

We have an ongoing joke about getting Taniyah to say BUTTON.

This comes from Poppa's mom saying that he said button at 6 months as he grabbed her button.

Now I know that we have sorely missed the target date for this great accomplishment by several months, but, alas we still try.

Anyway one morning as we were laying in bed Rod was trying to get Taniyah to say Dada and I, of course was trying to get her to say Mama. This went on for several minutes. She actually says dadadada and mamamama.

I decided to seize the opportunity to see if she would say button.

She would say "bu"

and everytime I would say "ton"

she would give us this face

almost like it was a bad word or something.

We laughed so hard and it was so cute!

Our painted house!

I finally found the cable that connects my camera straight to the computer so that I could download the pictures.
I know that I could just have easily walked back outside to take pictures of the painted house on my memory stick, but, well, hhhmm, that just didn't happen!! I guess I figured that since I already had them then I just needed to find the cable, SO I did it.

A before picture- again - just for comparison sake.
The Dungeon

And the much awaited after picture- although the door is still not painted - I must say that it is a dramatic improvement.

The unDungeon

This is minus the porch swing and porch furniture that we have since added.

Happy 8th Birthday Jaleel!

Today Jaleel turned 8. He really wanted to have a party ON his birthday so we made that happen. I called a couple of friends from church who came over and he also had a few friends from the neighborhood over.
He had a hearing appointment at 3pm which made for an interesting day. I didn't have anything but we still made the party happen.
When Rod got home I ran to the store to get a cake, ice cream and gifts. He ordered pizza!
We had a table full of kids, a Monsters Inc cake, ice cream and gifts.All was good in his world.
Still hard to believe that he is 8 though - time passes so quickly!!

Bathtub reglazed

My MOm had the bathtub reglazed about 2 years ago. It's much cheaper to do than replacing the whole bathtub but it does have it's drawbacks.

Not long after our tenants moved in we had a plumbing dilemma. The outcome was new plumbing in the shower, not fixtures, and a new shower surround. One of the drawbacks of reglazing - if you remove the old surround chances are that you will chip the glazing and it will have to be redone. If you chip the glazing and your tenants don't say anything to you about it chances are that it will look REALLY bad (like somebody poured paint into your tub) when you finally get back into the unit after evicting the tenants.

Needless to say I have learned that the above is true. And I have also learned that once you reglaze it's impossible to get even close to all of the glazing off. It on'y comes off where it wants to come off!

So I had the bathrub reglazed. Thankfully it's not something that I can do myself!! It's a stinky job and as much as I love my Mom it's one of those jobs that I would not do:-) While cleaning out the bathtub the night before I made an executive decision to remove the shower doors and the tracks prior to having the glazing done. I figured that it would look better if the inside of the tub was the same color as the outside.

Well the glazing is done and I think it looks much better without the shower doors. Hope my Mom wasn't to attached to the look;-) Makes the bathroom appear bigger which will be a plus if we decide to sell. I think it also gives it a newer look. Now all I have to do is out some caulk in the two screw holes in the wall and touch up some paint.

New appliances at the condo

Got the new fridge and stove at the condo. If you remember from an earlier post the tenants left their food in the other one even though they had no electricity. No electric for two months with things growing in the fridge - YUCK.

Mom and I decided that a new stove would be a good thing also. I think that the one in there must have been the original. I ordered new ones from Sears and had them delivered. I also paid the $20 to have the old ones hauled off. WHEW! One more thing to check off my list.

The new appliances arrived. I must say that they look really nice. We also changed out the light in the kitchen. The old one had a broken cover and you can't buy JUST the cover. They want you to buy the whole thing. So Rod and I replaced the old one. New cover and nice wooden end caps makes it look nicer.

Still haven't found a renter. Maybe the new pics that I took will help.

Halloween

All the kids came home yesterday and got all dressed up for Halloween. Rod was going to try to get off work early. His co-worker is having "family issues" and needed to leave early so Rod ended up not getting home until 6pm.

