Busy Busy Days

this is probably the longest i have gone, without posting a blog. mostly due to the computer being totaly dead, and the operator, namely me, being almost as dead. so, i am attempting to post a blog from my phone, and it is not letting me use any capital letters or most punctuation... we will see how we do.
since i passed my state boards in august, i have been working a lot. i was working two jobs for awhile, one at a nursing home, and one in the skilled nursing facility of a hospital. it was pretty hard, working both. i would just go from one to the other, coming home occassionaly to crash on the couch for a few hours, before showering and heading righg back out again. it  didnt leave much time  for kids or my bed, and it wasnt long before i was completely run down and sick. my boss at one of the jobs told me i had access to every kind of medicine for every ailment... sick or not, drive yourself here, take something, and get to work.... it was a busy few months. both places offered me full time, and i ended up taking the hospital job, which offered mefull time days. it has been sooooo nice, to say the least. i am a charge nurse, which is just an amazing oportunity, right out of school, and i love every minute of it. and i love coming home every day, and seeing my kids, too.
i would love to post pictures, but havent figured that pout on my phone yet, but, as soon as i do, they will be here. till then, i usually put them on facebook.hope everyone is doing well.... this would be a lot nicer if i had use of the exclamation mark....

Technical Difficulties

     Hmmmm. Been awhile since I did a picture-less Blog! However, in the space of the last few months, my digital camera died. It has been a tragic loss, and greatly mourned. I was taking pictures with my phone, and that was working okay. But then Kaila's best friend moved, and her parents let her have a cell phone. Which started an entire campaign for a cell phone for Kaila. The agreed upon age being "Somewhere over the age of at least 12, but before 32..." But, Kaila really worked hard to earn a phone, so, I upgraded, and she got my old phone. My new phone is wonderful. I can take movies, pictures, your pulse, look up random health facts, my Facebook account, maps, do anatomy picture quizzes, read books, hook it to the TV, read Calvn and Hobbes comics EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! What I have NOT figured out yet, is how to upload pictures that I intend to take someday when a actualy home, into my laptop. Which, by the way, was in a deep dark coma for awhile. We were not sure it was going to resurrect again, but, the technical guys in India, who say "Good Karma to you" and "Allah be with you" a lot, came thru for us once again, and managed to bring it back from the brink of no return.
    
     The other reason there are no pictures, is that I am rarely home to take them. I have FINALLY gotten my nursing license, and two jobs. Possibly start another next month. While I am sooo happy to be back at work, and I love both of my jobs, I do miss my kids. And, if it wasn't for my wonderful, amazing, fairy God-mother of a babysitter, the house would probably never be clean. Mrs. Ricely and her daughter, Cheyanne, who gets bored and hangs out with her mother sometimes, go through the house, one room at a time, and just clean it top to bottom. Mrs. Ricely even does laundry!!!! And dishes! And bakes my kids cookies! She is amazing, and I wish she would adopt me. LOVE that lady! And her daughters too :) The other day, they even tackled the black hole - my girl's bedroom. A seriously terrible topic for me, and the one way to make me mad, every time I thought about it, or looked at it, or even attempted to step inside it. Joe is a neat freak, like his mother. Kaila, in particular is - Not. I had almost forgotten that bedroom had a purple carpet.
     On the days when I am stumbling home tired and starving, with no sleep and no time for a dinner at work (Nurses dont DO breaks...) after driving dark and foggy back roads teaming with deer and other assorted animals, who have acres and acres of woodland to play in, but seem to prefer roadways - esp blind curves with no cell phone service, coming home to Mrs Ricely's magic is worth every cent and more that I pay her.

     So. Last time I checked, the kids were all alive and well, George is actually 8 months today! The house was presentable, and still standing, and for someone who rarely has a decent meal, and works a LOT, on my feet, I haven't lost a damn ounce. Other than that, life is good, and eventually I will have time to figure out how to upload pictures off the new phone. Right after I find the time to take them... :)

Big Boy!

