Autumn Has Begun

Begrudgingly autumn has made itself known with the Homecoming game at the highschool, the bags lined up on my back patio of leaves that have fallen and the 2 trees of leaves that have yet to fall. Not to mention the cold temperatures I woke up to this morning... Brrrrrrrr! Okay yes, I'm a wimp, I get cold easily, even with all the extra padding I have. Like a bear I try to get the added fat to hibernate for the winter, but it's really killing me and my fur boxers are shrinking. Anyhow back to autumn. I love the smells and colors. I love Halloween and the thought of finding the next greatest haunt of this season and I love that it's not 100° out.

So Much...

There is so much to do and never enough time to do it. Chasing after 4 kids and their clothes always has me lagging behind. Did you put your dirty clothes in the basket? Yes!!! (always sung in unison) Then 2 days later, where's this that or the other... I don't know, was it in the dirty clothes? I don't know, was it? Whatever... If it's not in your dresser, then it wasn't in the dirty clothes. There's even a basket for every room AND the bathroom. Somehow things never make it there. I just can't seem to keep up with it. No matter how much pain and abuse I inflict, they just don't learn.

We still have so much painting to do at the house. The electric work hasn't even begun, although I do think he's done "fixing" the barn. Next spring I'll have to get my hands into it and paint it right.

Does it really have to be bright white?

 Yes, that's my grass. Dead, dead grass. It's been so dry when I mow it (every 2-3 weeks) I'm filthy from the dust that blows up in my face. Speaking of, that's another thing to put on my list of to do's this week. The front is just as bad...

I have to kill the little plants in front of the front porch.

No! Those are not our forever couches, they will end up in the basement for the kids.

When we lost our old house, we left the couch behind because it was broken down and the manufacturer wouldn't honor the warranty. It also saved us about $75 a month in storage fees (our bin was packed out). Eventually this room will be painted and have an area rug, the waiting is killing me. Any ideas for color?

This is my lovely kitchen.

 It's a mess right now, but eventually it will look great. The walls are Sand Storm by Valspar, with the tray ceiling being done in an barely off white. I was trying to distract from the horrid linoleum and chose colors that would at least compliment it. Our fridge won't go all the way back in it's hole, the plug has to be recessed. The second one there, goes out in the garage, it's just a matter of finding someone to get it out there. For the most part the kitchen is done with an exception of the plugs... For now..

Dining Room

Dining room is done, we painted it with the same not so off white color that the tray ceiling was painted in. We actually followed with that color on down the hall towards the bedrooms and in the entryway. Now all I have to do in here is try to refinish the top of the dining room table, it's destroyed. Oh and get chairs for the dining room, they've all disappeared.

Again, so much to do. Repainting the bathrooms, 2 more bedrooms, the living room and then to start on the basement. Need to make a "cool" area for the kids to hang out and watch TV and frame in a bedroom for the oldest boy and a bath with shower down there. The good thing is there's already the beginnings of a crappy old shower stall, just need to do the rest.

Alright, I'm gonna go get cleaned up to get dirty again. Send the kids out to ride bikes while I start painting. I may hold off a few more days on the grass, it looks so pitiful.

I am here, really I am!

I've been here, reading everyone else's blogs as I get a chance, just things have been excessively chaotic around here.

Labor Day w-end we were invited to a friends cottage on Devils Lake in Michigan (OMG!! That was so much fun!!) So we loaded up ourselves and all 4 kids and took off Saturday afternoon. Now even though this was supposed to be a 3 1/2 hour drive, it was more like a 6 hour drive of stopping to eat, stopping at each rest area for everyone to stretch their legs and smoke. I think the main reason for the length of the trip was due to using someone else's (for which I am very grateful) SUV, not ideal traveling room for 6. So the drive was great, not a lot of traffic, nighttime and cool out.

Sunday we got up and the first thing we did was let the kids unwind and play in the water. It was awesome, the water was clear and not much more than waist high, even at the end of the dock. Then there is sweet, sweet Amber. She is the most precious and spoiled (I might add) Golden Retriever I have ever met. I keep telling her daddy I'm going to switch her out for one of my kids. I get the idea from Big Papa T this isn't happening, so I'll settle with home visits, the occasional over night and all of the tail wiggles in between.

After a while of the kids playing, playing fetch with Amber (she's completely obsessed with her tennis ball) and waiting for Mrs. T to awake from her slumber, we loaded up on Big Papa T's pontoon boat and headed out to sea... Okay lake, but it was just as fun!! Big Papa T took us on a tour around the lake and showed all of the beautiful homes...

