Boys!

I have one boy in particular who loves his mama.  He is always affectionate and ready for a hug or a kiss - both to give one and receive.  Today he went to our neighbor's garage sale and bought me a present.  I always cringe at those words:  "Look what I bought you at the garage sale!"  This was a carrot shaped piece of artwork with 6 small cheese or butter knives with carrot tops that stick into the large carrot.  Now I have to figure out what to do with it as it is neither practical or physically beautiful.  However, it is beautiful in one way....my youngest son picked it out just for me.  He spent his own $2.00 on me.  Not on candy or a toy or anything else except his mama.  And for that reason we will use it tonight at dinner when we eat our pizza and it will be proudly displayed on my kitchen counter.  It will sit next to the ShrinkyDink with the words, "I Love You" on it and the 3 inch tall Sculptey clay letters that spell out "I LOVE MOM" and the heart shaped rock and the red wooden heart wall hanging bought at the last garage sale.  And every time I walk in my kitchen I am reminded that I am loved very much!

I also picked up my daughter and middle son at camp today.  Can I just say, ten year old boys stink.  Especially ones who have been at camp during a week of 95+ degree heat.  I could hardly stand to love on him when I saw him.  But, of course, I did.  Then he got in the car and took off his shoes.  Shoes he'd worn all week with no socks.  Oh, heavens.  It was RIPE in there.  I can't put my finger on the exact smell, but if you mix body odor with bad breath and clothes that have been wet in a pond and never dried fully and nasty foot smell, then you have a pretty good idea of what we put up with for an hour and a half.  When I got home I unpacked his clothes and found 3 pair of clean underwear.  Now, this camp was only 5 days long.....do the math.  (2 pair of underwear worn over 5.5 days)  Perhaps this was adding to the stench.  Perhaps.

Now, I am waiting for cookies to come out of the oven.  For that is my love language.  Food.  I love to bake cookies for my kids and their friends.  I can smell the ooey, gooey warm cookie smell right now.  To me it shouts, "I love you!"  I am not always great with physical affection, so sometimes cookies are my hugs.  It just feels good to have all 6 kids back under one roof.  Crazy good, you know?

Messes and More

A long time ago we had a dog named Fred.  He was a good dog, but really disgusting in many ways - he ate the insides out of diapers and had to have 15 teeth pulled because they were so rotten and one time he pooped into a floor vent in our house.  Earlier this week, I had the unpleasant task of remembering Fred by cleaning up an accident that was very similar to the "poop in the vent" incident.  Gwen, who is completely pee trained is struggling in the potty department when going #2.  She pooped her pants in the middle of lunch - so I cleaned her off and left her without underwear thinking it was almost nap time anyway.  Not even 10 minutes later, I see her in the family room pooping again....and it's runny.  Puddling at her feet, running down her legs.  Oh.  My.  Word.  And so, as I was cleaning up her mess again, I was reminded of Fred!  Then, she announced that she needed to go more.  I put her on the potty, she did her thing and then proudly exclaimed, "Me did it!"  But I couldn't even be happy for her.  How 'bout the other two "misses"???

Other than cleaning up after Gwen, this has been a pretty quiet week.  Kyle and Ben went to their grandparent's to visit and Joel and Gretta are at camp.  They slowly start trickling in later today and by tomorrow afternoon, everyone will be home.  Sunday was an emotional day for me.  When we dropped Gretta off at camp, she was not feeling well.  Actually, she was trying to decide if she felt well enough to even stay.  I knew how badly she wanted to be there - with two school friends in her cabin, even.  The counselors were great and really encouraged her to stay - telling her that she could sleep at the nurse's station for the first night and that they just knew she would be feeling great by the next day.  After a long and tearful deliberation, she decided to stay.  It broke my heart to leave her when she was crying.  It reminded me of leaving my kids at the church nursery when they are crying.  It about rips my heart out!  And, no matter how big they get, I guess it will always be the same.  I heard an interesting saying:  A mother is only as happy as her saddest child.  So true!  The good news is that I haven't heard from camp.  They said they would call if she was not well within 24 hours.  So at this point, no news is good news.

Is It Wrong??

To begin, Kyle got home safe and sound from camp.  It was a wonderful experience and we can't say enough good things about HoneyRock Camp.  The kids were very excited to see him - both little girls running up and screaming his name.  Joel trying to act cool and also trying not to cry.  Very sweet to a mama's soul!

On a totally different note....

Is it wrong......
- to hear one little girl say to another, "Lay on me and lick me like a dog."????
- for one (unnamed child) to eat THREE full size corn dogs in one sitting???
- to order a large Diet Coke for me and 2 small ice creams for my little girls only to realize I'm 16 cents short....and then cancel the 2 ice creams so I can still get my Diet Coke????

