Everybody loves bubble wrap

Every Valentine's Day for the last 10 years I have sent John a heart shaped pizza for lunch. Because we have a house full of kids and Valentine's Day Fell on the weekend I gave John the option of having his pizza ON Valentine's Day and having to share with the kids or having the pizza delivered to work on Friday. The Friday option would let him have the pizza all to himself AND brag to the fellas yet again that his sweet girl sent him a heart shaped pepperoni pizza. He opted for Friday. Then I asked him if he really wanted the pizza this year as it is so predictable and well, boring. He said "That is a silly question."

The first Tuesday of each month is Can Day at John Paul II. I sent each of the girls to school with 2 canned goods only to find out later in the day that Can Day is the day you bring in all your empty soda cans for some fella to recycle and raise money for the school. It has nothing to do with canned goods. Imagine, if you will, the ration the kids gave me when I picked them up from school on Tuesday.

Every day I see something on the school calendar or newsletter that takes an interpreter to understand. Things like "Feb 17 - Confirmations Mtgs 8th gr SPX & 7th & 8th gr QHR". OK - I understand there is a meeting on the 17th. It is for Confirmation. Now, what time is the meeting? The school represents 2 parishes - so is the meeting at Queen or Pius? Is it a meeting for the kids? For the parents? Both? The list of my questions just goes on. I am thinking about asking if I can get a parent 'buddy' who I could call with my 10,000 questions.

Wy insists that I kiss his Thomas trains on the face. Hug Wy, kiss Henry. Talk to Wy, kiss Harold. Give food to Wy, Kiss Thomas. Stop folding laundry, kiss Molly...
He doesn't want to drink milk anymore. He only wants juice. He follows me all over the house asking for "Jew! Jew! Jew!" If I give him a sippy cup with milk in it, he throws it down and pouts at me.

He is beginning to take after his big brother and start his responses with "We-ellll..." "Wy, how are you?" "We-elll...na! na! na!" (Na is Wy speak for snack.) "Do you want to eat?" "We-elll...(and he runs for the table.)

Mom took Jess to Omaha for what they call a 'shadow day' at Mercy High. Mercy is one of the high schools Jess is thinking of attending and prospective students have to spend a school day with a current student. They went up Thursday night so Jess could shadow on Friday. School wound up being cancelled on Friday due to snow. They have taken pity on us and aren't going to make her reschedule her shadow day. Here she is being a silly goose.

Abby is working toward her First Communion this spring. She and I attended her first meeting this week. The kids listened to Mrs. Alexander talk about Communion then they made a craft project. They put together decorations that they strung onto a vine wreath. The kids will put these up to decorate church the day they receive Communion. On the way to the meeting I mentioned that we weren't very far from Gran's house. As we left she asked if we could drive by to see the house. We parked outside and sat there for a few minutes. She asked why there weren't any cars out front. I told her someone had bought the house but that no one was living there yet. We didn't talk much. We just held hands and sniffled our way home.

Jack lives with his hands in his pants. I reached my nice limit when we walked into Church last Sunday and saw him walking along with both hands down the front of his pants. I said "We are in church and you will not put your hands in your pants young man." He didn't put his hands in there once during mass. I was very proud of him.

My girlfriend Shannon sent us a HUGE care package. She sent Thomas stuff for the boys, hair ties and other girly stuff for each of the girls and board game for the whole family. She sent a couple of packages with these little foam animal cut outs encased in capsules. You drop the capsule in warm water and watch your animal grow. The younger crowd was fascinated! It went a little slow so their interest picked up when I handed everyone a spoon and let them stir their capsules. Wow they had fun when the animals took shape. "Mine is a duck!" "I KNEW mine was a pig!" "Mine is a...what is it, mommy? Oh, at's right, is a ooster!"

Beth was bringing Jack, Devlyn & Wy home a few days ago. Devlyn sits in between the boys in the back seat and Beth said Devlyn was fussing with both the boys. Beth would tell her to keep her hands to herself. She would do that for a minute, then turn and mess with the other boy. This went on for a while and while Beth was putting gas in her car she heard crying from inside the car. She opened the door and asked Devlyn why she was crying. She said "Jack put his finger in my eye." Beth asked Jack what happened and he said "Well...my hand just went over there."

I don't know where it came from, but we had a very large sheet of bubble wrap that I had no idea what to do with. I finally laid it out on the kitchen floor yesterday morning and let the kids go to town. We danced, crawled, hopped and ran all over the bubble wrap. The kids sat down and popped bubbles with their fingers, toes, knees, elbows, noses. I drew the line when they started popping the bubbles with their teeth. (The last thing I wanted was for someone to choke on bubble wrap.) There was so much popping and squealing I thought for sure my Dad was going to holler at us. He was a good sport though and let us have our fun.

