Quite a Day

Yesterday was a busy day. It was the kind of day when you get a lot done but you don't have a lot to show for it! I bit the bullet and started cleaning(spring cleaning) even knowing that there will be more drywall dust coming. I couldn't take it anymore. In the words of Vickie Mack, I was about to "nut up". I wrote my name in the drywall dust on my entertainment center! So I started back in my bedroom knowing it would take me a couple of days to work my way out to the kitchen and hoping that by the time I got there the drywalling would be mostly done. Can I confess that I didn't even get all of my bedroom done? Seriously, I worked in there all day and I still have two closets to clean out, another wall to wipe down, and doors to wipe down. No I do not wash my walls all the time for those of you who are wondering, but with all the dust they needed to be done. So when I say I was cleaning, it was major cleaning. I moved furniture, did the windows and blinds, washed all my little chotskies, took pictures off the wall and washed those, and on and on it goes.

I did have about an hour long interruption yesterday that was kind of funny. I had these two little eight year old twin boys show up on my doorstep yesterday and announce to me that they were "those guys' friends", talking about Kayla and Tyler. They wanted to play so I invited them to go into the back yard and play. The one boy had to call his mom first and let her know where he was. They don't know me from Adam and yet she was fine with them being over here. They actually just live in the house in back of ours, but still! They were getting annoyed with Tyler(he was being terrible!) and wanted to know if Kayla could come over to their house and then they wouldn't have to "deal with him". Um, let me think about that...NO! I'm sorry, but this is just a soapbox issue for me. The mother of these children just let them come over to our house and she doesn't know me. I could be a maniac of some sort! I'm not, but does she really know that? She didn't even know where they were. They had to explain to her on the phone which house they were at in the neighborhood. Then she got on the phone with me and explained that they could "stay for a little while; just send them home when you get tired of them". Okey dokey! So in the space of an hour I cleaned up three glasses of spilled water, dispensed multi-colors of popsicles, disciplined Tyler for pulling his pants down, turning the water hose loose on them, licking them(he has decided he is the family dog), and countless other things. Honestly, if I were a kid, I wouldn't have wanted to "deal with him" either. He was B-A-D yesterday! I have to tell you this funny thing though. I was telling Craig about these boys showing up on my doorstep and Craig said, "great we've got Thing One and Thing Two in our back yard - don't let them in the house". That cracked me up. I could just picture the little troll looking guys with the crazy hair!!!

Last night I went on a very fun girls night out to celebrate the birthdays of three different friends. What fun! It was so good to just check out for a few hours and laugh and relax! It was after nine when I got home, and I have been desperately trying to walk every day. So I was walking at 10:00 last night. Now, I don't care how nice of a neighborhood you live in - it is just spooky to walk that late at night. It was creeping me out! Ya'll know I don't like the dark and all those shadows and stuff. Ugh!

Today I am off to work. Kayla is going with me since Tyler will be at Mother's Day Out. I'm not sure if she is excited or dreading it. Usually we have our fun day on Tuesday, but I am so behind at work that I figured I would take this morning and try to get a few things done. Then this afternoon I will be finishing up my bedroom! Yea! Oh, while I was gone last night, Craig put a second coat of primer on the walls. He had to buy another gallon of primer and this one has a different pink tint to it, so now I have two tone pink walls! It is hilarious looking!

I'm off - hope everyone has a great day...

What is a Mother?

According to Tyler this morning, I am a rodent. Isn't that sweet? "Mom's a rodent". I'm not sure what kind of rodent, but, come on, does it really matter? Then Kayla came in and suggested that instead of a rodent, perhaps I might be the Lochness Monster. I'm going to really have to step up my beautification ritual!