My future home after the kids move out

The local hang outs...

And the family of swans that return year of year...

There's a sandbar across an area of this lake where the boats drop anchor and you get out and swim and play, it was pretty cool. We let the kids play for a bit and threw Amber's ball for her until the kids started complaining they were hungry, then we went back to port. After getting back and filling the aching bellies, we were offered the keys to the most amazing thing in the world!! I will forever be addicted for life. Once I got it from Daddy S, I was gone! If there had been a way to escape the lake, I would have! The sun, the wind in your hair, the no fear of laying it down and risking asphalt burns, made it so much more amazing. Daddy S got it up close to 60 mph (no kids on it), but alas I was stuck at 30-35. I was skeered!! So that's what we did until it started getting to dark to have them out on the water. The kids enjoyed riding along too, at least 2 of them did.

We did pretty much the same thing on Monday until Daddy S said it was time to head home and with much trepidation we left this wonderful place.

The view from the end of the dock

So once back at home, school started (finally). 2 headed off to middle school this year, 1 to 2nd and 1 to 3rd. It seems like just the other day they were born. Unfortunately I don't have 'First Day of School' pics, the camera was buried in the SUV still. I'll fake them soon, I need them for scrapbooking. I was astonished at how peaceful the day was, no arguments, no boxing, no laughter... So it was a little sad for me, but I'm sure I'll get over it soon. The week went well for all, no incidents to note. Well there was 1 little tiff between my oldest and stalker girl from the last 2 years (I'll tell that story later).

Then we have this weekend, Daddy S's boss's dad used to work for GE until he retired. So the last 4 years we've gone to Kings Island for GE day and it's not as crowded and you actually have a chance at riding the rides and not being knocked down by people walking by. AND the tickets are half price, gotta love that. There's no way this family is going otherwise General admin is around $40 per person now and with 6... Yeah, no. Although they have a Halloween fest that I might, I said MIGHT, let the 2 oldest earn and take them.

So here we finally are, balls of my feet blistered, legs hurting from walking around all day in shoes I thought would be comfortable. No, they weren't, next year I'll go barefoot.

See you in a day or 2 to discuss the stalker... *Insert eye roll here*

Finally It's back!

A week ago I sent my laptop in for repair (thank God for warranties), it kept overheating and shutting itself off. Then, I guess, one of the kids knocked it on it's side so it wouldn't stay plugged in to recharge. So now my boyfriend (as Daddy S calls it) is back home and I can sleep in peace. I never really realized how much I have grown to depend on it until it was gone. I had to *gasp* sit at the desk and do my work on the desk-top, no comfy chair or gazebo 'puting for me. I had to actually go outside and chase after kidlets, shoot them with the water hose and ride bikes with them. That's okay, they go back to school next week, I'll have plenty of time to catch up on everything else.

Not At Home

Two years ago my family finally fell under the bankers almighty ax and lost our fight in the foreclosure ring. With me having been at home with the kids for 10 years, having had 4 kids and only 1 income, we were doomed. So with nowhere to turn and jobs next to impossible to find unless you have a Ph.D to flip burgers, we turned to my Father in Law. Now we've been here for 2 years and it's become one of those things where every extra minute drags on for an eternity. We never do anything right, the kids make to much noise, everything is a mess, we breath to loud and since we don't smell old, we stink. Now some might think I'm ungrateful, that we could have been out on our hind ends, but I'm not. I'm very grateful and DO realize what he has done for us.

One of the complaints around here is about the thermostat, we're not allowed to have it lower than 80°. It's hotter than hell in this house in the evening, I mean 2 fans in the living room and it's still like being outside. So usually we turn it down to 75° when he's gone (which is most of the time) and make sure to turn it back up when he pulls into the drive. Today though, it was awful, and Daddy S went downstairs to see if my FIL had tripped the breaker or not. Do you know what he found? FIL had wired in a secondary thermostat in his room. Can we say oh emmm geeee? Yeah, no wonder when they went down south to fix grandpa's cars, I couldn't get this house cooled off.

Anyways on the upside of it all, we have a house down the street that we will eventually get to move into. There's some (in my estimation) minor work that needs to be done to it, but it's taking forever. Daddy S and I have started painting, while FIL has spent the last 4 months re-doing the storage barn out back. Eventually we'll get to move in and that will be a glorious day for me, but until then, I'll continue to hold my tongue as much as I can.

Backgrounds and Pickiness

After hours of trying to figure out which background I wanted, and there were a ton I liked, I've grown tired of searching. I think I'll settle down with my kids and watch a movie.