That does it for me. I'm still aiming for Fridays, it just isn't working out very well. I'll try to get in a few more pictures next week. Until then, God's blessings on you all!

Love, from Owenland Park.

Herding Cats

Every morning John and I help each other get Devlyn, Jack & Wyatt loaded into the car or truck. John helps me on Tuesday & Wednesday and I help him Thursday & Friday.(We take turns taking them to Beth's house.) As I pull out of the garage, John stands in the garage and waves goodbye to us. The kids show him "I love you" fingers and give him 'bones' as we drive away. I however stand in the driveway at the back of the yard and watch John and the kids drive off. I wave goodbye and show them "I love you" fingers. They give me 'bones' and I give them 'bones' right back. So I am standing there in the cold at 7:00 in the morning, waving 'bones' with my fist in the air and I swear it looks like I am declaring "Black power!" to the neighborhood. Sometimes I want to shout "Can I get an Amen?!" Something is wrong with me.

Jack loves to sing. He sings to himself all the time. Every song he sings is either one I taught him or from one of his shows. I was startled this week when I heard him singing something I didn't recognize: "Wonder pets, wonder pets, we're on our way. To help a friend and save the day. We're not to bed and we're not too tough..." I don't understand the last phrase. I suggested to him that the song might be "We're not too BIG and we're not too tough." Well, let me tell you, he became very cross at this very idea that I might stick my foot into something I know nothing about. He told me quite sternly that the song says "we're not to BED and we're not too tough." He wouldn't hear anymore about it so he changed songs and walked away from me.

Jack had a terrible fever this weekend. He was fine all morning until I started to get ready for work. He was fussing for John when I jumped in the shower and when I got out he was full on inconsolable. I picked him up and that boy was just burning up. I had John grab the a thermometer and Jack had a 103.7 temp! I managed to get a dose of Tylenol in him, but he put up a big fight about it. We called the Dr.s office - of course it was about 20 minutes before they closed. She told me to take his temp in another 10 minutes and call her back. Well, the Tylenol started to work and dropped his temp to 103.2 so the nurse said to keep a close watch on him but to take him to the hospital if his temp went up at all or if he started throwing up, coughing or severe fussing. (I have begun referring to the kids as my 6 pack...let's face it, it's the only 6 pack I'm EVER going to have) Anyway, even though we had the full 6 pack at the house, John was put on Jack duty, I had to head out to work, Mom had to study for her FINAL final leaving Dad in charge of everyone else. Slowly through the day Jack's temp held and fell, held and fell. He asked if he could lay down in mommy's bed. (Isn't it funny that he calls it "mommy's bed"? He never calls it daddy's bed or mommy & daddy's bed - it is mommy's bed.) So John gave him the hook up with the portable DVD, a Thomas movie, a sippy cup and some snacks. Then Jack said "Can Wyatt take a nap with Jack in mommy's bed?" Doesn't that just kinda break your heart from the sweetness of it? I woke him up when I got home and he was feeling much better. His temp was still up a bit, but not enough for me to worry. And that boy DEVOURED dinner. He wanted to sleep in 'mommy's bed' again that night and I said OK. So there we were cuddled up for the longest time and I couldn't tell if he was asleep or not. I had to get up but didn't want to wake him so very quietly I said "Jack, are you asleep?" And very quietly he said "Yup."

Jack ate oatmeal at breakfast one morning last week! Mr. 'I won't eat anything if it isn't a hot dog, fish stick or salad' actually ate apple cinnamon oat meal. I did have ma put brown sugar and raisins in it, but he still at it!!!! It'll probably never happen again... He also ate tater tot casserole, which surprised me because I was sure he was not going to eat what was under the tater tots - but he tore it up! Wa-hoo! Maybe I should serve more tater tots?

Wy had a pretty rough time a few nights ago. I don't know what was up with him, but he was uncomfortable, irritated and no one was getting back to sleep. John finally took the little guy downstairs, put on a movie and cuddled up on the sofa with Wy guy. Here are my tired boys the next morning.

