Back to reality

Ahhh the joys of "real" internet again. I could rock the high speed down in town but had virtually nothing at the homestead after Verizon turned their towers like a bunch of idiots >:( Oh well. I guess that's all in the past now. Now its just a waiting game for our bank to finish making us submit paper after paper and answer questions over and over again and then we can finally move into our new place. I can not wait to get in there and clean it, paint it and move my 8 tons of crap into it. Oh its gonna be awesome. Then it'll be time to find my broke butt a new job. BOOO! With Jeremy's new employer he's basically either at work or on call for work. The days of flowing opposite schedules are no more. Which makes reliability with kid drop offs and pick ups at school non existant. And, the kids have to go to two different schools this year. UGH! The preK is overloaded here so tons of kids are on the waiting list for not only this school but all their 'partner' schools. So Tayt going local is not going to happen. i did find her a spot in NH at a school Ashtyn went to a few years ago and I'm psyched about that but its private pay and not cheap by any means so I'm battling with the state of VT to cover at least their supposed required 10 hours of preK that is entitled to all VT kiddos and trying to figure out how to cover the rest of that. Yay. So whenever i can figure out the answers to all that crap, then i can work on the job issue. But for now its hold down the fort, get the bank, house, school and iep crud going forward, keep myself busy and this place cleaned, and help out with Gram as much as I can.

Waaaaaay too much again

I received an email a couple weeks ago from Ashtyn's school about the Mason's doing a "Clothes for Children" clothing drive for local less fortunate children. Well, they are in for some overloading. I went through the clothes up in my attic...and filled up 2 totes of clothes to give. Then proceeded through what was piling up all over the kids' room and filled another tote of donatables. Then it was on to the basement and closet....hmmm.... I think I need a bulldozer.


My bed is somewhere underneath this mountain of clothing. I just wish they wanted clothing of all sizes not just newborn to 9-10 year old.

I just emailed the Mason (Ashtyn's teacher's father) about how much I have for them and am awaiting an oh-my-god type response. I have 6 totes full right now and I haven't found my bed yet (which I need to do before Jeremy gets home from working up in Newport on Wednesday) and I have a huge bag full of newborn footed onsie outfits, blankets and newborn hats for the hospital..... oh man. And I still have sooooooo much stuff left to go through... and in all honesty I'm totally keeping stuff I can't part with yet....first Christmas dresses and the like..... but I'm trying to be better. Its awesome that my kids are provided for so well, but I feel bad that we are so fortunate and completely spoiled. Its so hard for me to not be a pack rat....its in my blood. My mom and aunt Kathy have perfected it. They have more stuff in their houses than you'd find in 50 "normal" houses..... but they display everything perfectly and beautifully and its always dusted and spotless... and then theres my house...... more clothing than you'd find in the mall, more furniture than the biggest antique store on the planet.....enough toys, ride ons, bouncy seats and what have you for 5 kids (in all fairness its because I have at least 5 kids at my house almost all the time) and my house is itty bitty. At least too itty bitty for me....a normal person would be fine but me and my brood...not so much. Anyway the point of my rambling..... I set out to thin out and thanks to the Mason's having this clothing drive, I finally am allowing myself to thin out a bit.

What trip to Holland?

So my husband was checking out some stuff online and randomly asked "when's this trip to Holland?" Apparently he was snoopin' around to see if I had written anything he may be interested in on here. I had to think for a minute about what on earth he was talking about....and I realized I mentioned it in my happy birthday to Taylor post. Well, for all of you questioning my vacation plans, Holland is not an actual trip I will be taking soon....the whole 'Holland trip' thing is a story basically on having a kid with a 'disability'...or in Taylor's case 'difference'......and even though I do not by any means think Taylor's "disabled " (and I really really hate that term....so warning: do not ever say that word to me! EVER!!!) anyway, the story fits. Check it out if you would like to know what I'm talking about...... Welcome to Holland

Chaotic as always

I have been so busy lately I feel like I don't have the time to breathe. Between trying to get my house up for sale, dealing with my high school reunion stuff, taking care of 8 kids, my own family stuff, birthday parties, Ashtyn's school fundraising stuff, class meetings, jeep meetings, loading-driving-unloading-carrying dowstairs-and stacking 4 tons of pellets so we don't freeze to death this winter, child care workshops, random charity things I'm working on and my fundraiser for Shriners Hospital..... I'm pooped. So for all of you who are disappointed I haven't put up any birthday pictures yet, here's a small glimpse of it and the rest of last week.

