We are now fully in the swing of the school year. I have been swamped at work and therefore, have had limited online time. Basically, at work I have taken on a managerial position and I am now in charge of communications, documentation, scheduling and also have a key role in hiring and firing people. For the first time this week, I had to fire someone. It's hard to do. Well, sort of. The situation that the employee created made it a very easy thing to do, but even still, it took a few minutes to pump myself up to do it.

Hubby got a new job at Applebee's. I haven't quite yet decided if this is good or bad. I mean, it's good obviously because it is steady income (or at least steadier income than previously) but the food is so good and he gets a discount that ranges from free (during his shift) to 50% off (an hour before or after his shift) to 25% off (all the time).

We like to go to Applebees on Wednesday nights when I get off of work because they have their 2 for $20 (two entrees and an appetizer for $20) plus they also have 99 cent kids' meals (limit of four meals per adult entree) so we often get the 2 for $20 plus 8 kids' meals (two for each of our kids - they eat one right away and then save the other one for dinner for the following night). All together, our meal ends up around $28.00-$30.00 before tax and tip. But now, with Hubby's discount, it will end up being $22.00 before tax and tip. Our Wednesday/Thursday dinner will only run around $30.00 total. Which is still quite a bit, but overall, totally do-able on our budget. And that's TWO nights of meals for everyone. (Hubby and I almost always have leftovers as well) $15.00 per night divided by 6 people equals just a little over $2.00 per person. Not too shabby, in my opinion. And that is based on the lowest discount available to Hubby.

We got the older boys enrolled in Cub Scouts this past week. We now have a Webelo and a Wolf. And then Punky is now enrolled in Girl Scouts as well - she is a Daisy. And I am enrolled in Girl Scouts as well. I'm a Daisy Leader. Woot! I have no clue yet. LOL! Still have to go through my training and all that yet. Hopefully, I will get it all figured out soon though!

Natty is enjoying fifth grade and is actually being very responsible about his homework. I finally found a system that works well for him. Money. He is given 10 points each day for homework. Five points are allotted to his planner. He has space for five subjects. He has to have SOMETHING written in each subject to receive his points for the day. The other five points are allotted to getting the work actually done. Since we implemented this system, he has only missed one day of not having his planner filled out. Oh - and each point is worth a penny. Just my price. It does add up (along with some other things that he is expected to do each day for his chores) but I don't mind paying him to be responsible. That's what happens at our jobs as adults, isn't it?

JoNo has also had homework each night. Spelling and Math mostly. He loves it! It's quite surprising, really. He is in a special reading group because he is not on grade level for reading and last year, his spelling was HORRIBLE! But this past week, he only missed 2 words out of 16 on his pre-test. If he missed one or gets them all correct on his pre-test, then he gets the challenge list for the week instead. My poor reader is a good speller? Somewhere that doesn't make sense. But maybe that just means that the reading is about to jump up to grade level?

Punky is thoroughly enjoying her full day of school every day of the week. She is such a big girl now. I don't know what it is, but suddenly instead of being my little girl, she's jumped up to my big girl. *sniffle* It's okay, I'll be fine.

Boo is attending school everyday as well, although he only attends half days. He gets to ride the bus to and from school each day, which he LOVES! And he is actually talking about school quite a bit here and there. His communication skills have really improved over the summer and even since school has started. He still has some very strong and noticeable characteristics of his developmental delay but he is adjusting to a new school, a new routine, new teachers and new friends very well.

Boo might actually even start going to a babysitter a few days a week, when Hubby and I overlap with our work schedules. That will be a new experience for sure! I'm actually hoping that I will be able to start being at work half an hour later than I currently have to be there. That would be great for me, because then I could be the one to drop the older kids off at school and then drop Boo off with the sitter instead of needing to have all four stay the night with my inlaws and have them bring the kids up to school. It's funny the difference 30 measly minutes can make in a routine!

We have been working hard here at the new place to get it all adjusted and organized and comfortable. I have it mostly there right now. The hard part has been with my work schedule lately. It has since calmed down (beginning this week). It is really hard to maintain a house when you aren't IN the house. I seriously was working 2 7 hour shifts, 3 12 hour shifts and 1 4 hour shift each week. It was CRAZY! Plus, most nights I brought work home with me. That's just the way it had to be for a while there. I actually have work that I brought home on Friday that I had planned to have done by now, but the way I see it, I don't have to work again til Wednesday so I have a little bit of time yet. And worse case scenario, I do that work on Wednesday while I'm at work. No biggie. But I'd really like to be caught up at work before I start my work week on Wednesday. Ya know, just for once.