When it is time to sit down to dinner Wy immediately starts asking for "Hands!" He knows it is time to pray. And he has started making the Sign of the Cross with us this week! He still doesn't eat any vegetables...unless you can somehow make chocolate count as a vegetable...hmmm

Wy answers "Yeah!" to every single question you ask him. "Are you hungry?" "Yeah!" "Are you happy?" "Yeah!" "Do you love mommy?" "Yeah!" "Do you want to want to read a book?" "Yeah!" "Do you want to want to take a nap?" "Yeah!" And the only things he wants are 1: "bwan" banana or 2. "Pie" to be 'up high'. In other words, he want to be held by mommy or daddy. He has also started to call his grandma something that sounds like "cookie". It took me a few days to figure out he was trying to say "Gammie" and not randomly demanding sweets. Here he is wearing last night's salad bowl on his head. He was very proud of his "hat!"

Jess has recently been allowed to wear make up, which has been very exciting for her. She got a little carried away with the eye shadow and eye liner and we had a note from school saying it was too dark. Much to Jess' chagrin we had to lay down some rules. She caught the 'hair cut' fever and had Gammy chop off all her hair at about 9:00 last night. She was surfing the web and found some fun chunky hair cuts. She wouldn't let it rest until Gammy pulled out the scissors and started cutting away. Then Jess acted as if mom was hacking and whacking her hair off willy nilly. For as much fuss as she put up, eye rolling and refusing to come out of the bathroom, she likes the cut and it looks real cute on her. We styled it today so it flips up in the back and lies super flat in front - fun, modern and sassy.

Abbie is really starting to enjoy reading. She has to spend 15 minutes every day reading. Initially we had to hound and hound her to get this done. There was pouting, there was crying, there was full on stare at you mode. (I used to say this was the face she pulled when she was trying to decide where to put your body when she was done with you. Now I just think it is the look she has when she knows she is stuck and is going to have to do something she doesn't want to do, but she is still desperately trying to figure a way out of it.) Now that child brings me the timer every day and chastizes me if I start it before she has sat down and opened her book. I have explained to her that she can read even after the timer goes off, but she wants to do it all by the book. And that means not starting the timer till she is ready.

Connie falls on the steps about 85% of the time that she comes into contact with them. This weekend she grabbed onto and broke one of the balustrades as she fell down or tripped up the steps. I keep talking to her about paying attention to what she is doing, but she races up and down those steps in her socks or flip flops and disaster strikes. Poor John was planning on having some quiet time at the house while the rest of us were at church Sunday morning, but he spent that time fixing the stairs.

Devlyn is working on learning letters and numbers. She loves to sing the ABC song, but she refuses to sing about H or R. She just skips right past them as if they never existed. I have come to think of them like the Lost Boys. Only they are the Lost Letters. The boys, Devlyn and I had lunch with Gammy today. As we were waiting for our food to arrive I thought Devlyn might impress Gammy with how well she is learning her numbers so I said "Devlyn, count to 10 for Gammy." Without missing a beat (or looking up from her paper) she said "10."

And finally, here is Gracie. She is in KTO (Kitty Time Out) after knocking down the curtains so she could look out the window. I know she isn't on the naughty step, but putting a cat in time out is like...well, herding cats.

OK - parent teacher conferences are this Friday...may the force be with me...
Well, that does it for this week - Much love from Owenland Park and until next time, may God's blessings be upon you.

My lesson for the day:

I was in the bathroom cleaning and the 3 little ones were banging around in the shower. They were opening and closing the doors. OK - they were slamming them open and closed. I finally couldn't take it anymore and sent them downstairs. A little while later I noticed Wy had something on his face. I thought it was jello and where did he get jello? Anyway, I cleaned him up and went on my way. Maybe 10 minutes later he had more red on his face. I cleaned him up and was looking around for something red that he might be eating. No luck. Then we were sitting at dinner and Wy pointed at me and lunged for my dinner plate. The end of his finger had been sliced off. It wasn't deep, but it was enough to be bleeding. John cleaned him up and we were off looking for the cause of the problem. One of the girls brought me a SHAVING RAZOR COVERED IN BLOOD. It had to have fallen out/off of it's shelf in the bathroom when the kids were raising the roof in there. It didn't help me to know it had been on the shelf. I still felt awful and irresponsible because he got hold of that thing.

I was cleaning the bathroom (I spend a lot of time cleaning the bathroom now that we have 4 more people in the house...) Anyway, I was cleaning the bathroom Wednesday night while Abby, Connie & Devlyn were playing in their room. Suddenly, Daddy came flying up 3 flights of steps faster than I think I have EVER seen him move. Then he starts yelling "Do you think that is funny?" I had no idea what was going on, so up I went to the girls' room. After looking around and not being able to figure out what had been going on, I asked Daddy what had happened. It turns out that he was outside and looked up at the girls' bedroom window and saw shadows of children climbing onto something tall and jumping off it mere inches in front of the window...