When I was pregnant with George, I knew he was a big guy - refer back to any pregnancy Blog, and you will see the chronicles of hugeness. I only gained 10 pounds, but I was absolutely enormous with that child. And even when he was born 3 weeks early, he weighed just about 9 pounds.
Fast forward to his 7 month check-up recently...

• Length - 28.5" 95-97%
• Weight - 21 lb. 75-90%
• Head - 46.5 cm 97%

My baby has outgrown his infant seats, every scrap of clothing he owns, zipped right through diapers - he's in a size 4 already, is too big for the strap on baby carrier (thus the reason for me carrying his cuteness through 2 battleships and a submarine on a recent trip to the Buffalo Waterfront and War Memorial). I am pretty sure that, though the youngest of my brood, he's going to be the biggest. His easy going good humor make me think he's going to be a gentle giant though! So, without further ado, some pictures of the child in question...

Don't judge - he has no teeth to rot out yet....

Broadening his horizons, at the library

Hanging out with my brother, Luke.

Playing trucks with Joe


And now, just because I happen to have some cute pictures of the other kids, here are a few of them thrown in, too! :)

Below, Lexi in 2 different Halloween coustumes - angel and clown. Our Village recently had a Carnival, with a parade to kick it off. We were going to walk over to watch it, and Lexi dressed for the occassion. She only ended up wearing the angel part of the get-up though.

I was cooking hotdogs on the grill the other night, and Kaila had just picked this rose. She was sitting in a chair right behind me talking, and I turned around and HAD to get this picture - I love it!

This below, explaining the meloncholy look...

Before Katelyn moved, she brought Kaila this swing - apparently this is where they spent most of their time together, while at Kate's. So, Kaila spends a lot of time on it. And, like me, she tends to get lost in a book when she needs a break from the world. And, of course, the unsung best friend, ever loyal, by her side. Buster ADORES his Kaila.

Thit boy has always used everything but the stairs to get on and off the porch.... The times I have looked out the livingroom windows and seen the kids standing on those railings, with my heart in my mouth are countless. Lexi has proven she can not only climb onto those railings in heels, but shimmy up the posts, as well. I know several of the ER staff by name now....

And last but not least - LOOK!!!! Lexi's hair is making wonderful progress!!!!

Of This and That

Craziness. Thats what life has been around here the last few weeks. Two and a half weeks ago, I took my State Boards, finally, and passed! Which, if you read my Facebook, you already know, but, still, I am still thrilled about it! Now I just have to do the whole job thing. I set out to do just that, the other day. All dressed up, and looking professional, in the most uncomfortable shoes I own, I headed out. The first place - not hiring. Left a resume. Ditto for the second place. The third place just laughed. Gotta love today's economy. So, I headed off to the Mother House. It's a convent/retirement home for nuns. I grew up a good little Catholic, and I was due for a miracle, so, where else would I go? I'm bee boping along, watching for the driveway to the Mother House, which leads way up this long and winding driveway, and ends in front of an enormous building up on a hill. I vaguely note there is a car behind me, but there were so many turns, I couldn't see it, and really would have forgotten it all together, IF, it wasn't a police car. I pulled into a parking spot, idly wondering why the police are there, turn off my truck, and gasped in TOTAL SHOCK, as he pulls up behind me, and proceeds to turn his lights on!! AT THE MOTHER HOUSE!!! He walks up to my window, and it's this short little guy, who proceeds to direct the entire conversation at my chest. Nice. I look at him and say
"Are you ALLOWED to do this here??" Because, seriously, I was trying to decide what to do with my GUM, for fear of going to hell, if I spit it out the window here. This guy was asking for lightning bolts.
"Do you know why I pulled you over?" He demands
"No, I really really don't"
"Well YOU were SPEEDING!!!" He yells at my cleavage.
"At the CONVENT??"
"NO! On the road! How many tickets do you have??"
"None."
"Really? I don't belive you! How many points on your license? When did you get your last ticket?" He questions my confused boobs
"Um, I have no points, nothing on my license, haven't had a ticket since I was 18 or 19, and it was for parking. Sorry."
"What are you doing here?" He demands suspiciously of my chest
"I am job hunting." I say, noting the nuns plastered all over the windows.
"GIVE ME YOUR LICENSE!" I hand it over with a sigh. Seriously? Who gets pulled over at a convent? Really, this is just too twilight zone.
Moments later he comes marching back to my truck, waving a yellow slip of paper.
"I am giving you a ticket for doing 39 in a 30. You need to do me a favor and slow down." He growls at my - well, you know. "Good luck on the job hunt."
"Well, officer, I think you have just killed my chances of getting hired here." I remark drily.
"Oh, just tell them you had a question for me, and flagged me down."
"That is so not believable, with your lights on behind me - OMG, You want me to LIE TO THE NUNS???!!!!" I asked increduously
"Well, go try Absolute in Allegany. They're always looking for people there. Good luck and slow down!" He waves with one last lingering look southward, and off he trots. OMG.
This is the point where I notice my toes are literally bleeding, from my shoes. Nice. I toss them to the passenger floor, and start up the old Trail Blazer, and put it in reverse. To the sound of a terrible awful noise in the vacinity of my front end someplace. My head is on the steering wheel at this point. It was obviously a sign. I went home. I will try again next week. Hopefully without the police escort. That jerk is so ging to hell.
PS, On the way out, I notice that all the speed limits for the entire area is 35 MPH. I was doing 4 FREAKING MILES OVER THE LIMIT. Nice

