I suck at blogging

I really do suck at this. I keep telling myself I will do it more often and then I DON'T. I think I feel better when I do it though so why don't I? I guess I am too busy pinning stuff on pinterest. MY house is destroyed BUT I have 1000000 new recipes to try and my boards are all nicely organized. Maybe that is why I like it so much, ONE place that my kids can't destroy, where I can have order AND I can sit in the chair and do all the "work". Actually I can blog from the chair too so why don't I do it. I have a whole list of things I "want" to do but I am super stressed out and laying in my bed, or sitting in the chair watching TV while "pinning" is all I can manage to do. What is wrong with me? This is such a pointless post. Sorry if anyone is reading it. I need to change my layout but I don't remember how and it seems like it would be a lot of work. Man I am lazy. Maybe I will do that later. I think the 2 little kids and I need a nap.

SNOWBALLS

First of all I suck at blogging. I might be even worse at giving directions, but I am going to try. I am also not a professional photographer and I took all of the following pictures with my phone (because I have a giant camera that most likely has dead battery that I need to remember to pack to take to Texas tonight...SOMEONE REMIND ME!!!!) If you think the pictures are awesome and need an awesome picture taking phone, I have an HTC Thunderbolt. Anyway... on to the point.

Last year I saw a little bucket of fleece snowballs somewhere. They were so cute and soooo expensive. I decided that I could totally make them myself, how hard could it be. I got a yard of white fleece and it made 34 or so snow balls. I have no idea how long it took me to make them. in my head it was like an hour. Since it only took an hour I figured I would get FOUR YARDS this year and make 136 or so. So far it has taken me a million hours and I have only finished 5 of them. On to my crappy instructions.

First get some fleece. 1 yard makes about 34, if you use a CD for a circle pattern. Fold the fleece in half, with the good side on the inside. This can be really hard to tell on white and it really doesn't matter all that much. I am honestly not sure if mine was folded the right way.

Next I cut strips of fleece, a little wider than the CD and then cut the strips into squares just a little bigger than the CD. I did this because I thought it would be easier to cut out the circles and I wanted to sit in my recliner and do it. I have like a million Jimmy Fallons to watch so I have to work in front of the TV.

Next I put the CD on a square and cut around it to make a nice circle. Make sure you have TWO pieces of material when you do this. After you cut all your circles you should have a nice pile like this

Now sew all around the out side of the circle but leave an opening so you can stuff it. If you make it really wide you will have a lot to sew shut. If you make it too small it is a bitch to turn right side out and stuff. I think maybe an inch is good.Next turn it right-side out.

Now stuff it like crazy. The more you stuff, the more ball like it will become when you are finished. I used a giant bag of fiber fill. Actually for four yards I used almost 2 whole bags of it.

Next sew the hole shut. I tried to do it on the sewing machine but I couldn't do it. Maybe if you are better at using the machine it will work for you. I pretty much suck at sewing. I fold the raw edges over and make sure that when I am stitching I go through both parts to that it looks like a finished edge. I also start the thread INSIDE so the inside knot is inside. When it is completely sewed shut I go back under a stitch and make a knot and cut the thread off. So far we haven't had any snowballs explode.

It looks really crappy but if you roll the seam around in your hand you can almost make it look like a ball and it is almost like rolling a real snowball.

The bucket of snowballs from last year. I am working on some type of fun container to hold them.

We had a snowball fight this weekend at my aunt's house. I tried to get some action shots but my phone is slow and my kids (and niece and nephews) are super fast like True Blood vampires.

Dude, where's my blog

I guess I'm gonna update this every 15 months or something. Why can't I keep up with this? I think I am afraid I am boring, but why does that matter if I am the only one that reads this. But in reality my kids provide me with enough material to write for days. I guess I am just too busy doing nothing to type a little blog post up every now and then. Should I vow to start writing every day again? Maybe if I think I won't I will anyway and will surprise myself.

