My favorite quote

"I just wanted to tell you that your kids are the ONLY reason I will have kids when I'm older..."
Helen. 7/24/09

Words to live by

If it is to be, it is up to me.

Happy Birthday Jackie Paper!

Believe it or not but Jack turned 4 today. Tuesday is a big day this year. Not just because it is Jack's one and only 4th birthday, but Jess is also making her confirmation this evening and it is also my first day of rehearsal for The Witches. I have made arrangements to scoot out of rehearsal and get to the church in time for Jess' ceremony. I knew there wouldn't be time to celebrate Jack's birthday so we decided to do that this past weekend.

Initially, Mom was supposed to host a seminar at the house Saturday afternoon and then that evening we were going to have Jack's party at the park. KFC, swings, slides, feed the geese...My sister Melanie had plans to come to Mom's seminar and she was going to bring a cake. (She is developing a passion for baking and she loves to do fun and interesting cakes. She was going to make a Thomas cake for us.) Well, the seminar was cancelled due to weather. Mel cancelled due to weather (Mel - I do not mean for this to make you feel guilty - I would have cancelled too.) So John and I were trying to figure out what to do for a cake at the last minute. We decided to do KFC on the dining room floor on blankets - picnic style. And I thought about trying to ice some twinkies and attach oreo wheels so they would look like trains. I headed out to the store after my Friday night show and picked up some angel food cakes, black licorice, rollos and icing. (Ironically, this wound up costing less than a cake from the bakery...) It was maybe 10:00/10:30 when John and I went to work. We cut the cakes in half for the train cars, laid down licorice for tracks, cut oreos in half for the wheels and used the rollos as domes and funnels. When we were done, we had quite a few oreos left over and John suggested we ice them and spell out Happy Birthday Jackson. The next dilemma was where to hide the cakes so the children would not plunder them before the party. John had the excellent idea of covering them with foil and hiding them in the oven. Great thinking!!! I think the whole thing came out GREAT!

Well, the kids loved eating on the floor. (It was a difficult concept for Wyatt to grasp: He kept trying to lay down on the floor and cover up with the blanket.) Jack wanted nothing to do with a drumstick. He insisted "I want a big chicken." Who knew a big chicken would be half the size of his head? He refused to eat the mashed potatoes until I removed all traces of gravy.

But most importantly, Jack loved his cakes. (The blue one is Thomas, the red one is the mail car and the yellow ones are Molly and her tender. Jack must have thought we did a terrible job on Molly because he kept calling her something like Hanny- who isn't even a train by the way...) Jack also let me know that my representation of Thomas was incorrect. You see, Thomas has THREE sets of wheels. I only included TWO sets of wheels. Jack repeatedly informed me of this discrepancy. I showed him a picture of his cakes today and he immediately told me "Mommy, Thomas upposed to have FREE wheels."

Before Jack even finished eating his cake he was asking about his presents. One after the other he was tearing paper saying "Oh, I wonner what it is?" or "Where could it be?" and "What is inside there?" In addition to the predictable train gifts, Jack was on the receiving end of a folding rule, a level and a pair of binoculars. Every 4 year old needs binoculars, ya know...

Believe it or not, Wy would have nothing to do with the cake. He was all about the cookies. While the rest of the kids tore into the cake, Wy was demanding "Cookie! Cookie! Cookie!" Here he is with his little oreo face.

On to the every day!

Devlyn was throwing a fit the other day and Poppy made her sit down in the living room with him. He told her she could get up when she stopped pouting. She continued to put out some serious pout. Finally Poppy asked mom and I to come in and take a picture because Dev made such a great pouty face. Time out turned into a photo shoot which helped Devlyn drop her 'tude and we got a few funny shots. This morning she and Jack were playing with his trains and she suddenly said to Jack "You are Uncle Doug and I am Aunt Beth." A little while later she came into the kitchen crying. She said "I hurt myself..." I said "Did you say 'I'm sorry?' to yourself? She walked off. Then from the living room I heard her say "Sorry." Mom and I had a good laugh over that one.

