My mornings...

Sharing this is almost embarrassing, but maybe a mom somewhere will find it and realize she isn't alone!  ...and if I wasn't so opposed to posting things on Facebook I would post it there to show a realtistic view of a mom's life.  I dislike Facebook because it's just become a place to openly brag about all the crafts you make or board games you play with your kids or simply how magical your husband is because he put love note in your lunch ...and if you've posted any of these things recently, sorry.  ...but really? ...do crafts and love notes give an accurate description of your day or does throwing a box of frozen shrimp at your temper tantrum throwing kid hit a little closer to home?  Be honest.  :)

I have a love hate relationship with Facebook, similar to my relationship with Walmart.  Anyways....

This picture sums up my entire day ...which is fine; I'm happy to be busy and stressed and overwhelmed, because in the end my kid makes it to the bus stop on time, dressed in an adorable outfit she picked out, and eating a healthy egg.  So 👊🏼💥.

Great.  That sounded like a Facebook post.  Ugh.

Nana and Papa are Here!!

Nana AND the kids LOVE raspberries so as soon as Nana and Papa arrived today we quickly whisked Nana off to pick berries.  Okay, that's a lie; half the kids LOVE raspberries... As we were getting ready to go Andrea and Sierra informed me they HATE raspberries, but I informed them that I didn't care and they were going to go and pick berries with a smile.  They both gave me identical scowls, but once we got there Andrea realized she did in fact LOVE raspberries!!  Yay!  Sierra... not so much.

Sierra said she wanted to like them because they were small and cute, but she just couldn't.  Oh well.  Sierra still had fun picking up other things...  This particular little toad peed all over her and she didn't even flinch.  Ewwwww.....

Papa is on team "HATE raspberries", so he tagged out of the picking, but later he was involved in some competitive games of Go Fish and Chess.  :)

We wished Nana and Papa lived closer and we decided they just need to come out here more often!  

Senior Pictures

I am awesome.  Yes, I realize these are pictures of Andrea and Michaela, but this is all about ME.

Since Michaela is a SENIOR this year she apparently require many things ...one of those things is senior portraits!  If you have been in my house you will know that I do not have any "portraits" of any kind hanging on my walls.  I think I was traumatized at the age of 16 with a "Glamour Shots" photoshoot and I never recovered.  Plus I think Senior Portraits was made up by a group of bored photographers....  whatever.  She needs a picture for the yearbook and it has to be "special".

PS.  I'm not a uncaring mom.  I happen to have pictures that Michaela and Sierra painted in Kindergarten ...framed and hanging on some of our few remaining walls.  ...just because I have zero pictures of Andrea and only two of Scotty in the entire house means nothing.

Anyways, I was overwhelmed with back-to-school-everythings-times-four, so I scheduled a senior portrait photographer for the low price of $150!!!  Then I smacked some sense into myself!  $150 for a yearbook picture (that's it)??  Uh. No.  So I cancelled, and I felt bad, but I have mouths to feed ...alot of them.  :)

I decided with my fancy camera I would take my own pictures.  So I called my real photographer friend from Germany and got some tips then I bribed Andrea with fruit snacks and I practiced....

She's not smiling, but she's not giving me the evil eye so it's a win ...and her eyes are the perfect mix of everyone in the entire family.

It was Michaela's turn and here is what I came up with!  I love it.  It looks just like her.  It makes me smile.  I was looking at a college website today and started to cry.  I will miss her.  Okay.  Moving on.  So.  I'm not going to try and "Glamour Shot" her; she is Michaela and she is almost a grown up!  AHHHH!!!!!!  I guess technically the least of my problems are senior pictures.  Now I just feel the need to take a nap and stare at my phone...  Ok.  Moving on.

Senior Pictures.  I took them and I'm awesome, but I have no idea how to submit the photograph with the right digital pixels per inch whatever, BUT I do know I saved $150 so now I can pay for ten minutes of college!  

...and yes, mom, I'll print you whatever size you want of it!  :)  xoxo

$5

Hey mom!  I just bought an app for your birthday!

See, I figured out the problem of why I can't seem to continue to write on this wonderful blog.... I never use my computer; I do nearly everything on my phone!  Weird huh?  :)

Finding my computer and then finding a charger is apparently too much of an effort for me!  Sad, but true. 

...and one of the very, very few things I do regret is NOT writing on my blog for the past two years.  I missed some good stuff!  

So.  Thanks to this handy little $5 app I can now post from my phone.  

I can sit here on my phone, drinking my coffee and watching the news AND then if I decide I want to share something I can!!!!  As Andrea would say, as the good New England Kid that she is, this app is wicked awesome!

So on that note, here is what I've decided to share...

Bunny had a bubble bath.  Andrea has always said that "bunny smells like the best smell in the whole world", but yesterday she decided he needed a bath.  

I had to agree and said I would wash him when I washed clothes next, but she clearly had a different plan as her eyes filled up with tears and she explained that bunny is her best friend and we can't put him in a washing machine with dirty socks and underwear.  I suggested maybe he rode along with only soft fluffy dirty towels, but no way.

That led to a bunny bubble bath and I am sure glad we cleaned her best friend!!  That water was disgusting!!!  Bunny actually had THREE bubble baths ...and he might still take a ride with the towels as soon as a certain little girl bounces onto the school bus one morning!!!

xo

First Day of School!