So, Kayla woke up about 2:30 this morning not feeling well. She wasn't acting very well last night either. However, she has no fever, no throwing up, no real symptoms. Says she just feels kind of loopy - welcome to my world - I feel that way all the time. Anyway, Craig had parking duty this morning so he left early for church and the three of us stayed home. I have declared today a true day of rest. The kids are vegging in front of the television, Craig is taking a nap, and I have been napping and reading all morning. I wish I could say that I am relaxed, but, honestly, I just keep thinking about everything that needs to be done. Hopefully I can alternate between resting and being productive today - is that possible? I have this very weird thing that I do - Craig thinks that I am nuts. But, when I get to this point where I feel like my house and our life, in general, are out of control, I just sort of shut down. Then I start doing stuff like cleaning out cupboards and closets. Seriously, yesterday Craig did ALOT more sanding in the kitchen and every where that you look in my house there is this fine layer of white dust -- all the way to the back of house. It is overwhelming to me - where do you start. So, I have decided that I will start with cleaning out cupboards and closets! It is very therapeutic, and I have really neat cupboards!

There are just some things....

I have been thinking this weekend as I have been speaking to my children that there are just some things that you shouldn't have to say to your children, and yet, there are times when you find yourself saying just those things. Let's see if I can give you a few examples from the Churchill home from the last day or two:

"Tyler, do NOT pull your pants down"

"Tyler, do NOT pinch her on the bootie"

"Tyler, do NOT hit with the sword"(sorry Logan)

"Do NOT put lipgloss all over your face and in your hair no matter how much fun it might seem like at the time"

"Let's not say 'Big Fat Dummy' no matter how funny you think it sounds"

I think that these rate right up there with "not running with scissors" and "don't sit too close to the TV or you will go blind".

Around the World in Five Hours

Okay, maybe it was just around Augusta in five hours, but it felt like the world. For my friends that have more than two children I applaud you; if you have four or more I really want to kiss your feet. I have two and today it has felt like I have about ten. I think I'm gonna need a sedative. Why is it that when you are trying to think really hard and shop at the same time that your children feel the need to talk to you ALOT and ask for EVERYTHING!!! I really think this was my worst shopping day of the summer. Craig called me at 3:00 and when I told him I was just getting home, he said, "you were at WalMart at lunch time and you are just getting home now at 3:00?". Yep, does that tell you anything? I went to one store after WalMart and I was only there for about 15 minutes. This was one of those days when I shopped with ten thousand of my closest friends. That is so special. On top of that, the lady who checked me out at WalMart, bless her soul, took forever to run my coupons through, and I felt so bad for the poor lady behind me that had already unloaded all of her groceries on the runner. Kayla announced, loudly, "Mama, this sure is taking a long time." Thanks sweetie! On top of all of that I totally blew my grocery budget out of the water this week. I paid over $4.00 for a gallon of milk - what is that about??? See that is just the kind of thing that just ticks me off. I'm thinkin' I could buy a cow cheaper than that and milk it myself! It took me less than five minutes in WalMart to completely lose every ounce of patience that I had. Oh, oh, and THEN we walked down the school supply aisle. I think I would rather have had a bikini wax than that! Okay, sorry, but I just have to get this out. Isn't there some easier way to display school supply items?? I mean we have, like, a month left until school starts and it was jam packed in those aisles. See, I personally think that WalMart should turn the entire lawn and garden section into the school supply area. Anything has got to be better than 50 people crammed into one aisle trying to find the perfect glue stick - A GLUE STICK IS A GLUE STICK!!!! JUST BUY IT!!!! Okay, I'm better now. I'm turning off my caps lock button and I'm going to go and drown my sorrows in an oatmeal creme pie or something. Does anybody have any chocolate??? Maybe a nice Grande Mocha Frappucino Light????

Graceful Designs Sale

Okay, so this is a shameless plug for Graceful Designs. We are hosting a Christmas in July Sale and these are some of our new products. If you see something you like let me know and I will let you know prices. Also, most of what you see is available is numerous colors, so shop away!

Miscellaneous Tidbits

I wish ya'll could be at my house right now. It is so quiet, yet my children are here - they are just playing. It is weird. All of a sudden my kids have hit this age where they actually do things without me. I love it and hate it all at the same time. Kendall came to spend the night last night. Her and Kayla had a very big time putting their American Girl dolls to bed and then going to bed themselves. Either I was really tired or they were really tired because I hardly heard a peep out of them all night. Of course, that could be because I threatened them. Hahaha! Seriously, I told them that I was really tired and if they didn't let me sleep that we were going to have to stay home from the movie this morning so I could sleep! Aren't I a fun mom - sleep or else we have no fun!!! Kendall told me that I was fired as her babysitter because I fed her ice cream for dinner after church last night and let them eat popcorn and candy at the movies at 10:00 this morning. But, hey, I did feed them pizza for lunch so that is sort of healthy right! Seriously, they have had a great time together. She'll be here for a couple of more hours and then I get to go and babysit Ryland tonight! Don't worry Shannon, I will only feed him a few M&M's at a time!