In the meantime, I have plenty to keep me busy here at home. I have laundry to do, menus to make, shopping to do, meals to make, kids to feed and bathe and supervise and entertain. Scheduling to do and keep. Eye appointments to go to, rooms to clean, chores to oversee, homework to supervise, allowance to give, kids to hold and hug and love on. Because you know, the last part is the best part of being a parent.

♥   NattyNu   ♥   JoNo   ♥   PunkyPie   ♥   Boo   ♥

Company Girl Coffee 3.11

Well, I guess I will get a post in today, contrary to what I said yesterday. I am still feeling pretty rough and I wasn't able to sleep last night due to one child or another being awake and not feeling well. But at the moment, the only thing plaguing most of the children is a cough. There were no incidents of bodily fluids being expelled in an undesirable manner, no fevers, just the cough. Well, I have a fever, but I think all four kids will be able to attend school today.

I have been attempting to lose weight recently. I started in earnst on February 7th of this year and so far, I have lost 18.5 pounds! That is incredible and I am so encouraged by that! I still have a long ways to go yet, but I feel like I have gotten off to a great start already. I am really pleased. My largest weight drop actually happened just this past week and a half when I lost 5.5 pounds. It was a lot at once and it wasn't necessarily intentional either. I think it was just that I have had a lot of anxiety lately and plus, I was starting to come down with something, so I'm sure that factored in as well.

My house is a disaster area today and I will probably only be doing a minimal amount around the house today, unless I start to feel much better very soon. I found a number of different recipes last night for making homemade furniture polish. I decided to try one out last night that called for 2 tsp. olive oil (or canola oil or whatever oil you use to cook with), 2 tsp. of vinegar mixed with 32 oz. of water. I have a bottle of extra virgin olive oil in my cupboard that I don't use because I don't like the flavor, so I used some of that along with some apple cider vinegar that was under my kitchen sink. The bottle of vinegar is a 32 oz. one and it had very little left in it, so I emptied the vinegar into another smaller container and then mixed up the polish in the vinegar bottle.

My kitchen has a LOT of wood in it. Well, truly, my whole house has a LOT of food in it. Our house was built in 1964 and I'm sure the wood accents and such are original to the home. Anyhow, I took this mixture and poured some onto a rag and tried it out. I think it did an okay job on the areas where I tested it. The one thing about the mix is that just before applying it, you have to shake the bottle to mix the ingredients together well enough to use.

I also decided to look up some information about freezing different items. We have a lot of eggs and potatoes to use up one way or another and I discovered a few different things. The first one being that egg noodles are incredibly easy to make and at very little cost. Two, potatoes can be cut up into french fries or wedges and then seasoned and baked, allow to cool and the freeze in a freezer bag or other storage container. (I would use a freezer mate container from Tupperware myself.) The third item I discovered last night is that you can freeze eggs. All you have to do is take the eggs, crack them into a bowl and whisk them (much like you would if you were going to make scrambled eggs) add a little bit of salt and then place into a container to freeze. Who knew?! Oh, well, I suppose somebody did before they posted it on the internet. I would also recommend that if you are going to do that, you write on the container or on your label or tape how many eggs you used for the mixture. And the last item is that you can freeze milk. You just open it up, pour out a glass or so and then put the lid back on and place in freezer. When you thaw it out, just place it in your fridge and allow to thaw. You may want to give it a good shake when it is thawed though, as milk will sometimes separate in the freeze/thaw cycle.

A whole load of easy tips and tricks that will save money and time and is just good information to know. I even discovered a recipe for crackers, in the event that I would need to make some today for upset tummies. I love the research power of the internet!

Today I plan to rest as much as possible and see if I can get at least a little bit of work done around the house. If I don't get around to housework until Monday, I will be just fine with that too. The most important thing to me at this point is to take care of my family and to get better myself too.

Happy Friday to all of you and hope you are all well or at least on the mend. Here's to hoping my house(hold) will be on the mend soon as well!