FLASHBACK: Sometime in the early 80's...My sisters and I shared a bedroom on the 2nd floor. We also shared a bunk bed. It was early morning on a Saturday, I think. We were playing store. I remember being on the top bunk as I watched Melanie climb that ladder. I also remember watching her loose her grip, tumble backwards and slip out the second story window with only a baby blanket wrapped around her and a Strawberry Shortcake purse over her shoulder. I remember looking out the window and seeing Mel lying on the ground 2 stories below. I remember yelling and yelling to wake up Mom & Dad. I remember Dad FLYING out of the house. Fortunately, Mel was and is fine. The first thing she said was "My purse is dirty!"

Well, I'm sure that was what went flying through Daddy's head as he watched the shadows of these 3 girls jumping off the dresser and bed that live beside and below the window. Fortunately, no one was injured (unless you count my terrified & irate father).

We are quite a sight to see at mass these days: We are completely out numbered by children, we sit in a different location, we take up about half a pew with just our coats and the kids' backpacks and someone or other is either fussing or being talked to about their lack of behavior. Yesterday it was time for the Sign of Peace and Wy took it to heart. He gave peace to everyone and kept right on doing it until mass was over. "Pea! Pea! Pea!" He would shake hands with everyone in the family, then go for the folks sitting beside us and right back to the family then the folks beside us. There was a couple sitting behind us who couldn't stop laughing about it.

Three times now since the girls have been here I have heard a great THUNK in the middle of the night. Each time my investigations have revealed Connie fast asleep on the floor. I am grateful she sleeps in a bunk bed and her bunk is inches from the floor.

Jessica has auditioned for and been cast as one of the orphans in the John Paul II 8th grade production of Annie! I don't know when performances are, but I will keep you all posted. Congratulations, Jessica!!! She has to put in a few service hours as she prepares for Confirmation and so she has helped pass out donuts at Parent appreciation day. She also volunteered at Bishop Miege to pass out pizza for something or other. I'm really happy that she is making friends and having a good time.

Connie, Devlyn and the boys all got hair cuts this week. (John too for that matter. It was just a hair cuttin' week, I guess.) Anyway, Devlyn's cut is especially cute when blow dried with a little product. Doesn't that sound really weird when talking about a 3 year old? Anyway, we blow dry it in the back so it is all flippy and Kah-yute! I pulled out the nippers to cut the boys' hair. The last time we went down this road, they both freaked out - especially Wy. So, I let them watch me set it all up and turn it on. I let Jack hold the nippers and he right away put it up on his head and declared "Jax do it." I let him rub it on his head (the guard was on so he wasn't in danger of hurting himself or cutting his hair.) John and Wy were sitting there and Wy only raised a bit of a fit when it was his turn. Good job boys!!!

Connie has completely destroyed her school shoes, so I took her out after dinner on Wednesday to pick out some new tennies. We took Jack with us and just as we pulled out of the garage Jack says "Look, it's a beautiful moon and star, mommy!" Sure enough, there was a brilliant white crescent moon and star hanging low in the sky all by themselves. I stopped the car and asked the kids if they wanted to make a wish on a star. Oh, that got them so excited. So I had them repeat "Star light, star bright" after me and then had them each make a wish. They ate it up!

My sister Devon came to visit the girls this weekend. The girls made beautiful place cards to put on all the chairs around the table. John made a delicious lasagna and we had a lovely dinner. Dev brought one of Jess' friends with her, a young girl named Kayla. Here are Jess & Kayla having fun in the hot tub.

One morning this week one of the girls had something in her hair and I was already at my limit. I was tromping down the stairs and muttered something like "Now we have to get this sh** out of your hair." Well, Jack was right behind me and he scratched his head and said "Mommy, can we get some sh** out of my hair?" Little ears are listening even when your whispering. That was my lesson for the day.

John caught me reading to the boys at bed time a few nights ago. OK - that does it for me. I'm pooped and this is late...again. We'll aim for Friday this week and if not, anyone up for putting me in a nice quiet time out all by myself? Love, from Owenland Park

Rome wasn't conquered in a day...

Well friends, Jack finally pooped in the pot: two days in a row even! Like dutiful parents, John and I ordered the formerly banned pizza to celebrate the event. I was in rehearsal, but I hear it was a great celebration. I got home just in time to put the boys to bed. I'll let you guess what Jack did in his pants moments before it was time to climb in bed. Anyway, there has been no poopin' in the pot since last Monday. I must say two poops are better than none and I’ll take what I can get. Besides, Rome wasn't conquered in a day, was it?