Monday is my usual grocery day. I am thinking of changing that to Sunday evening because doing the grocery with 3 kids in tow is no fun. So far the best solution I have come up with is to put Wy in the seat of one cart with the groceries in the back. Then Devlyn and Jack go in the back of a 2nd cart. They are not very hip to this arrangement. They really want to push the carts. I have found though, that if I let them 'push' the carts, they wind up running around the store like banshees. And so, in the cart they go. This is not a great solution either, as they both have melt downs over being in the cart. I go between the two carts pushing Wy and pulling the kids, list in hand, pen in mouth and we're off. Then of course half way through the store with a nearly full cart, Devlyn has to go to the bathroom. Does she EVER have to go before we actually leave the house? No. She has to go when we reach the frozen section. Then of course we have to get to the bathroom, get everyone out of carts, into the bathroom as a group, prevent children from crawling under the closed doors of occupied stalls, deal with fits over the autmatic flushing toilets which are so loud the kids have to cover their ears and cry. Then I have to remember to have a firm grasp on Wyatt BEFORE we step out of the bathroom because the second I open the door he is half way past the pharmacy like a race horse. Of course he looks over his shoulder and laughs at me the whole way because being chased by mommy in the grocery store is HYSTERICAL. Especially because mommy is issuing "DO NOT MOVE" orders to the other 2 children who are not yet in carts - thus qualifying themselves as free roaming agents in a large open building that feels like a race track. Let me tell you, small children who do not wish to be caught are very fast...

As you all know, we have been having trouble getting Jack to sleep in his own bed. Early last week I had the BRILLIANT idea to put Wy in bed with Jack. I got them snuggled in then sat down beside them and read a few short books. We said our bedtime prayers, then I hugged and kissed them and told them I would be back in a little bit to check on them. I walked out of the room ready for the crying to begin and there was nothing. Nothing as in not one peep. There was no talking, there was no crying, there was no playing. I was shocked. I poked my head in and there they were, snuggled up together, eyes closed trying to go to sleep. WOW! YEAH! 3 nights in a row of utter success! Then the 4th night Jack decided to sleep with his head at the foot of the bed and Wy wouldn't stop kicking him. Wy thought this was hysterical. John finally had to separate them.

Not sure when if I will have a new edition this week or not. As I mentioned earlier, I start rehearsals this week and this show is one that will keep me busy. Love, blessings and promises of more to come~

The gang at Owenland Park.

Rice cakes for Jesus

Well, let's just get the bad news over with: Mama was laid off from Sprint last week. She is "on contract" till the end of this week and then she is a free agent. Please send her some prayers and some good Karma.

Jess started to read the Twilight series last week. I have heard that by book 3 or 4 there is a bit of adult content so I decided to read the books too. She had a major fit about that and decided to read something else. Her big concern was that I would make her stop reading in mid series. (I made her stop reading The Lovely Bones about a month ago. I didn't think that was quite appropriate novel material for a 13 year old to be reading.) I had been meaning to get to the Twilight books at some point so I jumped right in and didn't let her fit rain on my parade. Well, I plowed through the books this last week (I couldn't put them down) and half way through thought "I read racier trash novels when I was her age." I'm so mean - I'm going to make her buy her own copies. I am very particular about -how- I keep the books I keep as I read them again and again. Anyway, here she is one evening with Wy. He had just had a bath and I can't remember what he was upset about, but he didn't want anyone but "Ca!" (His version of Jessica.)

Ya know, it is truly no fun to be the only adult in the house when someone is bleeding profusely from the head while five children stand nearby screaming or hyperventilating. OK - Jess and Abbs were horsing around and Abby tripped. She conked her head on the wall and then there was bleeding. Of course I was upstairs when it happened and only heard some crying. I wasn't in a huge rush to get downstairs until I suddenly heard All Holy Hell break loose with shrieking and "IT's BLEEDING! OH MY GOD, IT'S BLEEEEEEDIIIIINNNNNGGGGGGG!" I hurtled down the stairs and sure enough there was Abby, hunched over, blood all over the wall, her hand, shirt, dripping on the floor, looking like the survivor of a zombie attack. Jess was on the verge of hyperventilation, Connie was screaming, Devlyn was crying hysterically because this badness woke her up and her sisters were freaking out, Jack was crying because everyone else was crying and Wy was crying because the noise woke him up and he was afraid and alone in his crib upstairs. I started off trying to speak calmly to people. It took me about 5 seconds to realize that was not going to work. I started to move Abby upstairs towards the kitchen so I could get a better look/handle on the situation. Jess started yelling at me about not moving Abbs and how I need to call 911. And then I just started barking at people. "YOU - Calm down! YOU - take a breath! YOU - come with me! YOU - get some ice out of the freezer! YOU - get out of the kitchen! YOU - sit down! YOU - calm down, no one is going to die!" Of course I was trying to figure out if Abbs needed to go to the hospital and how I was going to wrangle that with 6 kids...Thankfully, Daddy got home just then and between the two of us determined that it was a good cut, but we didn't think she needed stitches. Fun times.

