Football Sundays

This has to be my favorite time of year! This is the one time, that my 5 kids, and me, are on the same wavelength!! GO PACKERS!!!! Even Xander has learned to say Go Pack Go, and Bastian is quick to tell anybody that even mentions the Bears, "Bears stink!" Makes a momma proud to have 5 kids screaming at the tv right a long with me... Unfortunately, this was our bye week.. So we were stuck watching the Bears vs Detroit.

Our new tradition is to head over to "Mom and Pops", our adopted family, and all scream at the tv while Pops cooks out on the grill.. When the weather is amazing like it was today, Pops brings the tv outside, wires up the speakers, and we all get to chill in the patio watching the game. Of course, most of them are Bears fans, so watching today's game was great fun! If you caught any part of the game, you will understand that I got to do a majority of the yelling and celebrating! :)

Our adopted family extends all the way down to the kids who refer to them as "Grandma and Grandpa".. And they treat my 5 kids as any grandparents would do.. The afternoon was filled with packages of Oreo's, Chips Ahoy, Kool Aid bursts, fresh-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies, and multiple bags of chips. So after spending all day and half the evening outdoors, eating anything and everything they could get their hands on, Bastian and Xander were covered from head to toe in red kool aid mustaches, cookie crumbs, and chip remnants. So two baths down, two babies relaxing quietly on the couch before bed, and three big kids finishing up homework and chores.. This mommy is actually blogging before 11pm!!

I'm hoping for it to be an early night, since I am planning to be up before the sun in the morning to take a mini road trip to spend the best friend.. But those that know me, know I am NOT a morning person.. But it has been way too long since I have seen her, so I will sacrifice to spend the day with her since she is so close. There is no telling what kind of trouble we will get it, so somebody be sure to save me some bail money in their sock!!

Football Loving Momma

Stomach Bug Blues

It doesn't matter how much the nurse in me kicks in and forces the requirement of handwashing Q30 minutes by anyone in the house, germ-X use Q10 minutes.. It never fails.. If one gets sick, it spreads like wild fire! It started with my poor Sebastian. During my late night quiet time, I heard him whimpering.. So I go and check on him, and he looks like a squirrel saving up his winter meals in his cheeks.. It didn't take me long to realize what was really in those sweet blown up cheeks!! Thankfully we were able to make it to the bathroom, but needless to say, we were up for the night..  I have to use this moment as a quick bragging moment for my amazing 4 year old, and an even quicker dis on my not-so-amazing-when-it-comes-to-being-sick 14 year old.. Every time he knew he was going to be sick, he asked me to help him to the bathroom.. And he made it every single time.. My 14 year old.. CAN NEVER MAKE IT.. So when she gets sick.. It's a 2 am wake up call of scrubbing floors and walls!!! Luckily for all of us.. It only lasted 24-48 hours.

But based on my above clarification of who is the better sick person.. I give you one guess as to who got sick next. Yep, Ms. Messy herself.. This time, I just told her to take the trash can to her bed, because I refused to clean any floors or walls at 2 am! God love her, dry heaves quickly set in, and we were up for another night of fun. It doesn't matter how old they are, it's really pitiful when your 'babies' are sick.

The best part of my kids getting sick, is usually the fact that Mommy manages to never get it. I'm not sure how, but I have been lucky enough to miss it.. Until this time.. I honestly thought I may have had the flu.. My entire body ached! And now that everybody is over the stupid stomach bug that tried to take up residence, I want my house spotless and germ free.. Do you know how hard that is with 5 munchkins and a bad back?!

I am anxiously awaiting some, hopefully, good news next week.. So of course time is standing still.. So I'll be sure and blog and let you know if I receive it.. But until next time..

Currently Germ Free Momma

Dress shopping

 

So since homecoming is right around the corner.. And she HAS to let her date know what color her dress is so that he can coordinate, I decided to take sissy out first thing this morning.. We stopped at a consignment shop with no luck.. So off to the mall we went.. We went in Every. Single. Store. that might possibly have homecoming dresses.. And we tried on Every. Single. Dress. that her highness though might be the one. I wanted her to wear a potato sack and be done with it. She is way too beautiful to be wearing fancy pretty dresses.. And frankly, this momma doesn't want to admit that her baby girl is growing up. So this is THE dress... THE dress that costs twice as much as mommy wanted to pay.. For homecoming.. For Freshman homecoming. THE dress that my baby girl had her heart set on after trying on 30 other dresses.. And it's her first formal dance with a 'date'.. So guess who gave in and let her have the dress she wanted so badly? Yep, this big ole push over of a mommy. (She really is a good girl, with amazing grades, and frankly, she is the one that takes care of ME, so I couldn't say no.)