Our plans were to take the kids to Hallopalooza with some friends. The frineds called to let us know that 3 of them had fevers - 2 of them being Mom and Dad - so they wouldn't be going.

By the time Rod got home it was dark and their was traffic. We made an executive decision to forgo Hallopalooza and go trick or treating on our street. By the time we got there we wouldn't have much time to do anything and we couldn't possibly get by with doing nothing. Especially since all the kids 9 and under were dressed in their costume garb.

We did a practice run at the front door. Jaleel, Destini, and Brayana got it. Makkiah thought it was cool that I put candy in his bag and Angie sat down on the porch poised to eat the candy that had dropped into hers. I let them all know that we wouldn't be stopping to eat each piece of candy on the way.

Tyreque went to a friends birthday party and Ladaria stayed to pass out candy to any trick or treaters that might venture down our driveway (we did have one!).

It took us about 2 hours to make it to the end of the street and back. The kids had fun and couldn't wait to get home and see what they had gotten. To bad it was a school night and they had to get ready for bed. Maybe today I will let them have some of their loot!

Here's a picture of Taniyah who obviously wasn't impressed with the whole idea of costumes and candy. The rest of the kids are on Flickr.

Orders recieved

Rod got his orders today.

He will be going to Bahrain.

He will be leaving in July for a year.

It's going to be a long year.

It could be worse.

Will upload Halloween pics tomorrow.

"Growing Up"

Makkiah and Rod had one of those "deep" heart to heart conversations last night after dinner.

Makkiah:When I grow up I want to be just like Dad

Rod(feeling rather proud):Oh yeah

Makkiah:I want to wear work clothes just like you (Rod wears Cammi's to work)

Rod (smiling):yeah

Makkiah(lifting up his arm and pointing to his armpit)and I want have hair under my armpits just like you!!

Rod(trying hard not to laugh at this serious moment):Hmmm

She's not just spoiled!

Taniyah had a shot on Friday that they were out of at her 6 month appt. Since they had it in when we went to Jaleel's appt on Friday they gave it to her before his appt.
Friday night we went to pizza and bingo at the church and she was really fussy. She didn't want anyone to touch her leg and she would cry anytime it was moved. We came home and put a warm compress in it although we couldn't see anything on her leg.
Saturday I was at the condo painting (story of my life right now!!!-painting that is) and Mom called. She said that Taniyah might just be a bit spoiled. I say that she is "well loved" but she has been awfully fussy after this last shot. She didn't want to stand on it or move it.
This morning I looked at her leg and it looked like a large bruise under the skin but still not really noticable. Well this evening I checked it out again and she has this large red "patch" on her leg. I took a picture of it so that I can show the doctor as well as Ahma. I think her leg really was bothering her- even if she is well loved!!!

Happy 14th Birthday Ladaria!!

Ladaria turned 14 today. She stayed the night at a friends house last night to help her babysit and then she had a presentation so I didn't see her until around 3. With her came a whole group of teenage girls. She decided that she wanted to have a sleep over so several of the girls from the ACTION team came over. She also had a friend from school who came over. They ate lots of candy, drank lots of soda, ate pizza, watched movies, played BUNCO, and stayed up WAY to late.
Rod made breakfast burritos with eggs, suasage and cheese. All the girls except one liked them. Always has to be one, right! Luckily it was daylight savings time and we gained an extra hour.
Ladaria and all her friends walked to church. We met them there. After church we all came home, ate more pizza and dispersed girls back to their rightful owners!!
I think Ladaria enjoyed her birthday!

Perpetual motion

I don't think that the child ever stops. I wonder if he stops when he sleeps?

I took Jaleel to the doctor for a physical. All was well for the first 10 minutes. Now anybody who has ever been to the pediatrician knows that it takes much more than 10 minutes to even be seen.

The first 10 minutes were spent in the waiting room. The next 10 minutes in the exam room waiting for the doctor. WHY do they put a parent in that little tiny room to WAIT for the doctor AND they close the door?

He spun on the stool, he did jumping jacks, he sat, he stood, he jumped, and then he repeated. I think he used more energy than I do all day!

