What causes this?

Before the movie How To Train Your Dragon came out I saw all sorts of items to buy from the movie. Especially interesting to us were the really large sized stuffed dragons they had at Walmart. I didn't know which one to buy before the movie, so I planned to wait to see which one Sam liked before I bought one.
Well, the movie came out on Friday, so Saturday I went to get one for him. Do you think there was even ONE of the main dragon? Nope, not one. And thus grew my desire to get one. In one day all the Walmarts around were wiped out of the Night Fury dragon named Toothless. What happened? It was a cute movie and all, but to be wiped out in ONE day?

I found out what happened to them. After searching several towns for them Donnie went to the internet. Turns out some very smart people bought them all and are selling them on ebay for double+ the value! Smart for them, but ticked me off.

I was sending people every where out to find them for me. Even my mother in Maine. Finally on Tuesday my friend stopped at a Walmart about 30 miles from us and found the last one and called me. I finally have a Toothless, but 3 kids who want him.


I have to admit, I went a little psycho trying to get one. Why? What would possess me to go so crazy for it? I think it was the fact that I couldn't just get it that made it even more desirable. I HAD to get one. Forget the fact that Walmart is expecting more shipments of them, I had to have one NOW.

I went a little loco. But I won! I got it for $15 instead of the $40+ on ebay. And I am probably going to get another for the other kids who want one.

Tease!

I love getting lotion rubbed into my feet. It is how the kids get out of chores, or pay for things they want.
Devon, who is the best foot massager, refuses to use lotion, and rarely to even give a foot massage. It is usually Cody, and he is nice and uses lotion as long as it isn't gingerbread scented, he hates that.
The other day Devon gave me a nice massage, but wouldn't use lotion, of course. So when he was done I got Cody going with the lotion.
Devon says "I would give you a foot massage with lotion if it were your birthday............"
(I'm getting happy at this point)
"and Christmas..............."
(that isn't going to happen)
"AND you've just had surgery."

What are the odds the I am going to have surgery on my August birthday at Christmastime?

Not looking good for me.

Only Sam. Again.

Seriously, after raising 3 boys to at least their teens already, you'd think I would have seen it all. Right?
You would think.

But then I get Sam. Apparently God saw that I could handle that stuff and gave me all 3 of them rolled into one.

So, obviously we had another first with Sam. All the boys have zipped their privates into their zipper at some point, but Sam had to out-do them all. He slammed his part in the toilet lid. Squashed it enough to split the skin open and need a band-aid on his winkie. Not even kidding. I don't even want to know HOW he managed it.

(and no, I don't normally use the term "winkie" but I don't need any nasty people finding my blog with search words)

But he did do something cute, too. Donnie bought Sam and Trinity new shoes recently, but only Trinity's Tinkerbell shoes lit up. So you know Sam steals them all the time because the blinky lights are cool. Well, yesterday I found some How To Train Your Dragon light up shoes! Now Sam will leave hers alone. But when I got home he was buck naked. And wanted the shoes on. He ran around the house naked except for the shoes, and soon the band-aid on his winkie, and it was just too cute! My facebook friends have nicknamed him "Flash" now. Highly appropriate for him.

And Nod. I had to add that, since I used the words "winkie" and "blinky" in this post, haha. I know. I am weird, no need to tell me so.

Are you thick?

Trinity and Kaytlin were sitting on the couch the other day and had a conversation that went something like this:

Trinity, looking at her ankles: I'm getting thick. Not like mom and dad thick, but I'm getting thick.
Kaytlin: Am I thick?
Trin: Your legs are.
Kaytlin: Is that the same thing as being fat?
Trin: No, just thick. My ankles are thick.


So, I'm thick. That is better than fat, right?

Dragon Training Rocks!

Last night we took the whole crew, yes, the WHOLE crew, to How to Train Your Dragon 3D! It was a blast!
I'm not a big 3D person, but it was still fun. Sam was too young for the 3D thing, though.