I think I'm having the hardest time with Connie. (In terms of adjusting to daily life that is.) She is a stubborn 5 year old who is going on 15. She digs in her heels or throws some sass my way and something in my brain sort of explodes. I dig in my heels and we suddenly are locked in a little battle of wills. I think part of the reason I have so much trouble with her is that I am not about to cave in to the sass of a 5 year old. I someimtes I wish I could be more like my mama and just let go with something like that - but thus far it hasn't happened. And I have no idea how she does it, but that child tears through shoes. She has already torn through 2 pairs of brand new tennis shoes since January.

Jack has been singing Jingle bells all week. And in true Jack form, he has his own way of singing the song...Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to ride in a wal-mart on a sleigh! He also loves to sing The Itsy Bitsy Spider song. "A itsy bitsy spider went up a water spout. Down came a rain and washed a spider out. Down came a Sun and dried up all a rain, and a itsy bitsy spider went up the water spout - again..."

Still no progress with poopin in the pot. Rewards don't work. Bribes don't work. I have no more tricks. When he goes in his pants, I ask him if it is comfortable. He says "No." I ask him if he likes poop in his pants. He says "No." I ask him why he didn't poop in the pot. He says "Mommy, I tried and I tried and I tried to poop in a pot but I couldn't. I just couldn't, Mommy."

He gets to feed the cats in the morning and always asks "Are you hungry widdle wibby (little Libby)?"

I always try to make sure there are a few trains in the boys' bags before we head out each day. If there is time, I let Jack pick out which trains he wants to take with us. Every so often we have to empty out his bag so it doesn't get weighted down with all those trains. When we pull trains out of the bag Jack tells me they are "asleep" and "You don't wake them up, mommy."

He is fascinated with machines: particularly road construction vehicles. He has a picture book that identifies back hoes, front loaders, tractors and who knows what else. Since I have no idea what any of these vehicles are, I usually ask Jack to clue me in. We were out the other day when I asked Jack "What kind of machine is that, Jack?" His reply? "A yellow one."

Jack doesn't want to sleep in his own bed. He doesn't want to fall asleep without someone sitting with him. If I am with him at bed time, he often wants me to sit in his little bed with him. We have no one to blame but ourselves - John sits with the boys every night until they are both asleep. When it is my turn I am so tired I usually wind up bringing Jack to bed with me. I decided to make a little pallet by our bed and Jack could sleep there. He wasn't happy about it, but he must have decided it was better than being in his own bed. Twice this week he has slept there. And two other nights he fell asleep in his own bed without any grown ups in his room!

As you all know, Jack loves anything Thomas. He has a few pairs of Thomas pajamas and of course he only wants to wear whichever pair that is in with the dirty laundry. He has "Red Thomas" pjs - the ones with red pants. "Blue Thomas" pjs - the ones with the blue shirt. "Fast Thomas" pjs - the ones where Thomas is going fast. And "Slow Thomas" pjs - the ones with just little Thomases all over them. Here we have "Little Thomas" and "Fast Thomas" pjs.

Mom and I took the kids for a walk to the park Tuesday evening. The weather was gorgeous and the kids had so much fun on the slides. We were heading home with Abby and Connie in the lead. Abbs was pulling the wagon with Wy & Jack. Devlyn decided she was done walking with me and Gammy and took off at a run to catch up with her sisters. That girl tripped over her feet hit her palms on the sidewalk and then slid about a foot and a half on her nose. Mom was giving her a hard time the other night and said "Devlyn, you can go out back and sleep in the shed." Devlyn looked at her and said "I can't deal with that."