Little Jackie Paper has been sick this weekend. I could barely keep his fever down yesterday and was on the verge of taking him to the Dr. this morning, but his temp is down. Not gone, but down enough that I'm not worried sick. Here he is hanging with Gammy yesterday morning. He looked at me and said "Jackson's sad."

Jack and Devlyn are still having troubles with sharing. I have heard Jack say to her “You don’t be sassy to me.”

Wy is saying please (pea)and thank you (dit do). He can name numerous body parts. He is working on 1, 2, 3, letters and colors. Whenever we talk about something being blue, he names all the blue engines. During mass he lists off all the engines he can think of. I'm trying to get him to work on his quiet voice. He doens't care. He loves to say hello and goodbye. Any chance he gets, he grabs a phone and starts chattering away sprinkling his conversation with "HEH-WO" and "BYE-BYE". He had a little developmental breakthrough this morning: John was heading out the door and Wy called after him "BYE-BYE, Da-ee!" He hasn't been stringing words together other than repeating the same word over and over. OK - he has been saying "Come on!" for a few weeks - but he hears that phrase day and night. Wy was in time out when I woke up Saturday morning. He was negotiating with Gammy about getting out of it. There he was sitting on the step looking up at her and saying "Come on...Come on..." to which she would reply, "No, you are in time out." This played out on a loop till he gave up, sat there and cried.

OH - I was home with the three little ones during the inauguration. I got everyone situated with snacks, turned on a movie for them and turned on the news for me. Wy insisted on sitting in my lap and he watched the whole thing with me. At one point, Jack & Devlyn came running upstairs making all kinds of noise and Wy turned to them, put his finger to his lips and said "SSSHHH!" How wonderful that he knew something important was going on!

By the way, I don't want to jinx us, but Wy is finally, blessedly sleeping though the night! Yeah Amy & John!

The girls miss their mama, but they are settling in here and at school. We already have a few major events to add to our date books; Abbie is going to receive her first communion, Jess is going to be confirmed and she will graduate 8th grade in May. Speaking of schedules, Jess has already been to a sleepover and both Abbie cat & Connie have invitations to birthday parties in the next two weeks. I am thrilled and nervous about their budding social lives. The nerves are completely selfish. I already feel like a mad scientist running this way and that - I am terrified of adding their social schedules into the mix.

Poor Devlyn has had a time of it this week. One early evening while I was at work, she jumped off a coffee table, rolled over the sofa and landed face first on an open frame wood arm chair. She gouged open the corner of her eye and totally looks like someone backhanded her. Mom was worried we were going to have to take her to the hospital (and how could she do that as she was the only adult home and couldn't fit all the kids in the car...) Well, mama got the bleeding to stop just as John got home and they decided it wouldn't need stitches, though it was a chunky cut. The next morning I was home with the 3 little kids. Devlyn came downstairs with something odd in her hair. After a few minutes of searching I discovered the source of the problem in the bathroom. Earlier in the day I started mixing some color to do my hair and I was distracted by one child or other. Before I had the opportunity to get back upstairs, Devlyn found the bottle and squirted some of the color in her hair and on the floor. We quickly rinsed her hair and cleaned up the floor and I did my hair before any other harm could be done. It wasn't till about an hour later that I discovered I missed a spot of dye on her eyebrow. Now one of her eyebrows is a titch lighter than the other one.

With the exception of the boys, the kids are eating about everything we put in front of them. I was sure there would be flat out refusals of this or that, but they have been willing to try just about everything including the veggie lasagna I put together last week. I also have a yummy potato soup that everyone likes...except Jack. Here are the little ones having ice cream after lunch one day. We had the potato soup and I had to bribe Jack with ice cream in order to get him to eat any soup. Lick for lick, bite for bite we went - soup, ice cream, soup, ice cream. I'll take what I can get, yo. (I know it looks like Dev & Wy don't have ice cream - but they devoured theirs while Jack and I did the potato soup tango.)

That's all I can come up with for the week. I hope to get back to our regular schedule this week - we'll see what happens. Till next time - love and many blessings from Owenland Park!

You has to hold hands

My cousin Monica got married the other weekend. After dinner Jack had had it with his tie and was trying to pull it undone. Poor kid couldn't figure out that it velcroed together at the back of his neck.

Wy has decided he doesn't like time out. At first he will sit there with his head down. Then he will slyly look up at me and smile like I really don't mean for him to be in time out. Then he bounces or finds other ways to entertain himself. I have to stand right beside him and smack my hands together and say "You don't get to have fun in time out, young man." Then he knows I mean business and he cries.

