Cruelty to Animals or Just Plain FUNNY???

Please do not report me to PETA!

Carson and I saw someone on PINTEREST who gave their white dog eyebrows so we decided to try it out on Parker. I laughed so hard I almost peed my pants (sorry Parker)! Don't worry, it was just washable marker and it came right off.

Running on Empty

This is how I feel after 2 very LONG weeks.

2 weeks of riding solo.

2 weeks of getting 7 kids up and out the door to school and activities sans husband.

2 weeks of spending hours a day in the car but not really going anywhere

(unless soccer fields are considered a prime destination).

2 weeks of multiple appointments- doctor, dentist, speech

2 weeks of spending too few hours in my beloved bed!

Here's hoping the next 2 weeks I can re-fuel!

Here is where we have spent the majority of our past 2 weekends:

Carson

Reese

Hadley

Hadley and her team with their "BLING" after winning their 1st tournament!

Labor of Love

12 Years ago today I was in LABOR.

At the hospital preparing to give birth to my 3rd child.
I arrived, got settled and was ready to wait  awhile since I was not experiencing any major discomfort.
Little did I know that 45 minutes later I would be holding this:

Reese!

It was probably the WORST 45 minutes of my life!

It was Fast and Furious and PAINFUL!!!

It was definitely LABOR!

So on this LABOR DAY we celebrate 12 years of this Cutie:

Happy 12th Birthday Reese!!!

           

Whit's 1st Day of Preschool

The day I have been dreading.

Whit's 1st Day of Preschool.

Not because I was all teary eyed at the thought of my baby leaving the nest for a few hours-

Dreading it because Whit has been telling me for months, that, in no uncertain terms-

he WAS NOT going to Preschool 

and when the kid makes up his mind about something DON'T try to change it!

Trust me it can get UGLY!

His claim was that he was too SMART for school (he probably has a point) 

but none the less I still felt he needed a little social grooming before kindergarten next year.

We have tried to persuade him that school was going to be fun. That he was just going to go and play for a few hours and since he is so SMART he needed to help the other kids at school learn some things (I apologize in advance to the parents of his classmates for anything Whit might "TEACH" their children).

Upon reflection of this Whit informed me that (and I quote):

"You wasted your money, Mom"

So, with much trepidation we set off for our first morning of Preschool.

He is in Mrs. Williams "Friendly Frogs" room and he was ready with his SUPER MARIO bag.

We got to school, unloaded, walked into school, walked into the room, Whit turned around said "Bye MOM" and that was it. What??? So easy! No tears, no bad attitude, no prying him off of my leg. I stood there half in shock and then realized I better get out of there before he changed his mind. When I picked him up he was running around with some boys from his class and proclaimed that school was "GREAT"!

Go figure? 

This parenting thing is like one HUGE conundrum.

Prepare for the worst and everything works out fine,

Think every thing is fine and all HE!! breaks loose!

Just when you think you know your kid and how they will react they 

do a 180 and have you questioning your parenting prowess.

I guess we just have to roll with it and keep scratching our heads. 

Thankfully, in this instance it turned out way better than expected (let's just hope we get a repeat performance next week when he has his 2nd day of school!).

Fourteen

Fourteen!

That's how old my biggest girl is today.

Starting high school.

A step closer to independence.

The next 4 years are going to FLY- this I know from experience.

So we are going to do our best to enjoy them no matter how much DRAMA is involved!!!

I love this girl!

I hope 14 is GREAT!!!

Me & My "Baby" Girl

Just the Two of Us

With summer vacation coming to an end it leaves Whit and Murphy the only 2 little people home during the majority of the day. You would think that going from 7 kids around all day down to 2 would be a piece of cake- ha! These 2 are the bane of my existence. I can't seem to leave the room for 2 seconds before some calamity occurs. They are very physical and they usually end up in some knock down drag out brawl. If that doesn't happen and they remain quiet that means they are stirring up some kind of trouble- all of which has been well documented here (coloring on walls, cutting clothing, feeding dogs raw meat......). I really think I would prefer that I send the 0-6 year olds to school and then when they have "learned" how to act somewhat "human" they can return them to me and I will teach the reading, writing and arithmetic!

This NEVER happens so I had to take a picture (both of them asleep)

 I think they were plotting their next move on the path of destruction

Don't let those cute faces fool you!!!

The Beginning of the End

How is it possible that my eldest is a SENIOR in High School?

I know he just started kindergarten!

I remember that day like it was yesterday:

Warm, a little overcast,

 Griffin and Carson watching a little morning tv eating peaches

(how do I remember that?)

A quick bike ride in the driveway and than 

off to the BIG world of KINDERGARTEN:

Griffin's 1st day of Kindergarten, Winston- Salem NC
Whitaker Elementary (seriously)

I remember parking and walking him up the BIG steps to his school.
In the side door and into the 3rd door on the right.
His teacher was a Clifford The Big Red Dog fan so she had lots of Clifford stuff.
We milled around a bit, found his desk and I realized I was about to LOSE IT!
Tears welling up (it didn't help that I was 9 months pregnant with Reese- HORMONES).
So, I quickly gave Griffin a hug and kiss,
trying desperately to hold off the waterworks until I was out of the room
because I didn't want Griffin to think I was leaving him in some horrible place.
The minute I walked out of the room the floodgates opened.
I quickly went into the UGLY cry- you know the one:
Tears flowing, snot dripping, saliva drooling out of your mouth.
Heaving and gasping for breathe.
Yeah- It wasn't pretty!
I think I eventually regained my composure- enough to stumble back to the car anyway.
The rest of my day was spent counting the hours until I went back to that school to pick Griffin up hoping that his day was much better than mine.

Turns out it all worked out just fine.
Until now- some 12 Augusts later.

Griffin's 1st day of 12th grade, Irmo, SC
Dutch Fork HS

Much has changed.
I no longer have to make him breakfast,
get him ready for school
 and lord knows he doesn't want me walking him into his classroom!
He shaves (sometimes), drives himself to school and is with his friends more than he is at home.
But as I face his last, first day of school with him under my roof
I find myself facing many of the same emotions I felt when I was sending him off to kindergarten that first day.
I haven't broken down into the UGLY cry
but I have gotten weepy when I think where we will be a year from now
 ( I fear the UGLY cry will occur a few times between now and then).
I don't want to dwell on his absence a next year
 so I am going to try to enjoy the moments he is here in the coming months.

But, boy, somedays I wish he could be that little kindergartener again so he would be at home for
12 more years!