I went out to make an appt to bring in the paperwork from the school to evaluate him for ADHD (suprise) and they were able to squeeze Taniyah in for her 9 month well baby appt (thanks to whoever decided not to show up for their appt, one less time that I have to make the trip:-).

We had to wait another 10 minutes in the waiting room before we were called back the second time. I feel sorry for the poor lady in the waiting room who choose to talk to him about how many teeth Taniyah had.

He counted how many teeth he had in his mouth for her AND he did push ups for her AND he talked about this and that. Then they called us back to another small room. I really think that it's a test to see if us parents are sane or not! If you don't last then they know that you need help as well!!!

During Taniyah's wait he did the can-can, and washed his hands, and did the robot and flew the butterfly.

Took him to the lab to frop off his urine sample, went and picked up the other 3 little ones from the sitter and then took Jaleel back to school. There was only an hour left but I needed a BREAK!

Porch swing woes

I got my new porch swing in the mail. Well not exactly in the mailbox but it was delivered and I couldn't wait to get it hung. First though I had to get stuff at the condo done so my swing had to wait. Today after church we were able to hang the swing.

Rod got up and drilled the holes and installed the eye bolts to hang the swing.

I had the swing all put together and we were able to hang it once the eye bolts were in. It looked pretty good. Just a little crooked.

We used the chains that came with the swing. You really don't have any choice as they are attached to the bolts that hold the swing together. It doesn't look to bad until you look at the whole picture!

We decided that maybe we needed lo lower the swing just bit! So off on yet another trip to Home Depot to get some more chains. After some minor chain tweeking the final project outcome.

I can tell that it's going to be one of my favorite places to be. Especially when it rains. I can sit out on the porch, swing and listen to the rain. One of my favorite sounds!

What a FUN Saturday I had!

Let me just start off this post saying that my hubby and kids went to a pancake breakfast at the park. The church was holding it and the ACTION team was working at the games. So they spent the morning doing fun things like this

So while they were at the park eating pancakes with choclate chips and whipped cream and playing games, what do think I was doing?

Maybe out for a leasurely time to myself?

Taking a stroll shopping with Taniyah?

Checking out all the new home improvement items?

I guess that depends on how you look at it!

I went to Lowe's at 8am to get at the things that I would need to complete my day.

Taniyah and I ate breakfast at McDonald's and then off to the condo we headed.

Just the two of us.

I started pressure washing the balcony and FROZE my butt off. It was so cold and I was so wet.

Then I moved into the living room to finish ironing the wax out of the carpet before the carpet cleaners came.

Then I changed the light bulbs in the bathroom and painted the wall.

Then I painted the wall in the bedroom.

Then I got to clean the stuff out of the fridge.

Sometime in there my hubby showed up to help me.

We got most of the stuff done that needs to be done.

Still some painting left on the balcony but had to let stuff dry good first.

Hope you all had as much fun as I did!

Toilet troubles

I went this morning and got the toilet in the condo fixed. It took me 20 minutes after having the water turned off to change the compression fitting and put on the new hose. I'm getting pretty good at those fittings!

I also spent 2 hours ironing the wax out of the carpet. For the most part all of the wax came out. In one spot there is a yellow ring where the wax was. After I vacuum we will see if it is still noticable.

I also cleaned all the mirrors in the condo. My Mom sure does like mirrors!!

I came home to another of my toilets plugged so I got to play plumber at home as well. I'm getting REALLY tired of the plumbing issues in my house. I can't wait until we can fix it.