Today, or yesterday or whatever, was Mother's Day. I had a pretty good day. Saturday, The Dad got me a new phone. I have been waiting impatiently since January to get this phone so I was pretty excited. We went to a going away party Saturday night and I drank more than I have in a long long LONG time and I was feeling it this morning. I think around 5pm I finally started feeling normal. At any rate, Princess Spazzy and The Whiner both had presents for me that they made at school. Princess Spazzy's was "breakfast in bed" a fruit and cereal bar and a tea bag and a cute little card. The Whiner's was a cute little book thing, on one page he had to list all of my favorites. I was a little worried when I saw "phrase or expression your mom uses the most" he did NOT write what it should have been and that's good because I probably would have gotten a phone call from the school :-D Number One went fishing and picked up a snake, I think his gift was giving my heart a workout. Oh I forgot, they did kinda clean the house on Saturday, as I asked for a clean house on Mother's Day. It did look pretty good this afternoon (yes I finally got out of bed around noon) but it is now trashed (since I took the day off from everything) My parents and sisters and nephews and niece all came over and we had a little cookout. So fun. I love it when there are a million kids here and my niece and nephews are hilarious. I wish we could all hang out every weekend. Heck I'd settle for once a month, alas we all have lives and busy schedules. I keep trying to think of some hilarious thing that happened today but I'm drawing a blank. I really wish I could get a brain hard drive. Then I wouldn't even have to type this blog, I could just upload it. Someone needs to GET ON INVENTING THAT!!!! I guess the highlight of the day might have been The Baby saying over and over all day "Happy.. to you, Happy to you" The big kids said "Happy Mother's Day" about a million times today, I guess that was what he got out of it. He has the most adorable little voice and he says the cutest things. It almost makes you forget he is kind of a really big booger. I think I am gonna be in trouble with this one.

Long time no see

Geez, I swore when I made this blog I would update it all the time. I mean my kids are INSANE, I should have enough material for at least a daily post. I see I haven't posted in nearly two years. How did that happen. So... lots of stuff has happened. The Dad is still the dad, Number One is still a dork, The Whiner is even more of a whiner, Princess Spazzy is still and spaz, however The Baby is no longer the baby, he's been replaced by the new baby. I guess he needs a new name. I think I will go with Taz. He is by far the busiest kid I have ever had. What if they get worse each time. I can't even imagine what New Baby will be like if this is the case. I am SCARED.

I am sure tons of hysterical stuff happened today but I am so tired I can't think. I was just watching Alvin and the Chipmunks with Princess and she said "I want to be on TV" I asked what she meant and she said "Um I don't know, when I grow up I want to be a princess... like when I am big like Number One, like I want to be 18 when I grow up" She is so weird.

Taz had surgery yesterday. Some of his manly stuff wasn't in exactly the right place so it got moved to where God intended it to be. The Dr. told us it wouldn't slow him down after the first day. She was pretty much right. He has trouble climbing onto the couch and was really limping/walking like he just got off a horse tonight after walking around a lot today. I think that unlike an adult he knows his limits. When it starts to hurt to walk he just sits down. Last night he would cry and say " I can't walk, I can't walk" The Dad said he was crying because he was pissed more than crying from pain. At any rate he is on the mend and I am sooooo glad that is over with.

New Baby is summoning me aka screaming because the Princess wanted to hold him and then decided she was over it and laid him on the floor. The floor is slick so he can't crawl, he just spins in circles. It is mildly entertaining... until you look him in the eye and he starts wailing. NEVER LOOK IT IN THE EYE. That's my new motto