Time out has become a regular event in Owenland Park. Something is always going down that seems to require someone sitting on the naughty step. Some of the Naughty Step's most frequent visitors of late are Jack & Devlyn. These two are having quite a hard time sharing and cooperating 24/7. They have decided that fisticuffs is the way to settle nearly any disagreement. For days I had been hearing from any number of children about who hit whom etc. etc. I don't think it is fair to punish an individual when I was not a whiteness to the event. Well, I finally witnessed what was about to become a full on scuffle. I called a halt to the proceedings and told both kids they were in time out. They each headed for separate naughty steps, but I had other plans. I said 'No, no, no. You get to sit together in time out and hold hands." This was very confusing to them. They sat there (I stood there the entire time to ensure no fighting) holding hands not quite sure what to do. All went well and they have had to spend a few more time outs holding hands. The most recent trip to the naughty step was for screaming like crazy people and jumping on the furniture. I sent them to time out. Jack looked at Devlyn as soon as they sat down and said "You has to hold hands."

One of my jobs as a stage manager is to keep the actors informed of what time it is, or how close we are to curtain. I have to let them know when it is half hour, 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes and places. Well, I had Jack, Devlynn and Wy with me at the grocery the other day and one of the kids asked how long we would be and I said "Oh, we'll be done in about 5 minutes." To which Jack replied "5 minutes everybody, 5 minutes, 5 minutes, 5 minutes, 5 minutes..."

My rehearsals have all been in the afternoon and evenings, so the first half of the day I spend with the 3 little ones. Surprisingly it has been rather easy to get all of them down for nap/quiet time each day. Wy doesn't fuss and always takes a nap, Devlyn may have to be talked to a few times, but she gives a solid 2 1/2 hour nap each day and Jack may not sleep, but he will quietly chill out in bed for up to 2 hours. I had all the kids down one afternoon and was folding some laundry. Over the baby monitor I hear Jack quietly singing "I like ta move it, move it. I like ta move it, move it. I like ta move it, move it. Ya like ta...MOVE IT!" from Madagascar.

John and I went out to eat the other night leaving my folks with all 6 kids. Devon had called and was spending some time talking to each of the girls before they went to bed. Mom says that after a while Jack noticed everyone was getting some phone time and he started in on how his turn was next. Dev talked to each of the girls and was ready to get off the phone but Jack had a fit so she talked to him. Mom said he paced back and forth from the kitchen to the living room (something my mom does) and told Devon all about the work we are doing in the kitchen. (We are getting ready to install and replace cabinets on the north and west walls.) Anyway, Devon told Ma that after talking to all the girls she was just about a mess and was ready to have a good cry, but Jack was so cute on the phone she couldn't help laughing. Good job, Jack!

As I mentioned, we are in the midst of a partial kitchen renovation. Everyone is helping out with scraping wall paper. John says he couldn't get to the camera quick enough, but he caught Wy standing on the top of a step stool scraping the wall with a putty knife as high as he could reach. What a great helper!!!

Finally, I must say that the most peaceful part of my day is actually driving the girls to school. I know that sounds impossible, but it is the honest truth. I think it has to do with the fact that I listen to NPR. The girls can be chattering away a mile a minute, but as soon as the NPR starts up they glaze over and check out. I feel guilty saying it, but it is WONDERFUL!

OK, friends, God bless and keep you. More to come next week! Love, from Owenland Park!!!

The Owenland Park Expansion

My youngest sister Devon, is having a pretty rough time right now. In order to help her out, we have taken in her 4 daughters until the end of the school year. This is what Owenland Park looks like these days with Jessa (13), Abbie (8), Connie (5), Jack (3 1/2), Devlynn (3) and Wyatt (19 months). Wyatt refused to sit on the steps. The second step from the bottom is "The Naughty Step", where kids sit in time out. Ma thinks that is Wy wouldn't sit there - because he is usually in trouble when he has to sit there.

The 3 older girls came down from St. Joe on Sunday. Monday was a whirling dervish of a day with getting them registered for school, picking up uniforms, the things one needs to accommodate 4 young ladies, extra groceries etc. Tuesday was their first day of school and my first day of getting 3 more people up and out of the house by 7:15. I knew Tuesday went too well to be true. Don't get me wrong, there have been no serious morning issues this week, but where Tuesday morning went so smoothly, the rest of the mornings have been like herding cats.

Devlynn joined us at the homestead on Tuesday evening. I was very nervous about bedtime with a three year old whose mommy isn't here. She has surprised me. Yes, they have all been sad but there haven't been any histrionics - at least none that I have heard about. (I am currently in rehearsals for Our Town and so I have not been home until all (or almost all) 6 kids are asleep.