ALSO - please consider making a donation and sponsoring my boys by clicking on the links under my banner above. They would really appreciate it!

Forced Absence

Just wanted to let you all know that I will most likely be absent from the bloggy scene for a bit. At least this weekend, I am guessing. I have a post that should be finished to go live tomorrow and then that is likely all you will have of me for the weekend, depending on how things are going here.

Skip the next paragraph if you don't want to read the specifics of what illnesses are currently plaguing my family.

Hubby is sick with some sort of a gastrointestinal infection. Natty is kinda sick with the same and a bit of a cold as well. I don't know if he is in the process of getting sick or if he is just mildly sick, but anyhow... Then JoNo is sick. He's had vomiting and is showing major signs of respiratory illness as well. He's hanging in there though. He got sick Tuesday night but has been semi-well since then. Punky has avoided it completely and Boo has had both vomiting and blow-out diarrhea. Poor baby guy. I've had an upset stomach and fever myself and just feel like I'm dragging. It's been awful!

I think most of the household (with the exception of Boo and myself) is asleep at this point and I plan on jumping in and doing some kick-butt cleaning. I need to do laundry. But I also want to do a very detailed cleaning in the house. I'm going to start with the main living areas and just try to get as much done tonight as possible. A full, top-to-bottom clean, including dusting and windows and vacuuming and carpet and upholstery cleaning and disinfecting all common surfaces. I wish I had already made the trip over to Erin's house to get some Shaklee to try out, but I haven't yet, so I will have to use the cleaners that I have on hand, which is what I would have had to do anyhow, but I still wish I had made the trip prior to this.

So, anyhow, if you don't see me around within the next few days - this is why. Feel free to leave me some comment love and I will try to get back to y'all as soon as I can.

ALSO - please consider making a donation and sponsoring my boys by clicking on the links under my banner above. They would really appreciate it!

100 Truths!

This is actually a note from facebook, but I don't want to do it on there, so I'm doing it here instead. Also, 100 Truths is actually a misnomer because it asks less than 100 questions, but here we go anyhow - all you have ever wanted to know about me...
 1. last beverage→ water
2. last phone call→ to Hubby
3. last text message→ Incoming- BFF Chris Outgoing- BFF Chris
4. last song you listened to→ I wasn't paying attention actually
5. last time you cried→ Last night while going through some old mementos

SIX HAVE YOU EVER:
1. dated someone twice → Yes.
2. been cheated on?→ Yes.
3. kissed someone & regretted it?→ No, if regret implies you'd do it differently given the opportunity.
4. lost someone special?→ Yes.
5. been depressed?→ Yes.
6. been drunk and threw up?→ Once.

LIST FOUR FAVORITE COLORS:
1. green
2. purple
3. pink
4. brown

THIS Semester HAVE YOU: (this implies that it is for someone in college but I'll just go with this year)
1. Made new friends → Yes.
2. Fallen out of love → No.
3. Laughed until you cried → Yes. My good buddy Iris makes sure this happens quite frequently.
4. Met someone who changed you → Probably.
5. Found out who your true friends were → Yes.
6. Found out someone was talking about you→ Yes, it's called family gossip. One of the (sarcasm) joys of being in a loose-lipped family.
7. Kissed anyone on your facebook friends list→ Um, you could say that.
8. How many people on your facebook friends list do you know in real life →225 out of 281
9. How many kids do you want to have→ I always wanted 5. We have 4 and I'm content with that.
10. Do you have any pets → We do. One dog, one guinea pig, one mouse.
11. Do you want to change your name→ No, I don't think so.
12. What did you do for your last birthday→ I don't honestly remember. Hmmm...
13. What time did you wake up today → 2:20 p.m.
14. What were you doing at midnight last night → probably on the computer.
15. Name something you CANNOT wait for → To find a new job.
16. Last time you saw your father→ Don't know if I ever have.
17. What is one thing you wish you could change about your life → That I felt guilty less often.
18. What are you listening to right now → Boo playing on a computer toy instead of going to bed.
19. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom → I have.
20. What's getting on your nerves right now? → Kids not cooperating with bedtime.
21. Most visited webpage → Oh, that'd be a toss-up between facebook, blogger, and my email inbox.

