Playing Catch Up

Do you remember the days when you had to finish the entire roll of 34mm film in your camera before you could take it to the store and wait 3 days to finally see the pictures you took and hope that the picture wasn't fuzzy AND that everyone is actually looking into the camera when you took the picture? What a hassle right? I find myself with that same hassle just loading the gazzillion pictures I take digitally onto my computer so that I can post them here. I mean, really, there is NO comparison when it comes to the two. So what's my excuse you ask? There are too many to blog (and it's getting late)

I REALLY REALLY want to go and take a nice warm bath right now, but blogging has once again won my commitment battle AND I've loaded those gazzillion pictures onto the computer...So, the catch-up begins...

Carly turned 9 months old (she's actually almost 10 months now)...I went and had her pictures done at the Picture People in the mall close to my house. Let's just say that I will never go there again. After waiting an hour after my appointment time to begin and then switching photographers in the middle of my session, to seeing candy and crud all over the floors that my 3 year old was crawling all over, to being annoyed about telling the PROFESSIONAL photographer how to pose my child...I was done. What you don't know is that I have had issue's with them before, but none to magnitude of this time. I actually filled out a survey and had corporate contact me. I'VE NEVER DONE THAT BEFORE...So, yes, it was a bad experience, HOWEVER...If I didn't put up with all that, I would never have gotten these:







With becoming 9 months old, doctor visits are a must. Carly got a flu shot and so did Ethan. Neither of them cried. The trick is, to give the 9 month old a sucker to suck on and the 3 year old free rain over the sucker bowl. Dr. Lisa isn't happy with Carly's weight...she hasn't gained anything for 3 months. So, to rule diseases out like diabetes, thyroid, etc. etc...Carly had to get some blood tests done. I had to hold her down. Did you know that they take blood from a baby the same way they do adults? Imagine that. The poor girl screamed and then whimpered for hours after. They wrapped her arm up and I didn't know that I was going to be raising a drama queen until then. She went around the rest of the day holding her arm and whimpering and then would play and go back and forth. I got a picture of it, but it's blurry:



So the girls had skate night earlier this month. It was fun. The school shut down the roller rink and only the Panthers were aloud in. Ethan couldn't wait to get those skates on and skate along side of his sisters...
Skate and admission for mommy...$5
Skate and admission for Ethan...$5
ONE time around the rink before Ethan sheds the skates...PRICELESS


(excuse the red eyes...I'm not in a photoshopping kind of mood)

I drove Malia on a field trip out to Fog Willow Farm last week...It was pretty dang cool. I forgot my camera so you won't get to see Malia milking a fake cow, making a hay bail or feeding a goat...sorry...

Patrick and I took the kids to "THIS REALLY COOL PUMPKIN PATCH" (or so they say)...The corn maze that was on 3 acres was apparently pretty cool but I wouldn't know that because the stroller wouldn't work on the bumpy ground. Instead I took this:

(notice the black tarp on the ground...makes for a great pumpkin patch picture)

After Patrick and the other kids got back I got these:











I know it's not Halloween yet and I usually don't get my kids dressed up in costumes a week before Halloween either, but church had it's annual Trunk or Treat party last week. The kids had a blast and my favorite part about it is that I didn't spend a dime on costumes this year. I told the kids to go to the dress up box and find something to wear. This is what they chose...

Raya the witch:



Malia as SuperGirl:



Ethan as the cool Buzz Lightyear:



and Carly... Carly has a background to her costume. When she was born, she looked like this:



That is when she acquired her nickname as "Samurai Baby". As you can see, the nickname fits her choice of hairstyle very well. My dad still calls her that and I think it's a nickname that is going to stick. My sister in law brought back a Gi for Malia when she was a baby and I've actually had Carly wear it before Halloween. With the help of Uncle Jake drawing fake Japanese symbols on some black shoes...we have an official Samurai Baby:



So tomorrow's Halloween and I'm sure my kids will dress up as something other than what I have shown on this blog today...I took an awesome picture of the sunrise this morning...Carly started crawling today...and I'm working on the best quiet books EVER for my kids that I will have to take pictures of and show you, so...I'll have more pictures to load and show...it's just a matter of when...I really need to go back to those years long ago when I couldn't wait to get my pictures back EVEN from the one hour studio and be grateful that I can load them a look at them in just minutes...unless...Ethan lays on his little sister, or Malia punches Raya, or Raya has a question about homework, or the timer is going off begging me to take dinner out of the oven, or........