Anyway, that is my adventure for the week. Lets see if I can find some pictures of the rest of life around here lately!

The girls found an old play tent and set it up outside, and decided to camp out. I figured they would be in before midnight. They actually slept out all night!

George continues to be the happiest baby ever...

Joe has been saying forever, that we needed to go on a date. I asked him where we should go? He looked at me like I was a moron, and said, "You know mom! The Niagara Falls at Sunset?" Where did THAT come from?? I don't know any grown up men who would even THINK that. So, I suggested we go see the monster truck show at the Cattaraugus County Fair, last weekend. Which elevated me to best mom in the world status for the evening... Below, is the truck we rode on. Which was SO MUCH fun!!!!!

If you really look at the picture below, you will see Joe has a Winnie the Pooh recieving blanket tied aorund his neck, as a cape. He has been "Super Joe" for awhile now. (Yes Sara, there are Super Joes on both coasts...) Anyway, he tried his darndest to get his bike to fly, pedling madly up and down the road for over half an hour, yelling "DID I FLY THAT TIME, MOM???" No, unfortunately, he never did get it off the ground. Ah well. Shortly after that, Super Joe came in for his bath. I was standing right outside the bathroom door, folding laundry, and he calls, me in. "MOM! The boats are all sinking! What are we going to do??"
"I guess Super Joe is going to have to save them." I say
"Nope. Super Joe is on break, drinking beer. They're gonna sink."
Oh dear.

Our niece, Jasin's brother's daughter was married. George discovered balloons - he likes them...

Lexi informed everyone she was going to be the bartender. She made $3.50... I really am looking like supermom, this post, aren't I? my children are not as exposed to alcohol as you would believe.

It was a fun wedding, balloons, bartender, and all!

And, sadly, Kaila's best friend moved to Michigan. It was extremely emotional for everyone. But, we wish them all the best, and we will see them on visists back to NY :)

Anyhow, that is a little of our last few weeks here. It seems like every day has something jammed into it, and I can't believe that soon, the kids will be back in school, and I will (hopefully) be working again. Hopefully I can get more posts up here soon!

Best Friends Forever

     When Kaila began Pre-K, 5 years ago, she met Katelyn. The two of them became fast friends, and have inseperable since. We didn't know Katelyn's parents very well, but, over time, they became good friends of ours, too. Many a happy hour has been spent with Brandy and Shane, Katelyn's parents. And Kate has been with us for just about everything. Last year, the school decided the girls were TOO close, and decided to put them in seperate classrooms for third grade. They were heartbroken. But, not even the school could seperate our girls. They were still together almost constantly, any time they could manage, both in school and out.