1. Whats your real name → Deanne Marie (Burson) Foote
2. Nicknames→ Dee
3. Relationship Status → married
4. Zodiac sign → Gemini. Although with the way it got changed this past year, I believe I'm now supposed to be a Taurus?
5. Male or female or transgendered→ Female
6. Elementary?→ Seriously? Be right back. Belmont, Elliott, Hartley, Huntington, McPhee, Park, Prescott, West Lincoln. I thought there was more than that, but I guess not? Oh - and one that I don't remember the name of in Florida.
7. Middle School?→ Goodrich, Park
8. High school → Lincoln High School
10. Hair color → brown
11. Long or short → shortish, around shoulder length almost
16. Height → 5 foot 4 inches
17. Do you have a crush on someone? → yes
18: What do you like about yourself? → I am an amazing mother and teacher.
19. Piercings → Two holes in each ear
20. Tattoos → not yet. I don't know if I am brave enough to ever actually get one.
21. Righty or lefty → It depends. Writing - right. Sports - left. Other things - ambidextrous.

FIRSTS :
22. First drink → whiskey, I suppose - for teething way back when. Otherwise, a screwdriver when I was ten, not realizing it.
23. First piercing → Holes in both ears when I was 6, I think.
24. First best friends → Nicholas Gene Ankeny
26. First sport you joined → Basketball. Eighth grade year.
27. First pet → No clue.
28. First vacation→ Worlds of Fun, age 14, as a nanny.
29. First concert → one at the fair with Hubby when we were dating. I don't remember who it was but it was horrible - we left early.
30. First crush → Ehm, probably Nicholas Gene Ankeny

RIGHT NOW:
49. Eating → nothing
50. Drinking → water
52. I'm about to → get back to knitting after this.
53. Listening to → Boo playing.
55. Waiting for → Boo to go to sleep.

YOUR FUTURE :
58. Want kids? → I'd be okay with more. It's highly unlikely to happen though.
59. Want to get married? → How about stay married? Yes.
60. Careers in mind? → Nursing or teaching

WHICH IS BETTER WITH THE OPPOSITE SEX? :
68. Lips or eyes → Lips. Although eyes are what first attracted me to Hubby.
69. Hugs or kisses → Depends on the person.
70. Shorter or taller → Taller.
71. Older or Younger → I prefer a bit older actually.
72. Romantic or spontaneous → A little bit of both. I'm not a real romantic person myself.
73. Nice stomach or nice arms → Arms.
74. Sensitive or loud → Probably more to the loud side.
75. Hook-up or relationship → Relationship.
77. Trouble maker or hesitant → Hesitant, I think.

HAVE YOU EVER :
78. Kissed a stranger → Yes. I was 12. Yuck!
79. Drank hard liquor → Yes.
80. Lost glasses/contacts → Yes.
81. Sex on first date → No.
82. Broken someone's heart → Yes.
83. Had your own heart broken → Yes.
85. Been arrested → No.
86. Turned someone down → Yes.
87. Cried when someone died → Yes.
88. Liked a friend that is a girl? → Yes. I like all of my female friends! Hello! They are my friends!

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:
89. Yourself → Most of the time.
90. Miracles → Yes.
91. Love at first sight → No. I believe in attraction at first sight. I believe love is a choice and a commitment.
92. Heaven → Yes.
93. Santa Clause → No.
95. Kiss on the first date? → Well, I have, so I suppose so.
96. Angels → Yes.

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY:
97. Is there one person you want to be with right now? → Yes.
98. Had more than one boyfriend/girlfriend at one time? → Yes.
100. Posting this as 100 Truths? → Yes, I titled this blog post 100 Truths

Insomnia

Man oh man, this insomnia thing is just kicking my butt. I haven't been able to sleep very well for the last few weeks and so I end up spending my nights either puttering around on the computer, working on projects around the house or laying there in bed, waiting for sleep to happen.

Last night (Monday night) I even took some Melatonin to try and help me fall asleep. Well, technically I guess I should say to help me fall back to sleep. I was really tired on Monday night and conked out around 8:00 when the kids did. I was awake again around 9:30. It was so disappointing. Then I couldn't fall back asleep, so I took some Melatonin around midnight or so. I finally fell back to sleep around 8:00, but woke up around every 30 minutes until 1:30 when I finally just got up for the day.