We are Norwegian, so the boys were all "Vikings, arr arr arr!" lol the movie wasn't really want I expected at all, and I was pleasantly surprised.
Sam sat through and enjoyed it, even the scary part with the giant dragon that sent him scurrying to Daddy's lap. He never looked away or was really scared. But if your child does get scared at things, this will be too dark and frightening for them. Trinity wasn't afraid at all, either.

None of us wanted the movie to end when it did. We all highly recommend How to Train Your Dragon. (and I can't wait to go out and buy all the "stuff" for the kids, haha! Sam really wants the stuffed dragons at Walmart)

Vacations over :(

Thanks to our friends over at Joyful Noise, we were able to go on vacation in the Wisconsin Dells last week. They got a 3bd townhouse for 6 days and invited us to go with them. So we packed up the kids who did could leave and we left! Cody stayed home to watch the dogs, Devon and Kaytlin couldn't leave school. So, Trinity, Sam, Nicole and Drew's fiance, Jannessa came along with us.

The resort had a great kiddie pool area with a toddler slide and an older kids slide for the kids to enjoy. Sam loved the frog slide. He even enjoyed the big slide when Nicole forced him to go on it while Jannessa was at the bottom to catch him. However, later he decided to try it when noone was there, and I had to run and rescue him as he came out the bottom. I just missed him by a split second and had to fish him out of the water. He was NOT liking slides after that, lol.

The resort had lots of activities for the kids to do at the clubhouse every day. One day we went and decorated cookies. The kids really enjoyed eating them! Then we went off to the playground.

The playground didn't go so well. Sam walked in front of the swings and got kicked face first into the wood chips. "I HATE swings!"

Another day they went to do a coloring contest. Jannessa won for the adult category and let Sam pick out some bubbles for a prize.


Donnie and Dan took the kids out to fly kites. They loved it!

On Wednesday we took the kids to Mt. Olympus for a few hours. Jannessa took Sam on a slide off the pirate ship. That was it for him, he got his face drenched, so he wouldn't do the slides anymore.

Later we forced him to go on one of the huge tube slides with the girls and he loved it. So Jannessa and I took him down it again. However, Jannessa and I are too much weight together to stay on the tube at the bottom and we flipped, nearly drowning Sam, and hobbling my foot, lol. Needless to say, Sam never did another water slide.

One of the nights we went out to eat, just us parents. That was nice, except the guys ended up picking some barbeque joint, which is a story in itself.

The older girls did so much to help us through the week with babysitting, playing with the kids, and cooking that we wanted to give them a special treat. So Donnie took them horseback riding.

Trinity wasn't ready to leave on the last day. She wanted one more fun thing to do. So we drove around town and nothing was open in the off season. So we took them to a candy store and she was satisfied. So we were able to head back home.

I have lots more stories and pics that I will post here and there, but this is our trip in a nutshell!

Busy, busy!

I love when life is busy, as long as I get some restful moments, too. This last week has been filled with fun, work, and craziness.
Our neighbors have called the police on us twice over our dogs this week. You know, instead of telling us the kids are not paying attention to the dogs and they are getting loose. But they don't call on any of the other neighbors loose dogs, just ours, because they've SEEN our dogs poo in their yard. The other dogs don't seem to be a problem. Hello! Why don't people just talk to their neighbors anymore?
They robbed our kids of a learning experience by cleaning up the poo instead of having our kids clean it up. (which I told her should happen if our dogs poo'd in their yard)

On Mondays I have a woman's walking time at our church in the morning and evening. Monday morning there was a new person walking, new to our church and new to walking. She also happens to be a new neighbor to me. Monday night she came back to walk again and we go to talking about kids and I mentioned that my kids don't have privacy because I plaster their stuff all over my blog. She asked me my blog addy and wouldn't you be surprised, she READS MY BLOG!!!!! How weird is that?

Today I hosted a babyshower with a couple of women from my church for a woman at my church. I made the cake, of course, and it was a new style for me. It was fun, and much easier than it looks. Seriously, easy, easy to make. Except the bow, that was a bit tricky to get done, but now that I've done it, it would be a breeze. And now I have three orders for this cake, lol.






Now I am busy packing clothes and getting ready for a mini vacation with my good friend Jody.