Mel, Mark & Noah came down for Mom's surprise party the other week and before they left Noah was passing around 'Eskimo kisses'. It was so fun and funny that I could hardly breathe. I showed Wy how to give 'noses' and now he wants to do it all the time too! I asked him the other day "Wy are you handsome?" and he just said "Yeeeee-aaaaahhhh."

He is learning to identify animals and their sounds. As far as Wy is concerned all animals say "yayayayayayaya" except cats, who say 'yeow.' He continues to work on naming colors - he is currenlty in love with green and purple so everything is either greenor purple. Since he has been able to talk Thomas has been 'Thom-mine." This week he started saying "Thomassss" I was so sad, I nearly cried.

Finally - as the collection plate came around during mass yesterday, Wy tried to put a half eaten rice cake in the plate while keeping the money for himself. He was not happy with me when I made him swap out his offering.

That about does it for me this week. Love and blessings and as always - more next week! lots of love from Owenland Park!

Holy Toilet, Batman!

Here Abby gives Devlyn a lift. We were having a grand time the other night with airplane rides.






Poor Uncle John had to give everyone a lift to touch the ceiling. He was a good sport even after he broke a sweat...









Holy Toilet, Batman! I am not sure who the culprit is, but someone decided the toilet must be a holy place and used a crayon to mark the spot. I just hope no one blessed themselves with the water...








Wy loves bath time. He was so excited the other day when Jack was in the tub that he just launched himself in - clothes and all.





Devlyn has an infection on one of her toes. I have her soak her foot in water and peroxide every other day for about 5 minutes. Jack is fascinated with this process and insisted that he soak his foot too.



Devlyn attacked me in this little pop up Thomas play thing the other day. She pulled it out from under the sofa, unfolded it and climbed the stairs in it to 'surprise' me.







"One! Singular sensation, every little step he takes (da da da da da da da) One! Thrilling combination. Every move that he makes. One smile and suddenly nobody else will do! You know you'll never be lonely with YOU KNOW WHOOOOOOO ONE!

Wy hardly ever smiles for the camera - so I had to include this one for you. And look at that baby's face. I can't keep him clean longer than 30 seconds.





Now that we have a pattern of the girls coming home from school and sitting down to do homework, Jack likes to do his homework too. He saw this picture last night and said "Look, Mommy! Jax does his homework!"


I got home early from rehearsal one night last week to discover Jack & Connie cuddled up on the couch watching one of their movies.

Until next time, peace, love and blessings.

Embrace your octopus

There are many things I think about sharing with you each week. I toss out a lot of them because I worry about invading the kids' privacy. Without pointing fingers or getting mired down in the details I think it is fair to say we are sorting out some behavioral issues.

That being said, I debated and debated about sharing this with you, but I have talked to other parents of boys and they all have similar stories/memories so here goes: Jack is spends a lot of time with his penis. When we go into church I have to say "We are here to talk to Jesus, now take your hands out of your pants." When we are out shopping and I see him take his hands out of his pants to grab an item off the shelf I have to say "Nobody wants to touch that after you have been holding your penis!" He will be in time out and I will have to say "Time out is NOT about entertaining yourself, now get your hand out of your pants!" I don't want to give him a complex about it, but we have to have some socially acceptable behavior. I have resorted to telling him that it is ok when he is by himself. What else do ya say?...

Jess registered for her freshman year at Mercy High this week. Mercy is in Omaha Nebraska so Jess will be a 'foreign exchange' student of sorts coming this fall. She is currently behind in a few classes so all social activities have been put on hold. I am thrilled that she is fitting in so well and have told her that I will do all I can to allow her a fun and active social life but that she has to keep up with her school work and bring home good grades. We'll see how it works out.