My schedule is so wonky and it is driving me crazy. I can't stand this! I hate sleeping during the day time when I don't have to work nights (which I'm not right now!) but I can't sleep at night and I sleep fitfully during the day. This is just not working for me! Gah!

Okay, so moving on...when I work on projects at night I have to make sure that they are relatively quiet projects. I'm not the only one in my household who sleeps like crap. We have kids who get up in the middle of the night and change sleeping locations. Tonight alone, Natty came downstairs to the living room while I was taking a break from the project that I was working on and asked if he could sleep on the couch in our den because he had a nightmare. I'm sure he would have just taken the couch in the living room but that's where Hubby and Boo put each other to sleep tonight. (awww, so cute!) So anyhow, Natty went down to the den to sleep. Before that, I had been working on my project and came up to the living room to take a break and found JoNo in my chair. I promptly sent him back up to his own bed. And before you think that I showed favoritism to Natty, let me assure you that had Natty been in MY chair, he would have been promptly sent up to bed as well. No one gets Mama's chair. Just the way it is.

So, as I was mentioning, my project. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the closet before I got started on it because I wasn't really sure how much time I was going to spend on it or if I would even get it done. But surprise surprise! I made a HUGE mess in my room when I emptied that closet out! I took EVERYTHING out of the closet. And when I say everything, I mean E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. The closet is roughly 4'x5'. To the right side of the closet, there are shelves and cubbies that take up about 2' of the 5', which leaves an open floor area of 3'x4'. Let me just start out by saying that the shelves and cubbies were PACKED full of miscellaneous stuff. Okay, really, who am I kidding? The closet was packed full of miscellaneous stuff. I had no clue what was in there. The only thing I did know was that the pile of "stuff" in there was taller than me. I'm 5'4". Yeah. Stuff and stuff and more stuff.

So, I started with the spot right in front of the door and worked my way down to the floor. By this time, I had acquired a sizeable trash pile, three totes that held items that belonged in different areas (kitchen, living room and kids toys), and a clear floor area in the closet. Oh - and I had "lost" my queen size bed, most of my bedroom floor and a card table under the mountain of stuff that had come out of this closet.

Since the main area of the closet was clear, I grabbed a chair and stood on it to get totes and boxes and more down from the upper shelf (the one that is like six and a half feet off the ground! Then I started in on the shelves and cubbies. What a workout!

First of all, I want to tell you some interesting (or perplexing) things that I found. First, I found six rolls of Christmas wrapping paper left over from the after-Christmas clearance sales from 2008, so I took those and stuck them into my Christmas tote that was in my room anyhow waiting to have a home cleared out for it in our basement. Only one thing at a time, please!

Let's see...what else did I find? Oh - I found two air mattresses. One twin, one queen. I know one of them doesn't hold air, but I can't remember which. They are both laying on the floor next to my bed at the moment because I am trying to decide whether I want to test them both out and purge the one that doesn't hold air, or if I want to just go ahead and get rid of both of them since we never use them anyhow.

Hmmm...I found lots and lots of clothes that I am going to have to wash because I have no idea how long they have been in there and it was dusty and yucky in there from being neglected and having more and more crap thrown in on top. At the bottom of the pile I found my mother-in-law's old vacuum cleaner that she had given to us when ours stopped working about two years ago. She had just gotten a new one and figured she could part with this one. It doesn't do the greatest job but it is still a decent vacuum. I plan to put it out in the garage to use on our vehicles once I get the garage cleared out. For right now, it's tucked back into the back cubby area, where it fits wonderfully. I might even just keep it there and vacuum the cars out in our lower driveway, which isn't far from our bedroom and has an outdoor outlet right there anyways.

But the real kicker, the one that really took the cake for the finds...a used pregnancy test. The cap had been put back on, by the way. But the thing of it is, this test was most likely taken in, oh, February of 2007. That is the most recent it could have been taken. Let me also point out the fact that we moved into this house in December 2008. So not only is this test 4 years old, but it flippin' moved with us! I just don't know. I mean, I remember keeping it for a short while in our master bathroom, but really? I thought I had thrown it away. It just boggles my mind. And just for the record, the test has been thrown away.