Fountain of Youth found by Jellyfish

Apparently one species of jellyfish has the ability to not only regrow a limb, but to regenerate their entire body and become a polyp and start over. They don't die. It is called transdifferentiation, which is when one type of cell turns into a different type of cell.

While I would like to go back to time when my body was younger looking and my metabolism could burn off calories while sitting on the couch, I'm not so sure I would want to go back to the baby stage.

(photo: Peter Schuchert)

Maybe I am looking at this weight thing the wrong way?

This New Jersey woman has a "fantasy" of weighing 1000lbs. She doesn't consider it an attainable goal, but a dream or fantasy. She likes being large, and wasn't happy when she was thinner. Her husband, who found her on a large woman dating site, encourages her to get bigger.

The first thought is "Is she nuts? She needs to be seen. She can't be mentally healthy! Doesn't she care about her daughter?" Well, hello! We don't get to decide for other people what they can and can't do when it doesn't abuse another person, or themselves. You can argue that this is killing herself, or that she is going to hurt her child by dying early, but really, that isn't our business.

Do I agree with what she is doing? NO!!!!! But I don't like being told I am wrong because I do things different from mainstream society. And in our culture she is wrong, but other cultures find obesity to be a great thing.

All because two people fell in love...........

Awwwww!
I am very happy with the turn out of my wall. Now to figure out the rest of the walls.

Then on to painting the rest of the house...............

Really? (warning~immodest pics)

Not x rated pics, but not modest.

So I was sitting in the hair cutting place (can you call a cheap place a salon?) and I was reading a rag magazine. You know, to see why Brangelina are "really" over this time. (and I can't tell you because I never actually saw that article)
I found this set of pics of people with extremely poor choices in clothing. I was just flabbergasted at this one dress. So flabbergasted that I had to take a pic of the magazine to show you just how amazingly dumb people can be.
You are gorgeous, WHY would you need to wear a dress that is so sleazy that the caption is "She is so easy even her dress gets to second base." ??????

There is something wrong with this designer.. Why would you wear this????? And how does it stay ON?

Wow

Recently I went to a popular fast food restaurant with a playland for a playgroup with my friends. We all got a kick out of the "rules" they had posted.

What if the adult isn't happy? Do the kids have to leave?

Define "weird" because seriously, there is a lot of "weird" in the world.

Despite the rules, the kids had a blast for 2 1/2 hours, and went to bed nicely that night!

Hair cut day

Nicole has been bugging me to get her haircut for awhile now, and I finally caved.

Before. After.
Trinity decided she would allow hers to be cut, too. I have been telling her if it was a little shorter it wouldn't tangle so much. Apparently she was afraid it would hurt to have her hair cut.

Before.
After.


I guess it wasn't so bad!

You can't really tell, but she got a couple of inches cut off and some layers added.
Donnie got his haircut, too, but he didn't do before and after pics for me. But I love his flattop!

Oh, Samuel, Samuel, Samuel.

No words needed.

Oh the joy!

I took Trinity for a little mom time today. Nothing special, just Burger King.

"Mom, the I is like this I and this i and the L is like this L and this l. So isn't that really Burger Kling?"
The sign is in all caps, so the I looks like an l. BURGER KlNG.

The beginning of the end...........

In early June Kaytlin will be crowning a new princess and giving up her royal position on the float. It has been a long and busy year of royal activities, and it is nice to see an end to it, but it is also so sad. We all enjoyed the car trips to and from parades, and taking notes of the goofy things that were said. I am going to miss my princesses!

This weekend was our last normal parade and our last coronation before they give up their crowns. There is one more parade where they are working with the new candidates, so it won't be the same.

No more getting ready in the truck before the parade.

No more running around the parade route before the parade and getting pictures with all the other royalty.

No more looking out the back window and seeing the girls waving their royal wave at the crowd.

No more sitting with the girls at coronations and picking which girls we think will win the crown for that town.

I cried off and on all day at our last chaperon event. It is bittersweet. I am dreading the coronation where they give up their crowns. There will be so many tears!

I love you girls!