I was in rehearsals for Atypical Boy (a world premiere by Laurie Brooks) the last two weeks. Rehearsals were in the evenings and I hadn't been getting home until everyone was in bed. I am pleased and sad to report that Jess rocked Wyatt to sleep twice last week. I am pleased because this is serious progress as far as Wy is concerned. When the girls first came to us in January, Wyatt wouldn't let Jess touch him. I am sad because I want to put my little Wy guy to sleep...Well, you can't always get what you wa-a-ant. At least that is what Mick Jagger says.

Trying to drive everyone where they need to go is a daily adventure. When I am in shows, Mom takes the girls to school while John and I take turns shuttling the 3 little ones out to Beth's house. When I am in rehearsals, Mom & I take turns getting the girls to school in the morning while Beth and I make daily deals about my going to her house or her coming to mine. Whenever I pile the little ones into the car, Jack & Devlyn race to see who can get their seat belt buckled up first. When the girls first came, Devlyn couldn't buckle her seat belt on her own. Now she beats Jack nearly every time. And she GLOATS about it. "JACK, I BEAT YOU!!!" Jack doesn't seem to mind though. As soon as he gets buckled he happily shouts "Mommy! I winned!" I tell him they both won. If Jack gets buckled up first, Devlyn is devastated. She quits trying to buckle up. She hangs her head in despair. She doesn't want help and refuses to have her spirits lifted.

This week Jack has taken to singing his own version of Happy Birthday: Happy Valentine's to Mommy! Happy Valentine's to Mommy! Happy Valentine's to Mommy! Happy Valentine's to Mommy! He and Abbie Cat partook of some silly time the other night.

Kilroy was here! (OK - I couldn't resist that one.) Wy refuses to hug anyone when he apologizes. He will say "Horry Abbie." I will tell him to give her a hug and he will shriek "NO!" or "UH-UH!"

Wy IS human! OK - maybe I shouldn't be excited about this, but my little bottomless pitted stomach of a boy refused food the other morning. He wouldn't eat his "bwan" (banana) he sort of cuddled it and walked around with it for a while. (Turns out his tummy was upset.) I wish I had a picture of him cuddling the banana - but it was discarded by the time I thought of it. Oh well...

Saturday was gorgeous. The kids were all outside playing. Jack was pulling Wy around the back yard in their big little red wagon. Jack must have been distracted as he ran off. Within .5 seconds Wy turned around and stood up in the back end of the wagon. You guessed it, the wagon tipped over and Wy's face smashed into the deck. Poor baby cut his lip open with his tooth and was so upset he wasn't even crying. OK - it was the crying where they let out such a long wail that they run out of air but keep going even when there is no sound? Then they have to take in this long slow inhale before they can let out another wail... Anyways, we got him calmed down and his face cleaned up (he had sucked on his fingers getting blood all over them, then he was holding his face smearing blood on his ear, eye and cheek...) I took him upstairs to put him down for a nap but he had turned into super baby octopus. He would not let me put him down. I could not sever his grasp on me. You know, a determined child is a force to be reckoned with. So, there we stood (at the cage) cuddling until he felt cozy enough to lay down. Maybe it will change, but I have a sneaking suspicion that even when he is 35 I will still want to cuddle him. And even though I was running late for work, I decided to embrace my little octopus because there will be a day when he won't let me do that anymore.

The cats are starting to adjust to the girls. Libby will sometimes curl up with Jess at night. Gracie has finally coming out of hiding. I think she must have attended an AA meeting - she seems to have come to the understand that she has to accept the things she cannot change...

My Anaconda


When I found out I was pregnant with Jack, I started to worry about how we were going to afford all the things we needed for a baby; bed, dresser, clothes, insurance... I had no idea just then how many people help you out. Through work I knew this fella Ray. Ray had 3 daughters. His youngest was still sleeping in a crib. One day he walked by her bedroom while she was playing with her dollies. He overheard her say something along the lines of "and now you go in the cage little baby." He poked his head in the room to see what was going on and saw his little girl putting her baby doll to sleep in the crib. He decided it was time to move her into a bigger bed. He offered John and I the crib and it has served us for both Jack & Wy guy.

So, Tuesday night Mama called for me to grab my camera and hurry upstairs. She was changing Wyatt's diaper. He just laid there 'reading the paper' the whole time. (Fellas start their bathroom habits early, huh?) Connie just so happened to be hanging out in the boys' room while ma was getting Wy changed for bed. She turned to me and said "Why does Wyatt have to sleep in a cage?"