Genius!

So this morning as I was loading Ethan and Carly up in the car to do some errands, Ethan started talking gross..."I'm sitting on poop mom...Poo Poo Poo" I said "Boys are gross...actually so are your sisters...The Durling kids are gross" Ethan so kindly replies "You're a genius mom"... My mom, who was there helping me, and I looked at each other and busted up laughing...

The kids were having their daily "outside" time and when it was time to come in for dinner, all three of them had tree sap on their hands. We have a tree that is crying sap in our front yard and I tell the kids to steer clear of it. How do you get sap off of your hands? I asked google and google told me to use paint thinner. I decided to use my own remedy...Peanut Butter...and it worked. Thought of it myself, no help with the Internet...and it worked! Ethan's right! I am a genius!

Tag...I'm it...again!

So I've been tagged, again, by my lovely friend Marisa. Even though I really don't have the time to do this...I will humor you all with this interesting survey. Here goes...

First, the rules:
Answer the following questions with one word only. Then, pass it on to seven others...

1. Where is your cell phone? Counter (underneath a bunch of crap)

2. Where is your significant other? Working (on a Saturday night)

3. Your hair color? Black (all natural)

4. Your mother? Home (I think)

5. Your father? Races (No, not like African American and Caucasians...Car races)

6. Your favorite thing? Family (and the Internet)

7. Your dream last night? Confusing (and forgotten)

8. Your dream/goal? Health (and lots of money)

9. The room you're in? Bathroom (on the toilet...ok not really :-)

10. Your Hobby? Crafts (and anything crafty)

11. Your fear? abduction (kids being abducted by crazy's...not aliens)

12. Where do you want to be in six years? Road trip (in my convertible Mini with no kids)

13. Where were you last night? Home (being mom...again)

14. What you're not? Male (Not yet anyway...Just kidding people!)

15. One of your wish list items? Laptop (A Sempron AMD 2000 Designed for and with ATI Graphics and with a 5000 dual processor and it has to have a CF/SD drive...Ok I just made that up but I do want a freakin' rad computer)

16. Where you grew up? Here (in this house I am in...ahhhh)

17. The last thing you did? TrunkorTreat (no, not Trick or Treat...Trunk or Treat)

18. What are you wearing? Nothing (Stop trying to picture it)

19. Your TV? Off (for now)

20. Your pet? Dead (RIP TOBY and SPICE)

21. Your computer? Dying (hence my wish list item)

22. Your mood? Angry (Harry Potter isn't coming to Theatres until July '09...GRRRRR!)

23. Missing someone? Nope (I have too many things to do to miss anyone)

24. Your car? New (and thanks to Patrick, has a new battery now that it didn't start on me after picking up the girls from school yesterday and I had to walk home in my flippin' pajamas...at least I had a bra on :-)

25. Something you're not wearing? Jewelry (ok, I don't ever wear jewelry and I guess I need to confess that I'm not really naked right now either)

26. Favorite Store? Online (I HATE shopping...period!)

27. Your Summer? Hot (as always...It's the end of October and it's still pretty hot)

28. Love Someone? Always (Patrick, Raya, Malia, EThan, CarKoo...and all the rest of my crazy family)

29. Your Favorite Color? Green (and yellow, and purple, and orange and red...etc)

30. When was the last time you laughed? earlier (when Carly peed all over me...for real)

31. Last time you cried? Forgot (I don't cry...or I rarely cry)

Soooooo, if you know me, you know that I can't follow rules very well and had be sarcastic when answering this survey...truth is, I can't just answer with one word and expect you all not to fall asleep, drooling on your keyboard while reading this post. I had to make it interesting and captivating. So here's my challenge, if you are one of the lucky seven who I choose to tag, make your survey interesting, so I don't fall asleep reading your answers...Drum role pleazzzz....And the Lucky Seven People whom I choose to tag ARE...

1. Barbara Wright
2. Jen Cudney
3. Sheri Twardecki
4. Christine Santos
5. David Manass
6. Kenny Graham
7. Sandhya Mahle

I'll be looking forward to reading your posts...Until then...GOOD NIGHT!

New Blog Layout

I need a change...It seems like I just changed my layout, but I'm over it. Just need to find time to squeeeeez it in. Maybe by the end of the year?????

Funny 3 year olds

I love listening to my 3 year old and the funny things he says...

