What's for breakfast?

The elusive Frances - One egg white, fried, with a piece of buttered toast. Takes her 20 minutes to eat because she reads more than she eats

Elizabeth - Pasta, with a little butter

Lewis - Oatmeal, with soymilk "DON'T FORGET I HATE THOSE NUTS" (ONCE I tried to sneak in walnuts)

Analise - Linguine with clam sauce

See why I make the children call me "Miss Cookie" in the morning? No cornflakes in our house.

Elizabeth LOVES to draw and color. Take away her paper and crayons and that's her worst nightmare. Almost every day she says "I have a present for you" and it's always a drawing. This was today's gift. She had an intricate story to tell - basically it's a map of India, China, and our house!

Ho Hum

Our weather this week whacked any illusion of a lingering autumn right out of my head. It's winter - I know that it comes every year and sticks around until April, but I still act shocked every time it comes around. We got right back to our winter weekend routine - went to Target to walk up and down every aisle and then to the Library to get another pile of books. May I introduce you to one of the worst books I've EVER read????? It was a great big ridiculous piece of crap.

On to one of my very favorites of the year. I read it a couple of weeks ago and just loved it. It's the story of a man in India, working his way up in the world in a very unusual way.

Whenever we go to the library, I make the kids sit quietly in the adult reading room that contains the newest acquisitions, while I browse. Of course it's torture to them and I have to flash them my fiercest look a few times to keep them from causing mayhem. When I was done, I gave them the "release the hounds" look and Ana and Lewis took off to the kids' room. Frances was hunched over a magazine. I said "come on Honey, we can go look for your books now." "Just a second, I want to finish this paragraph." Figuring she was reading Tiger Beat or some other tween mag, I said "whatcha reading?" She showed me the cover:

"THIS MAGAZINE IS AWESOME!!!!"
In other news........
Elizabeth nearly was booted off the bus.....AGAIN. Seems she penned a little tune called "The Butt Song" which she shared with EVERYONE on the bus. Kids were getting out of their seats to get away from her. She is a hot mess.
We had a parent teacher conference for Analise. As usual, the teachers gushed over her sweet nature and what a diligent worker she is.
Frances is auditioning for an all county youth orchestra. She has to have memorized, 15 major scales in 2 octaves. I didn't even know there were 15 major scales. The piece her teacher chose is beautiful - "Meditation" by Massenet. She has about 8 more weeks to prepare.
The kids had a half day of school yesterday and 2 of Frances' friends came home on the bus with her. Lewis and Elizabeth's bus got home first and I had to read Lewis the riot act. He ran in the house and had his pants off within 30 seconds. "LEWIS! You need to put your pants back on and keep them on while Frances' friends are here! Wait until you are in the bathroom to pull your pants down and be sure the door is closed when you go potty!" Lewis: "OH MAN! OOOOOOOKAY"
I can't find the cable to my camera so you'll just have to sit tight and quit your jonesing for cute pictures of me,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, and my kids?

Professional Dodge Baller?

Lewis has many interesting aspirations. A few weeks ago, he told Uncle Chuckie that he wanted to be a go-cart driver when he grows up. Other times it's a race car driver or a monster truck driver. Out of the blue last week, he came up with a new one. "Mama, I am going to play dodge ball for my job when I grow up." Ummmmmmm, ok.

A Breakthrough!

Huh?

November Shenanigans

This week, a certain Grandmama hit a significant decade birthday. We partied like it was 1999.
As luck would have it, the very next day was Analise's 1/2 birthday. We had leftover Grandma cake ready to wish her a Happy 8 1/2!

Just yesterday, ALMOST all of my siblings got together to close down our cottage........ Aunt Suzie finds this to be one of the times when she is thankful to live too far away to partake in the "C" word................uh huh, cleaning.
EVEN the old man joined us and insisted on mowing the lawn, even though he is the same age as the above birthday girl......hint, it rhymes with "matey" Shhhhhhhhhhhh
I had to bribe the kids to help with raking. Lewis said "Will you give me $15?" "Ummm, no, how about 15 cents?" "YES! HURRAY!"

Look at that skinny ass! Anne has been denying herself the wonder and beauty of carbohydrates and has lost 18 lbs since August.

And look at these manly men! They were in charge of putting boards up over the screened porch. There was not a scream or a whine heard.

It's Sunday, 1:30 and I am still in my pajamas, as are all the kids! I don't think anything is going to change but at least they are in their rooms, supposedly cleaning. Time for a surprise inspection!

The inventory is complete

Whew, we had a gorgeous evening for trick-or-treating and we scored big time on candy. I made the kids dump all their candy together and after we removed all the sticky candy (for the sake of the $$$$$$$$$$$ worth of dental fixtures), Frances did an inventory for her "optional" math assignment - 156 pieces. I might have to remove 20 pieces every day to get rid of it faster. Either that or I'm going to burst out of my pants and my kids will have to get their insulin pumps. They have been begging for "one more" all day. Blech
Ana was Wonder Woman, Lewie & Eliz were Power Rangers, and Frances was a football player (very convincing, all 50 lbs of her).