 

 

This is the dress I wanted her to have.. This picture doesn't show the color very well.. It's a bright punky neon orange.. It looked amazing against her skin tone.. AND it was half the price as THE dress.. And while she liked this one a lot.. She didn't LOVE it as she did THE dress. 

 

Another super cute one.. But again, it didn't compare to THE dark purple dress. 

 

I'm not sure what's up with this face.. I think it's the face I should have been making.. Friends thought she looked like Jasmin from Aladdin in this one.. She loved this one.. Until she tried on THE dress.. The back of this dress was really cute.

 

The first dress she tried on. It was her second favorite of the first five dresses she tried on..

 

Did you notice a trend in the dresses? They were all high-low dresses.. She told me she thought she wanted a high-low dress.. But made sure I understood that she wanted to have plenty of time to shop.. Because she wanted to try on ALL DIFFERENT kinds and styles of dresses.. I don't think she tried on one single dress that wasn't a high-low dress. Obviously, when the girl knows what she wants, she knows what she wants. :) Overall, it wasn't THAT bad of a day.. We were able to find THE dress in under 4 hours. I'm super proud of this pretty beautiful young lady that is growing up right before my very eyes. I wish I would have had it together when I was her age, like she does. Great grades, Beautiful looks, Amazing personality, and more mature than her short 14 years she has had to grow up. No wonder all the upper graders like her to hang out with her.. Who wouldn't?!

Teenage Years

Well, it's happened.. Jazzie is now in high school, and just got asked to the homecoming dance.. She is a Freshman.. When he asked her, he gave her a vase of flowers.. which he picked out and designed himself.. O.o What?!?! What Freshman does that?? Oh wait, he's a Sophomore.. That explains EVERYTHING. Great.. My daughter is going to a homecoming dance with a Sophomore.. He was nice enough to thank her for saying yes.. So that should count for something in regards to his manners right? So to top my night off even more, she announces she's been invited to the Sophomore after party. What?!!? Oh that's right, my daughter is the cool kid.. So of course she would be invited to the upper graders after party. Do I let her go? I'm thinking it's a big fat NO. I don't care that she goes to a Christian school! We may be best friends, but I'm mommy first.. So I guess I have to do some serious thinking in the next 10 days. I wonder what she would say if I volunteered to chaperone?? I'm thinking her answer would be a big fat NO as well. Again, we are best friends, but I'm still "The Mom".. Even if all the kids friends say I am the "Coolest mom ever"..

And as if this is not enough, I realized in about a month I will be raising TWO TEENAGERS??? Again with the SAY WHAT?!?! How is that possible? Not to mention the raging hormones that are sure to fill this household full force? Sure, boy and girl hormones are different.. But I am still fearful.. I'm just not sure if I am more fearful for me.. Or for them! I don't remember my teenage years being this way.. But of course, that was eons ago!!!

Expanding waist lines!

Well, my cousin Becca came in yesterday with her new baby! She is too cute! Becca is also an amazing baker, and I asked her to make me some of her salted whiskey caramels.. So when we planned out our menu for the 4 days she is going to be here, we planned for Grandma Deedon's macaroni & cheese, and salted whiskey caramels.. That's it.. Well, in traditional family tradition.. I feel like we have eaten non stop!!! On my counter sits way to many leftovers.. Enough to probably feed my family for the week.. Today we had brats, sauteed mushrooms and onions, homemade potato soup that uses 5lbs of red potatoes, and some amazing peach pound cake.. My best friend also through together one of his mom's famous dishes that contains chuck roast, cream of onion soup, and french onion soup.. It cooked for 24 hours, so the house smelled amazing! Throw it on some bread, (some ate it with cheese, Austin and I made it with horseradish sauce) so yummy!!! I have eaten, and eaten, and eaten some more! Not to mention last night I polished off half a bag of Dove chocolates! Being down in my back, means hardly any exercise.. So my carefree regard to what I eat and gaining weight is catching up with me! And for a quick second, I think I am going to have motivation to work on eating better and losing some of this weight.. Especially since I am the biggest I have been in 8 years, minus pregnancy.. And then I look to the kitchen and think.. "Ohhhh.. warm peach pound cake with a slab of butter and an ice cold glass of milk sounds amazing right now!".. And that whole theory of losing weight.. Goes right out the window. 

2/5 of my kiddos are bathed, with teeth brushed and are ready for bed.. I just announced that bedtime will be at 8:30 for everybody! The three older kid's lightly protested stating that their bedtime wasn't until 9 and 9:30.. But tonight, after having 5 kids stuck in the house on a dreary rainy day, and running from one end of the house to the other, arguing, bickering, making a mess, all day long, with no nap for the two little munchkins.. Mommy has demanded 30 minutes of quiet time while reading a book, and then off to bed they go! I've never been so excited for a Monday to finally get here! 4/5 of the kids will be off to school, Xander will use his imagination and play with his toys, and Becca, the baby and me, can enjoy some quietness and make up a batch of salted whiskey caramels! And veg out and watch movies and pig out on leftovers.. I'm really thinking we may need a chocolate party cake tomorrow...