Senior!!!  Can you believe that?  Feel free to forward any college fund contributions our way!  :)  KE is excited to finish up one more year of high school and the other kids are already fighting over who gets her room!

Sophomore!!!  My little girls are big, well they are still little, but you get it.  Sierra is thrilled to leave the house at 6:40am every day now!  Not really, but she is happy to get to play indoor volleyball again ...and she even made the varsity high school team!

Fifth grade!!!  My boy!!  This kid is the best boy ever! ...even though he refuses to hold my hand or give me hugs in public.  :(  He still loves me though ...he told me so.  :)

Second grade!!  Wow huh?!!!  This cute one is by far the biggest challenge in the house.  :)  She cracks us up continually with her "boss skills", "hard core", "cray cray" and "wicked awesome" comments.  

I'll try again...

Like the good daughter that I am I called my mom on her birthday a couple days ago and she finally made me feel sufficiently guilty for not sharing any pictures for the last however many years.  oops...

I quickly text-ed her three pictures, but the guilt remained ...so here I am.  But even as I try to post pictures I realize ALL my pictures are being backed up by my wonderful husband who claims I have about 4 million too many photographs.

Anyways, these old iphone pictures will have to prove my dedication!

Michaela is a SENIOR in high school and Sierra is quickly following as a SOPHMORE!   Scotty starts 5th grade and Andrea is in 2nd!!!  Everyone is growing up!  Ahhhh!!!

Yah, I don't know why Michaela and her boyfriend, Kyle are upside down.  I can't fix it.  Kyle should just be happy he made it onto my blog after nearly two years of hanging around my daughter!

For reals...

This time it's for real.  I'll write more.  HA!

Okay, so who wants to know about my day yesterday?  It was a normal, boring Tuesday.  Michaela did run her first light, but I'll spoil the surprise and tell everyone I forced her to do it.  Yep.  Michaela is driving.  I really do need to write more....

I feel like Michaela driving in and of itself needs some explanation.  Here in lovely New Hampshire a CHILD can drive the day they turn 15 and a HALF.  So on the half birthday during their 15th year of life they simply put their birth certificate in their pocket and WHALLA, instant driving permit.   This means Michaela has been driving with Happy and me since May 10th, a day when the roads of New Hampshire became a little more dangerous.  I'm also pretty sure my usage of bad words has significantly increased during this time.

Not true.  :)  For the most part Michaela is pretty good ...especially considering she has been learning how to drive a stick shift.  That's been all Paul's doing so far.  He has a level of patience that simply doesn't exist within me.  I can hardly handle the stress of easy driving on the back roads of Hollis in my automatic, let alone shifting and stalling and grinding gears...  I can honestly say she is getting better though.  I can also honestly say that 16 is crazy young to be allowed to drive around one of the most dangerous things on earth!!

Back to my day yesterday...  and the running of the red light I'm sure everyone is dying to know about.

5:55am
I woke up, made four lunches, and sent four kids to school.
I took the dog to doggie day care.
I went to work.
I worked ...which entailed hiking 4.3 miles on a fitness hike.
I worked more doing random office things.
(PS.  I've upgraded from just being a teacher at Beaver Brook; I have my own desk!)
I went home and painted some walls, which I am desperately trying to finish in 40 minute increments.
I picked up Andrea from school.
I picked up Scotty from school.
We went to the pet store to get Blue a present and some pretty cookies; it's his birthday today!
We went to Andrea's dance class.
We picked up Sierra from volleyball.
We picked up the dog.
We picked up Michaela and a friend from crew.
We dropped off Michaela's friend at the library because we didn't have enough time to take her home.
We went home.
I fed everyone dinner in eight minutes.  Go leftovers!
I left Sierra, Scotty, and Andrea at home and took Michaela to her driving class.
I got coffee.
I went to my college class.
I finished at my class and went to grocery store for an 18 minute shopping spree to get bread and milk.
I picked up Michaela.
We got home at 9:30 and was thrilled beyond belief that Sierra had picked up the house and the kids were asleep.
I went to bed.
11:45pm

Oh, I didn't mention the red light anywhere did I?  :)

When I picked up Michaela from her driving class (she was driving) we came to a light on the edge of town that was red F O R E V E R.  We must have sat through four light cycles of being skipped.  The line of cars was backed up for days and now everyone was starting to honk.  I thought it would be a good time to learn how to honk so I told Michaela to join in.  Thankfully there was one car in front of us that was feeling most of the pressure of being the first to run the endless red light.  I told Michaela that if the first car went we might need to run it too ...or sit there forever.  She just stared at me.

The car before us decided to go for it so I told Michaela to follow him and pay attention to everything around her.  So we ran it.

Now that was an anti-climatic red light story wasn't it.  HA!

First thing Michaela said to Sierra when we got home was, "Mom made me run a red light!!"  Super.

I guess Michaela's excitement at the event made me feel the need to record the event in history so that in eight years Michaela doesn't alter any of the facts to make it seem like I was some crazed and impatient mother in a hurry, forcing her to risk our lives and run a red light through a busy downtown intersection  ...even though that's kinda what happened.  :)