Speaking of throwing things away, this is what the closet yielded:

• 3 kitchen size Glad Force Flex trash bags full of trash
• 3 hot wheels race car tracks with missing pieces
• 1 or 2 air mattresses that may or may not hold air
• 1 folding chair that has a severely torn seat
• 2 full boxes of papers and cardboard (really it's for the recycling, but I didn't want to make a whole separate category for recycling for that one little bit)

 Then things that got moved to another area:

• books to my bookshelf in the living room
• books to the kids' bookshelf in the living room
• medicines (still within expiration date) to the cabinet in the kitchen
• vhs tapes and dvds to the entertainment center in the living room
• kids' toys and stuffed animals to their floor of the house
• a set of 2 stacking shelves which I repurposed - you will see this soon in another post

Things that got put back into the closet:

• questionable laundry bagged up and ready to be taken downstairs as I work on laundry today
• 3 table legs that go to a kiddie table that belongs to the little ones. I think the 4th leg is in the basement and I know the tabletop is down there for sure.
• sports cards (in binders and sleeves or in cases)
• a few board games
• 2 small totes of keepsake items and pictures
• a small tote of bags (backpack, messenger style bag and rolling duffel bag)
• a small tote of cords that I am going to have Hubby go through. He knows what we need to keep and what we can toss out. I'd just toss them all and end up having to buy a replacement one. I don't want to have to do that. I already had to buy a VGA cable (I think that is what it is called) to hook up our new monitor to our new computer tower earlier this year. Guess what I found in that tote? A VGA cable. Darn it! That was a waste of $15 right there. Wonder how much money I have truly wasted in this one closet alone. Eh, scratch that. I probably don't want to know.
• and 2 empty laundry baskets and 2 empty totes

So, the closet probably wouldn't look incredible to some people, but if you had any idea just how much crap was crammed in there, you'd understand. Seriously. I know it still needs work, but it is soooooo much better than it was before! I am really pleased with the amount of work I got done in there tonight. And maybe, just maybe within the next few weeks, we will be able to start using the closet in a more appropriate manner. Just sayin'. It's a goal.

And for the record, I'm still not tired. Grrr. Hopefully that means that I will be able to get a lot accomplished today! It's worth trying anyhow! Or at the very least, get our bedroom back to normal before Hubby goes in there to get ready for the day (kinda seriously doubt that will happen though!)

Oh - and how perfect is this?! Rachel Anne's Small Thing for today was to just start something. Don't get caught up in the details, don't over-analyze, don't wait for the perfect time or the perfect opportunity or the perfect plan. Even if it isn't the right time, the right plan, the right whatever...Just get to it! And, as you have read above, that's exactly what I had done this morning. Woo! Love it!

Oh - and that gave me a quick and easy 40 points for doing what I had already done today! Yay! My monthly total is now 320 points! I still need to bake something from scratch to earn points either today or tomorrow. That particular "assignment was from last Thursday and she gave us a full week to get it done, and I'm quickly coming up on the end of that time frame. I may be back later today with another Small Things post. We'll see!

Saturday Night Special

The movie selection for tonight is "Space Chimps 2". There are two seats left for this showing, next to the 3 year old drinking root beer on the couch. I don't think he has spilled any yet, so the couch should still be dry. And be careful as you approach the couch so that you don't step on that blanket. You know, the one covering much of the floor in the center of the room. Somewhere under there is a 7 year old. He's been stepped on before, but he seriously prefers that it not happen. Something about it hurting or something like that. And those chairs facing each other by the desk? Under the blanket on those chairs is a 4 year old. It took her a serious amount of whining and complaining to drive the 3 year old out of his original spot for the night. Meanwhile, the 10 year old and I are taking up residence on opposite ends of the room, in the chairs. A good night will be had by all, I am sure.

The kids are about halfway through their movie selection for the night, which means I still have about 45 minutes to putter around on the computer and in the blogosphere. One of our big time rules for movie night is that EVERY light in the house is off. The only light generated is from my laptop and from the TV screen. They normally do not get to watch TV in the total dark, but this one night a week I do allow it for the length of one movie.

