So what did you do tonight?

Me, I got roped into a school project that is due tomorrow. It was brought to my attention by this little note that my son gave to me:

Wasn't it sweet of him to make a little checklist for me so I could stay organized with my responsibilities for his autobiography?

My favorite was "tell me what went on when I was 4 and please get a pic of a event with me in it." "Gee, son, I can't think of anything off the top of my head, but there was this time when you were 11 and you had this school project and I wanted to hurt you....I'm willing to take pictures if you want."

We compromised on the 4 year old event complete with picture and I told him that we moved back to Arizona when he was three and we found a picture of a moving van online. Unfortunately for me my neat little checklist wasn't the end of the pictures he desired. He thought of a few more as he went on. It's a good thing I didn't have anything else I had wanted to do tonight.


Here's the finished product with the "pic of me now" on the front:


I hope he dedicated it to me. Or listed me as the illustrator or something. We better get a good grade on this.

When I grow up

On Saturday the kids have to do chores. I know, we are the most evil parents in the universe, but somehow, possibly through years and years of therapy, they will get over it.

Noah is especially vocal about his dislike of chores. This Saturday in particular, he was not happy about his work. At one point he declared, "I can't wait until I move out into my own place so I never have to do these chores again!"

Fine. Just don't expect many visitors.

Waste not, want not

We were having a dessert the other night that Tommy couldn't have, so he got a sugar free jello cup to have for his dessert. After getting it from the refrigerator he looked at me sweetly and said, "Mom, can I get a plastic spoon? Because I don't want to waste a metal spoon 'cause we'd have to put it in the dishwasher."

Warning: Graphic Images

So, when I am constantly harping on reminding my children to put open food items into plastic bags or containers, this is the reason why (warning it is very icky). This poor, incredibly disgusting item was once cream cheese that someone decided just to use a corner of and return to the refrigerator without a container of some sort. You can be sure I showed everyone in my family this little gem before throwing it out. (Actually before cutting off the good part for their breakfasts--waste not, want not--, taking a picture and then throwing it out.) Hey, maybe I'll hang it on the fridge door as a reminder! Not to mention an incredible diet tool. Bagel anyone?

We don't need a rest from tattling

Today I was in a kindergarten class. Always an experience. During rest time this boy was raising his hand and I told him to put it down because we were supposed to be resting. Looking over at the girl next to him, he said, "But I was going to tell on her." Oh, silly me.

The Adventures of Megastick

This is a little something that Emily whipped up one day when she was bored at lunch. I thought it was hysterical. Especially the pictures of the evil Eraserman. (It's a little small, but it's as big as I could get it.)

CFF Walk

We have some friends who have a sweet little baby named Asher who was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis when he was only 11 days old. He's almost 3 months old now. He was diagnosed through a new genetic testing that they just started in the state of Arizona for all newborns. The huge blessing there is that they have been able to treat him before he shows any symptoms. All that is to say that I signed up to do a fundraising walk for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to support Rachel and Jeremy and Asher. (I am apparently very motivated after going to the gym a few times!) It's a 5K walk--emphasis on the walk part. This is where you come in: I need people to sponsor me! I committed to raise $150. If you would like to donate you can do so here: http://www.cff.org/Great_Strides/MelindaMacrane

Thanks for helping our little friend Asher!

"Um, Mom..." is never a good sign

The other night Emily and I were sitting watching a movie when Katya comes down the stairs very casually and says, in a very nonchalant voice, "Um, Mom, the toilet is overflowing." If you know Katya, you know that she very often uses the wrong words when trying to describe something, so thinking this was one of those times since she was so incredibly mellow about the whole thing, I say, "Do you mean clogged or overflowing?" "Overflowing," she calmly replied. "O--" is barely out of her mouth when I jump up and start running up the stairs--not calmly, if I was capable it would have been two at a time--and discover water all over the bathroom floor. Literally. Ick. It was edging toward the hall carpet when I got there. Ick. But, she had taken the time to put the plastic garbage can and the toilet brush holder and the rug into the bathtub to protect them. The rug part I get, the other plastic items, not so much. So, I barked orders at calmly instructed Katya to go get some old towels while I attempted to plunge (with the plunger that was already in the toilet from a failed previous attempt) and stop the flow. Luckily I was wearing gym shoes. Ick. She brought up every towel we had and we sopped it up and then I soaked my hands in bleach, Lysol, hydrogen peroxide and hydrochloric acid. I was not willing to use our regular towels, because after all, this is recently used toilet water we are talking about. Again I say, ick.

So Katya is under orders that next time this happens it's ok to quickly call to mommy in a louder voice from the bathroom so that I can get up there and help before water is flowing down the stairs. The whole "don't yell in the house" rule goes out the window for overflowing toilets. And it is a guarantee that this is going to happen again because this toilet has been our nemesis since about day one in this house. I have lost count of how many times it has gotten clogged and/or overflowed. And there are five people in this house (who will remain nameless) who don't flush the way they have been instructed so that we can avoid this mess in the future. But, they don't yell in the house when the toilet is overflowing, so we've got that going for us.