I live with MORONS

Seriously, what is wrong with these people. Do they have brains? Can they hear? OR maybe they are just related to their dad. I don't even know where to begin. Number One...I swear something is wrong with him, like maybe he has brain damage or something. OR...he is just the laziest person on the planet. I am so sick of telling him over and over and over and over and over to do stuff. The Whiner isn't too bad about listening but everytime he does what he is told he comes and asks me what he gets for doing it. MY LOVE AND ADORATION? I guess that isn't enough. And then there is Princess Spazzy. She tries, kinda, really she does. Today she swept the kitchen and part of the dining room for me as I loaded the dishwasher. As I was loading the dishwasher I found that the sink full of slotted spoons and other things like that was also full of "stuff" from her kitchen. Stuff including, two ponytail holders, a bunch of dishes and play food (which I actually wanted to wash), some baby toys (again I am OK with washing those), a My Little Pony from McD's, a foam ping pong ball, a chair from her dollhouse, some pieces to a Play -Doh table and drumroll please...something everyone needs to wash .........Mr. Potato Head's eyes. WTF? I KNOW she was just trying to help but c'mon. AGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want to hide from these people. The Dad is soooooooooooo lucky that he gets to go to work everyday. Of course he does have to come home to Moronland but he is only here for a few hours before he gets to go to Dreamland. I want to take The Baby and run away.

I just heard this conversation happening. The Whiner says "Spazzy don't do that....gross" that piques my interest. "Ooooh she is putting syrup in her milk" says Number One. "Hey she is like Elf" says The Whiner. "yeah. I'm Elf" says Princess. Then they all laugh.

CALGON TAKE ME AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I don't even want to go in there, but I am going to have to rescue The Baby soon before he catches it.

I noticed that Princess Spazzy was missing from the table of morons and just found her in her room, sitting at her Disney Princess vanity, combing her hair with a teeny comb singing "everything I always wanted...living a dream" She's kinda cute when she isn't being a moron.

I used to love shopping

What the hell was wrong with me?

Today Princess Spazzy, The Baby and I went grocery shopping. I don't think I have really grocery shopped since I found out that The Baby was coming, almost 2 years. For 2 years we have been doing that stupid go to the store everyday or every couple of days thing. Today I think I made up for that. I went to every grocery store in Blomington/Normal, except for Schnucks. AND I am still not done. Cub didn't have the same stuff on sale as it does in Peoria so I am heading to Peoria to grab some stuff tomorrow.

We had a pretty good day. In my head we were going to go to a play date at 10am and then go shopping. I would have a menu made out for the rest of the month and lists for each store and I wouldn't buy anything that wasn't on my list. I guess I forgot Princess Spazzy was coming with me. Soooo I got the big boys off to school and read some emails and promptly went back to sleep. I think Princess Spazzy came in my room at about 10:30am. I guess we missed the play date. :-) I started to make a menu and then gave up. I decided to try...just this one time...buying stuff that was on sale and then trying to make meals from what I bought. From the looks of things we are going to be eating a lot of sandwiches and fruit. Oh speaking of sandwiches...The Dad had to go to the mall today and pick up my ring and I guess he got sucked in the the kitchen store there and felt the need to buy me a panini press for Mother's Day. I wish he would have told me that before I came home, I would have gotten some cool bread. I should add that to my list for tomorrow. Anyway...I have been talking about wanting one forever, but I never would have bought one, cuz who really NEEDS one and it is just another gadget to take up space. HOWEVER, The Dad made some AWESOME grilled cheese sammies tonight. YUMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

OK what was I talking about. Oh shopping. So we went to Walmart first because I wanted to get a grocery cart cover. Normally I am not one of those germ freaks. I actually laugh at the people using the Clorox wipes in the front of Kroger to wipe down their carts. WHO DOES THAT? But man does The Baby ever think that the world is his teething ring. HE is CONSTANTLY chewing on the cart when we go places. So I became a freak today. I can't remember what else I got there, except for lunch. We went to "$5 footlong's". When I asked Princess Spazzy where she wanted to eat she said " Minnesota...is it open or is it still closed" I said OK not thinking she was serious. She was very upset when I pulled into the Walmart parking lot because it wasn't Minnesota. She said Minnesota "has spaghetti and salad and I ate there with Grace, let's go get Gracie" I have NO IDEA WHAT SHE WAS TALKING ABOUT. Belle and I were thinking maybe it was Fazoli's or Avanti's but she has never been there with Grace or Gracie. The kid is INSANE. We got ordered out food at Subway and as we were waiting for the princess' pretzel a gaggle of softball players came in and took all the seats. The Princess was NOT impressed. I had to drag her screaming out of Walmart, but that isn't really all that unusual. She perked up (read SHUT UP) when I said we were going to have a picnic in the car. We ate for what seemed like 7 hours and I finally couldn't stand it anymore so we drove across the parking lot to Aldi.