Tomorrow, we are going to the movies to watch Megamind with the three older kiddos. I was hoping to take Boo with us, but Hubby arranged for his mom to watch the boy instead. Yes, I know that Megamind is available on DVD, but Hubby and I saw it in the theaters when it was out originally and we know that the kids will like it. The theater has something going on called "Frosty Flicks". It's something that Marcus Theaters does during the winter time. It is a great deal too! They have showings on Saturday and Sunday mornings during the winter and it costs $2.00 for admission and you can get a small popcorn and a small pop for $2 apiece as well. We generally go for the large popcorn and large pop for like $11.00, because you can get free refills on them, and they even give you smaller bags to divide up the popcorn as well. It's a pretty sweet deal, really.

We got a lot of work done today, despite the fact that I had a most difficult time falling asleep last night and laid in bed until around 7:00 this morning, when I finally fell asleep. Ugh! I slept until 2pm, though. That made for a lot of work to get done in a short amount of time and it was a bit more difficult because the kids had already gotten off track for their daily schedule. It is so rough to rein them back in.

But I did and so now, the bathrooms are clean, the den is mostly clean (it was clean but then I brought in some groceries from the back of the van and they landed in the den instead of in the kitchen), the trash got taken out, the living room is done, our bedroom is looking much better, the guest bedroom is in good shape and the boys' room is done. Tomorrow (or after the movie tonight, depending on how well the kids go to bed) we need to get the little kids to clean their room, get the kitchen cleaned up, continue in our bedroom and then work on laundry and in the laundry room.

We have some things planned for tomorrow though too. We have the movie in the morning, then after that, I will be running JoNo over to play with his buddy, Con. While I am there, I will be dropping off our old stroller and carseat travel system that we had for Boo. He's three and a half now. He hasn't used the infant carseat in at least three years and the stroller in probably a year and a half. I think it's time to get rid of them. Plus, Con's mom is having a baby soon so it really works on many levels. She also has some living room lamps that she is getting rid of, so I will be picking those up for my living room. I love the fact that we are able to do this! Getting rid of what we don't need for something that we do. Totally awesome! It wasn't worked out to be a trade exactly, but that's kind of the way it worked out, which works for me!

Then Miss Punky gets to go to her "bess fren in whole wide whirl" house for a play date. I tell you, those two girls are like glue at school. They just love each other to pieces. It is quite adorable really. Her friend, we'll call her "Bess", I think had a birthday on Friday (or at least that is when her mom brought cupcakes for the class treat) so we will be bringing a gift for Bess with us when we go over there. I didn't even have to go out and buy one for her either, extra bonus. Last week, Punky had been invited to another child's birthday party, but because of snow and cold, we decided not to go. Well, that and the fact that I had forgotten to RSVP to the parents. But I did buy that child a gift before the RSVP was expected. Since we didn't go to the party and give that gift, Bess will get it instead. Which actually, I am quite okay with because it is a gift that I am certain Bess will like. Not sure about the other kid (because I don't even know who the other kid is.)

So, for a few hours tomorrow, we will have two kids out for arranged play dates, Natty will probably go play with a neighborhood friend and it will just be Hubby, myself and Boo, who should be napping at that point. So, that will give me some time to get some work done.

Then tomorrow evening, we will either have my mom come over to babysit (or have the kids stay the night at mother-in-law's house) so that we can go join one of our friends for birthday drinks. And by we, I mean, I will drink and Hubby will drive. That's just how we roll. I love the fact that Hubby doesn't drink and that I always have a designated driver if I need one.

So, that is our weekend. It is packed full and we have lots to do (both fun and work stuff) but oh, it will be well worth it! What are you doing this weekend?

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Can't Sleep...

I'm up late as I can't sleep. It works out, I guess, because Boo can't sleep either. At least not peacefully. He is moaning in his sleep and is coughing occasionally as well. I hope he isn't coming down with something that will make JoNo really sick. The school has already sent home letters this year regarding his attendance. He has missed nine full days of school due to illness. At twenty days, the school refers to the County Attorney for a child missing so much school. We have our pediatrician's support, he knows how bad JoNo gets and will back us up 100%. The thing that I don't get, though, is the fact that the school sends him home when he is sick, tells us to send him to school even when we are on the fence about whether it would be a good idea or not, then they wonder why: a) the child is sick, b) the child is not getting better quickly, c) why the child has missed school. I wonder if they tell other parents to send their children to school when they are sick as well? If so, maybe that is part of JoNo's problem. Ya think? Just maybe?