And we discovered who the clogger was and the fact that TWO other people noticed that the toilet was a bit clogged before Katya got there. TWO!!!!! So, the toilet has a history of demonic possession, one child didn't flush sufficiently, two children saw that it was clogged and used it anyway and then when a third child noticed that it was clogged and used it anyway we get Mt. Vesuvius. The fifth child, for whatever reason, apparently just hadn't had the opportunity to use that bathroom or would have easily gone the way of the previous siblings. I guess they've taken an oath of silence on toilets. Or they were in an altered state of consciousness when they used the facilities. Or they were warned by the Toilet Authorities of America not to mention this incident to anyone or their families would be hauled off to jail. Surely there was a better reason than, "Um, I dunno" to not take any action on this situation!! But alas, no one could come up with one. Sigh. I guess I just need to start saving my pennies so I can buy a new toilet and insert an incendiary device into the old one and blow it to smithereens. Either that or start storing the old towels right next to the bathroom for next time.

Exercise and Exerciise

So, I've been to the gym and a trainer has gotten me set up on a program that hopefully won't kill me. No guarantees though. I did some push ups the other day and have been sore ever since. Nice. Today he had me do several exercises that I am quite sure will have me thinking evil thoughts about him as I attempt to get out of bed tomorrow. Thankfully he took me seriously when I told him I have no stamina. He is only having me do one set of each of the exercises and I am under instructions to just do what I can at any class that I go to and not overdo it. What's funny is that what would be a warm up for most people is my max at this point. I can't even break a sweat before my muscles are exhausted. I'm looking forward to seeing where I am at at the end of a month to see how much more strength and stamina I have. Because he had me do a set of squats today and my legs are still exhausted. Not sore (yet) just jelly. 9 hours after I did the exercise. And it is 9:30 and I am ready for bed. No staying up til midnight for me today! A little exercise goes a long way apparently.

My other exercise for the day was playing an excessive amount of Wii. I love those games! Donkey Kong is my current favorite. Noah has declared me obsessed. Which is hysterical coming from the video game king. If he has used up his daily allotment of video games then he can usually be heard declaring that there is nothing to do and life is not fair and woe is me and so on and so forth. So, me playing maybe once a week is "obsessed." Not to mention that Donkey Kong is "pointless" in his eyes. Because, truly, all of the games he plays are incredibly purposeful. Sure. Anyhoo, playing Wii is certainly not your average video game as I am moving around like a crazy woman while I play. My arms are exhausted when I'm done (see the comparison to the gym??). I just have to say that those Nintendo people are geniuses. How they got that remote to register all that it does on the game is beyond me. Of course, most technical things like that are beyond me, but this one is way beyond. But I don't have to understand it to enjoy it thankfully!

Time for bed. I have to go to a water aerobics class tomorrow...and maybe get some "arm exerciises" in before the kids get home! :-)

Pictures from our trip

Nothing to do...well, almost

And now we enter that time of year where there just isn't as much to do...well, comparatively speaking. I was thinking it was going to start Jan. 2, but unfortunately no elves showed up to take all of the Christmas decorations down and put away all of the new toys and whatnot and return things to the stores. Now that I have completed those tasks I am free as a bird and have nothing to do...well, not nothing exactly, just not everything. Which is a very nice feeling. Of course my parents will be arriving in town in a couple of weeks (for a two month stay--NOT with us mind you) and Rachel's birthday is Feb. 11, so my "I have 'nothing' to do" status will come to an abrupt halt quickly enough. Probably tomorrow.

Our trip to Chicago was a success. We had still had five children when we returned home. None of them were pushing the envelope either, so it was a pleasant trip for the most part. It was nice to be with our families for Christmas and our kids got to experience their extended family on Christmas for the first time (for most of them). Sam's sisters have a way of extending the gift opening process through a verbal exchange regarding their gifts that is unlike anything I have ever witnessed. You almost feel like you are at the store with them making the purchase. I have been telling the kids about this gift opening process for years and they finally got to witness it firsthand. My job in all of this mayhem is to lovingly poke fun at it as I marvel over the wrapping paper and bow (that are of course the exact same hue) and note how the shirt is just the exact color of my eyes and will naturally go perfectly with the bracelet and how many stores did you go to to find this ensemble? They hammed it up a little more this year in my presence because they know I find such joy in it. I don't know what they do when no one is around to appreciate it like I do. My poor brothers-in-law have to endure it on their own most years without my side commentary.

The drive to and from Chicago was L-O-N-G. The kids did fine but in a very weird switcheroo they didn't have much interest in watching movies. Apparently the ones I packed weren't exciting enough or something because they watched a couple but weren't interested in a 27 hour movie marathon. On the way back we had two Nintendo DSs (one having been acquired Christmas morning) and so they played a lot of that. Apparently you can play with one another on the same game so there was some sort of competition going on between them and it kept their interest for quite a long period of time. I was probably the only one growing tired of sitting in the car for that long because my joints get stiff after about a half hour in the same position, but everyone else seemed fine. The joys of growing old...and taking medicine for leukemia I suppose.

Speaking of that, I have joined a gym in an attempt to rebuild my stamina. I have an appointment with a trainer tomorrow to find out what kind of exercises I can do at first that won't kill me. It should be interesting. I am certain my workouts will be incredibly short at first. The little 19 year old giving me my gym tour clearly thought I was exaggerating when I said I had the stamina of an old lady. Of course he's 19 so he probably thought I was an old lady. :-) I'm thinking maybe I'll join some of those classes for the senior citizens. That's about my speed these days. Wish me luck.