Mom's Condo

I FINALLY got Mom's tenant out of the condo. I say FINALLY because it took me since July to do it. The sheriff's deputies showed up a 8:30 am on Thursday the 13th and she was STILL moving stuff out. She didn't have any electricity for 2 months and didn't clean out the fridge. It STINKS. She moved out by candle light and dripped wax on the carpet, did I mention that it was new carpet. She painted some walls and started to paint them back but I guess that she ran out of time. She started a fire in December so that damage needs to be cleaned up. There was super glue in the locks. The thermostat needs replaced so that the heater can be turned on. Oh and did I mention that the toilet wasn't working. Well not exactly not working but it had a leak so instead of calling me to tell me that it was leaking she just turned off the water. Now that wouldn't be so bad if they had stopped using the toilet but that DIDN'T happen. YUCK!!! So tomorrow morning I will have the water to the entire building turned off so that I can replace the compression fitting and fix the toilet. Hopefully I don't need a plumber after that to unclog the pipe. OH that's right, I need a plumber at MY house to unclog the pipe for the umpteenth time this year. UGH!! So you see I have been BUSY, BUSY, BUSY. I'm trying to get it all done before the first as we are hoping to rent it or sell it.

Life is NOT fair!

I don't know if you can read the sign. It says "Keep out and stay away unless you are going to read to me". This would the sign that was posted on Brayana's door last night. To think that she couldn't get any person in this house to read to her! She asked her Dad to read to her and he wouldn't, she asked me and I told her it was bedtime (note the time that the picture was taken 10PM). She got upset because we wouldn't read the book that was 30 pages long at 10PM. Let me not fail to mention that Rod had just spent 2 HOURS playing with her in the living room, hence the REASON that she was going to bed so late. When I got up to go tell her goodnight this was the sign that I encountered. I thought it was cute that I took a picture of it. She wanted to know why I was taking a picture of her sign instead of reading to her!! Go figure!

Whose lap is this anyway?

Our new little kitten Coco seems to think that she owns my lap as well as my chair. If I am sitting in the chair then she is on my lap and if I get out of the chair then she guards my chair until I return. So taoday I was trying to nurse Taniyah and she decided that she did not want to get down. She got up and laid her head on Taniyah's shoulder. Taniyah was so cute as she was petting the kitten and Brayana took a picture of the three of us.

She laid there for quite a while before she must have decided that she just wasn't as comfortable as she wanted to be so she got all cuddled in with Taniyah. In this picture she is sleeping and happy as can be. And Taniyah is still petting her!

Happy 3rd Birthday Angie!

Today was Angie's 3rd birthday. All morning she was asking "Is it my birthday party now?" I told her it was her birthday but we were having her birthday party later in the evening. If you know Angie you know how much she LOVES birthdays!! We had a visit scheduled with her Mom from 10-11am. Her aunts were there when we got there but her Mom didn't show up until 10:25. She was going to bring lunch and a cake for her but that didn't happen either. She did bring her a desk and her aunts brought her some clothes. After we got home I wrapped the gifts from us and Ahma for her cake and ice cream. We had pizza for dinner, she had a Barbie cake and got to open her presents. She is really into princess stuff. Ahma got her a dress up kit with the pretty shoes in it. We got her a princess cell phone with case, a princess chair and a bunch of ponies.

Erin and Tom's Wedding

I've been meaning to post these two collages that I made of pictures taken at Tom and Erin's wedding but I forgot about it and then didn't seem to have the time. The wedding ceremony was wonderful and included Erin's brother Brian suprising them. He flew all the way from Iraq and niether Erin nor her Mom knew that he was there until she was ready to walk down the isle. All we heard was screaming from the back. Then he went down the side of the church and suprised Erin's Mom which was followed by more screaming. He only got to stay a few days but I know that Erin was so excited to have him there. After the ceremony we all went to the reception. The theme was Mardi Gras. There were tons of beads, masks, hats, candy, and assorted items decorating the table. Everybody had a blast dancing and eating. All the kids enjoyed themselves. People kept bringing us more and more beads. Ellie and decided that we should model some of them and somebody took a picture of it. We stayed for several hours before deciding that we should take the kids home to bed. A few of the kids were walking zombies by that point. We got everybody loaded up and headed for home and Ellie decided that it was the perfect time to have a party hangover and started throwing up. Really it was the start to a bug that went around and hit most of the family. YUCK! Glad she waited until AFTER the wedding.

House updated

We have started to paint. Here is what the house looked like at the end of painting Day #2. It almost doesn't look like the same house. There are more pics on Flickr for those interested in seeing them. For those interested in all the specifics. The color of the house is called Dapper Tan and we are doing all the trim in white. THe front door will also be painted - most likely a red color although not positive which one yet. Will post more pics as we progress.