Difficult people

It is so hard maintaining relationships with difficult people. People you need and want in your life, not random people you don't care about.

For example, family that you love and care about who do not share the same lifestyle beliefs or faith choices as you. It is very difficult to live harmoniously and lovingly with them sometimes.

For years I have dealt with family telling me that I am wrong in raising my kids with strong morals and modesty, just as an example. They don't just state an opinion, they have literally started a fight in front of the kids at their birthday party with other family around that my kids couldn't possibly find a marriage partner with courting because how could they know if they were compatible if they don't have sex with them first??? (from a never-married person with kids, no less)

I have tolerated the criticisms, even when they do it and undermine my authority in front of my kids, because I love them. But I have failed to understand why they don't respect that I am raising my kids my way and choosing my lifestyle just as they are choosing theirs. I never understood why my choices for good made them so mad. I never tell them they should do it my way, or say theirs isn't good enough. I do answer them when they ask why I am choosing my path, but not saying they have to take it.

So why do people get so offended when you choose to follow a good, Godly path? And why is it that the more Godly it is, the more offended they get?

I think it is because God is light, and when the light is on, sin can't hide. Their sins look so dirty to them next to the light, but they don't understand that. They don't want to face it and get defensive and want to bring everyone to where they are so they don't feel like they are wrong.

I don't expect my family and friends to make my choices. And I really don't expect people who haven't committed their life to Christ to live like we do. I have never suggested that to my family and friends, and yet they expect me to stop living for Christ because they don't like that I am holding to strict morals and modesty for MY kids. I am the only one who will have to deal with the fallout if the kids decide against our morals when they move out, not them. So why do they feel the need to criticize us and try to make us less moral?

It is frustrating to me. But I deal with it because I love them. God will reveal the truth one day, no matter who is right.

The horseplay

What have I been up to?

I've been busy painting my living room! I am not finished with everything yet, but here is where I am stopping for now.
I bought curtains but they are not the right size, so I need to exchange them. I am going to put up pictures later because I am going to paint "All because two people fell in love" over my kids' pictures, but it needs to be dark to use the projector.
If you look closely by the bookshelf, the walls are two different colors of green.

Potty Dance

Who hasn't seen the commercials with the potty dance? If you haven't, youtube it. It is a ridiculous marketing ploy.
Sure, we've tried our own potty dance and all, but as a commercial, it is ridiculous.

Well, the commercial came on tonight and Donnie looked at Sam and said "Sam, show us your potty dance."

Sam stood up, spit, ran in a circle, spit again, and went back to playing.

Accidental punny

I was reading up on oral expanders when I overheard Donnie talking with some of the kids. "I've really cut back on my farting in the bedroom." Yes, that got my attention.
What?
"I did. I cut back on farting in the bedroom because you don't like it."
"You haven't cared for the last 20 years, why do you care all of a sudden?"
"You made such a big stink out of it that I am working on it."

Big stink........... get it? haha!

The Perfect Night In

Update*** the winner is #3 Lisa, congratulations!



Chinese food is so yummy! I am not so good at making it, though. So I was thrilled to get to try Wanchai Ferry recently. I was sent a Perfect Night In gift set and a coupon to get a free bag of Wanchai Ferry to sample in the hopes that I would write a review.
Well, we loved it! So I am not only happy to review it, I am thrilled to be able to give away a Perfect Night In gift set to a reader!

I went to Target and found the Wanchai Ferry and bought the Orange Chicken. I was making a huge cake that day and had my friend Jeannie over helping me, so she got to sample it with us. Jeannie and her family eat chinese after church almost every week if her husband has his way. She agreed that it was delicious and as good as eating out! (though our chinese place in town doesn't have orange chicken)

I was a little disappointed at first that the rice portion was so small, when it is supposed to feed 2 people, but really, all of us were satisfied after eating our portion of it. I made two bags to feed 4 people, and it was accurate. Now you couldn't stuff your face, but it is adequate.

We were so pleased with the flavor, in fact, that I have purchased the Orange Chicken again and also bought the Spicy Garlic Chicken to try this week.