     Imagine my horror, when, one day at the playground with our combined 8 kids, and 3 spares (IMAGINE the looks people sent us, as we trotted 11 children down Main street!!!) Brandy announced they were moving to Michigan. WHAT??? Shane, it seems, was accepted into law school there, to get his Doctorate in Law. Oh. Well. What do you say? "NOOOOO YOU CAN'T TAKE KATELYN AWAY FROM US!!!!!" Just didn't seem they needed response at the time. They will be leaving in two weeks. :( So, I dug through all my photos, and had a bunch of them printed. Then I made a shadow box collage of them, one for each girl. Here are a few of the pictures from through the years. Someone asked who was going to be sadder at this seperation; the girls or the parents. I have to admit, I teared up, when going through these pictures!

Aren't they just so darn sweet? We are going to miss that whole family so much! We are hoping Shane is a fast learner, and they come back as soon as possible!!!!

6 MONTHS!!!!

George is 6 months old already! And, with the general rush everything was, through pregnancy, birth, and the first 5 months of life - he's an amazingly calm baby! For being 3 weeks early, he was a huge baby at birth, and has continued to be a big guy. He is actually the same size as the one year old of a friend of ours. She says he is too big, I say her kid is too small :) The other day, the girls and I decided to play doctor's office, and we weighed and measured him, and found where he is on the growth charts. Here we go!

Weight; 19.2 lb. 71%
Length;  27.25 in. 62%
Head;    17.5 in   69%

Not too bad! :) This happy guy loves to go everywhere, be it by stroller or car seat. He loves bottles, tolorates baby food - barely. He loves his exercise bouncer, and teething toys. He really loves his big brother and sisters. He loves to be  sang to, and looking at his reflexion in the porch windows, when we sit outside (thus our rendition of "How much is that baby in the window"). He loves to be rocked and he loves to bounce! We bounce a lot. He has slept through the night since he was about 6 or 7 weeks old. He is usually up for 2 hours, down for 2 hours throughout the day. All in all, I have to say, he is the easiest baby I have had overall.

A trip to Wal Mart

     Before you could understand why a trip to Wal Mart could be so exciting, (and the thoughts that we are indeed, Larry the Cable Guy's muse) you need to see the first few pictures...

    

     Below, you will see the product of Lexi and the little girl from down the street's current thoughts on boys. Joe looked at it, filled up his pump-up water gun, and sprayed it off. Thus illustrating the reason for the general thoughts on the male species.

I happen to think boys are wonderful though! What would I do, without their ingenuity and repair abilities? Below, Joe evidently could no longer deal with the broken end of a board on the front porch that happened recently. So, he dug through Jasin's fix-it stuff untill he found the duct tape, and fixed it for me. No one anywhere understood why I thought it was adorable, yet funny. Hello!!!!! What the heck did I expect him to fix it with??? Duh.

So, today, it was decided maybe the kids needed some time away from country life, and each other's sole company... I needed diapers for the baby, and Jasin and Joe needed haircuts. Off to Olean we headed, to Wal Mart. (Where, yes, you can even get haircuts, wedding cakes, lawnmowers, bridal bouquets, laptops, milk, bread, roasted chicken, portaits taken, buy fishing licenses, get your oil changed, and do your banking, all in one handy dandy stop...) On the way to Wal Mart, I heard a commercial on the radio for a hot air ballon festival going on. When Jasin asked where in particular, I said I had missed the exact town, but, it was "that way" somewhere, and pointed vaguly to the left, headed east-ish. It would be fun!!!

So, armed with haircuts, tootsi pops and liqorice, we were off. A friend of mine happened to have better directions than "That way" and we found it. To be told the balloons didn't take off for another 3 hours, at least. Oh no. It was miserably hot, we didn't have the stroller, sun block, or a hat for the baby. However, around the corner, an entire street had been blocked off, with assorted vendors, and we wandered around, and even found a hat for George. This was nice, but it was still too hot. So, we decided to leave.

