What a week!

So we've had a pretty crazy schedule this past week, but loaded with lots of fun!

The zoo is open late on Wednesdays, so after Xander's OT last week he and I met up with Jordis and Jason at the zoo. Not long after we got there and Xander climbed some inflatables, Jordis decided she had to walk, of course. Xander took advantage of this opportunity to hitch a ride in the stroller and not 20 yards from her starting point Miss Thang strutted herself face first into the concrete at the entrance to the tunnel.

The tunnel at the zoo is a great place for echoes, so not only was she screaming at the top of her lungs, but it was amplified times one-hundred. So everyone's staring at us and probably thinking we made our poor baby walk while the big kid got pushed. At any rate, she's much more cooperative than Xander where ice is concerned, and 30 minutes later we were off to the picnic tables to eat the dinner Jason had packed for us. Then we rode the train. Jordis' forehead is finally back to its normal shape now, but it's still got a bruise. She bounced back like a trooper, though.





Friday of course was July 4th. We went to my mom and step-dad's to have a cookout and also celebrate my step-dad's birthday, which was on the 6th. We had lots of good food, the kids got plenty worn out, and I got a little nap. Jason's brother and his family were also in town and staying with us for the weekend, so after coming back from my mom's we attempted to keep the kids up to watch the Delaware fireworks, which can usually be seen from our backyard. Xander fell asleep before they even started and not just asleep, but he was practically in a coma. After trying to herd three kids outside and get them all situated, the fireworks started about 15 minutes late so the kids were completely over it before they ever saw anything. Xander was the only one who actually stayed outside.





The next day we went to the Independence Day parade that, for some reason, was held on July 5th. But at any rate, it was a good time and the kids enjoyed getting all the candy that they will hopefully forget about in the next few weeks. We let them have a sucker of two while they watched and Jordi.s got hers all over. She had an orange mustache, and it was on her temple, in her hair and somehow on the back of her shoulder. They also practiced a lot of waving and Jordis seems to have learned the pageant wave.


Jeremy, Dominic, Sarah and Autumn


Jordis was mad because she and Xander had to eat out of the same bag of snacks as opposed to each getting their OWN bags.


MMMMM......candy


Jordis pretends not to look but leaves a space for her eyes to peek out.

After dinner Jason's sister and her boyfriend came over and we had a nice time sitting outside, playing pool and playing poker. On Sunday, Jason's parents came to visit, then took the whole family out to a yummy dinner at Max & Erma's. We had our fill of tortilla soup and all four kids behaved, so I consider that a succesful dining experience.

On the way home we stopped at the splash pad for the kids to play. Dominic wasted no time and Xander did surprisingly well after running around the perimeter for awhile. Autumn enjoyed herself with some help from Sarah and Jordis stood on the edge looking pretty.


Autumn gets a little help from her mom


Looking pretty


Xan loves to jump in water


Dominic and Xander give it a joint effort

The week was full and lots of fun so this week we're cleaning and relaxing. We're had all the excitement we can handle for awhile.

Mother's Day

So Mother's Day was going smoothly...the kids had been behaving, Jason got up early and fed them lunch and they were quietly coloring at the kitchen table. Enjoying my lazy rainy day I was still in my pajamas and halfway asleep on the couch when "it" happened. If you live here, and you know me fairly well, you know what I'm talking about. Yes, the tornado sirens went off. My mom has always said I have selective hearing, but I think a tornado siren could bring me out of a coma.

At first I thought it was routine. Our old house was in Franklin County and they test sirens at noon on Wednesday, but our new house is in Delaware County and they test on Saturday. So I thought that's about right, it's lunch-ish time and it's Saturday. But then I remembered that no, it's Sunday, and it's after 1 p.m. Surely, I thought, there couldn't be a tornado when it's not even 60 degrees out, the dew point is low and there's been no heating of the sun in the atmosphere since it's been raining all day. I'm a connoisseur of weather, always have been, and I've hung out with Jym Ganahl www.nbc4i.com/midwest/cmh/authors.Bio.-content-midwest-cmh-authors-jim_ganahl.html enough times to know that even though tornadoes can be sneaky, the conditions just weren't right.

