On my way home..

The past four days I've been off, doing something I've never done before in my married with kids life. I bet you just can't guess what it is.

Yep, I finally left all the chit-lins with John and took off on a jet plane to see some of my favoritest people of all time. I slept in, ate out, WATCHED. TV. (something I haven't really done in years - and I still think it's a little overrated), surfed the internet to my hearts content (thanks to my new favorite friend that starts with Ap and ends with ple), rubbed someone else's big pregnant belly and laughed and talked for hours about how that belly changes everything, studied for my final in A&P in a very literal sense (a real, live autopsy thanks to my Crime Scene Technican sister) and gabbed, gabbed and gabbed to my hearts content. It's been fun and definitely too long coming.

But now I'm headed home to where I need to be. I have a little baby (boy) with a sore, sore bum (through no fault of those taking care of him- really, his dada did a great job) that needs a mama to hold and kiss him. I have another little boy who is way too cool to have talked to his mama the whole time she was gone so I have no idea what he's been up to. And I have one little girl who misses me so much she called me to tell me to come home through the phone so she could cuddle with me. Oh, yes, and I have one big, big boy who I need although I'm pretty sure he's doing just fine without me.

So home I go, but it's nice to know they do need and want me after all.

Busy Time of Year

Dang it.

I was gonna tell you all about these pictures

but then I hit the wrong button and here they are,

without my permission.

So make up your own story.

About vats of manure, cowboys with fancy equipment and little boys locked in backs of pickup trucks.

Please make sure to mention something about big, muscled necks that might be a little red and little fair ones that beg to be kissed.

Use your imagination with this one.

And realized all cows are not treated equally around here. The scarlet letters are reserved for those with less than competent mothering skills.

And her? Well, sometimes it doesn't pay to stand by your friends.

Overheard tonight

John takes Nathan off Ava's bed so we can say a prayer.

Nathan: "I'll kill you Dada. And then I'm gonna get a new Dada."

(This is Nathan's latest line for anything we do that he doesn't like. "I'm gonna get a new Mama or Dada." Usually this is said through tears and crying after we just do something like ask him to talk quieter in church or eat his lunch)

John: "Where are you gonna get a new Dada? At Walmart?"

Nathan (stumped for a minute): "No. Mama's gonna lay a new Dada and then we have a new Dada."

(Last spring when all the goats were kidding Nathan got very confused and kept saying that they were "laying" their babies since chickens lay eggs. Life on the farm is very hard for a kid to understand sometimes.)

Ava (laughing and laughing):"Mama laid Dada, Mama laid Dada, Mama laid Dada!!"

John and I couldn't help but laugh. And then we tried to change the subject.

Frights in the Night

The Sweet Witch

The Bat Man

The Howling Ghost

The Mean Witch

The Haunted House Pumpkin

The Motley Crew

The End

The Animal Parade down Kitchen Main Street

Brought to you compliments of Ava Genho's wild imagination and 1 week of being stuck inside with a sick family.
Guest staring Nathan's Mater tow truck.

Happy Halloween

These are all over my house right now.

When we first moved to Virginia, we went out one night in late October and came home to a front porch with no less than 60 of these monsters all over the door. I just about cried when as we stepped on the porch and they all scattered everywhere, including up my legs.

I did cry when we got inside and realized the wind had blown the front door open and they were all over our living room too. I ran upstairs and demanded that John spray the entire farm cause I could not, would not live in a place like this. He laughed. I didn't.

I've come far in 4 years. The other night I stayed up on the computer till 1am but every 15 minutes I took a break to kill as many as I could before they scattered. This is the death toll after only 2 rounds. I killed over 35 in my kitchen and family room that night.

The only condolences I have are that they are really only around for about 3 weeks each year. They come out in the fall when the nights start getting colder, right around Halloween. They are wolf spiders and most of them are huge. We're talking the size of 2 quarters alive and 1 quarter dead, with legs all scrunched up. I now know to shake out anything that's been left on the ground, especially coats or blankets. Luckily, they really don't climb and I've rarely seen one upstairs.

So bring it on spiders. I'm not afraid of you anymore.

But if you come visit in the fall you may want to request an upstairs suite.
Although we do have a lovely guest bedroom downstairs if you're brave enough.

On a happier note, I had a great birthday (29?!) with most of the family sick.
I made my own birthday cake and did the laundry and made the kids mac n cheese for dinner. But I did get a call -that I missed, dang it- from one of my bestest friends from far away and I had to listen to it 3 times cause she talks so cool. And John promised me a really cool present, but I don't know if I really need/deserve it.

What do you think?

Sick Piggies

H1N1 I hate you.
You've made our whole family blue.

Started in first on the weak and the whiny
Making Nathan's airways shriveled and tiny.

Now you've moved on to the rest of the men
Leaving us girlies wondering when.

While the rest of the world is outside in the beautiful fall
We're coughing and fevered and curled up in a ball.

So go away fast, let the Tamiflu work
Cause if you're still here on my birthday you're really a jerk.

The Beach

The sun rises early in Litchfield Beach, South Carolina.

(And heck no, I didn't take this picture. I was fast asleep. Photo credits to Hugh who was crazy enough to give up sleep for a sunrise picture.)


Our awesomest newest friends, Jayme and Hugh along with their gaggle of boys, convinced us that accompanying John to work meetings does not qualify as a real vacation.


They put up with our crying and whining and hemming and hawing and having the swine flu and then not having the swine flu and told us to just get in the car and get down to the beach already. Cause they were having a load of fun and we were just party poopers if we didn't show.


So we jumped in the car, drove a couple hundred miles and were glad we did.

The weather was perfect, even in the last week in Sept.
We relaxed in the sun.


We dug big holes to China, although some of us dug way more than others.

We kept 3 boys happy for 2 days with only water, sand, a bucket and heavy duty kid size shovels.

Ava fished with her own homemade pole.



We applied and reapplied sunscreen to many sandy bodies many times and only let one big boy's back fry on accident. Even this guy didn't get burned.


Nathan relaxed in his "office".

I did not get "frust-er-ated" or yell at my kids for 2 days.


Unless this counts.

John captured all 6 kids attention with his crab digging skills. Then we wore the poor crab out chasing it all around.

Lias let it all hang out, tried on everybody's flip-flops and got as dirty as he wanted.

We didn't separate Ava or Mason for two whole days, except to go to sleep.

John discovered our kids are too little to appreciate the waves, so body surfed by himself to his hearts content.

And wished he had a kid as brave as Mason.

We all discovered the sand makes an excellent drawing board and covered the beach with huge dinosaurs, Earths, Moons, starfish, whales and trucks until the tide came and took them away.

We hopped from the hotel pool to the kiddie pool to the beach all day long.

We learned swimsuits are not the most comfortable things to wear for 2 days straight.

We took long sunset walks on the beach. We only left whiny boys behind.

Ava ooohhhed and awed over way too many seashells, then brought home each and every one we picked up. She and Mason turned them into seashell necklaces while we all napped.

I looked for love in all the wrong places and finally chased him down only to biff it big time in the surf. I spared you the pictures of my downfall, although Jayme got the whole thing on camera.

We did not loose, drown, or permanently bury any children in the sand. Even though we were highly outnumbered with 6 kids under the age of 6.

We'll be back next year, as long as Jayme and Hugh drag us, kicking and screaming, along again.