We didn't really get too much there. They have such weird and random stuff sometimes. I did get some really cheap cheese. I hope it doesn't kill us. The Dad has been saying we aren't poor enough to have to shop there yet. I think we would be LESS poor if we shopped there more often. Anyway The Princess was all kinds of excited that when you put the cart back you get a quarter. I think that was the highlight of that store.

Next we drove across another parking lot and arrived at Meijer. I freaking LOVE Meijer. Mostly because they have cute Carter's clothes for really cheap. AND they were on sale today. They weren't on my list but The Baby needs clothes for summer and who can pass up a deal. NOT ME! I couldn't find some of the stuff on my list and found a few other things that weren't on my list. I had gotten some 90 calorie rice cake things at Aldi and brought in a pack for the baby. He did fine until we ran out. I don't know how he ate the whole package, I think the Princess had a lot to do with it. My neighbor call twice while I was in the store. Once to tell me the Whiner was at her house and I can't remember what the 2nd time was for. I told her I would be home soon. That was at about 3:45. I got home at 7:30pm. OOPS!!! I bought 2 canvas grocery bags and also brought in a HUGE insulated canvas bag to put my groceries in. The Dad never wants me to do that because people will think we are freaks. It felt kinda good. I had to "boob" The Baby when we left because he really needed a nap and was super hungry/tired/over shopping. We sat in the parking lot for about 20 minutes and both kids fell asleep. I sooooo could have taken a nap myself.

Next we were off to Jewel. It is like 1/8 of a mile from Meijer. I did notice the Meijer gas sign when I drove by...$3.95/gallon. I almost had a heart attack. The Baby and The Princess were still asleep when we got there. I was able to put the Baby in the cart in his car seat and I washed the Princess' Sugar Daddy goatee off and plopped her into the big part of the cart. She was super sleepy and needed a pillow so I threw her coat in and she laid on that while I shopped. I think it was the quietest part of the trip. Both kids woke up as we were checking out but they were good.

Kroger was the next stop. The Princess had an attack when she saw that there was a chillicoffee"(Starbucks) in Kroger. I think she means Chillicothe which makes no sense but it beats StarFUCKS which is what she used to call it. She wanted to get something there but I distracted her. I am so evil. We did our Krogering REALLY fast and as we were walking to the checkout we passed a guy with an eye patch. I braced myself. She did wait until we were passed him and his kids before " MAAAAAAAAAA MEEEEEEE did you see that pirate guy"

Cub Foods was our last stop. The Princess had a meltdown for some reason, or maybe she was just being really slow. I know I threatened to leave her about 20 times. We hadn't been there too long when I realized the sales were not what I thought so we quickly went up front to pay. I had forgotten that I had told Princess Spazzy that I would get her chocolate milk so she had to settle for Rootbeer. Oh and I got some more canvas bags and filled them up with my goodies. GO ME!!!

I got home at about 7:30 and made the boys put the groceries away. I LOVE having those boys sometimes. I watched Idol (kinda sorta) ate some food and now here I am blogging when I should be sleeping...sleeping like everyone that started reading this has been doing for 20 minutes. Until next time....

Back by popular demand

Go to the bathroom, grab a drink and maybe something to eat it is gonna be a long one :-)

Soooooo since I last wrote life has been quite the adventure. I was on a blogging roll and then I took a short trip to Indiana to help my sister (who does NOT want to be referred to as Number 2, so now she will be known by her given name BOOBOO) pack her crap and move to Illinois. IT wasn't the most enjoyable trip. It is nearly impossible to pack stuff without boxes and with three babies. I think I was just there for moral support. We also nearly died on the way there when Booboo and her husband, who would said he wants me to refer to him here as "Cap'n Sparkly Pants", had to RACE to see who could get into Indiana first. This involves stretching you arm out towards the front of the vehicle so that your figertips will be the first thing in the new state. I guess they do this all the time. I thought they were doing some dance move. Well that is until I realized that when Cap'n Sparkly Pants reached to "win" he pulled the wheel somehow and we crossed at least one lane of traffic and then he quickly corrected and I think we crossed one on the other side. Luckily it was about 1am so the road was pretty dead. The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, well except for when the Cap'n backed into my van with the moving van. My poor poor van. The trip wasn't all bad. Booboo's old house is about 3 blocks from a 7-11 so I got to have some Slurpees.