But true indeed it was, as I turned on the TV and saw the giant weather-map, the one they force you to watch the whole entire time the storm travels until it reaches the next closest state. Because we all know that whoever broadcasts the weather the longest, and shows you the most videos of the impending death (be it tornado, flooding, snow, what have you) is the best news station in town. So anyway, I had a slight panic as Xander starts asking "what's that noise" and Jason's in the driveway looking for funnel clouds, when I realized that the storm isn't even coming towards us. In fact, if anything it was starting to get a little sunny, so I couldn't even take any good scary sky pictures. It was going towards Jason's parents house though, so luckily we had been there the day before because they don't have a basement and things would not have been pretty had I been there for that. And speaking of which, we had a lovely cookout there and then we took the kids out to the neighborhood pond to race remote-controlled boats. There were some baby ducks at the pond as well, so the kids had two things to get excited about.





Once the storm hoopla was over things got back to normal and the kids were none the wiser. They both took nice long resters and I spent all day on the couch. Made myself some tomato soup for lunch and ate it in the family room. Then I finished reading my all-time favorite book that, for once, was actually not checked out at the library -- "From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler." If you're familiar with the book, which I know some of you are, don't laugh at me, I'm quite aware that it's children's literature. But I've loved it since the third grade when my teacher, Lynn Thompson, read it to us. I love the idea of it, the mystery of it, and the fact that sometimes what you find on the journey is more important than what you were looking for. To my credit, it WAS a Newbery Medal winner, and I'm not the only adult who enjoys it. The comment section at Amazon is full of other grown-ups who still love this book. www.amazon.com/Mixed-Up-Files-Mrs-Basil-Frankweiler/dp/0440431808 So to those of you teachers who sometimes feel like you don't make a difference, you never know what your students will remember 24 years after they leave the 3rd grade.

After my book I labeled some photos in an album from last year's vacation. I've come to terms with the fact that I will never ever get around to scrapbooking them, and that's okay. So I wrote on all the little tabs next to them in the album while I watched the "Jon & Kate Plus 8" marathon. tlc.discovery.com/tv/jon-and-kate/jon-and-kate.html If you've never seen this show it's about a family who had fertility treatments when they couldn't have a baby. They had a set of twins and then wanted another baby and ended up with six. So this show follows them around and on bad days with the kids I just have to watch one episode of this show and it makes me realize maybe things could be worse. Though there have been days when all of their 8kids collectively are behaving better than the two of mine. Oh yeah, and I ate a Cow Tail without having to hide from the kids in the laundry room.

Jason and the kids got me very nice cards and our combined Mother's Day/Father's Day gift will be painting the office and putting up shelving. Jason was going to make steaks and baked potatoes for dinner but the rain kind of put a damper on that, so we fed the kids and then after they went to bed he went and got us a late dinner, my choice. I went round and round of course because I can't ever make decisions. I kind of wanted Bob Evans breakfast food but thought it's really too much money to pay for breakfast things I can make myself. I always want Chipotle and Jason would have gone to get it because he loves it, too, but I couldn't justify sending him on a 40 minute round-trip when gas is $4/gallon. Oh wait, sorry, it's only $3.95. Finally I decided on Donatos. I got a Big Don sub and a small cheese pizza, ate half of each and then had yummy leftovers.

Tonight my mom and step-dad took us to dinner at Max & Erma's which was tasty as usual (best tortilla soup EVER) and the kids were fairly well-behaved. I got them to pose for pictures there on various chairs in the lobby and before that we had a nice time at the playground outside of Jason's work while he was there attending a meeting. Xander put on a great show of singing and dancing on the outdoor stage, but sadly my new phone apparently doesn't E-mail high resolution videos.



Xander, being the ham that he is.



I was in a bad place to take a picture with the streaming sun, but the kids were side by side and strapped into a cart at Home Depot, so it was a rare opportunity to get them together without Jordis trying to run away.




Jordis didn't want to share the chair at Max & Erma's, so Xander sat on a stool and scouted the parking lot.



Thanks to everyone that contributed to my Happy Mother's Day. I think I got more E-mails, cards, phone calls, texts and MySpace posts than I get on my birthday, and I appreciate every last one of them.