Ma picked up a bunk bed Tuesday afternoon and Daddy stayed home Wednesday so he could pull the guest bed out and put in a twin for Jessa and the bunk bed for the other girls. As soon as Jack & Devlynn saw Dad with Jess' box springs they were all over him: "What'r you doin?" and "What's that?" Dad explained what he was doing and those two kids immediately offered to help! Dad pulled while Jack & Devlynn MUSCLED that bed up 3 flights of stairs! You didn't think I helped did you? I admit it, I didn't help. I ran for the camera! I knew you would want to see these kids shouldering their share of the work as it were!

I spent Thursday morning sorting through all kinds of things. The bigger kids were at school so I had Jack, Devlynn & Wyatt. We were all in the girls' room and I was trying to put things away and organize. Every time I turned around Wy was half way up the bunk bed ladder. Twice I put him in time out for getting up on that thing. I needed to mop their floor so I took Wy to the bathroom thinking he would be distracted by brushing his teeth. In the time it took me to grab the mop and mop bucket Wy climbed the steps and the ladder and was sitting in the top bunk all by himself happy as he could be.

After I finished cleaning up their room, I sat down on the bottom bunk and saw a cigarette butt under Jessa's bed. I haven't even had a chance to talk to the other adults about this let alone Jess. She has also started up a facebook account under a slightly false name. Now we have to figure out rules for and parental controls on the computer.

Abbie has refused to wear her uniform jumper all week. Currently she has one pair of pants that fit (but need to be seriously hemmed), a pair that has to be exchanged and a jumper. With the staunch refusal of wearing a jumper, that leaves us with her wearing the same pair of pants every day. I talked to her this morning and told her we will get more pants, but at the moment she simply cannot wear the same pair of pants every day - even if we wash them. Her response was less than enthusiastic so I asked her if she was ever going to wear her jumper. She gave me an adamant "NO." I told her that even grown ups have things they don't like and do NOT want to do, but that we have to do them anyway. Then I told her I would strike a bargain with her. If she wore the jumper, I would fix her a fancy breakfast. She wasn't quite sold so I started listing off options I thought I could handle. I offered up French Toast. She said she had never had it but it sounded good. She got into her jumper, she helped me fix the toast and has asked if we can have it again!

From what the folks and John have told me it is Connie who is having the most trouble at bed time. She needs a little bit more tender care until she falls asleep. Monday was my day off so I was home to help get everyone off to dreamland. Abbie said she would imagine her whole family floating on a soft cloud "even Great." Connie said she couldn't sleep on a cloud. She was going to imagine she was in Kansas and she was riding her bike and she was going to ride her bike to sleep while I drew circles on her back...

Devlynn and Jack have made great friends. They share, they argue, they play together and apart. They remind each other to share. OK, they really snap at each other "YOU HAS TO SHARE!" or "IS MY TURN NOW!!!" But at least they are getting the picture! You can see here they are sharing 2 necklaces. They both wanted the purple and I told them they would have to take turns. Together they decided they could both wear both necklaces at the same time and they were happy till something else was fun. As I was wrangling kids out to the car this morning she hopped over to me in her little footy pajamas and held up "I love you" fingers and gave me a big hug. It was really sweet.

Jack has really handled all of this change & chaos pretty well. There was one morning this week though when he just curled up in a ball and laid on the floor softly whispering "Jax is so sad. Jax is sooo sad..." I cuddled him up for a while but he retained his ball like position. It is not so easy to cuddle a kid who is curled up like a rolly polly - but I did my best. We wound up having chocolate milk and watching Finding Nemo in order to pull him out of the doldrums. Once the bunk bed was put in, he and Devlynn have found a new hobby: climbing into/out of the top bunk, pretending to sleep, insisting they are monkeys and trying to swing on any bunk bed bar before mommy/aunt Amy barks "YOU GET DOWN FROM THERE!" They are upstairs right now chattering on about something. And he has recently taken to answering questions with "Wehhhhhl" and then something random.

Wy's vocabulary has continued to explode. All morning long he has been saying something to me and I finally figured out "HEHWO" is hello. I am really that brain dead at the moment! I'm not sure if all this commotion has had an effect on Super Wy. He hasn't acted any differently. He plays with the other kids when he wants and he simply ignores them when he isn't interested - which is pretty much Wy in a nutshell. I am walking a fine line of making sure my kids get some special mom time - but making sure everyone has some special time or something sweet done for/said to them every day. I can't imagine how hard it is for the girls to make this adjustment, but they have really been good about everything. I think once we get over the hump/initial shock of transition we will get into a routine. Not that I think this is going to be easy, I just think we are going to find our own rhythms and our own sense of normalcy.