Hmmmm, what else... Oh we came back to Illinois a day late and then I ended up spending another week with Booboo and the Cap'n and the twins which really meant I slept on her couch everyday and we went shopping and I played with babies. It was kinda fun there were NO BIG KIDS to take care of. Actually I think maybe Jenna came and stayed there with me. Man it was so long ago I can't remember. I think I came back home for a few days and then we, the kids and I, spent Spring Break at Booboo's house. I think they had fun. AND...I think Booboo is almost unpacked :-)

I think some other stuff pr'y happened but it has been a really long day which started with a killer migraine so I am still kind of in a fog. I guess I can blog about Mother's Day. The Dad and I went out of Friday night. I am saying it was for V-day since we had the flu for that little holiday but he claims it was my Mother's Day present. I THINK NOT!!!! Saturday the plan was to clean the house, get it ready for The Dad to spray for bugs (I hate SPRING) and then we would go to Sister #1's house and spend the night so that we would be there bright and earlier for Mother's Day Extravaganza 2008. I guess Sister #1 should get a new name too....hmmm how about Belle. So Belle called me periodically throughout the day asking when we were coming. I kept saying I didn't know and that my family sucks. I think it was 6pm before we were ready to leave. I took the suitcase out to the van and the back of the van was locked. I went to the side door...locked...went to the driver's door...locked and of course I wouldn't be telling this story if the keys weren't locked inside. Still not sure who did it as all of the big one's claimed they didn't do it. Actually The Princess said she did it but we can't figure out how she got out of the van once she locked it. I think it was the bigger people. Thank GOD we have a spare key...oh wait The Dad likes to keep that safely tucked away IN THE GLOVE BOX OF THE VAN. Hmmmm 7pm on a Saturday who should we call. The Dad ended up googling ways to break into the van and was finally able to get in and we were on our way to Belle's house. We stopped at Walmart on the way for something, oh cards and stuff and to get me a present. Nothing like shopping ahead. We ran into some old friends and ended up being at Walmart for 2 hours. Belle thought we had a car accident. We finally made it to her house and went to bed. Belle got up super early on Sunday and started making breakfast. We had LOTS of bacon, pancakes, waffles, eggs, hashbrowns and sausage bread. Oh there was yummy fruit too. We all ate like pigs and I took a nap. Oh The Dad got me a cute card that The Princess picked out and the kids got a cool recordable card and a ring for me. I guess that The Whiner picked it out. He likes to buy me jewelry. The Dad said that Princess Spazzy was shaking with excitement as they picked it uot and paid for it and of course she couldn't keep her mouth shut and she told me what it was as soon as they saw me. She was begging to give it to me Saturday night. It is a cute little ring. I would post a pic if I would have remembered to bring my camera home. OOPS. Sister # 3, hmmm I'll call her CC and my mom made a nice dinner of oven fried chicken breast and spagetti and ravs. I had to laugh as all of the dad's and childless aunts and children ate as the grandma and the two moms took care of their kids/grandkids. What is wrong with that picture?

Oh yeah, Belle got a Wii. My kids have spent the entire day today bitching about how sore they are. I guess they need to get out more :-) I really really really really REALLY want one but we need to be responsible with our money for once. I hate that.

I guess that is all...ooh we have pet turtles, we got them after a strom washed the poor little things into our garage. They smell. They pr'y carry disease. They are boring as hell but I couldn't just throw them back out in the yard to die. The Whiner named them Jimmy and John so it would be like Jimmy Johns, but I changed their names to Crunch and Squirt, much more turtle like.

Ok I really am done now. Let's see if I come back tomorrow...