Wanchai Ferry comes in five flavors, all with no added MSG:
Orange Chicken
Spicy Garlic Chicken
Shrimp Lo Mein
Sweet and Spicy Shrimp
Sweet and Sour Chicken

Wanchai Ferry Orange Chicken has all of the ingredients needed to prepare a great-tasting, complete Chinese meal for 2 in only 14 minutes! You can download a $1.50 coupon by sending a coupon to a friend.

Would you like to try Wanchai Ferry?

This Perfect Night In gift set includes one VIP coupon valid for a free package of any of the Wanchai Ferry frozen entrees, in addition to a set of great Asian-inspired rice bowls, chopsticks, bamboo placemats, flavored fortune cookies, and a $25 Target gift card.

If you would like a chance to win this Perfect Night In package leave a comment about which meal you would most like to try if you win. (you can get whatever one you want with your coupon)

Giveaway ends March 15, 2010.

I was supplied with this package, and a giveaway package, as a sample from Wanchai Ferry through My Blog Spark in the hopes that I would write a review. I was not otherwise compensated for my opinion.

New name for a new look?

Or a new look for a new name?

Hope-Anne loves her name, but gets very frustrated with the mistakes people make over it. I'm not sure why it is so hard to get it, but people frequently hear "Hoban" when we say it, or shorten it to Hope when they read it. Even after being corrected they continue with the wrong name. There have been teachers that just could NOT get her name right.

So she has decided to switch to her much more normal sounding middle name. Nicole. Because Hope doesn't fit her and neither does Anne, I suggested she try her middle name. I think it fits her well.

I am surprised at the amount of people who refuse to call her Nicole, including her father, lol. (OK he doesn't surprise me, he is stubborn and hates change) Many of my friends have totally jumped in and are better at remembering the change than I am.

The name change comes at a great time in Nicole's life. She is about to not only get braces, but her face is going to change. She has to have her upper jaw expanded. She will have a device put in her upper mouth that actually separates her upper jaw and has to wear it until new bone grows in to make the wider mouth permanent.

It isn't supposed to be painful, but I told her to milk it, because it sounds bad! Aren't I a good mom?

So, her face shape with change, she will get braces to make her teeth straight and gap-free, and she has a whole new name!

Trying yet another method of potty training

Cause I am just not afraid of failure???

I have tried about everything so far to get Sam potty trained, but nothing lasts. So, yet again I keep trying things.

Recently I got little bottles of soda for Sam as a reward, because he is a soda freak. He gets one a day if he has a pretty good day. Or for going poo. And it is encouraging. But only if he is naked, of course.

Tonight I bought a bunch of toy cars and glow sticks and showed them to him, trying to explain that we were going to make a chart and if he goes potty 5 times he can choose a toy. He ran to the bathroom and peed right then and there. Well, you know how the rest of this goes, right? He wanted a toy right then. So I explained the FIVE times thing again. So he ran back in the bathroom and pooed. Still can't get a toy. So I had someone make the chart and he was shown the 5 times he has to go, so he ran back in the bathroom and pooed again.

He now has 3 marks on his chart, and he is drinking soda, so he'll probably have to go pretty quickly here.

This won't last more than a couple of days, if that. And probably only if he is naked. But at least I am TRYING, right?

Potty training sagas

I didn't really potty train Drew. He got a really bad rash about a month before he turned 2 and it was so bad it was bleeding. So I let him run naked for 3 days while I followed him everywhere with a potty chair. He never wore diapers again.

None of the other kids potty trained so early, but they did train at various ages, from 2 1/2 to almost 4 years old. Devon was probably the worst. Until Sam. Granted Sam isn't quite as old as Devon was, he is getting there.

What makes me mad is that he KNOWS how to be potty trained, and was trained, day and night, for a couple of months, and now chooses not to use the toilet.

However, yesterday the squirt only had ONE accident. The secret? Being naked. If he is naked, he uses the toilet all day. We put clothes on him to go to church last night and he had his one accident.

He is so frustrating! He can't be naked forever! I don't mind him being naked at this age, ALL of my kids were streakers, and they get modest between ages 3 and 5, so it is good.

How am I going to win this battle?