On the way home, we saw this really neat step down water fall. So, we stopped to check it out.

The kids thought it was wonderful, but Lexi really thought it was great! The kids and I managed to climb right up onto it. SO much fun!!

Joe didn't really like it. He felt safer on the shore. Kaila wasn't really into it, either, but, because Lexi was there, she felt she should be too.

After playing in the water, it was jsut about time for the balloons to launch. So, back we went, considerably cooler. After finding parking, and hiking quite a distance, we waited for about an hour, before it was cancelled, due to increasing winds, and incoming storms. We watched the lighting, as we hustled the kids back where we had parked. It was sort of disapointing, but, we had a fun day anyway.

Shortly after we left, the skies opened, and the storm was on top of us. It ended, however, with a rainbow, which Jasin obligingly pulled over for, so I could take more pictures. :)

And, my adorable little man! Seriously, this baby is so sweet and good natured! He travels so well, and is cheerful almost always. He just rolls with whatever we do, and is usually happy about it. He was perfectly content being carried all over the place today. He spent a lot of time peeking over wither Jasin's or My shoulder, smiling and cooing at people behind us. They were all completely charmed by it!

All in all, it was a good day. And, when all was said and done, the origional mission was accomplished;  Diapers and haircuts, all in one convienient stop ;)

Odds N Ends

Hmmm. The Blog people re-did the Blog set up. Makes my planned 10 minute post a 45 minute adventure. Ah well.

Summer so far has been just a mish-mash of day to day stuff. On the weekends we try and throw in something fun, to get the kids and me off of First Avenue! It's been quite the different experience, going from a mega-busy schedule of job, school, clinical and always being around people to - nothing. My house is spotless. So, occassionally, I need to get out!

Last weekend, I took the kids to the Science Museum in Buffalo. We always have a good time. Right now they have a robotic dinosaur display, so took a look while we were there.






This is what I am SUPPOSED to be doing! Glad George is at least trying to keep up with the studying :) I am awaiting authorization from New York State, to take my State Board test, and get my license. It's the scariest thing ever, wishing to get it over with; positive I'm going to fail... I was strait honor roll all the way through, but, I am not so sure about this test!




Below, Joe with Onsa, the girl he plans to marry. She was invited to come over on his birthday. He insisted I make her a goody bag, and everything had to be PERFECT for her. His birthday dawns, and he wakes up to a new bike, and -  vomit. The poor kid was sick. Then it rained most of the day, and, worst of all, Onsa's Mom forgot about it, so, there was no Onsa. I felt TERRIBLE for my poor kid. However, a few days later, Joe asked if he could take Onsa her goody bag anyway, and rode his bike around the corner to her house. Her family was having a party, and they invitited him to stay and play. They felt awful about forgetting his birthday. So, alls well that ends well!





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If you take a good look below, you will see Lexi had been playing with George's hair. A nice little DA for my kid...





And, I am determined to capture a picture of George smiling. He is the happiest, sweetest, most good natured baby ever. Point a camera at the child, and he just scowls. Nice. So, below, is an almost smile :)






Recently, we took the kids to a local park to play in this wonderful water sprinkler there. They were all lying on beach towels, and I managed to get this picture. It's rare, actually, that I manage to get them all in the same shot. Harder still, since my camera isn't working. All these were taken with my phone.








Last week, we had insanely hot and humid weather. It was miserable. Give me winter any day! Or, at least fall. But, we made the best of it. The kids drank lots of pink lemonade and lots of water, and I took them swimming daily. They had a lot of fun with it.

















See? It was awful.



And, babies need to stay cool, too! Below, George gets his first popcicle. He thought it was the best thing in the whole entire world.



That pretty much sums up our days till now. There have been lots of BBQ's and cook outs and bonfires. We had my Graduation party, and a 4th of July party, but, unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures at either party. 
Part of me can't wait to go to work and be a nurse, but, I am so happy I also get this rare opportunity to spend so much time with the kids. Sadly, I probably won't have this chance again.