Turkey Time.

Ah, so much going on- as always!

Today is the first day of our five day break. No school. No work for Dave (for two days!). Nothing but family. I was thinking the other day about last Christmas... we played Rock Band for a few days straight. Even the little kids stayed up till 1 or 2 a.m. We had such a good time just having family time. With school, work and all the other stuff, uninterrupted family time is few and far between. I am looking forward to it!

I don't really have any plans for today. My guess would be that we should all chip in and spend about an hour cleaning the house. We need to finish cleaning the porch because the builder guy will be here on Friday to put the walls up to the new room. I need to figure out what to call it... a sunroom? family room?

I stopped by Lowes last night to look at light fixtures and flooring. There is so much to choose from.

So... tomorrow - turkey. Friday - 3 a.m. shopping with my sister in law Shana! Woot!

(where is my sister?)

Shopping till we dropped.

Today, I took the girls out for a Christmas shopping day. We went to Santa's Workshop, lunch, JCPenney's, The Children's Place, Old Navy... the list goes on and on. Boy, the girls love to shop. We had a great time.

I was looking for picture outfits. I have decided to become brave and have all five kids' pictures made. Whew! Why would I ever complain about three? It is so hard to match them up. We have a joke that by this Christmas, I would have all three girls in matching smocked dresses and the boys in the matching sweater vests. Aunt Jamie would have to do an intervention. I was excited last weekend when I found Christmas tops with little bells - and they had various sizes to fit all the girls! I got so, so excited! And I called Annie over and showed them to her. She, being the funny girl that she is, said, "Aunt Jamie? Where are you?"

Point was taken. I put them down.

No matching smocked dresses. ;(

So anyways, we are doing all different colors - Hot Pink for Emma, Bright Orange for Michelle, Teal Blue for Annie. I don't know about Eli and Tripp yet. We are also doing scarves and hats.

It should be fun!

Thanksgiving week.

Well, this coming week is Thanksgiving. I am thankful that it is a short week... only two days of school. I am excited about a little homework break.

Today, Dave took all five kids for the entire day so I could study. I got SO MUCH stuff done. Lesson plans, tests, papers, a start on my thematic unit... ah, it feels good. Maybe, just maybe, I will squeeze by with no homework tomorrow. Wouldn't that be something?

I have scheduled all five kids to have pictures made for next Saturday. We are about a month later than usual. I should have them back in a week... in time to order Christmas cards. I hope. I had just about decided not to send out Christmas cards this year (the expense!) but when I made that suggestion, Dave squished up his nose at me. :)

I have all of the Christmas ornaments in the boxes sitting here. I just don't know where to put the tree up at. We are having a room added on and the construction started last week. Sometime, I need to find paint, light fixtures and flooring. I know that by next weekend, weather permitting, it will be a disaster here. Oh, I also need to find more furniture. Maybe we will just sit in lawn chairs.

I guess that my tomorrow will be pretty busy. Tripp has a fever of 101. I hope he is not coming down with strep again.

Little Bits.

Things I have recently learned :

• When teenagers are mad at you, they won't come downstairs to watch T.V. with you. That means you get to choose your own shows and keep total control of the remote. They stay in their rooms. Horray!
• They also won't ask you for money or to take them anywhere. So it is a money saving week! A win-win for all!
• When your fourteen year old son calls his teacher gay, he gets detention. If you laugh when he tells you the story, there is no punishment for detention.
• When your fourteen year old son has entered high school and still doesn't have to study and doesn't even carry a backpack, but still has straight A's, there may be some modifications needed in his education.
• When your fourteen year old son studies in detention, it is OK to get excited everytime he gets detention. Maybe he will make perfect 100's and get a scholarship in three years and you won't even have to pay for college. See, detention could be a good thing.
• In fifteen months, my fourteen year old son will be eligible for a drivers license.
• The sounds at the drive thru at DQ can be heard throughout the entire restaurant. So when you go thru the drive thru at 8 p.m. at night for blizzards, and you have a five year old that hasn't napped and is whining and pitching a fit so bad that you loose it and scream at him to be quiet, the people in the DQ will look at you ugly when you get to the window to get the blizzards.
• When you agree to do community service for a speeding ticket, and you don't have time to do it, it is OK to secretly hope to get pulled over and get arrested so that you can have a mini-vacay and a nap with a warm, clean blanket and food delivered to you.
• When you do get pulled over with five fighting kids in the van, and the cops realize that your husband is on the city counsel, they will let you go. Even if you admit you were going 25 miles over the speed limit just to get home and get the kids outta the van so you can lock yourself in the bathroom for quiet time.
• It is sad when you have a few minutes of self pity and decide to call your mother - the same mother that is not very nice and doesn't really speak to you - and the conversation goes like this:

Her: Hello.

Me: Hey. What ya doing?

Her: Um, nothing. Why?

Me: Um, I just was wondering... I was calling to say Hi.

Her: Are you sure you have the right number?

Me: I don't think I do. (and I hung up)

November.

Well, it looks like another year has come and gone. It has been a busy year - probably the busiest of my life. I have been in school since January with only four days off. Yep, four. I have about four weeks to go in this semester then I get a four week vacation.

I can't wait.

We also have the addition of our new daughters in May. Annie is 14 and Michelle is 17. It has been a fairly smooth transition - now, with five kids, Dave and I run around like crazy. Our days are spent texting as to who is where, who needs to go where and who needs what. Five kids at three different schools - every day by 7:30. Laundry from Hell. But, it is awesome. The house is filled with lots of laughter, tears and emotion. We have good days, and bad days, and lazy days. The lazy days are the best.

Christmas is coming up. The kids are all excited. Tripp doesn't know what to ask for. Emma doesn't either - in fact, her Santa list is the same as last year - Eli wants an IPod, Michelle wants an IPod and car and a boyfriend :) and Annie wants a camera.

As always, I am stressed beyond stressed. I was awake at 3 a.m. going over lesson plans in my head. I was trying to memorize standards, and figure new goals and objectives. I hate, hate, hate the end of the semester. I am cranky. I am so cranky. But I bet if I look back at every blog post from the last two years, I am cranky at the end there, too.