New Kitten

Last week one of our three cats was hit by a car. Most likely it was the neighbor who drives down our driveway to fast. She was only 6 months old. The next day our second kitten disappeared. We don't know if he went looking for her or if something else happened to him. That left us with one kitten - Carmel - out of the 4 that we started with (one was really sick and died shortly after we found them in our storage shed). Poor Carmel was beside himself as he didn't have the other two to keep him company so he has spent the week following me around like a "lost puppy". I felt so bad for him. So our neighbor brought us a new kitten. She is about 8 weeks old and mostly black. She has some white hairs interspered in the black but not many. She loves to play and do cute kitten things. I thought I would post a picture of her for everyone to see. She doesn't hold still for long so I couldn't get a very good picture but here she is- In the pic she is trying to get a drink our of my glass. She kept getting water in her nose though. When I get a better pic of her I will put it on Flickr.

My house!

My Mom sent me one of the first pictures that she took of our house. The lattice enclosed the front porches both upstairs and downstairs. Behind the lattice downstairs are stained glass windows. The security doors let you onto the porch and then there were also security doors on the doors INSIDE the porches. You had to go through two security doors to get into the house. ALL the doors on the house had security doors and if that wasn't bad enough, they actually had security doors on some of the doors INSIDE.

Our first project was to take down the lattice. Rod and I thought it was REALLY ugly and personally I like light. So down it came and we put up the porch railings.
We had to put up a new support post for the porch in order to take down the lattice and plywood to the right of the screen door. Amah and Poppa came during this project so Rod and Poppa enclosed the storage area in the front of the house and finished the porch rails.
This isn't a very good picture but the porch is complete, the front window and door have been replaced and the storage area has been enclosed. The big thing is NO MORE LATTICE!!

The house has now been primered and looks like this.

And they're off!!

The novice RVers have taken off for their next destinations. They were here for about 3.5 weeks and it was great. Always nice to have extra hands around to help me out. While they were here we went sailing, pressure washed the house, cleaned out the storage area, "steam cleaned" all the tile in the house, replaced the plumbing and faucet in the guest bathroom, installed the sink in my bathroom, installed a closet orgainzer in bedroom, cleaned out my bedroom (that's where things tended to migrate if they didn't have a place), put up the blinds/poster/coat hooks in the little girls room, hung up blankets in the girls room, primered the house, cleaned out the yard, cleaned off the front porch, and cleaned out a flower bed. We stayed busy and got a lot done even though Mom wasn't feeling well for part of the stay. When she was feeling well we got busy. When they left I think that she was feeling better and her knee was doing better. It wasn't great but she could drive! Not sure when they will be coming back but we are already looking forward to their next visit.

Painting the house

We are FINALLY getting things in gear to paint the house. I suppose it helped that Mom and I pressure washed half of the paint off the house. Can't rightly leave it half painted and half not. OK, maybe it wasn't HALF of the paint but enough to give me an excuse to paint it.

Mom and I started out by pressure washing the house twice. The first time we were washing it to wash it. The second time we were washing it to paint it. We even got the pressure washer up on the roof and pressure washed the upstairs.

This is what the house looked like when we started out. The front porch is done and the storage area at the front was enclosed. We had 4 or 5 different shades of brownish colored paint on the house.
After the first day this is what it looked like. We primered the upstairs and we were DONE. It was SO hot and it took 3 coats of primer before the wood was done sucking it in. When Rod got home we did one last coat of primer upstairs and called it a day. This isn't going to be as easy as I think it is!

On Saturday Rod, Ladaria, Tyreque and I went out and finished the primer. Amah and Poppa watched the 4 little kids while we worked. At the end of the day we had a house that looked like a huge ghost ship. It's all primered and ready to be painted. That should start sometime in the next week. Sure does look BIG!! I have promised the neighbors that it won't be BROWN and I won't leave it white. They say the primer still looks better than the previous paint job.