Ok friends, we might be a bit longer than usual for a while, and maybe a bit short on just the boys - but the girls are a part of Owenland Park so you'll get to hear about everybody!

Until next week - love and many blessings to each of you. Amy.

What a week...

Well folks, I had the week off from rehearsals and shows, but it was still jam packed with hauling the boys from party to party. The day after Seussical closed we went to the Coterie Christmas party where the boys had a wonderful time. Our Technical Director, Scott, is also a musician and he let the boys help him play Jingle Bells on the guitar. Jack used a guitar pic to strum the strings. He did a great job of keeping time. I'm not sure what time he was keeping but he was very rhythmic. Anyway, Jack strummed, Scott played chords on the frets and sang, and Wyatt just banged away on the neck of the guitar. Good times, yo!



We always open presents according to White Elephant rules at the Coterie Christmas party and Jack found this pretty exciting - at first...He was so excited about everyone taking turns and opening presents. He helped some folks open their gifts and he was dying for his turn to come up. About midway through, my boss Jeff decided to 'steal' a present from someone else instead of selecting an unopened present. Jack was just beside himself over the 'theft'. He told Jeff the "No, you give it back!" He was quite adamant that Jeff understand "is not yours". He just couldn't wrap his brain around the fact that it was ok for this to happen. Fortunately I had the foresight to bring specific presents for the boys and I used that moment to hand out Jack's gift. He was immediately distracted. Yeah me! Jeff got his in the end though - the gift he stole was stolen and in the he wound up with these lovely comedy and drama gloves, kerchief and tea towel!

We rang in the New Year at our Church. I know it doesn't sound terribly exciting, but was a good time. There was babysitting down the hall while the adults had dancing etc. in the reception room. I was somewhat surprised to see that there was no sleeping involved for the children. I don’t know why I was surprised considering there were about 40 kids (ranging from 9 months to 13 years old.) Anyway, the boys had a grand time playing, watching movies, making friends and eating entirely way too much popcorn, chips and fruit juice packs. Shortly before midnight we scooped up the boys so they could party it up with Mom & Dad! It was pretty fun to celebrate with the little guys.

.On Thursday we went St. Joe to celebrate the Abels Family Christmas at my sister’s house. I wish I had thought to bring a few presents for the boys. OK, I wish I had thought to bring a few Thomas presents for Wyatt because he FREAKED OUT when Noah opened his Thomas gifts. Noah was just having a good time playing with stuff but Wyatt insisted that all Thomas gifts were his and his alone. Here he is STEALING Noah’s little Thomas wheel thing and screaming "THOM-MINE!"

OK - now for the random stuff:
My mom has a photo montage as the desktop background on her laptop. The boys love to identify all the people in the pictures, particularly Wyatt. Earlier in the week Wy pointed to a picture of Gran and said "Great". Actually he said "Grey" but it was clear he knew who she was. Mom teared up and started hugging Wy telling him how sweet and smart he is. He had no time for that business, he just shoved her off so he could point out more people.

Wy's vocabulary has EXPLODED in the last week. He still doesn't get the end most words in there, but if you are talking to/with him he isn't terribly hard to understand. One phrase that is perfectly clear though is "Come on!" He throws this out at me when it is time to leave. He hollers it from the backseat as soon as I put the car in park. He grabs my hand and utters it as he drags me to the table for dinner. And I swear he says it to me ANY time I complain about ANYTHING. The really weird thing is that he says it as if I need to get a grip...He has also started saying "NO" and "Uh-uh" as a response to nearly every question you ask him. He runs around chanting "Thoma, Thomo, Thomu, Thomi..." which makes me want to sing the "We like to eat, we like to eat, we like to eat eeples and beneenees"

And he is OBSESSED with brushing his teeth. OK - he really just wants to suck the toothpaste off of the brush, but at least we are getting into the practice of 'brushing.' Anyway, before I have even gotten around to having the fellas brush, Wy comes at me "Tee! Tee! Tee!" At bedtime he demands to brush his "Tee! Tee! Tee!" And almost any other time he notices the bathroom sink...

I like to listen to NPR while driving but Jack has had enough: "No talking, Mommy. Jax wants car songs." We have some cds with kid songs, tv show themes etc. He recently started singing along with "WHO LET THE DOGS OUT? WHO? WHO? WHO? WHO? WHO?"

OK, dear friends - you all know I could go on and on. I do though have things I must get done. So, have a safe and blessed week. This next weekend I will catch you all up on some pretty big changes around here. Wish me luck! Love, from Owenland Park.