Me: "Ethan, what are you doing" as he rides around the house on the scooter

Ethan: "I'm going to work and leaving the baby here"

Me: "Really? Where are you going to now?"

Ethan: "Chuck E Cheese"

Me: "You have to have money to go to Chuck E Cheese. Where did you get your money" thinking he would say work

Ethan: "The money store"

Wouldn't that be great to have a "money store"?...Oh wait, it's called a bank :-)

Johnny Lingo Revealed

Turns out I've been sleeping with "Johnny Lingo" for 11.5 years and have 4 kids with him...

"Winding" Down the Day

This is a Johnny Jump Up:



They've been around for years. Apparently my sister loved it when she was a baby and all my kids have either liked it or loved it. It hangs from the moulding around the opening of a door or entry way. It's got some kind of spring in it so that the baby can jump safely....My kids have used it for jumping...swinging...and spinning. I don't know where the manual is for the device, but I am fairly sure it warns against anything but jumping.

So I pull out the Johnny Jump Up for Carly the other day and it didn't take long for her to "figure" out how this new toy works. I figured she could use it to "unwind" from a long day. Check out the video below.



If you watched the video all the way through, you may have not realized that you actually sat there watching Carly wind herself up and then unwind for just over 3 minutes STRAIGHT! She controlled the spinning the whole time (minus Raya giving her the nudges in the beginning). She knows exactly what she's doing. It's hilarious to watch. For those of you wondering...No, I did not speed up the video. It is all in real motion. I guess she's starting her training for ballet school. She's got the spinning on one foot down and from the looks of it...she's not THAT dizzy...or is she?

Halloween is Going to Suck This Year!

Couldn't resist!

The Cost of Raising Kids

So I found a calculator that estimates how much it will cost one to raise their child. It asks questions like what year the child was born, do you live in the suburbs, will the child attend college and if so, will it be public or private... It breaks the annual costs down in categories like housing, health care, clothing, transportation etc. etc. So here's what it's going to cost Patrick and I to raise our four children from conception through college

Raya: $355,906
Malia: $355,906
Ethan: $355.906
Carly: $355,906

That is a total of: $1,423,624

I can already see why it costs this much. A few weeks ago...Raya got these:



and then shortly after that, we were off to the orthodontist where I got an estimate for "Phase 1" which consists of 18 months worth of work which will cost us $3,000...and that's just phase 1!! She's going to need 2 sets of braces people and that's not the worse part...The orthodontist checked out Malia and told me she would need the same thing done...Dang! My genes SUCK!

I was vacuuming the floor on Saturday when Ethan came in and tried to tell Patrick and I something. He can speak very well but sometimes he mumbles and we don't understand. He ran off and after asking Patrick what he had said and neither of us knowing, I turned the vacuum back on only to hear Malia running in telling us that there was water all over the bathroom floor. Patrick immediately took off running and I followed. Let's just say that there wasn't a dry towel in the house shortly after. The girls were being so kind as to "clean" the bathroom and Raya dropped the lid of the toilet tank into the tank busting about 4 inches out of the bottom of it which resulted in a flooded bathroom...Sooooo Patrick took off to Lowe's and bought a $150 toilet...I NEVER did anything like that when I was a kid :-) Ok, so I actually broke a few windows :-) but anyway...With the help of our very awesome, cool, dare I say handsome, talented handyman neighbor Steve (am I forgiven now Steve?) we have a new, extra long, toilet in our bathroom and the best part about it, was Patrick actually washed and dried ALL the wet towels himself WITHOUT BEING ASKED. After 11 years of blissful (gag) marriage, he's finally learned!

So back to why I was originally posting this post...I wonder if the calculations the calculator used to calculate (let's say calculate one more time)...how much it would cost to raise my four children, took toilet breaking into consideration or if it's going to cost me $150 more (and counting) than $1.4 million dollars? I wonder if people actually take into consideration how much it will cost to raise a child when figuring out how many of them to have? I didn't!

Embarrassed!

I am sick to my stomach and have tears in my eyes because I cannot stop laughing! I just pulled out my scrapbook that I made with all my pre-marriage days (mostly high school) and I am utterly embarrassed! Thinking back, I had a great time in High School. My friends and I had a lot of fun, but looking at those pictures made me really evaluate whether or not I was a slight nerd or a total nerd! Seriously, I will be scanning some pictures in the next few days and if I can get enough nerve up to post the "true 1995" me, then you might get tears in your eyes and a sick stomach too.