Our last "almost warm" day..... Taylor and Ashtyn decided that mud in your hair is "fun".......oh yeah, it tastes good too???


We went out to eat (Jeremy the girls and myself) as a family!!!!! And had dinner at Athen's (our favorite local pizza place) for Taylor's birthday. On our way home Jeremy stopped at his parents to say hi only to find out the cake I smelt cooking earlier was made special for Taylor, so we all went in for some monster cherry chocolate cake. Taylor liked the cherries more than anything and I think she was a bit disappointed that there were no cherries on the cake I made for her.


Auntie Julie, Ashtyn, Taylor and me before the party


I think this balloon, from Zane and "Uncle" Travis, was Taylor's favorite present... she still won't leave it alone.


Taylor half way through the party.....she was so tired she laid down to eat her birthday cake


Taylor and Ashtyn have been fighting to see who can spend the most time on the hobby horse "Grammy and Grampa" picked up for the girls.....and me(....I'm the one that wanted it....but obviously for them to have fun on)

Notice my stupid window is STILL broken.....as if my to-do list wasn't long enough, there's something else I forgot about.

And last but not least.... Ashtyn "allowed" me to take a picture of her...... She found out that food coloring doesn't taste as cool as it looks..... and its not the food coloring that makes frosting sweet....

More idiotic evidence

I'm a complete ditz. That's all there is to it. I don't know if its the hanging out with little kids 24/7 thing, or the pregnant and/or nursing for the last 4 years messing my hormones up, lack of out of home life, genetics (ha ha...you know I love you guys)....I have no idea the source of my stupidity. Maybe its all of it put together but wow do I feel dumb.

I just met with a woman today about watching her kiddo and it was like I was transformed into a 12 month old as soon as I opened my mouth to speak. Obviously I never had a public speaking class or I probably wouldn't have this problem. And I'm not a "seller"...you like what you see or you leave the store. I'm not the type to coax you into buying something you don't want. But I seem to have the curse of making really horrible first impressions. I don't know why, I just do. By the end of my "duh, I watch kids, duh" either the parents think, "Hey at least she's on the same page as my 2 month old, I guess my kids safe here" or "this girls so good she doesn't care about first impressions...she's already got a house full of other kids and they seem fine" or, the worst case scenario," yeah, um, I'll call ya...." as they run for the hills and wonder who lets me watch kids.

Ugh!

I really should have paid more attention to my calender today.

I had a visit scheduled with Taylor's therapist to review her case/needs/whatever from noon to one, then my extra kiddo "D" was going to show up at 1, well he showed up at 10, so instead of quiet time to review Taylor's file, it was going to be 3 kids awake and crazy time, and for some reason I forgot everything that I had already scheduled between noon and 3 when I told this woman who called about childcare to "come on over" when she asked if 1:30 would be okay.

This is why the calender is right there on the door in front of my face!!!! To LOOK AT IT!!! And I neglected to do so.

Ashtyn was having a really bad day since she woke up and it was only seeming to get worse as the minutes progressed. 10:30 Ashtyn falls asleep....one down, 2 to go. Not so lucky. I got Taylor and "D" their lunch just as Taylor's therapist walked in the door. We started going over the file as the kids ate, then they finished and I laid them down. Taylor passes out but "D" tossed and turned and talked to himself for the remainder of the PT/OT's visit. Ashtyn woke up as we were finishing. One visit down. About 5 minutes later the woman with the kiddo shows up with her kiddo and her sister and her sister's kiddo as I'm cooking Ashtyn's lunch and trying to coax "D" into going to sleep. He starts crying and wakes up Taylor. Taylor's crying, Ashtyn's screaming since she hasn't had lunch yet and "D" is still crying about not wanting a nap.

CALGON TAKE ME AWAY.

I'm standing there like a deer in headlights at this woman and her sister. I might as well have been drooling on myself with how intelligent I felt. I don't even know if I got her kiddo's name....that was how crazy it got. I gave her a 15 second tour and apologized for the insanity, said she didn't mind the chaos and took my info and packet of stuff I put together for her and said she'd give me a call later this week since she's hoping to have everything lined up for her return to work next Monday.

We'll see.

Lucky for me, the visitor I was supposed to have at 2, didn't show up.

And people wonder where "Chaos and Mayhem" came from....such is my life. Nothing can go smoothly or it wouldn't be my life.