Yes.  It's wrong.  All of it.  But, sadly, it's all true.

Big Brother

The kids are all desperately missing Kyle.  He's been gone for 2 1/2 weeks. Matt and I leave today to go get him.  We'll be back in 48 hours - 22 of which will be spent on the road.  Thankfully, we aren't taking any kids with us -- that's way too much car time in that short of a span.  Anyway, yesterday a friend was asking me if I was missing Kyle.  I told her that I was, but that it hadn't seemed like 2 1/2 weeks.  Ben, who was standing near by, said, "What??  It seems like it's been 20 weeks!"  This is the same kid who told my mom that they couldn't swim in her pond without Kyle because it just wasn't any fun without him.  I think that there will be six kids very happy to be reunited on Friday evening.  I'm just wondering how long it will last until the arguing starts?????

Cosmetics

What is it with little girls loving to put in make-up and such?  On Friday, Charlotte came running downstairs yelling, "Mom!  Gwennie has your special white stuff all over."  It sounded dangerous and I didn't even know what she was talking about.  I ran upstairs and found Gwen with my Mary Kay facial lotion with SPF 15 lathered all over her right leg.  It was thick enough I could have mistaken it for shaving cream.  (Note to my Mary Kay lady.....I need more lotion and cleanser ASAP!)

Yesterday I took the two little girls to Target so Charlotte could pick out something using a $15 gift card she got for her birthday.  We stopped in the shoe section 1st.  She was debating a cute pair of pink sandals. While we were weighing the pros and cons, Gwen took off her own shoes and found a pair of cute, pink, sparkly Hello Kitty shoes -- and they were just her size - all without my help.  Charlotte decided against the sandals, but I could not get Gwen to take off the sparkly shoes.  She wore them around Target with the little stretchy chord between them, making her take little shuffle steps.  When we got back to the toy area, Charlotte quickly found a pretend hair styling kit (hair dryer with batteries that make it really blow, a curling iron, straightening iron, brush, pretend lipstick, etc.).   She was SOLD.  Thinking that Gwen would be sad because Charlotte had a whole new bag of goodies, I bought her a tube of Lip Smacker chapstick.....THE ENTIRE TUBE OF LIP SMACKER WAS GONE - TOTALLY GONE - BEFORE WE GOT HOME. It was in her hair, around her eyes, on her chin.  There were chunks of it on the floor and in her car seat.  She had been digging pieces of it out with her little finger.  Stinker.  So much for trying to be nice Mommy.

While the girls got the hair stuff out and started playing, I made mac n cheese for lunch.  When I served them, I told them that the macaroni was a little warm and to eat their strawberries first.  Then I heard the mini blow dryer going.  Charlotte was cooling off their mac n cheese with her it!  Genius.

As I was starting to type this out, Charlotte came running up to my chair, grabbed it and swung herself around.  The chair back split in two.  She stood totally still, not even blinking, knowing she was about to get it.  I turned around and said, "How many times have I told you not to yank on the chair??"

"About a hundred," she replied.  Ohhh.  It's so hard to keep a straight face when they answer you so seriously.

Tomorrow at our pool is the annual Fourth of July party.  They have all sorts of games throughout the day.  My older kids have been counting the days.  Gretta is anxious for the Starburst toss (thousands of candies thrown in the water followed by a free-for-all) while Joel and Ben have literally been practicing for days for the Big Splash Contest.  The winner gets $5 to spend at the concession stand - which is equal to 5 candy bars!  It will be a nail-biter, I'm sure!

Happy Fourth of July!

Trufe

Yesterday, as the little girls and I were in the car, they told me that their babysitter had taken them out for ice cream while I had been gone.  Then they told me that she had take them to a new hamburger/hot dog/ice cream place in town.  They continued to elaborate the story telling me they had actually eaten lunch there - and Charlotte went into great detail about the hamburgers they had gotten and how Gwen had to eat two more bites before the babysitter would let her get ice cream.  The babysitter had not said anything about taking them out to lunch, so I was trying to figure out what the truth was.  I asked them, "Are you guys making up a story or are you telling me the truth?"

Gwen replied, "I do trufe you."

Still unsure, I called the sitter to get the full explanation.  They had gone to the new place for ice cream, but had not eaten lunch.....so Gwen was not "trufing me" after all.  

Two and a half is a great age for funny sayings.  I love to hear her little sentences and phrases....like the things in front of buildings that squirt water up in the air = "Water Mountains"

"Where Wobber" = Where's Robert (her favorite lifeguard at the pool)

On a different (and heart-melting) note, when Gwen got out of bed on Tuesday, she went into the boys room.  "Ky-o??  Ky-o??  Where Ky-o?"  She had forgotten that he was at camp and was searching him out.  She misses him.  They all do....and so do I!