I have been doing a lot of writing. Craig is really after me to be on a "2 year plan". In two years he wants me to have a best selling novel written! He has so much confidence in me - it is kind of scary. But, I have been trying to do better. I actually looked up several writing competitions online that I'm going to try to submit some stuff to - more for practice than anything else. In all honesty, though, I am loving it!

We are getting geared up to head to the beach in about two weeks - actually it is exactly two weeks from today. Jim and Janna have been kind enough to trust us to take Kendall with us. Of course after she finds out about all the junk that I let her eat last night and today she might change her mind! We are going to Myrtle Beach just for a long weekend. The girls are excited and I'm ecstatic that Tyler is potty trained! Sorry, but poop and sand just do NOT go together! Kayla is dying to go to the Riplye's Believe It or Not museum so we are going to do that and then go to the water park and just hang out at the beach and the pool. I think it will be tons of fun - just good 'ol family time! The weekend after the beach I am going on a girls scrapbook weekend to Blue Ridge, GA. I'm so excited about that. We have this great cabin and we are just going to hole up in it and scrapbook all weekend and when our muscles begin to protest at having sat in one spot too long then we can get up and go out and soak in the hot tub. Bliss!!! After that weekend is Kayla's birthday and my in-laws are coming down for that. Then I think the weekend after that my brother and his family are going to come and visit. My sister-in-law and I are in the plan making stages right now. I'm so excited about them coming. I haven't seen my nephews since January! I invited them down for Kayla's spa birthday party, but my youngest nephew's birthday is that weekend too and he is having a cowboy party or something. I mean, come on, spa party with facials and pedicures or a cowboy party with ponies??? Kim, I am so offended!:)

So, our mundane, boring life right now will only last for a few more weeks and then we will be blessed with vacations and fun and fellowship with friends and family! I can't wait!

I Need a Worm Pill

Okay, so this is what my blogging has come to - posting on mundane topics like worms. Sorry, but this is the most excitement we have had all week! When we were in Mexico, Sadonna and I were so blessed to be hugely enlightened by Dr. T about worms(parasites). I now know more about worms than I ever wanted to know. You know in all honesty I don't think that I ever realized that people could get worms - I thought that was only for dogs. Come on, you know you have all see those dogs scooting their little butts across the floor like they have a seriously bad itch or something. Well, in Mexico, the people get treated for worms or parasites like we get vaccines for polio, chicken pox, MMR, etc. So many of the people that we saw there received one Vermoxx to take to rid their bodies of worms. Yea, I know, I thought it was kind of gross too, but they act like it is perfectly normal. I will spare you the details of some of the stories that we heard.

I know, I know, you're wondering why in the world I am rambling about worms, right? Well, last night we sat down to a splendid dinner of chicken fingers, mac and cheese, and peas. I was happily eating away when I noticed this tiny foreign object on my plate. I was so intrigued by it that I removed it from my plate and scooted it across the table on my napkin for Craig to look at it. He told me, in a very convincing manner I might add, that he thought it was the stem off of a pea or something. Do peas have stems - I thought they grew in a pod!!! The sad thing, I brushed it off and finished eating. So after dinner we are clearing the table and he comes over to me at the sink and in a low voice so the children don't hear, he says, "dude, that was so a worm." HELLO???? I had already gotten past it thinking it was a stupid pea stem and now he tells me AFTER I have cleared my plate that it is indeed a WORM!!!! I'm going to need a Vermoxx. I thought about writing a letter to Green Giant to express my great displeasure at finding a worm in my peas, but I figured instead of starting a class action lawsuit they would probably just enroll me in the vegetable of the month club and send me more vegetables with worms!!!

Holly, I know how much you love peas so the next time that your kids force you to abide by the Frederick table rules and eat just one, I hope you will pick out one that was not previously touched by a worm!

That's it for now. I think I need to go throw up!!!:)Bon appetite!