We had a small celebration for Mama's graduation with one of Mom's favorite dinners: my sloppy joes with steamed cauliflower and a lovely salad followed by a DELICIOUS chocolate truffle cake with chocolate ice cream. Wy called for "Cree! Cree! Cree!" His desperate call for ice cream!

Wy has started to repeat the alphabet after me letter by letter. He has also started to repeat numbers through 10. He loves to count to 3 forwards and backwards(something he can do on his own) as he climbs stairs.

I have mentioned that we are working with Devlyn on colors, shapes, numbers and letters. She can count to 10 and knows the alphabet though she can't identify numbers or letters. We have picked up a few sets of flash cards and I try to spend a little time each day doing flash card games with her. Jack loves to join us. We were going over the flashcards on Friday and I excused myself for a moment. I told the kids to look at the numbers while I was gone. Jack immediately held up a flashcard to Devlyn and said "Devwn - what nummer is zis?" He flash carded her the whole time I was away from the table.

Our new kitchen cabinets were delivered this week. Mom and I took a few of the kids out today to pick out paint for the kitchen. While at the store Abby found a dress she really liked. She asked if she could wear it for her First Communion. Mom reminded Abby that she asked mom to make a dress for her. Abby then said "Well, can I have this for my Second Communion?"

John came home on Wednesday and Jack was tearing pillows, cushions and blankets off the sofa. John said "Hey Jack, what are you doing?" Jack looked up at him and said "I'm making a mess, Daddy."

Wy was being sassy with Devlyn Thursday morning - and by sassy I mean he was screeching and grunting at her for no discernible reason. I asked him "Do you want to go in time out, young man?" He said "Yeah!"

I got home Wednesday night and the boys were still awake. Poor John needed a break so I shooed him out of the boys' room and sat down with Wy in the rocker. Jack asked me to sit beside him, so Wy and I moved over into Jack's little toddler bed. I played a round of sudoku and suddenly Wy starts giggling and laughing. I couldn't figure out what was so funny. I will never know because he was fast asleep. Whatever he was dreaming was totally funny to him though.

I stopped at Michael's on Wednesday to pick up some things and I let Jack, Devlyn & Wyatt pick out one toy each. Initially they settled on Pirate hats and tiaras. A few minutes later they changed their minds and held a long debate between the joys of trains vs the fun of harmonicas. The cashier walked up to inform me that "We are very concerned about health and safety ma'am. Since the children have put their mouths on the harmonicas, you will have to buy them." I really wanted to look at her and say "Well, are you going to call the Michael's' cops and put me in Michael's' jail if I don't?" I didn't. Anyway, we - I mean I - bought the harmonicas and the kids were very happy to sit around and make music. I'm sure you will all think I'm crazy, but 3kids blowing wildly on their harmonicas while I drove home really didn't bother me.

Anyway, we went home and I put Wy down for a short nap. I settled Jack & Devlyn on the sofas to watch Winnie the Pooh. I started to head upstairs but had to stop when Jack said "Jax wants a green anaconda." I looked at him and said "I don't understand what that means." "Jax wants a green anaconda." "You want a snake?" "No, Jax wants my anaconda." I couldn't stop myself: I sang "My anaconda don't want none unless you got buns hun! You can do side bends or sit ups, but please don't lose that butt!" Jack was looking at me like I was a whack job. Suddenly I realized he wanted his green harmonica. This is my life: Someone says something that reminds me of a song. I sing the song. And the person who started it all stands there looking at me like I am a whack job...

(I know most of this is about the littler kids - but I have been in rehearsals in the evenings - so I only see the older girls in the mornings and you really don't want to hear about what mornings are like. We'll just leave it at the fact that someone goes in time out, someone cries, someone pouts, someone doesn't want to eat what we are eating for breakfast, someone doesn't want to...I think you get the picture.)

Finally - here we have the majority of the gang in time out all at once. They seem to think the living room, dining room and kitchen is a track built especially for them to race through the house.

OK - love and blessings~
Owenland Park!