Hubby is once again contemplating the possibility of homeschooling the kids next year. I have been down this road before. I am so not getting my hopes up for it. Because when it comes right down to it, I highly doubt that he will want to actually follow through with it. Plus, I would like to keep Boo in school because of the services he receives, and JoNo may actually end up qualifying for services as well. He has a marked delay in his reading abilities, while still being at the top of his grade level for math. Then again, Natty is the same way, but I don't think it is quite as severe of a gap with him.

I'm also excited for Punky to start school next year. She is so looking forward to being with her big brothers at school. I just don't know. It makes me happy that Hubby wants to do it, but at the same time, it also makes me really sad that he has waited this long to come to this decision. I just don't know what to think really.

I made a cake last night. For no reason. I just thought that the kids would enjoy having it after school or after dinner today. Hubby even took the time to frost it and store it for me. Isn't that sweet?

I have been going through photos of Boo since I have been up and keeping an eye on him. It is just incredible how much he has changed over the last two years. May 2009, when he was 19 months old, he was just learning how to walk, he was pretty much non-verbal for the most part, he didn't socialize, wouldn't engage, didn't look people in the eye generally, would not sit through a story. Now, he walks, runs, kicks, throws, catches (well, it's evolving), jumps, rides a tiny bike with training wheels. He also talks, though not usually in conversation. He can voice requests and he can count and say his ABCs. He can verbalize pain and joy. He can rote count up to 30, knows his numbers by sight up to 30. He knows all of his letters by sight, both upper and lowercase. He knows the sounds they make, where they are in the alphabet (he can place a missing letter into the ABC sequence), he knows many shapes and colors. He has a fascination with Team Umizoomi and Bubble Guppies. He's just a doll. But is he a typical 3 1/2 year old? Not even close. A while back, we were at a birthday party for one of his school friends and after introducing ourselves, one of the mothers told me, "Oh yes, we hear lots about Boo from little miss. She really likes playing with him at school." The teachers say he has the most friends out of all the kids. He likes to play with them, but he doesn't generally seek them out, he still plays solo quite often. He's just kind of in his own little world. And while I love that he has his own little world, I worry about it too. According to the school, they don't think that he is autistic. The pediatrician is uncertain. We were supposed to have an appointment with a pediatric developmental specialist back in January, but we lost the kids' insurance coverage because of a paperwork ordeal that I'm still working on getting fixed. I just don't know what to think about it all.

I have an appointment for tomorrow to file for SSI for him at the recommendation of his services coordinator. She suggested that we apply for him and for JoNo both. Boo because of his educational diagnosis and JoNo for his lung disease and trouble with illness and because of his vision as well. The child has 20/400 eyesight in one eye, uncorrected. With correction, I believe it is something like 20/80 in the eye and he has essentially no peripheral vision in either eye.

Natty has been having some emotional issues the last few days, not really defiance but more things going on at school, but he isn't talking about it much until it all just bursts out. He can honestly go from everything is super awesome at school one day and talking about things he and his friends did and everything to the next day saying that no one likes him and he has no friends and other things like that. We think that the days that he says he doesn't have any friends, there was mostly something at school that didn't go his way and he had a meltdown about it. He can be incredibly responsible and mature, but he just doesn't "get" a lot of social situations and nuances and such.

And Miss Punky Pie - since I'm talking about the rest of them, I may as well mention her too, yes? She has been a handful. Stubborn and strong-willed. Tuesday evening, she kicked her grandma in the stomach at bedtime. I don't know what exactly is prompting this in her little world, but I wish the behavior would come to a close. I am sure it will too. Our main issues with her are direct obedience. She does okay most of the time, but whenever she is asked/told to do something, she digs her heels in and goes the exact opposite way. It's frustrating, but we just continue to work with her, letting her know firmly that we are asking her do whatever (say, clean her room) because we are teaching her to be responsible for herself and that yes, she does need to do what we tell her to or there will be a consequence and she will still have to do what she was asked to do.

So, yeah, that's what is on my mind right now. I think there is a blog meme out there somewhere "Random Thoughts Thursday". I think I might have to look it up and see if I can find it and link up to it, because if this wasn't random thoughts, I don't know what is.