Muffin Top Momma

Cool Autumn Nights

So I'm raising a high school student now.. I'm not exactly sure how that's possible, as I am only turning 29 this December! (It's Mississippi math.. I'll teach it to you if you just ask) But this said high school student, is also a JV cheer leader.. And Miss Popularity, of course wants to attend the Varsity games! So I, being the ever so gracious and loving mother that I am, (Yes, I dubbed myself with that title) decided that I would load up ALL five of my munchkins and take them to their first Varsity football game..

Jazzie was off doing her own thing with the cool kids of course.. Austin wasn't too cool to sit with his mom, but he sat a bleacher or two in front of me with the cool kids of his age.. Nic was walking the track around the field with one of his buddies.. Sebastian left me to go hang with his teacher.. So it was just Xander and me.. Easy peasy right?! NO!! He didn't want to sit where I was sitting.. And frankly I don't think it mattered where I sat, he just wanted to check out how every single bleacher felt to his little diapered booty! Not to mention it was a little chilly.. I even tried swaddling him up in one of the mountain of blankets I brought.. But he wasn't having any of that! He then began crawling into random strangers laps and snuggling with them.. Thankfully they were only random strangers to him, and his mother actually knew them.. Even if only having met them a handful of times. At one point I offered to sell him for a $1.. But the best offer I got was a lint covered quarter.. ;)

I wanted to yell and scream at the game like all the crazy mom's do.. (Okay, so I'm THAT mom that gets into the kids games as if it were my Packers on the field!) But Xander had other things in mind... Like making sure I gave myself whiplash as he bounced all over the place! Then Nic decided to be my saving grace.. He took Xander to go "Run" around the track.. And only as they walked away did it dawn on me, that sending a hyper active non compliant 3 year old, off with a severe ADHD 10 year old, may not have been the best of ideas!! No worries.. I came home with all 5 of my kiddos. :) I did get to enjoy the last half of the 4th quarter.. Right up until we lost the game with 9.9 seconds left on the board. :(

So we have been home a whopping whole 15 minutes.. And everybody went to bed on their own accord.. And are now sound asleep.. Which means this should be my break from the insanity, and I should be enjoying the silence.. But I think this momma is going to head to bed!! Until next time...

Football Mom

Chapter 1

My life has had many new Chapters.. So many that the Book of My Life is probably a couple feet thick! But I've decided that this new Chapter, deserves a new book. Starting over completely at Chapter 1.

I recently found myself being the single mommy of 5, without any kind of support system.. None of my family lives here, and my few "friends" are busy with their often crazy hectic lives. I found myself stressed and scrambling to work out my work schedule. How was I going to work full time, and get kids to cheer practice, track practice, basketball, softball, play dates at the park, drum lessons, homecoming dress shopping, band concerts, choir concerts, and any other kind of activity they decide they want to do.. Cause that's my job as a parent right? To give them the most opportunities as possible in this life? That's how I see it anyway. So I guess you can say I make my very own pandemonium. How can life with 5 kids be anything but chaos?!

I'm grateful my body has learned to go on very little sleep.. Because it's 11:45 at night, and any normal person would be in bed.. But all the kids are asleep.. So that means I can enjoy my peace and quiet, and actually watch my very own adult tv programing!! It's the little things that count in my crazy world! In just over 6 hours, I will be chasing around 5 little bodies urging them to brush their teeth, make their beds, pack their lunches, and get dressed! Then run Jazzie to the bus stop, only to come back and finish half yelling at the 4 boys to get their booties in gear cause it's time to go! Then load them all up, drop 3 of them off at school.. And bring Xander home for a day of relaxation!! haha! But waiting for me is dishes, dusting, vacuuming, laundry, and chasing Xander from one end of the house to the other, picking up after him as he acts like a tornado in the middle of Kansas!

I'm working on week 3 of doing all this on my own, managing and keeping up with the schedule of 6 of us! Don't think it's easy, and definitely don't think I have it all together.. Jazzie missed two Dr's appointments for lab work.. Austin and Jazzie both missed orthodontic appointments.. And can I remember to call and reschedule these things.. Of course.. I usually remember about.. Right now.. When the offices are closed.. But one day I will get it together.. About the time they have all grown up and moved out of the house.. Or when they admit me to the crazy house.. Which is quite possibly right around the corner!

Crazy Momma of Five