Sailing!!

Our family was invited to go to Sailfest 2005 at the San Diego Yacht Club. It's a day that is put together for children who are chronically ill and their families. We took 7 of the kids, Amah and Poppa with us for the day. The other two girls stayed with a friend for several reasons - 1)Neither of them likes to sit for very long periods of time 2)One of them had a very hard time listening and doing what you ask of her 3)We were going sailing and I didn't know what to expect 4)I didn't know how many little ones we could keep aboard a sailboat without losing one overboard.
We arrived at the Yacht Club and they allowed the kids to shoot water from the Harbor Police's boat.













After that we were assigned to a yacht. Since we were the largest family there we got the largest boat there - a 50+ foot racing yacht. It was really nice and the captain was great. He had a wonderful crew there to help. The captain of the yacht is the owner, with his brother, of UK Sailmakers.
After we started sailing I was REALLY glad that we didn't have ALL the little ones on there with us. I'm sure that we never would have made it the whole sailing time without losing one overboard. As it was we had to strap Makkiah to the boat so that he didn't go in when the boat went up onto it's side!
After we were done sailing we went back had a nice BBQ lunch that was catered by the Yacht Club. Kids got thir faces painted, had ice cream and snow cones. At the end they also got a certificate for participating. It really was a fun day.

They made it!

The Novice Rv'ers have finally arrived. Mom called and said that they would probably be in around 7 or 8 pm. We had a babysitter coming for the evening so we told her to give us a call when they made it in and we would meet them for dinner. Erin got there around 5:30pm and we made it out the door around 6:00pm. Mom and Poppa made it in around 7pm, just as we were pulling into the bookstore parking lot. We knew it would take them a few minutes to get things in the house and situated so we went to the bookstore and such. After we were done we headed for our usual dinner spot "Carnitas Uropan" which is a really good mexican food place. We had dinner, got caught up on some talking and went home. We are glad that they made it and that they will be spending a few weeks with us here before heading back out on the road. Before they can do that they need to get some more BRAKE work done! We are going yachting on Saturday so I will update again then.

Oh the Horror!

I wanted to write this post before and hadn't had the time to do it. Then as I was writing the name to it, I thought about what people might think that it means. It's not about that though. It's about the new gate that we installed at the bottom of the stairs and Taniyah's utter horror at the fact that it's there.
We installed a gate at the bottom of the three stairs going from our living room into the library. I suppose it helps to keep the kids where they belong except for the fact that the 2 year old and 4 year old can open the gate. The reason that we had to install it is for our foster care license. We are supposed to have one at the top and one at the bottom but I haven't been able to bring myself to put up the second one. It is only three steps and I can't see a real need for two gates on three steps. Might as well just put on in the middle for good measure. We'll see what licensing says when they come for my yearly inspection.
Taniyah, fortunalty, can't open the gate yet but let's us know, in her own way, that she DOES NOT like the gate in it's current location. I tried to get a picture at her utter dismay but everytime I tried this is the picture I got.

After several failed attempts I decided to get sneaky. I hid around the corner with the camera stuck out. I could see the screen enough to get the picture but she couldn't see me. Finally the results that I was looking for.









And just so that everybody doesn't think that I'm just the meanest Mommy out there. I did open the gate and let her through. And after her VICTORY this is how she looked.









She really does NOT like the gate, at least not in the closed position!

Unbelievable

This is whole situation is just so unbelievable to me.

I can't imagine the pure despiration that these people must feel.

Pure, utter desperation.

They are starving.

They are thirsty.

They are dying.

People in the Astrodome that have died and been left where they were sitting.

Dead people laying in yards.

Floating in the water.

I can't imagine.

I've only been able to watch bits of news.

It's so overwhelming.

It's overwhelming and I'm on the other side of the US.

Moms with babies.

Babies with no milk.

No diapers.

No clothes.

No water.

The Mom whose baby wouldn't wake up was unthinkable.

Pregnant women.

Women in labor.

I'm sure that's it's replaying time and again.

They need help.

What can we do to help them.